height, threw
back her head, and laughed aloud in the joy of her deliverance from the
fear that had held her in bondage all her life. She didn't understand in
the least how it had happened, but she knew that at last she was
free--_free_--like the other girls whom she had envied; and dimly she
began to realise that this was a big thing--something that would make
all her life different. She walked as if she were treading on air. The
loneliness of the woods, of the long stretch of empty road, no longer
filled her with trembling terror.

As for the second time she approached Slabtown, her heart began to beat
a little faster, but the newborn courage did not fail her now. She found
herself whistling a gay tune and laughed. Whistling to keep her courage
up? Was that what she was doing? Never mind--the courage _was_ up. The
women still sat on their doorsteps or stared from their windows, but
this time the children did not swarm around her. They stood by the
roadside and stared, but none called after her or followed her. She did
not realise how great was the difference between the girl who now walked
by with shining eyes and lifted head, and the white-faced trembling
little creature with terror writ large in every line of her face and
figure that had scurried by earlier in the day. But the children
realised it. Instinctively now they knew her unafraid, and they did not
venture to badger her. She even smiled and waved her hand to them as she
went by, and at that a youngster of a dozen years suddenly broke out,
"Three cheers fer the girl--now, fellers!" And with the echo of the
shrill response ringing in her ears, Myra passed on, proud and happy as
never before in her life.

All the rest of the way she went with the new happy consciousness making
music in her heart--the consciousness of victory won. The last mile or
two her feet dragged, but it was from weariness and lack of food. As she
drew near the camp her steps quickened, her head went up again, and her
eyes began to shine; but when she came to the white tents, she stood
looking about in blank amazement. There was not a girl anywhere in
sight; even the cook was missing.

Myra stood for a moment wondering where they had all gone; then she
walked slowly across the camp to a hammock swung behind a clump of
low-growing pines. Dropping into the hammock, she tucked a cushion under
her head and, with a long sigh of delicious content and restfulness her
eyes closed and in two minu