in cold weather, when it crossed the ice. They waited
for a night when their tracks would soon disappear. Then, having
made a cover of the sail-cloth sack in which they had brought the
boy, and stretched it on withes, and made it fast to the sleigh
box, they put the sleeping boy in the sleigh, with hot stones
wrapped in paper, and a robe of fur, to keep him warm, hitched the
dog to it, and came over hill and trail, to the little pond, a
while after midnight. Here they buckled a ring of bells on the
dog's neck and released him. He made for his home on the clear
ice; the bells and his bark sounding as he ran. They at the cabin
heard him coming and opened their door to dog and traveller. So
came my hero in a little red sleigh, and was adopted by the settler
and his wife, and reared by them with generous affection. Well, he
goes to school and learns rapidly, and comes to manhood. It's a
pretty story--that of his life in the big woods. But now for the
love tale. He meets a young lady--sweet, tender, graceful,
charming."

"A moment," said Darrel, raising his hand. "Prithee, boy, ring
down the curtain for a brief parley. Thou say'st they were
Syrians--they that stole the lad. Now, tell me, hast thou reason
for that?"

"Ample," said Trove. "When they took him out of the sleigh the
first words he spoke were "Anah jouhan." He used them many times,
and while he forgot they remembered them. Now "Anah jouhan" is a
phrase of the Syrian tongue, meaning 'I am hungry.'"

"Very well!" said the old man, with emphasis, "and sailors--that is
a just inference. It was a big port, and far people came on the
four winds. Very well! Now, for the young lady. An' away with
thy book unless I love her."

"She is from life--a simple-hearted girl, frank and beautiful
and--" Trove hesitated, looking into the dying fire.

"Noble, boy, make sure o' that, an' nobler, too, than girls are apt
to be. If Emulation would measure height with her, see that it
stand upon tiptoes."

"So I have planned. The young man loves her. She is in every
thought and purpose. She has become as the rock on which his hope
is founded. Now he loves honour, too, and all things of good
report. He has been reared a Puritan. By chance, one day, it
comes to him that his father was a thief."

The boy paused. For a moment they heard only the voices of the
night.

"He dreaded to tell her," Trove continued; "yet he could not ask
her to be hi