on were books,--near a score,--some
worn to rags.

"What if it be yon fair Isle o' Milton?" he inquired, lifting an
old volume.

"Let's to the Isle o' Milton," Trove answered.

"Well, go to one o' the clocks there, an' set it back," said the
tinker.

"How much?" Trove inquired with a puzzled look.

"Well, a matter o' two hundred years," said Darrel, who was now
turning the leaves. "List ye, boy, we're up to the shore an' hard
by the city gates. How sweet the air o' this enchanted isle!

"'And west winds with musky wing
Down the cedarn alleys fling
Nard and cassia's balmy smells.'"

He quoted thoughtfully, turning the leaves. Then he read the
shorter poems,--a score of them,--his voice sounding the noble
music of the lines. It was revelation for those raw youths and led
them high. They forgot the passing of the hours and till near
midnight were as those gone to a strange country. And they long
remembered that night with Darrel of the Blessed Isles.

VIII

Dust of Diamonds in the Hour-glass

The axe of Theron Allen had opened the doors of the wilderness.
One by one the great trees fell thundering and were devoured by
fire. Now sheep and cattle were grazing on the bare hills. Around
the house he left a thicket of fir trees that howled ever as the
wind blew, as if "because the mighty were spoiled." Neighbours
had come near; every summer great rugs of grain, vari-hued, lay
over hill and dale.

Allen bad prospered, and begun to speculate in cattle. Every year
late in April he went to Canada for a drove and sent them south--a
great caravan that filled the road for half a mile or more,
tramping wearily under a cloud of dust. He sold a few here and
there, as the drove went on--a far journey, often, to the sale of
the last lot.

The drove came along one morning about the middle of May, 1847.
Trove met them at the four corners on Caraway Pike. Then about
sixteen years of age, he made his first long journey into the world
with Allen's drove. He had his time that summer and fifty cents
for driving. It was an odd business, and for the boy full of new
things.

A man went ahead in a buckboard wagon that bore provisions. One
worked in the middle and two behind. Trove was at the heels of the
first section. It was easy work after the cattle got used to the
road and a bit leg weary. They stopped them for water at the
creeks and rivers; slowed them down to browse or graze awhile at
noonti