reat surge, the repressed stream of
passion in the strong man broke, and Dannie swayed against his horse.
His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, and he caught at the harness
to steady himself, while he strove to grow accustomed to the fact that
Hell had opened in a new form for him. The old heart hunger for Mary
Malone was back in stronger force than ever before; and because of him
Jimmy lay stretched on Five Mile Hill.

"Dannie, you are just fine!" said Mary. "I've been almost wild to get
home, because I thought iverything would be ruined, and instid of that
it's all ixactly the way I do it. Do hurry, and get riddy for supper.
Oh, it's so good to be home again! I want to make garden, and fix my
flowers, and get some little chickens and turkeys into my fingers."

"I have to go home, and wash, and spruce up a bit, for ladies," said
Dannie, leaving the barn.

Mary made no reply, and it came to him that she expected it. "Damned if
I will!" he said, as he started home. "If she wants to come here, and
force herself on me, she can, but she canna mak' me."

Just then Dannie stepped in his door, and slowly gazed about him. In a
way his home was as completely transformed as hers. He washed his face
and hands, and started for a better coat. His sleeping room shone with
clean windows, curtained in snowy white. A freshly ironed suit of
underclothing and a shirt lay on his bed. Dannie stared at them.

"She think's I'll tog up in them, and come courtin'" he growled. "I'll
show her if I do! I winna touch them!"

To prove that he would not, Dannie caught them up in a wad, and threw
them into a corner. That showed a clean sheet, fresh pillow, and new
covers, invitingly spread back. Dannie turned as white as the pillow at
which he stared.

"That's a damn plain insinuation that I'm to get into ye," he said to
the bed, "and go on living here. I dinna know as that child's jabber
counts. For all I know, Mary may already have picked out some town dude
to bring here and farm out on me, and they'll live with the bird cage,
and I can go on climbin' into ye alone."

Here was a new thought. Mary might mean only kindness to him again, as
she had sent word by Jimmy she meant years ago. He might lose her for
the second time. And again a wave of desire struck Dannie, and left him
staggering.

"Ain't you comin', Uncle Dannie?" called the child's voice at the back
door.

"What's your name, little lass?" inquired Dannie.

"Tilly," answe