ostess.

"I'd like to feed you some gold, fried in silk. Governor Bill, fer
that mercy to my nephew Timms. I can't say what I feels and finish
this cream gravy the right color for you," and as she spoke the fine
old friend of my Gouverneur Faulkner wept as she shook a steaming
sauce in a black pan and turned with the left hand a golden piece of
bread upon another part of the stove.

"I don't need anything more than your 'well done,' Granny," answered
my Gouverneur Faulkner as he laid a gentle hand on the trembling
shoulder of the nice old lady. "This youngster here got the word from
Mary and you can give him both of the liver wings if you want to show
your gratitude to him."

"God bless you, young gentleman, and you shall have anything that
Granny Bell has to give you in gratitude. Now draw up two chairs and
fall to, boys," and as she spoke she set the dishes of a beautiful
odor upon a very clean table beside the stove.

"Is it that I may wash the grease stains of the car from my hands
before eating, dear Madam?" I asked of her.

"Back porch, you'll find the bucket and pan and towel, youngster. I
can't wait for you," made answer my Gouverneur Faulkner as he laughed
and began upon the repast that must of necessity be a hurried one.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CAMP HEAVEN

And I was very glad indeed that he did not go with me for that toilet
to my hands, for it might have happened that a noise would have
deprived me of a very beautiful thing that I discovered, through a
window under a vine of roses that opened upon that back porch.

A very pretty young girl, with hair the color of the maize in the
fields, lay upon a white bed beneath a quilt of many colors. Her
sleeping garment was drawn back from her breast, against which lay a
little human person drinking therefrom with much energy. The eyes of
the mother were closed and her arm held the babe loosely as if in a
deep dreaming. I softly poured the water into the basin, made clean my
hands and quietly withdrew into the kitchen, with much care that I did
not awaken her. On my cheeks I could feel a deep glow of color, and
something within my heart pounded with force against my own breast
under its gay red coat of a hunting man. I could not raise my eyes to
those of my Gouverneur Faulkner and I ate not as much of that good
breakfast as Robert Carruthers could have consumed if the woman in his
heart had not been so stirred.

And all of that long day in the soft ea