The Project Gutenberg eBook, Moor Fires, by E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young

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Title: Moor Fires

Author: E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young

Release Date: December 24, 2007 [eBook #23990]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOOR FIRES***

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MOOR FIRES

by

E. H. YOUNG

Author of "WILLIAM" and "THE MALLETTS"

New York
Harcourt, Brace and Company

Printed in the U. S. A.

CHAPTER I

In the dusk of a spring evening, Helen Caniper walked on the long road
from the town. Making nothing of the laden basket she carried, she went
quickly until she drew level with the high fir-wood which stood like a
barrier against any encroachment on the moor, then she looked back and
saw lights darting out to mark the streets she had left behind, as
though a fairy hand illuminated a giant Christmas-tree.

Among the other trees, black and mysterious on the hill, a cold wind was
moaning. "It's the night wind," Helen murmured. The moor was inhabited
by many winds, and she knew them all, and it was only the night wind
that cried among the trees, for, fearless though it seemed, it had a
dread of the hours that made it. The fir-trees, their bare trunks like a
palisade, swayed gently, and Helen's skirts flapped about her ankles.
More lights glimmered in the town, and she turned towards home.

The moor stretched now on either hand until it touched a sky from which
all the colour had not departed, and the road shone whitely, pale but
courageous as it kept its lonely path. Helen's feet tapped clearly as
she hurried on, and when she approached the road to Halkett's Farm, the
sound of her going was mingled with that of hoofs, and an old horse,
drawing a dog-cart, laboured round the corner. It was the horse Dr.
Mackenzie had always driven up the long road; it was now driven by his
son, and when he saw that some one motioned him to stop, the young
doctor drew up. He bent forward to see her.

"It's Helen," he said. "Oh, Helen, how are you?"

She stood by the s