he middle of the creek helping plant a big stone. He
stood a second watching her as she told the boys surrounding her how
best to help her, then he turned away, a dull red burning his cheek.
"I'll have her if I die for it," he muttered, "but I hope to Heaven she
doesn't think I am going to work like this for her every day of my
life."

As the villagers sauntered past and watched the work of the new
teacher, many of them thought of things at home they could do that
would improve their premises greatly, and a few went home and began
work of like nature. That made their neighbours' places look so
unkempt that they were forced to trim, and rake, and mend in turn, so
by the time the school began, the whole village was busy in a crusade
that extended to streets and alleys, while the new teacher was the most
popular person who had ever been there. Without having heard of such a
thing, Kate had started Civic Improvement.

George Holt leaned against a tree trunk and looked down at her as he
rested.

"Do you suppose there is such a thing as ever making anything out of
this?" he asked.

"A perfectly lovely public park for the village, yes; money, selling it
for anything, no! It's too narrow a strip, cut too deeply with the
water, the banks too steep. Commercially, I can't see that it is worth
ten cents."

"Cheering! It is the only thing on earth that truly and wholly belongs
to me. The road divided the land. Father willed everything on the
south side to Mother, so she would have the house, and the land on this
side was mine. I sold off all I could to Jasper Linn to add to his
farm, but he would only buy to within about twenty rods of the ravine.
The land was too rocky and poor. So about half a mile of this comprises
my earthly possessions."

"Do you keep up the taxes?" she asked.

"No. I've never paid them," he said carelessly.

"Then don't be too sure it is yours," she said. "Someone may have paid
them and taken the land. You had better look it up."

"What for?" he demanded.

"It is beautiful. It is the shadiest, coolest place in town. Having it
here doubles the value of your mother's house across the street. In
some way, some day, it might turn out to be worth something."

"I can't see how," he said.

"Some of the trees may become valuable when lumber gets scarcer, as it
will when the land grows older. Maybe a stone quarry could be opened
up, if the stone runs back as far as you say. A lot of things mi