ed, a life of ignorance, coarseness,
brutality and deceit. Here I have lived for the past ten years, here I
am likely to live for ten, twenty years to come."

Both were silent for a few moments, while Miss Gladden watched the
beautiful face, in this instance an index of an equally beautiful
soul, and she marveled more than ever. At last she said gently:

"Lyle, dear, pardon me for asking such a question, but you are an
anomaly; how is it, living all these years as you have, in these
surroundings, that you have so good an education? You have evidently
read considerable, and you converse well; you cannot be called
ignorant."

"No," the girl replied sadly, "I am not quite so ignorant as a
stranger would think to see me, but I have learned just enough to make
me realize how little I do know, and that little I have acquired by
stealth. I could read a very little when we came here from some small
town, somewhere in the east, I have forgotten where, and I wanted to
learn, but father forbade it; he said he wouldn't have any of his
children putting on airs, that what was good enough for him would have
to do for them. He has always been severe with me, I suppose he didn't
want any girls, that's what mother says. Mother was always as kind to
me as she dared to be, but she was afraid to help me to learn
anything, and she couldn't have taught me much anyway. I studied every
little bit of print I could come across, if it were nothing more than
a scrap of newspaper, I was so anxious to be able to read. Then, when
I was about twelve years old, a little girl who stayed here one summer
with her governess, left some of her old, worn-out school books and
writing books. I hid them in my room as carefully as if they had been
diamonds, and pored over them every chance I could get for the next
year. About that time, I got acquainted with one of the miners who had
been here a long time, a strange, silent man, who was very different
from the others, and who kept by himself. He seemed to take a great
liking to me, and I consider him to-day the best friend that I have in
the world. He found out how I was studying and trying to learn, and he
helped me, for he had had a fine education. He bought books for me,
not only school books, but choice books to read, stories, poems and
plays, and he has talked with me a great deal, and told me about
places and people and authors, and so has saved me from being a total
ignoramus."

"How kind!" exclaimed M