ton sat at the head of
the longest table, with his niece and sister, Dane and his oldest
followers about him, and Winston at its foot, dressed very simply after
the usual fashion of the prairie farmers. There were few in the
company who had not noticed this, though they did not as yet understand
its purport.

Nothing happened during dinner, but Maud Barrington noticed that,
although some of his younger neighbors rallied him, Winston was grimly
quiet. When it was over, Barrington rose, and the men who knew the
care he had borne that year never paid him more willing homage than
they did when he stood smiling down on them. As usual he was
immaculate in dress, erect, and quietly commanding, but in spite of its
smile his face seemed worn, and there were thickening wrinkles, which
told of anxiety, about his eyes.

"Another year has gone, and we have met again to celebrate with
gratefulness the fulfillment of the promise made when the world was
young," he said. "We do well to be thankful, but I think humility
becomes us too. While we doubted the sun and the rain have been with
us for a sign that, though men grow faint-hearted and spare their toil,
seed-time and harvest shall not fail."

It was the first time Colonel Barrington had spoken in quite that
strain, and when he paused a moment there was a curious stillness, for
those who heard him noticed an unusual tremor in his voice. There was
also a gravity that was not far removed from sadness in his face when
he went on again, but the intentness of his retainers would have been
greater had they known that two separate detachments of police troopers
were then riding toward Silverdale.

"The year has brought its changes, and set its mark deeply on some of
us," he said. "We cannot recall it, or retrieve our blunders, but we
can hope they will be forgiven us and endeavor to avoid them again.
This is not the fashion in which I had meant to speak to you tonight,
but after the bounty showered upon us I feel my responsibility. The
law is unchangeable. The man who would have bread to eat or sell must
toil for it, and I, in disregard of it, bade you hold your hand. Well,
we have had our lesson, and we will be wiser another time, but I have
felt that my usefulness as your leader is slipping away from me. This
year has shown me that I am getting an old man."

Dane kicked the foot of a lad beside him, and glanced at the piano as
he stood up.

"Sir," he said simply, "altho