es fixed an
inquiring stare upon him; the pink face distended with a grin, to which
the two small teeth in the red mouth, otherwise empty, lent a singularly
merry expression; and with a manner that was a challenge to pursuit, the
head disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, tucked with affected
shyness under Evelina's arm.

She left Stephen standing with the bar in his hand, staring blankly
after her, and ran into the cabin.

Her father had no questions to ask--nor she.

As he caught her in his arms he gave a great cry of joy that rang
through the house, and brought Timothy from the barn, in astonishment,
to the scene.

"Eveliny's _home!_" he cried out to Tim, who, with the ox-yoke in his
hand, paused in the doorway. "Kem ter stay! Eveliny's _home!_ I knowed
she'd kem back to her old daddy. Eveliny's kem ter stay fur good."

"They tole me they'd hectored ye plumb out'n the town an' out'n yer
office. They hed the insurance ter tell _me_ that word!" she cried,
sobbing on his breast.

"What d'ye reckon I keer fur enny jestice's cheer when I hev got ye
agin ter set alongside o' me by the fire?" he exclaimed, his cracked old
voice shrill with triumphant gladness.

He pushed her into her rocking-chair in the chimney-corner, and laughed
again with the supreme pleasure of the moment, although she had leaned
her head against the logs of the wall, and was sobbing aloud with the
contending emotions that tore her heart.

"Didn't ye ever want ter kem afore, Eveliny?" he demanded. "I hev been
a-pinin' fur a glimge o' ye." He was in his own place now, his hands
trembling as they lay on the arms of his chair; a pathetic reproach was
in his voice. "Though old folks oughtn't ter expec' too much o' young
ones, ez be all tuk up naterally with tharse'fs," he added, bravely. He
would not let his past lonely griefs mar the bright present. "Old folks
air mos'ly cumber-ers--mos'ly cumberers o' the yearth, ennyhow."

Her weeping had ceased; she was looking at him with dismayed surprise
in her eyes, still lustrous with unshed tears. "Why, dad I sent ye
a hundred messages ef I mought kem. I tole Abs'lom ter tell Joe
Boyd--bein' as ye liked Joe--I wanted ter see ye." She leaned forward
and looked up at him with frowning intensity. "They never gin ye that
word?"

He laughed aloud in sorry scorn. "We can't teach our chil'n nuthin',"
he philosophized. "They hev got ter hurt tharse'fs with all the thorns
an' the stings o' the yearth. O