e door, and David
followed her. "Thank you for that good dinner," he said.

"Aunt Sally fetched the pa'triges. Her old man got them for mothah, and
she said you sure ought to have half. Sally said the sheriff had gone
back up the mountain, and I'm afraid he'll come to our place again this
evening. Likely they're breaking up Frale's 'still' now."

"Well, that will be a good deed, won't it?"

The huge bonnet had hid her face from him, but now she lifted her eyes
frankly to his, with a flash of radiance through her tears. "I reckon,"
was all she said.

"Are they likely to come up here, do you think, those men?"

"Not hardly. They would have to search on foot here. It's out of their
way; only no place on the mountain is safe for Frale now."

"Send him to me quickly, then. I have cast my lot with you mountain
people for some time to come, and your cause shall be mine."

She paused at the door with grateful words on her lips unuttered.

"Don't stop for thanks, Miss Cassandra; they are wasted between us. You
have opened your doors to me, a stranger, and that is enough. Hurry,
don't grieve--and see here: I may not be able to do anything, but I'll
try; and if I can't get down to-night, won't you come again in the
morning and tell me all about it?"

Instantly he thought better of his request, yet who was here to
criticise? He laughed as he thought how firmly the world and its
conventions held him. Sweet, simple-hearted child that she was, why,
indeed, should she not come? Still he called after her. "If you are too
busy, send Hoyle. I may be down to see your mother, anyway."

She paused an instant in her hurried walk. "I'll be right glad to come,
if I can help you any way."

He stood watching her until she passed below his view, as her long easy
steps took her rapidly on, although she seemed to move slowly. Then he
went back to his fire, and her words repeated themselves insistently in
his mind--"I'll be right glad to come, if I can help you any way."

Aunt Sally was seated in the chimney-corner smoking, when Cassandra
returned. "Where is he?" she cried.

"He couldn't set a minute, he was that restless. He 'lowed he'd go up to
the rock whar you found him las' evenin'."

Without a word, Cassandra turned and fled up the steep toward the head
of the fall. Every moment, she knew, was precious. Frale met her halfway
down and took her hand, leading her as he had been used to do when she
was his "little sister," and liste