his chair and listened with tactful
sympathy to his stories of the big black bass that kept house in the pool
at the end of the lake, or of the downy woodpecker's nest in the old
hickory, or, perhaps, of the big hoot owl that perched on the granary
warm nights to watch for mice. It was with a certain feeling of sadness,
as well as of pride, that she watched him grow older, lose his boyhood
ways, and become more and more of a man--a man just like his father!

"I get so lonely for some one to teach me things, and go with me into the
big woods, and help me skin my rats in season," he was saying, "and to
teach me to use tools and to understand the books and--"

"Yes, my son," she replied. "But haven't you me? Won't I do to read with
you and help you find new wild flowers and gather strange caterpillars in
the spring?"

"Yes, mother, of course you will, and you know how I do care for you. I
couldn't begin to do without you even for a day; but someway you don't
understand. It's because you are a woman. Sometimes I feel as if I would
be the happiest boy in the Clear Creek School if I just had a father I
could look up to and be proud of and--"

"O, but Willis, be careful." Her voice was low and full of feeling. "You
can do all that, my boy, and more. I know you miss him, but you must not
forget we had him once, both of us, and that he was the very best father
in all the world." She stopped, for now the tears were coming fast. "The
only trouble is that he was taken away before you were lad enough to know
him and love him as you would if we had him now. But that is all the more
reason why you should grow into a worthy man, my boy--for his sake and
mine. He loved you dearly, and I've often thought it was that love and
ambition for you that made him determine to make money, so that you might
have the future he planned for you. He left you, my boy, something better
than money--a heritage of clean, noble blood and character. You aren't
old enough just yet to know all that that means, but some day you will
be truly thankful."

"You are right--always right; but you know what I mean, don't you? You
have never told me all about him, have you, mother? Won't you tell me
now? I never wanted to know so badly as I do tonight. He seems to come
near to me sometimes, even if I can't see him, and I want to know more
about him."

The fire burned low; the storm had increased in its fury; it seemed as if
each gust would lift the house from its