d tacit acceptance of the trust, and consigned the
stamps to a resting place alongside the crystal. And then, after a
little, she spoke heavily:

"I reckon as how you-all better be a-joggin', Zeke."

For answer, the lad caught the girl in his arms, and gave her a kiss
on either cheek--the hearty, noisy smacks of the mountaineer's
courting. But, in the next instant, he drew her close in an embrace
that crushed the two warm bodies to rapture. His lips met hers, and
clung, till their beings mingled. Afterward, he went from her
voicelessly. Voicelessly, she let him go.... There could be no words
to comfort the bitterness of such parting.

CHAPTER II

When he was come within view of Joines' mill and store on Roaring
River, Zeke halted again for a final look back toward the wild home
land, which he was now leaving for the first time. The blackness of
his mood after parting with the girl had passed, though melancholy
still made him its own. The resilience of youth was turning his
spirits again toward the hopes that had inspired this going forth from
his own familiar little wilderness into the vast and unknown
wilderness of the world beyond. As he stared out at the scattered
peaks, reared like conning towers over the sprawling medley of ridge
and valley, a throb of fondness shook his heart. It was not sprung
from esthetic appreciation of the wild and romantic landscape, though
this had been sufficient to justify the stir of feeling. His
sensibility was aroused by the dear friendliness of all the scene,
where hollows and heights had been his constant haunts through all the
days of childhood and adolescence until this hour. Of a sudden, he
realized as never before a profound tenderness for this country of
beetling crags and crystal rivers, of serene spaces and balsamic
airs. Hitherto, he had esteemed the neighborhood in some dull,
matter-of-course fashion, such as folk ordinarily give to their native
territory. But, in this instant of illumination, on the eve of
separating himself from the place, love of it surged within him. This
was his home, the dwelling of his dear ones. He felt toward it a quick
reverence as for something strangely sacred. His eyes went to the
great bulk of Stone Mountain, which jutted just before him to the
east, its league of naked rock lying like some monstrous guardian of
the place. Somehow, the dignity of the massive curving cliffs soothed
him, heartened him anew. The immutability of the hu