ould be very lonely in her desolate home, where death had spared to
her only this son.... And, now, he was gone from her! A poignant
sorrow welled in him.

Zeke thrust the emotion away, lest it unman him. He faced about,
drearily enough, and stood with downcast, unseeing eyes, in anxious
pondering. And then, presently, assuagement was granted him. He lifted
his gaze, and behold! here was another world, all of soft splendors,
of throbbing radiance.

The eager beams of the unrisen sun shimmered above the mountain ranges
of the horizon, and streamed toward the zenith in a panoply of
harmonious hues, colorful promise of the May morning's joyous mood. Of
a sudden, under the soothing influence, the watcher became listener as
well. His ears noted with delight the glad singing of the birds in the
wood around about. His glance caught the white gleam of the tiny
belled blossoms that clustered on a crooked sour-wood by the path, and
the penetrant perfume of them stirred to life a new and subtler
emotion. A flame of tenderness burned in the clear hazel of his eyes,
as he stared out over the trail before him. Under the increasing light
his gaze could distinguish the line of the valley a mile further on,
in which the Siddon cottage lay hidden. His firmly-set lips relaxed
abruptly into a smile of wistful softness. He swung stick and bag
across his shoulder once again, and set off briskly down the slope of
the knoll. His thoughts were no longer gray over the mother who
mourned his going: they were roseate with anticipations of beholding
the girl he loved. Now, the mood of the morning danced in his blood.
The palpitant desire of all nature in the spring thrilled through his
heart. His mind was filled with a vision of her gracious young
loveliness, so soon to be present before him at their meeting....
Their meeting--their parting! At thought of that corollary, a cold
despair clutched the lad, a despair that was nothing like the sedate
sorrow over leaving his mother, a despair that was physical sickness,
wrenching, nauseating, but passed beyond the physical to rack the
deeps of being. For the first time, jealousy surged hideous in him,
born of the realization that she must be left exposed to the wooing of
other men--she, the utterly desirable! In a fierce impulse of mingled
fear and rage, he stopped short, and cried out:

"I'll be damned if they kin steal her! She's mine. She done told me
so, and Plutiny wouldn't lie!"

From an ambus