ut, sir," he began to smile again now, "my consent will have to be
obtained--I warn you!"

The doctor, still crimson to the roots of his hair, was endeavoring to
say something rational about his practice and his prospects, when the
Colonel sternly interrupted him.

"Stone, all the worldly goods you may possess or ever expect to possess,
if they were greater than these mountains behind us, would not amount to
a damn, sir, unless your mind is clean and your body healthy! If you can
say before your God that they are no worse than those of any man whom
you would have your sister wed, go then and win your bride!"

A silence followed, so prolonged that the Colonel was beginning to feel
the sickening weight of dread about his heart, when the other said
quietly:

"Then I may as well ask you now!"

"God bless my soul, sir," the old gentleman cried, "I consent right
merrily! Nor shall I keep you another minute from her, after we speak a
word of Dale!"

"Miss Jane telephoned me about him this morning."

"And what did you tell her?"

"That he's working too hard."

"Nothing more serious?"

"That's plenty serious enough, Colonel, if he sticks at it. I talked to
him a little while ago, and he wanted to throw me out the window. Nobody
can make him stop that grind!"

"Jane can," the old gentleman grunted.

"She's going to try, anyway, when he takes his lessons to her this
afternoon. But she told me he was so impatient now preparing himself to
go up in the mountains and be a Lincoln to his people, that she really
doubts if she can influence him without help."

"Be a Lincoln to his people, eh?"

"Yes, emancipate them from the chains of ignorance, he calls it."

"By Godfry, sir, that isn't a bad idea! Whose help does she want?"

"Oh, I suppose your's, and Brent's, and mine, and everybody's."

For awhile the old gentleman appeared to be wrapped in thought. At last
he asked:

"When do you leave to see your distant patients?"

"In the morning."

"How far to the east does that duty lead you?"

"Pretty well into the next county."

"If you should locate that place called Sunlight Patch," the Colonel
looked up, "and bring him word from his sister to rest for a month, he'd
do it!"

Stone slapped himself upon the leg and hopefully announced: "That's the
only way to handle him! I want to go there, anyhow, and get a look at
that woman!"

"So do I," the old gentleman murmured. "Some day I want to go up there,
and take