ltered. He was still preparing to help Lost Hollow and all
them who dwelt therein.

There had been times in the past when, strange to say, with good food
in plenty about him, he had yearned with hungry longing for the rough
ash cakes and sour milk of his early home; and there would always be
hours when he would raise his eyes in soul-sickness and pray for a
glimpse of Lost Mountain--the one lofty thing in his one-time little
world. And the first few springs after his leaving his home he was ill
when he saw the dogwood blossoms--they called to the depths of his
nature and the depths answered not! He had kept the vow made to
himself--he would neither write nor seek word from the hills until he
were ready to go back to his own.

The first days at school were tortured experiences, but he mastered
them first by physical courage, then by sheer fineness of character.
He made great strides after the second year, and when he graduated from
the New Hampshire Preparatory he was ready, with some tutoring, to
enter Harvard. Oddly enough Lansing Treadwell became his tutor,
neither knowing more of the other than the circumstances demanded.
Again Sandy's rare disposition won for him a place in Treadwell's good
will and liking. The young tutor prided himself upon his own
popularity and social position; he made a virtue of his necessity for
earning money and, in good natured, lordly fashion, blazed a trail for
his uncle's protege with a laugh of indifference at his own defeat with
his austere relative.

When in due time Morley graduated with honours from college none was
more generous with praise and pride than Lansing Treadwell.

"By Jove! my friend," he said, "I'm nothing but a big, bungling giant
without genius or talent. Let me set you on my shoulders and you'll
conquer the world--our nice, little world of Boston!"

But Sandy had no social ambitions. When his summer work in the mills
was over, he found his greatest pleasure at Bretherton with Markham and
Matilda and old Bob. And then, when sudden necessity lashed him to
unexpected endeavour, he went to young Treadwell and said simply:

"I am not going to work in the mills this vacation; Mr. Markham has
offered me a trip somewhere, but I have need of money for personal uses
and I must--earn some. Can you help me?"

And again Lansing Treadwell, with a grin of amused understanding, put
Sandy in the way of tutoring a rich man's sons.

And now, Morley, tired, sad at hear