direction, cost and details; he
would bid her good-bye--she a stranger who had been so kind to him! He
would miss her teaching and guidance; miss her strange inspiration of
joyousness and courage. After leaving Trouble Neck he must see Cynthia
Walden and tell her that the great hour had come! Then there was to be
the final scene. He was going to ask his father to go away with him!
The quarrel of the night before had decided him. Together he and his
father might make a place for themselves beyond the touch of Mary and
the sound of her terrible voice. Tenderly and with a beating heart
Sandy recalled the old, old days--the days when Martin sang, and prayed
his wonderful prayers to a little happy child. Yes, they would go away
together and then nothing would be quite so hard or impossible.

Thus arranged, Sandy began his day. He sold his basketful at the first
house--a place five miles away where some strange artist-folks were
boarding. Sandy got a great deal of money there, for not only did the
mistress of the house pay him well, but a man and woman gave him a
dollar for posing for them while they sketched him. Reaching Trouble
Neck, Sandy met his first setback. Miss Lowe was away; the little
cabin was closed and on the door was pinned a scrap of paper which
confided to any chance visitor that the owner would be gone for several
days. Marcia Lowe had set out for that far place among the hills where
her uncle's body had been laid years before. She had gone to make it
beautiful, when she located it, and the task was to take longer than
she knew.

Sandy sat down upon the doorstep dejected and disappointed. He had
depended more than he knew upon what he felt sure the little doctor
could give him, and yet, not for a moment, did he contemplate waiting
for her return--his order had been given. As his great-grandfather had
taken up arms unquestioningly long ago, so Sandy now responded to this
later command. He must go that night!

After resting for a few moments and struggling against the dreariness
that was spreading through his thought he roused and set forth for the
Walden place. Having no legitimate business at the back door of
Stoneledge, the boy had no intention of braving old Ivy's sombre stare
or the chance meeting with the mistress of the Great House, but there
were other ways of communicating with Cynthia besides the back door and
the vicarious personalities of those who ruled over her. Youth has its