et away! Get away from the poverty and
squalor of The Hollow; get away farther than The Forge--far, far away!

"After the baby comes!" the little wife whispered, "we'll take it to a
better, sunnier place and--give it a chance!"

The baby came on a bad, stormy night. Sandford Morley they called him.
The Forge doctor, travelling up The Way, stopped at the Morley cabin
for a bite of supper and found how things were. Sally Taber was in
command, and Martin, frightened and awed, crouched by the chimney
corner in the living-room, while his girl-wife (she was much younger
than he) made her desperate fight.

"There's only a broken head or two up at Teale's Blind Tiger," the
doctor said grimly; "they can wait, I reckon, while I steer this
youngster into port." The doctor had come from the coast on account of
his lungs and his speech still held the flavour of the sea.

Sandy Morley made a difficult mooring with more vigour and
determination than one would have expected, but the cost was great.
All night the battle waged. The doctor, with coat off and haggard
face, fought with the little mother inch by inch, but at sunrise, just
two hours after Sandy lustily announced his arrival, she let go the
hand of her husband who knelt by her hard, narrow bed, and whispered in
the dialect of her hills, "Youcum!"--which meant that Morley must come
to her some where, some how, some time, for she no longer could bide
with him.

After that Martin stayed on in the cabin with the baby. One woman
after another lent her aid in an hour of need, but on the whole Sandy
and his father made it out together as best they could. The little,
clinging fingers held Martin back for a time--the boy had his mother's
fine, clear eyes and when he looked at Martin something commanded the
man to stand firm. In those days Martin found comfort in religion and
became a power at the camp meetings; his prayers were renowned far and
near, but the evil clutched him in an unguarded hour and one bleak,
dreary springtime he met the Woman Mary and--let go! That was when
Sandy was seven. He brought Mary to the cabin and almost shamefacedly
explained, to the wondering boy, his act.

"Son, she's come to take care of us--mind your ways, lad."

Sandy gave Mary's handsome smiling face one quick look, then fled down
the hill, across the bottom pasture and Branch, up on the farther side
to the woods--his sanctury and haven, and there, lifting his eyes and
little clench