irl, but a problem! It was impossible to keep
the existence of this woodland nymph from the knowledge of his
distant neighbors; it was equally impossible for him to assume the
responsibility of keeping a goddess like this in her present position.
He had noticed her previous improvement, but had never dreamed that pure
and wholesome living could in two months work such a miracle. And he
was to a certain degree responsible, HE had created her,--a beautiful
Frankenstein, whose lustrous, appealing eyes were even now menacing his
security and position.

Perhaps she saw trouble and perplexity in the face where she had
expected admiration and pleasure, for a slight chill went over her as
he quickly praised the appearance of the stock and spoke of her own
improvement. But when they were alone, he turned to her abruptly.

"You said you had no wish to go to San Jose?"

"No." Yet she was conscious that her greatest objection had been
removed, and she colored faintly.

"Listen to me," he said dryly. "You deserve a better position than
this,--a better home and surroundings than you have here. You are older,
too,--a woman almost,--and you must look ahead."

A look of mingled fright, reproach, and appeal came into her eloquent
face. "Yer wantin' to send me away?" she stammered.

"No," he said frankly. "It is you who are GROWING away. This is no
longer the place for you."

"But I want to stay. I don't wanter go. I am--I WAS happy here."

"But I'm thinking of giving up this place. It takes up too much of my
time. You must be provided"--

"YOU are going away?" she said passionately.

"Yes."

"Take me with you. I'll go anywhere!--to San Jose---wherever you go.
Don't turn me off as dad did, for I'll foller you as I never followed
dad. I'll go with you--or I'll die!"

There was neither fear nor shame in her words; it was the outspoken
instinct of the animal he had been rearing; he was convinced and
appalled by it.

"I am returning to San Jose at once," he said gravely. "You shall go
with me--FOR THE PRESENT! Get yourself ready!"

He took her to San Jose, and temporarily to the house of a patient,--a
widow lady,--while he tried, alone, to grapple with the problem that now
confronted him. But that problem became more complicated at the end of
the third day, by Liberty Jones falling suddenly and alarmingly ill.
The symptoms were so grave that the doctor, in his anxiety, called in
a brother physician in consultation. When the