, and through Frederick Graves, for the sake
of her loved ones, she accepted his mysterious far-away God and His
sacrificed Son.

With loving hands she tumbled the toad into a soiled rag and placed him
in the corner. There was nothing left for her to do save to rescue Daddy
Skinner from the black cap, and she must see him before the rising of
the sun. Mother Moll, the settlement witch, would tell her if Daddy
Skinner were in danger.

She opened the door and stood for a moment before stepping into the
abating storm. Her eyes fell upon a giant pine tree at the edge of the
forest, far beyond her father's hut. It was silhouetted against a light
streak in the southern sky, its long arms extending straight into the
air. The branches of the tree had always made a fantastic figure in
Tessibel's eyes. It took the form of a venerable old man and it had been
one of her vivid imaginings, since she could remember, that some time
the man shaped against the skies would step down in the flesh. Tess had
grown to love him in sunshine and in rain--to watch him in silent,
mystified longing as he bent toward her day after day. In the nodding
head and swaying arms, Tessibel suddenly established Frederick's deity.
As a man from the east worships his sun god through a wooden image, so
Tessibel directed a prayer to this moving figure in the pine tree. Her
pain-drawn lips parted slightly as she stood for a short space of time
watching him.

"If ye be a God," she breathed, "help me see my Daddy."

She said this with bowed head, for grief and the student's admonition
had made a path for reverence through her soul.

Then she closed the cabin door and started toward the shore. Pushing a
flat boat into the lake, which was still turbulent from the storm, she
deftly rounded the long fishing dock, rowing to the bobbing little fish
car which held Daddy's eels. She pulled out the nail, and holding up the
top of the car, ran her hand quickly about inside. Drawing out four huge
eels, she threw them into the bottom of the boat, closed the trap door
and rowed away toward the shore.

Inside the shanty, she placed the fish upon the wooden table and stood
for an instant regarding them. One long eel drew itself into tense half
circles, turning over and over until as he neared the edge of the table
Tessibel caught him. Longer the girl's eyes rested upon this one.
Suddenly she snatched him up--slipping him, wriggling, tail-end first
into the water pail, stil