ome back to her
mother, and you can see her every day."

But Frank's love was not of the selfish kind. He put temptation aside,
and applied the whip to the back of his mule with a vigor that
astonished the animal and moved him to unwonted activity. In an
unusually short space of time he drew up before Mis' Molly's back gate,
sprang from the cart, and ran up to Mis' Molly on the porch.

"Is Miss Rena here?" he demanded breathlessly.

"No, Frank; she went up town 'bout an hour ago to see the doctor an'
git me some camphor gum."

Frank uttered a groan, rushed from the house, sprang into the cart, and
goaded the terrified mule into a gallop that carried him back to the
market house in half the time it had taken him to reach Mis' Molly's.

"I wonder what in the worl 's the matter with Frank," mused Mis' Molly,
in vague alarm. "Ef he hadn't be'n in such a hurry, I'd 'a' axed him
to read Judge Straight's letter. But Rena'll be home soon."

When Frank reached the doctor's office, he saw Tryon seated in the
doctor's buggy, which was standing by the window of the drugstore.
Frank ran upstairs and asked the doctor's man if Miss Walden had been
there.

"Yas," replied Dave, "she wuz here a little w'ile ago, an' said she wuz
gwine downstairs ter de drugsto'. I would n' be s'prise' ef you'd fin'
her dere now."

XV

MINE OWN PEOPLE

The drive by which Dr. Green took Tryon to his own house led up Front
Street about a mile, to the most aristocratic portion of the town,
situated on the hill known as Haymount, or, more briefly, "The Hill."
The Hill had lost some of its former glory, however, for the blight of
a four years' war was everywhere. After reaching the top of this
wooded eminence, the road skirted for some little distance the brow of
the hill. Below them lay the picturesque old town, a mass of vivid
green, dotted here and there with gray roofs that rose above the
tree-tops. Two long ribbons of streets stretched away from the Hill to
the faint red line that marked the high bluff beyond the river at the
farther side of the town. The market-house tower and the slender
spires of half a dozen churches were sharply outlined against the green
background. The face of the clock was visible, but the hours could
have been read only by eyes of phenomenal sharpness. Around them
stretched ruined walls, dismantled towers, and crumbling
earthworks--footprints of the god of war, one of whose temples had
crowned this heig