be in Aladdin's tower and to see her standing so red and
graceful and innocent in the sunlight, and that strange fire kindled by
our kisses warms my blood again.

It was still play, although not like that of the grand ladies and the
noble gentlemen in which we had once indulged, but still it was
play--the sweetest and dearest kind of play which the young may enjoy,
and possibly, also, the most dangerous.

She held my hand very tightly as we went on and I told her of my purpose
to be a great man.

My mind was in a singular condition of simplicity those days. It was due
to the fact that I had had no confidant in school and had been brought
up in a home where there was neither father nor mother nor brother.

That night I heard a whispered conference below after I had gone
up-stairs. I knew that something was coming and wondered what it might
be. Soon Uncle Peabody came up to our little room looking highly
serious. He sat down on the side of his bed with his hands clasped
firmly under one knee, raising his foot below it well above the floor.
He reminded me of one carefully holding taut reins on a horse of a bad
reputation. I sat, half undressed and rather fearful, looking into his
face. As I think of the immaculate soul of the boy, I feel a touch of
pathos in that scene. I think that he felt it, for I remember that his
whisper trembled a little as he began to tell me why men are strong and
women are beautiful and given to men in marriage.

"You'll be falling in love one o' these days," he said. "It's natural ye
should. You remember Rovin' Kate?" he asked by and by.

"Yes," I answered.

"Some day when you're a little older I'll tell ye her story an' you'll
see what happens when men an' women break the law o' God. Here's Mr.
Wright's letter. Aunt Deel asked me to give it to you to keep. You're
old enough now an' you'll be goin' away to school before long, I guess."

I took the letter and read again the superscription on its envelope:

To Master Barton Baynes--
(To be opened when he leaves home to
go to school.)

I put it away in the pine box with leather hinges on its cover which
Uncle Peabody had made for me and wondered again what it was all about,
and again that night I broke camp and moved further into the world over
the silent trails of knowledge.

Uncle Peabody went away for a few days after the harvesting. He had gone
afoot, I knew not where. He returned one afternoon in a buggy