ny and
his rider come out of the timber and move swiftly along the ridge;
watched until they faded into a tiny spot, rounded the mountain
and disappeared from sight. Then, lifting his eyes, he looked away
beyond the long blue line that marked the distant horizon. Some
day he would watch Sammy ride away and she would go on, and on,
and on, beyond that blue line, put of his life forever.

Ollie had gone over there to live, and the shepherd had come from
there. What was that world like, he wondered. Between the young
man of the mountains and that big world yonder there had always
been a closely shut door. He had seen the door open to Ollie, and
now Sammy stood on the threshold. Would it ever open for him? And,
if it did, what? Then came a thought that made his blood leap.
Might he not force it open? The shepherd had told him of others
who had done so.

Young Matt felt a strong man's contempt for the things Ollie had
gotten out of the world, but he stood in awe before Mr. Howitt. He
told himself, now, that he would look for and find the things
yonder that made Dad the man he was. He would carry to the task
his splendid strength. Nothing should stop him. And Sammy, when
she understood that he was going away to be like the shepherd,
would wait awhile to give him his chance. Surely, she would wait
when he told her that. But how should he begin?

Looking up again, his eye caught a slow, shifting patch of white
on the bench above Lost Creek, where the little stream begins its
underground course. The faint bark of a dog came to him through
the thin still air, and the patch of white turned off into the
trail that leads to the ranch. "Dad!" exclaimed the young man in
triumph. Dad should tell him how. He had taught Sammy.

And so while the sunlight danced on the green field, and old Kate
slept in the lengthening shadows of the timber, the lad gave
himself to his dreams and built his castles--as we all have
builded.

His dreaming was interrupted as the supper bell rang, and, with
the familiar sound, a multitude of other thoughts came crowding
in; the father and mother--they were growing old. Would it do to
leave them alone with the graves on the hill yonder, and the
mystery of the Hollow? And there was the place to care for, and
the mill. Who but Young Matt could get work from the old engine?

It was like the strong man that the fight did not last long. Young
Matt's fights never lasted very long. By the time he had unhitched