Jake; but I reckon we can manage him; so
cheer up and never make such an infernal fool of yourself again."

Something in this letter had grated on the Colonel's feelings--the
reference to the girl, perhaps--but he had decided to follow Tom's
advice, and let things run until they came to a focus. They had run
pretty smoothly for three years, and only a few letters, forwarded by
his friend who now lived in Palatka, and kept a kind of oversight of the
clearing, came to trouble him. These he always burned, but he could not
forget, and the past was always with him, not exactly as it was on the
night after his lawn-party, when it seemed to him that all the powers of
the bottomless pit had united against him, and if ever a man expiated
his wrong-doing in remorse and mental pain he was doing it. The
laudations of the crowd which had cheered him so lustily were of no
account, nor the honor conferred by giving the town his name. Nothing
helped him as he stood with the sweat rolling down his face, and looked
out upon his handsome grounds, which he did not see because of the
palmetto clearing, and the little child, and the young mother on whose
grave the moon was shining. Mandy Ann's curse was surely taking effect,
for no sleep came to him that night, and the next day found him worn and
pale, and when Peter, sure of a malarious attack worse than usual,
ventured to offer his cholagogue and quinine, he was sworn at, and told
to take himself off with his infernal drugs.

"I am tired with yesterday's mob. I shall be better when I am rested,
and get the taste out of my mouth of Tom, Dick, and Harry tramping over
the premises," he thought.

This was not very complimentary to the Tom's, and Dick's, and Harry's
who had tramped through his grounds, but they did not know his thoughts,
and were full of the lawn-party, and the new school-house, the work on
which was commenced early in August, when a large number of men
appeared, and were superintended and urged on by the Colonel himself.
He did not work, but he was there every day, issuing orders and making
suggestions, and in this way managing to dissipate in part the cloud
always hanging over him, and which before long was to assume a form
which he could not escape.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHILD OF THE CLEARING

The school-house was finished, and was a model of comfort and
convenience. It was well lighted and ventilated, and every child of
whatever age could touch its feet to the f