shaken him out of
his drowsy complacency. The pipe that he held in his thin old fingers
dropped to the floor and spilled its ashes unnoted.

He gazed at them with the amazement of one who has been sitting blindly
by while unseen forces have had birth and growth at his elbow.

"Wed?" he exclaimed at last in an injured voice. "Why, I hedn't nuver
suspicioned hit was nuthin' but jest plain charity fer a stranger thet
hed suffered a sore hurt."

"Hit's been more then thet sence ther fust time we seed one another,"
declared the girl, and the old man shifted his gaze, altered its temper,
too, from bewilderment to indignation, and sat with eyes demanding
explanation of the man who had been sheltered and tended under his roof.

"Does ye aim ter let ther gal do all ther talkin'?" he demanded. "Hain't
ye got qualities enough ter so much as say 'by yore leave' fer
yoreself?"

Cal Maggard met his accusation steadily as he answered:

"Dorothy 'lowed she wanted ter tell ye fust-off her ownself. Thet's why
I hain't spoke afore now."

The wrath of surprise died as quickly as it had flared and the old man
sat for a time with a far-away look on his face, then he rose and stood
before them.

He seemed very old, and his kindly features held the venerable gravity
and inherent dignity of those faces that look out from the frieze of the
prophets. He paused long to weigh his words in exact justice before he
began to speak, and when the words at last came they were sober and
patient.

"I hain't hed nobody ter spend my love on but jest thet leetle gal fer a
lengthy time ... an' I reckon she hain't a-goin' ter go on hevin' me fer
no great spell longer.... I'm gittin' old."

Caleb looked infirm and lonely as he spoke. He had struggled through his
lifetime for a realization of standards that he vaguely felt to be a
bequest of honour from God-fearing and self-respecting ancestors--and
in that struggle there had been a certain penalty of aloofness in an
environment where few standards held. The children born to his
granddaughter and the man she chose as her mate must either carry on his
fight for principle or let it fall like an unsupported standard into the
mouldy level of decay.

These things were easy to feel, hard to explain, and as he stood
inarticulate the girl rose from her knees and went over to him, and his
arm slipped about her waist.

"I hain't nuver sought ter fo'ce no woman's will," he said at last and
his words fell with