uggles."

"How's that?" asked the parson with a sinking heart.

"Don't drink any more of that red water, which makes men talk loud and
sometimes say bad words."

"Heavens!" thought the parson; "she little dreams what she is asking
me, but it is not she but some One who is thus calling me back to
duty. Yes, my child, I will do what you ask."

"You is as good and nice as you can be now, but then you will be a
good deal gooder and nicer," said she, warmly kissing him.

"I hope so," he added, rising to his feet, with the feeling that he
was not himself but some one else, and that that some one else was the
young man away among the distant hills of Missouri, before he wandered
to the West, and in doing so, wandered from the path along which he
had attempted to guide and lead others.

"I call myself her teacher," he mused, as he reached down and took the
tiny hand in his own, "but she is the teacher and I am the pupil."

They had started in the direction of the cabins, when they heard
curious shouts and outcries in that direction. "There's something
strange going on down there," he said, peering toward the point; "I
wonder what it can be; let us hurry and find out."

Firmly clasping her hand, the two hastened down the incline, wondering
what it was that caused all the noise and confusion.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PASSING YEARS

THE excitement in New Constantinople was caused by the arrival of Vose
Adams, the mail carrier and messenger, with his budget of letters and
freight for the Heavenly Bower.

These periodical journeys never occupied less than two weeks, and in
the present instance he had been absent several days beyond that
period, so that some anxiety was felt for him, since every trip was
attended with more or less danger. He was exposed to the peril of
storms, snowslides, wild animals and hostile Indians. The elemental
disturbances in the Sierras are sometimes of a terrific nature. Twice
he had lost a mule, and once both animals went spinning down a
precipice for a thousand feet, in an avalanche of snow and were never
found again. Vose's only consolation in the last instance was that it
occurred when on his way to Sacramento, while in the former case he
saved one of the precious kegs, which he insisted was the means of
saving him in turn from perishing in the Arctic temperature.

The shadowy trail wound in and out among the gorges and canyons,
beside towering mountain walls, at a dizzying elevation,