h later the old man sent word that he did not want
June in the mountains while the trouble was going on, and that Hale
could come over for her when he pleased: and Hale sent word back that
within three days he would meet the father and the little girl at the
big Pine. That last day at home June passed in a dream. She went through
her daily tasks in a dream and she hardly noticed young Dave when he
came in at mid-day, and Dave, when he heard the news, left in sullen
silence. In the afternoon she went down to the mill to tell Uncle Billy
and ole Hon good-by and the three sat in the porch a long time and with
few words. Ole Hon had been to the Gap once, but there was "so much
bustle over thar it made her head ache." Uncle Billy shook his head
doubtfully over June's going, and the two old people stood at the gate
looking long after the little girl when she went homeward up the road.
Before supper June slipped up to her little hiding-place at the pool and
sat on the old log saying good-by to the comforting spirit that always
brooded for her there, and, when she stood on the porch at sunset, a
new spirit was coming on the wings of the South wind. Hale felt it as
he stepped into the soft night air; he heard it in the piping of
frogs--"Marsh-birds," as he always called them; he could almost see it
in the flying clouds and the moonlight and even the bare trees seemed
tremulously expectant. An indefinable happiness seemed to pervade the
whole earth and Hale stretched his arms lazily. Over in Lonesome Cove
little June felt it more keenly than ever in her life before. She did
not want to go to bed that night, and when the others were asleep she
slipped out to the porch and sat on the steps, her eyes luminous and her
face wistful--looking towards the big Pine which pointed the way towards
the far silence into which she was going at last.

XII

June did not have to be awakened that morning. At the first clarion call
of the old rooster behind the cabin, her eyes opened wide and a happy
thrill tingled her from head to foot--why, she didn't at first quite
realize--and then she stretched her slender round arms to full length
above her head and with a little squeal of joy bounded out of the bed,
dressed as she was when she went into it, and with no changes to make
except to push back her tangled hair. Her father was out feeding the
stock and she could hear her step-mother in the kitchen. Bub still slept
soundly, and she shook him