do things, if we want to hard enough," she told him
quite simply.

"Do you believe that?" he cried. "Perhaps you'll think it strange for
me to ask; but do you?"

A great wave of emotion seemed to pass over her quiet face. He saw it
alter strangely under his gaze. For an instant she stood
transfigured; smiling, without word or movement. Then the inward
light subsided. She was only an ordinary young woman, once more, upon
whom one might bestow an indulgent smile--so simple, even childlike
she was, in her unaffected modesty.

"I really must go in," she said apologetically, "and help them cut
the cake."

Chapter VIII

Jim Dodge had been hoeing potatoes all day. It was hard, monotonous
work, and he secretly detested it. But the hunting season was far
away, and the growing potatoes were grievously beset by weeds; so he
had cut and thrust with his sharp-bladed hoe from early morning till
the sun burned the crest of the great high-shouldered hill which
appeared to close in the valley like a rampart, off Grenoble way. As
a matter of fact, the brawling stream which gave Brookville its name
successfully skirted the hill by a narrow margin which likewise
afforded space for the state road.

But the young man was not considering either the geographical
contours of the country at large or the refreshed and renovated
potato field, with its serried ranks of low-growing plants, as he
tramped heavily crosslots toward the house. At noon, when he came in
to dinner, in response to the wideflung summons of the tin horn which
hung by the back door, he had found the two women of his household in
a pleasurable state of excitement.

"We've got our share, Jim!" proclaimed Mrs. Dodge, a bright red spot
glowing on either thin cheek. "See! here's the check; it came in the
mail this morning."

And she spread a crackling bit of paper under her son's eyes.

"I was some surprised to get it so soon," she added. "Folks ain't
generally in any great hurry to part with their money. But they do
say Miss Orr paid right down for the place--never even asked 'em for
any sort of terms; and th' land knows they'd have been glad to given
them to her, or to anybody that had bought the place these dozen
years back. Likely she didn't know that."

Jim scowled at the check.

"How much did she pay for the place?" he demanded. "It must have been
a lot more than it was worth, judging from this."

"I don't know," Mrs. Dodge replied. "And I dunno as I c