d train! One of the niggers told
me about it--he said it was the Bogy Man. I wanted to know, so I went to
the station. It's a right smart way down and I had to sleep one night
under the trees. Don't the stars look starry sometimes?"

The interruption made Truedale jump.

"They certainly do," he said, looking at the soft, dark eyes with their
long lashes.

"I wasn't afraid--and I didn't hurry. It was evening, and the sun just
a-going down, when I got to the station. There wasn't any one about so
I--I ran down the big road the train comes on--to meet it. And then"
(here Nella-Rose clasped her hands excitedly and her breath came short),
"and then I saw it a-coming and a-coming. The big fire-eye a-glaring and
the mighty noise a-snorting and I reckoned it was old Master Satan and I
just--couldn't move!"

"Go on! go on!" Truedale bent close to her--she had caught him in the
mesh of her dramatic charm.

"I saw it a-coming, and set on--on devouring o' me, and still I couldn't
stir. Everything was growing black and black except a big square with
that monster eye a-glaring into the soul o' me!"

The girl's face was set--her eyes vacant and wild; suddenly they
softened, and her little white teeth showed through the childish, parted
lips.

"Then the eye went away, there was a blackness in the square place, and
then a face came--a kind face it was--all a-laughing and it--it kept
going farther and farther off to one side and I kept a-following and
a-following and then--the big noise went rushing by me, and there I was
right safe and plump up against a tree!"

"Good Lord!" Again Truedale wiped his brow.

"Since then," Nella-Rose relaxed, "I can shut my eyes and always there
is the black square and sometimes--not always, but sometimes--things
come!"

"The face, Nella-Rose?"

"No, I can't make that come. But things I want to, do and have. I
always think, when I see things, that I'm going to do a big, fine thing
some day. I feel upperty and then--poof! off go the pictures and I am
just--lil' Nella-Rose again!"

A comically heavy sigh brought Truedale back to earth.

"But the face you saw long ago," Truedale whispered, "was it my face, do
you think?"

Nella-Rose paused--then quietly:

"I--reckon it was. Yes, I'm mighty sure it was your face. When I saw it
at that window"--she pointed across the room--"I certainly thought my
eyes were closed and that--it had come--the kind, good face that saved
me!" A sweet, friendly s