44

PART III
HIS THIRD WIFE

XIV. Thirty Years 153
XV. Original Sin 164
XVI. The Eternal Fire 171
XVII. The Revival Service 179
XVIII. Indian Summer 188

PART IV
HIS FOURTH WIFE

XIX. "'Lizabeth" 203
XX. "Giving in Marriage" 211
XXI. "I Shall Want My Em'ly" 224

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"The young man put the honeysuckle in
his buttonhole" _Frontispiece_

PAGE

"Leaping ditches, tearing across ploughed
fields, to the woods ahead" 5

"Miner rode slowly along on horseback, now
and then making inquiries of wayfarers" 25

"The Village" 45

"He stopped when the mouth of an old war
pistol was suddenly placed in front of
his shoulder" 112

"'Ain't you never goin' to stop mopin',
Ambrose Thompson? I'm sick of lookin'
at you.'" 131

"'You kin manage me now all you've a mind
to; I ain't worryin''" 198

"Thus it was that 'Lisabeth took up the
business of caring for Uncle Ambrose
Thompson" 214

PART ONE

HIS FIRST WIFE

"_Oh! lose the winter from thine heart, the darkness from
thine eyes,
And from the low hearth-chair of dreams, my Love-o'-May, arise,
And let the maidens robe thee like a white white, lilac tree.
Oh! hear the call of Spring, fair Soul,--and wilt thou
come with me?_"

CHAPTER I

THE DEPARTURE

AMBROSE THOMPSON opened his front door and looked out. It was May, the
sun had just risen over Pennyroyal, and before him lay Kentucky's
carnival of spring.

The boy drew a deep breath that seemed to rise and quiver over his face
like a breeze coming away at the end of his long, curiously emotional
nose.

"Glory, what a day!" he whispered; "seems about good enough to eat!" And
then he vanished, only to reappear five minutes afterward dressed as a
traveller and wearing a linen duster, a stovepipe hat, and carrying a
carpet-bag.

Out in the cinder path his glance embraced the quiet