se--"

"You precious little Puss!" he cried with a voice that would tremble in
spite of his efforts to hold it steady, and slipping his arm around her
he gave her a big, boyish hug. "Some day everything will come out all
right and I am sure it won't be too late for boarding school and college
either."

Unaccustomed to such demonstration even from the gentle-hearted boy who
loved her so dearly, Tabitha sat looking shyly up at the tender brown
eyes above her, thinking how nice it felt to have his protecting arm
holding her close, when without warning, he stooped and kissed her full
on the lips.

"Oh, Tom, you are the dearest brother! I am so glad you are going to
college. Then you will grow up to be like Mr. Carson instead of like
a--Catt."

"Dad went to college."

Tabitha was startled. "Why, Tom!"

"Yes, he did; but he was expelled for something another boy did, and
then after he started to earn his own living, his partner cheated him
out of his share in a valuable mine and--that's what makes him what he
is now."

"How do you know this?"

"Oh, I've remembered things I heard him or Aunt Maria say, and then
today he told Mr. Carson some of the events of his life. He _has_ been
rather unfortunate right straight along. Only last New Year's someone
'jumped' one of his claims that he had somehow neglected to prove up
on."

"I don't see why that should make him so--so--I'm glad you are
different, Tom. Do you suppose he will keep on until he is like the
hermit of the hills?"

"Who is the hermit of the hills? I never heard of him before."

"Why, yes, you have! He lives in that little shack over there;" pointing
to a rough, dilapidated hut far down on the mountain side, built of odds
and ends of lumber and pieced out with empty oil cans, rusted red with
the rains of many winters. Made without windows or openings of any sort,
except a narrow door on one side, it must have presented a very dreary,
uninviting appearance to its one occupant, who was the only person who
had ever seen its interior, for owing to his peculiar habits, people
regarded him as crazy and left him severely alone. He had never been
known to molest anyone, but sought rather to avoid meeting human
beings, so he was suffered to remain there in his lonely hut on the
mountain with no one but a stray cur for company.

"Oh, Surly Sim! I never heard him called such a fancy name before, Puss.
How did you suppose I would recognize him?"

"'The hermit of