pon walking to the school-house, telling Alf that
all I wanted was to know the direction, but he declared that it was no
more than just that I should be driven over the first morning of the
session. So, together we went on the buck-board. Guinea had laughingly
told me not to be afraid of the creek, that the large boys were at home,
plowing, and as we were skirting the gullied hill I glanced back and saw
her standing in the yard, looking after us. The road lay mostly through
the woods, with many a turn and dip down among thick bushes to cross a
crooked stream. Sometimes we came upon small clearings, where
tired-looking men were grubbing new-land for tobacco, and I remember
that a half-grown boy, with a sullen look, threw a chunk at us and
viciously shouted that if we would stop a minute he would whip both of
us. I imagined that he was kept from school by the imperious demand of
the tobacco patch, and I sympathized with him in his wrath against
mankind. A little further along we came within sight of an old log
house, and then the laughter of children reached our ears. We had
arrived at the place where my work was to begin. Alf put me down, and,
saying that he must get back home, drove away; and a hush fell upon the
children as I turned toward the house. Inside I found a cow-bell, and
when I had rung the youngsters to their duties, I made them a short
speech, telling them that I was sure we should become close friends. I
had some difficulty in arranging them into classes, for it appeared that
each child had brought an individual book. But I was glad to see that
old McGuffy's readers prevailed, for in many parts of the South they had
been supplanted by books of flimsy text, and now to see them cropping up
gave me great pleasure. There they were, with the same old lessons that
had fired me with ambition, the words of Shakspeare and the speeches of
great Americans.

By evening my work was well laid out, and as I took my way homeward,
with Guinea in my mind, there was a strong surge within my breast, the
leaping of a determination to win her.

As I neared home, coming round by the spring, I saw the girl running
down the path, the picture of a young deer, and how that picture did
remain with me, and how on an occasion held by the future, it was to be
vivified.

"Oh, you have got back safe and dry," she cried, halting upon seeing me.
"Why, I thought you would come back dripping. No, I didn't," she quickly
added. "Don't you kn