of his own for the autumn would probably prevent
his coming in person.

When Steve left Mr. Polk he swung off down the well-remembered
mountainside with strange joy in his heart. He had felt a new kinship
for his father growing upon him since he could remain at school in the
freedom of parental consent, and shy thought had come of reading aloud
sometimes in the old Hollow Hut cabin from the pile of books under his
arms while his father smoked and listened, as he had in the beautiful
days when Miss Grace had tended him.

But a few hours later he came slowly back up the same path with a
stricken look on his face.

"Pappy's dead, too," he said brokenly, when Mr. Polk stepped forward
in surprise and alarm to meet him.

The boy sat down upon a log, dropping his books in a heap beside him,
and his bent shoulders shook with sobs.

Mr. Polk comforted him with silent tenderness for a time, then
gradually drew out the story of Jim Langly's short illness of a week
from a virulent fever and his burial two days before.

Together they went again next day to the cabin. Mirandy had married a
few weeks previous and she and her husband were beginning family life
anew in the old place. She had been stirred somewhat by the events of
the year, and looked with interest upon Mr. Polk and Steve, the latter
showing plainly to her the touch of new surroundings, and when Mr.
Polk told her he wanted to take the boy for his own and educate him,
she said with a touch of bitterness:

"Tek him erlong; he won't nuver know nothin' here."

So the two who had seemed bound from the first by close ties went away
together, Steve to spend the summer at the school, where a few were
always accommodated during the vacation, and Mr. Polk to wind up his
business affairs in the South preparatory to a return to New York. He
had formerly been associated with an uncle having large railroad
interests in the East, who had often urged his return. He now proposed
to do so, taking advantage of opportunities still open to him. These
had been thrown away upon the breaking of his engagement with Grace
Trowbridge, six years before, to take a position with a southern
railroad and wander restlessly among new scenes.

X

STEVE DEVELOPS A MIND OF HIS OWN

In the autumn Mr. Polk's happy plans materialized. There was a wedding
in a handsome New York City home, and Steve Langly arrived the day
before for the festivities. At the ceremony he and Anita Trowbridge,