on again the
new clothes in unconscious ratification of his solemn life-promise to
Mr. Polk.

It was Mrs. Colton at the phone and she learned with great relief that
Steve had been found. She insisted that Mr. Polk and the boy must come
over to supper, after which there would be a little impromptu party of
Raymond's friends for Steve.

The boy looked very sober when this announcement was made to him, but
Mr. Polk smiled and said heartily, as he had already done to Mrs.
Colton:

"Of course we will go!" And they went.

There was just a bit of awkwardness when the boys came into the
Coltons' that evening and met Steve once more, but Mr. Polk, with an
adroit question, started him to telling them about trapping rabbits,
chasing foxes and treeing coons while the boys became so interested,
including Steve himself, that all unpleasantness was forgotten. Upon
leaving, each boy took Steve's hand with real respect and liking, and
Raymond expressed the general sentiment when he exclaimed, "You're a
brick!"

Next day Mr. Polk and Steve started for the mountain school. As they
sat together on the train Steve said: "I'll be larnin' to do things
jes' like mammy said fer me ter do. I wonder ef she will know."

"I think so," said Mr. Polk simply, but with a gentle sympathy in his
voice, which, whenever expressed by look or tone, seemed to bring the
boy close to the heart of the man. Resting a moment in this embrace,
Steve asked a question which had come to him several times. His father
and all the mature men he had known had been married,--for bachelors
are rare in the mountains,--why had Mr. Polk no wife?

"Is ye woman dead, Mr. Polk?" was the question he asked.

"No," answered Mr. Polk, with a smile that flitted quickly, "she did
not marry me at all, and so has left me lonely all my life. I would
have been a far better man had she done so. As it is," and the
bitterness crept into his voice again, "I stopped half-way up the hill
of success as I told you, and threw my prospects away. That is why you
are to live my life over for me and bring success whether or no."

VIII

OPPORTUNITY

Mr. Polk and Steve made their railroad trip by night, and the sleeper
with its rows of shelf-like beds was a fresh experience for the boy,
but he climbed to the upper berth and slept the sleep of healthy
youth. They reached L---- about seven o'clock in the morning, and the
sight of mountain and valley spread out before them in purple b