here is plenty of good timber in the forest, and every man among us
will be glad to lend a hand to the reconstruction of your fortunes.
Finally, there is your tall cousin Alexa, 'Red' Oxenford's daughter.
Methinks she looks upon you not unkindly, and she bade me be sure to
bring you to her coming of age to-day. The whole country-side will be
present, and you may bag all your birds with one fairly shot bolt. What
say you?"

Constans was silent; for the moment he was conscious of being allured by
an offer so well and kindly meant. To restore the old home, to find
himself again among his kinsmen and friends, contentedly sharing their
simple, wholesome life, to plough his own acres and see the smoke
curling upward from his own hearthstone--were not these things, after
all, the actualities of life?--was he to be always turning his back upon
them to grasp at clouds mirrored in running water, shadows that ever
eluded his grasp? His cousin Alexa--undoubtedly she was a pretty girl,
with her rose-leaf complexion and bright, gray eyes. He had met her on
two or three occasions, and he was not wholly unaware of her shy
pleasure in his companionship, impersonal as it had hitherto been. He
might, indeed, stop and consider.

Yet the temptation passed as quickly as it had presented itself. There
was that other work in the world to-day, and who was to take it up if he
drew back? Others might be of gifts more competent, but at least he had
come to know himself through hard experience, and knowledge so bought
was not to be lightly flung away.

"It cannot be," he said, shortly. "Believe me, that I am not ungrateful,
but my own way is plain, and I must take it." He hesitated. "You are of
my father's covenant," he continued, slowly.

"The blood-bond is between us," assented the other, heartily enough, and
yet knitting his brows as he spoke.

"Then if I choose to exact the full obligation of brotherhood, even to
sword-service----"

"It must be paid, and it shall be," said Piers Major, quickly, and still
his countenance was troubled.

Constans deliberated. "I shall not require so severe a test of your good
faith," he said at length. "Yet I may ask you to hold the question open,
to give me a chance to prove that my plans are feasible and that action
is necessary for the future peace of all."

"That I can agree to with all my heart. But, mind you, the argument must
have a keen edge and weight behind it. We Stockaders are a stubborn
gene