s, breakin' faith, so to speak, an'
holdin' you, Paul. Ef I wuz to go over to Europe, which I ain't ever goin'
to do--an' wuz to light down in one o' them big cities, Paris or London,
do you think I'd tell the fellers in the streets that I knowed more about
their town than they did?"

"No, Sol," said Paul, "you're too wise a man ever to do such a thing."

"I should hope I wuz," said Sol emphatically. "Jest think o' me stoppin' a
lot o' French fellers in the streets o' Paris, me jest happened in from
the woods fur the fust time, an' sayin' to them: 'Here, Bob, be keerful
how you cross the street thar, it's a right bad spot fur wagons, an' you'd
shorely git run over ef you tried it,' or 'Now, Dick, that thar is the
wrong street that you're takin', ef you foller it you'll land a full mile
from your cabin.'"

"But Frenchmen are not named Bob and Dick," said Paul with a smile.

"Wa'al ef they ain't they ought to be," said the shiftless one with
conviction. "Why they want to call theirselves by all them long names
nobody can pronounce, when there are a lot o' good, nice, short, handy
names like Dick, an' Jim, an' Bill, an' Bob, an' Hank, layin' 'roun' loose
an' jest beggin' to be used, is more'n I kin understand."

"We must soon decide what to do," said Henry. "If the Spanish captain
concludes to help the Indians, and with Braxton Wyatt at his elbow I think
he is likely to do it, our people in Kentucky will again be in great
danger. We must drive the Spaniards back to New Orleans."

"I agree with you," said Paul, "but how is it to be done?"

"Mebbe we kin shoo 'em back, skeer 'em, so to speak," said Shif'less Sol.
"We're jest bound to keep Spain out o' this country."

"It is true," said Paul. "Great things grow out of little ones. Such a
land as this is sure to have a great population some day and what we five
do now, obscure and few as we are, may help to decide what that population
is to be."

As Paul spoke, his comrades and the shadowed glen floated away, and the
look of seer came upon him. Again he saw great towns and a nation. The
others regarded him with a little awe. The spiritual, or rather prophetic,
quality in Paul always had their deep respect.

"Paul shorely does take mighty long looks ahead," whispered Shif'less Sol
to Henry, "an' sometimes I can't follow him clean to the end. I mostly
drop by the way. I like to live this very minute, an' I'm pow'ful glad to
be alive right now. But I'm with him clean to