re after his fall, and that the raiders overtook
him on their retreat, and that he was now immured, a Federal prisoner.
The still and all the effects of the brush-whiskey trade disappeared
as mysteriously, and doubtless this silent flitting gave rise to the
hopeful rumor that Tarbetts had been seen alive and well since that
fateful night, and that in some farther recesses of the wilderness,
undiscovered by the law, he and like comrades continue their chosen
vocation. However that may be, the vicinity of Hoho-hebee Falls, always
a lonely place, is now even a deeper solitude. The beavers, unmolested,
haunt the ledges; along their precipitous ways the deer come down to
drink; on bright days the rainbow hovers about the falls; on bright
nights they glimmer in the moon; but never again have they glowed with
the shoaling orange light of the furnace, intensifying to the deep tawny
tints of its hot heart, like the rich glamours of some great topaz.

This alien glow it was thought had betrayed the place to the raiders,
and Nehemiah's instrumentality was never discovered. The post-office
appointment was bestowed upon his rival for the position, and it was
thought somewhat strange that he should endure the defeat with such
exemplary resignation. No one seemed to connect his candidacy with his
bootless search for his nephew. When Leander chanced to be mentioned,
however, he observed with some rancor that he reckoned it was just
as well he didn't come up with Lee-yander; there was generally mighty
little good in a runaway boy, and Lee-yander had the name of being
disobejent an' turr'ble bad.

Leander found a warm welcome at home. His violin had been broken in the
_melee_, and the miller, though ardently urged, never could remember the
spot where he had hidden the book--such havoc had the confusion of that
momentous night wrought in his mental processes. Therefore, unhampered
by music or literature, Leander addressed himself to the plough-handles,
and together that season he and "Neighbor" made the best crop of their
lives.

Laurelia sighed for the violin and Leander's music, though, as she
always made haste to say, some pious people misdoubted whether it were
not a sinful pastime. On such occasions it went hard with Leander not
to divulge his late experiences and the connection of the pious
Uncle Nehemiah therewith. But he always remembered in time Laurelia's
disability to receive confidences, being a woman, and consequently
unab