wards that side where the
undergrowth was thickest. Sydney sprang to her feet and put on her hat,
for she had no desire to be caught day-dreaming.

Having taken this precaution, however, she stood quite still, and
Johnny, with satisfied curiosity, renewed his search among the fallen
leaves.

The approaching sounds betrayed that there was a path on the other side
of the thicket. Indeed, Sydney remembered that one ran from Melissa's
cabin to a spring not far off, and she realized that she must be nearer
to the house than she had appreciated. The voices were those of a man
and a woman in no good humor with each other. In fact, a lively quarrel
seemed to be in progress.

"Ah certainly wish you-all wouldn' come here no mo'." It was Melissa.
"_Ah_ don' wan' to see ye; 'n you are so aggravatin' to Bud."

"Ye used to like to have me come, ye know ye did, M'lissy. Don' you-all
remember the time Ah kissed ye behin' the big oak in yo' daddy's
pasture? Ye liked me well enough then."

"You shut up, Pink Pressley. Ah was a silly girl then, 'n Ah'm a
married woman now, 'n hit's time you-all stopped foolin' roun' here."

The voices lessened in the distance, and a jay-bird which had screamed
lustily at their approach turned his attention once more to Sydney, and
found her still standing, bridle in hand.

She was shocked at the trouble that seemed to threaten the happiness of
Bud Yarebrough's household, and she stood uncertain whether to turn
back from the encounter upon which unwittingly she had intruded, or
whether to go on in case Melissa needed her help or her comfort. Johnny
pushed against her invitingly, and she mounted him from a near-by
stump, and, breaking through the scrub, turned his head along the path
in the direction of the cabin.

The house proved, indeed, to be close at hand; it had been hardly worth
while to mount the horse, so near it stood to the pine-tree of Sydney's
ambush. The mud daubing between the logs shone bright through the hazy
spring atmosphere, and a thick white smoke, betokening a handful of
chips newly tossed upon the fire, ascended slowly into the air as if
eager to explore the dulled blue sky above.

As Sydney came around the corner of the cabin, for the path debouched
at the rear, a terrified white rooster came running from the front, his
outstretched wings lengthening the stride of his sturdy yellow legs,
and his wattles swinging violently from side to side. At the same
moment angry voices