mory picture.

Big Jerry, slow of speech, patriarchal in looks and bearing, powerful in
body, became, to his mind's eye, the venerable chieftain of a mountain
clan. Judd, with his aquiline face, which was undoubtedly handsome in a
dark, brooding way, beneath its uncombed shock of black hair which swept
low over his forehead, sinewy with the strength, quickness and muck of
the natural grace of a panther, was the typical outlaw of the hills.

CHAPTER III

AN INNOCENT SERPENT IN EDEN

Donald turned his appraising gaze upon the child, and here the illusion
yielded to another, quite different.

Even her primitive dress, her unbound hair, her crude forms of speech
and soft, drawling intonation--such as the throaty, unvarying
pronunciation of "the" as though it were "ther," and "a" like
"er"--which sounded so deliciously odd to his New England ears, could
not erase from his mind the impression that she did not belong in the
picture. To be sure he had, during his tramps, already seen many a wild
mountain flower so delicately sweet that it seemed out of place amid its
stern environment. But Rose affected him differently, although the
difference was subtle, indefinable.

In the company of the men he was conscious of the reserve which one of
his type instinctively feels when first in the presence of people of
another race or class. With her he was already wholly at his ease.
Donald finally attributed this to the fact that she was, after all,
merely a child--one of a class which is akin the world over, and which
he understood better than any other.

As the simple meal progressed, Big Jerry began to ply the visitor with
questions, and press him to talk on many subjects connected with the
wide world of men; and, as Donald's natural reticence yielded to the
naive interrogations, he answered with a readiness which somewhat
surprised even himself. The child ate little; but sat with her elbows on
the table, her firmly rounded chin resting on her clasped hands, and
drank in his words. Her luminous eyes were fixed on his face, and
expressions of wonder and delight chased each other across her own
countenance, like wavering light and shade on a placid pool.

Judd, too, remained silent, ill at ease, and his dark, morose eyes ever
shifted from the face of the man to that of the girl. Once, while Donald
and his host were engaged in an animated discussion, he awkwardly
attempted to draw Rose into personal conversation; but he r