em from the woman he loves. Yes,
loves!"

The man's dark eyes were burning, and as the girl rose from her seat
he reached out one brown hand to detain her. But his gesture was
needless. She made no move to go. She stood before him, her proud
young face now flushing, now pale with emotion, her wonderful eyes
veiled lest he should read in their depths feelings that she was
struggling to conceal. Her rounded bosom rose and fell with the
furious beatings of a heart she could not still.

"No, no," the man rushed on, "you got to hear me, if it makes you hate
me fer the rest of your life. I'm nothing but jest a plain feller
who's lived all his life in this back country. I've got no education,
nothin' but jest what I am--here. An' I love you, I love you like
nothing else in all the world. Say," he went on, the first hot rush of
his words checking, "I bin gropin' around these hills learning all
that's bin set there for me to learn. I tried to learn my lessons
right. I done my best. But this one thing they couldn't teach me.
Something which I guess most every feller's got to learn some time.
An' you've taught me that.

"Say." The restraint lost its power, and the man's great passion swept
him on in a swift torrent. "I never knew a gal since I was raised. I
never knew how she could git right hold of your heart, an' make the
rest of the world seem nothing. I never knew how jest one woman could
set the sun shining when her blue eyes smiled, and the storm of
thunder crowding over, when those eyes were full of tears. I never
dreamed how she could get around in fancy, and walk by your side
smilin' and talkin' to you when you wandered over these lonesome hills
at your work. I never knew how she could come along an' raise you up
when you're down, an' most everything looks black. I've learned these
things now. I've learned 'em because you taught me."

He laughed with a sort of defiance at what he felt must sound
ridiculous in her ears. "You asked me to teach you! Me teach you! Say,
it's you taught me--everything. It's you taught me life ain't just a
day's work an' a night's sleep. It's you taught me that life's a
wonderful, wonderful dream of joy an' delight. It's you taught me the
sun's shining just for _me_ alone, an' every breath of these mountains
is just to make _me_ feel good. It's you taught me to feel there's
nothing on God's earth I couldn't and wouldn't do to make you happy.
You, who taught me to Live! You, with your wonder