e if something happens that you ought to know about--don't
you see? I can walk out in sight of here and signal with my vanity
mirror. It will be fun.

"And when you're through here, if I were you I'd find some nice place
here in the hills to camp. It isn't half as bad to stay right in the
mountains, as it would be to stay in town and imagine that every
strange man you see has come after you. Sometimes I wish I could get
right out where there's not a soul, and just stay there. Being in the
woods with people around is not like being in the woods with just the
woods. I've found that out. People kind of keep your mind tied down to
little things that part of you hates, don't you know? Like when I'm
with Kate, I think about facial massage and manicuring, and shows that
I'd like to see and can't, and places where I'd like to go and eat and
watch the people and dance and listen to the music, and can't; and
going to the beaches when I can't, and taking automobile trips when I
can't, and boys--and all that sort of thing. But when I'm all by
myself in the woods, I never think of those things."

"I saw you down there by the hydrometer, all by yourself. And you were
using your powder puff to beat the band." A twinkle lived for a second
or two in the somber brown of Jack's eyes.

"You did? Well, that was second nature. I wasn't thinking about it,
anyway."

"What were you thinking about when you kept staring up here? Not the
beauties of nature, I bet." A perverse spirit made Jack try to push
her back into the frivolous talk he had so lately and so bitterly
deplored.

"Well, I was wondering if you had gumption enough to appreciate being
up where you could watch the mountains all the while, and see them by
day and by night and get really acquainted with them, so that they
would tell you things they remember about the world a thousand years
ago. I wondered if you had it in you to appreciate them, and know
every little whim of a shadow and every little laugh of the sun--or
whether you just stayed up here because they pay you money for
staying. I've been so jealous of you, up here in your little glass
house! I've lain awake the last three nights, peeking through the
tree-tops at the little speck of sky I could see with stars in it, and
thinking how you had them spread out all around you--and you asleep,
maybe, and never looking!

"I'm awful sorry you're in trouble, and about your mother and all. But
I think you're the luckiest boy