a
picture of an ocean liner on an open sea, with flags flying, great rolls
of vapor and smoke trailing across the sky, with white-capped waves
beneath and white clouds above. The boy's eyes shone with delight. He
twisted himself about to look up in Thryng's face as he questioned him
concerning it, and almost forgot Frale in his happiness, as he trudged
home hugging the precious card to his bosom.

Contentedly Thryng proceeded to set his abode in order after the
disarray of the morning, undisturbed by any question as to the equity of
his deed. His mind was in a state of rebellion against the usual
workings of the criminal courts, and, biassed by his observation of the
youth, he felt that his act might lead as surely toward absolute
justice, perhaps more surely, than the opposite course would have done.

Erelong he found a few tools carefully packed away, as was the habit of
his old friend, and the labor of preparing his canvas room began. But
first a ladder hanging under the eaves of the cabin must be repaired,
and long before the slant rays of the setting sun fell across his
hilltop, he found himself too weary to descend to the Fall Place, even
with the aid of his horse. With a measure of discouragement at his
undeniable weakness, he led the animal to water where a spring bubbled
sweet and clear in an embowered hollow quite near his cabin, then
stretched himself on the couch before the fire, with no other light than
its cheerful blaze, too exhausted for his book and disinclined even to
prepare his supper.

After a time, David's weariness gave place to a pleasant drowsiness, and
he rose, arranged his bed, and replenished the fire, drank a little hot
milk, and dropped into a wholesome slumber as dreamless and sweet as
that of a tired child.

Such a sense of peace and retirement closed around him there alone on
his mountain, that he slept with his cabin door open to the sweet air,
crisp and cold, lulled by the murmuring of the swaying pine tops
without, and the crackling and crumbling of burning logs within. Rolled
in his warm Scotch rug, he did not feel the chill that came as his fire
burned lower, but slept until daybreak, when the clear note of a
Carolina wren, thrice repeated close to his open door, sounded his
reveille.

Deeply inhaling the cold air, he lay and mused over the events of the
previous day. How quickly and naturally he had been drawn into the
interests of his neighbors below him, and had absorbed t