and it was his human duty to aid the Judsons all
he could, because they had been nothing but friends to him. The gleaming
dark eyes of that girl of the wilds were ever before him, he could not
rid himself of their presence, try as he would. They were an everlasting
companion, and he was not altogether sorry that it was so, for in his
most lonely hours he looked out into the dreamy space and saw them, and
they made him feel less lonely. He had spent much time with Nora,
sometimes at her father's cabin, sometimes hunting over the mountain,
sometimes angling in the brook, and sometimes up the country road
between the two cabins. The old brindle cow had not quit getting under
the wire,--at any rate, she got out very often, and always headed down
the road, never toward the mountain. Probably she was a lazy cow and did
not like the idea of a steep climb up the hill, though the grass was
sweeter up that way. However that may be, she always went _down_ the
road. Constant companionship had drawn Jack and Nora closer together,
and Wade was teaching her in such a kind way that she took no offense
whatever. He brought to her new books to read, which she devoured
eagerly as a child learning its letters.

When she was not busy with some domestic duties, Nora was out in some
nook remote from the cabin devouring the contents of a book. She was an
apt scholar and learned rapidly. She would say "ye" only when speaking
in great haste; other times she said "you." In one book that she read
the heroine was a country girl like herself, and would say "hit" and
"ye" like she did, and she discovered in reading that she was not
properly educated as to the use of language, therefore she applied
herself the harder. She took special delight in this book, and read it
the second time, being greatly pleased with the sweet little character,
the country girl, who, before the novel closed, went off to college in
the big city and, after a few years study, came home refined in manners
and neat in dress. This same country girl was ever afterward her own
model, because she became gentle and kind, and married the millionaire's
son, to the satisfaction of all concerned. Jack Wade was in her mind's
eye the very hero himself. She thought of him as a big-hearted,
generously kind boy, whose sole hope was to benefit someone else, though
he might be personally affected by so doing.

She thought of him as a great wise man who was spending his life out in
the mountain