axeman,
and employed to blaze the lines and locate the corners.

Saturday morning they started on the Brock boundary; but quit work about
four o'clock in the afternoon and had a most refreshing swim in a deep
pool of the creek before supper.

Sunday afternoon the family went down to the school house, "to meeting."
It was the first time Mary had been in the building or seen many of her
acquaintances since the school had been taken from her.

When she walked in accompanied by Cornwall and Duffield, the surveyor,
her face shone with happiness. Cornwall had dispelled the cloud of
misfortune that had overshadowed it by the assurance that her father
would be given a new trial and acquitted. Since her active, ambitious
mind was building glorious castles of hope on the prospects of
refinement and education, she found much joy and comfort in the company
of the young lawyer; more than she admitted even to herself; and the
young surveyor and his assistants were a source of amusement and
entertainment.

She was so occupied with and hedged about by the two "furreeners" that
young Doctor Foley, who had come to church with the hope of taking her
home in his new buggy, had but time to greet her and pass on.

Several of the girls, who had rejoiced at her humiliation were
disappointed when they saw how happy she seemed, saying: "She's a cool
one; she don't care if her pap is in jail, now that she is bent on
catching that city lawyer."

The preacher, a circuit rider, who during each month tried to preach not
less than once at more than a dozen small log churches and school
houses, many miles apart, was a godly man who traveled over the hills on
an old gray mare, carrying most of his earthly possessions in his
saddle-bags. His hair was thin and his frame almost a shadow. His
deep-set eyes and strong face had an expression of righteousness and
peace. Years before he had loved a young woman, but knew that he could
not continue preaching in his district and support a wife. One day he
came to her home and in tears, holding her hands, made and told her his
choice.

Since then, with quivering voice but calm face, he had married her to a
friend, and baptized her two children and had buried her husband. He
loved her still, but his earthly treasurers were as meager as when she
had wedded another.

The crowd was too great for the little school house, so they came out
and sat upon the green under two great twin oaks, while God's
ambassador