to take chickin twice,
or to try all them meltin', flaky lookin' pies. And jest see them
layer cakes!"

After supper adjournment was made to the barn, where the fiddles were
already swinging madly. Every one caught the spirit, and even Miss
Rhody finally succumbed to Barnabas' insistence. Pennyroyal captured
Uncle Larimy, and when Janey whirled away in the arms of a
schoolmate, David, who had never learned to dance, stood isolated. He
felt lonely and depressed, and recalled the expression in which Joe
Forbes had explained life after he had acquired a stepmother. "I was
always on the edge of the fireside," he had said.

"Dave," expostulated Uncle Barnabas, as soon as he could get his
breath after the last dance, "you'd better eddicate yer heels as well
as yer head. It's unnateral fer a colt and a boy not to kick up their
heels. You don't never want to be a looker-on at nuthin' excep' from
ch'ice. You'd orter be a stand-in on everything that's a-goin' instead
of a stand-by. The stand-bys never git nowhar."

PART TWO

CHAPTER I

David Dunne at eighteen was graduated from the high school in
Lafferton after five colorless years in which study and farm work
alternated. Throughout this period he had continued to incur the
rancor of Jud, whose youthful scrapes had gradually developed into
brawls and carousals. The Judge periodically extricated him from
serious entanglements, and Barnabas continued optimistic in his
expectations of a time when Jud should "settle." On one occasion Jud
sneeringly accused David of "working the old man for a share in the
farm," and taunted him with the fact that he was big enough and strong
enough to hustle for himself without living on charity. David started
on a tramp through the woods to face the old issue and decide his
fate. He had then one more year before he could finish school and
carry out a long-cherished dream of college.

He was at a loss to know just where to turn at the present time for a
home where he could work for his board and attend school. The Judge
and M'ri had gone abroad; Joe was on his ranch; the farmers needed no
additional help.

He had been walking swiftly in unison with his thoughts, and when he
came out of the woods into the open he was only a mile downstream from
town. Upon the river bank stood Uncle Larimy, skillfully swirling his
line.

"Wanter try yer luck, Dave?"

"I have no luck just now, Uncle Larimy," replied the boy sadly.

Uncle Larimy sh