know_ it's different. From up here I can
watch the automobiles come along and they always turn off and go around
the mountain and never come to Miller's Notch unless they get lost. And
the trains all go that way and--and it _must_ be different! It's like
the books I read. It's the _world_----" She sank back on her knees.
"Once I tried to walk and once I rode Silverheels, but I never seemed to
get to the real turn, it was so far and I was afraid. At sunset I look
at the colors and the little clouds in the sky and they look like
castles and I think it's the reflection of what's on the other side.
_That's_ what I was wishing." She turned serious eyes toward Westley.
"Is it dreadfully wicked? Little-Dad said I was discontented and
Sweetheart--that's mother--cried and hugged me as though she was
frightened. But some day I've just _got_ to go along that road."

[Illustration: SHE POINTED DOWN TO THE WINDING ROAD]

For some reason that was beyond even the analytical power of his trained
mind, John Westley was deeply stirred. Little Jerry, child of the
woods--he felt as her mother must have felt! There was a mystery about
the girl that held his curiosity; she could be no child of simple
mountain people. He rose from his position against the rock with
surprising agility.

"If you'll give me a hand I'll stand on your rock and wish that your
wish may come true, if you want it so very much! But, maybe, child,
you'll find that what you have right here is far better than anything on
the other side of the mountain. Now, suppose you lead the way to
Sunnyside."

Jerry sprang ahead eagerly. "And then you'll meet Sweetheart and
Little-Dad and Bigboy and Pepperpot!"

CHAPTER II

SUNNYSIDE

Jerry had led her new friend only a little way down the
sharply-descending trail when suddenly the trees, which had crowded
thickly on either side, opened on a clearing where roses and hollyhocks,
phlox, sweet-william, petunias and great purple-hearted asters bloomed
in riotous confusion along with gold-tasseled corn, squash, beets and
beans. A vine-covered gateway led from this into the grassy stretch that
surrounded the low-gabled house.

"_Hey-o!_ Sweetheart!" called Jerry in a clear voice.

In answer came a chorus of joyful yelping. Around the corner dashed a
Llewellyn setter and a wiry-haired terrier, tumbling over one another in
their eagerness to reach their mistress; at the same moment a door
leading from the house to the gard