y there is, and I feel that a man who has any is in some way
dishonest, but I never before saw anything like that person who had come
out of the woods to the rescue of my family fortune, and I simply stared at
him as he stood with a fluff of seething white wings around his feet and
towered against the green gray of an old tree that hung over the side of
the road. He was tall and broad, but lithe and lovely like some kind of a
woods thing, and heavy hair of the same brilliant burnished red that I had
seen upon the back of a prize Rhode Island Red in the lovely water-color
plates in my chicken book,--which had tempted me to buy "red" until I had
read about the triumphs of the Leghorn "whites,"--waved close to his head,
only ruffling just over his ears enough to hide the tips of them. His eyes
were set so far back under their dark, heavy, red eyebrows that they seemed
night-blue with their long black fringe of lashes. His face was square and
strong and gentle, and the collar of his gray flannel shirt was open so
that I could see that his head was set on his wide shoulders with lines
like an old Greek masterpiece. Gray corduroy trousers were strapped around
his waist by a wide belt made of some kind of raw-looking leather that was
held together by two leather lacings, while on his feet were a kind of
sandal shoes that appeared to be made of the same leather. He must have
constructed both belt and shoes himself, and he hadn't any hat at all upon
his crimson-gold thatch of hair. I looked at him so long that I had to look
away, and then when I did I looked right back at him because I couldn't
believe that he was true.

"Now I'm going to pick them up gently, two at a time, tie their feet
together with a piece of this string, and hand them to you to put inside
the carriage. I'll catch the cock first, the handsome old sport," and as
Pan spoke, he began to suit his actions to his words with amazing tact and
skill. I shall always be glad that the first chicken I ever held in my arms
was put into them gently by that woods man, and that it was the Golden Bird
himself. "Put him in and shut the door, and he'll calm the ladies as you
bring them to him," he commanded as he bent down and lifted two of the Bird
brides and began to tie their feet together with a piece of cord he had
taken from a deep pocket in the gray trousers.

"Oh, thank you," I said with a depth of gratitude in my voice that I did
not know I possessed. "You are the most