own methods of telegraphy, and the hills people are master hands at
secrecy. There was a certain bird-note for which Sandy was famous: a
low but shrill pipe that had startled old Ivy more than once and was
nearly always successful in causing Cynthia to materialize in due time.
So Sandy, from the shelter of trees back of the Stoneledge smoke-house,
gave his peculiar and penetrating call. A second time he gave it and
then Ivy issued forth and, cocking her weird old head on one side,
listened. A long silence followed. The hot afternoon palpitated and
throbbed in The Hollow, but the hidden bird did not break it by another
call. At last it became evident that Cynthia was beyond the reach of
her slave's desires, and so poor Sandy gathered together his flagging
strength and spirits and turned toward home with the forlorn hope that
he might meet Cynthia on the way there. Now that the parting time had
come he knew that the girl was his only real friend on earth in the
sense that youth knows a friend. They were near each other, though so
far apart. They spoke a common tongue and there were hours when the
girl of the Great House and Sandy of the cabin reached across the gulf
of tradition and class distinction and opened their souls to each
other. During such moments Cynthia had awakened and called forth
Sandy's dormant imagination. Through Cynthia he had been shown the
beauty of the flowers; been taught the note of the birds and the thrill
of life under winter's cold and hard wing. Poverty sharpened the
senses of The Hollow people alike in hovel and great house; it drove
Miss Ann and Cynthia into close quarters with Ivy and her weird
superstitions; it drove Sandy and his kind into dangerous contact with
each other, for behind closed doors and in the semi-darkness of the
one-windowed cabins evil traits grew apace and the cold and the poor
food were fuel for passion and hate.

But no little enchantress met lonely Sandy on his homeward way.

"I reckon I must--go without!" he muttered with something much like a
sob in his voice. Not even then did he dream of procrastinating. He
was hungry and weary and when he reached the cabin he paused to eat
again before going to the rock with his day's earnings. Mary, Molly,
and Martin were absent, but that was no new thing. Sandy meant to hide
his money, come back and speak to his father and then, by the dark of
the moon, start out either with Martin or alone. Grimly the young,