gers upon frail and
slippery supports.

All day he had argued with himself, and being young and unversed in such
problems he told himself that the only way to halt this runaway thing
within himself that led to no hope was to set his heart upon something
which lay in reach. His inexperience told him that Happy liked him; that
she was a nice girl trying to better her condition in life as he was
himself trying, and he meant to commandeer his own heart and lay it at
her feet. It was, of course, an absurd and impossible thing to
undertake, but this he must learn for himself.

As Boone reached the house, old man Spradling sat on his porch in the
twilight with his cob pipe between his teeth. Cyrus remained what his
"fore-parents" had been before him, a rough-hewn man of undeviating
honesty and of an innate kindliness that showed out only in deeds and
not at all in demonstrativeness.

Just now he wore an expression of countenance that was somewhat glum as
he watched the lingering afterglow which edged the western crests of the
"Kaintuck' Ridges" with pale amber.

"Set ye a cheer, Booney," he invited, with a brief nod. "I reckon ye
didn't skeercely fare over hyar ter set an' talk with me, but ther gal
hain't quite through holpin' her mammy with the dish-washin' yit--an' I
wants ter put some questions ter ye afore she comes out."

The lad drew a hickory-withed chair forward and sat down, laying his hat
on the floor at his feet.

"Ye've done been off ter college, son," began old Cyrus reflectively, as
he bit on his pipe stem and judicially nodded his head.

"I've always countenanced book-lore myself, even when folks hes faulted
me fer hit. I've contended thet ther times change an' what was good
enough fer ther parents hain't, of needcessity, good enough fer ther
young ones. 'Peared like, ter me, a body kinderly hes a better chanst
ter be godly ef he hain't benighted."

"I reckon there ain't no two ways about that proposition," agreed the
boy eagerly. "Hit just stands ter reason."

"An yit, hyar latterly," suggested the mountaineer dubiously, "I've done
commenced ter misdoubt ef I've been right, atter all. Thet's what I
wanted ter question ye about. My woman an' me, we sent Happy off ter
thet new school in Leslie--an' since she's come home I misdoubts ef her
name fits her es well es hit did afore she went over thar. She used ter
sing like a bird all day--an' now she don't."

"I don't see how knowin' something can make a