e sort of a Joan of Arc, consecrated to some high
destiny. Yet when she thought of explaining anything so intangible, she
began to smile at the thought of how ridiculous such an explanation
would sound, shouted out in broad daylight, above the roar of the train.
Such confidences can be given only in twilight and cloisters, just as
the call itself can come only to those who "wake at dawn to listen in
high places."

But feeling presently that she must give some definite reason to her
mother for wanting to start out to seek her fortunes, she leaned across
the aisle and slipped a railroad folder from Jack's coat pocket. It had
a map on one side of it, and spreading it across both her lap and her
mother's, she laid her finger on a spot within the boundary lines of
Kentucky.

"Don't you remember my little primary geography?" she asked. "The one I
began to study at Lee's ranch? I had a gilt paper star pasted right
there over Lloydsboro Valley, and a red ink line running to it from
Arizona. I remember the day I put them there, I told Hazel Lee that
there was my 'Promised Land,' and that I'd vowed a vow to go there some
day if the heavens fell. I'll never forget the horror on her little
freckled face as she answered, 'Aw, ain't you wicked! I bet you never
get there now, just for saying that!'

"But I _did_ get there!" she continued with deep satisfaction. "And now
I've made up my mind to go back there to live some of these days. You
see, mamma, my visit there was like the trial trip that Caleb and Joshua
made to 'spy out the land.' Don't you remember the picture in
Grandmother Ware's Bible of the two men coming back with such an
enormous bunch of grapes on a pole between them that they could hardly
carry it? It proved that the fruits of Canaan were better and bigger
than the fruits of any other country. That was what my visit did; proved
that I could be better and happier in Lloydsboro Valley than anywhere
else in the world."

There was a moment's silence, then she added wistfully, "Somehow, when
you're there, it seems easier to keep 'the compass needle of your soul
true to the North-star of a great ambition.' There's so much to inspire
one there. I have a feeling that if I could only go back to live, I'd--
Oh, I hardly know how to express it! But it would prove to be my 'high
place,' the place where I'll hear my call. So the great reason why I
want to start right away to earn money is that I may have enough as soon
as poss