Sand Holler 
 
 .BSI?.. OP CillF. LIBEAEY, LOS ANGELES
 
 Sand Holler 
 
 By 
 
 Belle Kanaris Maniates 
 
 Author of 
 
 "Penny of Top Hill Trail," 
 "Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley," etc. 
 
 The Reilly & Lee Co. 
 Chicago
 
 Copyright, 1920 
 
 By 
 The Reilly & Lee Co. 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Made in U. 8. A. 
 
 Sand Holler
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE BEE HIVE 11 
 
 II ENTER, Two YOUNG WOMEN.... 36 
 
 III A WAIF FINDS A PROTECTOR 51 
 
 IV FICKLE FORTUNE GETS BUSY 75 
 
 V THE FATE OF A VIOLIN 88 
 
 VI MIDAS TOUCHES SAND HOLLER... 94 
 
 VII AN INTERESTING CLUE 1 14 
 
 VIII NAMES FROM THE PAST 135 
 
 IX THE ROAD TO MEMORY 142 
 
 X STAR FINDS His SISTER 157 
 
 XI A NEW HOME Is PLANNED 174 
 
 XII THE FUTURE OF ANN BEE 186 
 
 XIII A POTATO PARING SPELLS DES- 
 
 TINY 192 
 
 XIV KENNETH REACHES CONCLUSIONS 197 
 XV THE HOSTESS OF HILL HOUSE. . . .206 
 
 XVI OLYNTHUS Is BANISHED 212 
 
 XVII AN INVITATION IGNORED., .223 
 
 2131097
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVIII KENNETH ACTS LIKE A MAN 228 
 
 XIX THE TYRANT SURRENDERS 247 
 
 XX CHIP EXPLAINS THINGS 258 
 
 XXI "DEAREST" 270 
 
 XXII THE EXPECTED HAPPENS UNEX- 
 PECTEDLY 284 
 
 XXIII THE RETURN OF OLYNTHUS. , . .296
 
 SAND HOLLER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE BEE HIVE 
 
 A hotel clerk, like the proverbial poet, is born 
 not made. Wade Sheridan, head of the More- 
 land staff, had a memory that never molted, 
 an unfailing facility for answering foolish ques- 
 tions pleasantly and the gift of rendering serv- 
 ice in an unobtrusive way. These three traits 
 contributed^ largely to his success in dealing 
 with the Moreland's patrons, but they were out- 
 weighed by his biggest asset, a genuine interest 
 in the joys and sorrows of mankind, an instinc- 
 tive friendliness for his fellow man and the 
 knack of creating a comfortable atmosphere 
 wherever he went. A psychologist would 
 describe his " aura " as radiating service. 
 
 He was young, tall, and well set up, with fair 
 hair that went back so smoothly that it was 
 eloquent of long months of training. His com- 
 
 11
 
 12 Sand Holler 
 
 plexion was as fair as his hair, but his eyes 
 were brown cinnamon brown, and set wide 
 apart. Glumness could find no lurking place in 
 his features and his readiness to smile had kept 
 the corners of his mouth faultlessly in place. 
 
 The month was mid-May of the year that 
 followed a most memorable one. After an un- 
 usually " full-up " season, a vacation was pre- 
 scribed for Sheridan and he intended to sugar- 
 coat the prescription. Firmly and with finality 
 he refused the many invitations of hospitable 
 friends, including a put-up at a club, a yachting 
 trip and a fishing party. 
 
 " This is to be a vacation a real vacation," 
 he told them. 
 
 " Whaddye mean real vacation? " 
 
 " Why, something anything different 
 from what I've been doing, or ever have done," 
 he explained, again and again. " I've bought 
 a little car and I am going to ride away in it 
 far, far away." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " Anywhere. Wherever it takes me." 
 
 " And who is going along to keep you com- 
 pany?" 
 
 " No one. Like Rutledge, I ride alone."
 
 The Bee Hive 13 
 
 "Stingy!" 
 
 "Not at all," he denied. "I told you this 
 was to be a vacation. I've never been alone. 
 People people always, everywhere. I'm go- 
 ing to be my own company and get to know 
 myself." 
 
 Protests, appeals and ridicule proved unavail- 
 ing. Resolutely, with the grim air of one who 
 knows that he is not understood, this Lone 
 Wolf put a suitcase in his little mauve roadster, 
 took his place at the steering wheel and whisked 
 around the corner into the street that was to 
 lead to a western highway. When he had left 
 the sights and sounds of the city far behind 
 him, everything of care and responsibility 
 dropped from him. Instantly he became imbued 
 with a delightful sense of pervasive tranquillity. 
 
 He drove quite slowly speed has no part 
 in a real vacation. His stops for food and lodg- 
 ing were not always made at cities or towns, 
 but often at wayside inns or farmhouses that 
 happened to be nearest when hunger became 
 insistent or night overtook him. 
 
 After he had followed his chosen highway 
 for a ' time, he turned south, welcoming the 
 change of scenery from level fertile farmlands
 
 > 14 Sand Holler 
 
 to gently undulating wooded hills. The crystal- 
 line air tempered by southern winds was soft 
 and balmy. All the fragrant flowers of May 
 were yielding their sweetness lavishly and riot- 
 ously. He sang sentimental, old-time songs as 
 he rode. Then memory stirred. Before his 
 mind's eye was unrolled picture after picture, 
 some of them merry, some serious, of his work 
 at the Moreland. At length recollection's reel 
 disclosed a private room at the Moreland and 
 at a card table a group of players, one a slender, 
 graceful youth with closely-cut bright yellow 
 hair. Sheridan knew him only by the name the 
 others had called him Julian. They had been 
 at Plattsburg at the same time, but in different 
 outfits. 
 
 Earlier in the evening, before the game had 
 started, Julian had been in a very mellow and 
 confiding mood. In the course of their talk, 
 he had mentioned that he was from the south, 
 and had taken from his pocket a little folding 
 photograph case containing pictures of his 
 home, family and friends. Sheridan had looked 
 at them with polite but casual interest until the 
 picture of a most beautiful girl evoked a 
 smothered exclamation of admiration and won-
 
 The Bee Hive 15 
 
 der. He was loath to have the leaf turned and 
 was about to ask about her when Julian's 
 friends approached with their request for a 
 little game in a private room. Late that night 
 the game had ended most abruptly, unexpectedly 
 and sensationally. 
 
 At this point Sheridan's reflections were put 
 to flight by that unpopular and aggravating 
 sign, " Road Closed." Until the present moment 
 he had been blessed with perfect weather, ideal 
 highways and immunity from tire trouble. The 
 enforced detour led him down grade by a nar- 
 row, badly worn and washed byway. To his 
 right was a steep cliff ascending to the main 
 highway. To his left stretched undulating 
 grassy slopes. Beyond, a blue outline of woods 
 indicated a river. 
 
 The little roadster rocked and jerked as it 
 went slowly twisting along, and the sounds 
 Sheridan now uttered were no longer musical 
 though quite old-time. His ruling traits of 
 good nature and adaptability, however, soon 
 reasserted themselves. 
 
 " I was getting awfully cocksure with every- 
 thing eternally coming my way," he reflected. 
 " I didn't start out to make a record. I was
 
 16 Sand Holler 
 
 hoping for something out of the ordinary, and 
 I appear to be on the way to securing it." 
 
 As the road made another sharp curve, he 
 saw a sort of settlement in a hollow between 
 the highway and the slopes beyond. Here and 
 there were weather-beaten, dilapidated shacks 
 bearing the unmistakable signs of deserted 
 houses. At the end of the straggling line of 
 ramshackle dwellings was a group of long, 
 low, various-sized tents protected by a rudely 
 constructed wooden roofing. A well-kept gar- 
 den at the rear and a few berry bushes and 
 fruit trees made a little oasis of thrift in the 
 pervading waste of the hollow. As Wade 
 approached, a boy came from one of the tents 
 and ran down to the road. Wade welcomed the 
 opportunity to pause in his jolting progress. 
 
 " What's your name, son ? " he asked. 
 
 " Bert Lang. Maw's name is Bee, 'cause she 
 done married a man named Bee. She's Mrs. 
 Ann Bee. Folks has named our place the Bee 
 Hive and they call us kids the Bees. When 
 Maw ain't too cross to stand for it, 'Lynthus, 
 he calls her Honey Bee. Oh Oh Kiddos, 
 you-all come out to see this car ! " 
 
 In prompt response to this summons there
 
 The Bee Hive 17 
 
 emerged from cover, in assorted lots, children 
 of all ages and half ages, barefooted, chubby- 
 legged, tow-headed, snub-nosed and freckled, 
 running and shouting with the exuberance of 
 so many bird dogs let loose for a hunt. 
 
 " The Hive seems to be swarming," thought 
 .Wade. " It must be a school or an institution 
 of some sort." 
 
 The children surrounded his car and gave it 
 a thorough and noisy inspection. 
 
 " Didn't no cars ever come down this way 
 till the road done got closed," observed Bert. 
 " This is the slickest one yet." 
 
 " Thank you, Bert. Who are all these 
 children?" 
 
 " They-all are my brothers and sisters. That's 
 / >ur house. Maw and I made the garden," sur- 
 veying the premises with pride. " Some day 
 we-all are going to build a regular house. 
 We're savin' up for it. Got four-ninety-three 
 in the coffee can now." 
 
 " I think your place is much more interesting 
 than a ' regular house,' " said Sheridan, getting 
 out of the car. " I never saw one just like it. 
 You have a well, too. May I have a drink? " 
 
 " Sure ! I'll draw the water for you-all,"
 
 18 Sand Holler 
 
 offered the boy, leading the way, while the 
 other children instantly appropriated the car, 
 climbing into it, over it and under it. 
 
 As they went toward the tent house, Sheridan 
 pricked up his ears. 
 
 'What's that?" he asked, then answering 
 himself with a laugh, " the buzzing of more 
 little bees, I suppose." 
 
 " Naw. That's just 'Lynthus fiddlin'." 
 
 As he came to the last of the row of tents, 
 Sheridan saw a tall, slim man with a face of 
 child-like candor tipped back in a chair, lost in 
 a world of his own. His chin rested lovingly 
 on a battered violin from which he was coaxing 
 high sweet notes. 
 
 " Your young son here told me I might have 
 a drink," said Sheridan, by way of opening a 
 conversation. "I " 
 
 Bert interrupted. 
 
 " He ain't really my paw, you know. He just 
 married Maw, that's all. He's 'Lynthus." 
 
 " My name," said the man in a soft, drawling 
 voice, and with a certain dignity of tone and 
 manner, " is Olynthus Bee." 
 
 " And mine is Sheridan," responded Wade, 
 shaking hands with the fiddler.
 
 The Bee Hive 19 
 
 He followed Bert to the well, where a few 
 brisk turns brought up a wildly swinging bucket 
 which splashed water recklessly about. Sheri- 
 dan hastened to fill his drinking cup before the 
 entire supply should be spilled. 
 
 " You have quite a little brood to bring up," 
 he said, walking back to where Olynthus sat. 
 
 " Well, I reckon their maw does that mostly," 
 admitted the young stepfather deprecatingly. 
 
 "How many children are there?" asked 
 Wade. ' They moved about so lively and they 
 all look so much alike, I couldn't count them." 
 
 " Oh, eight or nine, I reckon," replied Olyn- 
 thus casually. 
 
 " I wonder if he doesn't mean eighty-nine," 
 thought Sheridan. 
 
 A succession of quick sharp honks was heard. 
 The horn had been discovered. 
 
 "I wouldn't do that, children," called Olyn- 
 thus in mildly admonishing tones. 
 
 More honks. 
 
 ' You see," he explained apologetically, " they 
 look on me more as a brother." 
 
 " Here's a brother what can stop them ! " 
 declared Bert sardonically, starting on a run 
 toward the road.
 
 20 Sand Holler 
 
 " No; let me," protested Wade, overtaking 
 him. 
 
 " Here, kids," putting his hand in his pocket, 
 " isn't there a store anywhere about here that 
 keeps candy and peanuts ? " 
 
 Instantly the car was abandoned and Sheridan 
 was surrounded by a circle of children who 
 eyed his pocket hopefully and expectantly. 
 
 " Sure there is," hastily answered one of the 
 circle. "Just a right smart piece from here. 
 Wicks'. He keeps everything. There's a 
 schoolhouse here, too, and a graveyard." 
 
 " Quite a town," commented Sheridan. 
 "What is the name of your place?" 
 
 " Sand Holler." 
 
 " Most aptly named." 
 
 He ended the suspense by taking his hand 
 from his pocket and lavishly distributing small 
 coins. Immediately a whooping mob rushed 
 down the road. Bert pocketed his dime and 
 hospitably remained with the guest. 
 
 " There will be a run on Wicks'," thought 
 Sheridan. " They are a clean, well-fed lot of 
 youngsters. Must have quite a mother, because 
 'Lynthus himself seems just a babe in arms." 
 
 " Where is your mother ? " he asked Bert.
 
 The Bee Hive 21 
 
 " She's down to Wicks' now. She'll collar 
 those kids and take the money off 'em all right. 
 That's why I didn't go with 'em." 
 
 "Wise boy!" 
 
 " There she is now ! " exclaimed Bert, 
 chuckling. 
 
 Looking down the road ( Sheridan saw a big, 
 buxom woman stopping the children and ful- 
 filling the prophecy of her eldest born. Sheri- 
 dan's indignation was as great as that of the 
 young Bees, who sent up wild and wailing pro- 
 tests which ceased with astounding sudden- 
 ness. Then, with the exception of one boy 
 who continued Wicks'-ward, they all turned and 
 trooped cheerily along beside their mother. 
 
 The Mother Bee was plump in diameter, her 
 waist line non-apparent. She wore a dark blue 
 calico dress shortened by many washings, but 
 scrupulously clean and conscientiously starched. 
 As she drew nearer, Sheridan looked into little 
 bead-like, snapping eyes set in a face as hard- 
 skinned and as darkly red as a winter apple. It 
 was evident that her talent for toil and good 
 hard sense was upon as ample lines as her figure. 
 The children encircling her were good copies of 
 the original.
 
 22 Sand Holler 
 
 ' You were very generous to the young 'uns," 
 she said, when Sheridan had introduced him- 
 self, " but they'd have wasted it buying out 
 Wicks' stock of stale stuff. I sent one of 'em 
 on to get some sugar cane molasses. I'll boil 
 that up and stir in some nuts and get better 
 candy than what they can buy. All those nickels 
 and dimes will help toward our new house." 
 
 : ' Evidently you were not raised in this part 
 of the country," observed Sheridan smiling. 
 
 " Sure, I wasn't," she assented proudly. 
 " I'm from northern Indiana. You wouldn't 
 think it, though, to hear these children talk, 
 with their you-alls and done-gots. They sure 
 get their dialects mixed." 
 
 " Bert's done got his money yet," said one of 
 the children in an aggrieved tone. 
 
 "Well, what good will it do him?" the 
 mother retorted tartly. ''' Bert will never spend 
 it. It will be just as safe in his pocket as if 
 'twas in the coffee can. Money's a scarce article 
 around here," she explained to Sheridan. 
 
 " I wonder," he asked, " if you would let me 
 join you at dinner? I am motoring through 
 the country, and I eat wherever I can buy a 
 meal."
 
 The Bee Hive 23 
 
 "You're welcome to what we've got," she 
 replied. " You've already more than paid for 
 a meal, and we are only too glad to have some 
 one sit at table with us. It was our lucky day 
 when they started in to fix that road. Before 
 that no one ever came down Sand Holler way 
 if they could possibly help it. If we heard 
 wagon wheels, we all rushed out to see what 
 was passing." 
 
 "That's the way Maw done got 'Lynthus," 
 observed Bert succinctly. " He was comin' 
 along fiddlin' and Maw sent out and had him 
 fetched in." 
 
 " It was a Friday, too," sighed Mrs. Bee 
 plaintively. " But dinner's on the way. Maybe 
 whilst you're waiting, you'd like a bit of stay- 
 stomach." 
 
 Sheridan declined the " stay-stomach " and 
 walked up to the tent house with his hostess, 
 who stopped, exasperated by the mere sight of 
 her indolent, music-reveling spouse. 
 
 " Olynthus Bee, didn't you look after those 
 biscuits like I told you? I bet they're burned 
 up!" 
 
 " No," denied Olynthus calmly, without los- 
 ing a note of the tune he was improvising, " I
 
 24 Sand Holler 
 
 know they ain't, because the fire's gone out." 
 
 ' Well, if you wouldn't make Job lose his 
 middle name! Can't I ever ding-dong it into 
 your head to watch that fire or do anything else 
 you're told?" 
 
 " I tended to the fire and the biscuits, Maw," 
 said Bert placatingly. " They ain't quite done 
 yet." 
 
 " Well, I'm glad your head's set in the mid- 
 dle. Your step-paw'll never overwork his dome. 
 Set another place at the table while I make the 
 coffee and the pies." 
 
 " Let me make the coffee," pleaded Sheridan, 
 following her into the kitchen tent. " I am a 
 champion coffee maker." 
 
 The appetizing aroma that soon filled the tent 
 confirmed his boast. 
 
 " Are you going to fry doughnuts? " he asked 
 hopefully, as he noted the kettle of boiling fat 
 on the stove. 
 
 " Something better than that," she promised, 
 bringing a platter of bumpy turnovers to the 
 stove and slipping them one by one into the 
 kettle. i 
 
 "What are they?" he asked interestedly. 
 
 " They are going to be fried apple pies."
 
 The Bee Hive 25 
 
 " That's a new one on me. I never heard of 
 fried apple pies." 
 
 " Then you've got something coming. Once 
 you've eaten them, you'll never want them 
 cooked any other style." 
 
 Dinner, served out of doors on an improvised 
 picnic table, consisted of light beaten biscuits, 
 cornbread sticks, hominy, bacon, sweet pota- 
 toes and the fried pies made with dried apples 
 and covered with sugar cane syrup. 
 
 The food was well cooked and there was 
 plenty of it. The pies alone would serve to 
 establish Sand Holler firmly in Sheridan's 
 memory. His popularity with the irrepressible 
 children was assured by his Ability to deliver 
 entertaining stories, songs and conundrums. 
 
 When the meal was finished, the Queen Bee 
 issued her commands: 
 
 "Olynthus, go into the woods and see if you 
 can't shoot something for tomorrow's dinner. 
 Take your gun instead of your fiddle, and don't 
 you dare to come home unless you bring some- 
 thing. You young 'uns, dig some bait and skoot 
 down to the river while the fish is hungry. If 
 you don't catch nothing, you don't eat nothing. 
 See?"
 
 26 Sand Holler 
 
 The young Bees, now full-fed, weren't suf- 
 ficiently impressed by this threat to depart, and 
 for a brief instant mutiny impended, as they 
 had hopes of more stories and more play in 
 Sheridan's car, but when their mother started 
 to take down a long willow whip that was sus- 
 pended across two nails, they fled toward the 
 river. 
 
 " I ain't never used it on them," she said 
 quickly in apologetic explanation to Sheridan. 
 ' They are so afraid of it, I don't have to more 
 than show it to them. It's" like w r aving the flag 
 at a soldier to sort of bolster up his patriotism. 
 I call it my banner and tell them they'd see 
 stars -for sure if they ever once get the stripes." 
 
 " I should think you'd have kept some of 
 them at home to help you with the dishes. You 
 have so many of them dishes, I mean." 
 
 " No ; the place is too small to have them 
 under foot. I can work better and faster alone. 
 Besides they break most every dish they touch. 
 They do all the outdoor work and run errands. 
 Bert's handy with the cooking and things gen- 
 erally. He's a born fixer. My! You are some 
 helper and a right smart stacker," she exclaimed 
 as Sheridan began to scrape the plates.
 
 The Bee Hive 27 
 
 " Reckon you're used to helping your folks 
 about the house." 
 
 " I have no folks. I work in a hotel," he 
 explained, smiling. 
 
 " Go 'long! " she retorted jocularly. " I hear 
 these hotel folks pay their help good wages, but 
 not enough for a fine car like yours." 
 
 " I am clerk in a hotel," he replied. 
 
 "Some job! That's different." 
 
 "At that," he said with a sigh, "I don't 
 believe I make as much as the chef does." 
 
 He insisted on wiping the dishes, and long 
 before he and his hostess had reached the pot 
 and kettle stage, they were on friendly terms. 
 Sheridan was one who inspired confidence, and 
 Ann Bee joyfully welcomed this opportunity to 
 narrate her life story and to relieve herself of 
 long pent-up grievances. 
 
 ' When Walt (he was my first husband) 
 died, I had to more than hustle to make both 
 ends come anywhere near together. I moved 
 down in this Sand Holler neck o' the woods 
 because I could buy land for next to nothing, 
 which was just about what my cash on hand 
 counted up. We made out to live and I had a 
 little garden stuff left over to sell. I was really
 
 28 Sand Holler 
 
 beginning to have hopes of some day getting 
 footloose from this holler and edging up to the 
 highway. There's as much difference to folks 
 hereabouts 'twixt the Highway and the Holler 
 as there is 'twixt Heaven and the other place, 
 'cept things are reversed, the Highway being 
 all for society and the Holler for climate. Well, 
 'twas my own fault all right that I fell down in 
 sight of the end of the rainbow the Highway 
 rainbow. Just as I had got a squeeze-in, too, 
 through the war." 
 
 " Through the war ! " echoed Sheridan per- 
 plexedly. 
 
 " Yes ; I knit myself in. You know, knitting 
 needles were the woman's weapons, but the 
 ladies up on the Highway weren't very long on 
 that kind of fighting. I went to the Red Cross 
 headquarters up in town one day and got some 
 yarn to knit socks. When I turned them in, the 
 head lady said they were the only ones she had 
 seen so far that would fit a human foot, and 
 she posted my name as a champion No. 1 knitter. 
 All the ladies of the Highway came down to 
 have me show them how to knit all except 
 Kate Jonas, who, like me, had learned how at a 
 grandmother's knee.
 
 The Bee Hive 29 
 
 "Well, the Red Cross called me their life 
 saver, and put me in charge of knitting classes, 
 surgical dressing classes and sewing classes, 
 till Bert said I had got to be the classiest woman 
 in the county. Yes, Ann Bee of Sand Holler 
 was as much in it as the soldiers were before 
 the eleventh of November. Then sewing 
 slumped and they let me down hard. 'Twas 
 back to Sand Holler for mine. Sand Holler 
 was just dumped down from the Highway and 
 they never even look down over the edge at us 
 any more, 'cept Miss Lloyd. She didn't forget 
 us. I was more bound than ever to get set on 
 the Highway, and I worked and planned to lay 
 by every cent I could, and then then, 'long 
 came Olynthus, and I must go and make a fool 
 of myself. As long as a man or woman's work- 
 ing regular, they don't get into any foolishness ; 
 but just as soon as they lay off for a spell it 
 goes to their heads, just like drink. You say 
 you're out on a vacation first in a long time. 
 You want to watch out! Take it from me, 
 young man, loafing and loving, or what folks 
 call loving, are side partners and get you in 
 bad." 
 
 " I'll be careful, Mrs. Bee," assured Sheridan
 
 30 Sand Holler 
 
 gravely ; " but tell me how it all happened, espe- 
 cially Olynthus." 
 
 : 'Twas this way. It was the breaking up of 
 what they call winter down here. Anyway, 
 'twas too early to plant. I'd sewed up every 
 scrap of cloth I could lay my hands on, and the 
 housecleaning was done. Through the cold 
 weather we'd been cooped up in the biggest tent 
 that we'd put boards around, and I was tired 
 to death of young 'uns' gabble. I was just clean 
 talk-hungry as you might say. Those shacks 
 around here were most all empty then. Folks 
 don't stay any longer than they have to in Sand 
 Holler come and go like gypsies. I looked 
 out of the window one day, and along came 
 what I'd been praying for, the ' sight of a 
 human being him, Olynthus, carrying his 
 fiddle. I sent one of the children out to ask 
 him to come in and set a while. He did. He's 
 been settin' ever since. I asked him to stay to 
 dinner. He did. He's been eatin' off me regular 
 since that day. A storm came on and he stayed 
 all night. I don't know how long it had been 
 since I had listened to any kind of music. His 
 fiddle had more strings to it than it has now. It 
 made a change and the young 'uns were tickled
 
 The Bee Hive 31 
 
 to tears. I thought maybe a paw would keep 
 them in order, and there was garden time coming 
 on and the chores to do. To make a long story 
 short, we got married. Talk about drawing 
 lemons ! I got a quince for mine. Getting mar- 
 ried just meant one more person to feed and 
 work my head off for. All he ever does is to 
 set around and fiddle or play with the kids, and 
 now it's good-bye to getting out of the Holler 
 and onto the Highway like I'd planned to do. 
 I've slumped, too." 
 
 " Olynthus is out hunting now," reminded 
 Sheridan. " Doesn't he ever bring home any 
 game ? " 
 
 " There it is again ! He's a sure shot only 
 thing he can do except to fiddle but he don't 
 bring anything down, 'cause he says he don't 
 like to kill. He aims at a card pinned to a tree, 
 or some such fool thing. If I send him fishing, 
 he sets on a log and goes to sleep and the fish run 
 off with the worms. He's too lazy to haul in 
 anything bigger'n a minny anyway. When 
 plantin' time came, I thought I'd use all the 
 ground back of these shacks to grow corn. No 
 one round here 'cept me stays long enough to 
 raise anything. I borrowed a plow and set him
 
 52 Sand Holler 
 
 and Bert to work. Olynthus got Bert to plow 
 the land into furrows of five rows each, and 
 then he peppered them with kernels of corn 
 like they were the notes to the tune of Star 
 Spangled Banner, and the furrows were a staff 
 of music. If one of the kids hadn't of let on 
 what they were doing we'd have had a cornfield 
 that would have made even Sand Holler folks 
 laugh. That was Olynthus' first and last fake 
 at work. I can't get a lick of labor out of him. 
 I only go through the show of sending him to 
 hunt to get him out of my sight for a spell. 
 Oh, I've got a white elephant on my hands all 
 right!" 
 
 She paused for breath and rambled on. " I 
 was brought up among thrifty folks. I had 
 a pretty fair amount of schooling and meant 
 to work my way through a business college, 
 but I married Walt instead. He was ambitious 
 and a hard worker, too, but the children came 
 so fast we couldn't see land ahead, and ambi- 
 tion soft of got crowded out. I thought I had 
 got to the limit when Olynthus came along, 
 but I guess there's always a worse than what 
 you've already got." 
 
 " You could get a divorce, you know, on
 
 The Bee Hive 33 
 
 grounds of non-support," suggested Sheridan. 
 
 Mrs. Bee shook her head decisively. 
 
 " No ; it's coming to me. He was a stranger. 
 I took him in and got took in myself all right. 
 You see, fact is, well I didn't exactly pop the 
 question, but still it was fifty-fifty, as you might 
 say, so I'll stick to the bargain, seeing I made it, 
 even if I have got the worst of it. Everyone 
 has to have a kill in their joy. Olynthus has 
 killed mine all right." 
 
 " He seems pleasant and kind-hearted," ven- 
 tured Sheridan helplessly, feeling it incumbent 
 upon him to put up some sort of a defense, if 
 ever so feeble, for a fellow man. 
 
 " That's what folks always say about the 
 shiftless when they can't say anything else. 
 He's good-hearted, 'cause he ain't got spunk to 
 be any other way." 
 
 " But it might have been worse," urged the 
 defender of the absent. " Suppose he had been 
 quarrelsome and brutal?" 
 
 " Shucks ! I guess I could have matched him 
 up if he had tried any slugging. 'Twould have 
 put a little pep into a dull life, maybe, to have 
 had a scrap now and then." 
 
 "The children are fond of him," further
 
 34 , Sand Holler 
 
 argued Sheridan, recalling how, unseen by their 
 mother, they had made circuitous routes in pur- 
 suit of Olynthus when he had set out for the 
 woods, " and he certainly can play the violin." 
 
 " Well, I ain't affording a nursemaid or a 
 band," she replied sarcastically. " I must say, 
 though, the children are bewitched after him. 
 They all, 'cept Bert, give their name as Bee, in 
 spite of my explaining to them about it." 
 
 Routed in argument, Sherjdan tried national 
 news as a diverting subject. Mrs. Bee was 
 greatly interested in current events, but from 
 lack of mouthpieces through which the news of 
 the day could find expression, she was woefully 
 uninformed. So he became oratorical and then 
 seeing her interest aroused, he produced from 
 his car numerous magazines, newspapers and 
 light fiction, his accumulation of literature 
 throughout the trip. 
 
 " Everyone's reconstructing now," he told 
 her. " You must buck up and chase your rain- 
 bow once more." 
 
 " I see where the children help on housework 
 now that I've something to read besides the 
 almanac," she declared. " Many's the time I've 
 chased a piece of newspaper down the road."
 
 The Bee Hive 35 
 
 Sheridan made a mental memorandum to have 
 Mrs. Bee enrolled as a subscriber to a daily 
 paper in the first city he reached. 
 
 All efforts to induce her to allow him to pay 
 for his dinner had proved unavailing, but before 
 continuing on his way he managed surrepti- 
 tiously to drop a dollar in the coffee can. 
 
 "Poor Olynthus!" he mused as his car 
 bumped along the neglected road. " His wife 
 will never realize that every hive must have its 
 drone. She's a good, thrifty sort, but with the 
 tongue of an adder on occasions, I fancy." 
 
 He began to speculate on the mysterious work- 
 ing that must have taken place in the mind of a 
 care-free rover such as Olynthus to lead him to 
 wedlock with a woman of steel-trap sharpness. 
 Then he found a facetious solution in the recol- 
 lection that a bee is always attracted to a thistle. 
 At last he came back to the main highway. 
 
 " Now I'll have plain sailing," he thought 
 thankfully. 
 
 It was quite evident, though, that another 
 traveler was not having that kind of navigation. 
 Ahead of him on the road he saw a broken-down 
 car. Beside it stood a despondent-looking man 
 and in the road lay a mail sack.
 
 "What's the trouble?" asked Sheridan, 
 jumping from his car. 
 
 The carrier of R. F. D. No. 5, a slow-moving 
 man of perhaps five and thirty years, with medi- 
 tative eyes, shook his head sadly. 
 
 " Everything. I went over a bad bump on 
 the road and the insides of my car seem to have 
 got in a general mix-up." 
 
 "Was it down in Sand Holler?" asked 
 Sheridan sympathetically. 
 
 " No ; I don't often have a letter for the 
 Holler. They take and give nothing in the way 
 of mail down there." 
 
 Sheridan shuffled, distributed and juggled the 
 inner parts of the little car until he reached the 
 conclusion already formulated by the owner. 
 " Can't make the darned thing go." 
 
 " I suppose the government forbids your car- 
 rying passengers, but there is no law against my 
 
 36
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 37 
 
 taking you and the mail sack with me in an 
 emergency, is there ? " 
 
 The carrier's disconsolate face brightened, 
 and then as suddenly sobered. 
 
 " My route isn't entirely along the highway. 
 I have to make some of the side roads. I am 
 afraid you wouldn't have time " 
 
 " Time ! There is nothing else I have so much 
 of just now. I am drifting about on a vaca- 
 tion. I know something about the trials of the 
 mail business," Sheridan added as they stowed 
 the mail sack in his car. " I am a hotel clerk 
 and we have to run a sort of a postoffice of our 
 own behind the desk, you know. My 'name is 
 Wade Sheridan." 
 
 " Mine is Dixon, Joel Dixon." 
 
 Sheridan was greatly interested in the process 
 of the distribution of mail. In front of every 
 road-side letter box, which served alike as a post- 
 office and a door plate, they stopped and Joel 
 gathered up the mail. Rarely was a letter 
 stamped; two pennies in a piece of brown paper 
 generally accompanied the missive. Newspapers 
 were secured in their wrappings by many yards 
 of thread. Often there was a twisted piece of 
 paper in the box that proved to be a memoran-
 
 38 Sand Holler 
 
 dum of commissions for the accommodating 
 carrier to attend to in town, and these included 
 everything purchasable from a hand-plow to a 
 yard of baby-blue ribbon. 
 
 As each box was emptied of its contents, 
 Dixon proceeded to deposit therein the mail as 
 well as sundry parcels which in his role of shop- 
 ping agent he had brought from town. This 
 transaction, however, was only followed at 
 houses where the family was away. Generally 
 one or more of the household came hurrying 
 down to the mail box to give and take in person. 
 
 From everyone they passed on the way came 
 the greeting of, " Howdy, Joel.'" 
 
 " It must be nice," sighed the city man, " to 
 meet so many people who know you and are 
 really glad to see you with no thought of asking 
 something in return for common civility." 
 
 At the last place on the last cross road, the 
 usual box was missing. 
 
 " Don't these people write or get letters ? " 
 asked Sheridan. "Who are they?" 
 
 "Junius Jonas and his daughters, Kate and 
 Tilly." 
 
 " Why don't they have their mail delivered ? " 
 
 " Miss Jonas was opposed to the Rural Free
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 39 
 
 Delivery and fought it. She's a standpatter and 
 doesn't believe in city ways for the country, so 
 she refuses to deal with anything except the 
 postoffice in town." 
 
 The cross road at this point where the turn 
 was to be made into the main highway was 
 very narrow. Sheridan found his car con- 
 fronted by an obstacle in the shape of a comely 
 young woman who did not betray the slightest 
 intimation that she was well aware of their 
 approach. He honked a warning. 
 
 " My car is like a horse," he said in a low 
 tone to the carrier. " It has learned not to shy 
 at things in the road." 
 
 " Good morning, Kate," said Joel gravely, as 
 the car came to a stop. 
 
 Her surprise at seeing the carrier was quickly 
 overcome, and she gave a curt return greeting. 
 
 Joel explained the situation, which apparently 
 failed to interest her. 
 
 " Come, Pa ! " she called in a commanding 
 tone, looking toward the house. 
 
 Junius Jonas, a small, meek man, came quickly 
 
 out to the road. He appeared to be very glad 
 
 * to see Joel and was eager to hear the details of 
 
 the accident to the " postoffice car," the narra-
 
 40 Sand Holler 
 
 live of which, however, was cut short by his 
 masterful daughter. 
 
 " Come here, Pa ! You're late to make town 
 and back, as it is." 
 
 Junius stood unresistingly in front of his 
 daughter while she deftly folded a muffler about 
 his neck, buttoned his great coat snugly over it 
 and then put his cap on his head, tying the ear- 
 laps securely in place. She handed him a 
 memorandum of groceries and a letter with in- 
 structions to carry it in his hand until he should 
 reach the postoffice, le'st he forget to mail it. 
 
 A young girl of fifteen came out of the yard, 
 leading an antiquated horse hitched to a light 
 wagon. Junius Jonas climbed in and his elder 
 daughter put a soapstone at his feet and wrapped 
 about him a heavy blanket shawl, although the 
 day was mild and bright. 
 
 When he had driven away, Kate turned her 
 attention to her young sister. 
 
 " Tilly, you go right up to the Lyndons' on 
 that errand." Then, eying her sharply, she 
 ordered her also to " come here." 
 
 Tilly came, although without alacrity. A deft 
 hand removed the perky bow from the girl's 
 hair, slipped out a few hairpins, thereby letting
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 41 
 
 down a long braid, straightened the girl's 
 blouse, pulling up the high collar which had been 
 turned in to form a V shaped neck, and con- 
 fiscated a natty shining leather belt. Tilly did 
 not submit as meekly as her father had, but with 
 muttered protests, pouts and frowns walked 
 sulkily down the road. She had gone only a 
 short distance when Joel jumped from the car 
 and ran after her. 
 
 Left alone with the strange young woman, 
 Sheridan felt that he must say something. 
 
 " I have been much interested in seeing Mr. 
 Dixon distribute the mail," he remarked. 
 Receiving no reply, he tried again : " I notice 
 that your place is the only one on the route which 
 has no mail box." 
 
 She shot him a swift, suspicious glance, but 
 the smiling eyes that met hers held no signs of 
 any hidden significance in his words. 
 
 ' The postoffke is good enough for me," she 
 replied shortly. 
 
 " If I lived on this route," pursued Sheridan 
 cheerfully, " I should want a mail box if only 
 for the opportunity of having a daily chat with 
 Mr. Dixon." 
 
 The remark brought no response and the
 
 42 Sand Holler 
 
 silence that followed was broken only by the 
 return of the carrier. 
 
 " I brought some sweets for Tilly," he 
 explained as they rode on. 
 
 " Poor kid ! It's a shame she can't wear her 
 hair as ^he likes and dress as other girls do," 
 commented Sheridan sympathetically. 
 
 ' Tilly needs no pity. She is at present behind 
 a bush by the roadside, fixing her hair and 
 dress and putting on another bow and belt. She 
 generally carries extra equipment about with 
 her." 
 
 Junius Jonas was quickly overtaken. He had 
 driven up to the side of the road and was 
 busily engaged in wrapping the soapstone in 
 the blanket shawl, which he pitched into a bush. 
 He then unbuttoned his coat, threw his muffler 
 under the cushion, took off his cap, pushed the 
 earlaps inside the crown and thrust the letter he 
 was carrying into his pocket. He bestowed a 
 knowing wink upon Joel as they passed. 
 
 " Why don't he and Tilly revolt in the open, 
 instead of ambushing? " asked Sheridan who 
 had been greatly amused by these careful and 
 secret maneuvers. 
 
 " It's easier this way," explained Joel.
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 43 
 
 " Miss Jonas is apparently a young woman 
 who wants her own way." 
 
 "Why shouldn't she?" challenged Joel 
 quickly. 
 
 "I don't know why," returned Sheridan, the 
 ghost of a smile twitching the corners of his 
 mouth, " only it's a fancy of mine that it isn't 
 judicious for any one, man or woman, to have 
 the right of way all the time." 
 
 The carrier made no reply, and Sheridan drew 
 conclusions. One was that the carrier was in 
 love with the young shrew, and while not exactly 
 fancying being bossed, lacked the initiative to 
 try a little bossing on his own account. Another 
 conclusion was that there was a governing 
 feminine atmosphere in this part of the country 
 and that the men were too indolent to assert 
 themselves. 
 
 Joel interrupted his musings. 
 
 " The Hill House is my last stop. After that 
 we will soon come to the city limits. That's 
 the Hill House that big place to the right." 
 
 Sheridan looked over the white picket fence 
 into a park of towering elms inclosed by a 
 second fence some distance from the road; 
 beyond, the land sloped up to a succession of
 
 44 Sand Holler 
 
 terraces, on the highest of which stood a big 
 colonial brick house. Instantly he conjured up 
 visions of brocade and crinoline; of high-heeled 
 slippers and powdered hair ; of old-time romance, 
 balls and slaves; of young girls and men of 
 Long Ago circling to staccato measures. It 
 seemed to his fancy that by rights a little raven- 
 haired, vivacious girl with a much beruffled 
 skirt and a blue sash should come from behind 
 one of those trees. 
 
 'Who lives there?" he asked idly. 
 ' The Lloyds. They've lived there for genera- 
 tions. The grandfather fought in the civil war ; 
 the father in the Spanish-American war and 
 young Lloyd saw service in France as a sur- 
 geon." 
 
 " Lucky lad ! " exclaimed Sheridan enviously. 
 " I tried for a training camp and then *for 
 enlistment in the Army and in the Navy, but 
 bad eyes barred me from them all. Then the 
 armistice came before they needed men bad 
 enough to take me out of the discard." 
 
 As they drew nearer the Hill House, the 
 antonym of Sheridan's vision materialized. She 
 was tall and slender and overwhelmingly patri- 
 cian in bearing. Her hair of yellow the bright
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 45 
 
 yellow of children's locks was drawn ex- 
 quisitely back from a small, stately poised 
 head. In her eyes lurked the violet and purple 
 tints of twilight. Instead of ruffles and sash, 
 however, she wore a perfectly fitting though 
 well-worn riding habit of brown. 
 
 " I have been watching all day for you," 
 she said to Joel in a friendly tone, though with 
 a certain air of aloofness. " I didn't recognize 
 you at first in your fine new car." 
 
 "Sorry I haven't a letter for you, Miss 
 Lloyd, but there is always a to-morrow's mail, 
 you know. This is not my car. Mine broke 
 down near Sand Holler, and Mr. Sheridan 
 here gave me a lift." 
 
 Sheridan readily accepted this explanation for 
 an introduction, but the girl didn't vouchsafe 
 him so much as a look. He ventured a casual 
 remark which met with barely a response and 
 won for him but the most impersonal of glances. 
 He was neither easily repulsed nor quick to take 
 offense. His quick memory was stirred and 
 instantly he felt sure that he was looking into 
 the eyes of the original of one of the pictures 
 in Julian's case. Also he noted a family 
 resemblance.
 
 46 Sand Holler 
 
 " Miss Lloyd, do you by chance have a 
 brother named Julian ? " 
 
 Little golden points flashed in her eyes. The 
 lead had been the right one. 
 
 ' Yes," she answered eagerly. " Do you 
 know him? " 
 
 " We were together at Plattsburg one sum- 
 mer." 
 
 Her eye quickly scanned his coat lapels, 
 searching, he felt, for a certain outward and 
 visible sign of service. 
 
 The golden lights died, leaving her eyes cold 
 and disapproving as she said in significant 
 tone: 
 
 " Julian's military spirit survived Plattsburg/' 
 
 Sheridan flushed. A dormant pride stirred 
 and forbade defense, but Joel was a firm be- 
 liever in the following of the one good turn 
 adage. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan," he said in tone of gentle 
 rebuke, " tried every way to get into the war, 
 but was turned down on account of his eyes." 
 
 " Oh," she murmured, and her low voice was 
 vibrant with penitence, " that was too bad." 
 
 Sheridan hastened to hold his gain. 
 
 " I saw Julian last winter after his return
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 47 
 
 from France. We were together at a hotel 
 one night in a city up north." 
 
 Again he seemed to read disapproval in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " We've always regretted Julian's preference 
 for the north." 
 
 Sheridan's acute ear caught the disparaging 
 emphasis on the word north. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan," again intercepted Joel, 
 " isn't like some of the northerners who come 
 down here." 
 
 This assertion, however, seemed to make no 
 impression upon the fair young southerner. 
 
 With a slight bow she turned back into the 
 grounds of the Hill House without another 
 glance. Someway Sheridan had the feeling that 
 he had been treated with a certain shade of 
 manner, the one nearest to insolence that 
 people of good breeding can bestow. He had 
 sometimes encountered the same attitude in 
 patrons of his hotel. 
 
 " I didn't suppose this young generation had 
 the racial affliction," he said when they had 
 driven on. " Miss Lloyd seems very proud." 
 
 " With the exception of Julian, the Lloyds 
 have always been proud and reserved," replied
 
 48 Sand Holler 
 
 Joel. " Miss Lloyd has never been away from 
 these parts except when she went to school. 
 I think they are proud because they are poor, 
 maybe. Most poor folks defend their poverty 
 with pride." 
 
 ''' Poor ! They must have many acres of 
 ground here." 
 
 " All mortgaged. So is the house to the 
 chimneys." 
 
 "Large family?" 
 
 " Not now. The Major and Miss Lloyd live 
 there alone. They keep two of the old servants." 
 
 " Why don't they make that big place into a 
 resort or a fruit farm all that land?" 
 
 Joel smiled. 
 
 " We don't think or care so much about money 
 making down here as folks up your way do. 
 Julian has been quite an expense. The Major 
 sent him to an eastern medical college, but he 
 doesn't seem to make a go of it. He's a right 
 smart doctor, but he doesn't get any patients. 
 Maybe, though, now that he has had war service, 
 it'll be different. He just has no business 
 head. Whenever he got any patients, he always 
 insisted there was nothing the matter with 
 them."
 
 Enter, Two Young Women 49 
 
 " That's the very best kind of a doctor," 
 laughed Sheridan. " It seems like Julian 
 what I know of him." 
 
 He added irrelevantly: "What's her first 
 name." 
 
 " Kenneth." 
 
 " An attractive name," he thought. " It 
 suits her, too." 
 
 " Southern women," he said aloud, " are 
 different from what I had pictured them. The 
 three I have talked with today are of the new 
 woman type, independent, managing." 
 
 "Who was the third one?" asked Joel in- 
 terestedly. 
 
 " Mrs. Bee, Ann Bee of Sand Holler." 
 
 Joel smiled. 
 
 " Sorry to ^upset your theory, but two of the 
 three are northern women, and Miss Lloyd 
 is very charming when she feels acquainted. 
 Quite domestic, too." 
 
 " I recall that Mrs. Bee owned to Indiana. 
 Where does Miss Jonas hail from ? " 
 
 " North Dakota." 
 
 ' Well, let's hope the warm southern climate 
 will mellow them in time. What sort of a
 
 50 Sand Holler 
 
 town is this we are coming to? Can I get a 
 good bed for the night? " 
 
 " I don't like to knock my home town," 
 replied Joel, " but to be honest with you, our 
 hotel is the poorest institution we have. Twenty 
 miles farther on you will come to a larger town 
 with first class hotel accommodations." 
 
 ' Then I will keep on," decided Sheridan. 
 
 He deposited Joel and the mail sack at the 
 postofiice. The carrier was most profuse with 
 his thanks. 
 
 " Will you come back this way? " he asked. 
 
 " I hadn't made any plans for the return 
 route, but I believe I shall be back this way. 
 I am interested in Sand Holler and the Bee 
 Hive, and I should like to look you up again 
 too." 
 
 Sheridan replenished his stock of current 
 literature which had been depleted in Mrs. Bee's 
 favor and started on his twenty-mile lap.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 A WAIF FINDS A PROTECTOR 
 
 Sheridan had ridden but a short distance when 
 he heard a faint squeaking much like the sound 
 he had been wont to produce in his childhood 
 days by the aid of a comb and a piece of paper. 
 He traced the sound to a tree underneath which 
 sat Olynthus sawing vigorously if not musically 
 on the one remaining string of his violin. 
 
 Sheridan stopped his car. 
 
 " How did you get here ? " he asked in 
 surprise. 
 
 " A man came along in an automobile and 
 let me ride as far as town." 
 
 !< But where are you going? " 
 
 " I don't know. Just tramping. That's my 
 trade I'm a rover of the woods," Olynthus 
 explained proudly. 
 
 " Haven't you been home since your hunting 
 expedition? " 
 
 " No ! " replied Olynthus with a sigh. " She 
 
 51
 
 52 Sand Holler 
 
 said not to come home unless I fetched some- 
 thing." 
 
 "And you didn't get a shot at anything?" 
 
 " No ; you see the children, except Bert, 
 tagged me down to the woods and we got to 
 meanderin' about, pickin' flowers and things, and 
 I forgot where I'd left the gun. After a spell 
 Bert came along. He had catched a big string 
 of fish and he said I'd catch something else if 
 I didn't find that gun, 'cause it had belonged to 
 his pa. We couldn't none of us find it, so 
 Bert said I'd better beat it for a couple of 
 days till she got over the worst of it. He's 
 a good boy, Bert. He put that ten cents you 
 gave him in my pocket. It hurts Bert to part 
 with money, too." 
 
 " See here," said Sheridan impulsively, " I 
 had good entertainment at your house, and I'd 
 like to return the favor. I'll buy some game 
 in the next town for you to take home as a 
 peace offering, and we'll get your fiddle strung. 
 Then you can get a lift back to Sand Holler." 
 
 " No," replied Olynthus resignedly. " It's 
 right kind in you, but I'm thinking I'd favor 
 a change for a few days. I never was one of 
 the kind that likes to take root anywheres.
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 53 
 
 Besides," he added philosophically, " maybe Ann 
 '11 get to miss me if I'm gone for a spell, and be 
 glad to see me back. She's a fine woman, 
 Ann is." 
 
 " I wonder," speculated Sheridan, " if absence 
 ever does make the heart grow fond. The 
 women I've seen today certainly have the whip 
 hand over their men. Could I ever be so lost 
 in love as to let myself be lorded over by 
 Yes! There is a girl I'd stand a great deal of 
 petticoat-rule from just for the privilege of 
 being near her." 
 
 He came back from his speculations to the 
 problem of providing for the improvident Olyn- 
 thus. He couldn't leave this poor wandering 
 fiddler here in the road with only one string to 
 his bow and Bert's dime for capital. 
 
 " Say, Mr. Bee, suppose you ride with me to 
 the next town where I spend the night. I will 
 gladly pay your way back by train for the sake 
 of having company." 
 
 Olynthus accepted this ofifer with alacrity. 
 Sheridan drove slowly that they might have 
 more time to talk and told how he had made 
 Rural Route Number Five with Joel Dixon. 
 
 " And the last place on the beat," he con-
 
 54 Sand Holler 
 
 1 1 
 
 eluded, " was the Hill House. Do you know 
 the people who live there ? " 
 
 ' The Lloyds ? Sure, I know them. Miss 
 Lloyd is one of the finest." 
 
 "Is she?" asked Sheridan hopefully. 
 
 ' They say she did mighty fine work in the 
 war, and she's powerful good to the children 
 Sand Holler children. She can't give them 
 very much, 'cause she hasn't much to give 
 not much more'n Sand Holler folks has in 
 way of money, but she is powerful generous- 
 hearted. I've heard them say how last Christ- 
 mas she invited all Sand Holler up to the Hill 
 House. She had one of their big Christmas 
 trees cut down and trimmed it up with little 
 cakes and strings of popcorn and red berries. 
 She sent a big carry-all after the folks. Then 
 she gives away lots of fruit and vegetables from 
 her own garden. She's pure gold, Miss Lloyd 
 is." 
 
 Sheridan felt that he had slighted the dis- 
 cerning powers of the musical Olynthus. 
 
 " Do you see her often? " 
 
 ( 'Deed I do. She's fond of music. So is 
 her brother, Doc Lloyd. He was home for a 
 spell after he came back from war. He used
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 55 
 
 to ask me over to play for them to dance. 
 You haven't heard me play when I am all 
 strung up. Three more strings do help. I can 
 do a lot better then." 
 
 " Most of us do better when we're all strung 
 up," thought Sheridan. 
 
 " We sure do miss Doc Julian. He's more 
 folksy than the rest of those people up on the 
 Highway. He knows a heap, too." 
 
 Sheridan remembered that at Plattsburg 
 Julian's record was greater for scraps and 
 scrapes than for studies. 
 
 " I saw Dr. Lloyd, too, after he came home 
 from the war. It did him a world of good; it 
 steadied him and made a man out of him. It 
 made a man of many a youngster." 
 
 He looked at Olynthus, struck by a sudden 
 thought. 
 
 " How old are you? " 
 
 " I'm four years younger than Ann," the 
 musician evaded. 
 
 "The old, old question how old is Ann?" 
 mused Sheridan. 
 
 As if in answer to the thought, Olynthus 
 finally demonstrated: 
 
 " Ann is thirty-two."
 
 56 Sand Holler 
 
 " Then I should have thought you'd have 
 come in the draft." 
 
 Deprecation was depicted very clearly upon 
 Olynthus' countenance. 
 
 " I did get drafted, but they didn't take me. 
 You see, I was exempt." 
 
 "On what grounds?" 
 
 " I was a conscientious objector." 
 
 " I should have thought you might have 
 overcome your objections," said Sheridan 
 bluntly. " It was up to every man of us to 
 fight that could get the chance." 
 
 " I don't believe in killing," asserted Olynthus. 
 " I'd have been a murderer. Don't think I was 
 scared," he added anxiously. " I'm a sure shot. 
 If I had my gun here, I'd show you." 
 
 Sheridan stopped the car and from a holster 
 drew forth a revolver. 
 
 "Here! Show me." 
 
 From his pocket Olynthus took the remains 
 of a pack of cards, selected a six spot of spades 
 and pinned it to the trunk of a tree. He then 
 walked back some sixty yards and fired six 
 shots in quick succession. There was a bullet 
 hole in each spade. 
 
 " Fine work ! " applauded Sheridan. " It is
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 57 
 
 a shame that you couldn't get the hearts of 
 six Boches as surely and as quickly." 
 
 " I didn't want to," answered Olynthus stoutly, 
 climbing back into the car. 
 
 The subject was plainly one most distasteful 
 to him, and he began to talk about the Lloyds, 
 which vastly amused Sheridan and again im- 
 pressed him with the fact that possibly Olynthus 
 was not as guileless and childlike as the look of 
 naive, semi-cherubic candor in his eyes indi- 
 cated. 
 
 " How much farther have we to go before 
 we reach the city?" Sheridan asked after they 
 had ridden some distance. Darkness was com- 
 ing on, and the moon and stars had evidently 
 decided to spend a night in with their shades 
 closely drawn. 
 
 " Oh, twenty miles or so," replied Olynthus 
 unconcernedly. 
 
 " Twenty miles ! Joel Dixon told me it was 
 twenty miles from his town." 
 
 "Did he? Well, mebby it is. It seemed a 
 lot further though when I have hoofed it." 
 
 They rode on for a few miles and then Sheri- 
 dan hailed a passing team. 
 
 "How far to the city?"
 
 58 Sand Holler 
 
 " Oh, twenty miles or so." 
 
 " Sheridan twenty miles away ! " quoted Olyn- 
 thus facetiously. 
 
 ' Well, I'll be darned ! " exclaimed Sheridan in 
 dismay. 
 
 " Roads awful poor from here on," called the 
 teamster cheerily, as he drove on. '' Been 
 raining on ahead." 
 
 " This red soil," remarked Olynthus confirma- 
 tively, " gets sticky just like dough, after it's 
 been wet down a mite." 
 
 " I suppose there's nothing to do but to keep 
 on," remarked Sheridan. " No other place to 
 stop, is there? " 
 
 " I know a place where you could get a fine 
 supper and a place to stay all night." 
 
 " Lead me to it," commanded Sheridan hope- 
 fully. " I'm hungry." 
 
 " If you turn off the main road at the cross 
 road to the left and go three miles you come to 
 Mrs. Weevil's boarding-house." 
 
 "Is it a town?" 
 
 " I reckon you'd hardly call it that. There's 
 a postoffice and a store. A few folks live there- 
 abouts and the train stops if it is flagged, but 
 that's not very often."
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 
 
 " I shouldn't think it would be much of a 
 place for a boarding house." 
 
 ' There's a lumber camp close by, and the 
 men come there for their meals." 
 
 " That's where we'll go then," said Sheridan, 
 moved to quick decision by a stretch of road that 
 made Sand Holler ruts seem like asphalt in 
 comparison. Then, too, night air in this region 
 of hills was chilly, and the thought of warmth 
 and food was most alluring. 
 
 " It's a poor sort of a house," warned Olyn- 
 thus, " but it's as clean as Ann's, and Mrs. 
 Weevil can sure fry chicken." 
 
 " Say no more. Mrs. Weevil's for us. Have 
 you been there often ? " 
 
 " Yes, quite a few times before I hit the 
 Holler. She has a fine little boy, too. He has 
 to work terrible hard, though, lots harder than 
 the Bees." 
 
 " I should think Mrs. Weevil would be quite 
 a catch for some man," suggested Sheridan 
 insinuatingly. 
 
 " Yes," agreed Olynthus readily. A second 
 later, with reminiscent sigh, " She wouldn't 
 have me. I asked her." 
 
 " What a wise Weevil," thought Sheridan.
 
 60 Sand Holler 
 
 " She can jaw some when she's in a temper, 
 though. Something like Ann that way, only 
 she's not so. good-hearted back of it like Ann 
 is. Ann's all bark and no bite." 
 
 " Tartness seems to be the prevailing trait of 
 the women and inertia of the men down this 
 way," mentally concluded Sheridan. 
 
 " This here is the turn to the left," directed 
 Olynthus presently. 
 
 " Fair road, too," approved Sheridan, speed- 
 ing up. 
 
 '"Here we are!" exclaimed Olynthus after 
 a few minutes. 
 
 " I don't see any lights. People must go to 
 bed early hereabouts. It's barely rooster crow- 
 time yet." 
 
 " Most likely they're savin' of oil, or else 
 Mrs. Weevil is back in the kitchen." 
 
 A door swung open and a gleam of yellow 
 lamplight revealed a woman. 
 
 " It's me, Olynthus, Mrs. Weevil," announced 
 the fiddler in conciliatory tone, " and I've got a 
 friend, Mr. Sheridan, with me. Can you keep 
 us over night ? " 
 
 " Yes," the woman answered promptly, though 
 apparently a little awed by the sight of a car,
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 61 
 
 " If you can put up with my poor accommoda- 
 tions." 
 
 She was a shrewish-looking woman with a 
 stern face and the form of a scarecrow. Her 
 thin hair was twisted in a tight knot. 
 
 " Looks out of tune," appraised Sheridan as 
 he came up to the doorway. Aloud he said 
 affably: 
 
 " Your accommodations have been highly 
 recommended by Mr. Bee, and a king in a castle 
 couldn't offer anything finer in the way of wel- 
 come than this splendid fire." 
 
 He was already within a fair-sized, clap- 
 boarded room. A bed, a chest of drawers, a 
 cracked mirror, a table and three chairs com- 
 prised the furniture, poorest of its kind, but 
 the blazing logs in the open fireplace cast a 
 splendor over all that was sordid, and made any 
 other light superfluous. 
 
 " Supper was over long ago, but there's 
 chicken to warm up, and it won't take no time 
 to beat up some fresh biscuits and make the 
 coffee." 
 
 Sheridan settled himself comfortably in an 
 old rocking chair, and was soon lost in the 
 fancies the flames were weaving for him. He
 
 62 Sand Holler 
 
 was roused by the sound of a child's voice 
 asking: 
 
 "Did you bring the fiddle?" 
 
 He turned and saw a small boy with a 
 weazened, wan face gazing intently at Olynthus 
 out of wistful eyes of a light hazel, eyes that 
 reminded Sheridan of someone he had known 
 back home. His head was covered with a thick 
 shock of black hair. 
 
 " Sure I did, sonny, what's left of it. It's 
 only got one string." 
 
 ' You can make music on one string, Olyn- 
 thus." 
 
 "Do you like music, my boy?" asked Sheri- 
 dan. " I see you do by your eyes. Come here," 
 drawing the lad to him. " Tell me your name." 
 
 " Star." 
 
 " And how old are you, Star ? " 
 
 " Ten." 
 
 " You go to school, of course." 
 
 " There isn't any school to go to any more. 
 It takes ten children for a school, and there's 
 only nine of us here now." 
 
 " What a shame ! " exclaimed Sheridan. 
 
 " No," denied Star firmly. " I don't like to 
 be shut up in school."
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 63 
 
 " Can you read? " 
 
 " Yes ; but there's nothing to read." 
 
 " No," added Mrs. Weevil, coming in to 
 announce supper. " There's no place or way to 
 get anything to read unless a passenger gets 
 off a train and leaves something. We haven't 
 any time to read around here, anyway. But 
 your supper is ready." 
 
 But Sheridan had already started out to his 
 car. He came back with the illustrated papers 
 he had bought in town. 
 
 " There, Star." He tossed them to the boy. 
 " Go to it while we are eating." 
 
 When they returned from a hearty supper. 
 Star was reveling in the fascinating pictures 
 of one of the periodicals, but he jumped up and 
 begged Olynthus to play. 
 
 " Can't play much on one string. Haven't 
 got any strings over to your store, have you ? " 
 
 " No," replied the boy, " but we have a fine 
 fiddle. Some foreigner borrowed money on it, 
 and he died before he could buy it back." 
 
 " Couldn't you ask Mr. Greeves to lend it to 
 us for the evening? " asked Olynthus. coaxingly. 
 
 " He went to town to-day. He won't be home 
 until tomorrow."
 
 64 Sand Holler 
 
 " Well, ain't you in charge ? " wheedled Olyn- 
 thus. 
 
 " Yes," replied the boy gravely. " That's it. 
 I am in charge. It wouldn't be right." 
 
 "Aren't you a clerk?" asked Sheridan, com- 
 ing to the rescue. 
 
 " Sort of. I help about the store; sweep out; 
 do up bundles and such." 
 
 " When the proprietor's out, can't you sell 
 goods ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 " How much is the violin? " 
 
 " Eight dollars and ' sixty-seven cents," 
 sighed Star. " Mr. Greeves looked it up in a 
 catalogue to see how much to charge. He 
 says he bets he never sells it." 
 
 Sheridan took a bill from his pocket. 
 
 " We'll make him lose his bet. Run over 
 to the store and buy the violin for me. I 
 want to hear Olynthus play, too." 
 
 The lac- was off like a shot and soon returned 
 with the coveted violin. 
 
 Olynthus took it from 'him as tenderly as a 
 mother lifts a baby and lovingly began to tune 
 it. At last with a look of content he nestled 
 his chLi upon the instrument.
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 65 
 
 It was a wonderfully sweet-toned violin, and 
 the musician brought forth from the strings 
 lilting melodies. Star sat on the floor and as 
 he listened to the enchantment of the music, 
 the little sordid place and all in it were miles 
 and miles away and all the dreams in the world 
 Were woven into one beautiful, thrilling play of 
 fancy. 
 
 At length Olynthus stopped on a signal from 
 Mrs. Weevil, who, though she might have a 
 savage breast, was incapable of being soothed by 
 the charms of music. 
 
 " Don't stop," begged Star. 
 
 "Yes," commanded Mrs. Weevil. "You're 
 going to bed. You'll need all the sleep you 
 can get for to-morrow's work." 
 
 "Would you like to learn to play, Star?" 
 asked Sheridan kindly. " I'll give you the violin 
 and every time Olynthus comes this way, you 
 can have a lesson." 
 
 " No," refused Star, shaking his head earn- 
 estly. " I don't want to learn. I'd rather listen 
 to other people play." 
 
 " Well, then, shall we give the violin to 
 Olynthus?" 
 
 " Oh, please ! " cried the boy, and it would
 
 66 Sand Holler 
 
 be difficult to tell who looked the more delighted, 
 Star or Olynthus. 
 
 " He's an unusual boy," said Sheridan to 
 Olynthus when Star had gone upstairs. " To 
 be so fond of music, and yet have no desire to 
 perform himself." 
 
 " There's two kinds of folks that are daffy 
 over music," explained Olynthus, " those who 
 want to play and those who want to listen. It 
 isn't the music the boy's so keen for. It's the 
 things the music makes him feel." 
 
 " I see. Same as with books. The bookworm 
 seldom wants to be a writer." 
 
 Olynthus climbed to his loft lodging, and 
 Sheridan was assigned to the " parlor bedroom." 
 He went to bed, but sleep would not come. In 
 the flickering flames he read his stories even as 
 Star had. In each was a girl a very lovely 
 girl but her eyes always seemed to turn away 
 from the man who was putting himself into the 
 stories. Still, they had a happy ending, as all 
 well constructed stories should have, and the 
 jubilant wedding bells rang out. 
 
 Then he roused himself from the weaving 
 of dream stories to review the events of the 
 day and the unusual people he had met. He
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 67 
 
 wished that he might have the powers of the 
 gift-bearing Magi. To Ann Bee he'd give a 
 little more tolerance and kindliness toward 
 offenders; to Olynthus, force and industry; to 
 Joel, self-assertion; to Kate Jonas, femininity; 
 to Kenneth Lloyd, more warmth of manner; to 
 Star, more music and less work. 
 
 " But why keep awake," he asked himself, 
 " speculating about people I may never see 
 again? " 
 
 The realization of the truth of this brought 
 a strange feeling of loneliness and regret. Again 
 he turned his eyes to the fireplace to see the 
 face; but the last flame had flickered out. He 
 recalled Ann Bee's caution about loafing and 
 loving, and with a sheepish smile he fell asleep. 
 
 The next morning while it was still dark he 
 heard the tramping of many feet heavily 
 shod feet and he vaguely remembered that 
 the lumberjacks came to an early breakfast. 
 He passed to a second, sounder sleep, and the 
 sun was midway to meridian before he came 
 out into the dining-room. Mrs. Weevil cut his 
 apologies short with the announcement that 
 she had had one of her " spells " and had been 
 glad of the chance to rest after the first and
 
 68 Sand Holler 
 
 early breakfast whicfi Star had prepared. He 
 listened to a woeful tale of hard luck and hard 
 work as he ate his hoecake and drank his 
 coffee. 
 
 " You have a fine young son coming on," he 
 reminded her. 
 
 " He ain't no relation to me," she disclaimed. 
 " He's just -a nobody. I let him stay when he 
 came hoofing it in one day three years ago." 
 
 Sheridan's faith in the milk of human kind- 
 ness was revived. 
 
 " That was fine in you," he commended. " He 
 will repay you yet for your kindness. But 
 where is Olynthus?" 
 
 " Star took him to the store to play for him 
 while he worked. That boy is clean dippy over 
 music. I am thankful he don't get the chance 
 to hear it often, or I'd never get anywhere with 
 the work. He don't do any too much as it is." 
 
 Sheridan's facial muscles tightened into re- 
 sentment, and then his optimism came to the 
 rescue. Anyway, it was good in her to take in 
 a stray waif. 
 
 "Is the lumber camp near?" he asked "I 
 have a fancy I'd like to see one." 
 
 She directed him to the camp, where he was
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 69 
 
 heartily received by the lumberjacks, who wel- 
 comed the unusual diversion of a strange visitor, 
 especially one who came in such a fine car. 
 Sheridan praised the camp, the country, the 
 weather, the boarding house and the charitable 
 landlady, but his ardor on this last point was 
 considerably dampened by the information 
 unanimously rendered that Mrs. Weevil had not 
 been actuated by unselfish motives in housing 
 Star. She had simply needed a helper. 
 
 "And she sure got one," said one of the 
 men. " She gets as much work out of that 
 kid as she would out of a man. There's no 
 one puts in more days around here than him. 
 He's up before daylight; splits wood, fetches 
 water, builds fires, waits on table and wipes 
 dishes until the store opens. He does a man's 
 work for Greeves until six. Then it's back to 
 Weevil's for him, to work till sleeping time. 
 All he gets is what food is left, and that ain't 
 much .when we're through, .and a loft to sleep 
 in. The old woman pockets every cent Greeves 
 pays him." 
 
 Recalling the boy's stunted growth, emaciated 
 face and wan eyes, Sheridan's ire arose at 
 these revelations.
 
 70 Sand Holler 
 
 " Where did the child come from ? " he asked. 
 
 " That's more than anybody knows. He 
 didn't hand out any information about him- 
 self. Most likely he run away from some 
 asylum. Old Lady Weevil didn't give a hoot 
 where he was from when she see how she 
 could make him work." 
 
 At this moment the object of sympathy came 
 hurrying to the camp, pale and breathless. 
 
 " She's dead," he gasped. 
 
 "Who?" they all exclaimed. 
 
 " Mrs. Weevil. Olynthus found her dead on 
 the floor." 
 
 " She's had her last spell," said one of the 
 men gloomily. ' Where'll we-all eat now, I'd 
 like to know." 
 
 Sheridan took Star back to the boarding- 
 house, where the entire little community had 
 assembled and left him in charge of Olynthus, 
 while he withdrew for a heart-to-head talk with 
 himself, for he felt most keenly the stir of a 
 new sensation the yearning to protect. 
 
 " You were going to adopt a French orphan," 
 spoke his heart, " a child whom you never have 
 seen and never will see, simply because you 
 were stirred by reading an article in the news-
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 71 
 
 papers. Now here is a boy, an American, one 
 of your own, as destitute as a French orphan, 
 overworked, underfed, homeless, friendless, 
 helpless, right before you, and still you hesi- 
 tate!" 
 
 " You know nothing about bringing up chil- 
 dren," answered his head. "Besides, where 
 could you keep him? At the one place you can 
 call home a hotel? Alone most of the time 
 in a big city? That would be no life for a 
 boy." 
 
 "You could find a way and a place," urged 
 his heart. "You are alone not a care or 
 responsibility in the world." 
 
 " If you must take him," protested his head, 
 " put him in a boarding-school." 
 
 " It's a home someone to love," reminded 
 his heart, " that he stands most in need of. 
 So do you. Would you like to live always with 
 no one to keep your home fires burning? " 
 
 Sheridan turned quickly and went back to the 
 house. To his amazement he saw an expression 
 of acute misery darkening Star's hazel eyes. 
 The woman now being attended by neighbors 
 had done naught to make him care for her. 
 Still she was all he had.
 
 72 Sand Holler 
 
 " What's going to become of Star ? " a woman 
 was asking. " Greeves don't give him enough 
 to pay his keep, I reckon. He'll have to go to 
 a Home." 
 
 The boy overheard and a sudden panic seemed 
 to sweep over him. 
 
 " No ! " declared Olynthus, speaking louder 
 and more emphatically than Sheridan had ever 
 heard him speak. " He's going home to live 
 with me." 
 
 Catching Sheridan's look of astonishment, he 
 said to him apologetically: 
 
 " Ann's got so many to feed, one more worft 
 make any difference." 
 
 " You can't have him," said Sheridan quietly. 
 " I want him. Star, will you come and live 
 with me? You won't have to work any mire 
 not until you are a man. You can go to 
 school regularly and have the opportunity to 
 hear music every day in the week." 
 
 Star appeared a little dazed at this offer, but 
 he turned wistfully to Olynthus. 
 
 " Or," continued Sheridan quickly, " would 
 you rather live with Olynthus?" 
 
 " He's rich, honey," said Olynthus gently. 
 " He could give you everything you want.
 
 A Waif Finds a Protector 73 
 
 We're as poor as they make 'em. All we could 
 give you would be enough to eat and a tent 
 to live in. You'd have to work some, too." 
 
 Star looked at him with dog-eyed adoration. 
 Then he turned to Sheridan. 
 
 " I knew him first," he explained, laying his 
 hand on Olynthus' sleeve. 
 
 "That's the boy!" applauded Sheridan. 
 " Always stick to your first pal." 
 
 The boy's decision showed him a temporary 
 compromise between head and heart. 
 
 " I'll tell you how we'll fix it. You can be 
 my boy, and I'll pay Olynthus to be your guard- 
 ian pro tern, until I can make a home for you." 
 
 " I'll pay for his board and care," he explained 
 to Olynthus, " and he is not to do any work 
 until he's evened up in play for all these years 
 of hard sledding." 
 
 He handed Olynthus a roll of bills. 
 
 " Get him some clothes in town and books 
 and playthings whatever he wants. Give him 
 a good time, too, before you go on to Sand 
 Holler. If there is any money left, hand it 
 to your wife and tell her that on my return 
 I'll stop and make arrangements for the future. 
 You might as well take the next train. Star
 
 74 Sand Holler 
 
 isn't a mourner, you know. If you don't know 
 What to buy for him, get Joel Dixon to help 
 you out." 
 
 " It's right kind of you, Mr. Sheridan," began 
 Olynthus admiringly. 
 
 " I was going to adopt a French orphan," 
 said Sheridan, cutting off the praise, " and I 
 will take Star in his stead. But I must be on 
 my way." 
 
 Star, who had stood by, mute in wonder, 
 came slowly up to his prospective guardian. 
 
 " It's just good-bye for a little while, Star, 
 and in the meantime see how much you can 
 eat and play." 
 
 The boy clung to Wade's hand for a moment, 
 and then looked dazedly after the car as his 
 friend drove away.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 FICKLE FORTUNE GETS BUSY 
 
 Ann Bee's apprehensions as to supplies were 
 relieved when she beheld Bert's string of shin- 
 ing fish. 
 
 "Some catch, Bert!" she approved. "I can 
 always depend on you. We'll have them corn- 
 mealed for supper. I suppose it would be too 
 much luck for one day to have Olynthus bring 
 down something for to-morrow's dinner." 
 
 " 'Lynthus is no hunter," said Bert sarcastic- 
 ally. ' You-all might as well get that into your 
 system first as last, and not be expecting some- 
 thing what can't be done." 
 
 :< Bert, you be a little careful how you talk 
 to me! You ain't old enough or big enough to 
 take that tone of voice on." 
 
 Bert made no comment, but he was already 
 at work cleaning the fish, and his mother decided 
 that actions were much more important than 
 words. 
 
 75
 
 76 Sand Holler 
 
 " We won't save any supper for that Olyn- 
 thus Bee," she exclaimed exasperatedly, " if 
 he don't get here right smart soon." 
 
 " He won't come to supper or any other 
 meal, I'm thinking" said Bert laconically, look- 
 ing up from his work. 
 
 "Bert Lang, what do you mean?" 
 
 " Didn't you tell him not to come home with- 
 out he fetched something? " 
 
 " And haven't I told him that more times 
 than you can count? And 'he's always come 
 back just the same. He's got a lot of come-back, 
 Olynthus has." 
 
 /But you-all said it this time as if you-all 
 meant it. There's always a last ditch, and I 
 bet 'Lynthus has done crossed his." 
 
 Ann Bee found food for reflection in this 
 remark. Supper was eaten, dishes were washed 
 and bedtime was at hand before she admitted to 
 herself that her oldest might be right, and 
 that her threat would prove to be the proverbial 
 last straw with Olynthus. 
 
 Throughout the next day she halted every 
 now and then in her work to look down the 
 dusty road or over the grassy fields undulating' 
 to the woods in the hope of seeing her missing
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 77 
 
 man. Her chagrin at this acknowledged weak- 
 ness urged her to the use of the sharpest arrows 
 in her quiver of maternal magistracy. 
 
 At night when the children had all been 
 stowed away in their cots, the stillness got on 
 her nerves. She missed the long lanky figure 
 tilted back in the old chair, missed his soft, 
 drawling, expostulating voice, and the high- 
 strung notes of his squeaky violin. 
 
 She didn't sleep well. Three or four times 
 she started up, thinking she heard a step, his 
 step. 
 
 " I'm sure getting in my dotage to miss that 
 lazy good-for-nothing," she told herself, " but 
 I suppose we miss most anything we're used 
 to. I've heard of convicts who missed their 
 prison so much they'd go back to it after they 
 were let out. And my mother used to tell of 
 a neighbor who had the seven-year itch and 
 when the time limit came, he missed the need 
 of scratching." 
 
 The children were vociferous in their genuine 
 regret for their " play paw," as they called 
 Olynthus, and Ann Bee promised herself .that 
 she would receive him without any " jawing " 
 when he returned.
 
 78 Sand Holler 
 
 The third morning she began to be alarmed. 
 She pictured him wandering about in the woods, 
 crazed from hunger, or, worst of all, drowned 
 in the river he loved so well. That his life 
 previous to marriage had been spent " on the 
 road " and that he had a subtle knowledge of 
 out-door life were facts forgotten in her anxiety. 
 
 Had Olynthus come back a foot-sore, hungry, 
 repentant wayfarer, he would have received 
 a greeting something like that accorded a 
 returned soldier, but along toward noon he 
 came motoring down the road with Joel Dixon. 
 The moment he got out of the car Ann saw 
 that his manner was jovial and care-free, very 
 much as it had been in the days of his wooing. 
 She stared at him in swiftly gathering resent- 
 ment as he came up the path to the tent, carry- 
 ing a suitcase in one hand and a violin in the 
 other, followed by a small, well-dressed boy who 
 was loaded down with sundry bundles and 
 packages. 
 
 This was no penitent prodigal, but a very 
 swaggering spouse, who unfortunately com- 
 menced wrong end to with his explanations. 
 
 " You know you told me not to come back 
 unless I fetched something," he said facetiously.
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 79 
 
 " Here's what I fetched home a new addition 
 to our household." 
 
 Her expression should have warned him, but 
 it seemed to be Olynthus' funny and fatal day. 
 
 " What do you mean, fetched home? " 
 
 " I mean him," pointing to Star. " The 
 woman he lived with and worked his head 
 off for, dropped dead, and he had no place to 
 go, so I brought him home with me. One more 
 mouth to feed won't make any extry work 
 or difference." 
 
 " Mebby not to you," she said in a voice of 
 suppressed wrath. " It happens, though, that 
 it does make a difference to me, and this ain't 
 your home any longer, you know; so you and 
 your ' addition ' can beat it, while the beating's 
 good." 
 
 " All right," assented Olynthus amicably. 
 " Come on, Star. We'll overtake Joel Dixon 
 and ride back to town with him. There's plenty 
 of places we can. stay." 
 
 Turning, he led the way back down the path 
 followed by Star, who, though long accustomed 
 to liarsh words and repulse, felt discouraged at 
 this last freak of fortune. The young Bees 
 buzzed from all directions in a mad scramble
 
 80 Sand Holler 
 
 to " see 'Lynthus again and find out who the 
 new boy could be." 
 
 " Where in the world did he get his spurt 
 of spunk? " wondered Ann Bee as, silenced by 
 sheer surprise at this unexpected turn of affairs, 
 she went inside the big tent. She was utterly 
 incapable of understanding the psychological 
 effect upon Olynthus of a new and full-stringed 
 violin. 
 
 Two of the children raced in. 
 
 "Maw, 'Lynthus' new boy done throwed up 
 all over the pansies." 
 
 In his endeavor faithfully to execute Sher- 
 idan's instructions, Olynthus on the day before 
 had crammed poor little Star with ice-cream, 
 candy, peanuts, popcorn and sundry other things 
 of cheer and colic. Then, too, there had been 
 the first thrill of buying new clothes, boy-size, 
 wonderful books and playthings. The climax 
 was reached in a concert at night, and Star 
 had been so exhilarated by his introduction to 
 an orchestra that, he had been unable to sleep, 
 and had turned shudderingly away from break- 
 fast in the morning. On the way to the Bee 
 Hive, Olynthus had regaled him with a vivid 
 portrayal of the coming delights of life under
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 
 
 canvas, with no work to do and with plenty of 
 fun-loving children to show him how to play. 
 
 And then! The doors to this beautiful, entic- 
 ing place which in a certain sense recalled a 
 happier though humbler past had been relent- 
 lessly closed to him. The knowledge that Sher- 
 idan was far away and might possibly never 
 return and the recollection of the suggestion 
 that he would be sent to a Home, together 
 with certain digestive disturbances which had 
 been increasing alarmingly throughout the 
 morning, had been too much for little Star. 
 
 Ann Bee rushed down the path. 
 
 " A nice one you are to travel around with 
 a sick child," she said witheringly to Olynthus. 
 " Carry him in the tent out of this hot sun." 
 
 " I don't know," said Olynthus meditatively, 
 " but what it would be best to take him to the 
 hotel in town. He was hungry and I fed him 
 so full he had to unswaller a little. He'll be 
 all right soon. You see I'm his guardian per 
 pro what was it he said, Star ? " 
 
 " Pro tern was what he said," gasped the boy 
 weakly. 
 
 With a scornful glance at the luckless Olyn- 
 thus, Ann Bee took the boy in her arms, marched
 
 82 Sand Holler 
 
 to the main tent and deposited him on her 
 own spotless bed. 
 
 For Ann Bee, though rough and domineering 
 with her healthy little brood, was quite another 
 woman if one of them chanced to be ill or in 
 trouble. Then she was soft of voice and hand 
 and anxious to mother away the childish ailment 
 with sympathetic understanding. 
 
 She gave Star a " settling drink," undressed 
 him, put him into one of the children's night- 
 gowns and tucked him under the covers. 
 
 " I don't eat very much usually, and I can 
 work like a man and he said he would pay. 
 Can't I live here?" he asked wistfully. "The 
 tents are like home my own home." 
 
 " Out of his head a mite, I expect," Ann 
 thought. " I'd best humor him, I reckon. 
 
 " Course you can stay, honey. I wasn't blam- 
 ing you. 'Twas that fool Olynthus I was scold- 
 ing." 
 
 The boy opened wide his half-closed eyes. 
 They looked very big in his pinched, white face. 
 
 "I like Olynthus," he said loyally. " He's 
 the only friend I've got, except him, and I don't 
 "know him yet. You shouldn't call Olynthus 
 a fool."
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 83 
 
 1 There, there, sonny ! I won't. You shut 
 your eyes and go to sleep." 
 
 " I'm sorry for anyone," she thought as she 
 went outside, " who's got his only friend in 
 Olynthus. It does beat all, though, how children 
 take to him." 
 
 She found her husband engaged in displaying 
 the contents of numerous parcels to his appre- 
 ciative step-children. 
 
 " How is he coming? " he asked his wife solic- 
 itously. " Just boy-sick, ain't he ? " 
 
 " His stomach's upset and he's clean tuckered 
 out. He'll be all right if he stays quiet the rest 
 of the day and to-night." 
 
 " You'll keep him, honey ? " he asked anx- 
 iously. 
 
 " I'll keep him until he's well, anyway," she 
 answered shortly. " But where did you get all 
 these books and balls and bats and things, and 
 who do they belong to? " 
 
 ' To him Star. Mr. Sheridan give me 
 the money to get him playthings, and said to 
 have our children learn him how to play." 
 
 " Well, there won't be anything left to play 
 with by the time that boy's well. They'll have 
 them all busted." And to the children : " Put
 
 84 Sand Holler 
 
 them down! Every one of them. Do you 
 hear?" 
 
 No attention being paid to this command, 
 she administered a few cuffs at random, but 
 there were so many children and they were all 
 such experienced dodgers that she succeeded only 
 in driving them beyond her reach. They surged 
 back in a close circle about Olynthus, however, 
 when she said: 
 
 " Now, Olynthus Bee, you start at the time 
 you left this house to go hunting and tell me 
 everything and don't you forget one single thing 
 that happened." 
 
 The children were quite willing temporarily 
 to abandon the playthings to hear " play paw's 
 story." 
 
 " Well, first of all," began Olynthus in a dazed 
 effort to turn backward in his vague memory, 
 
 T , >J 
 
 ' You-all lost your gun," prompted one of 
 the children. 
 
 Olynthus looked apprehensive. 
 
 "So I did! Yes; that's why I didn't come 
 back." 
 
 " I found the gun," intercepted Bert, the oiler 
 of troubled waters. " If you-all hadn't come
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 85 
 
 back, Olynthus, I would a done gone out after 
 you-all." 
 
 Reassured by the news that the gun had been 
 found, Olynthus narrated his meeting with Sher- 
 idan, and painted Star's life of drudgery so 
 pathetically that the children, save the practical 
 Bert, wept most profusely. Even Ann Bee 
 found herself winking vigorously and the cor- 
 ners of her mouth jerking spasmodically. 
 
 " So, when they said he'd have to go to a 
 poorhouse," continued Olynthus, " I told Mr. 
 Sheridan I'd bring Star to you. But he said 
 as how he'd been going to adopt a French 
 orphan, so he'd take Star instead. He gave me 
 money to buy clothes and playthings and said 
 to give the rest to you, and that he'd stop on 
 his way home and see you about paying for 
 the boy's keep regular till he gets a place ready 
 for him." 
 
 He handed his wife some money. 
 
 " Here's what was left. It ain't much 'cause 
 I paid quite a lot for his things. The clerks 
 picked them out and I guess they didn't hunt 
 around to find anything cheap. The little fel- 
 low had never had any playthings and he didn't 
 know what he wanted, so I just bought what
 
 86 Sand Holler 
 
 I had heard our young 'uns talk about. Joel 
 Dixon helped me some." 
 
 " Well, Olynthus," said his wife vexedly, 
 " why in the world couldn't you have told me all 
 this in the first place without all your funny 
 business? I'll spend this money for fresh eggs 
 and milk for the child. He looks as if he needed 
 real nourishing food about as much as those 
 starved Belgians we used to read about and 
 see pictures of in war times. Now, all you 
 young 'uns skedaddle and you stay skedaddled. 
 Don't one of you come near the house till sup- 
 per time. That boy's got to be kept quiet till 
 he sleeps it off." 
 
 The afternoon breeze came through the folded- 
 back flaps of the tent in which Star was quar- 
 tered. It was a southern breeze, but it seemed 
 cool and sweet to the little boy when he awoke. 
 His face was wan and touched with signs of 
 toil, but his parted lips smiled as he looked about 
 the neat and restful place. 
 
 He was well content to lie there and rest and 
 dream. Once a little tow-headed girl slipped 
 in when her mother was not on guard, stole up 
 to the bed, slipped a bunch of flowers into his 
 hand and was off like a streak. Next came a
 
 Fickle Fortune Gets Busy 87 
 
 boy of about his own age who stared at him and 
 then laid three marbles, a door knob and a 
 broken key on the bed. Another silently brought 
 a piece of cake, moist from being hidden in 
 a tiny, tightly-clasped hand. A fourth pulled 
 down the covers and thrust a little kitten under- 
 neath. Not one spoke but Star felt their childish 
 sympathy. Poor little Star! Never within his 
 memory had he received so much attention. 
 
 At night he was given some milk toast. Later, 
 when Ann Bee saw that he was still awake, she 
 asked : 
 
 " Anything you want, Star, before you go 
 to sleep? " 
 
 " If I might hear Olynthus play," he said 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 Olynthus was immediately summoned and 
 proudly produced his new treasure. He had 
 spent the afternoon back of the woodpile play- 
 ing for the children. Instinct now bent his 
 bow to minor strains that soothed instead of 
 exciting the wild fancies that live in the heart 
 of a child who loves music. The notes kept 
 coming softer and lower until they became the 
 faint crooning of a lullaby. Star slept.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE FATE OF A VIOLIN 
 
 With a full complement of strings and Star's 
 appreciation of his efforts as incentives, Olyn- 
 thus became more than ever a devotee at the 
 shrine of Orpheus. 
 
 Now, Ann Bee had determined to force the 
 musician of the family to perform a few horti- 
 cultural symphonies in the way of weeding and 
 hoeing, but he had not qualified in those lines, 
 resembling rather a lily of the field, a flower his 
 practical wife had no desire to cultivate. 
 
 More and more the constant violin scraping 
 affected her nerves, and on a morning when 
 everyone but father was performing manual 
 labor, the sight of Olynthus tilted back in a 
 chair in the kitchen tent caused the storm of her 
 wrath to break. 
 
 Harshly she bade him fetch wood for the 
 stove. His gaze remained passive as one who 
 hears not. She repeated the command, fol- 
 
 88
 
 The Fate of a Violin 89 
 
 lowing it up by a long tirade which met with no 
 response except some discordant notes that fell 
 upon her unappreciative ears. Music might 
 have power to heal, but these sounds surely 
 did not come under the head of music, as Olyn- 
 thus was trying some experiments in tuning 
 his instrument. 
 
 She looked at him malevolently and with 
 characteristic swiftness of action snatched the 
 violin from his non-resisting hands, raised the 
 lid of the stove in which was a brisk fire and 
 thrust the instrument into the bed of glowing 
 coals. 
 
 With a look of horror Olynthus rushed into 
 the adjoining tent, caught up his cap and the 
 other violin and went swiftly away down the 
 dusty road. 
 
 " Land sakes ! " exclaimed Ann Bee, her 
 wrath subsiding in a measure, " I never sup- 
 posed anything could get that much speed out 
 of Olynthus." 
 
 Dinner time came but not Olynthus. The 
 children clamored for him, and finally their 
 mother confessed her share in his disappearance. 
 
 Bert whistled significantly. 
 
 " Gee ! I bet he was mad."
 
 90 Sand Holler 
 
 " He didn't look it. He hasn't got enough 
 spunk for that. He looked scared, just as if I 
 had thrown a child in the fire." 
 
 "A violin is a child to Olynthus," said Star, 
 whose lips had been quivering. " It hurt him 
 as much as it would you if he had put one 
 of us in the stove." 
 
 " Well," defended Ann Bee, who had the grace 
 to be somewhat ashamed of her temper, "I 
 asked him to get me some wood, and he didn't 
 get it. I had to have some, so I used his violin." 
 
 " Which violin was it you-all done throw in? " 
 asked Bert. 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Because," resumed her eldest meaningly, 
 ' if it was his new one, you-all had no right 
 to burn it. It was Mr. Sheridan done paid 
 for that one." 
 
 " I am afraid it was that one," said Star in 
 a grieved tone, " because Olynthus never plays 
 on the old one any more." 
 
 A very desolate boy watched the dusty road 
 all through the afternoon until the shadows fell, 
 his heart becoming a little cold lump in the 
 fear that Olynthus might not return. 
 
 " Come in, honey ! " Ann Bee's voice was
 
 The Fate of a Violin 
 
 quite low and entreating. " Supper's on and 
 if he isn't here by bedtime Bert shall go and 
 look for him." 
 
 " Oh, he's coming He's coming! " cried Star, 
 rushing down the path to meet Olynthus. 
 
 "Which violin was it she burnt, 'Lynthus?" 
 asked Bert curiously when his stepfather came 
 inside. 
 
 " My old one." 
 
 " Well, that's something to be thankful for," 
 exclaimed his wife. 
 
 " But this violin isn't the one Mr. Sheridan 
 bought of Mr. Greeves," said Star, examining 
 the instrument Olynthus carried. 
 
 " No ; it's a brand new one. I met a man in 
 town who's been begging me for that one Mr. 
 Sheridan gave me, so I let him have it and he 
 bought this one for me." 
 
 :i Why did he want that particular one ? " 
 demanded Ann Bee. 
 
 " He said it was a very rare kind a Stradi- 
 varius, he called it." 
 
 ' Was it worth more than this one he bought 
 for you?" asked Ann Bee with sudden trucu- 
 lence. 
 
 " Yes," replied Olynthus quietly.
 
 Sand Holler 
 
 " Well, of all the Simple Simons ! What in 
 the world did you let him have it for if you 
 lost by the bargain ? " 
 
 " You see, Ann," Olynthus explained gently, 
 " I was afraid you might get mad again and 
 burn that one, too. It was such a sweet-toned 
 one I couldn't bear the thought of it's being 
 burned. It would have been like putting a song- 
 bird in the flames. This is just a cheap one." 
 
 " Well, you just go right back to town and 
 see that man and swap back. I will promise 
 not to burn it." 
 
 " He won't do it," said Olynthus. " A bar- 
 gain's a bargain with him and with me. This 
 violin is better than the one you put in the fire 
 anyway." 
 
 Ann Bee was conscious of a sense of honest, 
 healthy shame. 
 
 " I am sorry, Olynthus," she said almost 
 humbly, " that I burned your violin, but I was 
 that mad when I wanted some wood." 
 
 ' Yes, I know, honey," said Olynthus sooth- 
 ingly, " but I didn't hear you say anything about 
 wood. I knew you were jawing but I supposed 
 it was at one of the children. I didn't listen." 
 
 ' Then you'll promise," entreated Star look-
 
 The Fate of a Violin 
 
 ing at her steadily, " that you'll never burn this 
 one." 
 
 Ann Bee promised most readily and earnestly, 
 and harmony was temporarily restored.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 MIDAS TOUCHES SAND HOLLER 
 
 The city " twenty miles or so away " not 
 proving a mirage as he had begun to fear it 
 would, Sheridan spent the night at a snug little 
 hotel and in the morning resumed his aimless 
 journey. Somehow his former dreamful ease 
 had vanished, and one day when he was very 
 far south he was seized with an overwhelming 
 feeling of lonesomeness. Then, too, the scene 
 before him was depressing in its desolation. He 
 was surrounded by a tract of burnt-stump land 
 so vast that it reached to the dull horizon and 
 there seemed no promise of change. He yielded 
 to a sudden and overpowering impulse, turned 
 his roadster sharply about and started swiftly 
 back along the way he had come. He made 
 short stops and in a few days reached the 
 town nearest Sand Holler. 
 
 This was one of the places to which he had 
 ordered his mail forwarded. Among the let- 
 
 94
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 95 
 
 ters awaiting him was one containing a business 
 offer that was most gratifying financially as 
 well as personally. He started toward Sand 
 Holler entirely engrossed by this unexpected 
 turn in his fortunes. Before he was outside 
 the city limits he encountered the carrier of 
 Rural Route Number Five in his rattling, pro- 
 testing car. 
 
 "On your way home so soon?" greeted Joel 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Yes ; much sooner than I had planned. But 
 tell me how the Bee Hive family and my small 
 contribution to it are flourishing." 
 
 " The little fellow's coming on fine." 
 
 "Did Mrs. Bee take kindly to him?" 
 
 Joel humorously related the particulars of the 
 induction of Sheridan's protege into the Bee 
 Hive, which had been faithfully rehearsed to 
 him by Bert. 
 
 " Does he look any Wealthier, and has he 
 learned how to play? " 
 
 "You see," replied Joel, "I haven't been 
 Sand Holler way very lately, so I can't give 
 you up-to-date bulletins. I'll let you learn for 
 yourself. But I do know that the coffee can 
 at the Bee Hive is getting the surprise of its
 
 96 Sand Holler 
 
 life, because, you must know, prosperity has 
 rushed hot-foot to the Holler." 
 
 "How did that happen?'' asked Sheridan 
 curiously. " I didn't suppose Sand Holler could 
 be a magnet for anything in the way of good 
 fortune." 
 
 " I know. We always looked on Sand Hol- 
 ler as a blot on the county, and its folks as 
 outcasts. It was just the limit in this neigh- 
 borhood. To live there was worse, almost, than 
 going to the poor farm, and now the little old 
 place sure has got it all over us folks on the 
 Highway. The Holler is booming to beat the 
 band." 
 
 " Do tell me what in the world that forlorn 
 region had up its sleeve ! " exclaimed Sheridan. 
 " Was it oil or copper or coal ? " 
 
 " None of them. An eastern millionaire owns 
 the land beyond the Sand Holler settlement 
 and the other day some mineral springs were 
 discovered on it. So he has broken ground for 
 a big sanitarium or hotel." 
 
 ' You don't happen to know the name of the 
 owner, do you?" asked Sheridan quickly and 
 with the air of a man foreseeing the answer. 
 
 " Horace Keenwald."
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 
 
 " Horace was never very explicit in his let- 
 ters, I recall/' said Sheridan to himself. Then 
 aloud: " I just received a letter from him, say- 
 ing he was going to put up a mammoth san- 
 itarium and hotel combined for mineral baths 
 somewhere in the south. He offered me the 
 position of manager." 
 
 "G-o-s-h!" drawled Joel, eying Sheridan 
 with surprise and admiration. ' That'll be some 
 job. I'm mighty glad we're to have you with 
 us." 
 
 " That's nice of you, Dixon, but I haven't 
 accepted yet." 
 
 " You surely will ! " exclaimed the carrier 
 confidently. 
 
 " I am not so sure. I like your part of the 
 country and this offer means good business 
 from a financial standpoint, but well it will 
 depend on on " Sheridan hesitated, then 
 added that convenient word, " circumstances. 
 They haven't begun the w r ork already, have 
 they?" 
 
 " 'Deed, they have. There is a whole army 
 of workmen, most of them returned soldiers 
 down there now. There's to be a lot doing, 
 too, besides the building of the sanitarium a
 
 98 Sand Holler 
 
 trolley line to town, and then all those little 
 old shacks alongside the Bee Hive are being 
 snatched up. Going to be turned into soft 
 drink places, cigar and candy stores, and news 
 stands." 
 
 " I see. The usual accompaniment of side 
 shows to the big circus." 
 
 " Ann Bee could name her price for her lot." 
 
 " Is she going to sell ? " 
 
 " Not yet. But she put up another canvas 
 construction in the back yard a sort of mess 
 tent. She is serving meals to some of the 
 workmen." 
 
 K I remember, she is from Indiana. Glad 
 she got in on the ground floor. I read only 
 the other day that any old place is liable to have 
 a boom in these profitable days, but I never 
 should have connected old Sand Holler with 
 any such revolution." 
 
 " As I was saying," Dixon resumed, " there's 
 quite a few returned soldiers among the work- 
 men, and the women folks hereabouts are plan- 
 ning to entertain them as they did in war times." 
 
 " Fine idea," applauded Sheridan, " only it's a 
 little hard on the s*tay-at-homes, many of them 
 unwilling x stay-at-homes like myself."
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 99 
 
 " They're all to be included. Miss Lloyd will 
 give them the use of her grounds and have 
 a dance for them every week in her big ball 
 
 room." 
 
 " I'll just mention that to Keenwald and it 
 will inspire him to furnish a baseball ground 
 and recreation field with full equipment." 
 
 " It was Ann Bee's idea to keep the young 
 fellows from getting into mischief in their 
 idle hours. She talked to Miss Lloyd about 
 it and all the war workers agreed." 
 
 "Including Miss Jonas?" asked Sheridan 
 slyly. 
 
 The carrier's face flushed slightly. 
 
 " Kate was a pacifist in war time, but she 
 began to see things different and I think she 
 is ready to do her part." 
 
 Sheridan had some difficulty in preserving a 
 neutral expression and suppressing a smile. 
 Kate Jonas didn't seem the typical pacifist and 
 he could not have been more surprised if Joel 
 had told him she was a cabaret dancer. 
 
 He set out for Sand Holler at full speed which 
 perceptibly slackened on nearing the Hill House. 
 Just ahead of him in the little narrow path at 
 the right of the road he saw Kenneth Lloyd.
 
 100 Sand Holler 
 
 From the trim buckskin shoes to the wide- 
 ibrimmed Panama she was dressed in cool, crisp 
 white. He quickly skidded and stopped by the 
 roadside. 
 
 "Wouldn't you like to ride, Miss Lloyd?" 
 he asked hopefully. 
 
 She looked at him without any recognition 
 in her eyes, and it flicked his pride when he per- 
 ceived that it was by his car that she finally 
 located him in her memory. However, she gra- 
 ciously accepted his offer and stepped into the 
 roadster. 
 
 " Have you heard from your brother lately? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " Yes ; quite recently. He has moved to 
 another city to start practicing. I forgot to 
 mention in my letters to him until to-day that 
 I had met one of his friends." 
 
 " I am hardly that," Sheridan hastily dis- 
 claimed. " We were in entirely different outfits 
 'at Plattsburg. I remember him well and often 
 think of him because " 
 
 He stopped suddenly in seeming confusion. 
 
 ' Where is he locating? " he finished lamely. 
 
 She gave him the address and added: 
 
 " The war has given Julian a new viewpoint
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 101 
 
 of life and business. It did all of us, even those 
 who stayed by. We were a very patriotic com- 
 munity here. In fact, I can think of but two 
 persons in our district who were not most 
 ardent war sympathizers." 
 
 " One of the two was a conscientious objector 
 and the other, a woman, a pacifist," he said 
 whimsically. 
 
 "Only here part of a day!" she exclaimed 
 in surprise, "and yet you learned this?" 
 
 " I am a hotel clerk, so I have had some 
 experience in getting people's numbers." 
 
 " A hotel clerk! " she repeated. " I shouldn't 
 have thought of you in that profession." 
 
 " That is because I am on a vacation now. I 
 think at other times I look the part long-suf- 
 fering and kind." 
 
 Somehow he gained the impression that she 
 didn't approve of his occupation. Adroitly he 
 changed the subject. 
 
 " I hear this new sanitarium project is speed- 
 ing up Sand Holler. That will be a good 
 thing for the Bee family." 
 
 " Prosperity came out of a clear sky to the 
 bewildered shacksters. Speaking of the Bee 
 family reminds, me that Olynthus Bee told me
 
 102 Sand Holler 
 
 of your adoption of that poor little boy. I think 
 it was just fine in you." 
 
 The mystery of her surprising cordiality was 
 explained, and he realized that her change of 
 manner was due to her appreciation of what 
 he had done for Star. 
 
 " No man could have done otherwise," he 
 protested. " Olynthus Bee offered first. Star 
 seems an unusual little chap. Have you seen 
 him?" 
 
 " Not yet, but I am anxious to. I am very 
 fond of children. I wish you would bring him 
 to the Hill House some day if you are to stop 
 here for any time." 
 
 " I think I shall have to remain a few days 
 anyway awaiting some business letters, and I 
 shall be very glad to bring Star to see you. I 
 presume I shall have to leave him in Mrs. 
 Bee's care until I can make some kind of a 
 home other than a hotel for him." 
 
 The conversation during the balance of the 
 ride to the door of the Hill House was mostly 
 a monologue by Sheridan, who descanted enthu- 
 siastically on the beauties of the south. Ken- 
 neth didn't ask him to come in, but she renewed 
 her invitation to bring Star to see her.
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 103 
 
 When Sheridan came in view of Sand Hol- 
 ler, his keen eyes quickly absorbed the panorama 
 of the coming sanitarium; carpenters were put- 
 ting up temporary shacks for the men, laborers 
 were digging foundations, masons preparing 
 for stone work, railway men laying ties for the 
 prospective road to town, electricians installing 
 lights and plumbers putting in water mains. 
 
 " It doesn't seem possible that fertile fields 
 could be transformed with such " mushroom 
 speed," he thought, as he made the detour to 
 the old road. 
 
 The Bee Hive itself presented a different 
 appearance. Another small tent had been added 
 and the mess hall, detached from the dwelling 
 tents, was of pretentious size, resembling Noah's 
 Ark in shape. 
 
 The young Bees were actively engaged in 
 playing ball, a team holding either side of the 
 big tent and pitching the ball over to the oppos- 
 ing force with a shrill call that sounded to 
 Sheridan like " Anti I. O. Heaver." 
 
 Automobiles had become such frequenters 
 of the Sand Holler road that none of the 
 children turned to look at Sheridan's car as 
 it rattled down grade. But when he called
 
 104 Sand Holler 
 
 lustily to them, they came in a wild rush to 
 the road. 
 
 " Where is Star ? " he asked, when his voice 
 could be heard above the din. 
 
 " He went inside to look for one of the 
 balls," informed Bert. " It done went through 
 a hole in the roof. Some one will catch some- 
 thing besides a ball if anything' s done got 
 broke. But most likely Maw will lay it to 
 ^Lynthus. He's the nice little billy goat for 
 ns. 'Lynthus is awful handy to have around 
 sometimes. He never denies anything she lays 
 to him. Don't know whether he thinks it ain't 
 no use, or whether he don't care. Hey, there! 
 Frenchy, you-all come out and see who's here. 
 Never mind the ball." 
 
 Sheridan was half way up the path when 
 Star responded to the summons and came to 
 meet him with a shy, boyish welcome. 
 
 "Where did the ball land?" asked Bert 
 eagerly. 
 
 " In the jam. I stopped to lick it off," replied 
 Star naively. 
 
 Sheridan looked at him appraisingly. Here 
 was a transformation as noticeable as every- 
 thing else in Sand Holler. Plenty of food, rest,
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 105 
 
 out-of-door life and play had taken away his 
 anaemic appearance. His eyes were no longer 
 dull, though they were still the eyes of a dreamer, 
 and Sheridan had hoped to find them merry 
 and care-free. His former garments, cut from 
 some man's discarded trousers and a faded 
 coat, had been replaced by a boy-size suit of 
 gray, a soft white shirt and tennis shoes. 
 
 " Look ! " he said eagerly to Sheridan. " A 
 great big hotel going up bigger than a board- 
 ing house." 
 
 " That big hotel is where we may be living 
 some day, Star," said Sheridan, slipping his 
 arm about the slender shoulders. 
 
 " And the kids can come to see us there ? " 
 asked the boy breathlessly. 
 
 " Of course. And there will be a band and 
 a piano and plenty of music for you." 
 
 " Is Frenchy your boy, or 'Lynthus' ? " asked 
 one of the children. 
 
 "Why do you call him Frenchy?" asked 
 Sheridan wonderingly. 
 
 " He likes it, don't you, Frenchy ? " appealed 
 a little girl, putting her hand on the boy's 
 shoulder. 
 
 A fleeting smile lighted Star's dreamy eyes.
 
 106 Sand Holler 
 
 " Yes ; I'd like any name you kids called me." 
 
 "Tell us. Is he your boy?" the little girl 
 asked once more. 
 
 " He's my little brother," explained Sheridan. 
 "Won't you like to be that, Star?" 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Sheridan." 
 
 " Then call me Wade, just as you would your 
 own brother." 
 
 " Yes, Wade," replied Star gravely. 
 
 "Where is your mother, Bert?" asked Sher- 
 idan. 
 
 " In the new tent, the eating one, fixing 
 supper tables for the men. We ain't told you- 
 all yet why we call Star Frenchy. You see 
 when 'Lynthus was first telling us about him, 
 he done say something about a French orphan, 
 and the kids thought that was his name, so 
 they shortened it to Frenchy. You-all don't 
 care?" 
 
 " No ; every real boy has a nickname, but T 
 want to go down to your mess tent now." 
 
 Sheridan went on into the big tent where 
 Ann Bee was serenely contemplating the long 
 tables set with an array of thick clean crockery 
 and shining glassware. 
 
 She welcomed him effusively.
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 107 
 
 " I suppose you're on your way back east. 
 I hope to goodness you won't be taking that 
 Star with you." 
 
 Sheridan told her of his offer of the man- 
 agement of the sanitarium. 
 
 " I want you to take care of Star for me 
 until I decide what I am going to do. I'll 
 see that you have a check every week for his 
 board and care and " 
 
 " No," she interrupted firmly. " That there 
 boy has sure been a guiding star to me. And 
 to think that I turned him away at first 'cause 
 I was mad at that fool Olynthus ! I never could 
 have got started in this boarding business but 
 for that kid. He showed me what and how 
 much food to buy and just how much to cook 
 at a time. He had it all down fine." 
 
 " Poor Star ! I expect he learned the busi- 
 ness through a pretty rough experience. But 
 I insist on paying for his keep." 
 
 " He has such a sparrow-like appetite, it 
 don't cost me anything to feed him. But of 
 course you won't turn down a job like man- 
 aging this big sanitarium, will you?" 
 
 "I can't decide just yet. I shall have to 
 go east and talk matters over with the owner
 
 108 Sand Holler 
 
 first. It will depend on arrangements and on 
 well, something else. It would be better on 
 Star's account, for it wouldn't be like the More- 
 land. We could have a whole apartment, or 
 I could even build a house on the grounds. But 
 it will be at least nine months before the place 
 is ready for guests, so if you will keep him 
 for me " 
 
 " But I should think you would want the boy 
 in a more stylish place than ours." 
 
 " No ; this is just the place for him. What 
 he needs most at present is what he will find 
 here, children, fun-loving children just like 
 yours, and care like yours, and then, too, he is 
 very fond of Olynthus as you probably know." 
 
 " I guess it's Olynthus' music mostly. That 
 kid is clean daffy over it. He's a queer one. 
 He dreams and moons when the children leave 
 him alone. Where was he brought up, anyway ? 
 I can't get a word out of him about his life 
 before you sent him here except the part about 
 that boarding-house vixen he lived with. Where 
 was he before that?" 
 
 " I know nothing about him either," replied 
 Sheridan, " but I will take him in hand to-mor- 
 row and see what I can learn."
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 109 
 
 " To-morrow ? Was you calculating to stay 
 here or in town? " 
 
 " I prefer to stay here if you will keep me." 
 
 " I stretched the last bit of canvas I had 
 into a place for Star to sleep," she said rum- 
 inatingly, "but " 
 
 " I'm bringing my own house," laughed Sher- 
 idan. " I saw there was a portable house agency 
 in town, and I've ordered one of the ready- 
 mades for Star and myself to live in while I 
 am here, and when we leave you can have it 
 for an annex to the house you are going to 
 build." 
 
 " I guess I'll be able to build one all right. 
 That coffee can got filled so full it was likely 
 to bust, and Joel Dixon made me bank it. He 
 takes me to town every Saturday to bank and 
 market. I go up to the highway and meet 
 him." 
 
 " You have to work pretty hard now, I am 
 afraid," said Sheridan sympathetically. 
 
 " Yes ; but Bert's trained the children to help 
 a lot now. They set and clear the table and 
 can wipe the dishes without smashing them, 
 Bert waits on table fine. Star does little things 
 to help all the time, though I try to ward him
 
 110 Sand Holler 
 
 off. He keeps the accounts, too. It's another 
 case of everyone working but father. I wanted 
 to get Olynthus to work over at the new hotel; 
 they needed extra men so much, but he wouldn't 
 budge. Bert said it was just as well, for they 
 wouldn't have kept him after they had once 
 seen him at work. I " 
 
 Some of the children made a rush entrance 
 to report that a " chopped up house like one of 
 Frenchy's puzzles " had come. When they heard 
 it was Sheridan's their excitement increased. 
 
 " Help me find a place to locate it," Sheridan 
 said to Ann Bee. 
 
 The whole family followed Kim down to the 
 road where a big truck had stopped. 
 
 When a site conveniently near the canvas 
 house had been chosen, the men who had come 
 out on the truck, assisted by Sheridan and 
 Bert, proceeded to set up the portable cottage, 
 the children and Olynthus acting as observers 
 and encouragers. 
 
 The house consisted of a long room running 
 the entire length of the little building with 
 two sleeping rooms at the side and a screened 
 porch across the front. When the setting-up 
 job was completed, Ann Bee came out to inspect
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 111! 
 
 it. She was not at all amazed at the quick 
 erection of the dwelling. 
 
 " Nothing can surprise me any more," she 
 said. " Things have sprung up here like fifty 
 miles an hour, so a house built while you wait 
 ain't getting any rise out of me. Luck's more 
 than been spilling on us since you first came 
 this way. You're better than a horse shoe or 
 a four leaf. Star, my boarders, the hotel, a 
 street railway." 
 
 " You done left out 'Lynthus," said Bert 
 quizzically. " He was the first to happen." 
 
 Ann Bee found herself disgracefully deserted 
 by her tongue at this reminder. 
 
 " Let's take down the house now and put it 
 up again," proposed one of the children. 
 
 The young Bees were keenly disappointed 
 when they found that the house was there " for 
 keeps." They had supposed it to be another 
 " game for Frenchy." 
 
 Later a truck arrived with the furniture 
 for the wonderful house. There were chairs, 
 a swing and table for the porch; a phonograph, 
 bookshelves, library table, chairs, rugs and couch 
 for the living room and the necessary furniture 
 
 for the bedrooms. 
 
 I
 
 112 Sand Holler 
 
 Sheridan took a keen interest in the arrange- 
 ment of these settings for his little abode. 
 After supper the Bees all swarmed over for a 
 house warming. 
 
 " Look at that child's eyes," said Ann Bee 
 to Sheridan while they were listening to a 
 phonograph record. " I've seen him look that 
 way when Olynthus plays. Music seems to 
 send him mooning. Creepy-like." 
 
 Sheridan followed her glance and again he 
 was startled by Star's baffling resemblance to 
 some one he had known. He was noted for 
 never forgetting a face, but he couldn't place 
 the one Star's recalled. 
 
 When Olynthus' number on the violin was 
 finished, Sheridan remarked casually: 
 
 " I see you've picked up another new violin, 
 Olynthus. What was the matter with the one 
 we got of Greeves? It sounded wonderfully 
 well-toned to me." 
 
 Ann Bee turned with tiger-like ferocity upon 
 her browbeaten husband. 
 
 'Tell him what you did with that violin," 
 she commanded. 
 
 Olynthus maintained a serenity of counte- 
 nance, but said nothing in way of rebuttal.
 
 Midas Touches Sand Holler 113 
 
 " He swapped it," volunteered a little Bee. 
 
 " I may as well tell you the worst," said 
 Ann, proceeding to relate the tragedy of the 
 violin. 
 
 Sheridan was all wrought up over the infor- 
 mation that he had purchased a Stradivarius. 
 
 " Why, man ! " he cried. " A Stradivarius 
 is worth hundreds of dollars. Tell me wher'e 
 you disposed of it, and I'll get it back for you. 
 The man imposed upon your ignorance of its 
 value." 
 
 But Olynthus maintained a serene silence 
 that was proof against even Ann Bee's fiercest 
 attacks. 
 
 " A bargain's a bargain," he said obdurately. 
 'You gave me the violin. It was mine to 
 sell or swap." 
 
 And for the first time Sheridan understood 
 how a woman like Ann must be exasperated 
 beyond endurance by the gentle and dogged 
 Olynthus.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 AN INTERESTING CLUE 
 
 On the following morning Sheridan proposed 
 a motor trip to the woods. Perceiving that 
 Star's assent was perfunctory, he added with 
 a smile: 
 
 " We might take Olynthus with us. Then 
 we could have an out-of-door concert." 
 
 The suggestion won a quick smile from Star 
 and instantly he was eager for the expedition, 
 so Olynthus, and his violin were accommodated 
 on the running board. When the three were 
 comfortably located on the trunk of a fallen 
 tree in the woods by the river, Olynthus drew 
 the violin from its case. 
 
 " Not just yet, Olynthus," said Sheridan. 
 " I want Star to tell us all about himself. Begin 
 back as far as you can, Star." 
 
 The boy looked perplexed. 
 
 "I "can't begin back very far, for I can't 
 
 114
 
 An Interesting Clue 115 
 
 seem to remember rightly. Things are so mixed 
 up in my head." 
 
 " Well', then begin this end to and work 
 backward as far as you can. How long were 
 you at Mrs. Weevil's?" 
 
 " Three years." 
 
 " And how did you come to be there ? " 
 
 " I ran away from Hobo Hank. I hid in 
 the woods daytimes and tramped nights at first, 
 and I kept going until I thought I was far 
 enough away so he couldn't catch me. Then 
 I tramped daytimes and worked for my meals. 
 Sometimes I caught rides. Mrs. Weevil needed 
 help, so she let me stay right along." 
 
 "Who was Hobo Hank?" 
 
 " I don't know. They said he was a tramp. 
 He stayed with us till till they turned him 
 out, and for spite he stole a horse and carried 
 me away with him when I was asleep, so I 
 didn't know the way back. He went to a big 
 town and, after we had been there a few days, 
 he told me that when it came night he was going 
 to put me in the back window of a house 
 where the folks were away from home. He 
 said I was to go on into the kitchen and unlock 
 the back door so he could get in. He knew
 
 116 Sand Holler 
 
 how it was fixed inside because he had been 
 there one time pretending he wanted work. 
 We went there at midnight. There was a little 
 window high up from the ground, big enough 
 for me to get through, but not big enough for 
 Hank. He opened the window and he was so 
 tall he could hold me up to it. I climbed in. 
 He gave me a flashlight so I could find my 
 way, but I didn't go the way he told me to. I 
 kept straight on to the front door and crept 
 out, and then I ran down the street a block or 
 so till I came to the corner where a street car 
 had stopped and I got on. I had a little money 
 in my shoe that Hobo Hank didn't know about. 
 I rode just as far as the street car went, clear 
 out into the country, and then I kept on the 
 way I said until I got to Mrs. Weevil's. It was 
 a long way from where I left Hank." 
 
 " Did Hobo Hank tell you he was going to 
 rob this house? " 
 
 " He didn't have to tell me. I knew that was 
 what he was going to do. He was a bad man 
 and none of us liked him. He came to us 
 after Mother died." 
 
 ' You were a brave, honest boy not to let 
 him into the house."
 
 An Interesting Clue 117 
 
 Star flushed, hesitated and then truth came 
 to the fore. 
 
 " I did it to give him the slip. I had been 
 trying to get the chance"." 
 
 "Who were the people he stole you from?" 
 asked Sheridan. " Did you have a father, 
 brothers, sisters? " 
 
 " I don't remember a father. I didn't have 
 any brothers or sisters," he added pausing 
 before the last word. " A lot of us people 
 lived together in tents. We went from place 
 to place." 
 
 " In tents ! " exclaimed Sheridan. " Was it 
 a circus ? " 
 
 Star flushed, but made no reply. 
 
 " Were there animals ? " 
 
 ' There were lots of horses and dogs." 
 
 "And performers?" 
 
 " Performers? " repeated the boy perplexedly. 
 " I don't know what they are." 
 
 " Did people ride and did the dogs do tricks? 
 Didn't they have some kind of a show at 
 night?" 
 
 ' Yes ; they all rode and the dogs did tricks. 
 Sometimes we dressed up fancy. People came 
 from all around to see us."
 
 118 Sand Holler 
 
 His perceptible uneasiness had vanished now 
 and his answers came more freely. 
 
 " It must have been one of those traveling 
 horse and dog shows," suggested Olynthus. 
 
 " Just what it was," agreed Sheridan. 
 
 " After Mother died," continued Star, " they 
 kept me because they liked her so much." 
 
 " And these people are the first ones you 
 remember? " 
 
 " Y-e-s," he answered slowly. 
 
 "What was your mother's name?" 
 
 "Nita." 
 
 "Don't you know her last name?" 
 
 " That was all the name she had," persisted 
 the boy. 
 
 " Then you don't know your own name, except 
 Star. But it makes no difference. Your name 
 shall be Sheridan Star Sheridan. Do you 
 like it?" 
 
 " Yes," replied the boy. " It's a fine name. 
 Mother named me Star because she liked to 
 look up at the stars." 
 
 " Can't you remember the names of any of 
 those show people ? " 
 
 ' They didn't have any names, either, except 
 first ones."
 
 An Interesting Clue 119 
 
 " We must find some of them. Now, 
 Hobo- 
 
 " Hobo Hank's in prison for ten years/' 
 declared Star exultingly. 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
 " Once a man stayed at Mrs. Weevil's over 
 night, and he left a part of a newspaper. I 
 read in it that Hobo Hank had been sent 
 up for ten years." 
 
 "Did the paper give his real name?" 
 
 " I don't know. It was torn so I could only 
 read that much." 
 
 "What was the name of the town the paper 
 was published in? Did it say what prison he 
 was sent to ? " 
 
 " I didn't look to see. I was so glad to know 
 he couldn't get loose to hunt me until I was 
 grown up, and that he couldn't try to make 
 boys steal any more, that I didn't care what 
 else it said." 
 
 " And you never tried to find the show people 
 or to leave Mrs. Weevil ? " 
 
 "No," replied Star, slowly. "At first I 
 meant to run away from there, but then I didn't 
 know where to find my people, because they 
 moved about all the time, and after awhile I
 
 120 Sand Holler 
 
 got so tired that I didn't care much where I 
 was." 
 
 " Try to forget those days now, Star. Don't 
 look back, because your life starts now. And 
 don't dream any more. Play as Bert and the 
 children do so that you will get nearly as tired 
 playing as you used to when working; then 
 you will sleep too well to dream." 
 
 " Dreams were all I had," said Star wistfully. 
 " Don't you ever dream when you are awake ? " 
 
 " I've been too busy to do that until I took 
 this vacation. I didn't dream when I was 
 awake at your age." 
 
 " I can't help it not when I am listening 
 to music, anyway." 
 
 " Say we make this agreement : You can 
 dream when Olynthus plays, but not at other 
 times." 
 
 "Can he play now? I don't remember any 
 more to tell you." 
 
 ' Yes ; play, Olynthus. We'll both indulge in 
 our pet dream, Star. Tune up." 
 
 Olynthus " tuned up " to some wild, sweet 
 melodies that seemed most conducive to day 
 dreams. Finally Sheridan declared the concert 
 ended.
 
 An Interesting Clue 121 
 
 "Well, did you dream, Star?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," the boy admitted with a sigh. 
 
 " So did I. I'll own up, Star, that I have 
 just one particular dream, and I am so fond 
 of it that I want no other." 
 
 " Why, that is the way with me ! " cried Star 
 in delight. " I've always had the same drdam 
 over and over whether I am awake or asleep, 
 and the more I dream it the more I love it." 
 
 " Mine," said Sheridan meditatively, " is about 
 a very beautiful young princess who is always 
 just out of my reach and elusive as a perfectly 
 good dream princess always is. Will you tell 
 me about yours ? " 
 
 " Mine is about a little boy a very little 
 boy, much younger than I am." 
 
 " And what do you dream about him? " 
 
 Star shook his head. 
 
 " If you tell your dream," he said earnestly. 
 " It never comes true." 
 
 " I am glad to know that. I won't tell mine 
 again. I have given my dream princess a 
 name just for me, I mean not her real 
 name." 
 
 Star looked at him understandingly. 
 
 " I can't name my dream boy. There is a
 
 122 Sand Holler 
 
 name that belongs to him, but I can't think of it." 
 
 " Some day it will come to you ; but can't you 
 tell me more about your mother? She must 
 have been a very good woman to have brought 
 up such a fine little fellow as you are." 
 
 " She was good," said Star earnestly, " and 
 she was always kind to me. But I don't know 
 anything more to tell. She didn't talk much. 
 She was sick once before I can remember and 
 they said she was never the same afterwards." 
 
 When they returned to the Bee Hive Sheri- 
 dan, in the first short lull in Ann Bee's rush 
 of work, told her the little he had learned 
 about Star. 
 
 " It's not much, but it's something to start 
 on," he said. " We know he was brought up in 
 some sort of a circus. I think detectives could 
 trace Hobo Hank to his prison and could make 
 him tell what he knows. Star seems rather 
 reticent about his past. He was very much de- 
 pressed on the way up from the woods. I sup- 
 pose it was all brought vividly back to him. I 
 wish he would talk more freely." 
 
 " Don't worry over that. You can't tell 
 what's going on in the mind of a young 'un. 
 They look open and innocent, but they are
 
 An Interesting Clue 123 
 
 deep sometimes. They are like little wild 
 animals and run to cover if you so much as 
 look at them. Star will talk to one of the 
 kids some day if he has anything more to tell. 
 You have made a wild guess, though, about his 
 being with a circus or some such show." 
 
 " What makes you think so? " 
 
 " Tents, dogs and knocking about sound to 
 me very much like gypsies. His mother was 
 probably one of those gypsy fortune telling 
 women, and that's why he is so mooney and 
 queer." 
 
 " I believe you are right ! I never thought 
 of gypsies. I supposed their day was. over." 
 
 " Maybe it is up your way. They still knock 
 about in the south where it is warm. That 
 accounts for the child's being so dippy over 
 music, and it also accounts for his tagging about 
 in the woods after Olynthus. I always thought 
 Olynthus was more than half gypsy. Maybe 
 Star was a stolen child." 
 
 " I believe that, too," said Sheridan eagerly. 
 '' He is not an ordinary boy. You surely are 
 a second Sherlock, Mrs. Bee." 
 
 That night as he sat on the porch of his 
 portable house, smoking his pipe, Sheridan felt
 
 124 Sand Holler 
 
 a hand on his knee. Out of the darkness came 
 Star's voice, scared, faint, yet resolute. 
 
 " I want to tell you something." 
 
 "Yes, son." 
 
 Wade's arm slipped about the boy, who in- 
 stantly seemed to derive strength from the 
 support, for his voice grew firmer. 
 
 " I didn't tell you all I know about them." 
 
 "You will tell me now, Star, won't you?" 
 
 " Yes, Wade." 
 
 After a silence he said desperately : 
 
 " They my people were gypsies. I was 
 afraid to tell you." 
 
 'Why were you afraid, Star? There is 
 nothing the matter with gypsies." 
 
 " I heard Mrs. Weevil talking about them 
 once 7 . She said they were low people and 
 they'd get put in jail if they were caught. That 
 is why I didn't tell her I was one, and why I 
 didn't dare run away from there. I thought 
 maybe all my folks had been caught and put in 
 jail and that her place would be fine to hide in. 
 I thought if you knew I was a gypsy you 
 wouldn't want me for your brother. Mother 
 wasn't wicked, nor Chip nor any of them except 
 Hobo Hank and he wasn't one of us. You
 
 An Interesting Clue 
 
 won't let them put me in jail, will you?' 
 
 "Star, you poor little fellow! What Mrs. 
 Weevil said isn't true. There are good and 
 bad gypsies, just as there are good and bad 
 people everywhere. You will always be per- 
 fectly safe with me, and I want you for my 
 little brother no matter who you are. You 
 shall have a fine time from now on, and that 
 reminds me a very lovely young woman, who 
 lives in a big house on a hill, asked me to 
 bring you to see her, and some day we will go. 
 I feel sure there will be a piano there," Sheridan 
 added, seing no trace of pleasure in the boy's 
 face at the proposed visit. 
 
 " I never saw a piano," said Star excitedly, 
 " until that night in town when Olynthus took 
 me to the concert. When will we go, to- 
 morrow? " 
 
 "No; not quite that soon. The ritual of 
 good form forbids us to let our jubilance at an 
 invitation appear too obvious." 
 
 Seeing the boy's perplexed expression, he 
 interpreted : 
 
 " It isn't good manners to rush off pell-mell 
 to see a very lovely young lady when she asks 
 you."
 
 126 Sand Holler 
 
 " Can we go day after to-morrow ? " 
 
 " To-morrow I must spend in town, but maybe 
 the next day or the next after that. We'll see." 
 
 It happened, however, that Star and Miss 
 Lloyd met by chance, the unusual way, on the 
 following afternoon. 
 
 Sheridan was in town. The Bees were en- 
 gaged in their several duties and Olynthus, 
 threatened with a session at the sawbuck, had 
 slipped away to parts unknown, so Star started 
 off on a little expedition of his own. He 
 followed the highway until he came to a grassy, 
 meandering lane that attracted him because 
 he could not see where it led. He brought 
 up finally in some dark woods through which 
 ran an old wagon-road. He gathered a few 
 wild flowers and then sat down to rest, striving 
 to keep his promise to Sheridan and religiously 
 refraining from day-dreaming. 
 
 He was roused from his revery by the sight 
 of a beautiful girl who was riding a sleek and 
 shining sorrel horse. A large, shaggy, fierce- 
 looking dog came bounding on ahead, barking 
 loudly and rather fiercely at sight of the little 
 figure on the log. 
 
 "Here, Tige! Nice Tige! Cman," said the
 
 An Interesting Clue 127 
 
 boy caressingly as he rose and went forward to 
 meet the dog. 
 
 The barks ceased. Slowly the dog came 
 toward him. 
 
 " Look out! " warned the girl. " Tige, come 
 back here, sir." 
 
 The authoritative tone was unheeded. The 
 dog came closer to the boy, sniffing appraisingly 
 of him and with a joyful bark began to cavort 
 playfully about, always returning for a pat from 
 the small hand. The rider reined in. Star 
 couldn't remember ever beholding a beautiful 
 young woman before, save the one in his dreams. 
 Instinctively he raised his cap. 
 
 " You must be Star," she said with a smile. 
 
 " I am Star. Maybe you are the princess," 
 he replied gravely, looking attentively at her 
 golden hair. 
 
 'The princess?" she repeated, puzzled. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan's princess. The one who 
 asked him to bring me to see her. At least, I 
 think they are the same. He knows a princess, 
 and he said a lovely woman asked us to come." 
 
 She flushed slightly in spite of her amuse- 
 ment. Then glancing at the dog about whose 
 shaggy neck the boy's arm clung, she exclaimed :
 
 128 Sand Holler 
 
 " It's very odd ! Tige dislikes children of 
 late years. I never saw him make up to a 
 boy before." 
 
 " I always make friends with dogs," replied 
 Star. " I understand them. I used to have so 
 many to play with." 
 
 "When?" she asked curiously. 
 
 " When I was a gypsy," he replied proudly, 
 remembering Wade's assurance that " nothing 
 was the matter with gypsies." 
 
 ''' But how 7 ," she asked, thoughtfully refraining 
 from further allusion to his past, " did you 
 know Tige's name ? " 
 
 " I don't know how I knew," he answered. 
 " But I did, and I seemed to know him, too." 
 
 A little pucker of perplexity showed between 
 his brows as he spoke. 
 
 " He certainly seems to know you. You have 
 made more of a conquest than you know, and 
 you like horses, too ? " she asked, noticing the 
 boy's admiring glances toward her mount. 
 
 ' Yes ; we had horses too. Not fine, shining 
 ones like yours. Just plain, nice old things." 
 
 " And you like flowers, I see." 
 
 She glanced at the little bunch of wild 
 flowers In his hand.
 
 An Interesting Clue 129 
 
 "They are for you," he said, lifting them 
 up to her. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, touched by the grave 
 simplicity of the offer. She fastened them to 
 the lapel of her riding coat. Then she dis- 
 mounted, giving free rein to her horse. 
 
 " Let's sit down on this log and get ac- 
 quainted," she suggested. 
 
 Of his mother Star could remember only 
 that she was very quiet and always spoke to 
 him in gentle voice. Mrs. Weevil's converse 
 with him had been confined to commands and 
 admonitions interpersed with complaints. Mrs. 
 Bee was too busy to talk much except when 
 exasperated by her husband's acts or idleness. 
 Olynthus' tongue was blessed with the rare 
 and merciful gift of silence. Only the boy's 
 sense of duty and obligation had drawn forth 
 his reluctant revelations to Sheridan, but now 
 he instinctively felt that in this beautiful young 
 woman he had a real confidant to whom he 
 could make known all his hard little realities of 
 life and part, at least, of his beloved dream. 
 She was far different from anyone he had 
 ever seen. She was more like the people he 
 had visioned when he heard music, and he had
 
 130 Sand Holler 
 
 supposed that her kind lived only in fancy. He 
 was sure that she alone would understand him. 
 and not call him queer or " mooney " if he 
 revealed to her his secret thoughts. Tactfully 
 she encouraged the impulse and was genuinely 
 interested in hearing all about his little dream- 
 boy. He promised her that if he ever learned 
 his name he would tell her, for, she said, if 
 you told your dreams to people who believe 
 in them, they did come true; at least, very 
 often. 
 
 Then he told her a story of a marvelous 
 house which had sprung up with the magic 
 speed of Jack's beanstalk and was to be a home 
 for his big new brother and himself. She was 
 interested, too, in learning that until a few days 
 ago he had never seen a story-book. He told her 
 how his mother had taught him to read from 
 stray pieces of newspapers. She would point 
 out a certain word and see how many like 
 it he could find in the paper, marking them 
 with a pin prick. Whenever there were enough 
 children to permit a school, Mrs. Weevil had 
 allowed him to attend half of each day. When 
 Kenneth exclaimed that it was a pity he could 
 not have Had more schooling, he assured her
 
 An Interesting Clue 131 
 
 most earnestly that schools were uninteresting 
 and that there was much more to be learned in 
 the woods. Old Greeves had showed him how 
 to figure accurately and to write a fair hand 
 so that he could help with the accounts. His 
 big new brother was going to buy for him all 
 the story-books that other boys read, but he 
 wasn't sure which was the right one to read 
 first. Most children, Wade said, began with 
 Mother Goose, but that really grown-ups were 
 the ones who best understood that book. After 
 Mother Goose, fairy books were supposed to 
 follow, but Wade feared they might make him 
 dream, and Wade didn't approve of dreams for 
 boys, so Star had finally decided that they 
 would start in on a book called " Tom Sawyer.'* 
 Did she know it? 
 
 She did, and she told him it was the book 
 of books for all boys, young, middle-aged and 
 old. 
 
 " My brother," said Star proudly, " can 
 manage that big hotel that is going up back of 
 the Holler if he wants to. He is going east 
 soon to see about it." 
 
 " And where will you stay while he is gone? " 
 
 " In our little movie house. That is what
 
 132 Sand Holler 
 
 Bert calls it. Bert will stay there with me 
 while Wade is gone. When I am older, I am 
 going away to school and vacations we are 
 going to travel." 
 
 Something about him reminded Kenneth of 
 another lad who would have been near Star's 
 age, and she pledged herself to keep this odd 
 little boy under her wing during Sheridan's 
 absence. 
 
 " I must go home now," she said, after a 
 surprised glance at her watch. " But I want 
 my father to see you. Can't you ride to the 
 Hill House with me? I am sure there is room 
 for us both on Marathon's back, or we can take 
 turns riding him." 
 
 " No, thank you," declined Star gravely. 
 " My brother wants to bring me to your house 
 himself." 
 
 She looked amused. 
 
 '' Why didn't he bring you to-day? " 
 
 " He said it wasn't good manners to rush 
 off pell-mell when you receive an invitation 
 from I think he meant from a princess." 
 
 She laughed, not displeased. 
 
 " Have you a piano? " he asked, his solemnity 
 giving way to eagerness.
 
 An Interesting Clue 133 
 
 " Yes, Star. Of course you would like music. 
 I will play for you." 
 
 " My brother felt sure you would have a 
 piano at your house." 
 
 " Your brother is very discerning. So he 
 doesn't like dreams?" 
 
 " He has one dream. I think it is about a 
 princess, but I am not sure." 
 
 Again she smiled, a most beautiful color 
 coming to her cheeks. 
 
 "Then, good-bye, Star, until your brother 
 brings you to see me," she said, mounting 
 Marathon when he came at her call. 
 
 " Good-bye, princess," said Star, raising his 
 cap. 
 
 " My name is Kenneth Lloyd, but call me 
 princess. I like it. Come, Tige." 
 
 Star took his hand from Tige's neck, but the 
 dog did not stir. With tongue hanging from 
 his mouth, he looked expectantly in the boy's 
 face. His mistress called him sharply. He 
 hesitated, went a few steps, looked back and 
 returned resolutely to Star. 
 
 " Go, Tige," said the boy. 
 
 The dog went reluctantly. 
 
 Star returned homeward, his thoughts dwell-
 
 134 Sand Holler 
 
 ing on the princess and Tige. Wade had come 
 from town and had been annoyed and alarmed 
 at the boy's absence, but when he heard his 
 account of how he had spent the afternoon, 
 and realized how much the favor of a young 
 woman like Kenneth Lloyd would mean to him, 
 he withheld the reprimand that had been gather- 
 ing after hearing Ann Bee's comment of " Can't 
 change gypsy ways."
 
 By the time Kenneth Lloyd reached the Hill 
 House, she had quite convinced herself that 
 Star must have heard Tige's name from some 
 one, or that he had spoken it by chance. The 
 dog's unusual friendliness she accounted for 
 by the fact that this boy was quiet and gentle, 
 altogether different from the noisy, rough and 
 tumble " Bee boys " against whom Tige doubt- 
 less felt justified in his attitude of antagonism. 
 
 But when she related the incident of the after- 
 noon to her father, he was deeply impressed. 
 The Major had been a romantic youth and a 
 lover of the mystic and occult. He still had 
 a secret lingering inclination toward the super- 
 natural. 
 
 " I'd like to see this lad, Kenneth." 
 
 " You will have the opportunity, because I 
 have asked Mr. Sheridan to bring him here to 
 see us soon." 
 
 135
 
 136 Sand Holler 
 
 It chanced, however, that on the afternoon 
 Sheridan and Star made their visit, the Major 
 was absent. "Kenneth received them in a vast, 
 high-ceilinged drawing-room through whose 
 oval-topped, latticed windows came but little 
 light. The first object that Star's eyes sought 
 was the piano, and after the young hostess had 
 played for him, he became so very quiet and 
 unresponsive that she finally suggested that he 
 should go out to the garden and find Tige. 
 
 " If he is chained/' she added, " you may let 
 him loose and play with him." 
 
 When Star had gone, Kenneth turned to -the 
 entertainment of her oltfer guest, who, unlike 
 Star, was not quiet but most responsive. 
 
 She smiled at one of his sallies. 
 
 ' You and your young charge must have 
 exchanged ages. He appears as old for his 
 years as you seem young for yours," she told 
 Wade. 
 
 ' Then we will mutually benefit each other. 
 But I can be grave and grown-up, too. You 
 should see my dignity when I am assigning nice 
 old ladies to their rooms at the Moreland." 
 
 This led to the subject of the new sanitarium, 
 then to the Bee Hive and finally to the story
 
 Names from the Past 137 
 
 of Star's fortunes. Sheridan told her what 
 he had learned from the boy and of his own 
 growing sense of the responsibility he had 
 assumed. 
 
 " Just now," he said, " I am anxious to learn 
 something about his parentage, for I have an 
 idea that he is a stolen child. He seems so 
 inherently fine of instinct that he cannot be 
 gypsy born. I have grown fond of him and 
 it would be hard to give him up if I should 
 succeed in tracing his people, but, of course, 
 I must make every effort to find them. I wish 
 I knew how to put some boyhood into his life. 
 I had hoped the Bees would give him a little 
 more high spirits." 
 
 ' You must give him time to live down the 
 memories of his pitiful little life. He will grow 
 more like other boys after a while. He shall 
 have the Hill House grounds to play in, and 
 I will do all I can to help make him a normally 
 active boy." 
 
 " That is kind of you," Sheridan said grate- 
 fully. 
 
 :< No," she explained. " I am doing it because 
 I am really very much interested in him and in 
 memory of a little brother who died. Father
 
 138 Sand Holler 
 
 is most anxious to see Star. I am sorry he 
 is not at home to-day, but you must come again 
 very soon. Suppose we go outside and see how 
 our young friend is amusing himself." 
 
 Sheridan followed her down the terrace steps 
 that led to a court. By way of a quaint, old- 
 time flower garden and one of many little groves, 
 they came upon Star. 
 
 " Look! " exclaimed Sheridan in a discouraged 
 tone. :t That is the way he plays." 
 
 Star sat on the ground leaning against the 
 trunk of a tree, his arm about Tige's neck. 
 The dog's eyes were fastened with a look of 
 dumb affection on the boy, who was gazing 
 dreamily into space. 
 
 " Star ! " called Kenneth quizzically. 
 
 The boy started up in bewilderment and then 
 came to her. 
 
 ' Will you please go around to the kitchen and 
 ask the old mammy you will see there to serve 
 tea and some of her fresh cake to us in the 
 summer-house ? " 
 
 Star and Tige scurried away and Kenneth and 
 Sheridan went into a little, vine-covered summer- 
 house which was furnished with rustic benches 
 and tables. Presently Star joined them.
 
 Names from the Past 139 
 
 " Hepsy says she will 'sho' nuft' fetch the 
 tea and cake." 
 
 Kenneth's eyes grew wide with surprise. 
 
 "Did she tell you her name was Hepsy?" 
 
 " No ; but I called her that, and she answered 
 to it and said it used to be her name." 
 
 " She changed her name to Narcissy long ago. 
 How did you know her name used to be Hepsy? " 
 
 The boy was silent. 
 
 " How did you know, Star? " asked Sheridan 
 sharply. 
 
 " I don't know," he replied blankly. " When 
 I saw her, it just came to me to call her that." 
 
 An old negress came in, trundling a tea 
 wagon. 
 
 " Who am dis hyar chile, honey? " 
 
 " His name is Star, Mammy." 
 
 " He done tole my name what it uster be." 
 
 "He guessed it." 
 
 The old mammy shook her head doubtfully 
 and began to arrange the tea things with 
 trembling hands. Every now and then she 
 paused to glance at Star in awe. When Kenneth 
 dismised her, she hurried stiffly away, glancing 
 back over her shoulder a time or two. 
 
 " Star," asked Kenneth suddenly, when the
 
 140 Sand Holler 
 
 tea party had ended, " were Tige and Hepsy in 
 your dream? " 
 
 " Yes," the boy admitted. " Sometimes." 
 
 " When you dreamed of them, did you dream 
 of me too? " 
 
 " No," Star replied. " But I did dream of a 
 little girl who played with Tige, and when he 
 was a puppy she used to hitch him to a cart." 
 
 "What was the little girl's name?" Miss 
 Lloyd asked quickly. 
 
 He thought for a moment before answering. 
 
 " Her name was Ducky." 
 
 "Have you dreamed about them lately?" 
 
 " No ; it was a long time ago. I had almost 
 forgotten the dream until I saw Tige." 
 
 Sheridan, who decidedly disapproved of this 
 encouragement in the prohibited pastime, realized 
 that they had far outstayed the prescribed limit 
 of a first visit, so rose to leave. 
 
 " Ducky was my nickname when I was a little 
 girl," Kenneth told him when Star and Tige 
 had run on ahead. 
 
 " Was there ever a child hereabouts stolen 
 by gypsies?" asked Sheridan. 
 
 " No ; I never knew of any gypsies being in 
 this vicinity. It is sort of uncanny, isn't it?'
 
 Names from the Past 141 
 
 "Yes; I don't like it," said the practical- 
 minded Sheridan in a decisive tone. 
 
 "We had a fine afternoon, eh, Star?" he 
 asked the boy on the way home. 
 
 " Every afternoon is fine now," agreed Star. 
 
 Back at the Hill House Kenneth's thoughts 
 returned again and again to her guests of the 
 afternoon. She admitted to herself a growing 
 interest in the possibility of Sheridan's per- 
 manent establishment in the neighborhood. 
 
 " He really is very nice," she decided with a 
 little flash of a smile. 
 
 That night Sheridan pondered long over the 
 uncanny faculty Star had revealed in naming 
 the old negress and the dog and in recalling 
 Kenneth's nickname. 
 
 He lighted and re-lighted his pipe many a 
 time before he went to bed. When he was on 
 the vague borderland of sleep the little bell of 
 memory sounded its call faintly but insistently 
 and at last clearly. In a flash he recalled the 
 face that had baffled his recollection so per- 
 sistently since he had first seen Star.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE ROAD TO MEMORY 
 
 It was early the next morning and Sheridan 
 (Stood watching with keen interest the activities 
 at the new sanitarium site which some day would 
 perhaps become his own headquarters. From 
 his old world which lay to the east and north 
 he seemed to have a sense of absolute detach- 
 ment. Since boyhood he had known no other 
 dwelling place than a hotel and, be it ever so 
 luxurious, a hotel is not a home. He was now 
 indulging in dreams of what the word would 
 mean here in this southern land where the skies 
 were so warm and tender-tinted, where the air 
 was amber-hued and as softly fragrant as 
 flowers after a rain, where the grass was Irish 
 green in hue, where the people 
 
 " Here is a letter for you," said a voice at 
 his elbow. 
 
 " Thank you, Star. You came up like a 
 ghost." 
 
 142
 
 The Road to Memory 143 
 
 " Maybe she has set the time for us to come 
 again to see her," suggested Star interestedly, 
 as Sheridan opened the envelope and took out 
 the note. 
 
 A subtle, inscrutable look came into Sheri- 
 dan's frank eyes as he read. When he' looked 
 at Star, his smile was considerably forced. He 
 read the note once more and then gazed off 
 into space as intently as Star was wont to do. 
 
 "Doesn't she want us to come?" asked the 
 boy anxiously. 
 
 " No, Star. She says not to come again, and 
 the way she says it well, it's the way you'd 
 feel if some one had struck you." 
 
 ' Why doesn't she want us to come ? " 
 
 " I shouldn't have included you. She meant 
 only that I was not to come. Some one has 
 written her that I am a very bad man." 
 
 " I'll tell her that some one lied." 
 'Thank you, Star. But you see the some 
 one happens to be her brother." 
 
 " He lies." 
 
 'Thank you again, Star. But you see, we 
 can't tell her that. When a woman strikes, 
 there's nothing a man can do but to take it and 
 keep still. We'll go up to the Bee Hive now."
 
 144 Sand Holler 
 
 They had gone some way in silence before the 
 boy said impetuously: 
 
 " She's not a princess ! " 
 
 " A princess ! I don't know. I think per- 
 haps that is the way of a princess." 
 
 " Then she'd better be just a plain woman." 
 
 " Plain woman is right, Star. That is the 
 best s kind every time. But we have something 
 else to talk about that I had almost forgotten. 
 We'll sit down here on this pile of lumber. 
 Now, Star, I want you to tell me all you can 
 remember about your little dream-boy. Yes 
 - 1 know," seeing the boy's quick change of 
 countenance, " there are lots of things like going 
 to the dentist or sitting for a picture, that we 
 dislike to do, but still they sometimes absolutely 
 have to be done." 
 
 " But I thought you wanted me to forget all 
 about the little dream-boy." 
 
 " I have had reason to change my mind. I 
 want to know everything you can remember 
 about this one." 
 
 " She said dreams wouldn't come true if you 
 told them to some one who didn't believe in 
 them." 
 
 " I know that I'll believe in this one. And
 
 The Road to Memory 145 
 
 if you will tell it all to me, I will try to make 
 it come true." 
 
 "Oh!" cried Star delightedly, "if it only 
 could come true! I'll tell you every bit of it. 
 The first time I remember dreaming about my 
 little boy, I woke up and was in bed in a tent, 
 and everyone about me looked strange. I cried 
 and said I wanted to go home. Nita she 
 was my mother said I was at home and what 
 did I mean? I told her my own home was a 
 nice house with a garden, and there was a 
 girl who called me ' little brother.' She loved 
 me and played with me. There was a nice little 
 old lady, too, who wore curls and dressed like 
 a doll and talked funny. My mother laughed 
 and said I had dreamed it, but I stuck to it that 
 it wasn't a dream and that my sister and a 
 young man were on a bench in the park wait- 
 ing for me, and I must go to them. 
 
 " Some one said to the rest of the people 
 standing around that I was out of my head, 
 and my mother asked me to tell her what else 
 I had dreamed. I told her I had gone on the 
 cars with my sister and the funny little lady 
 to a city. A young man met us there and one 
 day my sister and I went with him to a big
 
 146 Sand Holler 
 
 park. They sat down on a bench and I asked 
 if I could go and play with some children by 
 a fountain. My sister didn't want me to, but 
 the young man teased her to let me. I played 
 with the children for awhile, and then they 
 said they were going to look at the animals. 
 
 " Sister wasn't looking. She was talking very 
 fast to the young man, so I ran on with the 
 other children. They were older than I was and 
 I couldn't keep up with them, and pretty soon 
 I got in a crowd of people and couldn't see 
 the children, so I tried to go back to my sister. 
 I kept walking and running until I was very 
 tired and there was no one in sight. Then I 
 came to a river. I was so tired I sat down to 
 rest and went to sleep. When I woke up a 
 nice young man was standing beside me. He 
 asked me why I was crying. I told him I was 
 lost, and he said that was too bad, and how 
 sorry my mother would be. I told him I had 
 no mother. He said he was glad of that because 
 he knew a nice mother and he would take me 
 to her. I told him I didn't want a mother; 
 I wanted my sister. Then he said he'd take 
 me to her. He carried me on his back a long 
 way through some woods until we came to a
 
 The Road to Memory 147 
 
 horse that was tied to a tree. We got on the 
 horse and rode away. It \vas very dark and 
 I cried and then I fell asleep. 
 
 " When I had finished telling this to Nita, 
 the young man came into the tent, and I begged 
 him to take me to my sister the way he had 
 promised. They all, laughed and mother said : 
 ' Why this is Chip ! Have you forgotten Chip ? ' 
 
 " Then she told me I had been very sick with 
 a fever, and that when children had fevers, 
 they got strange notions in their head, and that 
 all I had told her was a bad dream, and that I 
 must forget it. _The only time she was ever 
 cross with me was when I spoke of this dream, 
 and then she would cry. One day Chip took 
 me into the woods and showed me a stick and 
 told me if I ever spoke of my dream again he'd 
 beat me, because it worried Nita, and he wasn't 
 going to have her feel bad. After that I never 
 dared speak of it again. They were all kind 
 to me. I didn't have to w r ork but could play with 
 the dogs and out of doors all the time. Then 
 mother died, and after that Chip felt so bad he 
 went away, but he said he'd be back in a few 
 days. That night Hobo Hank ran away with me. 
 
 " I've always dreamed about the little boy
 
 148 Sand Holler 
 
 who lived with his sister and he seems like a 
 real boy to me. When I was at Mrs. Weevil's, 
 though, I had to work so hard I didn't think 
 of my dream except when I heard music." 
 
 " We won't call him the dream-boy any more," 
 said Sheridan, " because he is a real boy. I 
 think he is you and that what you dreamed really 
 happened to you." 
 
 " Oh, Wade, I " 
 
 " Wait. What did you call sister? " 
 
 " I called her sister." 
 
 " What did the little old lady call her? " 
 
 " She called her ' Honey.' " 
 
 " What did the young man on the bench call 
 her?" 
 
 '"' Sweetheart." 
 
 A smile stole about Sheridan's mouth. 
 
 " Think hard, Star. Wasn't there someone 
 who called your sister by a name? " 
 
 " I think," he said slowly after a struggle with 
 his memory, " that she was sometimes called 
 Olive." 
 
 " I was sure of it ! " exclaimed Sheridan. 
 "" Now, what did Olive call the little old lady? " 
 
 :t We both called her cousin." 
 
 " Let's work with the young man on the
 
 The Road to Memory 149 
 
 bench. What did you, sister and cousin call 
 him?" 
 
 " We called him, that is, sister called him 
 ' Dearest.' I called him that too, because she 
 did. It made him laugh and he wouldn't let 
 her tell me his real name. I haven't any idea 
 at all of what it was." 
 
 " Look here, Star. Wouldn't you know him 
 if you saw him? " 
 
 Star shook his head. 
 
 " I can't think how he looked. I only saw 
 him now and then. I'd know sister and cousin 
 if I saw them." 
 
 " You have changed a great deal, yourself, 
 you know, Star, since those days. It wouldn't 
 be strange if Dearest didn't recognize you at 
 first. But we don't seem to be getting any- 
 where on names. Cousin surely didn't call 
 him ' Dearest.' " 
 
 " No; she called him ' Boy.' " 
 
 "And they called you " 
 
 " Little Brother. I had another name. A 
 funny long one. Sister said it was much too 
 big for me, and Dearest told her she'd better 
 put it away somewhere until I grew up to it. 
 I only heard it a few times."
 
 150 Sand Holler 
 
 "If I should tell you Little Brother's real 
 name, Star, would you know it ? " 
 
 " Maybe. I've always wanted to think of 
 my little dream boy's name." 
 "Was' it Beau " 
 
 "Beauregard! Beauregard Ogden!" inter- 
 rupted Star excitedly. " I remember now. Oh, 
 is it true? Am I really the little dream-boy 
 and will I see sister " 
 
 " That is just who you really are, and after 
 I do a little telegraphing, we'll motor away to 
 see sister and cousin " 
 
 "And, Dearest?" asked Star eagerly. 
 ' Well, maybe sister hasn't forgiven Dearest 
 yet," Sheridan said soberly. " You know he 
 persuaded her to forget Little Brother for a 
 time and that was how he was lost. We'll go 
 up and tell Mrs. Bee now." 
 
 " I am so happy, Wade," exclaimed Star as 
 they walked on to the Bee Hive. 
 
 " And think how happy sister will be ! Think 
 how much she has suffered, and there is some 
 one else, Star, who I hope will be happy 
 the young man on the bench. Sister wouldn't 
 let him be ' Dearest ' any more so as to punish 
 herself for forgetting you, and he felt that he
 
 The Road to Memory 151 
 
 was to blame because he persuaded her against 
 her better judgment." 
 
 Star stopped and looked up keenly into Sheri- 
 dan's eyes: 
 
 " How did you know? " he asked. 
 
 " I know, Star." . 
 
 "What is Dearest's real name?" the boy 
 persisted. 
 
 " Sister must tell you that." 
 
 To Ann Bee, Sheridan simply stated that he 
 had a clue to Star's identity and he would go 
 east to-morrow to look it up; 
 
 " I am going to town now to telegraph. You 
 can go with me, Star. We'll make it a real 
 celebration and take in a movie. There will be 
 an orchestra, you know, and " 
 
 As he spoke his glance chanced to meet that 
 of a little Bee. The longing and envy depicted 
 on the small countenance made him hurriedly 
 scan the faces of the other children. The 
 expressions of all were identical. 
 
 " I'll tell you what I'll do," he announced. 
 " I'll take all you youngsters along." 
 
 A rousing hallelujah chorus followed. Ann 
 Bee protested, but when Sheridan learned that 
 Bert was the only one of the children who had
 
 152 Sand Holler 
 
 been to town and attended a movie, he insisted 
 on keeping his promise. 
 
 " How are you going to get them there?" 
 asked Olynthus, who had come in. " It'll take 
 a good many trips in your car." 
 
 " Some trucks have just come over to the 
 sanitarium bringing material. I'll hire one of 
 the drivers to take the children. I can find 
 some sort of a rig to bring them home in." 
 
 Cooking for a horde of boarders left Ann 
 Bee no time for the fashioning of children's 
 garments, and the Bees' personal appearance 
 had called forth many an indignant protest 
 from Kate Jonas. 
 
 " I don't believe any of the Belgian children 
 are as ragged as yours," she had tartly said 
 on one occasion. 
 
 " The climate don't holler for clothes like 
 Belgium does," Ann Bee had replied. 
 
 It took but little time and thought now to 
 get the young Bees ready for their excursion. 
 There was a vigorous and general scrubbing 
 and then Ann Bee, after a searching scrutiny, 
 gave the special order: 
 
 "Swap!" 
 
 For on arising the children were wont to
 
 The Road to Memory 153 
 
 don any clothing convenient. First up, first 
 choice. If a small boy found his sister next in 
 size had appropriated his overalls, he snatched 
 up her dress, the vital consideration being to 
 get out of doors with all speed possible. 
 
 The general exchange of trousers and skirts 
 was now quickly accomplished and by eleven 
 o'clock a band of Bees were eagerly awaiting 
 orders to get under way. 
 
 " I couldn't dress 'em up any, except to 
 scrub them and wet their hair slick," said 
 Mrs. Bee. 
 
 " Grooming is the most important part of a 
 dress-up toilette/' assured Sheridan. 
 
 " Look at Frenchy ! He's dressed up to beat 
 the band," cried Bert, as Star came out of 
 the portable house clad in a white flannel suit 
 with cap to match. 
 
 The arrival of the truck diverted attention 
 from Star's clothes, however, and a whooping 
 lot of children tumbled in. 
 
 " They'll think you've got an orphan asylum 
 out for a ride," said Mrs. Bee coming down 
 the roadside, followed by^Olynthus. 
 
 " You are coming with us, aren't you, Olyn- 
 thus ? " asked Sheridan.
 
 154 Sand Holler 
 
 " Course he is," said ( his wife sarcastically, 
 gazing witheringly at her husband. " He'll go 
 anywhere except to. work. He's as much of a 
 slacker now as he was in war." 
 
 " I was no slacker," mildly protested Olyn- 
 thus. " I was a conscientious objector." 
 
 " Conscientious objector is right," lashed back 
 his wife scornfully, " but it's a conscientious 
 objection to work as well as war that ails you. 
 He's not a coward," she said, suddenly bristling 
 at the truck driver, who wore a broad grin. 
 " He's afraid of nothing but work." 
 
 " I am afraid of nothing but a woman's 
 tongue," muttered the driver to himself, as he 
 started up his truck. " Give me war or give 
 me hell, but spare me a tongue like that." 
 
 The ride to town was a most hilarious one 
 \ 
 
 for the rollicking, boisterous children. In town 
 they were as inquisitive and as chirping as newly 
 hatched chickens. Sheridan took them to a 
 restaurant, where they dined sumptuously and 
 riotously, chicken and pink ice cream being two 
 rare luxuries. 
 
 The principal motion picture house was show- 
 ing a popular serial thriller, and even the callous 
 hearted ticket seller felt a twinge of something
 
 The Road to Memory 155 
 
 like compunction when he said to Sheridan: 
 " No seats left." The chorus of mournful wails 
 that arose caused him to add hurriedly: ' There 
 are two boxes." 
 
 " We'll take them," responded Sheridan 
 promptly. 
 
 So the sun shone once more. 
 
 " Now, you-all keep quiet," commanded Bert, 
 who was in charge of the first box. " Maw said 
 I could cuff you-all up to a peak, if you-all 
 didn't behave and keep still." 
 
 There was no need of this admonition, for as 
 soon as the pictures began to flash on the screen, 
 the children's eyes were riveted thereon in 
 speechless rapture. 
 
 When the orchestra began to play, Star be- 
 came lost to all sense of surroundings and when 
 it ceased he came back to realities with a sigh 
 of regret. His eyes, wandering casually over 
 the theater, were suddenly met and held by a 
 man's compelling gaze. 
 
 After the opening comedy, Olynthus, who had 
 lagged on the way to purchase some violin 
 strings, came into the box and Sheridan saw 
 him nod to the man who was still gazing with 
 such apparent interest at Star.
 
 156 Sand Holler 
 
 "Who's your friend in the audience?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "That's Major Lloyd," replied Olynthus 
 proudly. 
 
 " Oh! " commented Sheridan non-committally, 
 while Star received the information with dis- 
 may. 
 
 It pleased Sheridan thereafter that his little 
 protege kept his eyes loyally away from .the 
 Major.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 STAR FINDS HIS SISTER 
 
 Kenneth Lloyd had decided not to inform 
 her father of Star's surprising knowledge of 
 Hepsy's name, as she didn't care to encourage 
 his interest in the supernatural, but the old 
 negress herself apprised him of the incident. 
 
 " That chile sho' give me a skeer, Mas'r Lloyd! 
 Yessuh, he done come up so still like and he done 
 say so creepy like, ' Hepsy ! ' Jes' like that. I 
 mos' jump outen my skin and then he done look 
 at me so pow'ful queer and he done say: Tse 
 sorry, Hepsy. I didn't gwine to skeer yo.' ' 
 
 " Well, Narcissy, you found he wasn't a ghost, 
 anyway." 
 
 " I dunno' Mas'r Lloyd. I specs he is the 
 ghost of somebody." 
 
 At dinner Major Lloyd repeated Narcissy's 
 remarks to his daughter. 
 
 " I'm sorry I wasn't at home," he sa' . regret- 
 
 157
 
 158 Sand Holler 
 
 fully. " I want to see what kind of a mystery 
 child he is." 
 
 " No mystery about him," Kenneth answered 
 quickly. " A gypsy child or, maybe, a stolen 
 child. He ran away from a tramp, was worked 
 to death by a cruel woman. Lacking food, he 
 fed on dreams. He's a bit uncanny, I admit, 
 but he'll be normal in time. They are coming 
 here again soon, so you will have the opportunity 
 to meet him." 
 
 They did not discuss the boy further that 
 night and the next morning Major Lloyd left 
 early for town, where he spent the day. At the 
 dinner table, however, he renewed the subject. 
 
 " I saw the ' mystery boy ' to-day," he told 
 Kenneth. 
 
 For a moment Kenneth seemed to be inarticu- 
 late. Then she asked faintly: 
 
 " Where did you see him? " 
 
 " At a movie. I had just been seated in the 
 last vacant seat, I reckon, when two of the 
 boxes were filled by all those Sand Holler brats, 
 the Bees, en masse. They were marshaled in 
 by a fine-looking young man who was dressed 
 right up to the minute, eastern time. I didn't 
 give them a second glance until I suddenly felt
 
 Star Finds His Sister 159 
 
 an impelling impulse to look toward one of the 
 boxes. As I did so, my eyes met those of a 
 boy dressed in white and of totally different 
 calibre from the Bee brats. I can't describe the 
 thrill that crept up through my spine and hair. 
 I couldn't take my eyes, from his." 
 
 "Oh, father!" laughed Kenneth impatiently. 
 " You're as mysterious as this boy himself. 
 Well, was that all you saw of him?" 
 
 " The young man directed the boy's gaze to 
 the screen, but after the first picture, he looked 
 my way again and I had the same sensation. 
 He has most unusual eyes very visionary." 
 
 " Did your acquaintance end there? " the girl 
 asked curiously. 
 
 " Yes ; soon after, that lazy, good-for-nothing 
 Olynthus Bee came into the box where the 
 boy was and bowed to me. The city chap 
 evidently inquired who I was, and Olynthus 
 told him. Instantly the child turned his head 
 away and never so much as gave me a side 
 glance again. You didn't make me out an ogre 
 to him, did you, Kenneth?" 
 
 She flushed and made no reply. 
 
 " I want to see more of him. Send word 
 down there for him to come up here to-morrow."
 
 160 Sand Holler 
 
 " No, father. I may as well tell you. That 
 man you saw in the box shall never come here 
 again, and I suppose now he won't let Star 
 come. It is most unfortunate." 
 
 " What's the matter ? Have you seen them 
 since he was here." 
 
 " No ; but I wrote him a note and told him 
 not to come again. He's a thoroughly bad, 
 unprincipled man." 
 
 "How did you learn that?" 
 " I'll show you." 
 
 She left the room and returned with a letter 
 which she handed to him. 
 
 " Read that. It's from Julian." 
 He glanced up after the perusal of the para- 
 graph she had indicated : 
 
 " Do I remember a man by the name of 
 Sheridan who was at Plattsburg and after- 
 ward at the Moreland with me? Well, 
 I sure do! I have reason never to forget 
 him. We were all pretty sure at Platts- 
 burg that he was a card sharp, but one 
 night at the hotel we found it out for 
 certain and exposed him. He had his 
 nerve to mention his acquaintance with me 
 to vou."
 
 Star Finds His Sister 161 
 
 " That's pretty bad," said the Major gravely, 
 rereading the paragraph. " You were right to 
 forbid him the house. I suppose now we can't 
 see the boy." 
 
 " Well, eventually this Mr. Sheridan will go 
 back east. He's planning to leave Star with 
 Mrs. Bee for the present, and I intend to see 
 him then. It's a pity that the child will be 
 brought up by such a guardian." 
 
 " Missy," said Narcissy when she came in 
 with the dessert, " Tige's done gwine away. 
 He's been gwine all arternoon, and we cain't 
 find him." 
 
 " I believe he's gone to Sand Holler in search 
 of Star," declared Kenneth. " He's been whin- 
 ing for him ever since the child was here." 
 
 " I'll go down to the Holler and see," pro- 
 posed the Major eagerly. 
 
 " No," objected Kenneth hastily. " Olynthus 
 or Bert will bring Tige home." 
 
 After dinner the Major and Kenneth went 
 for a walk. Near the entrance to the driveway 
 they came upon Star vainly trying to induce 
 Tige to go inside the grounds, but every time 
 the boy started homeward, the dog turned and 
 slunk after him."
 
 162 Sand Holler 
 
 " Star ! " called Kenneth, running down to 
 the roadside. 
 
 He touched his cap, but didn't look toward 
 her as he explained: 
 
 " Tige came to the Bee Hive while we were 
 away and he wouldn't come home, so I had to 
 bring him." 
 
 Again he turned to leave, feeling that he had 
 done his part in delivering the dog, and that it 
 was up to the owners to induce him to remain. 
 
 "Come, Tige!" commanded the Major, and 
 the dog obeyed the stern voice. 
 
 " Star," said a honeyed voice, " will you come 
 back just a moment, please." 
 
 The boy came back slowly and with evident 
 reluctance. 
 
 ''' It was very kind in you to bring Tige here, 
 and my father wants to meet you. This is Star, 
 father." 
 
 Star put out his hand automatically. 
 
 " It's a long way to Sand Holler, my lad," 
 said the Major kindly. " Come in the house 
 while I have a horse harnessed. Then 'I will 
 drive you home." 
 
 " I didn't walk here," replied Star. " I caught 
 a ride with a farmer nearly all the way. I
 
 Star Finds His Sister 163 
 
 shall like the walk back. I am used to long 
 tramps." 
 
 " Star," asked Kenneth impulsively, " did Mr. 
 Sheridan tell you that you couldn't come to the 
 Hill House any more?" 
 
 " No, Miss Lloyd," replied the boy quickly 
 with pride in his voice. 
 
 "Then why won't you come in now?" 
 
 " If some one told your brother he couldn't 
 come to their house," questioned Star, " would 
 you go there ? " 
 
 " He's right, Kenneth," said her father 
 approvingly. " Don't urge him." 
 
 " Did he tell you why I forbade his coming? " 
 she persisted. 
 
 " He said some one told you that he was 
 a bad man." 
 
 "And he told you he wasn't?" 
 
 "He didn't have to tell me that." 
 
 "That's the boy!" applauded the Major. 
 " Stick up for your friends." 
 
 " I must go now," said Star. " My brother 
 is leaving tomorrow and I am going to help 
 him pack." 
 
 "Wait, Star!" pleaded Kenneth. "Tell me, 
 are you sorry to part with the princess?"
 
 164 Sand Holler 
 
 " Yes ! because she believed in the dream- 
 boy. But he isn't that kind of a boy any 
 longer. He's a real boy now." 
 
 "But tell me, are you angry with me?" 
 
 " No ; only disappointed. And Wade is dis- 
 appointed, too. He says that just a plain 
 woman is better than a princess after all." 
 
 Kenneth winced at this, and in silence she 
 and her father watched the little fellow as he 
 trudged down the dusty road. 
 
 Tige whined, but stopped when his master 
 put his hand on his collar and followed them 
 meekly to the house. 
 
 "What did he mean about a little dream- 
 boy?" asked the Major. 
 
 Kenneth told him what the boy had confided 
 to her. 
 
 " I don't know what he meant by the dream- 
 boy being a real boy," she concluded. 
 
 " Kenneth, he would be just his age." 
 
 " Father ! " she cried in distress. " You surely 
 aren't going to tell me you believe in reincar- 
 nation?" 
 
 " I don't know what I believe," the old man 
 said with 'a sigh. "I don't know much about 
 reincarnation, or anything else connected with
 
 Star Finds His Sister 165 
 
 the supernatural, but I think Narcissy expressed 
 what I feel when she said, 'he is the ghost of 
 somebody.' ' 
 
 " Not of little Philip ! " she exclaimed. 
 
 " Philip would have grown up to be just 
 such a boy a dreamy, fanciful child. You 
 were only twelve years old you couldn't realize 
 the little fellow's nature." 
 
 " I realize that his hair was the color of 
 mine and that he had eyes as blue as yours. 
 This boy's hair is dark and his eyes hazel." 
 
 " But it might be the spirit of Philip in this 
 boy's body." 
 
 " What an unwholesome, horrid belief, father ! 
 I wouldn't have such a faith as that." 
 
 Later, in the twilight, she looked regretfully 
 after her father as she saw him following the 
 path to the family burying ground. 
 
 " I wish that horrid man had never come 
 here! I am glad he is going back east. There 
 is nothing to prevent me from going to see Mrs. 
 Bee and Star at Sand Holler. I can win 
 Star back to the * princess/ Plain woman, 
 indeed!" 
 
 " Father," she proposed at breakfast the next 
 morning, " Tige is still watching for Star to
 
 166 Sand Holler 
 
 come. Don't you think we ought to let them 
 spend some time together? There's no use 
 in making a dog and a boy unhappy. That 
 man is leaving to-day. Do you suppose he 
 would be unkind enough to object to my going 
 to see the child ? " 
 
 " I wonder, Kenneth, if there isn't a mistake 
 somewhere ? Maybe Julian " 
 
 " No, father. Mr. Sheridan hasn't put up 
 a word in defense or asked me for any proofs." 
 
 She heard Joel's step on the porch and 
 hastened out. 
 
 " Do you know if Mr. Sheridan has gone east 
 yet ? " she asked casually. 
 
 " Yes ; I met him in his car as I turned in 
 at the highway." 
 
 " He is leaving more quickly than he 
 expected," she thought triumphantly. " He was 
 ashamed to stay." 
 
 That afternoon, accompanied by Tige, she 
 rode down to Sand Holler. The Bee Hive 
 seemed unusually quiet. Ann Bee, placidly 
 peeling potatoes on the front porch of the 
 portable, was the only person visible. 
 
 "All alone, Mrs. Bee?" Kenneth inquired. 
 
 "Why, how do you do, Miss Lloyd? Olyn-
 
 Star Finds His Sister 167 
 
 thus and the children are meandering about the 
 woods." 
 
 " I wanted to see the children." 
 " They'll be back before long. Come and 
 sit down on the porch. Mr. Sheridan gave 
 me this house, or the use of it. I shall keep 
 it for a sitting-room until he returns, if he does 
 return. Come inside and see how pleasant 
 it is." 
 
 Kenneth had to admit to herself the good 
 taste displayed in the simple furnishings and 
 in the selection of the books and magazines that 
 lined the shelves along the wall. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan left a bit sooner than he had 
 planned, didn't he?" she asked with careful 
 indifference. 
 
 " Yes ; but he went especially to look up 
 something about Star. He has found out who 
 he is, he thinks. My! wouldn't you think with 
 all those youngsters underfoot, I'd be glad to 
 have one less? But I'm not. I just miss that 
 boy more than I can tell." 
 
 "Miss him! Where has he gone?" 
 " Mr. Sheridan took him to his folks." 
 There was a silence during which Kenneth 
 looked off across the level spaces. Ann Bee's
 
 168 Sand Holler 
 
 little, quick eyes studied the expression of her 
 fair young guest. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan is going to miss Star, too," 
 she added, " but he was so glad to be able 
 to make the boy's folks happy. You see, he 
 was stolen by the gypsies." 
 
 "I felt that he was not a common child 
 not of the gypsy type, at least. How did Mr. 
 Sheridan learn " 
 
 " It isn't really proved up yet, of course. 
 Star looked like some one Mr. Sheridan knew 
 that had lost a child, and it finally came to him 
 after hearing the boy's dream who he might 
 be. After questioning Star, he got a clue and 
 he is following it up. I guess these folks are 
 good friends of Mr. Sheridan's, because when 
 I said, ' Too bad for you to lose your boy,' a 
 kind of light came into his eyes, and he said 
 it might be the means of bringing them closer." 
 
 Kenneth returned home and for the follow- 
 ing week her mind was busy with speculations 
 as to who Star might prove to be. Then she 
 went to see Kate Jonas, whose acquaintance 
 she had made during war times, for in spite 
 of her pacifist proclivities, the young woman 
 from North Dakota had been a faithful and
 
 Star Finds His Sister 169 
 
 ardent member of the knitting fcr soldiers 
 community. 
 
 \" Miss Jonas, your house is always in such 
 perfect order ! " the southern girl exclaimed 
 enviously as she looked about the spick and 
 span sitting-room. " How do you keep it so ? " 
 
 " Maybe because I have no ' mammies ' 
 around," replied Kate significantly. " There's 
 the make-cleans and the keep-cleans, you know. 
 I aim to be both." 
 
 " You were so kind about teaching me to 
 knit in war times," said Kenneth, skillfully 
 avoiding a clash on the servant issue, " that 
 I brought my work over to see if you'd show 
 me what is wrong with it. I only knit the 
 simpler articles, you know, but now I am trying 
 to make a sweater for Julian." 
 
 Kate Jonas inspected the work critically. 
 
 " Well, the first thing you must do is to ravel 
 all you have knit, and then I'll watch you go 
 across a couple of times and find out if your 
 .mistake is where you widen." 
 
 " It seems a pity to ravel all those nice 
 stitches," sighed Kenneth. 
 
 " It would seem ' pittier ' to leave them," 
 was the discouraging comment. " Don't wind
 
 170 Sand Holler 
 
 it into a ball as you ravel. It'll be crinkly if 
 you do. Wind it tight across this chair back." 
 
 " Poor Joel ! " thought Kenneth, as she meekly 
 obeyed. 
 
 " Have you been down to Sand Holler lately, 
 Miss Jonas ? " she asked presently. 
 
 " No ; but Joel has and they've heard from 
 Mr. Sheridan about that boy." 
 
 "Oh, what did he say?" asked Kenneth 
 excitedly, pausing in her work. 
 
 " You must learn to work and talk at the 
 same time," reprimanded Kate sharply. " Well, 
 it seems this boy, his sister and a young man 
 were sitting on a bench in the park in some 
 city and this child, who was only four years 
 old then, wandered off and got lost. The sister 
 and her young man looked everywhere for him, 
 and so did the police. They never once thought 
 of gypsies. They had the river dragged and 
 finally the sister gave up hope and thought 
 the boy had drowned or been killed. Mrs. 
 Bee read the letter to Joel and it sounded just 
 like a story-book. I tell you, that sister must 
 have been mighty glad when Mr. Sheridan 
 brought her little brother back to her. Must 
 have been like seeing the dead resurrected."
 
 Star Finds His Sister 171 
 
 "Has he no parents?' 1 
 
 " No; Star and this sister (she's about twenty- 
 four) were orphans. The boy's name isn't Star 
 Sheridan any more. It is Beauregard Ogden." 
 
 "But how did he " 
 
 " Keep on working," commanded the inde- 
 fatigable Kate. " You must learn to make your 
 hands go as fast as your tongue." 
 
 " What a fine officer she might have made 
 in a Battalion of Death," thought Kenneth. 
 "Poor Joel!" 
 
 It was quite evident that Kate had learned 
 to rock and talk at the same time. She speeded 
 up in about the same ratio as the interest in 
 her subject. At this point she had reached the 
 extreme end of the room and was quite remote 
 from her guest. 
 
 ' This cranky old rocking chair," she apol- 
 ogized, hitching back in jerks. " I never know 
 where I am at." 
 
 " But," asked Kenneth when her hostess had 
 come back to speaking distance, " how did Mr. 
 Sheridan know that Star had been stolen ? " 
 
 " It seems that Star the letter said that 
 he wants to keep that name instead of his 
 own highfaluting one "
 
 172 Sand Holler 
 
 " I am so glad," interrupted Kenneth. " Star 
 just suited him ; but pardon me " 
 
 " As I was saying, Star remembered all about 
 his sister and the particulars of his being lost 
 and stolen, but the gypsies made him think it 
 was a dream, or something he imagined when 
 he was out of his head with a fever. He's been 
 dreaming it over and over all these years. He 
 had forgotten his name, too." 
 
 " Then his little dream-boy was, as he said, 
 real. How did Mr. Sheridan find his sister 
 so quickly? He must have known her." 
 
 ' Very likely. Shouldn't wonder if he was 
 the young man on a bench in the park," deduced 
 Kate. 
 
 Kenneth found herself a prey to conflicting 
 emotions which she tried to repress. 
 
 " He'll have to give up Star ! And he had 
 made such plans for their future ! " 
 
 "It will work out all right. Probably he'll 
 marry the sister now. She'd take him on 
 account of showing her gratitude if for no 
 other reason, I should think. That'll fix things 
 up." 
 
 " Yes," assented Kenneth without enthu- 
 siasm. She wondered why she hoped this was
 
 Star Finds His Sister 173 
 
 not true, and concluded that it must be on 
 account of her not wanting any " nice girl " 
 to marry a man who cheated at cards.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 A NEW HOME IS PLANNED 
 
 In a cheery little sun-room o a white, green- 
 shuttered bungalow, the dream-boy, Beaure- 
 gard Ogden, sat on the edge of a cretonne- 
 covered couch, laughing over the comic supple- 
 ment of a newspaper. 
 
 " Oh, I say, Olive ! " he exclaimed, without 
 looking up as the door opened, " here's one 
 you didn't see." 
 
 A girl who was very lovely in a sweet, tan- 
 talizing way, came up to the couch and looked 
 over his shoulder. Her eyes were of soft brown 
 with a slight tendency to slant upward and had 
 the dark, curling lashes that go with such eyes. 
 There were sensitive curves about her mouth 
 and an alluring cleft in her softly rounded chin. 
 She gazed at her young brother with devouring 
 tenderness. 
 
 " Little Brother, here is Wade. He has come 
 to say good-bye." 
 
 174
 
 A New Home Is Planned 175 
 
 " Oh, Wade! " cried Star, looking up and see- 
 ing Sheridan, who had come in with Olive. 
 " Not really going back to Sand Holler so soon ! 
 I thought you'd wait until the hotel was fin- 
 ished." 
 
 " That was what I thought, too, Star.; but 
 you see when I accepted the position of man- 
 ager, I became subject to any old orders and 
 my latest command is to keep tab personally on 
 things in general about the institution while 
 the building is going on, and to make any sug- 
 gestions for alterations that occur to me, because 
 Mr. Keenwald doesn't want to put in any time 
 down there if he can possibly avoid it. His son, 
 Billy, is going to be with me, too. Theoretically, 
 I believe Billy is assistant to the architect. 
 Funny pictures, eh ? " he exclaimed, looking 
 over the boy's shoulder. " Don't you find them 
 more exciting and amusing than dreams, Star ? " 
 
 Kate Jonas had reported correctly. Star 
 clung tenaciously to the fanciful short name 
 the gypsies had bestowed upon him, and, of 
 course, his sister consented, for " Little Broth- 
 er's " every wish was now law in this household. 
 
 " I do now, Wade," explained Star, " because 
 you see I only had one dream, and as it has
 
 176 Sand Holler 
 
 come true, I've nothing left to dream about. 
 But Wade," he added reproachfully, " you look 
 happy ! Aren't you sorry to leave us so soon ? " 
 
 " Not in view of the plans Olive and I have 
 been making and " 
 
 " Well, I reckon Olive hates to have you go 
 away." 
 
 " It sounds so odd," sighed Olive ruefully, 
 " to hear Little Brother using southern expres- 
 
 sions." 
 
 " You'll soon be acquiring the habit, Olive," 
 laughed Sheridan. " I assure you they are very 
 contagious and expressive southern expres- 
 sions." 
 
 ' Who'll she be getting them from me ? " 
 asked Star. 
 
 " From everyone. I told you Olive and I 
 had been talking things over, and we have a 
 new plan awaiting the honorable consideration 
 of Your Highness. Would you like to go back 
 to Sand Holler, or near there, to live ? " 
 
 "With Olive and Cousin?" asked Star 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Certainly," promptly assured Olive. " You'll 
 never be away from us again, Little Brother." 
 
 " Then I should just love to go back there ! "
 
 A New Home Is Planned 177 
 
 he cried. " I'd rather live near Sand Holler 
 than any place I know." 
 
 'Why?" asked Olive jealously. 
 
 "To be near Wade, and to hear Olynthus 
 play, to see Ann Bee, and all the little Bees. 
 They were all so kind to me, and I love it down 
 there where it is nice and warm and such fine 
 woods." 
 
 " How about being near the princess and 
 Tige ? " asked Sheridan. 
 
 " No," replied Star soberly. " You know 
 as well as I do why I don't want to be near 
 Miss Lloyd." 
 
 " I've told Olive all about her, Star, and 
 what she thinks of me, but you see it will be 
 very pleasant for Olive to know some one down 
 there who is near her own age and has the 
 same tastes. We both think it will be sensible 
 to go into a strange neighborhood without any 
 prejudices, so Olive hopes that she will see a 
 great deal of the princess." 
 
 Star shook his head obstinately. 
 
 " Some day, dear," said Olive gently ,1 " Miss 
 Lloyd will know Wade as you and I know him. 
 She was misinformed; that is all." 
 
 ' Well, anyway, I am glad we are going down
 
 178 Sand Holler 
 
 there. When will we start, Wade? And will 
 we all live in our movie house?" 
 
 " No," laughed Sheridan. " It would be far 
 too small. Don't you remember the Nutshell, 
 that pretty white house with the French windows 
 in among all the trees the house that is 
 nearest the Hill House?" 
 
 "Yes; I remember it." 
 
 " I had a letter from Ann Bee and she says 
 the owner is going to move out west and that 
 it is for rent, so I've wired to see if we can't 
 rent it furnished for this coming winter 
 anyway, or until further plans can be made. I 
 am going to start in my car for Sand Holler 
 to-morrow, and just as soon as I have made 
 all arrangements, you and Olive and Cousin 
 can follow." 
 
 A little, fluttering old lady came in, and gave 
 two small plump hands to Sheridan in rapturous 
 greeting. 
 
 " Dora and I have been having such trials 
 endeavoring to make some corn whips," she 
 exclaimed. " We can't get them just the way 
 Star tells us they should be made." 
 
 " Oh, Cousin ! " cried Star in dismay. " You 
 mean corn sticks."
 
 A New Home Is Planned 179 
 
 " Yes," she replied amiably. " That is what 
 I said." 
 
 Wade looked at her in amusement, as he 
 always did, recalling Star's first vivid descrip- 
 tion of her. Her hair was in old-fashioned 
 ringlets that dangled over each temple, and 
 she wore a girlish muslin dress with a blue 
 sash tied about her waist. She picked up 
 some knitting work, and her needles flew back 
 and forth. 
 
 ' That is a sweater Cousin has started for 
 you, Wade," Olive explained, " to wear in the 
 sunny south, and she has designs on socks. 
 You see, she can't lose the knitting habit." 
 
 " That will be too much," protested Wade, 
 " for one pair of such small hands to make." 
 
 The little hands trembled, the sunken old 
 cheeks flushed, and a glow came into her hazel 
 eyes, the eyes so like Star's, as she said: 
 
 ' Wade, nothing in this world would be too 
 much for these hands to do for you." 
 
 " No," said Olive in a voice that trembled 
 with emotion. " The most we could do would 
 be as nothing." 
 
 " No, Wade," echoed Star. " Why, we-all 
 just love you-all to pieces."
 
 180 Sand Holler 
 
 As they laughed in concert, Star whispered 
 audibly to Sheridan: 
 
 " Tell me, now, Wade. Aren't you Olive's 
 Dearest?" 
 
 Olive flushed slightly and lowered her eyes. 
 
 " Suppose you ask Olive, Star," said Wade 
 quizzically. 
 
 " Please don't ask me just yet, Little Brother. 
 Wait until after we all feel quite at home 
 down in the south. Time enough then. But 
 we haven't told Cousin our wonderful news 
 yet, and I know she'll approve, because she has 
 a nomad's fondness for pulling up tent stakes." 
 She explained the new plan. 
 
 The little fluttering Cousin was eager to see 
 that part of the country and, of course, was will- 
 ing to go anywhere for the sake of being near 
 dear Wade; and was there a barn? It would 
 be just as well not to take Olive's electric. 
 She could keep a saddle horse, and they'd have 
 a gentle driving horse and live the old-fashioned 
 country life. 
 
 ' That reminds me," said Wade, " I want 
 to make Star a present. One I had in mind 
 to give him when I thought he was mine; that 
 is, all mine."
 
 A New Home Is Planned 181 
 
 "Oh, what is it, Wade?" asked Star inter- 
 estedly. 
 
 " A pony. You must learn to ride, you 
 know, if you are going to live in the south." 
 
 " I can ride," boasted Star. " Chip taught 
 me to ride like the wind. And I used to take 
 old Greeyes' horse sometimes." 
 
 " Don't speak of that Chip," begged Olive 
 with a slight shudder. " I can't bear to have 
 you recall those days." 
 
 ' The gypsy days were happy days," asserted 
 Star. " Not like the Weevil days. They weren't 
 so bad for me as they were for you, Olive, 
 because, you see, I thought you were only a 
 dream. Poor Olive ! " 
 
 He put his arm impulsively about her neck 
 and looked boyishly sorry for her. 
 
 ' Think, Olive," reminded Wade, " how much 
 worse it might have been. Suppose they had 
 treated him unkindly." 
 
 " They were all dandy to me," championed 
 Star. " Chip just threatened once to whip me 
 on account of my making Mother " 
 
 " Mother! " remonstrated Olive. " Oh, Star ! " 
 
 " Well, Nita," he corrected with an odd little 
 Jaugh. " Chip didn't want her to feel bad.
 
 182 Sand Holler 
 
 I'd love to see Chip and the others again." 
 
 " I can't imagine why those gypsies stole 
 him," said Sheridan, " since they didn't try for 
 a ransom, or didn't want to make him work." 
 
 " Nita loved me," said Star, " and she ruled 
 the roost. Maybe she was a gypsy queen. And 
 she taught me to tell fortunes. I never read 
 your palm, Olive." 
 
 " And you never will, Star," she said firmly. 
 " Forget that and all your gypsy accomplish- 
 ments." 
 
 " I have put detectives to work on the gypsy 
 trail," said Sheridan. " So maybe some day 
 we will know just why they stole him. I shall 
 always be curious to know." 
 
 " The only thing I see to interfere with 
 the perfection of living at Dirt Holler," said 
 Little Cousin, still thinking of their prospective 
 change of residence, " is the idea of having 
 colored help. I don't like them and I don't 
 suppose Dora would want to go with us." 
 
 When Dora came in with the tea things she 
 was consulted on the subject. She, too, seemed 
 to have fallen under the spell of the south. This 
 was easily accounted for, because Dora had 
 the feminine adoration for the accoutrements
 
 A New Home Is Planned 183 
 
 of a soldier, and Star had told her of the prox- 
 imity of the new hotel and how many ex-soldiers 
 were working there, and an ex-soldier was 
 the next thing to a regular soldier in Dora's 
 young eyes. 
 
 " Is this Nut House as small as it sounds? " 
 asked Little Cousin. 
 
 " Oh, Cousin," cried Star, laughing till the 
 tears came. " It is Nutshell. Nut House is 
 an insane asylum." 
 
 " I don't know as I should like that," said 
 Cousin reflectively. " I used to visit the wife 
 of the superintendent of an insane asylum once; 
 still I couldn't see, after all, that the crazies 
 were much different from other folks. Lots of 
 them seemed sane enough to me." 
 
 Sheridan assured her that when the name 
 Nutshell was bestowed upon the house, it had 
 been small, but it had acquired wings and other 
 additions since then. 
 
 !t Don't think of it as a peanut shell," cau- 
 tioned Star, "but as a cocoanut shell. Then 
 it will seem larger. If it is too small, we can 
 do the way Ann Bee does. Just add a tent every 
 little while." 
 
 " An Bee ! " exclaimed Little Cousin holding
 
 184 Sand Holler 
 
 up her plump hands in horror. " Little Brother, 
 you must try to be more careful of your English. 
 You mean * a bee.' ' 
 
 " A stands for Ann," chuckled Star. " Ann's 
 her first name." 
 
 " She shouldn't have an ungrammatical name," 
 persisted Cousin. 
 
 When Sheridan was leaving he looked dole- 
 fully about the little room with its pretty, femi- 
 nine furnishings. 
 
 " This has been the only touch of home I've 
 had since I was a boy," he said. " It's good 
 for a man when he is away to have a home to 
 look back upon." 
 
 " We will have a real home for you at the 
 Nutshell, you know," promised Olive, " and 
 every moment of leave you can get must be 
 spent with us, and maybe later on when the hotel 
 is finished " 
 
 She looked at Star, blushed and laughed 
 without ending her sentence. 
 
 " Like Star," said Sheridan, " I'll dream my 
 dream till it comes true. If we all would cling 
 to our dreams as tenaciously as he did, we 
 might come to realize them. Do you think, 
 Olive, it will come true ? "
 
 A New Home Is Planned 185 
 
 She was silent a moment. Then, lifting her 
 beautiful eyes to his, she said: 
 
 'I we will try to make it come true, 
 Wade."
 
 Again Sheridan went rolling away in his little 
 roadster, but not aimlessly as before. 
 
 " So much," he meditated, " has happened to 
 me since I first made this trip, and yet it all 
 amounts to nothing unless - J " 
 
 For all his hope and optimism, backed up by 
 Olive's assurance, he foresaw complications and 
 he didn't dare pin his faith to the happy ending 
 of a dream, as Star had done. 
 
 He had arranged all the many little details 
 of severing connections with the Moreland and 
 other personal affairs in the east and was leav- 
 ing with the supreme satisfaction of a man 
 who has put his house in order and gone forth 
 to conquer a new world. 
 
 When he drove down the worn, dusty road 
 to the Bee Hive, he was given an enthusiastic 
 reception. 
 
 " Where are they going to keep all these 
 
 186
 
 The Future of Ann Bee 187 
 
 things ? " exclaimed Mrs. Bee, when Sheridan 
 began unloading the presents Olive, Star and 
 Cousin had sent to the children. 
 
 " They won't keep them anywhere long," 
 prophesied Olynthus. " What they don't break 
 they'll lose." 
 
 When Sheridan had attended to the leasing 
 of the Nutshell, he interviewed Ann. 
 
 " I want to help you make your plans now," 
 he told her. 
 
 " I plan to keep right on feeding these work- 
 men until your sanitarium is finished. Then 
 I'll sell this shack or the ground it's on. There's 
 been more than a hundred after it already, but 
 it goes to the highest bidder and every day it's 
 coming up in price. I'll make the Highway 
 after all." 
 
 " That's just what you mustn't do, Mrs. Bee. 
 When the sanitarium is running, Sand Holler 
 will come into its own and will have the High- 
 way pinned to the ceiling. We are going to 
 have a beautiful boulevard running right past 
 your place here. I proposed to Mr. Keenwald 
 that he buy all these Sand Holler lots including 
 yours, that he build a house and make this 
 place a dairy and vegetable farm to supply
 
 188 Sand Holler 
 
 our hotel with fresh stuff, and that you be put 
 in charge of it, rent free." 
 
 "Why, Mr. Sheridan! What won't you do 
 for us next ! " 
 
 " But you see this arrangement means two 
 for us and one for you. I've managed to get 
 the land back from these venders and we will 
 give you a fair price for yours. The lot next 
 yours, however, I haven't been able to secure. 
 I won't give up though. I suppose he is holding 
 out for more profit." 
 
 " Ben Farwell owns it. He's a regular dd 
 skinflint." 
 
 "Well, all there is to do is to keep right 
 after him. We won't need the land till spring, 
 and if I let the matter apparently drop, he may 
 come around of his own accord without any 
 coaxing." 
 
 "I tried to buy it of him so I could have 
 more of a garden, but he just threw back his 
 head and laughed as if it were a joke." 
 
 " In the meantime, I have another source of 
 revenue for you. No matter how good a table 
 a hotel sets, the guests always seem possessed 
 to ' piece ' outside, especially children. They 
 will make tracks for all these candy stores and
 
 The Future of Ann Bee 189 
 
 soft drink places that the venders propose to 
 erect farther down, near where the street rail- 
 way station will be located. You must compete 
 with these venders and offer them something 
 better." 
 
 " I take off my hat to you, Mr. Sheridan. 
 You sure have a business head on you." 
 
 " Only in my particular line and this is really 
 hotel business on a different scale from the 
 Moreland." 
 
 ''' But what can I offer them that they'll want 
 more than they do the truck they'll buy at the 
 stores? " 
 
 "What? Why, fried apple pies. If there's 
 one thing invalids and children's mouths water 
 for, it's something they shouldn't have. To 
 men and children pie is the end of the rainbow. 
 I think it would be a good plan to start a pie 
 counter right now as a side line for the work- 
 men. They will gorge themselves with them, 
 but they work hard enough to counteract. I 
 can get the apples at wholesale as well as all 
 your other ingredients. You can serve them 
 evenings in the mess hall with Bert for counter 
 tender. Put up a sign at the end of the tent 
 toward the sanitarium : ' Fried apple pies direct
 
 190 Sand Holler 
 
 from the kettle/ It'll be the first sign they'll 
 read when they come across lots here. After 
 the hotel opens, you can have an artistic little 
 tea room to serve them in." 
 
 : ' I'll not charge these workmen and ex-soldier 
 boys much more than it costs to make them, so 
 
 there won't be profiteering till your millionaire 
 i 
 
 customers come. We women that worked for 
 soldiers in war time have been talking things 
 over and we're going to act as if the men 
 were still soldiers. You see, we weren't near 
 enough any of the camps to do any entertaining, 
 so we're going to take a hand in it now. Miss 
 Lloyd is going to start giving weekly dances 
 next week and we're to have socials and con- 
 certs. We're always a season or so behind 
 the times down here, so we don't mind being 
 a little late now." 
 
 " Good work. And Keenwald says I may 
 institute a Saturday afternoon field day and 
 furnish all the equipment." 
 
 " And where will you live, Mr. Sheridan, while 
 your new hotel is building? " 
 
 "Young Keenwald, the proprietor's son, and 
 I are going to have a little barracks of our 
 own near the new building."
 
 The Future of Ann Bee 191 
 
 " That will be fine for you both. See here, 
 Mr. Sheridan," she added with characteristic 
 bluntness, " I don't want to be a Buttinski, as 
 Bert says, but you've done so much for me, 
 I'd like to help you. What's come 'twixt you 
 and her?" 
 
 "Meaning ?" 
 
 " Miss Lloyd." 
 
 Sheridan looked at her quizzically. 
 
 " It was like this," he answered. " It seems 
 that her brother gave me a bad reputation. She 
 believed the tale he told, and asked me not to 
 come to her house again." 
 
 " And didn't you prove up to her that her 
 brother was mistaken?" 
 
 " No ; you see, I have been waiting for time 
 to show her." 
 
 " Well, I guess you didn't care a heap whether 
 she knew or not, or you wouldn't have waited 
 for such a slow old fellow as Time to straighten 
 things out. And about this Olive, Star's sis- 
 ter ? " she asked slyly. " I expect you are the 
 man on the bench in the park, aren't you? 
 There! you don't need to say anything. Your 
 face answers. Well, well, you'll be Star's 
 guardian, after all ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 A POTATO PARING SPELLS DESTINY 
 
 Having been in his new quarters a week, 
 Wade felt every inch and he had seventy- 
 one of them a contractor, as he thrust his 
 head out of a kitchen window to view the 
 procession of new workmen coming " over the 
 top," as Billy Keenwald, who had served in a 
 cantonment, called the little rise of land behind 
 the new buildings. The two men had estab- 
 lished themselves quite in military style with 
 a large tent, a smaller sleeping tent and an 
 adjacent kitchen in which they prepared their 
 own meals. Billy was now engaged in scaling 
 his recent catch of fish and Sheridan was 
 performing the more homely task of peeling 
 potatoes. 
 
 "Here, Billy!" he called suddenly to the 
 fish sealer, " look out the window here and 
 pipe the last lot of workmen." 
 
 192
 
 A Potato Paring Spells Destiny 193 
 
 Billy " piped," but incuriously. He was not 
 a reader of men. 
 
 This last addition to the force was made up 
 of men strangers to this part of the country, 
 having been sent in answer to various adver- 
 tisements for help, and they looked quite the 
 impersonation of the proverbial fish out of 
 water. 
 
 " In a month's time," thought Sheridan, 
 " they'll get the spirit of friendliness that dwells 
 down here. It's more catching than measles." 
 
 " This last lot," he commented aloud, " look 
 sorry they came." 
 
 " They'll look sorrier," replied Billy, " when 
 they get to working in this hot sun. But what 
 in the world are you doing with that spud 
 peel ? " he demanded as Sheridan airily tossed 
 the paring above his head and watched it fall 
 to the ground. 
 
 " I never tried it with a potato peeling be- 
 fore," observed Sheridan. " I've tried it many 
 a time with an apple paring when I was a 
 kid." 
 
 "Tried what?" 
 
 "Billy, didn't you ever have any sentiment? 
 Don't you know that if you pare an apple
 
 194 Sand Holler 
 
 without once breaking the peel and then let it 
 fall it will form the initial of the girl you want 
 for a sweetheart? " 
 
 " Oh, Ouija ! " scoffed the practical Billy. 
 
 " Of course," resumed Sheridan meditatively, 
 " an apple is more picturesque, but these are 
 economical times, and potatoes are more practi- 
 cal though homely. I didn't get the right twist 
 on that last. Here goes ! " 
 
 In spite of his expressed contempt for the 
 pastime, Billy eyed the paring with furtive 
 glance, 
 
 " It's a perfect O! " he cried gleefully. " That 
 means you won't get one." 
 
 " Don't take all the joy out of life," begged 
 Sheridan, as he waved another paring aloft. 
 
 " Another naught ! " announced Billy. " That 
 cinches it. But get good and busy. It's time 
 our spuds were over, and you are paring them 
 all to pieces. It was food that won the war, 
 you remember." 
 
 " Sure it was, and it would have been over 
 a darn sight sooner if you'd done all the cook- 
 ing. Those biscuits you beat up this morning 
 would make some ammunition. That O. D. 
 water you called coffee wouldn't soak them
 
 A Potato Paring Spells Destiny 195 
 
 soft. Then, those pancakes you served yester- 
 day. I pulled them out like molasses candy 
 and they stretched a' yard before the dough 
 would break. If there had been a shortage of 
 leather you could have solved the problem with 
 those cakes." 
 
 ' You let up on the pancake talk," grinned 
 Billy, " or I'll mix up another kind of batter 
 for you." 
 
 " I've a proposition to make to you. Instead 
 of taking turns at the cooking, I'll be the per- 
 manent chef, and you can attend to the pro- 
 visioning in the way of fishing and hunting. 
 Here now, you finish hiding these spuds while 
 I go and secure some fried pies for our dessert." 
 
 " I second the motion," replied Billy affably. 
 "" And I know what else you're aiming to do 
 on the way to the Bee Hive. Incidentally 
 you're going to stop and say a few kind words 
 to those new fellows. Dad doesn't half know 
 what a treasure he picked when he put you on 
 the payroll." 
 
 Wade laughed. 
 
 " You see, Billy, I've been in the hotel service 
 so long I've sort of got the habit of trying to 
 make strangers feel at home."
 
 196 Sand Holler 
 
 When he returned from his mission, Billy* 
 had the meal prepared. 
 
 " Say," he demanded irrelevantly, when they 
 were partaking of the fried pies, "are her 
 initials really O. O. ? " 
 
 " You've said it, Billy." 
 
 " Huh ! Then I bet you threw the peelings 
 into those turlimajigs on purpose. There was 
 a fellow in our company who had those initials. 
 His name was Ole Olesen." 
 
 " Well, I assure you she is not related to Ole."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 KENNETH REACHES CONCLUSIONS 
 
 That human bulletin board, Tilly Jonas, who 
 served her friends quite as well as a daily 
 paper could serve them in the dissemination of 
 local news, had been the first to tell Kenneth 
 that the Nutshell had been rented. 
 
 " And who do you suppose," she concluded, 
 " has rented it and is on the way here? " 
 
 'Who?" asked Kenneth, with a faint pre- 
 monition of what the answer would be. 
 
 " Star and his sister and their cousin, an 
 old lady. Their name is Ogden." 
 
 When Kenneth told her father of their pro- 
 spective neighbors, she asked perplexedly : 
 
 "What shall I do about calling? Mr. Sheri- 
 dan will certainly have to tell Miss Ogden why 
 he can't have our acquaintance." 
 
 " We will do the neighborly thing, of course," 
 the Major replied. " We are assuming that she 
 is an old friend of Sheridan's, but maybe such 
 
 197
 
 198 Sand Holler 
 
 is not the case. He can make some excuse to 
 her for not knowing us without giving the 
 real reason. If she doesn't want our acquaint- 
 ance, she won't return the visit." 
 
 Really Kenneth was glad of her father's 
 decision. She longed to see Star once more, 
 and she had always prayed to her good fairy 
 to send to their neighborhood a companion of 
 her own sex and age. 
 
 On the day of the Ogdens* arrival she sent 
 over a pitcher of cream and some hot tea 
 biscuits with a little note of welcome. 
 
 The girl from the north was warmed and 
 cheered by this first little contact with southern 
 hospitality. She responded with a cordial letter 
 of thanks in which she expressed the hope that 
 Kenneth would come to see her very soon. 
 
 The Nutshell had been a rather doleful little 
 place, but Olive had the home knack to the 
 last degree. It seemed a most attractive, livable 
 room which the Major and Kenneth entered one 
 afternoon. Boxes and jars of gayly colored 
 blossoms shone bright in the sunshine. A cool 
 breeze came in through the windows, gently 
 swinging the flower-sprigged curtains. 
 
 Olive did not fulfill any of Kenneth's pre-
 
 Kenneth Reaches Conclusions 199 
 
 conceptions of northern girls. Her softly 
 modulated voice, the witchery of the right 
 word here, the right smile there and her charm 
 of manner were irresistible. 
 
 The little cousin's dress and mien were sug- 
 gestive to the Major's memory of an old-time 
 regime. Dora, typically trim in spotless uni- 
 form, served tea and cakes in silent deftness. 
 Later Star came in from a canter on his pony. 
 Much of the dreaminess and wistfulness had 
 left his eyes and, as Kenneth had predicted, 
 he seemed a normal, healthy boy, which was 
 disappointing to the Major, as it flouted his 
 pet theory. Star was perfunctorily polite, but 
 Kenneth felt keenly his attitude of silent 
 antagonism. 
 
 Although Sheridan's name was not mentioned, 
 there was no trace of avoidance of it. When 
 Kenneth was being shown over the Nutshell 
 she noted on a table in Star's room a framed 
 photograph of his erstwhile brother. In spite 
 of her efforts, she found her eyes lingering 
 on the frank, manly face. When she passed 
 into Olive's room, she quickly observed a similar 
 picture. 
 
 " I hope you will come to the Hill House
 
 200 Sand Holler 
 
 right soon," she said impulsively to Olive. 
 
 " Indeed I shall be most happy to come," 
 was the earnest assurance. 
 
 " I am giving a dance to some of the young 
 workmen Wednesday night. You must come 
 and help out." 
 
 "Thank you; I shall be glad to come," 
 accepted Olive, " although it is only recently that 
 I have learned any of the new dances. I gave 
 up all social pleasures when I lost Little 
 Brother." 
 
 " What a terrible ordeal that must have 
 been for you ! " 
 
 " It was indeed ; but looking back, I can see 
 that I was very selfish in my grief. The 
 remorse I felt for my negligence in forgetting 
 him even for a few moments was so hard to 
 endure or overcome. But, there! I promised 
 not to talk about it or even think of it any more." 
 
 Kenneth quickly decided that the promise 
 must have been given to Sheridan. 
 
 " I became a recluse," continued Olive, " and 
 refused to see any of my former friends until 
 fortunately the opportunity for doing war work 
 offered. It was my salvation. When I received 
 the glorious and almost incredible news that
 
 Kenneth Reaches Conclusions 201 
 
 Star had been found, I felt that I could return 
 to mundane things once more." 
 
 " She has learned the new dances. I think 
 ' Dearest ' must have taught her," said Star 
 slyly. 
 
 Olive crimsoned and shot little brother a 
 surprised glance. 
 
 " ' Dearest ' she explained to Kenneth, 
 " was his little boy name for the young man 
 who was with us in the park when Star was 
 lost. I shall be glad to help with the dance or 
 do anything I can to entertain the workmen." 
 
 " Star," said Kenneth on leaving, " I hope 
 you will come to see us often, and make your- 
 self perfectly at home in the house and grounds." 
 
 " Thank you," said Star with polite formality. 
 
 " Of course he will be glad to come, Miss 
 Lloyd," said Olive quickly. ' 
 
 With dismay and an unwilling admiration 
 of his loyalty to Sheridan, Kenneth saw the 
 little stubborn line forming to straighten his 
 
 x 
 
 young lips. 
 
 !< Please don't make him come," she said in an 
 aside to Olive. " I don't want him to come 
 unless it is of his own free will." 
 
 As she walked down the little graveled path,
 
 202 Sand Holler 
 
 she heard Olive's low clear voice saying in 
 iSerious tone: 
 
 " Star, Wade will be greatly disappointed. 
 You know we must always do as he wishes, 
 and he is very anxious that we should be 
 friends with the Major and Miss Lloyd." 
 
 " It is true then," thought Kenneth. " Mr. 
 Sheridan was the young man in the park. They 
 were doubtless lovers, and in her remorse at 
 forgetting her little brother, she probably broke 
 her engagement and refused to see him again. 
 And it's exactly like a real romance that he 
 should be the one to restore Star to her. If 
 only he were worthy of her! But why should 
 he want them to be friends with us ? " 
 
 Early on the night of Kenneth's dance, Sheri- 
 dan came into the living-room of the Nutshell. 
 
 " I just dropped in for a minute on my way 
 from town to Sand Holler," he said. " I 
 promised to drive Mrs. Bee over to the dance, 
 as she is going to preside at the lemonade 
 bowl. Then I am going back to the Hive to 
 stay with the little Bees." 
 
 " I want to go, too, Olive," exclaimed Star 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Very well. Cousin is going over with me
 
 Kenneth Reaches Conclusions 203 
 
 to look on at the dancing. I should enjoy the 
 evening far more if you were to be there, 
 Wade. But since you think that I should go " 
 
 " I certainly do, Olive," he replied earnestly. 
 " You know why." 
 
 " Dora is in the seventh heaven of delight. 
 She was too young in war days to have a 
 soldier sweetheart, but it suffices that her part- 
 ners will be ex-soldiers. The glamour seems to 
 have outlived the wearing of the uniform. She 
 was so afraid Miss Lloyd would not ask her." 
 
 " The happiest person I know," said Sheri- 
 dan, " is Tilly Jonas. I suppose she is now 
 making her toilet in the woods or behind a 
 bush. I don't see how Miss Lloyd ever gained 
 Kate's consent to Tilly's going." 
 
 " Come along, Wade," urged Star, to whom 
 the Bee Hive was still the most alluring place 
 he knew. 
 
 When they reached Sand Holler, the family 
 were at their evening meal. Olynthus had been 
 invited to play with the orchestra at the dance, 
 but he had preferred an evening with his fiddle, 
 Sheridan and the children. 
 
 Ann Bee herself was a little loath to leave 
 her home circle when Sheridan reminded her
 
 204 Sand Holler 
 
 that it was time to start, but her Highway 
 aspirations stimulated by the distinction of 
 attending a social occasion at the Hill House 
 conquered the momentary hesitation. 
 
 Moonlight lay on the broad highway, making 
 it like a river of brightness in the midst of 
 the groves of tall, purple-black trees that cast 
 their weird shadows over the fields and low- 
 roofed farmhouses. 
 
 When they came in sight of the Hill House 
 so brilliantly lighted, Wade was keenly reminded 
 of his first romantic impressions of the old place. 
 
 " So near and yet so far," he said as he 
 stopped the car at the entrance to the grounds. 
 " I won't run the car in, but I will walk with 
 you past those tall trees, at least." 
 
 " Yes, do," begged Ann. " There's some- 
 thing spooky-like about the shadows of trees. 
 I don't mind near so much on a dark night, 
 but on a moonlight night it gets me as scared 
 as a nigger." 
 
 " Miss Lloyd probably wouldn't object under 
 the circumstances to my putting foot on the 
 premises," he said gravely. 
 
 " Shouldn't care if she did, if I were you," 
 bristled Ann Bee. " I'd like to give that young
 
 Kenneth Reaches Conclusions 205 
 
 woman a real good shake. It's what she 
 needs." 
 
 " Now that we are in the open and you are 
 free of tree shadows," remarked Sheridan, 
 ignoring her opinion of Kenneth, " I think I can 
 go back. I'll watch until you are on the 
 veranda." 
 
 Ann Bee hurried across the long stretch of 
 lawn and went up the steps. Sheridan lingered, 
 hoping for the sight of a certain young form. 
 
 " I feel as if I were posing for an ' Outcast's 
 Dream of Home,' he said with a little laugh that 
 wasn't altogether mirthful. " I'll hie myself 
 back to Sand Holler." 
 
 He was not disappointed in his last backward 
 glance. At least, a slender figure clad in white 
 was disclosed in the doorway, a vision of loveli- 
 ness, but at that distance impossible of identifi- 
 cation.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE HOSTESS OF HILL HOUSE 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan brought me over in his car," 
 Ann announced loftily to Kenneth when she 
 entered. 
 
 " I wish he had come in," said Kenneth 
 impulsively, a faint flush coming to deepen the 
 rose tints of her cheeks, as she felt Olive's 
 glance upon her. 
 
 " Of course he wouldn't do that," replied Ann 
 brusquely. 
 
 The rose tints on Kenneth's cheeks crim- 
 soned at the knowledge that Sheridan had evi- 
 dently confided in Ann Bee. 
 
 " You should have asked Sheridan, Kenneth," 
 admonished the Major, who stood near. 
 
 " I made the invitation general," defended 
 the girl. " I sent word that anyone working 
 at the new sanitarium would be welcome." 
 
 "Under the. circumstances, he could not think 
 
 206
 
 The Hostess of Hill House 207 
 
 of coming," persisted the Major, " without a 
 special invitation." 
 
 The guests now began to arrive and Kenneth 
 had no opportunity for further argument. 
 
 " We are all here," announced the foreman, 
 who had been chosen as spokesman, " except 
 Mr. Sheridan, and he's playing nursemaid to 
 the little Bees so Mrs. Bee could come." 
 
 The men filing in behind him were a little 
 shy and awkward at first, but the sight of the 
 " pie lady " quickly reassured them. To start 
 the merriment the first number was made 
 " Ladies' Choice." Young Billy Keenwald 
 came in after the dance had begun, and Kenneth 
 took him for her partner. 
 
 " Say ! " chuckled the naive Billy when the 
 music stopped. " You're sure some dancer ! 
 I'll tell Wade Sheridan he hasn't got anything 
 on me. I'll bet his O. O. can't dance like you." 
 
 " His O. O. ? " repeated Kenneth, bewildered. 
 
 " Those are the initials of his sweetheart." 
 
 Kenneth was silent. She didn't need the 
 enlightenment from Billy as to Sheridan's 
 " sweetheart." It surprised her, however, that 
 Sheridan should confide to such an extent in 
 the flippant Billy.
 
 208 Sand Holler 
 
 " How did you come to know the initials of 
 his sweetheart? " she asked. 
 
 With a few additional embellishments Billy 
 told of the potato peeling incident. 
 
 Kenneth introduced Billy to Tilly Jonas, who 
 had arrived early in order to make certain 
 mature alterations in the dressing of her hair 
 and other details. Much strategy had been 
 resorted to in persuading the tyrannical elder 
 sister to permit Tilly to attend, and Kate had 
 been allowed to gather the impression that Tilly's 
 role was to be that of waitress in helping to 
 serve the simple refreshments. Tilly's sunny 
 countenance fairly radiated the happiness and 
 excitement a very young girl feels in her first 
 party, and when Billy discovered that she danced 
 with exquisite natural grace he became her 
 devoted swain for the evening. 
 
 When the hour came to depart the men were 
 all so enthusiastic over their entertainment that 
 Kenneth promised them a similar afifair every 
 week. After her guests were gone her mind 
 did not dwell on the pleasure she had given to 
 a number of lonely young men. Instead her 
 thoughts centered about the one man to whom 
 the hospitable doors of the Hill House had been
 
 The Hostess of Hill House 209 
 
 closed. Her conscience troubled her, especially 
 now that she really knew him to be Olive 
 Ogden's suitor. She wondered if Olive knew 
 of his reputation as a cheat at cards and, if 
 she did, whether it would make any difference 
 in her feelings toward him. 
 
 " Maybe it is true," she thought, " that when 
 a woman loves she overlooks any and every 
 shortcoming in a man." 
 
 " Kenneth," said the Major when they were 
 discussing the dance at the breakfast table the 
 next morning, " it seems to me if Sheridan 
 were the kind of man Julian makes him out, 
 he would have been spending last night in town 
 instead of with a lot of children. Either he 
 has reformed or, as I am inclined to believe, 
 there is some mistake. A man of Keenwald's 
 class wouldn't put a card sharp in charge of a 
 hotel, or a*llow his young son to be so closely 
 associated with him." 
 
 " I wish I could think so," Kenneth replied. 
 " I wrote Julian again, and he said there could 
 be no mistake. The man's name was Sheridan; 
 they were together at Plattsburg and were play- 
 ing cards at a hotel when the cheating was 
 discovered."
 
 210 Sand Holler 
 
 Two or three days later Tilly Jonas came 
 to the Hill House on an errand. 
 
 "What do you think I did last night?" she 
 exclaimed excitedly. " Our high school society 
 met in town and there was a dance for the 
 returned soldiers at the ' Y.' They didn't have 
 enough girls, so they came over and asked us 
 kids to help out. Don't you tell Kate, though. 
 She'd never let me go to town again to attend 
 a class meeting if she knew. And oh, Miss 
 Lloyd, who do you think was the first man to 
 ask me to dance? " 
 
 " Young Billy?" 
 
 "No; that grand Mr. Sheridan. He looked 
 stunning. He came as Mr. Keenwald's guest. 
 Miss Ogden hadn't come yet, so he asked me 
 to dance. He is the grandest dancer! He 
 treated me just as if I was grown up and didn't 
 kid me. It was just like a dream! He intro- 
 duced me to some grand young soldiers and 
 when Mr. Keenwald danced with me he said 
 Mr. Sheridan was grand to all me workmen, 
 and looked up the homesick ones and helped 
 them if they went broke before pay day, and 
 he buys them pies at the Bee Hive. He told 
 me he was going to persuade Kate to let them
 
 The Hostess of Hill House 211 
 
 have an old-fashioned picnic at our farm, and 
 I think he's just gr " 
 
 Tilly paused for breath, and Kenneth man- 
 aged to make her escape just as the younger 
 girl's rosebud lips were forming another 
 " grand." 
 
 Closing the doors of Hill House to Wade 
 Sheridan hadn't shut him from Kenneth's life 
 by any means, for from everyone, everywhere, 
 she constantly heard his name and always in. 
 terms of praise.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 OLYNTHUS IS BANISHED 
 
 Since the outburst in which she had burned 
 the violin, Ann Bee had been uniformly calm 
 in her manner toward Olynthus; that is, out- 
 wardly. But smoldering all the time was 
 another volcanic eruption, and on a morning in 
 midsummer the eruption came. 
 
 The immediate cause of the cataclysm had 
 three distinct phases. While the family was 
 at breakfast which followed the morning meal 
 of the workmen, and while Olynthus serenely 
 slumbered in the detached tent reserved for 
 his sleeping apartment, the mess tent caught 
 fire. A general panic ensued, but Ann quickly 
 rallied her forces, formed a Bee bucket brigade 
 and then sent one of the children to summon 
 Olynthus. 
 
 " I done waked play paw up," reported the 
 young Bee, " and I done told him the mess tent 
 was afire, and he said to call him again when 
 
 212
 
 Olynthus Is Banished 213 
 
 the fire was all out. Then he done went to 
 sleep again." 
 
 In a sense Olynthus' inaction had really 
 contributed to the extinguishing of _ the flames, 
 for at this evidence of unconcern on the part 
 of her slumberous spouse, Ann Bee silently 
 attacked the flames with irresistible fury. 
 
 When the mess tent had been restored to 
 nearly normal conditions, she went up to the 
 big living tent where, braced against a tent 
 pole, his hat brim tilted down to his nose, 
 Olynthus sat tuning his violin strings. 
 
 "Fire out, honey?" he asked pleasantly. 
 
 She did not make immediately reply, but 
 began a concentric movement about him, Indian 
 fashion. Her silence and the Sitting Bull 
 method of approach gave Olynthus a slight 
 foreknowledge that something was coming. 
 
 With a click like that of a camera, something 
 shut off in her throat, and then suddenly was 
 let loose the withering blast of temper long 
 pent up. 
 
 ' You old cat-gut scraper ! " she stormed. 
 
 ' The fire's out, and so are you only you're 
 
 out for keeps this time and there'll be no raking 
 
 up of home fires for you. You're nothing but
 
 214 Sand Holler 
 
 a lazy loafer! Here we've all been working 
 our arms off to keep this place going, and you 
 don't take enough interest in it to lift your 
 little finger to save it. You just beat it now, 
 and don't come back. Go ! " 
 
 She paused a moment for breath and then 
 continued in the same strain. Out of the 
 withering rhetoric of her objurgation, Olynthus 
 gathered that he was expelled from the Bee 
 Hive, or to use his own words, " thrown out." 
 
 Silently he obeyed her edict of banishment 
 and walked slowly in the direction of the woods, 
 his violin under his arm. 
 
 Toward nightfall Wade Sheridan on his way 
 to the Nutshell stopped at the Bee Hive and 
 asked for Olynthus. 
 
 " He's left for good," informed Bert glumly. 
 " The hinges to maw's tongue were set in the 
 middle all right this morning, and she done 
 give him a worse jaw-wallopin' than he ever 
 got before and that's sure saying some. She 
 turned him out for keeps." 
 
 "I did," sharply confirmed Ann Bee, who 
 was as yet experiencing no contrition for serv- 
 ing eviction notice on the household slacker. 
 She related the details of the fire and the
 
 Qlynthus Is Banished 215 
 
 maddening indifference shown by her husband. 
 
 " I've got plumb tired of seeing him sit around 
 like he was taking root. All he'll ever be good 
 for is to make a statue of Nothing Doing." 
 
 "Where did he go?" asked Sheridan. 
 
 " I suppose to his old woods. He can stay 
 there and die of dry rot like the trees do, for 
 all I care. And Bert Lang," turning with 
 disconcerting suddenness to her eldest, " don't 
 you let me catch you going out of this house 
 to-night. You needn't .plan to chase after him 
 or take him anything to eat." 
 
 When Sheridan left the Bee Hive and Sand 
 Holler for the highway, his customary air of 
 cheerful certitude had departed. To him Olyn- 
 thus w r as a babe in the woods. The thought 
 of the exile lying down to sleep in the dark- 
 ness stirred his heart with pity. A man for 
 man feeling made him commiserate the luck- 
 less 'Lynthus even though he knew him to be 
 guilty of everything Ann Bee had imputed to 
 him. 
 
 He determined to go to his relief that night, 
 and he hastened on to the Nutshell to tell them 
 of Olynthus' unfortunate though deserved fate 
 and his intention to aid him.
 
 216 Sand Holler 
 
 " I'm going, too," declared Star, who had 
 listened intently to Sheridan's recital. 
 
 Olive and Little Cousin remonstrated, but 
 the boy was insistent. 
 
 " He offered me a shelter when I was home- 
 less," he reminded them, " so I am going to 
 help him now. You'd never have found me, 
 Olive, if Olynthus hadn't brought Wade to Mrs. 
 Weevil's." 
 
 This remembrance moved Little Cousin to 
 pack a lunch box. 
 
 " Give him that," she said, " and tell him I 
 will send him one every day." 
 
 Sheridan's car was at the Nutshell and he 
 and Star were soon motoring down a lane that 
 led to the woods. 
 
 " I hardly know where to begin looking for 
 him," said Sheridan, as they left the car at the 
 edge of the woods. 
 
 " If he's in here, he'll be playing," answered 
 Star confidently. 
 
 But long before they heard the far-off melody 
 of the violin they found a clue in the filmy 
 veil of blue smoke which led them to a crack- 
 ling bonfire near which sat Olynthus thrum- 
 ming gently on his violin.
 
 Olynthus Is Banished 217j 
 
 It occurred to Sheridan that Ann Bee would 
 be still more infuriated if she knew that the 
 exile had builded that which she had vainly 
 tried to have him extinguish. Possibly Olyn- 
 thus read the thought, for he said in a depreca- 
 tory tone : 
 
 " Bert sneaked over this afternoon and 
 gathered all this brush and fixed it ready to 
 light. He brought me a lunch, too." 
 
 " And here is your supper," said Star handing 
 him the box, " and you can come to the Nut- 
 shell and live with us." 
 
 " Thanky, lad. It's right kind of you, but I 
 reckon I don't fit into houses very well." 
 
 Hungry though Olynthus was, his manner 
 of eating was as deliberate as were all his 
 movements. He offered to share the. contents 
 of the lunch box with Star, who gazed longingly 
 at a piece of chocolate cake which, with heroic 
 self-denial, he refused. 
 
 " He won't need to save any of it for to- 
 morrow, Star," said Sheridan, " for he is going 
 home with me to-night. My barracks isn't 
 exactly a house, you know, Olynthus, and you 
 will fit into one of our bunks in good shape." 
 
 " That will be fine," assented Olynthus
 
 218 Sand Holler 
 
 enthusiastically. " I guess I've got soft, sleep- 
 ing like folks in a bed for so long a stretch. 
 Never used to think anything of laying out 
 under the stars, but now I was just thinking 
 it would seem lonely like down here in these 
 woods. I was only calculating to stop over 
 night, though. I was going to tramp on some- 
 wheres to-morrow." 
 
 " Play for me, Olynthus," begged Star. 
 
 And as Olynthus played, Star, seated on a 
 log in the little clearing, the dancing shadows 
 of the dark woods behind him and the firelight 
 full on his sensitive face, felt all his pulses 
 throbbing in rhythmic sympathy with the notes 
 of the violin. Something of the old weariness 
 and wistfulness came back into his eyes. 
 
 " Oh ! " he cried, looking like one suddenly 
 awakened, when the music ceased, " isn't it all 
 great the fire, the woods and all this! I 
 wish I were a gypsy again ! " 
 
 " Why, Star ! " protested Sheridan aghast. 
 "Think of Olive!" 
 
 " Yes, I know ; but I wish she and all of us 
 were gypsies. It's the only way to live. When 
 I am a man, I shall be a gypsy again." 
 
 " No, honey," warned Olynthus huskily. " It's
 
 Olynthus Is Banished 219 
 
 nice to tramp about, but keep a little spot 
 where you can drive homestakes between times. 
 That's nicer." 
 
 " It's too bad, Olynthus," said Sheridan con- 
 dolingly, " that Ann's temper gets uppermost." 
 
 " Oh, well ! " declared the optimist, " it might 
 have been worse. Some men have to dodge 
 rolling pins and things. All Ann's ever thrown 
 at me is words. They came thick and fast some- 
 times, but I haven't ever dodged them. It 
 sort of eases her off to let go them. But she's 
 right. I'm the one too many in a home where 
 everyone else works and brings in." 
 
 This was a very long speech for Olynthus, 
 and he returned to his violin. Star dreamed 
 again of his old gypsy life and Sheridan 
 pondered the perplexing problem of providing 
 a future for the helpless musician. 
 
 When the fire had become but a bed of 
 glowing coals which were carefully extinguished, 
 they left the quiet, shadowy woods and motored 
 homeward. 
 
 At Sheridan's quarters Olynthus cast longing 
 eyes at the bed that was improvised for his 
 accommodation but by now Sheridan had 
 formulated an experiment for the outcast, the
 
 220 Sand Holler 
 
 expounding of which took a good share of the 
 night. 
 
 The next morning when Olynthus was leav- 
 ing the barracks for " over the hill and far 
 away," he handed Sheridan a small flat parcel. 
 
 " This is a little present I had for Ann," he 
 said. " I was keeping it for Christmas. You 
 can give it to her now or keep it till then, just 
 as you think best." 
 
 When the exile was a dot on the horizon, 
 Sheridan hurried to the Bee Hive. He con- 
 cluded that Ann should not have her husband's 
 little gift until Christmas, or at least until she 
 showed some signs of relenting. 
 
 " I found Olynthus in the woods last night," 
 Sheridan said to her by way of a tentative 
 beginning. 
 
 She betrayed no interest whatever in this 
 announcement. The children, on the other 
 hand, were instantly alert, and Bert cast a 
 quick glance of warning, which Sheridan an- 
 swered with a smile as he resumed: 
 
 " Star took him a box of food." 
 
 Still there was no sign of response from Ann, 
 but the children seemed a bit cheered. 
 
 " I took him home with me for the night,"
 
 Olynthus Is Banished 221 
 
 was the next bulletin. This also failing to 
 elicit comment, he added cheerfully: 
 
 " Well, I'll be getting back on my goal." 
 
 " You needn't keep him with any hope of my 
 taking him back," Ann called to him trucu- 
 lently, as he turned to leave. 
 
 " He won't come back," said Sheridan in 
 positive tone, " not unless he can make a living." 
 
 " Then," prophesied Bert, " he'll never come 
 back." 
 
 " I am not so sure. But time will tell. It 
 will be good discipline for him anyway, to 
 make the effort, and he seems quite in earnest." 
 
 Ann shook her head despairingly. 
 
 " I'm sorry for you, Mr. Sheridan, if you're 
 going to put him up and stake him out to 
 learn anything. You'll only waste your time 
 and money. I know Olynthus. There isn't 
 any work I know of that he can do. I've 
 racked my brains many a time over it all. 
 There is nothing he can or will do that will 
 bring in wages." 
 
 " I, too, racked my brains to no purpose. It 
 was Billy Keenwald who put me wise. He 
 was a personnel officer at one of the canton- 
 ments, and it was his duty to fit the misfits
 
 Sand Holler 
 
 of the draft into proper places. He told me 
 where he should have assigned Olynthus if he 
 had come under his jurisdiction." 
 
 " Well, do tell me where," Ann exclaimed, 
 her interest finally aroused. 
 
 " We, Olynthus and I, decided not to tell 
 anyone until he finds out if he can make gopd." 
 
 Now Sheridan really considered that secrecy 
 in regard to Olynthus' movements was the 
 wisest plan; still, man-like, he found no little 
 pleasure in punishing Ann for her tongue. 
 
 If she felt any resentment, she did not show 
 it, however, and Sheridan went back to his 
 quarters, resolved to reveal to no one, not even 
 Olive, the mystery of Olynthus' present where- 
 abouts or occupation. Whenever questioned, 
 he replied that it wouldn't be fair to Ann for 
 him to give any information to an outsider.
 
 Obeying a sudden impulse, Kenneth one day 
 penned the following: 
 
 My dear Mr. Sheridan: 
 
 We are to have another dance at the 
 Hill House to-morrow evening for the men 
 in your employ. We should be pleased 
 to have you come also with Miss Ogden. 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Kenneth Lloyd. 
 
 She knew that Star was a daily visitor at 
 the sanitarium, so she took her note to the 
 Nutshell. 
 
 " Olive is in town," said Star when she 
 came up the steps, "but Cousin is at home. 
 Come in and see her." 
 
 " No, thank you, Star. I came to see you 
 to ask you to do me a favor. Will you please 
 
 223
 
 224 Sand Holler 
 
 deliver this note to your brother? I want 
 him to come to the dance to-morrow night." 
 
 Star's eyes brightened as he took the note. 
 
 " Do you think he will come, Star ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Did you take back whatever it was you 
 wrote him before ? " he cross-questioned, while 
 his eyes, most disconcertingly keen, looked 
 straight into hers. 
 
 There was something singularly disarming 
 in his direct gaze. 
 
 " No, Star," she replied, surprised. " I 
 didn't do that I couldn't." 
 
 " I will ride over with the note," he said 
 quietly after an uncomfortable pause, and touch- 
 ing his cap, he started for the stable. 
 
 Kenneth returned home, feeling quite crest- 
 fallen at Star's demeanor and his unspoken 
 belief that Sheridan would not accept the invita- 
 tion. She spent the rest of the afternoon 
 watching eagerly for an answer to her note. 
 It was Bert who finally delivered it 
 
 " I suppose, Bert, you will be starting in 
 school again before long," she remarked, as 
 he was going through all his pockets in search 
 of the note.
 
 An Invitation Ignored 225 
 
 " I may, but I'll leave as soon as the new 
 sanitarium opens. Mr. Sheridan is going to 
 give me a job as bell-boy, and he says that 
 men who take these mineral baths are always 
 generous with tips, so I'll make good money. It 
 was a lucky day for us-all when he done come 
 to Sand Holler." 
 
 " But your education, Bert?" 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan says I can go to night school 
 in town, and I'll have time between rings to 
 study. Well, I've done gone through all my 
 pockets and I don't find any note. Oh, I 
 remember. I put it in my cap. Here 'tis. 
 Good-bye, Miss Lloyd. I must get back and 
 tend the pie counter." 
 
 Kenneth hurriedly opened the note and read : 
 
 My dear Miss Lloyd: 
 
 It is very kind in you under the circum- 
 stances to ask me to your dance. I under- 
 stand the spirit that prompted the invita- 
 tion and that I am asked as one of a unit 
 and not as an individual. I regret that I 
 cannot accept. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 Wade Sheridan.
 
 226 Sand Holler 
 
 Chagrin at having been refused and regret 
 that she had extended the invitation sent Ken- 
 neth to her father. 
 
 " He's right, honey," declared the Major 
 when he had read Sheridan's note. " Right 
 from his standpoint. I doubt more than ever 
 that he did what Julian accused him of. There 
 must be a mistake." 
 
 " If he were innocent, he'd take pains to 
 clear himself now that Olive and I are such 
 friends. It was on that account that I swallowed 
 my pride and invited him. I think since he 
 regained her, he has reformed and doesn't play 
 cards." 
 
 " Nine out of ten innocent men would have 
 denied the charge, but he may be the tenth 
 
 man." 
 
 Kenneth refused to be convinced. 
 
 " He'll never be friends with us now," she 
 thought sadly. " Of course I cannot make any 
 further overtures. And I have lost Star, too. 
 I am afraid in time it will take Olive's friend- 
 ship from me also. It is strange that she 
 hasn't taken arms against me. It shows how 
 fair-minded she is. I'll put him completely 
 out of my mind now. It shall be as though
 
 An Invitation Ignored 227 
 
 I never had known him or even heard of him." 
 
 Owing to the perversity of human nature, 
 however, this decision proved to be a good 
 method for keeping Sheridan constantly in her 
 thoughts. 
 
 The following night at the dance Billy was 
 again one ~f her partners. 
 
 " I coul n't make Sheridan come with me," 
 he said with a grin. " He pretended it was 
 because he didn't care about dancing, but I'm 
 thinking it is because he's too fond of O. O. 
 to go anywhere except where she is. He's a 
 one-girl man, all right." 
 
 " Billy little dreams," Kenneth thought, " how 
 near to him O. O. is. I wonder that she would 
 care to come to the dance when Wade doesn't." 
 
 Olive left, however, after the third dance. 
 
 " Wade," she said casually on leaving, " is 
 over at the Nutshell spending the evening, and 
 I promised to come home early. I feel that 
 I mustn't make a break in our little family 
 circle." 
 
 Kenneth thought she read a mute reproach 
 in Olive's eyes. Somehow throughout the rest 
 of the dances in spirit she was in that little 
 home circle herself.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 KENNETH ACTS LIKE A MAN 
 
 Wade sat outside his tent in the dusk of an 
 autumn night. Something of his usual ebullience 
 had fallen from him. He had been doing 
 strenuous work night and day on the various 
 details and reports for Keenwald. The erection 
 of the hotel and the other buildings in connec- 
 tion with it was progressing at full speed, but 
 success in business now meant only the means 
 to an end, the end being a brown bungalow 
 with a picturesque roof, casement windows, a 
 homey hearth and the girl of his dreams. And 
 as yet these seemed as elusive as a mirage. 
 
 His musings were interrupted by a piping 
 
 voice. 
 tt 
 
 Maw wants you-all to c'man over." 
 Sheridan rose with alacrity. Everyone at 
 the Nutshell had been invited to some enter- 
 tainment in town. Billy was motoring about 
 
 228
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 229 
 
 the country and Wade realized that he was 
 lonely. 
 
 " We-all want play paw back," confided the 
 young messenger, as she trotted along beside 
 Sheridan. 
 
 " Lonesome without him?" he asked, smiling. 
 
 " Yes ; and Maw don't jaw us or cuff us any 
 more, or nothing," complained the small Bee 
 in an aggrieved tone. " The kids told me to ask 
 you-all to fetch him back. You-all would if 
 you knew how we-all want him." 
 
 He couldn't chill a faith like this with an 
 .icy refusal. 
 
 " Sure, I'll bring him back some day, honey, 
 even if the drone fails to become a busy bee." 
 
 Sheridan found Ann in the kitchen tent. 
 
 "How is Olynthus doing?" she asked 
 abruptly. 
 
 It was the first time she had mentioned his 
 name and Sheridan felt a little exultant thrill 
 at the inquiry. 
 
 " He is well and happy." 
 
 " They say happiness makes the world go 
 round, but his world won't go round very fast 
 while he's away from the woods and tramping 
 places."
 
 230 Sand Holler 
 
 " He isn't altogether. No one's world 
 revolves fast enough, I'm thinking." 
 
 " Does he say how he is coming on in his 
 new trade? " 
 
 " No ; he never mentions it, and I don't ask 
 him." 
 
 " The fact is," Ann Bee said abruptly, " the 
 children are eating their hearts out for him, 
 and I've come to the conclusion I might as 
 well consider him one of them. Their pleasure's 
 worth more than a lifetime of labor anyway, 
 I suppose, and you can't make me think he's 
 learning to work. I know him too well to believe 
 that." 
 
 "Most anything would be worth a lifetime 
 of 'Lynthus' labor," chuckled Bert, who had 
 come into the tent. 
 
 " You can write him," Ann said to Sheridan, 
 ignoring her son's remark, " that he can come 
 home if he wants to, and I'll hold my tongue 
 and temper. I've been practicing doing it on 
 the young 'uns lately." 
 
 Sheridan felt a throb of triumpH. 
 
 " Absence does make the heart grow fonder," 
 he thought, as he answered: 
 
 " He's really contented where he is. And he
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 231 
 
 won't come back yet. But how is the coffee 
 can filling?" 
 
 " Full up again and going to the bank to-mor- 
 row. Don't it beat the Dutch how grasping 
 people get when they are making money fast? 
 A few months ago I never thought I'd be 
 earning so much and that dairy ahead of us 
 and Bert's job in sight. I'd have thought that 
 would spell bliss, but now here I am worrying 
 because you and I can't land that lot next door." 
 " I saw old Farwell again and made him 
 a good offer, but he wouldn't let go. I'll do 
 nothing more till spring, then I'll see if the 
 community can't force him to be reasonable." 
 " I haven't told you yet why I sent for you." 
 " Anything special at the movie ? " 
 ' Yes ; Kate Jonas is organizing a library 
 drive to get books and magazines for the movie 
 club house. Those young fellows have read 
 twice over what you put in. We are going 
 to make a house to house canvass for books. 
 If anyone dares to offer one of Noah's favorites 
 he'll be fined the cost of a new book. We're 
 going to talk over ways to raise money to 
 subscribe for papers and magazines. The first 
 meeting is to-night. Olive couldn't come on
 
 232 Sand Holler 
 
 account of going to town. She says I must 
 call her Olive, because you and Star do. Well 
 what I asked you for was to see if you would 
 come to the meeting and tell us the kind of 
 books and magazines these young fellows would 
 like best." 
 
 " Yes ; of course I'll be glad to do anything 
 I can for such a good cause. I'll start your 
 campaign by contributing twenty-five good books 
 and I know Billy will come across. Will Miss 
 Lloyd be at the meeting? " 
 
 " Maybe. She is very enthusiastic over the 
 drive. But what do you care if she is?" 
 
 "I don't; but she might." 
 
 "Then let her leave," said Ann loftily. 
 
 " She's been very kind and helpful to the 
 cause, hasn't she ? " Sheridan asked. 
 
 "Yes; she is a good, little, all-round helper. 
 But it's time I went up to the club house." 
 
 " I'll stay here," said Sheridan, " and when 
 you are ready for me to talk, you can send 
 one of the children for me." 
 
 Ann went to the meeting and when the pre- 
 liminaries were disposed of, and they were ready 
 to discuss the question of books, she announced 
 that she had a suggestion to make.
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 233 
 
 Sheridan was the " suggestion " c! she dis- 
 patched a Bee to summon him without revealing 
 her plan. 
 
 Kenneth was at the farthest end of the room 
 and glanced up casually when Sheridan entered. 
 Totally unprepared to see him, her surprise 
 sent a flush to the roots of her hair. 
 
 Ann Bee explained that Mr. Sheridan would 
 be an excellent judge of the kind of books the 
 men would enjoy and that she had asked him 
 to help with the project. 
 
 He made a very apt little talk, telling them 
 how appreciative the men had been of the 
 southern hospitality they had enjoyed and which 
 they would not forget; that he had already 
 written Mr. Keenwald explaining how great 
 a factor the co-operation of the women had been 
 in the furtherance of the work, and that Mr. 
 Keenwald had replied that he was glad his 
 springs had gushed forth in such friendly soil. 
 Then Sheridan spoke of the kinds of books 
 that appealed to the average man, and at the 
 request of the committee he promised to make 
 a suitable list. ' 
 
 From time to time during his talk, Kenneth 
 had sent furtive glances in his direction and
 
 234 Sand Holler 
 
 then, as she perceived that the committee 
 engrossed his attention, she ventured to look 
 at him more closely. Unaware of the fact, 
 she came to study him intently and critically. 
 From his brown eyes so widely set there seemed 
 to radiate a kindliness for all humanity. His 
 voice and manner were quiet and well-bred, 
 yet with the power and force of earnestness 
 behind them. Kenneth had the faculty of visual- 
 ization to a marked degree. There was now 
 flashed before her mind a film-like vision of 
 men seated at a card table, one of them being 
 dramatically accused of cheating, but Sheridan's 
 face was not among the players. 
 
 It came to her with all the force the shock 
 of truth brings that he was he must be 
 innocent of Julian's accusation. 
 
 She liked it in him a northerner that 
 he was so appreciative of their desire to give 
 service to the young strangers who had come 
 among them, even though their capacity was 
 meagre. She entirely forgot her former attitude 
 toward him until his eyes unintentionally met 
 hers, but were instantly averted. 
 
 At the conclusion of his talk, Sheridan added 
 lhat as it was Saturday night, there would be
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 235 
 
 an unusually large number of patrons at the 
 pie counter, and Mrs. Bee thought that some 
 of the young women might like to come out 
 and help her fry and serve. 
 
 It was astonishing how many seemed to think 
 they came under Sheridan's classification of 
 " young," and there was an immediate and 
 enthusiastic response of volunteer waitresses 
 who hurried out, eager to begin their duties. 
 Kenneth stayed behind, driven by a desire for 
 solitude. With the faith in Wade's innocence 
 had come another truth to be admitted to her- 
 self that he dominated her thoughts most 
 overwhelmingly. 
 
 Presently the girl's eyes chanced upon a shelf 
 of books that she had never noticed before. 
 They were books for boys, although not of 
 recent publication. She opened one at random. 
 On the fly-leaf was written : " Wade, on his 
 twelfth birthday." These mementoes o? his 
 childhood were similar to the collection still in 
 Julian's room at the Hill House. She liked it in 
 him that he had retained these juvenile books in 
 spite of the fact that he had been homeless for 
 years, and she sensed the thoughtfulness that 
 had placed them here for the benefit of the
 
 236 Sand Holler 
 
 young Bees and Star, who still looked upon the 
 " movie house " as a second home. 
 
 She felt that it was detestable that she should 
 be here, in his house, when she had made it 
 impossible for him to come to the Hill House. 
 She was ashamed that he should have found 
 her here and she determined to go outside and 
 wait for Joel and Kate, with whom she had 
 arranged for company home. 
 
 Her rambling, confused thoughts were inter- 
 rupted by the entrance of Ann Bee. 
 
 "Has Joel come yet?" Kenneth asked hur- 
 riedly. 
 
 ' Yes ; but I told him you were not going 
 with him and Kate." 
 
 " Oh, but I had planned to ! Father made 
 me promise not to go on the highway alone 
 after dark." 
 
 '' Everyone else failing, there is always Bert," 
 replied Ann lightly, " but you aren't going 
 home yet. I am going to send Wade Sheridan 
 in here." 
 
 "What for?" asked Kenneth faintly. 
 
 " So you can tell him like a man that you 
 know he didn't do whatever it was you said 
 he was guilty of."
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 237 
 
 " Why Mrs. Bee, 'how do you know " 
 
 " I read it in your expression when he was 
 talking to us. If he had happened to look at 
 you, he would have known too. I knew you 
 would discover that you were wrong without 
 any proving up. Anyone with two eyes to see 
 and two ear? to hear would know that Wade 
 Sheridan couldn't do anything really bad. It 
 isn't in him. There was a time when I wouldn't 
 have dared to talk right out from the shoulder 
 to a Lloyd in this way, and there was also 
 a time when you wouldn't have condescended 
 to listen to me if I had, but the war and our 
 service to these workmen have made you and 
 me more sensible. I am going to send Mr. 
 Sheridan in here." 
 
 " Oh, wait ! Mrs. Bee, please ! I'm afraid 
 ashamed to tell him." 
 
 " Now, don't you, a Lloyd, be a slacker. Do 
 you suppose if he'd done you a wrong even 
 in thought, he'd shirk from owning up to it?" 
 
 " No," she returned, with an immediate face- 
 about. " I won't, either. Send him in." 
 
 In another moment she heard Wade enter. 
 At her first shy glance she saw that he was 
 surprised to find her still there. This gave
 
 238 Sand Holler 
 
 her courage and she quickly regained her self- 
 control. 
 
 " I owe you an apology, Mr. Sheridan," she 
 said quietly, " for being here in your house 
 when you don't come to ours." 
 
 " Not at all," replied Sheridan earnestly. 
 " This is my house no longer. It is for public 
 service. When the workmen have gone, I think 
 I shall convert it into a clubroom for my bell- 
 boys. But even if it were my house, you would 
 be welcome, so please sit down." 
 
 " There is something else I wish to say to 
 you, Mr. Sheridan." 
 
 " You can say anything you like to me, Miss 
 Lloyd." 
 
 "I wish to say that I know you didn't 
 do what Julian said." 
 
 "How do you know?"- he asked quickly. 
 "Did Julian " 
 
 " No ; Julian has not retracted. No one told 
 me. I know the way Star knew." 
 
 Sheridan made no effort to conceal his pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 "Sit down, Miss Lloyd, and let me tell you 
 all about it. In the first place, I never play 
 cards. When I went into the hotel business,
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 239 
 
 I made up my mind it would be better for me 
 not to get the habit. On the way back east 
 from here when I took Star to Olive I 
 stopped off to see your brother." 
 
 " You did ! " she gasped in surprise. 
 
 " Of course, I should want to find out his 
 reason for making such an accusation. You 
 know, as I told you, we had met only casually. 
 In fact, until I saw you I never had heard his 
 last name. I'd only heard him spoken of as 
 'Julian/ When I saw him this last time, he 
 said, ' Halloa, Mr. Wade,' and I realized that 
 he had taken it for granted that Wade was 
 my last name. When I told him his mistake, 
 he said : ' Sheridan ! I thought that was the 
 name of the chap that gave me the rotten deal 
 at cards that night at the Moreland.' I reminded 
 him that the card crook's name was Sherman. 
 ' Oh, to be sure/ he replied. ' I knew it was 
 the same name as one of your northern generals 
 anyway.' " 
 
 "That sounds exactly like Julian," Kenneth 
 exclaimed, too vexed to see any humor in the 
 explanation. 
 
 " When I told him what a fix his mistake in 
 names had got me into with you, he was con-
 
 240 Sand Holler 
 
 trite and determined to make amends. He 
 wanted to wire you at once and I had great 
 difficulty in winning his consent to keep silent 
 on the subject." 
 
 " But, Mr. Sheridan, why didn't you let him 
 make the explanation to me, and why didn't you 
 tell me in the first place " 
 
 " It was a whim of mine," he replied earn- 
 estly, " that you should come to know as 
 Star knew without its being proved to you. 
 It was pride, I admit, a foolish pride, maybe, 
 but I couldn't help it." 
 
 " Oh," she half whispered, " if you knew 
 how sorry how ashamed I am ! Do you think 
 you can forgive me ? " 
 
 She held out a trembling hand and she adored 
 the shy, boyish way in which he took it and 
 held it for a few seconds. 
 
 "You needn't feel ashamed," he said earn- 
 estly. " What you did was very natural. Sup- 
 pose I had been Sherman and all that Julian 
 said I was? You had no reason to think 
 otherwise. There was no other course for you 
 to take than the one' you did, and it was worth 
 waiting for to have you come out this way 
 like a man."
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 2.1 
 
 She laughed a little nervously. 
 
 " Did I ? That was the way Ann Bee told 
 me I must do come out like a man." 
 
 "Ann Bee!" 
 
 "Yes; this meeting is of her making. She 
 gave me the impression you would be in town 
 with Olive to-night. She is very keen and she 
 read in my expression during your great little 
 speech what I was thinking, so she cleared the 
 deck for action; kept me in here, prodded me 
 to confess and sent you in to receive my 
 apology." 
 
 " Good work! Long live Ann Bee, and the 
 workmen's library ! I shall buy fifty more books 
 to celebrate the occasion." 
 
 " It is getting late," said Kenneth rising, 
 adding hesitatingly, " I must go. Mrs. Bee 
 said that Bert would take me home." 
 
 " Bert had gone to bed before I came in 
 here," said Sheridan smiling. " Will you let 
 me be his substitute, please?" 
 
 They motored down the highway that glowed 
 dimly white in the starlight. An infant moon 
 slipped from under its down coverlet of fleecy, 
 silver-edged clouds and the ajr was crisp with 
 the coolness of southern autumn. For a time
 
 242 Sand 'Holler 
 
 they rode in happy silence, thrilled with the 
 beauty of the night. 
 
 " You must come into the Nutshell with me," 
 Sheridan urged as they drew near the Hill 
 House. " Olive will be home by now and she 
 will like to know that now we are friends." 
 
 " It's much too late to go in," Kenneth pro- 
 tested, her happiness suddenly clouded by the 
 mention of Olive. 
 
 " They have no clocks at the Nutshell," Sher- 
 idan insisted ; " at least, none that run, and 
 besides, it is Saturday night. Billy is away, 
 and I am spending my week-end here, so Star 
 will be allowed to sit up for me. In fact, 
 Star is allowed to do most anything he chooses 
 nowadays. Olive will kill him with kindness 
 in her endeavor to ' make up ' for all he has 
 missed in his childhood. He'll be needing a 
 bit of disciplining one of these days. The best 
 boy in the world can't stand quite so much in 
 the way of indulgence as he's getting." 
 
 " When you are legally his brother," she 
 reminded him, trying to speak lightly, "you 
 will have the right to discipline him." 
 
 He looked at her oddly, a slight flush coming 
 to his face.
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 243 
 
 " Billy Keenwald told me," she said, answer- 
 ing the look. 
 
 "Billy!" 
 
 " Yes ; he told me how you threw the ' tater 
 parings,' to make your sweetheart's initials, 
 and that they formed the letters O. O." 
 
 " Oh ! " he said sheepishly. 
 
 " No; O. O.," she replied laughing. " I didn't 
 know before what boys men can be. Billy 
 didn't know, however, that those letters stood 
 for Olive Ogden." 
 
 Sheridan made no reply, but silence is often 
 a confession, Kenneth thought. 
 
 ' You see," he told her after a rather pro- 
 longed silence, " the lights are not out at the 
 Nutshell; you must come in." 
 
 He turned in at the driveway and Star opened 
 the door. 
 
 ' Wade, what makes you so late?" 
 
 Then the boy stared incredulously at Kenneth 
 as she came up the steps. 
 
 "It's all right, Star. I told him," laughed 
 Kenneth and noted the flash of pleasure on her 
 erstwhile young knight's mobile face. His prin- 
 cess had returned. 
 
 Sheridan, who had gone on into the sitting-
 
 244 Sand Holler 
 
 room, came into the hall a moment later with 
 Olive. 
 
 " Kenneth," she exclaimed impulsively, " I 
 am so glad that you and Wade are friends. It 
 was all that was lacking to my our happiness. 
 I wanted to tell you that what you thought 
 about him was not true, but he wouldn't let 
 me. It was our fondest hope that you would 
 discover it yourself, as you have." 
 
 Kenneth wondered with growing dismay why 
 she should feel such a silly little pang at Olive's 
 familiar use of the significant pronoun. In 
 her short stay she noted a very tender expres- 
 sion in Sheridan's eyes every time he glanced 
 at Olive. She had a certain, subtle knowledge 
 of what the homey little Nutshell and its charm- 
 ing young mistress must mean to him. The 
 closely drawn curtains, the cheerful fire on the 
 hearth, the delicate aroma of the tea the Little 
 Cousin was brewing, must make a powerful 
 appeal to a man who for so many years had 
 been condemned to hotel life. 
 
 Kenneth felt compunction in taking Wade 
 away from such surroundings, even for the 
 short space of time required to walk through 
 the grounds of the Hill House.
 
 Kenneth Acts Like a Man 245 
 
 " I want to tell you/' she said as they stood 
 before the door, " that I think Olive Ogden is 
 the dearest girl I ever knew." 
 
 " You can't think how happy that makes 
 me," Sheridan said, and she caught the ring 
 of truth and gladness in his voice. " I felt 
 you would like her." 
 
 " Won't you just step across the threshold 
 to show that your forgiveness is complete ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 He followed her into the hall and was about 
 to speak when the Major came from the library 
 and extended his hand to Sheridan as naturally 
 and cordially as though he had been a habitual 
 caller. 
 
 " I was just starting out Sand Holler way 
 to hunt for my daughter," he said. " I'm glad 
 you brought her home." 
 
 After Sheridan had gone, Kenneth told her 
 father of Julian's stupid blunder. The Major, 
 however, was quite merciful and did not even 
 intimate an " I told you so." 
 
 Once in her room Kenneth abandoned the 
 struggle to conceal her emotions. 
 
 " Oh, Julian ! " she cried, as she looked at 
 the merry face in the photograph on her table,
 
 246 Sand Holler 
 
 " what have you done with your heedlessness 
 about names ? " 
 
 While her brother's accusation had served 
 at first to keep Sheridan much in her thoughts 
 she knew that henceforth Wade would mean 
 more than ever in her life and her cheeks 
 burned as she Admitted to herself that it was 
 something more, much more, than an impersonal 
 interest in seeing justice done. With a sob 
 she threw herself on the bed, her face buried 
 in the pillows as if to shut out the realization 
 that she loved Wade and Wade loved Olive.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 THE TYRANT SURRENDERS 
 
 "Ann Bee! First in war, first in peace," 
 quoth Wade, his eyes twinkling, as he leaned 
 against the pie counter the following day, and 
 waited for his own particular pastry which was 
 bobbing jauntily about in a kettle of boiling 
 lard. 
 
 Ann Bee turned and looked at him keenly. 
 
 "Well, .is it all ironed out?" she asked. 
 
 " It certainly is, and thank you for your 
 part in effecting a Peace Treaty. You certainly 
 have marvelous executive ability." 
 
 "Go 'long!" she retorted, addressing, how- 
 ever, the elusive pie she was pursuing with the 
 skimmer and at last deftly landing it on a 
 plate. '* When you see people," she answered 
 him, " groping all around for the right path, 
 it's easy enough to give them the one little 
 shove needed to land them there. I never had 
 eyes or ears for anything outside my own little 
 
 247
 
 248 Sand Holler 
 
 ai fairs till all these men dropped down in Sand 
 Holler, and then I tumbled to how much could 
 be done in this world if every one of us 
 would lend a helping hand to the next fellow. 
 It would make one of those endless chains you 
 were telling me about. I knew it would be 
 better all around the way things are coming 
 if you and Miss Lloyd were friends. After 
 this, I am going to give every stumbler a hand 
 if I can without making a meddler or nuisance 
 of myself." 
 
 " You'll make some little helper," Sheridan 
 assured her, " and I'll tell you who needs if 
 very much. Kate Jonas and Joel Dixon are 
 surely in line for a little help to happiness, 
 and you are the only one I know of around here 
 who can give it." 
 
 " A helping hand might do for Joel all right, 
 but it'll have to be a regular knock down blow 
 before that Kate Jonas would see daylight. I've 
 had my eye on her ever since those Red Cross 
 meetings. I saw what a tight rein she held 
 over her paw and Tilly, and I've heard how 
 they get the best of her unbeknownst to her. 
 And Joel's been as meek as a sheep. They're 
 all under Kate-rule, and she's just as bossy
 
 The Tyrant Surrenders 249 
 
 as the old Kaiser himself used to be. I'm 
 goii.g to have her introduced to herself." 
 
 "When?" asked Sheridan with a grin. 
 
 " Just as soon as I coach Joel and Tilly in 
 their parts. That young Tilly's on the road 
 to be a post-war bride. She won't keep a man 
 waiting, mortgage or no mortgage, the way 
 Kate Jonas has kept Joel Dixon dangling after 
 her for the last six years. Kate says she is 
 waiting for her paw to pay off the mortgage 
 and for Tilly to get grown up." 
 
 " Tilly is the most grown-up young thing 
 I know," declared Sheridan. 
 
 " She is that. She knows more about love 
 and lovers than her big sister ever did or ever 
 will. But I'll be starting things right away." 
 
 Ann Bee " started things " by stopping Joel 
 and giving him a little timely advice which was, 
 it happened, just what he needed, for Joel had 
 been an observer lately of what greait things 
 could be accomplished by discipline and system. 
 He had been a regular visitor at the sanitarium 
 and had watched the bosses getting results by 
 their mastery over men. Moreover, he had just 
 received notice that he was to be promoted to 
 the position of superintendent of mails. The
 
 250 Sand Holler 
 
 knowledge had given him a feeling of confi- 
 dence in himself and a sense of security that 
 begot assurance. He listened attentively to 
 the suggestions of Ann Bee. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan says," she told him, " that 
 the side that takes the offensive is the one 
 that wins; never the defensive. So you want 
 to get rid of your defensive side and get into 
 action, Joel Dixon, and you mind what I am 
 telling you." 
 
 In pursuance of this advice, Joel mustered 
 all his courage and went forth to battle. He 
 stopped at the Jonas farm, strode around to 
 the kitchen door and surprised Kate amid the 
 pots and kettles. 
 
 " Drop your work, Kate. I want to say 
 something to you." 
 
 " Well, Joel Dixon ! " she exclaimed in mixed 
 surprise and wrath. " I'm thinking you'll have 
 to choose some other time for your saying. 
 I'm no lady of leisure. This is my time to 
 work." 
 
 " Kate ! " There was a new, dominant ring 
 in Joel Dixon's tone. " You are going to listen 
 to me nozv. I have waited just as long as I 
 intend to."
 
 The Tyrant Surrenders 251 
 
 Kate's eyes sparkled dangerously in a way 
 Joel had come to recognize, but the long dormant 
 masculine zest for conquest spurred him on. 
 His laugh snapped the last fetter of hesitation 
 and he strode across the kitchen, took the dish- 
 cloth from her, tossed it aside and swept the 
 astonished young woman into the sitting-room, 
 not stopping until she was seated on the best 
 plush sofa. 
 
 " Now, I'll tell you what it is I have to say." 
 
 Kate could only look at him in silent sur- 
 prise at this sudden assumption of mastery, 
 but deep within her she felt the quickening of 
 a new respect and liking for Joel, a liking tinged 
 with the fear that sometimes is alluring. 
 
 " Kate, I have waited six long years for 
 you to name the day. If you don't do it, now, 
 I shall." 
 
 By this time Kate had rallied her wits for 
 a final defense. Boldly she answered him: 
 
 " We'll wait another year. The mortgage 
 will be paid off by then. Tilly will be through 
 the tenth grade." 
 
 ' You'll marry me a month from to-day or 
 not at all," he told her. 
 
 Kate's courage flared into a counter attack.
 
 252 Sand Holler 
 
 "Indeed! Well, I'll tell you right now, Joel 
 Dixon, that I don't propose to be forced or 
 threatened by you or anyone else. I'll be mar- 
 ried when I get good and ready." 
 
 " Kate," Joel replied coolly, " you are not 
 necessary to your father and Tilly. They'd 
 get on very comfortably without you." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she demanded. 
 
 " I mean what I say. You haven't run 
 things here at home your own way quite as 
 much as you think you have, and there is to be 
 no petticoat rule in our house. We'll rule and 
 work together. Let me see, to-day is Tuesday. 
 You think over what I have said. Saturday 
 I'll come and prove up." 
 
 Having issued his orders, Joel stood up and 
 after a discomfiting glance at her, strode out 
 of the house. Kate mechanically returned to 
 her dishwashing, but her mind could not rid 
 itself of thoughts of the new Joel. 
 
 She astonished her father that afternoon by 
 asking suddenly: 
 
 "Pa, haven't I managed the house all right 
 and kept things up since Ma died?" 
 
 Junius Jonas peered at her over his spec- 
 tacles, but he did not respond to the question
 
 The Tyrant Surrenders 253 
 
 with the alacrity which his daughter had 
 expected. 
 
 " Well, Kate," he said finally, " I'll say you're 
 by far the best cook and housekeeper in these 
 parts. There isn't a single lazy bone in your 
 body." 
 
 That wasn't, however, the testimonial ex- 
 pected or desired. 
 
 "Haven't things been as you liked?" she 
 continued. " I've always acted as I thought 
 was for the best." 
 
 " Well, Kate," he replied with more hesita- 
 tion, " your way may be the best, but you see 
 folks don't always want the other person's 
 best way. They want their own. That naturally 
 seems best to them." 
 
 Kate made no reply, but when her sister 
 came in from school, she sounded her. 
 
 ' Tilly," she asked abruptly, " don't you wear 
 as good clothes as any girl in school ? " 
 
 Tilly leaped to the opening. 
 
 "What if I do?" she answered defiantly. 
 :< What pleasure is there, I'd like to know, in 
 wearing good clothes if you can't wear them 
 the way you want to ? " 
 
 Again Kate sensed the spirit of mutiny.
 
 254 Sand Holler 
 
 " They say," Tilly went on, taking advantage 
 of this unexpected opportunity to pay off past 
 scores, " that Joel Dixon is sweet on one of 
 the nurses at the new hospital in town. Her 
 name is Lily Sisson. She's that pretty little 
 one that talked to the surgical dressing class 
 when it met here once." 
 
 Kate was conscious of a feeling akin to 
 panic but she fought it down. 
 
 " If Joel Dixon wants a low-voiced, sugar- 
 faced girl for a wife, he can have that Lily 
 Sisson and welcome," she thought; then aloud 
 to Tilly: 
 
 ' You hear altogether too much gossip. I 
 think you had better stay away from your club 
 meetings in town if that is what you spend your 
 time doing." 
 
 Tilly muttered something about hit birds 
 fluttering, and bounced out of the room. Her 
 thrust had gone home, however, and Kate 
 secretly worried over it in the succeeding days. 
 Moreover, she found herself looking forward 
 more and more anxiously to Saturday; would 
 Joel change his mind? Saturday brought Joel 
 at the moment that she was starting her father 
 for town. As Junius gave the old horse a final
 
 The Tyrant Surrenders 255 
 
 slap of the reins Kate's keen glance intercepted 
 the exchange of winks between her father 
 and her lover. 
 
 She was in a puzzled rather than an antago- 
 nistic mood when she was left there alone with 
 her suitor. 
 
 " Come with me, Kate," he said command- 
 ingly as he took her by the arm. 
 
 Dazed, she permitted herself to be led through 
 the fields and down the hill to where the road 
 wound its way. 
 
 " Stand behind this tree and watch," Joel 
 commanded. 
 
 Kate saw her father drive the jogging horse 
 up into a corner of the zig-zag rail fence, spryly 
 alight from the wagon, wrap the soapstone in 
 the shawl and pitch it behind a stump, throw 
 the muffler under the cushion, take off his old 
 cap, double the earlaps inside the crown, put 
 the letter she had given him in his pocket and 
 finally throw away the memorandum of supplies. 
 Then with care-free air he resumed his seat 
 in the wagon and drove blithesomely townward. 
 ~ Kate looked at Joel, the dim light of dawning 
 realization in her eyes. 
 
 "Has he "
 
 256 Sand Holler 
 
 " He has, Kate. For five years. He knows 
 what he wants, and he has had it right along, 
 only he got the habit of thinking it would be 
 easier to let you believe you were having your 
 own way." 
 
 She turned back toward the house, Joel walk- 
 ing beside her. 
 
 "And," she asked presently in a softened 
 voice, " has everyone about here known it? " 
 
 "Yes; they thought it a good joke on you, 
 and liked your father too well to tell on him." 
 
 She looked so utterly crushed at this revela- 
 tion that Joel almost faltered. Thoughts of 
 Ann Bee's precepts and recollections of the 
 commands of the foremen at the sanitarium, 
 however, strengthened his determination, and 
 he began Kate's next lesson. 
 
 " Don't go in the house just yet," he told 
 her. " There is Tilly leaving. When she is out 
 of sight, we will follow her." 
 
 " I don't need to follow," said Kate forlornly. 
 "I suppose she stops and primps up, too." 
 
 " She hides her apron (no other girl in 
 school wears one) under a big stone, does up 
 her hair, bunches it out over her ears and, 
 since the men at the sanitarium came, gives
 
 The Tyrant Surrenders 257 
 
 sundry other and adult touches to her appear- 
 ance." 
 
 Kate sat down on the steps to the woodshed 
 
 " Then all these years I've been a failure ! " 
 she said bitterly. " A failure and a joke." 
 
 " No, Kate. You have simply made the mis- 
 take a great many efficient people make of 
 wanting to be the one and only ruler of the 
 roost." 
 
 She was silent, but Joel thought he saw an 
 effort to hide a tear. Thus encouraged, he 
 sat -down and put his arm about her. 
 
 "A month from last Wednesday, remember, 
 Kate," he said firmly. 
 
 She turned away her head. 
 
 " You'd better take Lily Sisson. She'd never 
 try to boss you. You want a clinging-vine 
 woman without a will of her own." 
 
 " No, Kate," he answered gently, turning her 
 face toward him, "I want you."
 
 Ann Bee was engaged in her favorite occu- 
 pation of serving at the pie counter. The 
 avidity with which these rollicking young fel- 
 lows consumed pies as fast as she could fry 
 them convinced her that they did not get 
 enough to eat, although Sheridan had assured 
 her over and over again that such was not 
 the case. She recalled the war-time phrase, 
 " food will win the war," and applied it to the 
 present situation. To help Sheridan in his 
 determination to have the sanitarium finished 
 by the first of March, she deemed it her part 
 to supply these hungry young men with all 
 the pies they could consume and thus speed up 
 their work. She made the pies larger, threw 
 in an additional smaller one for good measure 
 and gave away a great many more than she 
 could afford to do. 
 
 She was developing nearly as remarkable 
 
 258
 
 Chip Explains Things 259 
 
 a memory for faces as Sheridan possessed. She 
 knew all her young patrons by both name and 
 nickname. They told her their troubles, read 
 her their letters, and asked her advice on their 
 love affairs. 
 
 " My mother's got it in for you, Mrs. Bee," 
 said a big fellow, with a good-natured grin. 
 
 " What have I done to her or to you ? " 
 
 " Well, you made me sit down and write 
 to her last week, and I couldn't think of any- 
 thing to say after I had told her I was well 
 and that it had rained, so I wrote her you had 
 got it all over her on pie making." 
 
 Ann Bee was about to give a big piece of 
 advice to the tactless son when she noticed a 
 stranger lingering near the entrance to the 
 mess hall. He was a slim, agile young man 
 with a swarthy skin and narrow black eyes. 
 
 "Who let him in?" she asked. 
 
 The mother's son glanced toward the entrance. 
 
 " He's one of the newcomers from some- 
 where farther south. He's a tenderfoot on 
 work, but he's not so bad. Come on up, Chip, 
 and join our ' Et a Pi ' society. You look as 
 if you had a pie mouth." 
 
 " He's shy of women," he explained aside
 
 260 Sand Holler 
 
 to Ann Bee with a grin. " He'll get ver that 
 when he's been around here a little longer." 
 
 " I'll let Bert come and tend the counter," 
 said Ann Bee, after a quick, keen scrutiny of 
 the newcomer. " Then maybe he won't be so 
 backward in coming forward." 
 
 She turned the batter and skimmer over to 
 her oldest son and went up to the " movie 
 house." Sheridan had installed a telephone for 
 her convenience and that of the workmen who 
 frequented the clubroom. She quickly called 
 up the Nutshell. Little Cousin answered, say- 
 ing that Olive was in town, and Wade and 
 Star were playing checkers. 
 
 "Well," said Mrs. Bee, "there is a new 
 fellow in my mess hall, a gypsy-looking fellow 
 they call Chip. I thought it might prove to 
 be Star's Chip, so Mr. Sheridan had better 
 bring Star down here and look him over." 
 
 Little Cousin's voice was more fluttering than 
 ever. She was very much opposed to having 
 Star come. The gypsy might steal him again, 
 or he might even steal Wade. 
 
 Ann Bee cut her ramblings short and told 
 her to call Wade to the telephone. He, of 
 course, was for immediate action and told her
 
 Chip Explains Things 261 
 
 to hold her latest customer until he could arrive 
 with Star. 
 
 When Ann Bee returned to the mess hall, 
 Chip was eating pies as if both digestion and 
 pocketbook were beyond impairment. 
 
 " Young man, I don't want the bad will of 
 yeur mother," she began, " so don't brag about 
 my pies when you write home. I see you are 
 a stranger, and every new man has to be intro- 
 duced to our clubhouse, so he can know where 
 to drop in whenever he feels like it. I'll take 
 you there now." 
 
 He followed her up to the portable with 
 noticeable reluctance. He was not at all inter- 
 ested in the magazines or other reading matter 
 strewn about, and it was quite apparent to the 
 alert Ann that he was planning an immediate 
 escape. He seemed more willing to remain, 
 however, when she started the phonograph. In 
 the midst of a lively air, he jumped to his feet. 
 The door had opened. 
 
 " Not little Star ! " he exclaimed joyfully. 
 
 " Oh, Chip, Chip! " cried Star happily. " I'd 
 have known you anywhere ! " 
 
 The gypsy's arm was around the little fellow 
 as he said plaintively:
 
 262 Sand Holler 
 
 " I looked everywhere for you, Star. Where 
 have you been? " 
 
 Star was about to tell his little story when 
 Sheridan, who had lingered outside awaiting 
 Star's identification, came in. 
 
 " First, we'd like a story from you. I want 
 to know why you stole this boy." 
 
 " Wait a moment," interrupted Ann Bee, 
 noting that the swarthy skin had gone white 
 at the question. " I want to speak with you, 
 Mr. Sheridan." 
 
 Wade followed her impatiently to the next 
 room. 
 
 " You are scaring the truth out of him," she 
 warned. " Don't you know that fear will some- 
 times make an honest person lie? If he thinks 
 you are going to make a complaint against 
 him, he'll lie himself out of it. What you want 
 and all you want are the facts. Let him be 
 with Star alone, and he'll talk more freely." 
 
 " You are right, Mrs. Bee. You are always 
 right," acknowledged Sheridan, as they returned 
 to the other room. 
 
 " I want you to feel sure," he said in a more 
 kindly tone to the wary Chip, " that any infor- 
 mation you give me about Star will be repeated
 
 Chip Explains Things 263 
 
 only to the boy's family. There is no desire or 
 intention on their part to punish you. All 
 we want is to have the mystery cleared up. 
 Star has assured us that you all were very 
 kind to him, and that fact alone would prevent 
 his family from preferring any charges against 
 you." 
 
 Chip's look of watchful apprehension vanished 
 at this assurance. 
 
 " Suppose," continued Sheridan, " that I leave 
 you and Star together here and you tell him 
 the whole story. We'll go back to your house, 
 Mrs. Bee." 
 
 They had been back at the Bee Hive but a 
 few minutes when they heard the sound of 
 wheels on the road. Olive and Little Cousin, 
 apparently very much excited, rushed into the 
 tent. 
 
 "Did he prove to be Chipsy, the Gyp?" 
 asked the Little Cousin eagerly. 
 
 ' Yes," replied Sheridan. " There was a 
 mutual and instantaneous recognition." 
 
 :< Where are they now?" pursued Little 
 Cousin, looking about distractedly. 
 
 ' Together in the clubhouse. Chip is explain- 
 ing things to Star."
 
 264 Sand Holler 
 
 " Alone? " she gasped. " That Gyp will steal 
 our Star again." 
 
 " No ; he would have no need of him now. 
 Really this Chip looks quite a decent fellow. 
 Mrs. Bee suggested that he'd be more apt to 
 talk freely if left alone with Star so she and 
 I left them." 
 
 Presently the flies of the tent parted and 
 Star came in, his cheeks flushed and his eyes 
 shining. 
 
 Little Cousin fluttered up to him. 
 
 "Little Brother!" she exclaimed, "has that 
 awful Splinter gone ? " 
 
 " He isn't awful," denied Star indignantly, 
 " and his name is Chip. He has gone down 
 to eat some more fried pies. He likes them." 
 
 " Tell us what he said, dear," entreated 
 Olive, drawing her young brother to her. 
 
 " He told me," began Star, " that just a week 
 before he found me " 
 
 " Stole you, you mean," interrupted Little 
 Cousin. 
 
 " No ! " protested Star stoutly. " Found me. 
 Just a week before that time, Nita's little boy, 
 who was just my age, had died and she most 
 went crazy and that made Chip wild."
 
 Chip Explains Things 265 
 
 "Were they married?" asked Little Cousin 
 curiously. " He and Nita I mean?" 
 
 " Chip says they were just the same as mar- 
 ried," replied Star naively. " That day I was 
 lost he went to town and saw me down at the 
 end of the park, and he really meant to try 
 to find my folks. When I told him I had no 
 mother, it came to him that if she had me in 
 place of her little boy, Nita would not go crazy. 
 He says he didn't suppose a sister would miss 
 me much not for long, anyway." 
 
 " Oh ! " came in protest from Olive. 
 
 " Well, you see, Olive," continued Star, 
 " Chip never had a sister, so he couldn't under- 
 stand. He said we rode a long way before we 
 reached his gypsy camp, and that Nita just took 
 me in her arms and put me in her own little 
 boy's place right away. The gypsies were 
 scared for fear the police would be set on them, 
 so they broke camp at once, and we rode fast 
 all night long. I did have a fever and was out 
 of my head for two or three days, so they 
 didn't lie to me about that. In taking care of 
 me, Nita came to love me so much she really 
 felt as if I belonged to her. It made her feel 
 very bad when I kept talking about my sister
 
 266 Sand Holler 
 
 and my home. So that was why Chip had to 
 threaten to beat me just that once. When 
 mother I mean Nita died, he felt so sorry, 
 he went away by himself for a while, and then 
 came back meaning to try to find you, as he 
 had promised Nita to do if she died. When 
 they told him Hobo Hank had run away with 
 me, he hunted him down to prison. Hobo told 
 him how I had given him the slip, so Chip went 
 on looking for me until he had to go to war. 
 He didn't get across, but he learned how to 
 work, and that was why he came up here so 
 he wouldn't have to be a gypsy. Their camp 
 all broke up when war came. And that's all. 
 But I won't stand for anything being done to 
 Chip." 
 
 " Of course we won't do anything to harm 
 him," assured Olive, " but someway I feel that 
 I never want to see him. I should remember 
 all the sorrow he had caused me." 
 
 " But," urged Star earnestly, "when Chip 
 found me, he says I was on the very edge of 
 the steep bank to the river. I might have fallen 
 in and been drowned if he hadn't come along 
 just then." 
 
 "Sure thing!" agreed Ann Bee heartily.
 
 Chip Explains Things 267 
 
 " Or, suppose some awful tramp, who would 
 have been cruel to him, had found him, or a 
 crazy man, or a mad dog. There's generally 
 a worse ' if ' than the one you get, every time. 
 This chip of a man was kind to Star and 
 treated him right, and he's going to get his 
 fried pies free gratis from now on, though I 
 do hope he won't eat as many at one standing 
 as he is doing to-night." 
 
 " You are right, Mrs. Bee," acknowledged 
 Olive. " And Star's friends are mine. I shall 
 do something for Chip, too." 
 
 " I'll give him a tambourine," said Little 
 Cousin. "Isn't that what gypsies use, Star? 
 I believe I'd like to see this man Block after 
 all." 
 
 " Chip, Cousin," corrected Star. 
 
 " Well," defended Little Cousin, " didn't you 
 ever hear of the chip of the block? The reason 
 I want to see him is to find out how they cured 
 you of that fever so quickly. You used to have 
 a fever if anyone so much as poked a finger at 
 you. Every kind of a fever, from just a plain 
 one to all the highfaluting styles. And you 
 don't have them now." 
 
 " Chip said I never was sick after that first
 
 268 Sand Holler 
 
 time, because I slept out of doors and didn't 
 have any candy or * little boy ' stuff to eat, and 
 so I outgrew fevers." 
 
 " So you see," said Olive thoughtfully, 
 " after all we are really indebted to those 
 gypsies. Little Brother was a very delicate 
 fcoy." 
 
 " Mrs. Quee Bean," began the Little Cousin, 
 but paused, bewildered by Star's peal of laugh- 
 ter. " You told me the men called her that 
 sometimes, you know, Star." 
 
 "I said Queen Bee," he gasped. 
 
 " Just what I said," she declared emphatically. 
 " I wish, Mrs. Bean, you would go down to 
 your mess hall and feed that Chipsy with all 
 the pies he can eat at my expense now and 
 always. It is to be my treat, not yours. Little 
 Brother and I will drive home in the phaeton 
 now, and Olive and Wade can follow when 
 they get ready. Don't let that basket of chips 
 loose though till we get a good running start." 
 
 Ann Bee promised to comply with these in- 
 structions and hold back her customer by the 
 lure of fried pies. Wade went up to the port- 
 able with Olive to leave some periodicals she 
 had brought from town. Presently their heads
 
 Chip Explains Things 269 
 
 were so close together over a pictorial maga- 
 zine, that they didn't see the door open gently 
 and then quickly close again. 
 
 "Why, Miss Lloyd," exclaimed Ann Bee a 
 few moments later, as she was closing the .pie 
 counter for the night, " you never mean to tell 
 me that you came down here all alone." 
 
 " No ; I've been dining with Mrs. Baron, and 
 she drove me down here and is waiting in her 
 car on the road. She wants your recipe for nut 
 fudge." 
 
 " It is up at the house. We'll go and get it. 
 Did you stop in the clubhouse on your way? 
 Olive and Mr. Sheridan went up there." 
 
 " Yes; I looked in," said Kenneth hesitatingly. 
 " They didn't see me." 
 
 There was the suspicion of a quiver in her 
 voice, and Mrs. Bee looked at her keenly and 
 kindly. 
 
 " They have a good deal to talk over to-night. 
 I will tell you about it." 
 
 When Kenneth heard the story of the kid- 
 naping of Star, she was so interested she for- 
 got everything else until a prolonged honk 
 reminded her of Mrs. Baron's impatience.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 " DEAREST " 
 
 About a week before Christmas Kenneth 
 came into the sitting-room of the Nutshell. 
 Olive sat by the window sewing some very fine 
 lace on a sheer piece of muslin with a lapful of 
 white material filmy muslins, exquisite laces 
 and fine embroideries. A tender smile hovered 
 about the corners of her mouth, and she sang 
 softly as she bent her winsome face over the 
 deftly moving needle. 
 
 There was something so sweet, so feminine, 
 so domestic about the scene that Kenneth smiled 
 appreciatively. Then her glance fell upon the 
 significant quantities of " white sewing." In 
 these times of high prices, so many and such 
 elaborate ^fabrics must mean but one thing. The 
 smile died out of her eyes. 
 
 Olive flushed as she read Kenneth's surmise 
 in her face, but before she could speak Dora 
 summoned her to the kitchen. 
 
 270
 
 "Dearest" 271 
 
 " Just a moment, Kenneth," she said. " I will 
 be back directly." 
 
 In her absence the Little Cousin came in and 
 glanced mysteriously at Olive's sewing. 
 
 "It's a secret," she half whispered. " Olive 
 means to tell you, though, very soon. Wade 
 wanted her to tell you long ago, but she just 
 wouldn't do it." 
 
 Olive's return prevented the Little Cousin 
 from divulging any more facts concerning the 
 secret, which, of course, Kenneth promptly 
 guessed. She wouldn't need the forthcoming 
 acknowledgment from Olive or Wade, and she 
 was glad of this advance preparation. For a 
 moment she felt as if she had received a physi- 
 cal blow from which she winced and drew back. 
 Quickly and firmly she declined Olive's invita- 
 tion to tarry longer. 
 
 " I only ran in to tell you that we want you 
 all to come to the Hill House to our family 
 dinner on Christmas day." 
 
 For a single second Kenneth thought she 
 read dismay in Olive's eyes. 
 
 ' Thank you so much, Kenneth ; we shall be 
 delighted to come if at what hour do you 
 dine?"
 
 272 Sand Holler 
 
 " We always have a very early dinner on 
 holidays, two o'clock." 
 
 " The reason I asked the hour is that we are 
 planning to have you and your father over for 
 a little occasion Christmas night, so you see an 
 early dinner hour is very convenient for us." 
 
 " The little occasion," thought Kenneth sadly, 
 as she walked listlessly to the Hill House, 
 " means her wedding and Wade's." 
 
 She decided that the date had been chosen 
 with a view to their returning from the honey- 
 moon before the opening of the sanitarium. 
 
 A wave of desperate loneliness swept over 
 her. Her whole being was stirred by the 
 realization of the depth of her love for Sheri- 
 dan. The certainty that he was to marry Olive 
 hurt her so savagely that it appalled her. It 
 was inconceivable that she, a Lloyd, could suc- 
 cumb to such a sudden wild fancy. She would 
 tear it from her heart. She wouldn't let her- 
 self care for a man who wanted only her friend- 
 ship. She 
 
 " Don't run over a poor pedestrian, please, 
 
 ma'am." 
 
 She had been walking with eyes downcast, 
 and she looked up startled at the sound of
 
 "Dearest" 273 
 
 Sheridan's voice. He looked so confident, so 
 alert, so strong and so overwhelmingly happy 
 that she felt a sharp little stab near her heart 
 and a quick little catch in her throat. 
 
 "I I beg your pardon," she said, con- 
 fusedly. " I didn't see you." 
 
 " No," he agreed with a smile. " It was 
 quite evident that you did not, and that you 
 were miles away in your thoughts." 
 
 " No," she denied, making a masterful and 
 nearly successful effort to speak lightly. " I 
 wasn't so very far away, for I was thinking of 
 Christmas. I have just been over to the 
 Nutshell to ask the family to dine with us at 
 two o'clock Christmas day. The invitation, of 
 course, includes you." 
 
 ' Thank you," he replied cheerily. " That 
 will make it a real Christmas." 
 
 " Olive has asked father and me over to the 
 Nutshell for Christmas night." 
 
 " Oh, has she ! " he exclaimed joyfully. " She 
 has told you then " 
 
 " No," Kenneth said hastily, breathless from 
 the fear he would tell her. She couldn't endure 
 that not yet. " She simply told me it was 
 for a ' little occasion.' "
 
 274 Sand Holler 
 
 Wade flushed. " Oh, well. She will tell you 
 very soon, I'm sure." 
 
 The girl smiled wistfully at his perceptible 
 embarrassment, and yet she felt some annoy- 
 ance, too. 
 
 " Why such secrecy," she thought wonder- 
 ingly, "when it is all so very obvious?" 
 
 " I see my time limit is nearly up," Wade 
 said, looking at his watch. " I must be getting 
 back to work." 
 
 They went on their different ways. Once 
 she glanced back and tried to smile when she 
 saw him turning in at the Nutshell. 
 
 All the practical domestic complications of 
 preparations for the holidays prevented her 
 from meeting Olive or Sheridan again that 
 week. Into her misery came a little comfort in 
 the knowledge that Julian was coming home for 
 Christmas week. The Major had some ^business 
 in a city on the route by which Julian was 
 traveling, and had timed his departure so as to 
 meet his son and return with him. 
 
 Julian arrived on the afternoon before Christ- 
 mas. His face had lost the gray, worn look 
 that had been wont to sweep across his features 
 when he first came home from overseas, and
 
 "Dearest" 275 
 
 there was all the old, boyish glow at a home- 
 coming in his greeting. 
 
 "Where is father?" asked Kenneth when he 
 had for the tenth time exclaimed how glad he 
 was to be at the Hill House once more. 
 
 " He met a Spanish war vet on the train 
 one he hadn't seen in years. I left them at the 
 hotel in town, deep in old war yarns. That is 
 what I shall be doing twenty years from now, 
 I suppose." 
 
 " Julian," Kenneth said, looking at him critic- 
 ally, " I had forgotten you were so handsome." 
 
 She ignored his shout of glee and continued: 
 
 " I feel a strong sisterly desire to show you 
 off. Don't you want to run over to the Nut- 
 shell and meet Olive Ogden of whom I have 
 written you so much? I know you'll like her. 
 We are warm friends." 
 
 " I don't mind," he said politely though casu- 
 ally. " She must be a wonder to have overcome 
 your prejudices against northern girls." 
 
 " She seems almost southern, Julian. I am 
 beginning to mistrust types, and to acknowl- 
 edge there are some exceedingly nice northern- 
 ers and some unattractive southerners. I have 
 asked them all to dine with us to-morrow, so
 
 276 Sand Holler 
 
 we might go over now and meet her. She quite 
 likely will be engaged this evening." 
 
 " Let's wait a bit, sister. I want a little 
 visit with you first." 
 
 Star's voice in the hall talking to Tige at- 
 tracted Kenneth's attention. He came into the 
 long room, stopped, stared at Julian, drew a 
 long breath. 
 
 " It's Dearest ! " he cried, his memory regain- 
 ing its bearings. 
 
 With two strides Julian crossed the room 
 and caught the boy up in his arms. 
 
 " Little Brother," he exclaimed jubilantly, 
 " I was so afraid you wouldn't remember me ! 
 I wouldn't let them tell you. I wanted you to 
 know me, and you did, by gracious ! " 
 
 " Olive said that some day Dearest would 
 appear, and she felt sure I would know him. 
 Someway I thought it wouldn't be for a long 
 time." 
 
 Little Cousin, in search of Star, came in and 
 added her confusing explanation: 
 
 " Oh, Kenneth, it isn't a secret any longer, 
 for you see this is Boy." 
 
 "Who?" asked Kenneth faintly. 
 
 " I am her ' Boy/ ' ' laughed Julian, as he
 
 "Dearest" 277 
 
 bestowed a hearty kiss upon the cheek of Little 
 Cousin. 
 
 "What boy?" asked the bewildered girl. 
 
 " Why, our boy. They are to be married at 
 the Nutshell to-morrow night." 
 
 "Who are?" 
 
 Even the entrance of Olive and the ecstasy 
 of Julian as he caught her in an overpowering 
 embrace didn't enlighten Kenneth entirely. 
 
 " Let me tell! " entreated Star. 
 
 " I'll explain," said Olive. 
 
 " No ; I'll be the little explainer," declared 
 Julian ' You know a soldier has to study 
 brevity and clarity. But first, Kenneth, kiss 
 your big brother and your sister on the eve of 
 their wedding." 
 
 Then Kenneth realized that she was hysteric- 
 ally happy. 
 
 " Where," she finally demanded, " is that 
 explanation that was to be rendered with mili- 
 tary brevity and clarity ? " 
 
 " Sit down here on this divan," replied Julian, 
 " one on each side of me, as I have so often 
 pictured you, my sister and my sweetheart. It 
 was like this, sis : Years ago when Little Brother 
 here was only three years young, I fell head-
 
 278 Sand Holler 
 
 long in love with Olive, and we four were the 
 happiest little household you ever saw. We 
 were to be married as soon as I could seture a 
 paying practice, but you know business was 
 never my long suit, my line seeming to be that of 
 financial embarrassment.. I didn't tell you and 
 father about Olive because I knew your preju- 
 dices against northerners, and Olive was only 
 eighteen, so Cousin here said it would be better 
 to wait a while. One day they came to town 
 and I took Olive and Little Brother to the park. 
 We were in love, and time flew. We forgot 
 Little Brother for a while. You know what 
 followed. Olive's remorse made her refuse to 
 consider marrying me. She did penance by 
 running away from me. That's right, Olive, 
 you should look ashamed. I was glad to go to 
 war. One day last spring I received a wire 
 from Wade, or Sheridan, which was it? Not 
 Sherman, Kenneth. Anyway he wired for 
 Olive's address and told me he was sure he 
 had found our Little Brother. I could hardly 
 believe such luck was possible. I had always 
 managed to keep track of Olive and so I could 
 wire him the address. Afterward, Olive paid 
 me a surreptitious visit and we had a grand
 
 "Dearest" 279 
 
 little courtship all over again and arranged to 
 be married at this time." 
 
 " But why," asked Kenneth, " wasn't I told? " 
 
 " In the first place because Olive wanted to 
 meet you and have you learn to love her for her 
 own sake, so we hatched up the scheme of the 
 Nutshell, and we thought we'd surprise Little 
 Brother, too." 
 
 " But, Olive," asked Kenneth still mystified, 
 " when you knew as you must have known very 
 soon after you located here, how much I cared 
 for you, why didn't you make me happy by 
 telling me about you and Julian ? " 
 
 Olive's eyes danced. 
 
 " That is just what Julian and Wade kept 
 asking me, but I wouldn't tell them. I'll tell 
 you sometime, Kenneth." 
 
 " You may have a reason for not telling me 
 about your engagement to Julian, but I can't 
 see why you should lead me to think you were 
 engaged to Wade Sheridan." 
 
 " What! " cried Julian. " Have I got to fight 
 Wade, after all? Did you, too, Little Brother, 
 take him for Dearest?" 
 
 "Only at first," replied Star. "It was be- 
 cause he knew where to find Olive and seeme'd
 
 Sand Holler 
 
 to know all about how the man on the bench 
 felt. I didn't remember him and he wasn't the 
 man of my dreams." 
 
 " Well, you see, when I met this Wade, I was 
 feeling quite blue and I showed him my photo- 
 graphs and when he came to Olive's picture, I 
 told him about her and her loss. And you, too, 
 sis, thought he was Dearest? Really there must 
 have been some foundation for it." 
 
 Kenneth was silent, but Olive's eyes twinkled 
 again. 
 
 " All's well that ends well, ana Julian and I 
 are to be happy ever after." 
 
 " It is too good to be true," said Kenneth, 
 " but oh, Olive, you will be leaving the Nub- 
 shell?" 
 
 " No ; Julian will be living there with us. 
 Wade has procured for him the position of 
 house doctor at the new sanitarium, and it is 
 quite a lucrative one, too; for every patient has 
 to have an examination of the heart before 
 taking treatment and the fee is $10." 
 
 Kenneth's eyes grew misty. 
 
 "How dear of Mr. Sheridan!" 
 
 " He is a brick," declared Julian. " He's a 
 sure benefactor to two financial failures, Julian
 
 "Dearest" 281 
 
 Lloyd and Olynthus Bee. It will be a merry 
 Christmas for me. You know we start honey- 
 mooning to-morrow night." 
 
 "Where?" asked Star curiously 
 
 " In a little place called Arcadia," replied 
 Julian. 
 
 " Is it in this county? " asked Star. 
 
 " Maybe, dear," replied Olive. " It lies wher- 
 ever happiness is." 
 
 "Julian, does father know about you and 
 Olive?" 
 
 "Yes; I couldn't keep it from him. I told 
 him on the train, and I was just on the point 
 of telling you when Little Brother came in." 
 
 " We must be getting back to the Nutshell," 
 reminded Little Cousin. " There is so much yet 
 to do." 
 
 "Oh, no; you are all to stay to dinner," 
 declared Kenneth. 
 
 " No," replied Little Cousin firmly. " Olive 
 shall stay, but Star and I will go home. Dora 
 is going to the dance at Sand Holler to-night." 
 
 " I am to go there, too," said Kenneth, " and 
 help Ann Bee with her festivities, and I had 
 planned to take Julian, but now he and Olive 
 shall have the Hill House to themselves for a
 
 282 Sand Holler 
 
 while. Father has an engagement. His Span- 
 ish-American friends never miss a Christmas 
 eve celebration." 
 
 ' Your plans are fine," approved Julian," and 
 to-morrow I must snatch time for a rehearsal of 
 Little Brother's Life on the Gypsy Trail. I 
 quite envy him such an adventure." 
 
 Star's eyes glowed. 
 
 " You'll love it, Dearest. Olive doesn't like 
 to hear of it, and Wade isn't interested in gyp- 
 sies, but he's a brick just the same. He is put- 
 ting up the money for the Christmas tree for 
 the men to-night." 
 
 " Was Mr. Sheridan an old friend of yours, 
 Olive ? " asked Kenneth thoughtfully. 
 
 " No ; I do not recall having seen him until he 
 brought Little Brother to me. It seems that 
 when Julian showed him some photographs, 
 mine among them, he remembered that Cousin, 
 Little Brother and I once stopped at his hotel. 
 When he first saw Star he knew that he resem- 
 bled someone he had seen, but he couldn't re- 
 member who it was until one night it suddenly 
 came to him, and then he also remembered that 
 Julian might know my address, and that was 
 how he came to wire him. But when he brought
 
 'Dearest" 283 
 
 Star to us, I felt as if he were my best friend. 
 If I hadn't already lost my heart to Julian, I 
 think I should have given it to Wade." 
 
 Kenneth was very thoughtful after hearing 
 Olive's story. She knew something that the 
 others were in ignorance of. There were the 
 initials O. O. and many other little significant 
 incidents. Poor Wade! Like herself he was 
 secretly suffering from unrequited love. It 
 struck her that Olive had encouraged him, but 
 she checked the suspicion that loyalty to her 
 friend forbade. 
 
 " Olive," she entreated when they chanced to 
 be alone for a moment after dinner, " won't you 
 please tell me why I wasn't let into the secret? " 
 
 " Kenneth, dear, won't you trust me for a 
 little while longer? I had the best reason in the 
 world, and I think I can tell you very soon, but 
 not just yet."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE EXPECTED HAPPENS UNEX- 
 PECTEDLY 
 
 The Bee Hive was celebrating Christmas to 
 the utmost. In the movie house was set a huge 
 pine tree, its wide-spreading branches weighed 
 down with lights and sparkling decorations, 
 cigarettes, tobacco, every make of candy and 
 confections known and all the things a man 
 away from home would be most likely to crave. 
 Wade had supplied the tree, decorations and 
 smokes, and every girl in the country 'round 
 had contributed gifts for her " particular 
 friend." Ann Bee, Kate Jonas and Kenneth 
 had seen that no one was overlooked. 
 
 The mess hall had been cleared for action 
 heel and toe action, Ann Bee called it. The 
 orchestra from town had donated its services. 
 Later, there would be doughnuts, coffee, ice 
 cream and fried pies. 
 
 Dora, Tilly, Tilly's high school friends and 
 
 284
 
 The Expected Happens 285 
 
 the farmers' daughters, radiant in youth and 
 white frocks, were assembling. The young Bees 
 were having their own little tree in the " animal 
 tent," as Bert called their living-room. Sheri- 
 dan was officiating as Santa Claus and distrib- 
 uting record-breaking gifts contributed from 
 the Hill House, the Nutshell and the workmen. 
 
 " You look as if Santa Claus had been to your 
 house, Miss Lloyd," said Ann Bee when Ken- 
 neth came in. 
 
 " Someone more welcome than Santa Claus, 
 even, Mrs. Bee. My brother." 
 
 " But," protested Santa Claus, stepping up 
 to her, " how do you know that it wasn't Santa 
 Claus who brought him ? " 
 
 " You are right," she answered gravely, " you 
 certainly did much to bring him home and I I 
 think I have to thank you for the new sister I 
 am to have for a Christmas gift to-morrow." 
 
 Sheridan continued his distribution of gifts 
 while Kenneth told Ann Bee the wonderful 
 news. 
 
 Amid a chorus of thanks and good-byes, 
 Santa Claus made a dignified exit and presently 
 returned in the garb of plain citizen and serenely 
 examined the gifts which he had recently be- 
 
 "S
 
 286 Sand Holler 
 
 stowed and which were now displayed to him 
 by the excited children. 
 
 " Suppose," suggested the obliging and dis- 
 cerning Ann Bee, " that you take Miss Lloyd 
 up to the clubroom and show her the men's 
 tree. They won't be up there for some time." 
 
 " See that they are not, Ann," urged Wade. 
 
 " I don't understand," said Kenneth wist- 
 fully on the way to the clubroom, " why Olive 
 didn't tell me of her engagement to Julian. It 
 would have made me so happy." 
 
 ]< When I saw what good friends you were, 
 I urged her to tell you, but she said she had a 
 reason for keeping the secret a little longer. I 
 don't know what the reason was." 
 
 In the clubroom Wade turned on the lights 
 and revealed the huge, gift-laden tree, its radi- 
 ance bringing forth rhapsodies from Kenneth. 
 
 " Never mind the tree," he pleaded with a 
 peculiar earnestness. " It has the same old trim- 
 mings. Christmas trees seem to be one of the 
 few things that never change." 
 
 " But we came to see it," protested Kenneth. 
 
 " No," he assured her, " we came for some- 
 thing else. We don't need such glaring illumi- 
 nations not until the workmen come."
 
 The Expected Happens 287 
 
 He turned off the lights save those that illu- 
 minated the tree. 
 
 " There ! It's as though we were in the star- 
 light. Sit down on this arrangement behind 
 the tree and we'll absorb the Christmas spirit. 
 Did you know that I am to be best man 
 to-morrow night ? " 
 
 " Olive told me," Kenneth replied, adding im- 
 pulsively after a pause : " Until to-day I 
 thought that you - were to be the bridegroom 
 instead of the best man." 
 
 "You did?" Wade asked amazed. "What 
 made you think that?" 
 
 " Everything, everyone. Star first gave me 
 the impression that you were Dearest. That is 
 what everyone hereabouts believed." 
 
 " I can see now how they would draw that 
 conclusion," he said musingly. " People gener- 
 ally are eager to see a romantic situation, and 
 this would have been a coincidence to have 
 delighted a story writer, but Kenneth I 
 can tell you my secret I " 
 
 Her face whitened and she turned it away 
 from him and from the myriad of miniature 
 lights. 
 
 " I know your secret," she said, her voice
 
 288 Sand Holler 
 
 tense from the effort she was making to keep 
 it steady. ' Your secret is that you love 
 O. O. Billy Keenwald told me the initials of 
 your sweetheart. And, of course, they stand 
 for Olive Ogden." 
 
 There was a throbbing silence for a moment. 
 He leaned forward ostensibly to adjust a dan- 
 gling ornament on the tree. A quick sidewise 
 glance showed him her slightly quivering lips. 
 
 " Yes, Kenneth," he said earnestly, " those 
 are the initials of my sweetheart the only 
 woman I ever loved. May I tell you about 
 her?" 
 
 "Yes," she said wistfully,, but with a brave 
 little smile. 
 
 " I fell in love with her picture before I saw 
 her. Julian showed it to me. It was in his 
 photograph case with others. One golden after- 
 noon she was very friendly to me. We had a 
 mutual interest in Star. Then like a bolt from 
 the blue came the knowledge that she didn't 
 care for me, and my hopes and my beautiful 
 dreams were shattered." 
 
 Again there was a silence, and at last Ken- 
 neth spoke, turning her face till he could see 
 her eyes, half veiled by lowered lashes.
 
 The Expected Happens 289 
 
 " I am very sorry for you, Wade. Did Olive 
 guess that you loved her ? " 
 
 "I don't love her, Kenneth. O. O. doesn't 
 spell Olive Ogden. I never thought of those 
 being her initials until now." 
 
 He was very close to her, his cheek almost 
 touching hers. 
 
 " O. O. stands for the Only One, and that is 
 what my sweetheart has been to me in my 
 thoughts. If they had been the initials of her 
 baptismal name Billy would never have been 
 told them. Look at me, Kenneth, and tell me 
 the name of my sweetheart." 
 
 Her heart was fluttering like a trapped wild 
 bird and she did not dare trust herself to speak. 
 
 " Kenneth," Wade went on, " don't you know 
 that it was your picture Julian showed me 
 that the golden afternoon was the one at the 
 Hill House that the bolt from the blue was 
 your note that took the heart right out of me? " 
 
 " Don't speak of that note, Wade," she whis- 
 pered, burying her face in her hands. 
 
 Gently he took possession of those hands and 
 raised her chin till their eyes met. 
 
 " Kenneth, will you make amends for that 
 note ? " " There ! It is forgotten forever.
 
 290 Sand Holler 
 
 Now, will you tell me the name of my sweet- 
 heart?" 
 
 " The princess Wade ? " 
 
 " Star guessed that. Yes ; it was in this very 
 room on a memorable night that I first dared 
 hope that some day I might lift my eyes to a 
 princess." 
 
 " But you told Star that a plain woman was 
 better than a princess." 
 
 " I see that between Billy and Star I've been 
 stripped of all my secrets. I wanted to tell you 
 that night, but I couldn't summon the courage 
 I am still seeking that courage." 
 
 " Why does it require courage ? " 
 
 " For a man to ask a princess ? " 
 
 "The man might ask the plain woman," she 
 said softly. 
 
 " He will. But, tell me, beautiful plain 
 woman, do you love me?" 
 
 Her eyes came to his again, deep glowing 
 with happiness. 
 
 " Wade ! I loved you even when I thought it 
 was Olive " 
 
 " Then, Kenneth, I have courage to go on." 
 
 "Do you need to, Wade?" she asked, her 
 mouth quivering with a suppressed laugh.
 
 The Expected Happens 291 
 
 " Yes," he replied gravely. " All these weeks 
 I've been dreaming my dreams of how and when 
 I should ask you. I have pictured us in the 
 forest, before an open fire in the Hill House, 
 even in a vacant tent of the Bee Hive, but 
 never in my most imaginative moments did I 
 see myself asking you underneath a Christmas 
 tree with a Christmas angel towering over me 
 and a real angel close beside me. And now, 
 with settings right and courage strong, words 
 fail me." 
 
 "Julian says a soldier uses brevity and 
 clarity." 
 
 " Then I'll emulate the soldier. Kenneth I 
 love you. The only thing that can make life 
 worth while is the hope that you will be my 
 wife." 
 
 There came from without the sound of many 
 feet, the ring of merry voices. 
 
 " Wade, the men ! Quick, turn on the lights." 
 
 " No ; " he said steadily. " Not until you 
 answer. Kenneth, will you " 
 
 " I will." 
 
 The room was in a blaze of light when the 
 men entered. After the tree had been stripped 
 of its presents Kenneth and Wade went down
 
 292 Sand Holler 
 
 to the Hill House in the starlight. The south- 
 ern moon hung low over the wooded hills. The 
 music came faintly from the mess tent. The 
 gleam of Christmas candles shed long rays 
 through the farmhouse windows. 
 
 The moon vanished behind the hills. The 
 night before Christmas was nearly ended and 
 dawn-day was in Paradise. 
 
 The curtains of the Nutshell had not been 
 drawn and every window was sending forth its 
 Christmas message. 
 
 " Let's stop and see if Star isn't awake," pro- 
 posed Wade. " He should be the first one to 
 know." 
 
 Little Cousin assured them that Star would 
 be awake and led the way up to his room. 
 
 Star was crimson-cheeked and his eyes were 
 matching the brightness of his namesake. For 
 to-morrow was to be his first remembered 
 Christmas and Olive had assured him that the 
 ones he had missed would be returned with 
 interest. 
 
 "I am glad, after all, Wade, that you were 
 not Dearest," confessed Star when he heard the 
 secret. "Because well, because," he finished 
 lamely.
 
 The Expected Happens 293 
 
 "A girl's reason, Star," accused Wade. 
 "Can't you do better than that?" 
 
 " Well, you see, Wade, you and I both thought 
 of Kenneth as the princess, and you seemed to 
 belong to each other." 
 
 " That's a good and true reason, Star/' 
 
 " You don't need to tell me," declared Olive, 
 when they came into the library of the Hill 
 House. " I can read your secret in your eyes." 
 
 " But, Olive, you need to tell me something," 
 reminded Kenneth. 
 
 " And you haven't guessed it yet ? Well, 
 love is blind. Come in the next room with me 
 for a moment." 
 
 " Wade told me when we first met," Olive 
 confessed when they were alone, " that it was 
 a case of love before first sight with him, when 
 he saw your picture, but that he was hopeless of 
 winning you. I promised to help him. I saw 
 that you were not exactly in love with him, and 
 I owed him so very much. My happiness 
 wouldn't be complete unless his was. I knew there 
 is nothing so conducive to love awakening as 
 a little bunch of forbidden fruit, so, forgive me, 
 Kenneth, I did all in my power to insinuate that 
 Wade was Dearest. I was so different to him
 
 294 Sand Holler 
 
 in my demeanor, when in your presence, and he 
 never knew why. He used to appear embar- 
 rassed and bewildered sometimes, but he didn't 
 guess my reason. Aren't men stupids? And 
 didn't I assume that little proprietary air to 
 perfection ? " 
 
 "Oh, Olive!" exclaimed Kenneth, "I can't 
 imagine you acting a part. I shall never let 
 Wade know what you were doing." 
 
 " And I shall not tell Julian. We'll start our 
 married life with a mutual secret, you and I. 
 They'd tease us unmercifully if they ever knew." 
 
 " There is one thing more that will have to 
 be explained," said Kenneth when they had 
 returned to the library, " to satisfy father's 
 curiosity, anyway; and that is, how Star came 
 to know about Tige, Hepsy and Ducky." 
 
 " That is very easy to explain," replied Julian, 
 " though I am sorry to disappoint father's love 
 of mystery. Little Brother used to hector the 
 life out of me to tell him stories. I have no gift 
 for yarning, but at last in desperation I told him 
 about our household pets, Ducky and Tige and 
 how our old mammy, Hepsy, used to watch over 
 us. Fortunately for my scant stock in trade, 
 he was perfectly content to hear the same story
 
 The Expected Happens 295 
 
 over and over until he knew the characters by 
 heart." 
 
 "Poor father," laughed Kenneth. "How 
 that will disappoint him. But, Wade, we must 
 go."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 THE RETURN OF OLYNTHUS 
 
 There was unwonted quiet at the Bee Hive. 
 Ann Bee had done her best in the way of Christ- 
 mas festivities for the workmen the night be- 
 fore, and this morning had brought full stock- 
 ings and much cheer, but the children were now 
 experiencing the reaction that follows an excess 
 of excitement and were languidly lolling about 
 in the living tent. The piece de resistance of 
 the Christmas dinner, the turkey contributed by 
 Olive, was in the oven and had reached that 
 stage where it needed no immediate attention. 
 So Ann Bee was enjoying the unusual sensation 
 of momentarily having nothing to do. Stand- 
 ing in the kitchen tent, mixing spoon in hand, 
 she was thinking of the little army of young 
 men beyond the " Holler," many so far away 
 from home for the first time in their lives, 
 striving, as she had seen them the night before, 
 to join in the merry-making and stifle that still, 
 
 296
 
 The Return of Olynthus 297 
 
 small insistent memory of " Home on Christ- 
 mas day." It had made her a little sad and 
 had also made her wonder what her man was 
 doing on this holiday and if he felt at all home- 
 sick. 
 
 She had openly confessed to Sheridan that 
 she regretted sending Olynthus away and had 
 asked for his address that she might send him 
 a Christmas box of goodies. Sheridan had told 
 her to prepare the box and he would see that 
 it reached the exile. 
 
 Yet there were many others for whom this 
 was proving the Christmas of all Christmases. 
 There was Wade, who had telephoned her this 
 morning what his gift had been and that 
 this was the " grandest little Christmas " he had 
 ever known. The same was true of Julian and 
 Olive their cup of happiness was brimful. 
 Star! How different was this Christmas from 
 those of his last half dozen years! 
 
 Then there were Joel and Kate. So changed 
 was the former tyrant that she offered no oppo- 
 sition to Tilly's accepting a Yuletide present in 
 the shape of an engagement ring from hen. fore- 
 man. There was a letter box in front of the 
 Jonas house, too. It pleased Ann Bee to know
 
 298 Sand Holler 
 
 that she had had a finger in all their Christmas 
 pies. 
 
 Her heart softened under the recollection of 
 these lovers passing in mental review. She 
 wished that she had slipped a little note of 
 endearment in the box for Olynthus some- 
 thing more than the Merry Christmas card she 
 had bought for a penny at Wicks'. 
 
 " I'll write him a New Year's letter," she 
 thought with a grim smile. " That's what New 
 Year's is for a day for the Christmas lag- 
 gards to make good on." 
 
 " Here's a man in uniform, Maw," drawled 
 Bert, sticking his head into the tent, " who says 
 he ain't done had, an invite anywheres for a 
 Christmas dinner. He wants to know if you 
 all'll give him one." 
 
 Ann Bee was right at home now, on the 
 " King's Ground," as her children said. 
 
 " Sure I will," she said, her lassitude van- 
 ished. She smoothed down her apron. " Fetch 
 him right in, Bert." 
 
 A man in dark blue uniform stood before 
 her, a man, tall, lean and gaunt, but erect and 
 with assurance in his bearing. 
 
 "Olynthus!" Ann Bee gasped faintly.
 
 The Return of Olynthus 299 
 
 " Merry Christmas, honey! Glad to see me? " 
 he asked tenderly. 
 
 Their hands met. Ann Bee looked into his 
 eyes and knew him for her man. His arm 
 went about her. 
 
 " I'm a slacker no longer," he declared. 
 " I'm a worker, honey. A little late in getting 
 into a uniform, but I'm in now for keeps. Do 
 you think it's becoming? " 
 
 " Olynthus ! you ain't in the regular army, 
 are you ? There's no war " 
 
 " This is the uniform of a bandsman. You 
 see, I couldn't read notes very well, as I played 
 mostly by ear, and Mr. Sheridan said if I'd go 
 to a city and learn music right, he'd make me a 
 member of the band he's going to have over to 
 his new hotel to play through dinner and for 
 dances. I caught on quick and I've been playing 
 with a band in a city back north." 
 
 And so it happened that Ann Bee's Christmas 
 cup was brimful, too. 
 
 " It's play paw, it's 'Lynthus! " 
 
 A swarm of Bees buzzed in, their apathy 
 gone, as they came upon him in open attack. 
 
 " What are you-all, 'Lynthus, a drum 
 major? "
 
 300 Sand Holler 
 
 " Where's your Christmas box Maw sent 
 you?" asked Bert. 
 
 " It got there ahead of time. Some of the 
 young fellows in the band and I had a fine 
 feast from it" 
 
 " Mercy me ! I forgot to baste the turkey," 
 said Ann Bee. 
 
 But Bert, of course, had attended to that 
 necessary task. 
 
 " I've got a Christmas present for you, 
 honey," said Olynthus. " When I went away 
 I left it with Mr. Sheridan, but he sent it to me 
 last week by registered mail and told me to 
 come home and give it to you myself." 
 
 He handed his wife a paper. She read it 
 closely and looked up excitedly. 
 
 " What is it all? " asked Bert curiously. 
 
 " A deed to me," said his mother, " of that 
 lot next to ours that I wanted so much. I can't 
 believe my eyes. They must have quit telling 
 the truth." 
 
 She read the paper through once more. 
 
 " When did you get it, Olynthus? " 
 
 " I got it the day you burned the violin." 
 
 When Ann had rallied from this shock, she 
 gasped faintly:
 
 The Return of Olynthus 301 
 
 ' Where did you get the money? " 
 
 " 'Twas Farwell. He wanted that violin and 
 he offered to swap me the piece of property here 
 for it and a new violin to boot. Of course he 
 didn't know then that this land would go up so 
 in price. I knew you wanted it for a garden, 
 and it was the first chance I had ever had to do 
 anything for you." 
 
 " Ain't you-all glad it ain't summer time, 
 'Lynthus, so you-all won't have to work it?" 
 asked Bert. 
 
 " He's never going to do a stroke of work in 
 that garden," declared Ann Bee emphatically. 
 " Tending garden will be work for you and the 
 other kids. My, but Mr. Sheridan will be 
 tickled to get that lot for the hotel! Our new 
 house can go right up now." 
 
 At the dinner table Ann Bee told her bands- 
 man the neighborhood romances and rejoiced 
 again in all the good fortune of their friends. 
 
 " It all began with Mr. Sheridan stopping 
 here that day," she said. " Everyone's good 
 luck started from then." 
 
 " 'Twas me that started it," calmly proclaimed 
 Bert. 
 
 "You!"
 
 302 Sand Holler 
 
 "Didn't I fetch 'Lynthus in, and didn't he 
 take Mr. Sheridan to Mrs. Weevil's and didn't 
 Star " 
 
 " Stop ! " commanded Ann Bee. " I guess to 
 trace the start of everything you have to go 
 back too far to follow."
 
 A 000 064 486