1GH-LIGHTS 
 
 TO-LARGR<SIGHT 
 TH6-RIM-OF- SHKDOV/ 
 lS-TH-L!Ne- OF -LIGHT 
 
 *Sfea=s*<*ffi 

 
 HIGH-LIGHTS 
 
 To larger sight 
 The rim of shadow is the line of light. 
 
 T. W. PARSONS. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFF.LIN AND COMPANY 
 
 (3Tfe Ittoersi&e , <aml>riD0e 
 
 1886
 
 Copyright, 1885, 
 BY IIOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 All rig/its reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Eleetrotyped and printed by II. 0. Houghton & Co.
 
 TO MY HUSBAND.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " We thus begin with the beginning." 
 
 OWEN MEREDITH. 
 
 IT was a little room, not more than 
 twelve feet square, up in the topmost cor 
 ner of a big brick building. Out from its 
 one window you looked down into a narrow, 
 dirty court where old orange-peelings and 
 fragments of weather - beaten newspaper 
 found quiet refuge, or across to another big 
 brick building, the windows of which were 
 so coated with dust and smoke that it was 
 as impossible to discover what lay behind 
 them as it is to read in certain unrevealing 
 eyes the soul that never shines through. 
 
 The room itself was like a little oasis 
 amid the wide, tiresome desert of mercan 
 tile life ; or like a quiet, green island 
 around whose rocky base the waves of traf 
 fic curled and foamed and broke with a 
 i
 
 2 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 low, distant monotone more soothing than 
 utter stillness. Its four walls were hung 
 with framed and unf rained canvases : bits 
 of Nature, arrested by Art ; stretches of 
 meadow -land where cows were feeding; 
 shady wood-openings where the brown earth 
 lay cool and moist, and the rough cart-paths 
 lost themselves among low-hanging boughs. 
 One could almost walk on, round the 
 painted turnings, to find what lay beyond. 
 There were river - windings and roadside 
 pools, soft, white winter scenes, and bril 
 liant autumnal bits ; while here and there 
 peeped out a flower study or scene of 
 animal life, not pansies nor roses, nor 
 sleek, well-kept dogs and horses ; but scar 
 let cardinal flowers, and tangled, blossomy 
 clematis, and little, wild, shy-footed things 
 that never wittingly had stayed for brush to 
 sketch them. 
 
 Yet it would hardly seem that art was 
 here followed as a profession, for no easel 
 was to be seen ; and that air of picturesque 
 untidiness which invariably pervades the 
 studio was totally lacking ; while, most con 
 vincing proof of all, instead of the clear, 
 cold light that artists love, there poured in 
 through the open window a flood of June
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 3 
 
 sunshine, tempered by the soft June breeze 
 that gently stirred the painted paper shade. 
 
 In ne corner of the room a small study- 
 table was covered with books and papers ; 
 in another a round light-stand held a huge 
 china punch-bowl heaped with wild-flowers ; 
 out from a third opened a narrow door-way 
 into what was evidently a bed-room beyond ; 
 and in the fourth stood a violin case. Two 
 curiously carved chairs of English oak com 
 pleted the simple furnishing. 
 
 Across one of these latter was thrown, 
 carelessly, a gentleman s coat. Across the 
 other was thrown, almost as carelessly, the 
 gentleman himself. That he was a gentle 
 man was evident at first sight, notwithstand 
 ing the shirt-sleeves and lounging posture ; 
 and when once that has been said there 
 really seems little more to add, unless it be 
 to note the color of his eyes, which was 
 gray ; or of his hair, which was brown ; or 
 to reckon up the years of his life and give 
 them in round numbers as nine and 
 twenty, say. 
 
 Sundry articles on the floor beside him, 
 such as a water-proof coat, wrong side out 
 and compactly folded ; an open, freshly 
 stocked color-case with supply of brushes
 
 4 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 near by ; an immaculate linen blouse whose 
 multifarious pockets were portly with un 
 seen deposits ; and various minor articles, 
 among which strayed, conspicuous and 
 snake-like, a stout buff-leather shawl-strap, 
 indicated previous exertion ; while the close 
 proximity of a shiny new Railway Guide, 
 with a black locomotive steaming briskly 
 into space on its yellow cover, seemed to 
 point unmistakably to an impending start of 
 some sort. 
 
 Meantime the man who was to make the 
 start sat leisurely consulting his note-book, 
 adding to or subtracting from its penciled 
 memoranda here and there as the case 
 might be. And his face, seen thus in re 
 pose, wore the grave, steadfast, almost stern 
 look of a man who has his own way to make 
 in the world, and means to make it. 
 
 As he jotted down the last entry and 
 closed the book, there came a sound of 
 quick, springing steps over the stairs with 
 out, and another, much younger man ap 
 peared in the door-way. With the bright 
 smile of greeting which Conrad Faulkner 
 flashed upon his friend, every trace of stern 
 ness was swept away, and the firm lips grew 
 strangely sweet.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. b 
 
 " Just in time, Terry ! I must be off in 
 an hour. Sit down, if you can find any 
 thing to sit on, while I write a few lines 
 to Hegemann." 
 
 Terry, otherwise Chester Jackson, drew 
 forward the other chair, tossing the gray 
 coat unceremoniously down on the before- 
 mentioned pile at his feet ; and, seating him 
 self astride its faded crimson cushion, rested 
 his folded arms, with his chin upon them, 
 across the carved back and proceeded to 
 wait, quietly, until the other should have 
 done. 
 
 The two faces thus opposed to each other, 
 though both pleasant and goodly to behold, 
 were very different. That of the new 
 comer, while it lacked the firm maturity of 
 his companion s, yet had a charm, all its 
 own, in the fresh look of frank boyishness 
 which, from the laughing dark-blue eyes to 
 the smoothly rounded chin, was its pervad 
 ing characteristic. And the other, though 
 gifted less, perhaps, with positive beauty, 
 bore, stamped clearly and unmistakably 
 upon its every feature, that look which is so 
 far beyond any mere accident of form or 
 coloring, the look of a man who lives 
 from high motives, worthily. The one
 
 b HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 was a youthful David, going forth light- 
 hearted and confident perhaps the merest 
 trifle over-confident to do battle with that 
 tough old Goliath, the World. The other, 
 a strong, calm Michael, already wrestling 
 in the thick of the fight, but borne up by 
 those two mighty wings of which Thomas a 
 Kempis tells us, and beating down Satan 
 under his feet. 
 
 Among their mutual acquaintances it was 
 considered rather a queer thing that these 
 two should be such close friends. One, a 
 man near thirty, traveled, well-read, a 
 writer himself of reviews and leading 
 articles for prominent periodicals ; already 
 rising by his own merit and exertion to a 
 front place in literary ranks ; giving him 
 self no leisure and but little rest save as he 
 fled, now and then, for a couple of months 
 to the wilderness, with his paint-pots and 
 brushes, to be lazy in the way he liked best. 
 The other, a boy of twenty-three, barely out 
 of college, with no discernible ambition be 
 yond having a good time, and spending his 
 snug little income (of which the principal 
 was safely tied up, under the control of his 
 grandfather for two years to come ; Master 
 Terry mean time being bound, whether he
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 1 
 
 liked or no, to serve in the capacity of clerk 
 in the former s counting-room) " like a gen 
 tleman." 
 
 Perhaps it was because of just this total 
 unlikeness, each finding his complement 
 in the other ; perhaps it was because their 
 first meeting, two years before, had been in 
 the dreary parlor of a little out-of-the-way 
 German inn, where the face of a fellow- 
 countryman was like a star in a cloudy 
 night ; or perhaps it was because of some 
 thing lying latent under all Terry s youth 
 and nonsense that other people were too ob 
 tuse to discover. Be that as it may, the 
 friendship stood, and came to be cause and 
 revealer of much, both in lives and charac 
 ters, that might otherwise have lain dor 
 mant or never come to pass. 
 
 The brief note was soon written and 
 sealed, and Conrad Faulkner turned once 
 more to his friend. 
 
 " Well, Terry, my boy, what luck? does 
 the old gentleman relent at all ? " 
 
 " Relent ? " echoed the other, morosely, 
 " not he. Catch him relenting ! I put my 
 foot down, too, though, this morning. He 
 can t cheat me out of my vacation entirely. 
 I told him I should go when Harding got 
 back, anyhow."
 
 8 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " What did he say to that respectful an 
 nouncement ? " 
 
 " Growled fearfully. And old Crabbe 
 vowed he d send for me if business picked 
 up. Business won t pick up, though, and 
 I can stand the growling. But I ve got to 
 wait till July." 
 
 " All right. Then we 11 wait. I can 
 take a run down into Maine, and meet you 
 in Boston later." 
 
 " No, you can t. Read that ! " 
 
 " That " was a letter which Terry drew 
 from his breast-pocket and threw across to 
 Conrad, who was now down on his knees 
 engaged in a desperate struggle with the 
 buff -leather shawl-strap aforesaid, which had 
 turned obstinate at the last moment, as such 
 unreasoning things -will, and refused to give 
 way so far as to buckle where it was wanted 
 to do. 
 
 " In a minute. Just toss me that pen 
 knife, will you ? I must make a new hole 
 here." 
 
 This being done, and the contrary strap 
 fastened securely, the victor seated himself 
 upon his prostrate foe, and picking up the 
 envelope proceeded to make himself ac 
 quainted with its contents.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 9 
 
 HIGIIFIELD FARM, OCKLEY, N. H., 
 June 6, 18. 
 
 DEAR NEPHEW TERRY, It is a disap 
 pointment to both Robina and myself that 
 you cannot visit us at present. Doubtless, 
 however, your grandfather has his reasons 
 and good ones for requesting you to post 
 pone it. A man in his responsible position 
 must drive carefully. Business is a clumsy 
 vehicle, and the wheels will not run under. 
 But even if you must wait till next month, 
 why cannot Mr. Faulkner come, as agreed ? 
 Since learning from Classmate Green that 
 he is the son of my old friend Dick Faulk 
 ner, I have experienced a great desire to 
 meet and talk with him ; and earnestly wish 
 that he would consent to waive all ceremony, 
 and come up at once. Robina and I are 
 not gay people exactly, but Ockley in itself 
 will go far with a man of his tastes ; and for 
 the rest we will try to keep him content 
 until you arrive at least. 
 
 Urge this matter, my boy, and tell Mr. 
 
 F , with my best regard, that we shall 
 
 depend upon seeing him at the time origi 
 nally fixed. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 ISAAC N. GARY.
 
 10 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Well ? " interrogated Terry, just a bit 
 impatiently. 
 
 " Well," repeated Conrad, slowly. 
 
 " What do you say ? I m to urge, you 
 know. Just consider yourself urged, will 
 you ? and give a fellow your decision. Say 
 yes and be done with it ! " 
 
 " That is easy. Easier than it would be 
 to say no. One could not well refuse such 
 an invitation, even if one wanted to, which 
 I do not. You re a lucky dog, Terry, to 
 have two such homes. Some people would 
 be thankful for one." 
 
 " Some people are n t, Con Faulkner, then, 
 for he s the hardest-mouthed mule where 
 sociability is concerned that ever I tried to 
 drive. " You know, Con," he added, gravely, 
 for his friend s homelessness always touched 
 a tender spot in his boy heart, " you know I 
 am always ready to go shares with you in 
 everything ; but you 11 never budge." 
 
 " I in budging now with a vengeance, if 
 only I don t live to regret it. That used 
 to be my Aunt Hetty s favorite threat when 
 ever I ventured to indulge in a youthful 
 lark. You 11 live to regret it, child ! 
 And to tell the truth I have lived to regret 
 most of the times when I have ventured to
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 11 
 
 crawl out into other people s sunshine for a 
 bit. The crawling back is not so pleasant. 
 Nothing deepens the shadows in a picture 
 like throwing out a few high-lights." 
 
 " Are n t you rather putting the cart be 
 fore the horse, old man? I always thought 
 you painters threw out your lights by deep 
 ening the shadows." 
 
 " That s the lingo, certainly, and it s a 
 poor rule that does n t work both ways ; but 
 you must have your light first, or you may 
 whistle for your shade." 
 
 " Moral take care not to stand in your 
 own light if you don t want to see shadows. 
 You re on the right tack this time, Con ; 
 it s all high - lights at Ockley. Con 
 found it all though ! " he exclaimed, waxing 
 wrathful again over his wrongs ; " it s shady 
 lines for me. I never intended getting left 
 when I planned the business, all so fine ! " 
 
 " Assuredly I never intended you should 
 when I agreed to it," laughed his friend. 
 " Cheer up, Terry ! July is bound to come, 
 and Miss Robina will be doubly glad to see 
 you after a surfeit of your humble servant 
 and his traps. Elderly ladies don t usually 
 take kindly to having their spare room lit 
 tered up with truck of this sort." And he
 
 12 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 indicated the surrounding art collection with 
 a sweep of his arm. 
 
 Terry s eyes flashed and twinkled. 
 
 " Cousin Rob ina is not to say elderly, 
 exactly. I guess you never heard me say 
 very much about her, Con." 
 
 " Very little beyond the fact that she keeps 
 house for your uncle and is Lady Bountiful 
 to the parish at large. A whole-souled, 
 motherly sort of person, I take it, with a 
 decided leaning toward her graceless young 
 cousin." 
 
 Terry grinned. 
 
 "Well, Con, if those are your precon 
 ceived notions, it would be a pity to spoil 
 them, so I 11 say nothing. Only if she 
 does n t prove quite as motherly as you 
 expect, don t blame me." 
 
 " No, I 11 praise you. That will be the 
 surest way to get into her good graces. It 
 will take all your virtues to cloak my sins." 
 
 " I m not so sure of that as I wish I 
 were," murmured Terry to the chair-back. 
 But he hastened to add, with a mischievous 
 glance at Conrad, " Praise up the gray cat 
 and the pot-pie if you want to make your 
 self popular. Uncle Ike s housekeeper is 
 a tip-top cook."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 13 
 
 " An excellent thing in woman. What s 
 the time, Terry ? I must hurry." 
 
 " Quarter to four, by Jove ! Some one else 
 must hurry too, I reckon, or be late to 
 dinner. Good-by, old man. You hang on 
 there till July, and I 11 be on hand Prov 
 idence and old Crabbe permitting. I 11 
 write the Dominie to - night and tell him 
 your re coming. Take care of yourself, 
 Con, and leave the keys with Rooney, will 
 you? I like to run in sometimes, though 
 the place seems like an old tomb when I m 
 alone in it." 
 
 The merry face was grave, and the grave 
 face smiling as the two friends grasped each 
 other s hands. Yet somehow the smile held 
 as much of regret as the gravity. 
 
 Two days later Conrad Faulkner was 
 mounting the stairs of a down-town Boston 
 building, the front of which fairly bristled 
 with wooden signs and lacquered tin strips 
 innumerable. Two long flights were trav 
 ersed rapidly and without hesitation ; at the 
 foot of the third he paused, thought a mo 
 ment, turned sharp to the left, and walked 
 along the narrow corridor to a door at the 
 extreme end which bore upon its brass 
 plate the inscription
 
 14 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 BENJAMIN THACHER 
 
 COUNSELLOR AT LAW. 
 
 A deep voice called "Come in! "in an 
 swer to his knock ; but before he could 
 turn the knob the door flew back on its 
 hinges, and a sturdy little old gentleman 
 with a gray head sprang out, like a Jack-in- 
 the-box, and seizing the young man in his 
 arms hugged him with a vehemence that 
 would have done credit to a brown bear. 
 
 " Thought t was your knock, boy. Come 
 in come in ! there s your chair waiting 
 for you. Got telegram, all right, at eleven. 
 Mighty glad to get it too. Bless my stars, 
 you re just the same old sixpence ! Put 
 your traps down in the corner. I 11 be 
 ready in twenty minutes, and then we 11 go 
 home to dinner. I ve corn four inches high 
 already, and you never tasted such lettuce 
 and peas as I can give you in your life ! 
 Now make yourself comfortable, and don t 
 speak a word to ine till I get out of this 
 snarl." 
 
 Conrad laughed and obeyed ; \vhile he of 
 the gray head plunged deep into the con 
 tents of various papers and documents on 
 the table before him.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 15 
 
 Promptly at the time designated, however, 
 he emerged ; reduced chaos to order with 
 quick and practised hand ; and, catching up 
 hat and driving-gloves, announced himself 
 ready to start. 
 
 " You see, Con," said he, as they de 
 scended the stairs and stepped out into the 
 street, " there s nothing like farming for the 
 fun of the thing. Turn down here ; I stable 
 at Herrick s now ; he s nearer than Blake, 
 besides being a good deal more reliable. 
 These farmers who have to make their liv 
 ing off their land are so terribly afraid of 
 experiments ! Now I ve four dozen as pretty 
 hills of corn as ever you saw ; four inches 
 high ; and no one else about here has it 
 much more than planted. How do you 
 think I did it ? Started it under glass. 
 The neighbors all laugh and shake their 
 heads over it, and I suppose it does look 
 rather crazy to men who plant their sweet 
 corn by the acre ; but I shall have it in 
 the pot before theirs begins to ear, for all 
 that. Here we are. Always on hand, Jerry 
 hey ? Jump in, Con ! all right ; now 
 give em their heads ! " and the two gentle 
 men, bowing their own as they passed under 
 the low doorway, drove up the street at a
 
 16 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 pace which might have proved dangerous 
 with any less skillful hand on the reins than 
 " Old Ben Thacher s." 
 
 Once fairly free from city obstructions, 
 the lawyer s steady attention to his horses 
 relaxed somewhat, and conversation went on 
 unflaggingly ; owing chiefly, it must be con 
 fessed, to the cheery garrulity of the elder 
 man, who was evidently heartily attached to 
 his newly arrived guest. 
 
 " Well, well, well ! " he exclaimed at 
 length, " how much talking it takes to sew 
 up a two years gap. Back and forth, back 
 and forth, like Constance s thread when she 
 is darning stockings. It 11 take a week at 
 least to cobble up this hole. And yet, I de 
 clare, it does n t seem as long as that since 
 we were thumping about together on those 
 hard-backed Swiss horses, and not much 
 longer since you and I were pulling Connie 
 through that terrible siege at Eome. She 
 never would have come through either but 
 for you, boy. Hem ! get along, Polka ! we 
 must n t be late to dinner. The old lady 
 will be on tiptoe. I sent your telegram out 
 to her by Ferris. Knew she d never forgive 
 me if she had n t a chance to kill the fatted 
 calf and get on her best cap. Whey, Ma 
 zurka ! "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 17 
 
 The sun was shooting golden arrows be 
 tween the trunks of stalwart elms that lined 
 each side of the way, as the well-matched 
 roans trotted easily along the broad, level 
 stretch of Winford Street. It flashed keenly 
 across the faces of the two men in the buggy 
 while a short, unsheltered strip of dusty 
 road was traversed, and subsided again to a 
 mere twinkle through drooping boughs and 
 thickly interlacing vines as a corner was 
 turned into a long shaded avenue, which, 
 after taking several turns itself between its 
 green borderings of birches and cat-brier 
 and wild grape-vines, took a last one, and 
 brought up before the broad, low veranda 
 of a broad, low house. 
 
 Miss Constance Thacher, a sweet -faced 
 lady of some sixty years, housekeeper, ad 
 viser, and dearest friend to her warm-hearted, 
 impetuous old-bachelor brother, met them, 
 with a glad welcome for Conrad, in the hall, 
 and the three were presently seated, at table 
 in the cool dining-room ; through the long, 
 open windows of which they could watch the 
 river winding its shining length between 
 green, shelving banks, the red and white 
 cows browsing their leisurely way home from 
 pasture, and, further off, the creeping ranges
 
 18 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 of low-lying hills, with a June sun sinking 
 slowly in golden glory beyond them all. 
 
 " There, now ! " exclaimed Mr. Thaeher, 
 when, peas and lettuce having been duly at 
 tended to and commended, hot meats and 
 puddings sent away, and the cloth removed, 
 the trio sat cosily in the gathering twilight 
 over their fruit ; " this is just as it should be. 
 All three together again. Honestly, now, 
 Conrad, does it seem as if it were two years 
 since you left us at the Liverpool dock, and 
 set that obstinate face of yours toward mak 
 ing your own way in the world ? " 
 
 " Honestly, I should say it seemed more 
 like six, sir. Years are very much like that 
 worn - out old shield in the reading-book ; 
 whether they seem short or long, dark or 
 bright, depends upon a person s stand-point. 
 I have been on the shady side of so many 
 lately that I hardly remember how the re 
 verse looks. I ve broken loose this summer 
 to try to find out." 
 
 " All right ; we 11 help you. Connie and 
 I. How do you propose to begin ? " 
 
 " It strikes me I have made a fairly good 
 beginning already." 
 
 " Well, then, how do you mean to keep 
 
 O 5 
 
 on?
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 19 
 
 " As I have begun, for a time. Then I 
 am clue at Ockley, as I told you. Terry 
 will join me in July, and then we propose to 
 scour the surrounding country on foot ; al 
 ways keeping his uncle s house as head 
 quarters, however, for Terry has sat in the 
 lap of luxury too long to appreciate the joys 
 of up-country taverns. You should know 
 Terry," he continued, turning to Miss Con 
 stance ; " he is just one of the generous, 
 merry-hearted boys such as you like. There 
 is the making of a very noble man in him 
 too, if I am not mistaken." 
 
 " He is n t the sort of boy I like," broke 
 in Mr. Thacher ; " interferes too much with 
 my plans. So does the old chum up in the 
 back-woods, who, by the way, seems to have 
 raked up his college recollections rather late 
 in the day. However, he 11 do to drop. 
 Con, Sis and I have arranged to take a 
 couple of weeks off, or rather to take our 
 selves off for that length of time, somewhere 
 about the end of August or first of Septem 
 ber. Every dog has his day about that 
 time, and I m bound to have mine. A man 
 gets tired of his own vine and fig-tree once 
 in a while, especially if he never gets a 
 chance to sit under it, and I ve been pretty
 
 20 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 hard worked ever since we came back from 
 Europe. Connie s heart is set on it too, 
 and it does n t agree with the Thacher con 
 stitution to be disappointed. But we can t 
 go without you, so when will you be ready? 
 Name the day, and I 11 choke off my clients 
 to suit." 
 
 " To tell the truth," said Conrad, " I hardly 
 see how I can manage it, much as I should 
 like to do so. I had intended to be back 
 in New York again by September 1st at 
 latest." 
 
 " But, man alive, you promised us a visit. 
 You don t intend to break your word, do 
 you?" 
 
 " It does n t look much like it, at pres 
 ent," replied Conrad, smiling, " since I am 
 here to redeem it. I can give you a couple 
 of weeks now, unless Miss Constance would 
 rather I made it one." 
 
 " Well, upon my word ! " Mr. Thacher 
 fairly dropped the strawberry that was half 
 way to his mouth back upon the plate, and 
 flung down his spoon in disgust. " All the 
 time he wants for old Daddy Gary, and two 
 paltry little weeks for us ! I guess you for 
 get that if Providence had n t seen fit to in 
 terfere I might have been your uncle."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 21 
 
 " No, I don t," said Conrad ; but his ex 
 cited host sandwiched this remark without 
 even noticing it. 
 
 " It s all very well for the Bible to enjoin 
 hospitality, and I trust and believe I do my 
 best to bear out St. Peter under all circum 
 stances ; but the guest has some responsi 
 bility in the matter, I take it ; and, if you can 
 call yourself a hospitable man, Con Faulk 
 ner, in the face of such a speech as that you 
 just made, your conscience must be tough 
 for your years, re-markably tough ! " 
 
 "Never mind, Ben," put in his sister, 
 laughing, " you just go on doing as the Bible 
 tells you to, and leave the boy to me. I 11 
 manage him. Ben is quite right, Conrad," 
 she added, " if he is rather rude about it ; 
 and moreover " 
 
 " Rude ? I m not rude," interrupted Mr. 
 Thacher, nodding his head emphatically. 
 " I m merely extending a pressing invita 
 tion. It s not all politeness, either ; it s 
 part business. I want you to paint a pic 
 ture of old Victory. Well, what are you 
 humping up your eyebrows at now ? " 
 
 " I fear the result would be a picture of 
 defeat," replied the young man, bringing 
 down the too-expressive eyebrows.
 
 22 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " De-fiddle-sticks, boy ! No such thing. I 
 know what I m about. Victory is n t one 
 of your sleek, pink-nosed, crook-neck snort 
 ers ! He s a rough and tough old fellow, 
 with character in his face. That horse has 
 had a history, and he knows it. I want 
 some one to paint him who will catch his ex 
 pression. You re a great one for catching 
 expressions, Con." 
 
 " My dear Ben ! I hope he won t catch 
 any of yours." 
 
 " Don t you bother, Connie," said the 
 lawyer, with a quick smile at his sister that 
 robbed the words of all roughness. " The 
 boy understands me and my ways. Come, 
 young man," turning again to Conrad, 
 " what do you say ; will you or won t you ? " 
 
 " It would be only a pleasure to make the 
 attempt so far as I m concerned," replied 
 his guest, " but I fear you would hardly feel 
 proud of the result. Victory is a grand old 
 fellow, a regular Lear among horses ; he de 
 serves to be painted by a master-hand. Why 
 not get Lawshe to do it ? I never painted 
 a horse in my life." 
 
 "Neither did Lawshe, for that matter." 
 
 Miss Constance exclaimed. 
 
 " Oh, I know he has had some four-legged
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 23 
 
 things on exhibition ; perhaps he calls them 
 horses. I don t. They re mere daubs ani 
 mated daubs ! not like any horse that ever 
 was seen, unless it may be a night-mare ! " 
 " Perhaps your opinion would not be 
 worth much in art circles, Ben," suggested 
 his sister. 
 
 " May be not. I guess it would n t, seeing 
 that Lawshe s is. I know what I like, 
 though, and that s more than half these 
 critics do. Regular hypocrites, most of em ! 
 Turning their conceited backs on what 
 really takes one s fancy, and squinting 
 through their fingers at things that are 
 enough to give one the crawls to look at, 
 merely because they are considered the cor 
 rect thing. By and by some other style 
 will be considered the correct thing, and 
 then these modern fellows will be worse off 
 than the old ones are now ; for they, at 
 least, did their best to paint things as they 
 saw them ; whereas these chaps are forever 
 straining themselves to paint things as a cer 
 tain set of non - compusses wants to see 
 them!" 
 
 " Don t talk so loud, Ben, please." 
 " And then," went on Mr. Thacher, after 
 a glance at his sister, in a mild tone which,
 
 24 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 taken in connection with his excited face 
 and gestures, was inconceivably comical, 
 " then they find fault with such pictures as 
 Hilton s because of their finish. Finish ! 
 I tell you if you re going to imitate the 
 Lord s handiwork you ve got to finish. I 
 would n t give that bull of Hilton s that 
 hangs in my office for all the hysterics these 
 folks can put on canvas. Good gracious, 
 man, any one can throw paint ! I could do 
 it myself. Look at that picture that Farley 
 bought ; how did the man do it ? I 11 tell 
 you. He just slapped the canvas with a red 
 paint-brush, wiped it with a brown one, 
 tickled it a little with palette scrapings, 
 hung it up ten yards off, and called it 
 Foxes ! And then Farley goes and pays 
 five hundred dollars for it like a fool. 
 Foxes ! why a fox would turn gray at the 
 sight of it. But just look at that bull, now ! 
 he s got hairs. You won t find any streaks 
 on him. Put the breath of life into him, 
 and he d bellow at you with a will. Those 
 confounded foxes would blow up if they tried 
 to breathe." 
 
 " I m afraid you will blow up if you 
 don t, Ben." 
 
 " Well, well," said he, good-humoredly,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 25 
 
 mopping his face with his napkin, and 
 emerging very rubicund and glossy. " Hang 
 art, anyhow ! Nature s the thing for me. 
 Come along and see my corn, Con, before it 
 gets too dark." 
 
 They quitted the table at that, and the 
 two gentlemen went out together to stroll 
 for a while among the flowers and vege 
 tables which were the pride of the lawyer s 
 heart; while Miss Constance sat in the 
 gathering dusk, on the wide piazza, clicking 
 her shining knitting-needles softly against 
 each other, and watching the moon as it rose 
 buoyantly up into the fathomless blue. 
 
 Presently Conrad came back alone, and 
 seated himself on the step at her feet. 
 
 " This is a glorious night ! " said he. 
 
 "June nights are apt to be glorious. 
 And especially so among the hills. I am 
 right glad you are to have a breath of moun 
 tain air again, Conrad. It is what you need. 
 You look thinner and older than when we 
 parted in England." 
 
 " I am older by two pretty hard years." 
 
 " Not too old to grow young again if you 
 have the chance. That is why I want you 
 to take it now, before the lines and wrinkles 
 become chronic. Going among pleasant
 
 26 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 people will tend to smooth them out won 
 derfully." 
 
 " To tell the truth I rather dread that 
 part of it. I believe I do not make friends 
 easily." 
 
 " My dear, friends are not like doughnuts, 
 to be twisted together out of common ma 
 terial by the aid of a little sugar and spice. 
 The Lord gives them to us as he sees we 
 need them. Only when they come, hold 
 on to them." 
 
 The busy needles traveled to and fro 
 along the edge of the white cloud of yarn. 
 Neither the lady nor the gentleman spoke 
 again for some minutes. He was enjoying, 
 with all his artist s heart, the effect of the 
 soft, clear moonlight, that made a fairy 
 vision of the wide lawn, with its clumps of 
 shrubbery and grand old trees. She was 
 revolving in her mind something which 
 pressed for utterance, yet found no words 
 quite fitting. Presently she grew desperate, 
 and spoke the first that offered. 
 
 " Conrad, dear boy, I have a feeling some 
 how in my bones that this summer will be 
 a turning-point for you." 
 
 " Yes ? I suppose every moment is a turn 
 ing-point if one only knew it. Do you no-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 27 
 
 tice how exquisite those shadows of the 
 grape-vines are upon the boles of the white 
 birches yonder ? " 
 
 " Very, veiy lovely indeed. But only 
 shadows after all. Do you know I think 
 you have kept companionship with shadows 
 long enough. I am very glad that some one 
 is trying to drag you out into the sunshine 
 for a while." 
 
 " Out among the high-lights, as Terry 
 says," replied he, smiling. 
 
 "Precisely. I want to know this Terry 
 presently. Bring him with you if he 
 will come when you come back in Septem 
 ber. For of course, Conrad," she went on, 
 quickly, looking down at him with earnest 
 eyes, " you will come back to us. If we let 
 you break away from us after that year in 
 Europe, which by its deep experiences did 
 the work of twenty ordinary years in link 
 ing our lives together, it was only because 
 your own highest good demanded that your 
 life-plan should be your own, and worked 
 out by yourself. Where mother and father 
 would not interfere, it was not for us to do 
 so ; but, wherever and whenever mother or 
 father could welcome or advise or help, we 
 claim it as our right to do so, Ben and I.
 
 28 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Go out into the world as you will ; but, when 
 the times for home - coming offer, this is 
 home. Will you remember ? " 
 
 Conrad sprang to his feet. " I am not 
 likely to forget," he said, in a low, intense 
 tone, as he paced the bright veranda with 
 folded arms, "either the words you have 
 now spoken or the many others of wonderf id 
 kindness which have been said before. It is 
 not that I am ungrateful for your goodness 
 that I hesitate to avail myself of it more," 
 he went on, pausing in his earnestness be 
 side Miss Constance ; " you must believe 
 that ! It is only that, when one has got used 
 to living among shadows, too much of the 
 other thing dazzles one s eyes ! " And 
 either because his eyes were dazzled, or for 
 some other reason, he walked off to the far 
 end of the veranda with quick strides. 
 
 Miss Constance took advantage of this 
 movement to polish up her glasses and wipe 
 her own eyes. Then she remarked, quietly, 
 
 " Of course it was to be expected that 
 these two years would be rather dreary, 
 among strangers as you were, with Ben and 
 me away, and the old place shut up. But 
 now that is all set right, and even if you 
 were in Kamschatka it would not seem so
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 29 
 
 bad, since home is here for you to come to 
 when you need it. I am so glad, too, my 
 dear, that you are to be in New York. 
 Chicago always seemed a chain - lightning 
 sort of place to me. And you will find it 
 as easy to run on for Thanksgiving and 
 Christmas as you used to find it to run over 
 here for comfort and gingerbread, when 
 Aunt Hetty was particularly rigorous, poor 
 soul ! " 
 
 " Rigorous is a good word," laughed 
 Conrad, coming back to his old seat on the 
 steps. "Aunt Hetty was all that. She 
 thought she was merely doing her duty, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " That is what comes of living all alone," 
 exclaimed Miss Constance. " I would rather 
 adopt a poor-house. It spoils a woman or & 
 man, either. I shall be so glad " full stop. 
 
 "Of what?" he asked, turning to her 
 with the sudden smile that sometimes lit his 
 grave face into most winning beauty. 
 
 Miss Constance made a sidewise dive for 
 her ball. 
 
 " I shall be so glad to see you happily 
 married. Mrs. Conrad will be a great com 
 fort to me in more ways than one." 
 
 The grave look crept back again, and
 
 30 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 there was silence while Miss Constance 
 knitted six stitches, dropping intermediate 
 ones promiscuously. Then Conrad spoke, 
 quietly. 
 
 " I have never met her yet. I sometimes 
 think I never shall." 
 
 " Yes you will," asserted Miss Constance, 
 stoutly. " And when you do, Conrad, don t 
 do as I did. I waited. Don t you wait. 
 Marry ! " 
 
 "Marry? who talks of marrying?" ex 
 claimed a gruff voice from the darkness 
 of the deserted room within. " Constance 
 Thacher, what do you mean by putting such 
 notions into our boy s head? We can t 
 spare him yet a while, and the dickens only 
 knows how much we should see of him if he 
 had a wife ! " 
 
 " No danger at present," laughed the 
 " boy." " I can t afford such luxuries." 
 
 " Hah ! don t know about that, either," 
 retorted his host. " These summer vaca 
 tions are dangerous things, especially to 
 knights of the pen and the paint -pot. 
 When Art meets Nature then comes the tug- 
 of-war. I expect nothing but that you 11 
 get snapped up by some blowsy country- 
 girl."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 31 
 
 There was a general laugh at this 
 prophetic outburst, and then Mr. Thacher 
 and Conrad fell to talking of horses and 
 crops and the desirability of being in two 
 places at once when circumstances required 
 it; while Miss Constance put in a quiet 
 word here and there, or, busily flashing back 
 the moonbeams from her four restless little 
 rods of steel, looked far out into the mys 
 terious shadowy region of things to come, 
 and smiled to herself over her own un 
 spoken fancies.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Up and on where Nature s heart 
 Beats strong amid the hills." 
 
 THE midday rays of a summer sun were 
 pouring hotly down upon the wide, bare 
 platform at Cutter s Falls. The still heat 
 radiated from the steep, rocky sides of the 
 surrounding hills, till the little basin, of 
 which the great brick depot occupied the 
 centre, fairly rippled and waved with visible 
 caloric. Nothing was moving but two dusty, 
 forlorn looking hens. Nothing was audible 
 save the faint, monotonous click-click which 
 issued from behind the closed blinds of the 
 telegraph office. The hot hands of the big 
 depot clock moved slowly round till they 
 pointed to twenty minutes of twelve. Noth 
 ing stirred. Fifteen minutes of twelve 
 a brisk step sounded, and the station-master 
 appeared, coining round the corner of the 
 building. 
 
 Ten minutes there came a rattle of 
 wheels and tramping of horses as the hotel
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 33 
 
 stages drove alongside the platform, wheeled, 
 backed up, and waited ; the drivers lying 
 lazily along the tops of their vehicles, with 
 reins held loosely in one hand. 
 
 Five minutes of the hour. The old flag 
 man shuffled along, with his red signal, and 
 took up his position at the crossing. 
 
 Suddenly the great steam-whistle on the 
 factory by the bridge drew up its black, 
 iron palate, and sent forth from its metallic 
 throat a ringing scream that was flung back, 
 in deafening clangor, from every rock and 
 tree until, as the last echo died away among 
 the quiet hills, there came an answering 
 scream from the woods beyond the river ; 
 and, hot and dusty from its rush of a hun 
 dred miles, the noon train from Boston 
 rounded with slackening speed the shining 
 curve of rail, and drew up slow]y, panting, 
 before the station. 
 
 In an instant the place was all alive. 
 Streams of passengers emptied themselves 
 from the various cars, until, across the space 
 but a moment before empty and deserted, it 
 was hard to find a pathway. Trunks and 
 boxes whirled through the air in a manner 
 agonizing to the anxious eyes of their 
 owners. Draymen shouted and hauled. 
 
 3
 
 34 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 The lazy stage-drivers, alert and active now, 
 plucked women by the sleeve and men by 
 the coat-tail, vociferously shouting out the 
 superior merits and advantages of their re 
 spective hotels ; while a stout, red - faced 
 man in a white apron brandished a big bell 
 over the heads of the bewildered multitude 
 its resonant tongue hardly more clamor 
 ous than his own as he assured the " la 
 dies and gentlemen " that they would have 
 " twenty minutes for dinner ! " 
 
 Conrad Faulkner, alighting with the 
 crowd, made the best of his way out of it, 
 and the unsheltered glare at the front, into 
 comparative isolation and a cooler spot at 
 the rear of the building. In one corner of 
 an unoccupied settee he deposited his hand 
 bag and a stalky-looking bundle consisting 
 of umbrella, camp-stool, etc. ; looked about 
 for a small boy to act as guardian of his 
 treasures ; but descrying none concluded 
 to trust to Providence and the traditional 
 honesty of country towns for a few minutes, 
 and plunged once more, Orpheus-like, into 
 the Inferno he had just left, searching for 
 his Eurydice, a small russet trunk with 
 C. F. in black letters on either end. 
 
 Having found and rescued it, the next
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 35 
 
 desideratum was a means of conveyance. 
 He therefore accosted a man who seemed 
 likely to fall an easy prey to Satanic influ 
 ence, having remained calmly in one spot, 
 with hands in his pockets, " unmoved by 
 the rush of the throng," ever since the train 
 came in, and demanded of him where the 
 Ockley stage was to be found. 
 
 Apparently the man was unused to such 
 rapid utterance ; for he looked surprised, 
 and remained silent some seconds longer. 
 Then, slowly withdrawing one hand from 
 its place of concealment, he indicated with 
 its thumb an indefinite locality over his 
 shoulder, and replied, oracularly, " The man 
 that drives it s in there," and immedi 
 ately relapsed, more completely than ever, 
 into silence and his pockets. 
 
 At this moment the questioner s eye, and 
 almost his breath, was arrested by an ap 
 parition which issued from the main door of 
 the depot. It was, or looked to be, a boy 
 of about sixteen ; evidently not possessed of 
 his full share of wits, yet with a certain 
 shrewd, good - natured twinkle about the 
 small, pig-like eyes set deep in a round ex 
 panse of fat face, from which a freckled 
 snub-nose emerged like a rock in the ocean.
 
 36 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 His hands and feet were rather small, and 
 his body was immense ; which imparted to 
 his gait a peculiar effect something be 
 tween a roll and a shuffle. 
 
 " Dickens s fat boy, by George ! " ejacu 
 lated Faulkner. 
 
 " No he ain t," volunteered his indolent 
 acquaintance, " he s Burns s boy ; an he s 
 the very feller ye want. Hullo, Cy ! " 
 
 The fat boy turned in their direction, and 
 the pig s eyes twinkled. 
 
 " This man wants ter be took over to 
 Ockley. Where s Hebray ? " 
 
 Conrad, unable to remove his fascinated 
 gaze from the boy, beheld a sudden con 
 tortion of countenance which twisted the 
 mouth round almost to the left ear, but 
 heard no sound issue from the lips. Instead 
 there seemed to come from some one just 
 behind him, in a high, squeaky voice, these 
 words, 
 
 " He s loadin up naow ; ye d better step 
 lively!" 
 
 Involuntarily he looked over his shoulder. 
 The indolent man laughed. 
 
 " Pretty well done, Cy ! He s dreadful 
 spry with his voice " he added, in an aside 
 to Faulkner. " I ve knowed him throw it
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 37 
 
 as fur as from here ter them woods yander. 
 He 11 do it ag in in a minute, an t ain t no 
 sort o use ter git used to t he 11 fool ye 
 sure, every time." 
 
 Cy, however, having manifested his vocal 
 powers to his own and the stranger s satis 
 faction, betrayed no disposition to repeat 
 the performance ; but shouldered the russet 
 trunk, with wonderful agility for one of his 
 build, and moved off, its owner following, 
 to where, close by the settee on which re 
 posed the other articles just as they had 
 been left, stood now an antiquated yellow 
 and black stage-coach drawn by two bony 
 old bays ; while an equally bony and ma 
 hogany-colored driver, with innumerable 
 wrinkles in his face and a pair of gold ear 
 rings in his ears, was busying himself with 
 various barrels and packages on the rack 
 behind. 
 
 Having seen his belongings made fast with 
 the rest, Conrad mounted the top-heavy old 
 trap, which accommodatingly bent itself to 
 meet him as it felt his weight upon the step, 
 thereby causing an unexpected strain upon 
 the muscles of the back and abdomen any 
 thing but agreeable. It required some care 
 and skill to keep his balance, but he finally
 
 38 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 succeeded in effecting this nice adjustment, 
 and was fast losing himself in admiration of 
 the lights and shades and exquisitely blended 
 tints upon the mountain side before him, 
 when suddenly the earth seemed to give 
 way beneath him ! he felt himself jerked 
 through space, so to speak ; and, clutching 
 at a leather strap for safety, turned to be 
 hold the primary cause of it all. 
 
 An exceedingly solid lady, in a great 
 green calash, from whose depths two owl- 
 like eyes glared out upon him through gold- 
 bowed spectacles, had essayed to mount un 
 aided ; and, with one foot on the step and 
 both hands grasping the uprights, gallantly 
 maintained her position in the face of fate, 
 all undaunted by the fact that the back of 
 her head threatened to strike the ground 
 beneath her, and that a well-grown young 
 man, with various bundles, was in imminent 
 danger of being precipitated upon her from 
 above. 
 
 Conrad bit his lip violently to force down 
 his emotions ; and, keeping tight hold of the 
 strap with one hand, offered the other to his 
 helpless vis-a-vis. 
 
 " That s right, young man ! jest you hang 
 holt there, like grim death to a dead nigger,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 39 
 
 an I 11 git right in." And, suiting the ac 
 tion to the words, she grasped the proffered 
 hand tightly in her own big, freckled one, 
 and, with much puffing and effort and a 
 lavish display of garter, hoisted herself tri 
 umphantly to a seat in the elastic chariot. 
 
 " There ! I m obleeged to ye, I declare. 
 Hebray, he s ginerally on hand ter boost, 
 but seems he warn t this time. Sorry ter 
 upsot your equalibberum so." 
 
 " Not at all, Madam," replied Conrad, with 
 well-recovered gravity ; " my equilibrium is 
 not easily upset, although I must confess 
 the experience of the past few moments has 
 been quite a strain upon it." 
 
 " Should n t wonder if it hed. More 
 ways n one, mebbe ! " retorted his com 
 panion, with a shrewd twinkle in the eyes 
 behind the spectacles. " Laff all ye want 
 ter, I don t mind. T was funny, an no mis 
 take ! " And she fairly led off the laugh her 
 self, her broad shoulders shaking with jolly 
 appreciation of the joke. 
 
 " Be you a-goin ter Ockley ter stop ? " 
 she inquired further, after a pause. 
 
 " For a time, yes." 
 
 " Ruther guess you re the man they ve 
 be n expectin up to Parson Gary s this three 
 fo days, ain t ye?"
 
 40 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Very likely. I am going there." 
 
 " Us two 11 meet ag in then, as the song 
 says. I belong up that way too. Say ! " she 
 called to the driver, who now appeared es 
 corting two more female passengers and a 
 band-box, " ye may set me down ter Mary 
 Jane s. Seth 11 tackle up n take me hum 
 by nby." 
 
 He of the gold ear-rings nodded and spat ; 
 and, having established his charges on the 
 back seat by dint of two vigorous " boosts " 
 such as the stout lady had spoken of, ex 
 tended an invitation to Conrad to share the 
 front seat with himself ; which change of 
 base being effected, he clucked to his steeds, 
 and the procession moved. 
 
 For eight miles the road from Cutter s 
 Falls to Ockley lay through a thickly wooded 
 valley an easy stretch for the gaunt horses, 
 who traveled steadily on except for occa 
 sional stops to deliver bags of potatoes and 
 barrels of flour by the way, and a rather 
 prolonged halt at Mary Jane s. 
 
 The driver, whose name appeared in black 
 lettering on the yellow coach -body as Z. 
 Hebray, proved to be of a loquacious turn, 
 and conversed amicably with his only male 
 passenger in a voice which alternated be-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 41 
 
 tween a raucous growl and a subdued wheeze, 
 as his bronchitis or his asthma got the upper 
 hand. The fat boy had disappeared. 
 
 " There s Mill Village meetin us," quoth 
 Mr. Hebray, after some hour and a half of 
 steady jogging, pointing with the butt of his 
 whip to a church-spire rising white from 
 out a nest of green. " And the hotel s close 
 by. Shall I drop ye there, Mister, or do ye 
 want ter be kerried sumw er s ? I ve got 
 ter leave these wimmen round fust, that s 
 inside here, an then I 11 take ye anyw er s 
 in reason." 
 
 " Mister " thanked him, but feeling strong 
 ly moved in favor of renovation and dinner, 
 after his long ride and longer fast, before 
 presenting himself to people whom he had 
 never seen, signified his perfect readiness to 
 be " dropped," and was accordingly deposited 
 with his traps on the bare hotel piazza ; dis 
 covering Cy, as the stage rumbled off, seated 
 in ponderous solitude on the now empty 
 rack, his legs dangling as if forgotten by 
 their owner, and his big straw hat tipped 
 low over his eyes. 
 
 Two hours later, rested and refreshed, 
 Conrad sought the landlord, paid his bill, 
 and inquired the way to Highfield Farm.
 
 42 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Never hearn on t," was the reply. 
 
 This was unexpected discouragement. 
 Conrad tried again. 
 
 " Where does Mr. Gary, the minister, 
 live?" 
 
 " Want ter know ef that s what ye call 
 his place ! " 
 
 " That is what he himself calls it, I be 
 lieve." 
 
 " Well, there ain t another man in town 
 that doos, then. We all call it Saints Rest. 
 I donno baout no Highfield Fa m, but Saints 
 Rest is two an a ha f mile from here, goin 
 that way." And he pointed with a stubby 
 finger. Conrad thanked him, and was turn 
 ing away. The landlord called after him. 
 
 " Ts a braownish haouse, sits up high ! 
 looks as much like a good-sized corn ba n s 
 anything else. Ye can t mistake it. Two 
 mile from here, a straight road ! Leastways," 
 he explained to himself, watching the tall, 
 manly figure that was already almost out of 
 hearing, " t ain t very straight, but there 
 ain t no other." 
 
 Straight it certainly was not, for it turned 
 and twisted till even Conrad, used as he was 
 to finding his way through strange places, 
 fairly lost his bearings, and could not, for
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 43 
 
 the life of him, tell which of the two church- 
 spires he saw off at the right, brought near 
 together by distance, belonged to the little 
 village he had just left. After a while, how 
 ever, this whimsical road seemed to grow 
 tired of running away after every little rise of 
 ground merely for the pleasure of running 
 round it, and began to go straight up ! 
 The last mile was one continual climb. Now 
 along a bit of shady space where the trees 
 on either side the narrow way bent over in 
 a green and leafy screen-work ; now over a 
 hot, unsheltered strip which must be trav 
 ersed to reach the cool and tempting stretch 
 beyond. At one point a hurrying brook 
 rushed, as if out of breath with running, 
 under a rude board bridge ; and, in sheer 
 despair of ever reaching its destination on 
 time, flung itself, with reckless haste, down 
 thirty feet over the sharp gray rocks that 
 stung it into indignant, sparkling foam. 
 
 " Ockley begins well," thought Conrad, as 
 he paused for a moment s breath, and en 
 joyment of the extended outlook, before 
 tackling the last steep ascent, on whose brow 
 he saw, perched like a big brown bird, the 
 house which, as the landlord had told him, 
 was not to be mistaken in its total unlike-
 
 44 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ness to all the variety of red, white, and 
 black farm-houses scattered about over the 
 surrounding hills. 
 
 " Saints Rest." Truly the place seemed 
 fair and peaceful enough for any saint to 
 rest in ; for any sinner to forget his sins 
 and begin anew in. To Conrad Faulkner, 
 being no saint, neither the blackest kind of 
 sinner, it seemed, when he passed through 
 the little rustic gate and closed it noiselessly 
 behind him as if the whole pack of wants 
 and disappointments which a life of nearly 
 thirty years had laid upon his metaphorical 
 shoulders loosed its grip, and went rolling 
 down the hill as Christian s did. And, truly, 
 if the hill of old had been but half as steep 
 and toilsome an ascent as that which led to 
 Parson Gary s cottage, the weary pilgrim 
 might reasonably have believed that the 
 heavy burden would never find its way up 
 again ! 
 
 The house itself was a low, Swiss-like 
 structure, standing with open, hospitable 
 door beneath the shadow of cool-spreading 
 elms. A generous porch was shady with 
 woodbine and fragrant with flowering honey 
 suckle ; and as Conrad made his way to it 
 along the narrow, graveled path the tones
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 45 
 
 of a voice, reading, came pleasantly through 
 the open window and mingled itself with the 
 humming of the bees in the blossoms out 
 side. In a moment it ceased and there was 
 the sound of a door opening and closing. 
 Then all was still. 
 
 " Miss Robina has departed to her kitch 
 en," he said to himself. " I remember Aunt 
 Hetty never could read aloud for ten con 
 secutive minutes without jumping up to see 
 if the muffins were rising. Now is my 
 time ! " And he lifted and let fall the heavy 
 brass hand which did duty as a substitute 
 for other people s knuckles. 
 
 At the sound of his knock reverberating 
 through the quiet house, an old man with a 
 ruddy, genial face under frosty hair came 
 forth from the room within, and instantly 
 advanced to greet him with ready smile and 
 cordial, outstretched hand. 
 
 " Mr. Faulkner, I am sure ! Come in, 
 come in. You are most gladly welcome. 
 We have been looking for you this day or 
 two past. Bless my soul, how like you are 
 to your father ! " 
 
 He took Conrad s bag from his hand and 
 led the way through the wide hall to the 
 stairs.
 
 46 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " I am going to take you directly up to 
 your room ; and then you will start right 
 and feel more at home, which is what I par 
 ticularly want you to feel." And the old 
 gentleman beamed upon the young one so 
 hospitably that the latter began immediately 
 to experience a sense of restfulness and home 
 comfort to which he had long been a stranger. 
 
 A door at the head of the stairs stood 
 open into a large square chamber, with four 
 windows overlooking the valley to east and 
 north, the hill near whose summit Saints 
 Rest was built forming a kind of peninsula 
 from which, on three sides, one looked 
 across broad intervales to other hills beyond. 
 All the windows were open, and the blinds 
 had been thrown back to admit wandering 
 breezes. The white dimity hangings of the 
 bed and the light cane chairs and sofa 
 seemed doubly refreshing to one who had 
 just left city heat and dust behind ; while 
 the clean straw matting underfoot was like a 
 revelation after weeks of dingy Brussels. 
 
 " There," said the parson, depositing the 
 bundle of umbrellas. " This room belongs 
 to you. The remainder of the house you 
 must be content to take on shares with the 
 rest of us; but this is yours, to do as you
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 47 
 
 please in. Bring anything into it except a 
 dislike for Ockley ; take anything out of it 
 except your trunk. That, I hope, will take 
 root for some time to come. And, by the 
 way, I must send Abijah right down for it. 
 It s at the hotel of course ? that is right. 
 Do not hurry down if you prefer a little 
 rest. We shall be glad to see you whenever 
 you care to come, and we shall take tea at 
 half past six." And the parson betook 
 himself and his cheery smile off downstairs 
 again. 
 
 When, some twenty minutes later, Conrad 
 followed him, having small desire for rest, 
 the first sound that greeted his ears as he 
 opened his door was the voice of the in 
 visible reader. " A remarkably pleasant 
 voice for a middle-aged spinster partial to 
 cats and pot-pie ! " he thought to himself. 
 His host spied him, as he crossed the hall, 
 and came out to meet and conduct him into 
 the library, where they were sitting. 
 
 " I must introduce you to my niece 
 Robina, the good genius who makes home 
 delightful to me. Robin, my dear, this is 
 my old friend s son." 
 
 Conrad prepared to make his best bow to 
 the useful old maid ; and then stood so sud-
 
 48 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 denly arrested by surprise that he almost 
 forgot to bow at all. 
 
 A tall, graceful girl of some nineteen 
 years stood just within the library door, as 
 they entered, still holding carelessly in one 
 hand the book from which she had been 
 reading. The other hand she reached out 
 instantly and frankly to Conrad. As he 
 took it, he took with it the conviction which 
 most men obtain with greater or less reason 
 at some point in their lives, that this girl 
 was unlike all other girls whom he had ever 
 met. 
 
 She greeted him with a real, warm 
 hearted, old-fashioned smile, a smile that 
 lingered and brightened in the deep, earnest 
 eyes, and was in itself a satisfactory wel 
 come. At the same time there was a re 
 serve look which said, almost as plainly as 
 words, that her gladness was, as yet, merely 
 a part and because of her uncle s gladness. 
 Whether she would ever give him such a 
 smile solely 011 his own account would 
 clearly depend upon the ripe estimate which 
 she should form of him, and therefore re 
 mained to be proved. In the instant of 
 time during which this stamped itself upon 
 his consciousness as a fact, he also became 
 aware of a strong desire to prove it.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 49 
 
 They found out a good deal about one 
 another in the half hour before tea. The 
 parson found out, or imagined he did, that 
 the son of his old friend resembled his 
 father in more than looks. Conrad dis 
 covered that young, dark-haired Miss Robin 
 was a vast improvement upon the old, gray- 
 haired Miss Robina he had been led to ex 
 pect, and boxed Terry s ears mentally for so 
 misleading him ; while the young lady her 
 self, demurely seated in a corner with her 
 sewing, decided that a certain uneasy fear 
 she had cherished in regard to the possible 
 interference with their pleasant home rou 
 tine of the presence of a " stranger within 
 their gates " was likely to prove unfounded. 
 She slipped from the room presently, leav 
 ing the gentlemen to entertain each other 
 for a little, till the small, clear tinkle of a 
 bell struck into their conversation, and put 
 an end to it. 
 
 They found the table set for tea on the 
 wide west stoop, and Robin already in her 
 place at its head. It was a trifle strange, 
 perhaps, that the sight of her so placed 
 should carry Conrad back, with a sudden 
 heart-throb, to the time when he could re 
 member his mother, but little older than 
 4
 
 50 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 this girl, who was so young, as she used to 
 smile at him over the big coffee-pot ; he 
 perched in his high-chair, miles away it 
 seemed, beside his father. 
 
 That was a pleasant meal. The smooth 
 green turf crept to their very feet, and the 
 sunset light flooded all things with a lin 
 gering glory ; crowning the parson s white 
 head with a rosy nimbus, and bringing out 
 the golden gleams in Robin s wealth of nut- 
 brown curls, as she sat in her big chair and 
 poured tea and cream from the quaint, old- 
 fashioned service into shallow Indian cups, 
 her pretty hands flitting about amongst 
 them like a pair of white butterflies over a 
 bed of blue blossoms. 
 
 They lingered long until, when even the 
 parson declared himself unequal to a fourth 
 cup, the table was pushed back through 
 the long window into its place, a servant 
 removed all traces of the repast, and the 
 three new friends sat talking together, while 
 the moonlight brightened and the shad 
 ows deepened, far into the evening. Even 
 Robin, under the sweet influences of the 
 night, waxed fearless and talkative, and all 
 unconsciously made herself so irresistible 
 that Conrad found himself watching and lis-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 51 
 
 tening eagerly for the soft flash of her eyes 
 in the moonlight and the ringing music of 
 her laugh, as the parson told story after 
 story of his college days, and of pranks 
 played by those who were boys then, dead 
 many of them, or grown old and scarred in 
 fifty years of life s fierce warfare, since. 
 
 The laugh died away, and she sat in a 
 subdued silence as he told of his first parish 
 in a large, busy city, and of his young wife 
 and their bright, happy home life and church 
 work together ; of how his wife had died 
 and left him with one child, a boy ten years 
 old ; and then of how he had come back to 
 the old family farm among the hills, mean 
 ing to rear his son to healthy, helpful man 
 hood amid the sweet, strong influences of 
 Nature s solitudes, as the prophets of old 
 and even the Lord himself were reared. 
 " But God had other plans for the boy," 
 said his faithful old minister ; " and while I 
 was fitting him for college He was fitting 
 him for heaven. So here I have been, 
 waiting and working ever since. Terry 
 grew up between his grandfather s home 
 and mine, and did me credit at old Har 
 vard. He s a dear boy, a dear boy ; but 
 Robin, here, is the staff of my old age ! "
 
 52 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 and lie laid his hand fondly over the dark 
 curls like a crown of praise. 
 
 Then the little black clock on the mantel 
 within hammered out ten strokes upon its 
 hidden bell, and they were all surprised to 
 find how late it was. The parson said he 
 was sure Mr. Faulkner must be tired, and 
 Robin brought a lighted candle in a cosy 
 candle-stick ; but smiled as she gave it, say 
 ing that he would not keep it burning long. 
 Then he bade them both good-night, and 
 went upstairs, where, sure enough, his first 
 move was to extinguish the candle-flame; 
 for his chamber was flooded through and 
 through with the fair summer moonlight. 
 Away off to the northward rose sharp 
 mountain peaks, with dark, unfathomable 
 shadows lying between. The great elms be 
 fore the house rustled their green leaves 
 softly against each other, and the sweet 
 breath of the honeysuckle came floating up 
 to him from the porch below. 
 
 He rested his arms upon the wide win 
 dow-sill and gazed far out over the silent 
 panorama spread before him. One by one 
 the lights in the house went out, until there 
 was only one shining from the little vine- 
 hung window in the gable. Suddenly this,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 53 
 
 too, was extinguished, and the moon and 
 stars had things all to themselves. 
 
 Conrad drew in his head with a deep sigh 
 of satisfaction. 
 
 " I believe Terry was right," he said to 
 himself ; " I believe I am on the right tack 
 now."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " In the wood where shadows are deepest 
 
 From the branches overhead, 
 Where the wild wood-strawberries cluster, 
 
 And the softest moss is spread, 
 I met to-day with a fairy, 
 And I followed her where she led." 
 
 ADELAIDE PBOCTEB. 
 
 CONRAD woke early next morning. He 
 had neglected to close his east blinds before 
 going to bed, and by five o clock the sun 
 had reached a point whence it could send a 
 well directed shaft into his face, as he lay 
 fronting the window. Even then, had he 
 not opened his eyes, there might have been 
 another chance for him ; but he did open 
 them, and after that there was no closing 
 them again. 
 
 He rose, therefore, and began a leisurely 
 toilet ; enjoying it all immensely from the 
 first splash of the cool, woodsy - smelling 
 water in the big shallow bowl to the final 
 throwing wide of windows and door prepar 
 atory to leaving the room. 
 
 It was very still. No one seemed to be
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 55 
 
 astir as yet, but a soft wind moved to meet 
 him as he descended the broad old stairs; 
 and on reaching the hall below he found 
 the door already open, and the fresh breath 
 of the morning pouring in. Early as it was, 
 the bees were up and at work ; buzzing in 
 and out among the blossoms, and doubtless 
 making a delicious breakfast upon honey 
 and dew-drops. 
 
 He took his hat from the hall table and 
 stepped out upon the gravel. Once there, 
 a little side-path tempted him and he set off 
 to explore its windings. The breeze blew 
 freshly from far-away mountain summits ; 
 the long level sun -rays struck to right 
 and left like fairy wands, turning drops of 
 water into flashing jewels ; sweet, liquid 
 bird-notes sounded from far and near, and 
 the pines sent forth their spicy summons, 
 not to be denied. The path came to a sud 
 den end. Conrad looked at the tall grass, 
 heavy with moisture, and then at his shining, 
 thin-soled boots. Finally, with a comical 
 grimace, he bent down and rolled the edges 
 of his light summer trousers well out of 
 harm s way ; and, plunging boldly into the 
 grassy depths, waded off with great strides 
 toward the woods.
 
 56 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 By the time he reached them the sun was 
 well up, and piercing with its myriad golden 
 needles the thick-growing boughs. The 
 trees whispered and laid their heads together 
 above him, and at his feet the brook went 
 flowing by. He remembered how, as a boy 
 at home, he had been wont to follow up the 
 little stream that fed the mill-wheel to its 
 source among the rocks, and how many 
 times he had come back with wet feet, to 
 prim Aunt Hetty s wrath and dismay. 
 
 Now his feet were wet already, and Aunt 
 Hetty had been slumbering for many a long 
 year beneath the buttercups and daisies in 
 Winford church-yard. The dry tips of rock 
 poked themselves invitingly above the cur 
 rent, and he accepted their invitation, noth 
 ing loth. 
 
 Further and further into the woods. No 
 sunshine here, no bird-songs, nothing but 
 the murmur of the wind among the pines 
 and the ceaseless song of the dancing water. 
 
 He climbed on and up, over wet stones 
 and dripping moss, much to the detriment 
 of the aforesaid trousers, till he reached a 
 spot that held him by its wild loveliness and 
 forbade his going further, a deep, dark 
 rent between the rocks, through which rushed,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 57 
 
 foaming, the little mountain torrent, leap 
 ing with gay abandonment from ledge to 
 ledge, here dashing headlong, with musi 
 cal roar, like a mimic cataract ; there steal 
 ing softly and smoothly over its pebbly bed, 
 or dripping and trickling from the dark, 
 moss - covered walls, but always hurrying 
 down, down, in its eagerness to reach the 
 rapid river and the great waiting sea. 
 
 Just before him, shut in by big boulders, 
 with one fall plunging into it and another 
 rushing from it, lay a pool, a great round 
 basin, worn by the resistless sweep and swirl 
 of spring freshets into curves and grooves 
 innumerable. Clear beryl-green the water 
 shone in its massive reservoir ; and through 
 its cool depths, beneath the shelter of over 
 hanging rocks, small minnows scurried nim 
 bly to and fro ; while an occasional brook 
 trout showed his speckles for a moment, as 
 he glided gracefully past to bury himself in 
 some dark hollow out of reach. 
 
 Sight and sound made Conrad thirsty. 
 He stooped and drank of the pure, cold 
 water that had come from miles away, 
 through the darkness of the night. 
 
 Something came floating down the brook 
 as he raised his head again. A bit of wood,
 
 58 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 apparently ; not a twig, nor piece of bark 
 such as any brook might gather on its trav 
 els ; this had shape, it was larger at one 
 end than at the other, and gleamed white 
 where the bright light touched it, as it came 
 shooting down the fall into the pool. It 
 drifted to one side and lay rocking quietly 
 to and fro, revealing itself as a large wooden 
 spoon. Conrad fished it out. It was grace 
 ful in outline, and the handle was rudely 
 carved in a cluster of leaves and fruit. 
 
 " How, in the name of all that s sudden, 
 came you here ? " he inquired, turning it 
 over in amazement ; but the spoon vouch 
 safed him no reply. 
 
 " Seems to me you re a wonderfully 
 shapely chap. Do the farmers wives here 
 abouts stir their doughnuts with carved 
 spoons, I wonder ? " 
 
 His wonder was cut short. Another white 
 gleam shot over the fall, and another spoon 
 lay rocking on the surface of the pool. 
 
 " Two spoons ! Sign of a wedding, Aunt 
 Hetty used to say. This grows exciting. 
 Hulloa here comes something else ! Some 
 pedler must have come to grief above there." 
 
 A shallow wooden bowl came down with 
 a splash and " sailed the ocean blue." After
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 59 
 
 it, echoing gayly from rock to rock, came a 
 sweet ringing laugh. Conrad turned, a 
 spoon in either hand, and beheld Robin 
 standing on a big stone some two hundred 
 feet higher up the brook. She was adorned 
 with a long white linen apron that fell from 
 throat to feet ; her sleeves were rolled back, 
 disclosing fair, rounded arms ; her pretty 
 hair was carefully tucked away under a 
 little linen cap ; and her eyes, looking larger 
 and darker than ever from out so much 
 whiteness, were fairly dancing with merry 
 mischief. 
 
 " Good - morning, Miss Cary ! " he ex 
 claimed, transferring a spoon from his right 
 hand to his left and raising his hat, while 
 Robin nodded and smiled in return. "There 
 seems to be quite a brisk trade along shore 
 this morning ! Is your stream always as 
 well covered with small craft as now? " 
 
 "Not always," replied the girl, while the 
 clear laugh bubbled up again ; " this is a 
 boom ! Three wise men of Gotham went 
 to sea in a bowl. 
 
 "Ah! where is the third, I wonder? only 
 two dippers - in to science have reached 
 this port. Two and the bowl! " and Con 
 rad rescued the unlucky vessel as he had its
 
 60 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 crew, and made his way over the wet stones 
 to Robin s side. 
 
 " Thank you very much," said she, hold 
 ing out her hands to receive the dripping 
 mariners. " The captain, I grieve to say, 
 has probably gone to the bottom. He was 
 my pet skimmer." 
 
 " Indeed ? poor fellow ! he must have 
 been a man of metal, then." 
 
 " That he was ; and a very hole-y one as 
 well ; otherwise he might perhaps have 
 floated, for he was exceedingly broad and 
 thin." 
 
 " Broad and thin ! an uncommon combi 
 nation for a sea captain. It will never do 
 to leave such a paradox to his fate. I must 
 fish for him ; he can t have got far. Did 
 the the launch take place here ? " 
 
 " Just above here, in that little cove. I 
 put them there to soak, but they got away." 
 
 "So I perceive. "Well, the captain shall 
 not be left to his fate without an effort at a 
 rescue. I will take this branch for a drag, 
 and go to work." 
 
 " I must go to work too," said Robin, 
 growing a shade rosier as she remembered 
 for the first time her rather unusual cos 
 tume. " Don t fish too long, Mr. Faulkner,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 61 
 
 - 1 have other skimmers. If you are suc 
 cessful you will find me at the dairy. It is 
 just in here a little way, at the edge of the 
 woods." And she disappeared, like a white 
 vision, among the trees. 
 
 From pool to pool went Conrad, making 
 diligent but unavailing use of his beech- 
 bough drag ; and seeing ever before his 
 eyes not a tin skimmer, but a lovely girlish 
 face, with two eyes shining out like stars 
 from under a white cloud of cap-frill. 
 
 " I have read of dairymaids, and seen 
 them too," he muttered to himself as he 
 poked and splashed his way down stream, 
 " but I m blessed if I ever read about " 
 (poke) " or saw " (poke) " a dairymaid like 
 that ! It strikes me " he had reached the 
 big basin again, and was absently stirring 
 its contents round and round like a witch s 
 cauldron " it strikes me that Miss Robina 
 Gary is a bit unique. Last night in a long 
 dress, with all that rich old lace about her 
 neck and arms, and what novelists call a 
 coronet of curls on her head, she looked 
 like a court lady. This morning in a lank 
 white tyer, or what would be one on any 
 body else, with bare arms and not a curl 
 to be seen, she looks as rosy and demure
 
 ti 2 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 as one of Wordsworth s little country girls. 
 Which is the reality, I wonder ? or is 
 either? " 
 
 As there was no one by who could solve 
 this conundrum for him, and as he could 
 not solve it for himself, it presently occurred 
 to him that he might as well hunt up the 
 Enigma and see what she was about. So 
 after one final futile effort to recover what 
 he was in search of, he flung the beech 
 bough away in disgust, and set forth in the 
 direction which Robin had taken. 
 
 The dairy at Highfield Farm was a pleas 
 ant place into which to find one s way at 
 any time ; but at six o clock of a June 
 morning, when the early breezes came blow 
 ing cool over hill - side and pasture, sweet 
 with the breath of wild blossoms and mu 
 sical with the twittering of hidden birds, to 
 stand before the wide north window, looking 
 down over the green slope to the river, and 
 across the river to other green slopes be 
 yond, was like a bit from some pleasant 
 poem, or like the recalling of a sweet old 
 memory. 
 
 Robin was standing thus when Conrad 
 arrived on the spot, having caught through 
 the trees a glimpse of the gilt cow, that
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 63 
 
 formed the vane perched on the tip of the 
 comical red roof, and which, glittering 
 brightly in the early morning sunshine, had 
 served as a guiding star to the young man s 
 willing feet. 
 
 She was skimming cream. A six-quart 
 tin stood on the table before her ; and, as she 
 swiftly chased and caught the rich yellow 
 cream that fled in heavy, wrinkling folds 
 before her shining skimmer, she transferred 
 it deftly to a great brown-stone crock beside 
 her. She worked on and Conrad watched 
 her. When the first pailful was skimmed 
 she set it off at one side and brought for 
 ward another, which also was speedily and 
 skillfully bereft of its rich rising and ex 
 changed for a third. 
 
 Evidently she was no novice at dairy- 
 work. There was in every turn and motion 
 of the pretty hands "that easy dexterity, 
 quick without hurry, which invariably marks 
 the adept at any art. She made so graceful 
 and pleasant a picture that Conrad delayed 
 from moment to moment making his pres 
 ence known, lest some tinge of conscious 
 ness or embarrassment should rob the scene 
 of half its beauty. By and by, however, 
 he became aware that his proximity was no
 
 64 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 longer a secret. A little amused smile be 
 gan to pucker the corners of the girl s 
 mouth, and presently she spoke, without 
 raising her eyes from her work. 
 
 " What success, Mr. Faulkner ? " 
 
 " Miss Cary ! how did you see me, pray ? 
 I could take my Alfred David that you 
 never once raised your eyes," said Conrad, 
 coming up to the window and answering her 
 question with another. 
 
 " I did not see you I felt you," said 
 Robin. And the eyes, with a laugh in them, 
 were raised to his face for a moment. " Do 
 you never recognize people except with your 
 eyes ? And where is my skimmer ? Is is 
 he dead ? " 
 
 " Drownd-ed " quoted Conrad in his 
 turn. " You see his holey-ness could not 
 save him." 
 
 " Because, like a great deal of so-called 
 holiness, it would not hold water! There 
 are a great many skimmers in the world, 
 Mr. Faulkner." 
 
 " Yes and a good many strainers, also. 
 Luckily we are not the tinsmith. Why 
 don t you ask me to come in, Miss Cary ? " 
 
 " Come in by all means, if you like," said 
 Robin, frankly. " Do you enjoy a dairy ? "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 65 
 
 " To tell the truth, I have never been in 
 side one before," replied the young man, 
 swinging himself lightly to a seat on the 
 broad, low sill. " I have peeped in at a 
 dairy window once, but that was across 
 the water, and the cream had all been 
 skimmed long ago. There were only bare 
 marble tables and a mist of cobwebs or 
 something, that prevented one s seeing even 
 those clearly. Poor little dairymaid ! hers 
 was a dangerous dasher. She only meant to 
 stir up butter, but she stirred up a revolu 
 tion at the same time." 
 
 " Trianon ! " said Robin, softly ; and 
 then said no more for a moment, while her 
 eyes roamed over the fields outside with a 
 dreamy, far-away look, and the corners of 
 her mouth trembled again, ever so little, but 
 not with laughter this time. 
 
 It was only for a moment. Even as Con 
 rad watched admiringly the sweet varying 
 face that a word could change from gay to 
 grave, and yet that clearly was the ex 
 ponent of 110 weak nature, with its wide, 
 intelligent forehead and firm little mouth 
 and chin, it changed back again in a flash. 
 
 " Would you like to learn to stamp but 
 ter ?" she sent a bright, arch look full
 
 66 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 into his face, " because I am just ready to 
 stamp some, and you might help, if you 
 liked." 
 
 " I do like that is, I am sure I shall like, 
 immensely. What must I do first ?" 
 
 " Finish getting in, I should say, and then 
 put these on." 
 
 " These " were a pair of long linen sleeves 
 which came up nearly to his shoulders and 
 effectually protected his coat-cuffs. 
 
 " Anything else ? " he demanded, leaving 
 his perch on the window-sill and presenting 
 himself at the table whence Robin was 
 busily removing all vestiges of her former 
 occupation. She paused, cream - crock in 
 both hands, and regarded him with a little 
 frown of perplexity. 
 
 " I suppose you would feel insulted if 
 I should propose an apron ! " 
 
 " Insulted ? not a bit of it. An apron 
 by all means. George Herbert glorified 
 brooms, why should not aprons be held 
 as honorable ?" 
 
 " Why, indeed ? you will find one in 
 the table drawer." And she disappeared 
 through a low doorway into what seemed, 
 looking from the light, a region of total 
 darkness.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 67 
 
 When she came back she brought with 
 her, in one hand, a goblet filled with creamy 
 milk ; in the other, a wooden trough or tray, 
 which she placed on the table. In it was 
 a great ball of hard, yellow butter. 
 
 Conrad did not see this manoeuvre. He 
 was busy with his apron, which he put on 
 man-fashion, first tying it tightly about his 
 waist, hind-side before, and then, with a de 
 termined grasp of the binding at either side, 
 swinging it round to its proper position, at 
 the imminent risk of cutting himself in two. 
 
 " There ! " said he, smoothing it down with 
 a sigh of satisfaction ; " now what is the 
 next thing to do ? I am having a splendid 
 time ! " 
 
 " Drink this, please. It will be an hour 
 yet before we have breakfast, and I am sure 
 you must be hungry." 
 
 " Here s richness ! " exclaimed Conrad, 
 as he thanked her and took the goblet. 
 " A city milk-man would feel his digestion 
 ruined forever at the mere sight of such 
 cream." 
 
 " Very likely. A prick of conscience 
 often passes for an attack of dyspepsia," 
 laughed Robin, as she produced three wooden 
 prints and three spats which had been soak-
 
 68 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ing in the Gotham bowl, and proceeded 
 to instruct her new pupil in the art of 
 stamping. 
 
 " There first you must draw the handle 
 down so then pack the butter in with the 
 spat until the mould is full so. Then 
 smooth it off and do so ! " And with one 
 dexterous punch of the handle she pushed 
 the finished butter -pat out upon the dish 
 placed to receive it. 
 
 " How delicious it looks ! " said Conrad, 
 bending over the dish in admiration ; " it is 
 a rose, a golden rose." 
 
 "Yes. And you have also a sheaf of 
 wheat, and what is the other ? I forget." 
 
 " A butterfly. How suggestive ! But 
 what are you going to do yourself? you 
 have given me all the pretty work." 
 
 " Not a bit of it ! On the contrary I 
 have kept the best for myself." And pro 
 ducing a silver butter-dish she proceeded to 
 cover it with the most delicate golden shells 
 and quirls and hollow scrolls imaginable ; 
 all of which were evolved from solid lumps 
 of butter by some swift, magical manipula 
 tion of a pair of wooden spats only differ 
 ing from ordinary spats in that they were 
 grooved, like a piece of old-fashioned hard
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 69 
 
 gingerbread. When the butter-dish was 
 filled she brought forth from her unfailing 
 cupboards a large platter, which she set 
 herself to covering closely with the same 
 airy constructions. Conrad, getting through 
 with his more solid work first, stood and 
 looked on appreciatively. 
 
 "That is high art," he said at length, 
 when the last crumb had been transformed 
 and placed on the dish, " the beatification 
 of butter. How long will that amount last ? 
 there looks to be a week s supply of it." 
 
 " Oh, 110 ! that will all be gone by to 
 morrow night. There is very little to them. 
 They melt away like the most evanescent 
 thing you can imagine." 
 
 " Good resolutions," said Conrad. 
 
 " Moral butter ! " laughed Robin. " A 
 good synonym, Mr. Faulkner. It is time 
 for us to be going now, but, if you like, 
 I will show you over my domicile first." 
 
 " Is there more to it then ? " said Conrad, 
 glancing round the little octagonal apart 
 ment so scrupulously clean and orderly, so 
 sweet and cool with its vine-shaded window 
 and door. " Is n t this the whole ? " 
 
 " No, indeed, not half. This is only 
 the shell, the work-room. The kernel of
 
 70 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 the whole is yet to be exhibited. Where do 
 you suppose all the milk, and cream, and 
 butter are ? " 
 
 " There is the butter," he replied, pointing 
 to their finished work, " and when the but 
 ter came I suppose the cream departed." 
 
 Robin laughed. " Come and see," she 
 said, and disappeared once more through 
 the low doorway into darkness. Conrad 
 paused on the threshold. 
 
 " I perceive, Miss Gary, that you take me 
 for a cat. You are mistaken, however. My 
 pupils refuse to expand to the requisite ex 
 tent." 
 
 Robin s low laugh came back to him from 
 out the dusk. " Indeed you are the mis 
 taken one, Mr. Faulkner ! I should object 
 most strongly to encouraging cats in my 
 dairy. Now you can see." And as she 
 spoke a square opening appeared directly 
 ahead, through which the glad light poured 
 in and made things clear. 
 
 Stepping down two steps the young man 
 found himself in what appeared to be a 
 small cave, the floor being laid with slabs of 
 gray slate, and the irregular sides formed 
 entirely of huge rocks from whose rough sur 
 faces little streams of moisture were slowly
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 71 
 
 trickling. On a swinging shelf at his right 
 hand were ranged platter after platter like 
 that he had already seen, covered with pats 
 of the same yellow butter. On the floor 
 beneath stood the cream-crock. He looked 
 in vain for anything more. 
 
 " You are wondering what has become of 
 the milk," said Robin, " see here ! " She 
 stooped and lifted a large round grating 
 which was set in the floor, and which, being 
 of the general coloring, had escaped his 
 notice. Beneath was what looked to be a 
 well. 
 
 " This is a living spring. Feel how cold 
 the water is." It was cold, almost as cold 
 as ice-water. 
 
 " You see I hang my pails down into the 
 spring itself. The animal heat is all out 
 of the milk in a very few minutes, and the 
 cream is magnificent. Look at this ! " She 
 unhooked one of the pails and drew it up. 
 The cream on it was already nearly an inch 
 thick. 
 
 " That is twelve hours rising," she said, 
 restoring it to its place. " To - morrow 
 morning I shall skim all these on this side. 
 Those two pails there are for table use. I 
 consider twelve hours long enough for cream
 
 72 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 that is to be eaten as such to rise. After 
 that it seems to lose something of its fresh 
 taste and become buttery." She put the 
 grating back again, and rose to her feet. 
 
 " There are twenty pounds of butter there," 
 she said, glancing with pardonable pride at 
 the golden treasure on the shelf. " To-mor 
 row Abijah will take it over to the Falls, 
 and start it off for Boston, by the early 
 train. Now I will set away the pats which 
 you have been making, and then we must 
 take off our regimentals and go. It is after 
 seven already, and I want to stop for a few 
 lilies of the valley on the way." 
 
 " How happens it that you have lilies of 
 the valley in bloom now ? " asked Conrad, 
 when the key had been turned on this rustic 
 Paradise and dropped into Robin s pocket, 
 and they were walking away, she with a 
 cream-jug in either hand, and he with the 
 butter-dish. " Is the season so much later 
 here? Miss Constance and I searched in 
 vain, only last week, for enough to make a 
 buttonhole bouquet." 
 
 " Management, Mr. Faulkner manage 
 ment ! Women are born managers, you 
 know. I always contrive to keep a patch 
 back for late blooming. They grow in a 
 cool, shady corner by the West Spring."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 73 
 
 " Small blame to them ! it sounds uncom 
 monly refreshing. Are n t there a good 
 many springs and brooks and things in this 
 favored neighborhood, by the way ? " 
 
 " Their name is legion," replied Robin, 
 gayly. " There are six brooks and three 
 springs on this farm alone. You see they 
 all cut across our land to get to the river. 
 This large brook is a branch of the river, 
 in fact. It runs into it again about three 
 quarters of a mile below here, so that piece 
 of woodland is really an island. There is a 
 charming view from one end of it, and I have 
 a perch of my own there in a big tree. You 
 might make a sketch from it some day." 
 
 " One might spend a lifetime in sketch 
 ing here in landscape alone, to say nothing 
 of live-stock ! Do all the turkeys that I see 
 over there belong to Mr. Gary ? " asked Con 
 rad, pointing to myriad black heads that 
 were bobbing about like a school of porpoises 
 in a sea of green grass. 
 
 " No, they are mine. And all the chick 
 ens that you see over there are mine too. 
 There are my cows just disappearing below 
 the hill. Four of them, all black. I have 
 a fancy for black cows. I wonder if Marie 
 Antoinette s cows were black, too."
 
 74 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " I never happened to see a black cow in 
 France. The Normandy cattle are mostly 
 red or red and white, and the others that I 
 came in contact with were all mouse-color 
 or creamy-brown, Jerseys, you know." 
 
 " Yes, to be sure : I might have guessed 
 that. How pretty she must have looked in 
 her simple dress, among the mouse-colored 
 cows ! One would like to have seen her 
 then. One might have been a great lady, 
 and her intimate friend, you know. But 
 perhaps " 
 
 " Perhaps it is better to live among black 
 cows in New Hampshire ? I fancy it is as 
 well. The Queen of France paid for her 
 mouse-color with scarlet ; and lilies of the 
 valley are safer, on the whole, than fleurs- 
 de-lis. So this is the West Spring, I sup 
 pose." 
 
 The fragrant white bells grew thickly 
 beneath their sheltering leaves, and the 
 pickers hands were soon filled. 
 
 " Now, then," said Conrad, sniffing ad 
 miringly at the sweet result of their ten 
 minutes work, " shall I take one bunch of 
 lilies and two cream-jugs, or one butter-dish 
 and two bunches of lilies, or what ? " 
 
 But Robin was too quick for him. She
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 75 
 
 had hooked one cream-jug on to her little 
 finger, taken the butter-dish in her other 
 hand, and was already on her way again. 
 Nothing remained for him but to take the 
 one bunch and jug that were left and fol 
 low. 
 
 They hurried up over the green slope 
 together, talking and laughing like two 
 children. Somehow, in the short time that 
 had elapsed since their first meeting, they 
 seemed to have become marvelously well 
 acquainted. 
 
 " A wonderfully pleasant phase," thought 
 Conrad, " even if it proves to be only a 
 phase. Last night was pleasant too, though. 
 I wonder which will last ? " 
 
 It was high time for breakfast when they 
 reached the house, and the parson stood in 
 the porch waiting for them, while near by, 
 armed with a big bell, stood no less a per 
 sonage than Conrad s stout friend of the 
 stage - coach, clad in crisp calico and evi 
 dently very much at home. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Faulkner ! So 
 Robin has pressed you into the service al 
 ready, hey? She is always an early bird, 
 but you must n t let her impose upon you 
 as she does upon her old uncle." And he
 
 76 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 tapped the girl s rosy cheek as she ran past 
 him, and beamed after her as if he found 
 being imposed upon rather a pleasant sen 
 sation. 
 
 " It is an understood thing that the early 
 bird shall always catch the worm, I believe," 
 said Conrad lightly ; " it is her perquisite. 
 But the worm has had the best of it this 
 time. He has been learning to make the 
 butter-fly ! " 
 
 " Good, good ! By the way, let me intro 
 duce you to our good friend Mrs. Bloom," 
 began his host ; but Conrad s hand was al 
 ready imprisoned, for the second time, in 
 the freckled grasp of that worthy woman. 
 
 " You an me s met afore ; hain t we, Mr. 
 Forkner ? The fust meet was a mighty 
 lucky one fer me, an I 11 try an see to t 
 that this ain t an onlucky one fer you. I m 
 the housekeeper." 
 
 " Thank you, Mrs. Bloom," returned Con 
 rad, laughing as he remembered the pot-pie 
 and the cat ; " it s a grand thing to be on 
 good terms with the housekeeper, as I know 
 of old. It shall not be my fault, I assure 
 you, if I fall from grace." 
 
 " I Vlieve ye ! " acquiesced Mrs. Bloom, 
 heartily ; adding to the parson, as Conrad
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 77 
 
 passed in, and up to his room, " That s a 
 good young man, of he is han sum." 
 
 " I believe so," assented the parson, 
 quietly, though his eyes twinkled. 
 
 "An I know so. I ain t be n merried 
 three times fer nothin . I can read the spel- 
 lin in a man s face pretty quick now, I tell 
 ye ! an he s a clean sentence, straight threw. 
 There ain t no bad words in him, nor yet 
 he ain t all question marks an exclimation 
 p ints like that feller Terry, neither." And 
 giving the big bell a final brandish, by way 
 of emphasis, Mrs. Bloom hurried in to see 
 that all was as it should be. 
 
 Conrad flattered himself that he had been 
 most expeditious when he came down again 
 in irreproachable breakfast-table order. But 
 some one else had been even quicker. There 
 sat Robin in her high-backed chair, making 
 the tea, as daintily attired, as cool, fresh, 
 and quietly composed as if she were now be 
 low stairs for the first time that morning, 
 and dairy-work and sunrise rambles were 
 things unheard of. 
 
 Indeed, before the meal was over, Conrad 
 was more than ever confirmed in his idea 
 that their previous encounter had been 
 merely a phase, so utterly unlike his rosy
 
 78 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 little country girl of an hour ago was this 
 dignified young woman, presiding at the 
 head of her uncle s table with all the ease, 
 and more than all the grace, of a woman 
 twenty years her senior. 
 
 Two people, or sets of people, meet at a 
 given point in life much as two trains meet 
 at a station. That they may run together 
 for a time, however brief, there must be an 
 interval of switching. And in life, as in 
 railroad management, so much, either for 
 safety or danger, depends upon the working 
 of the switches ! Later in the summer Con 
 rad came to realize what a turning-point 
 that first day at Ockley had been for him. 
 At the time it was, to all outward seeming, 
 much like other first days in new places. 
 They drove, walked, talked, and became ac 
 quainted rapidly. For the parson himself 
 Conrad s respect and liking grew steadily. 
 He was " right there," as country people 
 say ; genial, sensible and well - read, a de 
 voted mouser among all the old writers and 
 thinkers, yet ready always with a liberal, 
 albeit shrewd estimate of the writers and 
 thinkers of to-day ; never ponderous, yet 
 often weighty ; never degenerating either 
 into sarcasm or silliness, yet blessed with a
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 79 
 
 keen sense of humor, and finding his quiet 
 amusement in much that, to a more self 
 ish or conceited person, would have proved 
 merely provoking. A simple, happy-hearted 
 man whose nature was as an open book for 
 all to read who chose. And yet, if any one 
 should fancy he had sounded it to its depths 
 in one such reading, he would find himself 
 most egregiously mistaken. 
 
 Conrad, recognizing both these truths, 
 found his liking and veneration for his host 
 momently increasing. As for Robin, he 
 hardly knew what to think. He liked her ; 
 oh, yes, he liked her immensely ; but she 
 puzzled him. Just such a combination of 
 qualities he had never met with before. 
 Laughing, frolicsome, fairly over-brimming 
 with fun at one moment, grave, quiet, and 
 thoughtful at the next. Ready to enter 
 with intelligent enjoyment into all her 
 uncle s more sober interests and pursuits, 
 or to drop all these, and play with the six 
 variegated kittens that sprawled about in 
 the sunshine after the old tortoise-shell cat. 
 Now giving utterance to some well-formed, 
 pithy opinion, that told of real study and 
 keen insight, anon breaking in upon some 
 discussion that threatened to become too
 
 80 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 prolonged, with a bit of irresistible drollery 
 that disposed of the question in a flash 
 and sent a laugh stirring, like a fresh sum 
 mer breeze, among the dry bones of debate. 
 So womanly, when most a child ; so child 
 like, when most a woman ; quaint and 
 queenly at the same time. No wonder that 
 for this first day, and many following, Con 
 rad found himself intent, absorbed, watching 
 and waiting for what the next development 
 should be. The worst of it was that he 
 found himself obliged to relinquish the 
 " phase " theory. It would n t work. One 
 manifestation was as truly Robin as the 
 other, and to save him he could not have 
 told in which mood he liked her best. Char 
 acter-study was his vocation, and here, he 
 thought, was a character well worth the 
 studying. Accordingly he set himself to the 
 task with praiseworthy devotion.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " The sun, slow moving round, 
 
 Looked from the bending heavens approval sweet. 
 
 There was no jarring sound ; 
 The hours took off the sandals from their feet, 
 
 For earth seemed holy ground, 
 A temple where the soul her God could meet." 
 
 LUCY LARCOM. 
 
 WHAT is there about a country Sunday 
 that is so unmistakable? The sun poured 
 in at Conrad s east window that first Sun 
 day morning just as it had done every other 
 morning since his coming ; but it seemed 
 brighter, somehow, and the sky seemed bluer, 
 and the grass greener, than on ordinary days ; 
 while the rooster s crowing sounded fainter 
 and more subdued from the barn - yard, and 
 the four black tails of Robin s four black 
 cows apparently found less to excite their 
 lashing activity than usual, as their owners 
 filed slowly down the narrow green lane to 
 pasture. Perhaps the flies were all at Sun 
 day-school. 
 
 Over the tops of intervening trees, borne 
 clearly to his ears by the gentle, southerly
 
 82 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 breeze that always haunted these airy hill 
 tops, came the sound of church bells. Con 
 rad laid down the pen with which he was 
 filling a sheet to Terry, and leaned back in 
 his chair to listen. 
 
 In the great cities, where heavy pave 
 ments have crushed all the green, glad life 
 out of poor old Mother Earth, and where 
 high brick walls, and smoke from factory 
 chimneys, have done their utmost to blot 
 from sight the very blue of heaven itself, 
 man s invention, ever restlessly striving to 
 make art supply the place of nature, has 
 given us the chimes, has broken up swift, 
 white sound into tonic rainbows, that flash 
 and quiver forth from lofty steeples, to 
 break in glad, rhythmic waves over the roofs 
 of homes innumerable, shattering to silence 
 among cold, hard walls, but waking in hu 
 man hearts, within the walls, echoes sweeter 
 than themselves, of joy and peace. 
 
 Up here in the country, chimes were un 
 heard of. Not every meeting - house was 
 sufficiently fortunate to boast even a bell. 
 That in the Ockley steeple was poor enough, 
 little better in quality than such as hang 
 in the belfry of every academy and public 
 school round about our good city of Boston.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 88 
 
 Yet, as Conrad sat there listening, the whole 
 world seemed filled with melody. The brave 
 old bell sent forth a peal to the hill-sides, and 
 the hill-sides flung it back to the woods. Peal 
 after peal, and echo after echo meeting, and 
 blending in the warm June air ; while ever, 
 as they fainted and died, sweet bird-voices 
 took up the refrain, chanting their glad 
 Te Deum, and the soft wind played among 
 the pines a ceaseless organ accompaniment. 
 "With so many distractions Conrad s letter 
 progressed but slowly. As he completed 
 and placed it in its envelope a new sound 
 blended with the general harmony outside, 
 the sound of wheels on gravel. The tall, 
 antique chaise in which the parson was wont 
 to take placid jogs about the neighboring 
 country stood before the door ; and by 
 peeping between the honey-suckle sprays, 
 Conrad could see Robin and her uncle pre 
 paring to mount. The former paused, with 
 one foot on the step, and turned her head 
 for a parting word with Mrs. Bloom, who 
 stood in the door-way. 
 
 " Tell Mr. Faulkner, please, that Abijah 
 will drive back for him in time for church." 
 
 The young man referred to thrust his 
 head out among the clustering vines, and 
 called down :
 
 84 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Abijah need not do that, Miss Cary ! I 
 have so much time that I think I will stroll 
 along at my leisure presently. Old Nahum 
 will doubtless agree with me as to its being 
 the better plan." 
 
 "Do you really prefer it?" asked the 
 parson, looking up in his turn. " The horse 
 can come back as well as not." 
 
 " I really prefer it, thank you. It is just 
 the day for a walk. Miss Cary, will you 
 walk back with me ? " 
 
 " With pleasure, Mr. Faulkner. There is 
 a bumble-bee on your head ! " and the bright 
 face in the pretty bonnet extinguished itself 
 beneath the lumbering chaise-top. 
 
 Conrad s head maintained its position, 
 despite the bumble-bee, for several minutes 
 longer. Its owner almost began to think 
 that the bee must be in his bonnet, instead 
 of merely lumbering about with unsteady, 
 pollen -lad en legs over the thick, wavy crop 
 of his brown hair. Else why was it that 
 he so often nowadays found himself moon 
 ing away his time as he was doing at this 
 identical juncture, his eyes riveted to the 
 cracked leather of the old chaise-top, and 
 all his wits gone wool-gathering? He had 
 never done so before. Surely there must
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 85 
 
 be something in Ockley air that exercised an 
 unusually soothing influence upon the nerves. 
 
 Whatever that something might be it 
 ceased to act, apparently, as soon as the 
 chaise and old Nahum were lost to sight in 
 the hollow below the hill. The head was 
 drawn back quickly, dislodging the bee, 
 who gave vent to his feelings of wounded 
 dignity in an angry hum, and the owner of 
 it, whistling softly to himself the while, pro 
 ceeded to make ready for church. 
 
 The bell was again ringing from the 
 square white tower when Conrad reached 
 the village, an hour later. The church it 
 self was empty ; it would be fifteen minutes 
 before service began, and he amused himself 
 by strolling up one aisle and down another, 
 glancing at the names on the hymn-books, 
 and enjoying the cool breeze that stole in 
 through green, closed blinds. On the 
 stained-wood table before the pulpit was a 
 great bunch of Robin s lilies. He had seen 
 them in her hand, when she turned to look 
 up at him, as he stood at his window. 
 
 All at once there came a sound of singing 
 from the basement below. Sunday-school 
 was over, and the people would be flocking 
 in directly. He made his way to the pew
 
 86 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 in which the hymn-books bore the name 
 " Gary " stamped in gilt letters upon their 
 faded binding, and which, he was relieved 
 to find, did not follow the custom prevalent 
 in most country churches of being directly 
 under the pulpit, but was a little back, 
 where one might see the preacher s face oc 
 casionally without incurring cramp in the 
 back of the neck, or rolling one s eye-balls 
 up into indefinite regions at the risk of 
 never bringing them down again in safety. 
 Sitting here while the farmers and the farm 
 ers wives, their sons and their daughters, 
 poured in in a steady stream till the little 
 church presented the appearance of a gay, 
 old-fashioned flower-garden, the bright bon 
 nets and shawls of the women, contrasted 
 and set off by the sunbrowned faces of their 
 husbands and brothers, as hollyhocks look 
 all the more glowing and brilliant for grow 
 ing against an old picket-fence, he was 
 suddenly aware of a low, stealing melody 
 that seemed borne in on the June air with 
 the scent of roses from the green graveyard 
 outside. He knew it, it was a bit from 
 Schumann. 
 
 There could surely be but one person here 
 who would play such music as that. He
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 87 
 
 was not surprised, when he turned and looked 
 up at the gallery, to see Robin s delicate 
 summer dress peeping out between the broad 
 shoulders and showy ribbons in the " sing 
 ers seats." It did surprise him somewhat 
 to behold Cy, in decorous Sabbath attire 
 and with hair sleeked smooth to his head, 
 arduously pumping away at the organ bel 
 lows, his eyes, as well as his exertions would 
 permit, fastened on Robin s face, and so lost 
 in the music as to be often near forgetting 
 the important part he was himself playing 
 in its production. Conrad s pleasure in the 
 organist s skill was sadly marred by his con 
 stant uneasiness lest Cy should stop blow 
 ing altogether. 
 
 The parson preached a quiet, forcible ser 
 mon, the singers rendered the three hymns 
 with an enthusiasm which should have gone 
 far to atone for any lack of harmony, the 
 benediction was at last pronounced, and the 
 flower-garden emptied itself from the shady 
 shelter of the church into the warmth and 
 sunshine without. Robin, coming down last 
 of all with Cy, met Conrad at the foot of 
 the gallery stairs. 
 
 " Cy," she said, laying one gloved hand 
 on the fat boy s arm to draw attention to her 
 words, " this is mv this is Mr. Faulkner."
 
 88 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Cy grunted. 
 
 " Cy and I have met before," said Con 
 rad, doing his best to suppress a smile, and 
 holding out his hand more for the sake of 
 not seeming to slight Robin s introduction 
 than because he felt any attraction to the 
 boy himself. A moment later he was glad 
 he had done so, for Cy s look, as he hesitat 
 ingly laid his own within it, and instantly 
 withdrew it again, smote him half reproach 
 fully with its wistful questioning. The poor 
 fellow could not be so utterly unlike other 
 people after all, since he had wit enough to 
 feel the difference so keenly. 
 
 " I am glad you did that," said Robin, 
 gathering her light draperies about her from 
 the dusty way as they walked off up the 
 road together, leaving Cy sitting on the low 
 graveyard wall, whence he followed them 
 with his eyes till they were out of sight. 
 " Cy has quick feelings either for a kind 
 ness or the reverse, and although there are 
 always plenty of people ready to amuse 
 themselves with him, and many more to 
 patronize or pity, there are very few who 
 would meet him on equal ground as kindly 
 and cordially as you did." 
 
 Her words pricked Conrad s conscience
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 89 
 
 even more sharply than Cy s look had done ; 
 but then, on the other hand, they made him 
 gladder too. 
 
 "They call Cy a fool," went on the girl, 
 gravely, with a quick, earnest look into his 
 face as if demanding of him a truer judg 
 ment, "but that is a mistake. He was a 
 mere child when he met with a terrible ac 
 cident, and he has stayed a child, that is 
 all." 
 
 " I see," said Conrad, quietly ; and they 
 walked on for some moments in silence. 
 
 From time to time the young man stole a 
 look at his companion, unobserved. There 
 seemed to be a peculiar charm about her to 
 day, somehow. Was the same intangible 
 Sunday influence which he had already felt 
 in other things at work here also, making 
 the sweet face more winning than ever in 
 its grave beauty ? Or was it could it be ? 
 the bonnet ! He had never seen her in a 
 bonnet before. 
 
 Somehow, in this particular instance, char 
 acter-study was proving a failure. All his 
 observations of late seemed to be taking the 
 direction rather of recognition and approval 
 than of detection and analysis. From hav 
 ing begun by thinking what a fresh, piquant
 
 90 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 heroine she would make for a book, of which 
 he should be the inspired author, he had 
 unconsciously come to feel as if they were 
 both in a book together, and the author were 
 making them, or him at any rate, think 
 and feel and act about as he pleased. 
 
 Ah, he is a mighty author, and an acute ! 
 that little fellow, with a quiver for an ink 
 stand, who points his sentences with sharp 
 and noiseless arrows. The book is always 
 of the " No Name Series," too : Mr. Cupid 
 is a skillful novelist. We are allowed to 
 read far on in our pleasant little romance 
 before any inkling of the plot s irresistible 
 drift dawns upon us. Then, of a sudden, 
 some memorable day it comes ! that breath 
 less moment of divination when we know, 
 beyond all possibility of doubt, that but one 
 of two endings can be. Will it be joy ? 
 Will it be destruction? Read, and see. 
 There is no such thing as pausing, no such 
 thing as skipping ; the pages slip a little 
 faster, that is all. One more leaf to turn 
 and the whole drift of life is turning with it. 
 Our good friends, who are always ready to 
 do their little bit of over-shoulder reading, 
 whether it be tragedy or love-tale, exchange 
 sagacious nods, and go their way to guess
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 91 
 
 and prophesy as to the final winding up. 
 All but one, the one. Only two pairs of 
 eyes may read the rest, only two hearts shall 
 ever know what were the words of blessed 
 ness or pain with which the fateful volume 
 closed. 
 
 Stories that end well, stories that end ill, 
 stories that never end at all ; the book 
 shelves of the world are full of them. Happy \ 
 the heart that, looking with love-strength 
 ened eyes beyond the gloom of earth s black 
 " Finis," can read, a little further on, heav- , 
 en s bright " To be continued ! " 
 
 Conrad was still in the early half of his 
 book. That it was the work of no novice he 
 felt, rather than understood, but as yet he 
 did not recognize the hand. The interest 
 was growing, decidedly ; this, for instance, 
 was an exceedingly pleasant page. 
 
 He smiled a little, half unconsciously, over 
 his own fanciful conceit, and Robin caught 
 him at it. 
 
 " It would be too hackneyed to make the 
 usual offer of a penny, Mr. Faulkner ; 
 suppose I were to offer this, instead," and 
 she laughingly held out a wild strawberry 
 which she had that moment spied among 
 the grass.
 
 92 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 "Thoughts are seldom unmixed," said 
 Conrad, twirling the scarlet fruit upon its 
 slender stalk, " they are mostly human 
 warious. I believe I was rather absorbing 
 than thinking. Such weather is enough to 
 make a mental sponge of a man. Do you 
 like wild strawberries, Miss Robin ? " 
 
 " You do not, apparently," replied she, 
 flushing a little at the new name, and glan 
 cing significantly at the berry in his hand. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do ; I like them exceedingly ; 
 but why did you not answer my question ? " 
 
 " If I were to say yes, you would probably 
 request me to eat that one." 
 
 " N-no, I hardly think so," said Conrad, 
 dubiously ; " it is too pretty to eat alone. If 
 there were a saucerf ul it would be another 
 thing. But what if I did?" he added, 
 abruptly, " why should n t you ? " 
 
 " Because I never take back a thing when 
 I have once given it." 
 
 " Another trait. Do you know, I am find 
 ing new traits in your character all the 
 time." 
 
 " Is n t that rather to be expected when 
 one makes a new acquaintance ? " 
 
 " Ah, thank you ! " exclaimed he ; " that 
 reminds me. I knew something was haunt-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 93 
 
 ing my memory. Now for it ! Why did 
 you leave out a word when you introduced 
 me to Cy?" 
 
 "What word?" began Robin, in astonish 
 ment, and then instantly remembered. He 
 saw by the dropped lids and quick color 
 that she knew what he meant, and waited, 
 with that bending, masterful look into her 
 face by which the question masculine is 
 wont to compel the reply feminine. 
 
 If he expected evasion or denial he was 
 disappointed. Robin always took a dilemma 
 by the horns. There was neither fear nor 
 falsity in the clear eyes when she raised them 
 again to his face. 
 
 " I began to call you my friend," she said, 
 quietly ; " and then I remembered." 
 
 " Remembered what ? Not that I am 
 your enemy, I hope ? " 
 
 An amused little smile was her only an 
 swer. 
 
 " I see," said Conrad, " you attach some 
 very deep meaning to that word friend. 
 
 "Don t you?" 
 
 He shook his head ; not exactly in denial, 
 either. 
 
 "I am sadly afraid that I have always 
 used the word with rash indiscrimination. 
 You must teach me better."
 
 94 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Now you are laughing, and I am in 
 earnest." There was a little ring of dis 
 appointment in her voice. Conrad s face 
 changed instantly. 
 
 " Indeed I was not laughing. Or, if I 
 was, it was only a surface laugh. Miss 
 Robin, I never had a friend, a near friend, 
 in my life. Miss Constance and her brother 
 are the only people who care especially about 
 me, and they are more like parents than 
 friends. You must not wonder if I hardly 
 know what the word means. What does it 
 mean ? " 
 
 Robin was silent from sheer pressure of 
 speech. 
 
 " Well, if you won t tell me," said Con 
 rad, lightly, " I must consult Webster ; " 
 and he drew from his pocket a little travel 
 ing dictionary. 
 
 " Fl Fo Fr here it is. Now listen ! " 
 and coming to a halt by the roadside, he 
 read the definition. 
 
 " Friend. One who, entertaining for an 
 other sentiments of esteem, respect, and af 
 fection, from personal predilection seeks his 
 society and welfare. There, how is that ? " 
 
 " Good, as far as it goes." 
 
 " Does n t it go far enough ? "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 95 
 
 " Not for me." 
 
 " What more do you require ? " 
 
 "The impossibility of a misunderstand- 
 ing." 
 
 " Is such an impossibility possible ? " 
 
 " I think so," said Robin slowly, poking 
 a stray pebble with her sun umbrella, and 
 watching the operation intently, " if two peo 
 ple never allow a third to interfere, and if 
 they do all their wondering aloud. There 
 can be no real friendship without entire 
 confidence." 
 
 " That is indisputably so. I accept your 
 amendment. Dr. Webster stands convicted 
 of a grave omission. But after all this it 
 comes rather hard to remember that you will 
 not call yourself my friend." 
 
 " You misunderstood me," said Robin 
 quietly. " I only meant .that it was not rny 
 place to assume the friendship." 
 
 " Or, in other words, it takes two to 
 make a bargain, " said Conrad, gayly ; 
 " shall we make one ? " 
 
 Then, as Robin still kept silence, he drew 
 a step nearer and held out his hand. 
 
 " Miss Robin, as I told you just now, I 
 have never in all my life known what it was 
 to have such a friend as you " he smiled,
 
 96 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " and Dr. Webster describe. If you will 
 be my friend I promise you solemnly that 
 I will never misunderstand you again, and 
 that I will on no account whatever believe a 
 single word that any third person may say." 
 
 There was a tone in his voice that gave 
 weight to the light, surface words, and 
 Robin s eyes, in the swift scrutiny with which 
 they were raised for a moment to his, de 
 tected apparently the underlying earnest 
 ness they sought ; for, without another word, 
 she drew her right hand from its loosened 
 glove, and laid it frankly and unhesitatingly 
 in his. 
 
 Strange, that the mere touch of a girl s 
 hand should have power to send such a glad 
 throb from heart to brain. There was a 
 wonderful shine all at once in the handsome 
 brown face turned toward her. But Robin s 
 eyes were down, and she did not see it, 
 neither could he behold their tender misti 
 ness beneath the veiling lids ; and the cool 
 rose of her cheek told no tales. They climbed 
 the last long hill together very slowly and 
 silently. 
 
 Worthy Mrs. Bloom, issuing from the 
 porch door with her big bell, saw them com 
 ing ; and it was with a most shrewd and
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 97 
 
 knowing expression of countenance that she 
 presently went in again, without ringing, 
 and deposited her noisy coadjutor upon its 
 customary bracket by the dining-room door. 
 
 " There ! " she exclaimed softly, with a 
 warning nod to her own reflection from its 
 shiny brass surface. " You hold your tongue, 
 an I 11 hold mine." 
 
 So it happened that when the two reached 
 the porch they found it untenanted, save by 
 the restless breeze that stirred the honey 
 suckle blooms to fragrance. 
 
 " Remember, Miss Robin," said Conrad, 
 
 as they parted at the stair head ; " I have 
 
 your own word for it that when you have 
 
 once given a thing, you never take it back." 
 
 7
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " I with uncovered head 
 Salute the sacred dead, 
 Who went, and who return not." 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 THE bright hours rolled themselves to 
 gether like drops of quicksilver. They 
 gathered to days, and the days to weeks. 
 Life was at compound interest in the bank 
 of enjoyment, that queer bank where 
 capital doubles and trebles with such amaz 
 ing velocity that one comes to be a million 
 aire in happiness before one is well aware. 
 Alas for the man who thinks to cash his 
 check in this strange currency at will ! Old 
 Father Time is an absconding cashier, and 
 at the flood tide of prosperity the too trust 
 ful depositor finds the doors closed against 
 him. The bank has suspended payment ! 
 
 Conrad Faulkner was not a pauper yet, 
 by any means. On the contrary, he was in 
 that first, delicious flush of foi-tune when 
 both hands fairly overflow with golden op 
 portunities for self-selected work and play.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 99 
 
 He was writing his first novel, and who 
 ever has tried it knows that to be suddenly 
 let loose from the treadmill of literary job- 
 work to roam, unimpeded, over the limitless 
 pastures of one s own imagination, is a sen 
 sation unparalleled and indescribable. His 
 pastures were uncommonly fresh and juicy, 
 too. Robin and the parson, with their keen 
 appreciation of all things original and quaint, 
 and their wide experience of country life 
 and ways, proved able and interesting as 
 sistants. Many a long jaunt did the two 
 gentlemen take in the old chaise together, 
 and many a queer characteristic, or spicy 
 bit of dialogue, found its way into Conrad s 
 note-book, as the result of these morning 
 drives. And while his note-book fattened 
 on the bountiful fare provided for it, his 
 sketch-book kept even pace. Robin herself 
 dabbled in water-color, and many a valuable 
 bit was transferred to paper to be worked 
 up more fully at some leisure moment in the 
 future. 
 
 But if the young man s writing hours 
 were uninterrupted, and his progress toward 
 the temple of Fame reasonably swift and 
 sure, it was often through no merit of his 
 own. Many a time did the parson laugh-
 
 100 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ingly turn his back upon him, and refuse to 
 talk until working hours were over, while 
 Robin would retreat to the kitchen upon the 
 stroke of nine, and never reappear within 
 his range of vision until dinner was on the 
 table. 
 
 Mrs. Bloom had been as good as her 
 word. In her own peculiar province, she 
 put forth all her energies to render herself 
 agreeable to the parson s guest, who found 
 many another savory dish, as well as the 
 celebrated pot-pie, served up for his especial 
 benefit from her inexhaustible repertory of 
 delectable fare. 
 
 He had grown intimate with Cy, too 
 (who had never forgotten their meeting in 
 the church porch, and would have gone 
 through fire and water for " Miss Robin s 
 friend "), and had found that the fat boy s 
 friendship was well worth cultivating, for 
 more reasons than one. Cy knew where all 
 the trout-holes were, and where the rarest 
 flowers and ferns were to be found. He 
 could always tell of a short cut to any de 
 sired locality; and, after successfully pilot 
 ing Conrad to the very most desirable point 
 for a required sketch, was always ready to 
 lie, for hours if need were, upon the grass
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 101 
 
 beside the camp-stool, his eyes roaming from 
 the artist s face to his developing work, 
 thence away, over the landscape it por 
 trayed, and back to Conrad s face again. 
 Thus, reading out of the one grand book to 
 gether, they came to read each other truly, 
 too. The young man found, behind the 
 stunted outward seeming of him they called 
 a fool, a wealth of fine perception, a treas 
 ure of warm - hearted loyalty, that added 
 reverence and amazement to his pity. He 
 found a soul shut in upon itself, and not 
 a soul benumbed ; while Cy, on his part, 
 looked up to his patron as to a strong, wise 
 angel who could do no wrong. 
 
 Conrad had now been for three weeks at 
 Highfield Farm. At the end of the fort 
 night which was to have brought July and 
 Terry together to the hills, the former ap 
 peared promptly, but in lieu of the latter 
 came a mournful epistle to say that either 
 out of spite, or from too high living, old 
 Crabbe had " gone and got a fit of the golly- 
 wobbles, and was laid up at home to the 
 mutual misery of his housekeeper and him 
 self (Terry), who could not leave his grand 
 father to shoulder things alone." Upon this, 
 feeling himself called upon to act, Conrad
 
 102 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 heroically announced his intention to de 
 part ; but he soon found that he had reck 
 oned literally without his host. The parson 
 was severely deaf to any such proposition. 
 
 Was he tired of Ockley ? had he ex 
 hausted its resources both for literature and 
 art, or was urgent business calling him 
 away ? 
 
 No, he could plead none of these excuses. 
 
 Then why did he want to go ? 
 
 Upon which the young man spoke out 
 valiantly for the truth, and said, 
 
 " I don t want to go ! " 
 
 " Then stay," commanded the parson, 
 visibly pleased with his guest s candor. 
 " And stay as long as business and pleasure 
 will let you. We usually flit to the city 
 ourselves about Thanksgiving time, to give 
 Robin here a taste of worldly pomps and 
 vanities ; but so long as we remain you are 
 more than welcome. And if you wanted to 
 paint the hills in mid-winter, Mrs. Bloom 
 would only rejoice to make you comfortable. 
 Moreover, you are under contract to wait 
 for Terry." 
 
 So Conrad stayed, and was rewarded by 
 one of Robin s most radiant smiles, all on 
 his own account this time.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 103 
 
 Waiting for Terry bid fair to prove an 
 all-summer amusement. Terry could not 
 get away. Business had " picked up," in 
 spite of his prognostications to the contrary, 
 and old Crabbe, not mellowed apparently by 
 his forced sequestration, had fastened his 
 mercenary claws upon him, and held him 
 fast. August would be dull. He might 
 have the whole of August if he wanted it, 
 but not a day in July. So Terry suc 
 cumbed, to his credit it must be owned, 
 since he need not have remained an hour 
 behind his grandfather s desk had not his 
 sense of duty, and the strong desire to be 
 a man, which lay hidden beneath all his 
 boyishness, held him to his post by bands of 
 might. Doleful notes found their way, from 
 time to time, from the weary world of traffic 
 into the upper peace of Saints Rest, where, 
 it must be confessed, two at least of the 
 beatified evidenced the extreme narrowness 
 of the line dividing saint and sinner by the 
 ready serenity of their acquiescence in the 
 ordained order of things as regarded their 
 suffering friend below. To be sure, on 
 warm afternoons when Robin brought her 
 work out under the trees, while Conrad 
 sketched or lounged, and the parson read
 
 104 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 aloud to them both, there would come a 
 momentary twinge of conscience as they 
 thought how insufferable the heat must be 
 in city counting-houses and upon the glaring 
 wharves. But the breeze from the moun 
 tains blew soft and refreshing in spite of the 
 thermometer, and the parson gave them such 
 delicious bits from his old, leather - bound 
 English cronies, that even conscience itself 
 was charmed to rest ; and the old Adam so 
 far got the upper hand as to rejoice that 
 their happy trio was not yet broken up into 
 a quartette. 
 
 Our hero was fast gaining such an insight 
 into the true and possible meaning of the 
 word " friendship " as made him wax well- 
 nigh contemptuous of the abilities of our 
 modern Noah. After all, neither an ark 
 nor a dictionary will hold everything. The 
 Patriarchs did their best ; but Robin was 
 not a patriarch, neither was she tied down 
 by any limitations of space. The whole 
 universe of thought and life was hers 
 through which to define the one word that 
 had been given her. And such an uncon 
 scious, winning grace pervaded her every 
 fresh manifestation that, half unwittingly to 
 himself, the word began to condense in Con-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 105 
 
 rad s mind, and to spell itself with four let 
 ters instead of ten. 
 
 He always rose with the sun now. Hav 
 ing had a taste of the early bird s worm, the 
 appetite for more grew to a craving. Many 
 a pound of butter passed through his hands 
 on its way from churn to market. He grew 
 to be as expert with the spats as Robin her 
 self; and the invention and execution of 
 novel and unique designs came to be a mat 
 ter of rivalry between them. The dairy 
 was transformed into a studio, and the par 
 son declared that the breakfast - table was 
 fast degenerating into a mixture of the 
 Place de la Concorde and the South Sea 
 Islands, so numerous were the illustrious 
 martyrs there decapitated by the butter- 
 knife and devoured on muffins and waffles. 
 
 " I am thinking," remarked the reverend 
 gentleman one morning as he thoughtfully 
 cut a generous slice from the back of Sav 
 onarola s head and handed it across the ta 
 ble to Conrad, " I am thinking of taking a 
 run down to Deake to-day." 
 
 " Give me his nose, please, Uncle Ike, if 
 you are helping me. I would rather eat it 
 than look at it. There s something wrong 
 about the hook."
 
 106 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " That comes of trying to distinguish your 
 self, by hook or by crook. For my part, 
 I believe I prefer flowers to folks when it 
 comes to butter. This eating a monk for 
 breakfast, and a queen for dinner, and mak 
 ing a Herod of one s self at night, savors 
 too strongly of moral dyspepsia. But about 
 this going to Deake. You won t mind my 
 being away for a day, and that trust busi 
 ness ought to be attended to. I shall go to 
 the clearing first to consult with Miss Doris, 
 and then take the train at the Cross Roads. 
 Abijah can drive me over and bring the 
 horse back, and while he is there he may as 
 well get the cutter-bar mended. We shall 
 need it next week." 
 
 "Abijah was going over to the South Pas 
 ture this forenoon to salt the cattle." 
 
 "So he was ! And that should be done 
 right away. Abijah will need to use Nahum 
 this afternoon, too, otherwise I might keep 
 him all day. Well, I can put off my busi 
 ness to a better time, I suppose." 
 
 " No need of that," said Conrad, " why 
 cannot I drive you over as well as Abijah, 
 and get the cutter-bar mended, too ? " 
 
 " To be sure ; so you could. The drive 
 is a pleasant one. Only I fear you might
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 107 
 
 get tired of waiting for me. The Misses 
 Cleppitt are rather lengthy in conversation, 
 and I shall have to do just about so much 
 talking." 
 
 " And I don t believe an hour s tete-d-tte 
 with Nahum would be very exhilarating," 
 added Robin. " Mr. Faulkner, if you take 
 my advice, you will explore the old grave 
 yard there. There are some epitaphs that 
 would make a newspaper man s fortune. 
 Only you must not put any of them into 
 your book ; every one does that nowadays." 
 
 " Well, really my dear ! " exclaimed the 
 parson in mild remonstrance, " if it comes to 
 a question of exhilaration between Nahum 
 and a graveyard, give me the horse, by all 
 means ! " 
 
 Conrad and Robin laughed, but the latter 
 did not yield her point. 
 
 " A burying-ground is composing, at all 
 events, and there is nothing composing about 
 Nahum in fly-time. Besides, Mr. Faulkner, 
 this one that I speak of is really interesting. 
 It is a relic of by-gone times." 
 
 " So is Nahum," put in the parson. " How 
 ever, Conrad, since she says so you may as 
 well yield the point with a good grace. You 
 will have to come to it. It s to be hoped 
 you enjoy burying-grounds."
 
 108 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " I do, rather. I spent an evening last 
 summer in one at the foot of Monadnock, 
 and felt half inclined to take up my abode 
 there for good and all." 
 
 " I should judge it was through no fault 
 of yours that you did not," remarked the 
 parson, dryly, with a shrug of his broad 
 shoulders. " When your bones get to be as 
 old as mine you won t throw them round 
 among damp sods quite so recklessly. But 
 come ! if you have eaten as much of that 
 gentleman s back hair as you care to, and 
 won t take another muffin, let us be going. 
 It s not a long drive, but Job Curtis will 
 want all the time there is between this and 
 dinner." 
 
 " Uncle Ike ! you betray a degree of igno 
 rance which is simply shocking," said Robin, 
 gazing tenderly at Savonarola s golden relics. 
 " Monks don t have any back hair." 
 
 " No, I believe, come to think of it, they 
 make it all up into shirts. Uncomfortable 
 that must be, very. But, my dear child, was 
 that really intended for a monk, or was it 
 a monkey?" And the parson fled, just 
 in time to escape the rose which Robin threw 
 at him from the basket in the centre of the 
 table.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS, 109 
 
 " Did ever any one see so undignified a 
 Dominie ! Really, Mr. Faulkner, there is 
 no such hurry. It always takes Abijah fif 
 teen minutes to harness. Won t you have 
 something more ? " 
 
 " Nothing but this," stooping, as he spoke, 
 to pick up the rose which lay on the floor. 
 " What do you mean to do with yourself 
 this morning?" 
 
 " Make a strawberry short-cake for your 
 dinner, for one thing. This is baking-day." 
 
 " Baking it will be in more senses than 
 one, I fancy. Would you not do better to 
 omit the short-cake ? " 
 
 " You may answer that question when 
 dinner-time comes," said Robin, following 
 him to the porch. " Be sure to find Launce- 
 lot Owen s gravestone. I will tell you more 
 about him one of these days. Good-by, 
 Uncle Ike. You shall have Louis Four 
 teenth for your supper, wig and all ! " 
 
 " So be it, my dear," responded her uncle 
 submissively. " His wig will be easier to 
 digest than his morals. I shall rather enjoy 
 giving the old fellow a bite. Take good 
 care of yourself, little girl, and try to make 
 the day pass pleasantly for our friend. Get 
 up, Nahum ! "
 
 110 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 These drives were the most restful and 
 entertaining things, in their way, that Con 
 rad had ever participated in. Nahum was 
 a vastly different specimen of horseflesh 
 from the blooded roans, and bays, and chest 
 nuts driven by various of his New York ac 
 quaintances ; and yet, under certain circum 
 stances, there is a rare, peculiar pleasure in 
 jogging about the country after a scrubby 
 old nag such as he. A horse, especially a 
 family horse, is generally one of two things 
 by the time he rounds his twentieth year. 
 He is either a wise beast or a dead one. 
 Nahum had chosen the former alternative, 
 as became the namesake of a prophet. He 
 was very wise. In some matters the parson 
 was a mere baby beside him. He had a 
 sharp nose for a parishioner. Wagon after 
 wagon might pass unnoticed if its owner 
 were a stranger ; but let one heave in sight 
 containing a member of his, and his master s, 
 legitimate flock, and the knowing beast would 
 draw up alongside and come to a dead halt, 
 well assured that the parson was not to be 
 let by without a prolonged " word or two." 
 There were certain door-yards which he 
 could never be persuaded to pass unvisited, 
 certain others which he could hardly be in-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. Ill 
 
 duced to enter ; while invariably, as they 
 drew near the village store where Mrs. 
 Bloom did her " trading," he would turn one 
 questioning eye upon his driver as if to ask, 
 " Have we any errand here to-day ? " 
 
 Conrad had already clapped him into his 
 book, and daily studied him, as he would 
 a human being, for fresh developments of 
 character. 
 
 The roads radiating from Ockley, as a 
 centre, were well-nigh innumerable. This 
 morning they took one which Conrad had 
 never traveled before, and struck off, north 
 ward, into the very heart of the hills. Up 
 one side of a steep ridge in the hot sunshine 
 of a day which promised to be a veritable 
 scorcher by noon ; down the other side into 
 coolness, and shadow, and a green pervad 
 ing peace. Now through some small settle 
 ment, where the only notice bestowed upon 
 trees had been to hew them down, and chop 
 them into firewood, great piles of which sent 
 forth a resinous breath, in dying remon 
 strance, beneath the remorseless sun ; again, 
 into the solemn minster-gloom of dense pine 
 woods where the sunshine durst not pene 
 trate, and where the only sounds audible 
 were the songs of birds, and the softened
 
 112 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 thud of Nahum s big hoofs upon a century- 
 piled carpet of brown needles. 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed the parson, as a 
 horse and buggy approached them through 
 the trees, driven by a spare, solemn-looking 
 man in black clothes, " that is Mr. Neal, the 
 Methodist minister. I wanted to speak with 
 him about a union meeting next week. 
 Whoa, Nahum ! whoa, sir ! " 
 
 But Nahum only shook his wary old head, 
 and jogged stubbornly along. The man in 
 black bowed, very cordially, in passing, and 
 forgot to look solemn for a moment. 
 
 " Well well, perhaps I shall see him at 
 his house on the way back. To tell the 
 truth," explained the parson, looking a trifle 
 sheepish, " Nahum has a most unaccount 
 able prejudice against Methodists. In the 
 whole two years that Mr. Neal has been 
 here I have never yet been able to get a 
 word with him on the road. I sometimes 
 think the brute is getting to be one too 
 many for me. See how he listens ! . He 
 knows what I am saying as well as you do." 
 
 Upon which Nahum, who had been cock 
 ing one ear back with an attentive air, im 
 mediately restored it to its normal position, 
 and trotted on, the picture of meek sedate- 
 ness.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 113 
 
 It was strange how the villages belied 
 their names. Through Woodside, and Pleas- 
 anton, and Fairview, places destitute alike 
 of shade and beauty, they came at length 
 to Cleppitt s Clearing, a broad, level street, 
 lined on either side with noble forest trees, 
 behind which stretched away well-kept farms, 
 the undulating land hidden from view by its 
 wealth of grain and close-growing grasses, 
 save where the busy mowing-machines were 
 fast shearing away the waving green, and 
 leaving a smooth, clean carpet in its stead. 
 
 "If it were not that the ladies Cleppitt 
 are never prepared to entertain any one, 
 even an angel, unawares, I should propose 
 your going in with me, " said the parson. 
 " The house is well worth seeing. One of 
 these days Robin must introduce you, hav 
 ing carefully notified the worthy ladies be 
 fore-hand. She is prime favorite with the 
 sisters. Whoa, Nahum ! This is where we 
 leave the cutter-bar. Job," as a spare, 
 bent, sinewy old man came slowly from the 
 shady covert of the vine -hung smithy at 
 whose door they now drew up, "I want 
 you to be sure to have this done within an 
 hour. You can do it easily, if you choose. 
 This gentleman will call for it."
 
 114 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 The old man took the cutter-bar from the 
 chaise and carefully scrutinized it. Then 
 he bent a sharp, searching gaze upon Con 
 rad from over his iron - bowed spectacles ; 
 and, turning, walked back into his smithy 
 without a word. 
 
 " Another character ! " quoth the parson, 
 starting on again. " The place is full of 
 them." 
 
 The houses, standing mostly on one side 
 of the street, with their several tillage and 
 mowing pieces on the other, were evidently 
 old, yet built with a careful solidity which 
 defied age. They were many - gabled too, 
 and well supplied with quaint, unexpected 
 angles. About most of them the rich, vel 
 vety turf bore witness to an amount of cul 
 ture not often bestowed upon grass as 
 such by our native farmers ; and the faint, 
 delicious scent of box stole from hidden 
 garden-spaces beyond. 
 
 " Surely Cleppitt was an Englishman ! " 
 was Conrad s only spoken comment, as they 
 jogged slowly along under the green arcade. 
 
 " And you are as surely a Yankee ! 
 Your guessing faculty is thoroughly well 
 developed," laughed the parson. " But come 
 now, tell me how you knew."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 115 
 
 "By three infallible signs. The typical 
 New Englander can never get among trees 
 without running a regular muck. Grass is 
 of no value in his eyes, except as it stocks 
 his barns with hay. Above all, he ac 
 knowledges no angle save a right-angle." 
 
 " Robin s reasoning, to a dot ! I declare, 
 it s queer how like you two are in your 
 ways of thinking. You re not far wrong. 
 Cleppitt was a Welshman. He came here 
 some hundred years ago, and set to work to 
 turn a piece of New Hampshire into a piece 
 of Wales. Succeeded pretty well, too. His 
 brothers, and his wife s relatives came over 
 and joined him, and among them they made 
 the place pretty much what you see it is 
 now. You see these Welshmen did n t ap 
 prove of pine wood for building purposes, 
 so, as soon as they conveniently could, they 
 set to work to build houses that would last. 
 You notice that all these which you see are 
 built of stone. It s the law of the place, 
 laid down by will from father to son. An 
 other stipulation is that the places them 
 selves shall always be kept up in the old 
 way. Well, it has been done, so far ; but 
 the new generation that is coming up now 
 has considerable of the Yankee element in
 
 116 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 it, and we all know that the Yankee element 
 is pretty strong. These particular home 
 steads will probably hold their own as long 
 as they last ; but the town will gradually 
 grow mixed, especially as the youngsters 
 buy up new land for themselves, and I 
 rather guess that if David Cleppitt s ghost 
 tries to walk about much o nights, he will 
 stumble over some wooden houses before 
 long. Whoa, Nahum ! " 
 
 The parson always said " Whoa ! " It 
 had grown to be a habit with him, much as 
 stopping when he reached his destination 
 had grown to be a habit with the old horse. 
 Sometimes the parson got the start of Na 
 hum, but oftener Nahuni got the start of the 
 parson. He had done so now ; and, when 
 the tardy word of command reached his 
 ears, was already rubbing his nose against 
 a well-worn hitching-post which stood, like 
 some ancient sentry, before the gateway of 
 the oldest house they had yet seen. He 
 took no notice of his master s idiosyncrasy, 
 however, but merely turned a slow and 
 placid backward look upon Conrad, as who 
 should say, " He s a trifle queer at times, 
 but he means well," and then, stretching 
 his long neck which no check-rein was ever
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 117 
 
 allowed to cramp, fell quietly to munching 
 the tufts of juicy clover at his feet. 
 
 " Now I am going in here," said Mr. 
 Gary, " and you, I suppose, are bound for 
 the graveyard. No need to lose your way. 
 You 11 find it right ahead, at the end of 
 the road, as we all shall, sooner or later ! 
 Old Cleppitt seems to have been of a typ 
 ical turn of mind, and to have laid out his 
 clearing like a kind of bird s-eye view of 
 human life. Good - by, for a time ! " and 
 the parson opened the tall, Gothic gate, and 
 went his way. 
 
 There was no trouble about finding the 
 graveyard, certainly. The trouble would 
 have been to avoid it. Square across the 
 broad, pleasant street it stretched itself ; 
 the end of all things, literally as well as 
 figuratively, at Cleppitt s Clearing ; its wide, 
 stone entrance standing, like the arch of 
 the Star, to commemorate a conqueror s 
 triumph. 
 
 Conrad involuntarily removed his hat as 
 he passed beneath the massive portal. There 
 is something about an archway which impels 
 one to this act of reverence. A hen is no 
 such fool when she bobs at the barn-door. 
 It is but the universal instinct stirring within
 
 118 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 her and not, as some people would have it, 
 a mere feminine fear for the safety of her 
 coral-comb. 
 
 Peaceful as the whole of the little settle 
 ment seemed, a deeper peace, a more abid 
 ing hush had fallen upon the old inhabit 
 ants in their restful graves. The very 
 stones themselves, gray and moss-grown, 
 leaned and slumbered at their posts. Some, 
 for which the drowsiness of years had 
 proved too powerful, lay prone amid the 
 waving grass - blooms, like Ibrahim Ebn 
 Abu Ayub in his subterranean cave ; while 
 the clover blossoms nodded dreamy heads 
 above them, and the summer wind, like a 
 fair enchantress, lulled them to forgetful- 
 ness with her magic music. 
 
 Quaint old place, quaint old stones, 
 quaint old epitaphs ! Ludicrous enough, 
 many of them. A newspaper man s for 
 tune, as Robin had said. Yet, somehow, 
 here where they belonged, where the old- 
 time influences and the spirit of the old-time 
 originators made a nameless atmosphere 
 about them, they were not to be laughed at 
 exactly. 
 
 The hour allotted to Job Curtis had 
 grown to be nearly two hours when the
 
 UIG11-LIGHTS. 119 
 
 parson, having concluded his consultation 
 with Miss Doris, came to look up his guest, 
 and found him half-lying in the cool, fra 
 grant grass, back to back with a tombstone. 
 In his hands pencil and paper, and in his 
 eyes the far-away look of one who has treed 
 an idea, and is wondering how he shall get 
 it down. 
 
 " Come, come ! this is not so bad, young 
 man. Inspired already ! Old Nahum looked 
 uncommonly solemn as I passed him just 
 now. I had small hope of finding you till 
 I saw him still standing there. It seems 
 Robin knew her ground when she declared 
 a graveyard to be a composing sort of 
 place. But to be first-class your epic needs 
 a hero. Have you found Launcelot Owen, 
 yet?" 
 
 " No, I have n t ! " exclaimed Conrad, 
 springing to his feet and exchanging the 
 abstracted gaze of genius for the more con 
 centrated one of eager search. " I meant 
 to have had another look presently, but 
 somehow time has fairly flown since I have 
 been down here in the grass." 
 
 " Or up there in the clouds, hey ? "Well, 
 you are but another living instance of the 
 way in which people turn their backs upon
 
 120 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 the very things they are looking for. Sup 
 pose you examine the face of this stone 
 which you seem to have had such a leaning 
 towards." 
 
 Conrad walked round to where the par 
 son stood, and then perceived that what he 
 had been leaning against was a plain, moss- 
 grown tablet of slate, simply inscribed as 
 follows : 
 
 LAUNCELOT OWEN. 
 DIED FEBRUARY 15, 1801, 
 
 Aged 40 years. 
 
 Beneath were six short lines. Conrad was 
 obliged to stoop and scrape the moss away 
 to read them. 
 
 " God gave me a hard daye s %vorke; 
 
 But I did not shirke. 
 Toe them that doe theyre beste, 
 
 He hath promised reste. 
 Soe now I 11 creepe toe my bedde, 
 
 And truste him, livinge or deade." 
 
 " Who was he ? " asked Conrad, when 
 he had read the words over for the second 
 time ; "no ordinary man." 
 
 " He was the poet of the neighborhood. 
 The only one it ever boasted, I fancy. Peo 
 ple came to him, for miles around, to fur 
 nish epitaphs, occasional verses, and the like. 
 For the rest he was a farmer ; grand-uncle
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 121 
 
 of the two old ladies whom I have just been 
 calling upon. Robin can give you his whole 
 history. He is a hero of hers. But now I 
 shall have to hurry you away from this con 
 genial atmosphere if we are to catch the 
 train." 
 
 Old Nahum turned a deeply reproachful 
 look upon them as they came up to where 
 he stood, the parson having fetched him 
 along, and left him waiting near the ceme 
 tery gate. 
 
 " We keep on a bit, to the station," said, 
 the latter gentleman, as he gathered up the 
 reins. "There is a small settlement over 
 beyond here, known to the unregenerate as 
 Paradise, because one is obliged to pass 
 through the graveyard to get to it. The 
 locomotives stop there for water." 
 
 There was a train just drawing away 
 from the big water-tank as they reached 
 the cross-roads. The parson slid nimbly 
 from the chaise and gained the rear plat 
 form. 
 
 " Good-day ! " he shouted. " Don t wait 
 for Job, if he is not ready. Abijah can stop 
 there later." 
 
 The train puffed away, and Conrad, turn 
 ing his horse s head, drove back to the 
 smithy.
 
 122 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 The old smith gave him another look 
 over his spectacles as he came in. The 
 cutter-bar was lying on the floor, untouched. 
 Job was tinkering up an old andiron. If 
 he had expected the gentleman to make any 
 remarks he was disappointed. Conrad sat 
 isfied himself that the bar was as it had 
 been, and then, without even a second glance 
 toward the recusant proprietor of the prem 
 ises, turned on his heel and walked away. 
 A low, toothless chuckle sounded after him 
 as he drove off, and looking round he saw 
 Job take up the slighted piece of work and 
 turn to his forge. 
 
 " If he knew that it was to be called for 
 again to-day, I suppose he would let it 
 alone," thought the young man, laughing. 
 " He hopes to be able to tell the parson 
 that it has been ready and waiting a long 
 time. Well, his bright hopes are doomed 
 to disappointment. Get along, old horse ! 
 dinner is ready." And Nahum quickened 
 his pace, scenting his oats from afar.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, 
 
 And shine forth in happy overflow 
 From the brown, bright eyes." 
 
 THOMAS WESTWOOD. 
 
 ROBIN was standing at her pantry window 
 when Conrad drove into the dooryard and 
 up to the hitching-post. She shook her head 
 at him in merry reproof as he came toward 
 her. 
 
 " Late to dinner, Mr. Faulkner ! Mrs. 
 Bloom has been sighing like a furnace over 
 her fresh biscuit." 
 
 " Don t mention furnaces, I beg of you ! " 
 said Conrad, fanning himself with his Pan 
 ama. " How do you always manage to look 
 so provokingly cool and comfortable ? " 
 And he ran an approving eye over the pretty 
 cambric dress she wore. 
 
 " Because I have n t time to think of the 
 heat, perhaps," laughed Robin. " Besides, 
 one must be cool in order to make pastry. 
 Look at that ! " 
 
 " That " was a delicious pile, some six
 
 124 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 inches high, composed of thin rounds of the 
 flakiest, most delicate piecrust interlaid with 
 crimson strawberries, and powdered with 
 shining sugar. Over the whole she pro 
 ceeded now to pour a flood of yellow cream ; 
 and held the glass dish, with its aggravat 
 ing contents, up for Conrad s inspection. 
 
 " I trust you have brought home an appe 
 tite," she said, gayly, leading the way to the 
 dining-room. 
 
 " No need. It is quite capable of creat 
 ing one for itself. 
 
 " And if your appetite should fail (as fail full well it may, 
 
 For never saw I promise yet of such a wilting day), 
 
 Press where you see this short-cake shine, along the entry 
 
 bobbin , 
 And be your cynosure to-day the pastry of Miss Robin ! " 
 
 "Well done!" laughed Robin. "I 
 would clap my hands, only in that case the 
 standard would fall. You will surely be 
 hungry after that effort. I hope so at all 
 events, for I have given you a cold dinner 
 to-day." 
 
 " Any other would be out of place. It is 
 perfect. I 11 be down directly." And, 
 rushing up to his room, he w r as back again 
 by the time Mrs. Bloom appeared to pour 
 the water. 
 
 Hungry or not, it was a wondrously pleas-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 125 
 
 ant meal to the young man. Robin looked 
 as if it were not unpleasant to her. There 
 being but two of them, the usual oval of the 
 table had been reduced to a round, and 
 pushed into the coolest, shadiest corner of 
 the large room. Robin could best have told 
 why the fresh white cloth had been put on 
 to-day, rather than to-morrow, as Mrs. 
 Bloom s good old Sabbath habit was. And 
 why the customary plain goblets had been 
 superseded by dainty, star-cut glasses match 
 ing the bubble-like decanter, which had held 
 fiery old Burgundy in grandmother Gary s 
 day, but was now innocent of aught stronger 
 than lemonade. A cluster of nasturtiums, 
 scarlet, gold, and bronze, made the centre of 
 the table gay ; and the shortcake was ably 
 flanked by a cold chicken on the one side, 
 and a plate of puffy rolls, over which Mrs. 
 Bloom had certainly sighed to some purpose, 
 on the other ; while crisp, cool lettuce, with 
 its dressing in a queer little pitcher beside 
 it, threw an air of refreshment over the 
 whole. 
 
 "Launcelot Owen would have written a 
 poem upon such a scene as this," said Con 
 rad, carving the chicken with outward se- 
 dateness, but great interior exultation. It
 
 126 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 was so wonderful to be sitting at table with 
 Robin opposite, and no one else near. For 
 the moment it was almost as if the table 
 were his own and hers ! 
 
 " Then you found him." 
 
 " I found him. But the fact might have 
 remained forever unknown to me had your 
 uncle not called my attention to it. I was 
 leaning casually against the stone, feeling 
 after an idea that hovered about me like a 
 mosquito, just out of reach. It struck me 
 afterwards that perhaps that particular spot 
 might be a favorite hovering place for such 
 winged gentry." 
 
 " Not at all unlikely. That the man had 
 the soul of a poet, I shall always maintain. 
 Some of his verses have the true ring. We 
 will ransack the Cleppitts library for his 
 old manuscripts some day. I have found 
 one or two blank books half written through 
 already." 
 
 " Can you recall any of the sentiments 
 therein contained ? " 
 
 " I have copies of several, and there are 
 one or two which have stayed by me of their 
 own accord. Notably, eight short lines to 
 a toad." 
 
 " Toads and salad go well together," said
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 127 
 
 Conrad, handing her a plateful of the cool, 
 curling leaves and proceeding to help him 
 self. " Can t I have him now ? " 
 
 So, while he cut and dressed his lettuce, 
 Robin repeated : 
 
 "Thou repulsive, squat-backed toad 
 Fatly hopping in my road ! 
 Shall I hurl thee from the way, 
 With rough foot, or let thee stay? 
 Haply thou may st find me too 
 Not a handsome thing to view. 
 Poor soft wretch ! I 11 let thee be. 
 God made toads, and God made me." 
 
 " Fatly hopping ! " quoted Conrad, with 
 fork poised in air. " I can see that toad. 
 Yes, we must rummage the Cleppitt library. 
 I want Launcelot. He is unique. Can t 
 you tell me more about him? " 
 
 " Yes, a good deal. I have hunted him 
 up pretty thoroughly, through family rec 
 ords and Miss Doris s memory. To begin 
 with, he was a Welshman. I suppose Uncle 
 Ike has given you some idea of people and 
 things at the Clearing. How it was settled, 
 and so forth." 
 
 " He told me a little." 
 
 " Well, to give you the heads as they 
 say hereabouts : When Arthur Cleppitt and 
 his wife came over in 1795, they left behind
 
 128 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 them, among other friends, Mrs. Cleppitt s 
 brother, Launcelot Owen. And it was pretty 
 well understood in the family that he was 
 only to remain behind long enough to give 
 the girl he was engaged to time for making 
 up her mind and her clothes to emigrate to 
 America with him. The clothes got made, 
 but I fancy material fell short in the other 
 direction, for one day in the following spring 
 Launcelot walked in upon them at the Clear 
 ing all alone. He had grown old and thin 
 and grave since they parted from him, but 
 not a word would he say as to what had 
 changed either himself or his prospects. 
 Only, in the course of the year, among other 
 news from Wales, came the tidings of the 
 girl s marriage to another man, a friend of 
 Launcelot s, who had grown up with him 
 from boyhood. 
 
 " For fifteen years Mr. Owen lived on with 
 his sister and her husband ; a hard-work 
 ing, studious, silent man. Children and ani 
 mals found a loving, tender friend in him. 
 From people in general he kept aloof, ex 
 cept when his ready quill or skillful hands 
 could render any one a service. But the ser 
 vice was always given with few words. Let 
 ters from home he would never read nor
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 129 
 
 hear read, and the children were bidden to 
 hold their tongues upon all such topics. At 
 last he died, from a sickness brought on by 
 jumping into the mill-pond in mid-winter 
 to save a poor old dog. The last thing he 
 did was to write his own epitaph, which you 
 have seen." 
 
 " I shall see it in a new light next time. 
 Poor fellow ! fifteen years of living alone in 
 a crowd. For doubtless a man who was 
 black and blue all over would find even half 
 a dozen whole -bodied neighbors sadly op 
 pressive." 
 
 " It might have been worse," remarked 
 Robin, severely dry ; " he might have mar 
 ried Celia Jane. When you have read his 
 journals, and bits of things, as I have, you 
 will wonder what manner of creature she 
 could have been to give him up." 
 
 " I don t want ter hurry ye a mite, but 
 this is circle afternoon, an it s goin on two 
 o clock. I ve peeked in twice afore, but ye 
 seemed so kinder contented I hated ter dis 
 turb ye." 
 
 Conrad laughed, and Robin grew a shade 
 rosier. " It is all my fault, Mrs. Bloom ! " ex 
 claimed the former. " I plead guilty to being 
 the only contented one. Miss Robin cannot
 
 130 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 be, of course, for she has not had any din 
 ner. Let me give you another bit of chicken, 
 and some of the salad," he entreated, turning 
 to Robin as the housekeeper departed in tri 
 umph, with her hands full of plates, knives, 
 and forks. 
 
 " No, thank you. I have had an ample 
 sufficiency, as Mrs. Bloom would say. You 
 may have all these things," she added to that 
 reentering worthy. " I want Mr. Faulkner s 
 exclusive attention for this shortcake." 
 
 The shortcake and its maker had the 
 young man s exclusive attention for the re 
 mainder of the meal, and it must be con 
 fessed that the one, in its own peculiar way, 
 deserved it quite as much as the other.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " The racing river leaped and sang 
 
 Full blithely, in the pleasant weather. 
 All round the mountain echoes rang, 
 For blue and green were glad together." 
 
 JEAN INOELOW. 
 
 " ARE you very busy, Mr. Faulkner ? " 
 
 " Not a bit," returned Conrad with alac 
 rity, laying aside his pen, and springing up 
 to meet Robin, who at that moment entered 
 the room, dressed in her tramping suit of 
 blue and green plaid. The hat, with its 
 gleaming peacock s breast, hanging from 
 one hand, and a grandmotherly little brown 
 wicker basket in the other. 
 
 " This library is a pleasant place, but out 
 of doors is pleasanter. Where are we bound 
 for this time ? " 
 
 "I think I won t tell you much about it 
 beyond advising you to bring your letters 
 with you, if they are finished, to put your 
 sketch-book into your pocket, and to prepare 
 yourself for taking notes." 
 
 " All of which, being translated, means
 
 132 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 that we are bound for the post-office ; ami 
 that on one side or the other of that point 
 you will introduce me to some fresh aspects 
 of nature, animate and inanimate. I would 
 give a pretty penny for a glimpse at your 
 mental notes, Miss Robin. You have a keen 
 eye for character which would be invaluable 
 to an author." 
 
 " And am I not giving an author the ben 
 efit of it ? " she retorted gayly, as she put on 
 her hat and turned away. 
 
 " Which reminds me," said Conrad, 
 gathering up sketch-book and letters, and 
 following, " that I completed the third 
 chapter of my story this morning. Suppose 
 you were to look it over, some time when you 
 have nothing better to do, and give me your 
 opinion." 
 
 " Suppose I were," assented Robin, nod 
 ding her head sagely, to hide the quick flash 
 of pleasure in her eyes, " and suppose," 
 she added, half mischievously, half in ear 
 nest, " suppose I should n t like it. How 
 very awkward that would be ! " 
 
 " Not at all. Nothing is ever awkward 
 between friends, you know. If you do not 
 like it, you will simply tell me so, and I 
 shall"
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 133 
 
 "Alter it? Oh, no, you won t! be 
 cause " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Because you are a man, you know. Un 
 cle Ike often asks my advice about his ser 
 mons ; but he never takes it never." 
 
 " I shall take it," said Conrad, quietly. 
 " I shall take this enormous basket, too." 
 And he skillfully abstracted it from her 
 hand as he spoke. 
 
 " But you must not take that path or we 
 shall part company. I am going this way." 
 
 " This way " meant a precipitous plunge 
 down a rough, stony bank at the left, into 
 a meandering and heavily shaded foot-path, 
 which, after they had patiently unraveled its 
 twistings for a quarter of a mile, brought 
 them, by an abrupt and bewildering turn, 
 face to face with the river. 
 
 " Here is a mystery ! " exclaimed Conrad, 
 eying with much surprise the little green 
 boat that floated in the shadow of a huge 
 rock to which it was moored. " How have 
 I been in Ockley so long and never discov 
 ered this Snug Harbor ? " 
 
 " Oh, Ockley abounds in mysteries," re 
 plied Robin, enjoying his astonishment. 
 " There are one or two still remaining for
 
 134 hlGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 you to fathom. If you are very good indeed 
 I may spoil another for you before we get 
 home. Uncle Ike told me to entertain you 
 while he was gone, you know, and he won t 
 be back before nine or ten o clock." 
 
 "I will be good, very good. But how 
 shall I begin?" 
 
 " By letting me row you down, and 
 would you mind holding the basket right 
 side up ? because I don t believe it can im 
 prove cup-custards to stand on their heads." 
 
 " Your stern command shall be obeyed," 
 said Conrad, seating himself obediently be 
 side the tiller when he had drawn the little 
 craft to the bank, handed Robin in, and 
 pushed off again. " But my heart misgives 
 me in regard to the cup-custards ! I sup 
 posed they were flowers. Had n t you bet 
 ter interview them, and find out just where 
 they do stand ? " 
 
 " You may, if you like," said Robin, gath 
 ering an oar into either hand. And as she 
 spoke, she brought her boat s head dexter 
 ously about, and began to row down-stream 
 with a slow, steady dip of the oars that told 
 of long experience. She watched, with a lit 
 tle amused smile, while Conrad, handling the 
 basket with great respect now, proceeded to
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 135 
 
 unfasten and raise the cover, and peep under 
 the white, fringed napkin. 
 
 " What cups ! " was all he said. And 
 then he quietly replaced the napkin and 
 closed the basket. 
 
 " Cups ! " echoed Robin, " are the custards 
 nowhere then ? " 
 
 " The custards are all right ; that is, I sup 
 pose they are. But the cups are regularly 
 eerie. And so are those slices of golden 
 foam. W itches fare, I call it. Are you a 
 witch, Miss Robin ? " 
 
 " I can make sponge cake." 
 
 " Can you ? then no one else can. I 
 fancied I had seen sponge cake before, but I 
 never have. Are we on our way to a picnic, 
 please ? " 
 
 " No. We are on our way to Janet." 
 
 " And what, or who, is Janet ? if I may 
 ask. Is she the witch ? " 
 
 " She is two or three things." 
 
 " That settles the question beyond a doubt. 
 The description corresponds with the cups. 
 It also accounts for the appetite." 
 
 " Appetite ? Oh, you mean the supply 
 is large, I suppose. Janet has two mouths 
 to feed." 
 
 " Horrible ! And does one mouth require
 
 136 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 custard, while the other craves sponge 
 cake ? " 
 
 Robin s merry laugh went ringing up the 
 river. 
 
 " One mouth is hers," she said, demurely, 
 " the other Cy s." 
 
 " Sighs ? over such cake as that ? Clearly 
 this Janet is an undeserving character. I ve 
 a mind to eat it myself." 
 
 " Better not. It s eerie, you know. You 
 might get bewitched." 
 
 " True," assented Conrad, gravely, though 
 there was a queer look at the corners of his 
 mouth. " There is danger, I believe. Janet 
 shall have her own." And placing the bas 
 ket carefully under the seat as if to remove 
 as far as possible all danger of witchcraft, he 
 took off his hat and settled himself comfort 
 ably back in the stern, his eyes wandering 
 from point to point along the river-bank, and 
 coming back frequently to rest for a brief in 
 stant upon the graceful, girlish figure before 
 him. 
 
 They rounded a curve, and came into deep 
 er water. Under the shadow of the bank 
 it looked black and cool, and the trees bent 
 over till they fairly trailed their long, droop 
 ing branches in the stream. In and out
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 137 
 
 among the shadows darted slim river-fish 
 noiseless gray presences, with vacuous eyes. 
 Robin drew in her oars, and they floated, si 
 lently, with the current. 
 
 Suddenly, as the boat drifted in, more and 
 more, toward the shore, Conrad rose to his 
 feet and made a hasty clutch at one of the 
 great gray rocks above them. The clutch 
 accomplished nothing, however, save a vio 
 lent rocking of the boat, and the imminent 
 danger of a cold plunge for himself. 
 
 u I beg your pardon ! " he exclaimed, with 
 a rueful, backward glance. " I had no 
 thought of making such a commotion. 
 There was something in that cleft of rock 
 that I wanted and did n t get." 
 
 " So I perceive," said Robin, with her 
 eyes upon the one wild columbine that still 
 made a scarlet glow of color against the 
 rock s rough background. " Next time you 
 will do well to try for one lower down. 
 There is a whole clump of them within easy 
 reach ! " and she pulled her left oar to bring 
 his end of the boat nearer. Conrad laid his 
 hand upon the oar before she could repeat 
 the stroke. 
 
 " Thank you," he said, quietly, " but if I 
 cannot have the one I want, 1 won t have 
 any."
 
 138 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Robin looked a trifle surprised. This was 
 a phase of character which her friend had 
 never manifested before. He smiled a little 
 as he caught the look. 
 
 " Do you believe in omens ? " 
 
 A quick, questioning- glance was her only 
 answer. 
 
 " I hung an omen round the stem of that 
 columbine, and wanted to make sure of it. 
 The attempt was a failure, as you saw." 
 
 Robin s eyes went back to the speck, 
 growing rapidly fainter in the distance. 
 
 " What shall I do about it ? " pursued 
 Conrad, gravely, watching her face as she 
 watched the flower. 
 
 " If I were you" she paused. 
 
 " Well," a smile at something in his 
 own thoughts lightening the gravity, " let 
 us suppose that impossibility accomplished, 
 what then ? " 
 
 " I would take the omen off again." 
 
 " But that is impossible." 
 
 " Then is it something you want very 
 much ? " 
 
 The smile faded, and a deep earnestness 
 came into his voice. 
 
 " Very much. More than I ever wanted 
 anything in my life before."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 139 
 
 The dark eyes fell before his steady gaze, 
 and the cheeks below them took on a faint 
 reflection of the columbine s vivid color. 
 
 The boat had emerged into a sunny stretch 
 now, and the oars began to rise and fall 
 again with measured rhythm. Just ahead 
 appeared the village bridge, with its cluster 
 of stores at one end, and the white steeple 
 at the other. Robin began to pull her left 
 oar again, and the boat drew in to the bank. 
 
 Conrad leaped out as the keel grated on 
 the stones, and reached a helping hand to 
 his companion. 
 
 " Then " he repeated, looking straight 
 into her face as she laid down the oars and 
 rose to her feet. 
 
 But when Robin was once fairly brought 
 to bay she never flinched. She raised her 
 eyes, and looked as straightly, and more 
 composedly, at him. 
 
 " Then I would have the columbine ! " 
 
 And just touching his extended hand, she 
 sprang lightly past him and led the way up 
 the bank into the village street. 
 
 Just across the bridge, and beyond the 
 church, there was a sudden rise of ground 
 heavily shaded with sugar-maples of mas 
 sive growth, and fringed along its edges with
 
 140 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 lusty sumach bushes and close - growing 
 brakes. A narrow foot-path had managed 
 to worm its way through these stout de 
 fenders of the height above, and showed its 
 contrasting line of earth-color, only to be 
 instantly lost to view again in the dust of 
 the street it sought. To this point, when 
 the letters had been duly delivered into the 
 official hands of Mr. Ely, Robin led the 
 way. Once there, she paused, provokingly. 
 
 "Where do you suppose it leads to?" 
 she asked, with a mischievous smile. 
 
 " Beyond the fact that it leads, eventually, 
 to the abode of Cy s grandmother I am at 
 a loss. To tell the truth there has always 
 seemed something so charmingly hidden and 
 mysterious about it that I have hesitated to 
 break the spell by exploring." 
 
 " Did n t I tell you that I should spoil 
 another mystery ? Come and see ! " And 
 bending her head to clear the rather low 
 archway of green, she disappeared in a flash. 
 
 Conrad followed, expecting to find him 
 self in the woods, literally as well as figura 
 tively. When lo and behold ! the valiant 
 little path, making but one right - angled 
 squirm behind the sheltering sumachs, came 
 to a sudden end at the foot of a flight of
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 141 
 
 irregular stone steps. At their top stood 
 Robin, laughing down at him. She dis 
 appeared again, however, and when he 
 reached the uppermost step was nowhere to 
 be seen. Instead he beheld a low-roofed, 
 black cottage ; the garden space in front of 
 it gay with hollyhocks, and sunflowers, and 
 clumps of brilliant scarlet sage. The old 
 house was like a phoenix, rising from out its 
 nest of flame. Under a large maple, a little 
 removed, sat an old woman, with her back 
 toward him, spinning. Her white cap, the 
 scant folds of her dull -tinted stuff gown, 
 and the quaint, carved outlines of her age- 
 darkened wheel stood out from the glowing 
 background of color like some old, old pic 
 ture. 
 
 Involuntarily the keen artist -look came 
 into Conrad s eyes, and his hand sought the 
 pocket where his sketch-book lay in ambush. 
 Some one, who had been also lying in am 
 bush, came up, softly, beside him. 
 
 " I told you you would want your sketch 
 book! " cried Robin, in a triumphant whisper. 
 
 " Only keep her there for ten short min 
 utes ! " implored he, in the same tone, " and 
 you shall have the sketch." 
 
 " A bargain," said Robin, promptly, and
 
 142 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 that lie might not have opportunity to re 
 pent his promise, she moved quickly away 
 and was presently standing beside the nim 
 ble wheel. 
 
 There is a great deal of expression in the 
 backs of some people s heads. Conrad 
 knew, by the quick, pleased bobbing of the 
 white cap, that the face within it was all 
 alight at sight of the young girl. The wheel 
 came to a stop for a moment, and the spin 
 ner made as though she would have risen, 
 but Robin laid her hand on the dull-colored 
 sleeve and said something, smiling. Then 
 she moved round to the other side, and sat 
 down on the grass, quite out of the way, 
 and the old woman nodded, and twirled her 
 distaff. 
 
 Conrad looked, and sketched, and looked 
 again. To be sure the cap would whisk 
 about every few minutes, as though its 
 wearer found it impossible to keep her 
 eyes from the bright face at her side ; and 
 once in a while the broad shoulders would 
 shake in sympathy with the clear sweet 
 laugh that floated up into the tree -tops. 
 But the wheel whirled merrily round, and 
 the model sat very still, considering, and 
 by the time the allotted ten minutes had
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 143 
 
 stretched themselves to twenty the outlines 
 for a very promising little picture had been 
 secured. 
 
 "My friend, Mr Faulkner, Janet," said 
 Robin, rising from her lowly position as 
 Conrad came round to where she sat. 
 
 " Mr. Faulkner is vera welcome," said the 
 old woman, quietly, and she again made a 
 motion as if to rise, but again Robin stopped 
 her. 
 
 " No, no, Janet, you must just sit still I 
 we did not come to interrupt you. Mr. 
 Faulkner wants to learn to spin." 
 
 " I never saw any one spin flax in this 
 country before. It is very pretty work, 
 and it looks easy too," said Conrad. 
 
 k Ay, t is pretty work, as you say, and 
 easy enough too, like many another thing, 
 when a body knows how. But to me tis 
 not so much the work itsel as what it brings 
 to mind that makes it lightsome. T is my 
 own mother s wheel this, and well I mind 
 how busily she aye kept it whirling. She 
 had need, too, for there were eight of us, 
 lads and lasses, and never a factory known 
 in those days. By the ingle neuk in winter, 
 or by the burn-side in summer, many s the 
 long day I ve seen her sit to spin spin
 
 144 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 spin, till I got to think no thread fit to 
 use else. And to this day," concluded tho 
 old woman proudly, " not a shred of cloth 
 goes to my back but what my own hands 
 make." 
 
 Janet s English had, from long usage, so 
 far got the better of her Scotch as to allow 
 the latter to crop out only in occasional 
 words or sentences, which gathered and 
 thickened like hailstones as her interest in 
 the conversation grew, until, at moments of 
 deep excitement, they pelted down fast and 
 furious on the devoted heads of her listeners. 
 
 " Janet," said Robin suddenly, bringing 
 her eyes down from the green labyrinth 
 overhead, which they had been dreamily 
 threading during this last long speech, 
 " I am going to put these much enduring 
 custards into the cupboard for you, and then 
 I am going to look for honey. If I find any 
 may I have it ? " 
 
 " Ay, and welcome, lassie. There 11 be 
 a fine bit comb in the middle hive ; for the 
 bees and I have been of one mind about it, 
 and it hasna been meddled with. But 
 what s to do with the friend here, shall he 
 go too ? " 
 
 " No, no ! he must stay with you. The
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 145 
 
 bees would sting him." And with a gay, 
 backward nod from among the riotous 
 hollyhocks, she disappeared in the shadow 
 of the low doorway. 
 
 " And what if they sting her ? " asked 
 Conrad, following her with a look that 
 was unconsciously wistful. " Is she proof 
 against bees as against all other harmful 
 things ? " 
 
 What a keen glance bent itself upon him 
 from under those heavy, gray brows ! The 
 rugged face lit up for a brief moment, and 
 then the wonted look of quiet impenetra 
 bility drew over it again, like a veil. 
 
 " Ay, she s that ! " said Janet, quietly ; 
 " proof against the devil and all his works. 
 Not that my bees, bonny creatures, have 
 anything in common with him. But sin 
 ye read her so well," she added abruptly, 
 " step yonder, to the chink in the bushes, 
 and take a peep. It s no every one I d be 
 giving the privileege. An now we 11 see 
 what like man he is ; " she said to herself, 
 as he thanked her with a smile, and walked 
 away in the direction indicated. " If he be 
 what I think him he 11 scarce stand long to 
 glower like a Na, na ! he s ta en his peep 
 an come away, like a gentleman. Weel, 
 
 10
 
 146 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Mr. Faulkner, ye re a painter they tell me ; 
 what like a picture is yon, think you ? " 
 
 " Like none that I ever saw before I came 
 to Ockley. I have seen a good many such 
 since." 
 
 " Ay, the Lord is a gran artist ! Heard 
 ye ever Miss Robin sing ? " 
 
 " Never. I have heard her play." 
 
 " Ah, her songs are not for all. But to 
 my min , them that have heard her will 
 never hear aught so sweet again, till they 
 hear the angels. Heard ye ever her 
 scold?" 
 
 He smiled, quietly, and instantly grew 
 grave again. " I cannot imagine Miss 
 Robin scolding," he said, with a touch of 
 dignity. 
 
 Again the light flashed into the old 
 woman s face. But this time it lingered. 
 She ceased her work, and pushing the idle 
 wheel from her looked up into his face with 
 earnest eyes. 
 
 " From the time Miss Robin lay in my 
 lap, a bit baby, till this day, no living being 
 ever heard a cross word from her lips. An 
 yet she s a fine high spirit, like all the 
 Carys. Ah, she s proud ! but never too 
 proud to know when she s i the wrong, an
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 147 
 
 own to t. Doubtless, though," she added, 
 suddenly, with a shrewd glance at his half 
 averted face, " doubtless I weary you with 
 all this. It s an old nurse s nonsense, sir." 
 
 He turned to her, from some thought of 
 his own, it seemed. 
 
 " Is it ? " was all he said ; but the bright, 
 approving smile filled out the meagre sen 
 tence. Just at this moment the subject of 
 conversation made her appearance again, 
 carrying a plate. The plate itself was of 
 common ware, but gay with all the flowers 
 that never grew, and upon it reposed a 
 heavy and perfect white comb filled with its 
 treasure of golden honey. The fragrance 
 of whole acres of clover distilled itself upon 
 the summer air as Robin passed along. 
 
 " I had to steal a plate, Janet, because it 
 would n t go into the basket without break 
 ing ; and besides, paper won t hold it. Did 
 you ever smell anything more delicious in 
 your life ? Talk of greenhouses ! " 
 
 " Shall I carry it ? " asked Conrad, after 
 an admiring survey. 
 
 " No, indeed ! I must carry it myself. 
 You will have to do the rowing this time, if 
 you don t mind." 
 
 " I do mind, always. I minded coming
 
 148 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 down, and I shall mind going back. Did n t 
 I promise to be good ? " 
 
 " Ah, it s easy to be good with such a re 
 ward before one s eyes ! is n t it, Janet ? " 
 said Robin, with a laughing look at them, 
 and an appreciative one at her honeycomb. 
 
 " Ay, wonderful easy ! " quoth Janet, 
 dryly ; but her look rested higher than the 
 painted plate. " Come again, Mr. Faulkner, 
 when it pleases. Any friend o Miss Robin 
 is aye welcome here, to say nothing o Cy. 
 Ye Ve been vera kind to Cy, poor fellow, 
 he s never w r earied telling about it." 
 
 " Cy has been very kind to me. We are 
 fast friends." 
 
 " Cy s friendship will do ye no harm. 
 Though it s few would take the trouble to 
 fin that out. He s no such a fool as folk 
 would make him." 
 
 "And that reminds me, Janet, we want 
 Cy to help us find some trout-pools to 
 morrow. We are going over beyond Sage s 
 hill. Will you tell him, please ? Mr. Faulk 
 ner, I really cannot wait for you to get all 
 those hollyhocks by heart ! Janet will let 
 you come another time to sketch." 
 
 " Deed will I ! an stay as long as he 
 pleases. I 11 not forget to tell Cy, Miss
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 149 
 
 Robin. If there s any one can fin the trout 
 for you, he can, an he 11 be gey blithe to get 
 the chance." 
 
 " Ay, but they re the bonny pair ! " she 
 muttered to herself, as Conrad preceded 
 Robin down the steps and held the boughs 
 aside for her to pass. " He s none too 
 lavish wi his words, but his deeds seem 
 aye ready enough. An when the tongue 
 bides, the eyes can work the better. It s 
 few o her looks an needs he lets go by 
 him. I doubt he s nigh fitting even for 
 her, an that s what I never thought to see 
 in this world, after my experience o the 
 men ! One thing I know," and there was a 
 shrewd light in the deep-set eyes, and a 
 kindly curl to the puckered lips, " if he 
 lives to be a cent ry old he 11 never forget 
 the glint he got o her through old Janet s 
 hedge, stan in there wi the sunshine on her 
 hair an the flowers at her feet, an the 
 bonny brown bees flying all about her ! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Oh, sweetly my love sings ! 
 Like a shaft of light her voice breaks forth ; 
 
 My soul to meet it springs 
 As the shining water leaped of old, 
 
 When stirred by angel wings." 
 
 JEAN IXGELOW. 
 
 CONKAD rowed slowly up the river in 
 the warm afternoon sunshine, and watched 
 Robin, who, cosily ensconced in his old place 
 at the stern, was watching in her turn the 
 cloud shadows, as they glided noiselessly 
 from base to summit of the nearer hills, the 
 alternate light and shade gleaming over the 
 rugged slopes like sweet, sudden smiles over 
 old, weather-beaten faces, and lazily trail 
 ing one hand through the cool, dark water 
 that each stroke of the oars sent rippling 
 shoreward. She came back pi^esently, with 
 a long breath, to find his eyes resting in 
 tently upon her. 
 
 " How many miles of journeying does that 
 sigh stand for ? " he asked. 
 
 " To tell the truth, I hardly know my-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 151 
 
 self," she answered, lightly. " Somehow 
 the river always makes me absent-minded. 
 Handling the oars is the only thing that can 
 ever keep me from drifting. It is very 
 stupid of me, I know." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Conrad, smil 
 ing, "I never said so. I do not find your 
 drifting at all unsociable. Besides, we were 
 both drifting, I believe." 
 
 " Have you ever seen the sunset from that 
 high ridge beyond the sugar-house ? " asked 
 Kobin, rather abruptly. 
 
 " How should I ? You have never shown 
 it to me." 
 
 " As if sunsets waited for a showman ! I 
 thought you might have been there with Cy, 
 perhaps." 
 
 u No, Cy is not so airy in his movements 
 as some people. I have had reason to 
 think that he rather eschews rising ground. 
 He took me three miles round, the other 
 day, to avoid crossing Langley Hill. So the 
 top of the ridge is where you have just come 
 from!" 
 
 " Not exactly. But I have been wonder 
 ing whether or no you would like to go there. 
 There will be a glorious sunset to-night. 
 You see I must keep you amused, somehow, 
 till Uncle Ike gets back, and "
 
 152 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " And as you find it an extremely labo 
 rious task, you think of coaxing heaven and 
 earth to help you out ! Truly I am com 
 plimented." 
 
 " Trust a man, as Mrs. Bloom says, to 
 twist everything to his own advantage ! 
 laughed Robin. " But will you go ? " 
 
 " Certainly I will. I must be amused, as 
 you say." 
 
 " Then we will have tea early, so as to 
 get to the top beforehand, to quote Mrs. 
 Bloom s remarks again." 
 
 " Mrs. Bloom is a remarkable woman. 
 But if we are to perform such an unheard 
 of paradox I must do my part." And the 
 oars began to describe such powerful arcs 
 as sent the little boat fairly flying home 
 ward, upstream though it w r as. 
 
 Although tea was a full hour earlier than 
 usual that night, perhaps no more striking 
 example could be found of the rapid de 
 generation of the human race since the days 
 of Sparta s greatness than the avidity with 
 which this strongly - built and muscular 
 young man fell upon sponge-cake and honey ! 
 To tell how many cups of tea he drank, 
 merely for the pleasure of seeing it poured 
 out, would be a most unhandsome piece of
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 153 
 
 treachery. Be it only recorded, then, to his 
 lasting credit and renown, that he wanted 
 another dreadfully, but did not ask for it. 
 
 The shadows were slanting longer and 
 longer across the green door-yard as the two 
 young people once more sallied forth, and 
 down the lane, past brook and sugar-house, 
 to where the pasture land began to hump it 
 self up preparatory to forming the high 
 shoulder known as the Ridge. 
 
 Mrs. Bloom, carrying cups and saucers, 
 teapot and plates, walked thoughtfully to 
 and fro between dining-room and kitchen, 
 casting now and again a keen glance after 
 the retreating figures, and finally came to a 
 stand-still before the cooking stove. 
 
 " H m ! " she ejaculated, nodding her 
 head sagely at the big black kettle, which 
 was steaming away within two feet of her 
 nose ; " mebbe they think I can t see a thing 
 like that when it s right afore my eyes ! " 
 Which somewhat peculiar remark appeared 
 to relieve her mind to such an extent that 
 she roused up, and went to work with a will ; 
 leaving a solitary plate, cup, and saucer in 
 readiness for the parson when he should re 
 turn to his belated meal. 
 
 Meanwhile the two whose affairs occupied
 
 154 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 so prominent a place in the worthy house 
 keeper s thoughts went on and up, all un 
 mindful of the interest they were exciting, 
 till the belt of sugar-maples that skirted the 
 slope gave way to pines, and the pines in 
 their turn dwindled and thinned to clumps 
 of sweet fern and spires of mullein, and they 
 came out finally upon the bare, rocky crest 
 just as the sun began to dip down behind 
 that particular far blue peak which, at this 
 season, he was wont to make his point of 
 disappearance. 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed Robin, sinking down 
 against a warm wall of rock with a sigh of in 
 tense satisfaction. " What did I tell you ? " 
 
 "Not half," returned Conrad, ungrate 
 fully, gazing eagerly forth upon the heav 
 ing sea of hills that rolled its giant billows 
 round about them on every side. " Who 
 could suppose that a little climb like that 
 would open out to one such a panorama? 
 Is n t that the Camel s Hump, over there to 
 the right ? " 
 
 " Yes. And there s Monadnock, and 
 there s Ascutney, and there s oh, look ! 
 quick ! quick ! there he goes. Now watch ! " 
 They watched, and watched, while the clouds 
 above and before them glowed rosy, and
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 155 
 
 golden, and brown, and died away, like heav 
 enly bonfires, to ashes of sombre gray. The 
 shadows darkened and deepened in the val 
 leys and mountain - clef ts, and crept, and 
 crept, and grew until all nature seemed 
 wrapped in dusky twilight as in a veil. Then 
 up, over the eastern hills, in her triumphal, 
 unimpeded progress rose the moon, full-orbed 
 and radiant. They turned their faces from 
 the west, as from a royal death-bed, and of 
 fered, courtier-like, their fealty and admira 
 tion to the fair queen whose reign was just 
 beginning. 
 
 Down, down from the illuminated hill-top 
 where they stood, rolled the gracious, grow 
 ing light, till it spread itself like a silvery 
 mist over the dark sea of pines below them. 
 
 Robin gathered her white shawl closer 
 about her shoulders, and turned slowly and 
 reluctantly to go. 
 
 " Miss Robin, just one moment ! There 
 can never be so perfect an hour as this again. 
 Won t you sing for me ? " 
 
 His hand rested lightly on her arm to 
 stay her going, his look rested on her face 
 with eager questioning. In his thoughts 
 Janet s words were repeating themselves. 
 " Ah, her songs are not for all ! " Would 
 they be for him ?
 
 156 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 At his words a little wondering smile had 
 crept over Robin s face. A smile with a 
 question in it, as if she would ask how he 
 had so suddenly discovered that she could 
 sing. But she said nothing, only, after a 
 moment s pause, let her arms drop from 
 their folding, and hang, with the hands 
 loosely clasped, before her as she stood lean 
 ing lightly against the huge gray bowlder, 
 her face turned to the eastern sky, and the 
 white summer moonlight falling all over and 
 about her. Then, quietly, she began to sing. 
 
 Conrad, drawn back into a dark corner 
 the better to see and hear her, fairly held 
 his breath as the full, slow notes rolled forth 
 upon the stillness. There was no noise in 
 Robin s singing. The sweet, rich voice deep 
 ened and swelled, or sank to softest modula 
 tions ; yet at its strongest there was ever a 
 strength reserved, at its faintest it was ever 
 pure and clear. 
 
 What that first song was Conrad never 
 could remember. The glorious tones them 
 selves so filled heart and ear as to leave no 
 consciousness of any words. Perfect silence 
 filled the pause after the last deep, velvety 
 notes. She waited a moment and sang 
 again, this time from " Elijah," " Oh, rest in 
 the Lord ! "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 157 
 
 Still silence. 
 
 Then the thrilling tones were poured forth 
 once more in the beautiful Invocation from 
 the " Magic Flute." 
 
 Robin was just a little surprised when the 
 third pause brought still no word from her 
 one listener, sitting far back in the shadow. 
 She broke the silence herself. 
 
 " You asked for one song, Mr. Faulkner, 
 and I have sung you three. Are you satis 
 fied ? " 
 
 " No ! " he answered, coming forward to 
 her side again ; " but I do not know how to 
 thank you, and I shall never forget it." 
 And as she looked up at him, in the moon 
 light, she saw that there were tears in his 
 eyes. 
 
 They stood, a moment longer, looking out 
 over the boundless expanse of glorified dark 
 ness. Then Robin once more gathered her 
 shawl about her, and turning, they left the 
 hour and its beauty behind them forever, 
 and made their way, silently, down the steep 
 decline and through the bare, deserted pas 
 ture, to the house again. 
 
 When they reached the porch, the usual 
 evening rendezvous, old Nahum was already 
 to be seen making his crab -like way up
 
 158 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 the hill. They stood and watched him, or 
 thought they did. 
 
 " This has been a beautiful day," said 
 Conrad, slowly. 
 
 " Lovely. And to-morrow will be just 
 such another. The very most perfect weather 
 for our tramp." 
 
 " I was not thinking of the weather so 
 much, though it could hardly be finer, as 
 you say. But I am willing to accept your 
 prophecy for to-morrow on both grounds." 
 
 " I am glad if to-day has passed pleas 
 antly with you," said Robin, demurely. " It 
 relieves my mind of a great burden to hear 
 you say so. Uncle Ike will be sure to ask. 
 I know he felt rather shaky as to my enter 
 taining abilities." 
 
 " It has been hardly a fair trial of them, 
 after all. You had Janet and the moon to 
 help you," retorted Conrad, mischievously. 
 
 " Janet is a traitor ! She told you about 
 my singing." 
 
 " She told me that you did not sing for 
 every one, and so " 
 
 " And so you thought you would try how 
 much I would do for you!" exclaimed 
 Robin, half indignantly. " "Well, I hope 
 the result was sufficient]}* flattering ! "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 159 
 
 " You sang for me, and sang divinely ! I 
 shall always remember that." 
 
 There was an earnest ring to his words in 
 which mingled no smallest trace of self- 
 gratulation. 
 
 " Do ! " said Robin, proudly, " and re 
 member also, that when I promised to be 
 your friend such experiments became un 
 necessary. Had you told me plainly why 
 you wanted a song, you should have had it, 
 all the same." 
 
 "I believe you!" he answered, warmly, 
 " for you are unlike all other women whom 
 I have ever met." 
 
 " You must have met some delightful 
 people," said Robin, her momentary dis 
 pleasure losing itself in amusement, " if I 
 am the first of your acquaintance who has 
 ever told the truth ! " 
 
 " Ah ! but then they have almost all been 
 delightfully amiable. Whereas I hear that 
 
 you"- 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 " Have a quick temper, and are most in 
 ordinately proud." 
 
 Such a ringing, joyous laugh as went 
 floating out into the moonlight! In its 
 merry waves the creaking of the old chaise,
 
 160 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 as it drew up before the door, was almost 
 drowned. 
 
 " Oh ho ! Some one seems to feel rather 
 jolly," exclaimed the parson. " Guess you 
 have n t missed me much, after all. Whoa, 
 Nahum ! " 
 
 " Miss Robin was making merry over 
 her own shortcomings, sir," said Conrad, 
 hastening down the steps to assist his host. 
 " /have missed you terribly." 
 
 " I 11 warrant it ! " chuckled the parson, 
 descending cautiously, as became old bones, 
 from his rather tottery perch. " She is a 
 terribly tiresome kind of girl. How much 
 country has she dragged you over to-day ? " 
 
 " Quite a piece, as Abijah definitely re 
 marks. I have been numbered among all 
 who travel by land or by water. However, 
 I have borne it fairly well. Let me take 
 those things." And he proceeded to rob 
 the venerable gentleman of kerosene can 
 and molasses jug, not omitting to secure 
 also, from beneath the seat of the chaise, 
 the gay calico mail -bag, a marvel of con 
 struction, inaugurated by Mrs. Bloom, " ter 
 pervent mistakes." 
 
 " That feller Ely is forever a blunderin 
 an chargin it to other folks. We 11 hev a
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 101 
 
 bag ; and then, ef there is a mess made, 
 why there can t be no backin aout." So the 
 mail-bag, with its jolly yellow palm-leaves 
 on a brick-red ground, came to be an in 
 stitution in the neighborhood, and nightly 
 swelled or shrunk like fancy stocks as the 
 case might be. It was very fat to-night. 
 Conrad patted its buxom sides affection 
 ately as he gave it into Robin s outstretched 
 hands. Then he passed on through the din 
 ing-room where the parson was already mak 
 ing progress with his tea, and delivering can 
 and jug into the tender keeping of Mrs. 
 Bloom, completed the circle of his useful 
 ness by way of the back-door and the grass- 
 plot, and so came round once more to where 
 Robin sat on the steps. 
 
 " Only one letter for Uncle Ike. The 
 rest was all newspapers." 
 
 " So much the better. We can forego 
 the luxury of a kerosene lamp. How moon 
 light rests one." 
 
 " One kerosene lamp ? " 
 
 " One burning and shining light like my 
 self. Do you know I feel as though we had 
 accomplished a great deal to-day. And yet, 
 there remains one thing more to be accom 
 plished before I sleep ! "
 
 182 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 "Better accomplish it quickly, then, if 
 you have any idea of a nap to-night. Do 
 you know what time it is ? " 
 
 " Is it nine ? " 
 
 " No, it is ten. The clock has just 
 struck. Shall I get the lamp for you, after 
 all?" 
 
 " Moonlight will be quite sufficient, thank 
 you." 
 
 "To write by?" asked Robin, rising to 
 her feet with a puzzled look. 
 
 " To take your advice by." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean to have that columbine, or 
 perish in the attempt. Good-night, dear 
 friend ! "
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " All wild creatures love him 
 
 When he is alone, 
 Every bird above him 
 
 Sings its softest tone ; 
 Thankful to high Heaven, 
 
 Humble in thy joy, 
 Much to thee is given, 
 Lowly shepherd boy." 
 
 LETITIA LANDON. 
 
 WHETHER the Saturday s walks, or the 
 Monday s fishing, or both were to blame for 
 it, Robin could not tell ; but she woke on 
 Tuesday morning with a hard headache, 
 which made her glad to lay her head back 
 speedily on the pillow, and forbade her at 
 tempting to rise. 
 
 " She 11 keep her bed to-day, anyhow," 
 summed up Mrs. Bloom, making her unwel 
 come announcement in the breakfast room ; 
 " an I ruther guess ter - morrer. An ef 
 she s so s ter be up a Thursd y I sh ll be 
 agree bly disapp inted." 
 
 So the two gentlemen poured tea and 
 coffee for themselves, helped to their own
 
 164 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 soup and pudding, worried a good deal in 
 side while making strenuous efforts to ap 
 pear jolly outwardly, and were generally 
 miserable ; although, to a casual observer, 
 they would doubtless have presented quite a 
 cosy and comfortable appearance. 
 
 The parson could relieve his mind by 
 occasional audible outbursts ; but after the 
 first expressions of concern on Conrad s 
 part nothing further seemed called for from 
 him beyond occasional inquiry. So he was 
 fain to bottle up his real anxiety and wait, 
 with what patience he might, for further 
 developments. 
 
 A long tramp, some letter - writing, and 
 various talks with the parson finally dis 
 posed of the time between breakfast and 
 tea; and by dint of going to bed two hours 
 earlier than usual he managed to get rid of 
 the evening. But the inexorable moment 
 arrived at length when he must open his 
 eyes again, and face another day without 
 Robin. An anxious man is apt to be a most 
 miserable animal, and our friend proved 
 himself no exception to the genei-al rule. 
 To increase his discomfort the parson, after 
 a visit to his niece s room and many apolo 
 gies to his guest for leaving him so entirely
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 165 
 
 to himself, departed on business which would 
 detain him for the greater part of the day, 
 and which could not be postponed. Conrad 
 watched him drive away, and then retreated 
 to the library where he read a little, wrote 
 a little, walked up and down a little, and 
 yawned a good deal ; until shrewd Mrs. 
 Bloom, divining the state of things, ad 
 vanced boldly to the rescue. 
 
 "Mr. Forkner," she said, pausing at the 
 door on her way upstairs with a glass of 
 water for her patient, " the parson he won t 
 be back afore night an Miss Robin needs 
 all my time an trottin . Now here s Cy 
 stayed here last night an hain t an earth 
 ly thing ter do. Why don t you an him 
 go off sumw ers a-fishin , or a-froggin , or 
 a-picter-makin an leave the house clear an 
 quiet ? I 11 put ye up the best cold dinner 
 in Ockley ; but I declare for t I don t see 
 how I m ever ter git a hot one, this day." 
 
 " But," said Conrad, looking relieved in 
 spite of himself at this energetic proposal, 
 " Abijah has gone with Mr. Carey. What 
 will you do, with no one in the house, in 
 case you want to send to the village ? " 
 
 " Shan t want ter. I ve got as many bot 
 tles in my clusset as Mister Lunt has in his
 
 166 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 hull shop. Moreover, ef I do, I 11 collar 
 one o them Choat boys. Ye d a sight bet 
 ter go, it 11 do ye more good ter stay out 
 doors than ter mull in this here liberry all 
 day. Besides, ter tell the trewth, an the 
 hull trewth, an nothin but the trewth, I d 
 ruther hev ye out o my way than in it ! A 
 man s dredfully underfoot when there s 
 sickness in a house. I don t mind sayin I 
 should feel relieved ef you was out of it." 
 
 " I see you would," his gravity fairly giv 
 ing way before this ingenuous outburst ; 
 " and I will get out of it as speedily as pos 
 sible. But tell me, Mrs. Bloom," he de 
 manded, the shadow creeping back deeper 
 than before ; " do you think she is going to 
 be very ill ? " 
 
 " Can t tell, yet," returned the house 
 keeper importantly, making her features as 
 wooden and inscrutable as possible ; " de 
 pends on Providence. I know one thing, 
 though, my standin here talkin won t cure 
 her ! You just git your traps together an 
 I ll hev my part ready as soon as you be." 
 And the good woman departed hastily to 
 administer the glass of water and prepare a 
 lunch-basket. 
 
 When she returned she brought, in ad-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 167 
 
 dition to the basket, a little roll of manu 
 script secured by a rubber strap. 
 
 " Miss Robin wants I should give ye 
 these. You* ll know what they are, she 
 says ; an you re to tell Cy ter take ye over 
 ter Humpy Holler, an she s very sorry ter 
 be so stewpidly unhorsepittable, there ! 
 Them ain t my choice o words," added the 
 housekeeper, with a sigh of relief ; " I give 
 ye the message as t was gi n ter me. Ye ve 
 a right t express it differ nt, ef it don t 
 agree with ye." 
 
 So Conrad and Cy departed, leaving Mrs. 
 Bloom to the quiet and undivided sway she 
 craved. 
 
 " Cy," said Conrad, " we are to proceed, 
 forthwith, to Humpy Hollow. I suppose 
 you know where that is." 
 
 Cy grunted ; his usual mode of assent. 
 " Ts about two mile south o here ; but it s 
 a hot walk ter git to it." 
 
 " I don t mind, if you don t." 
 
 " Ts nothin ter me. I Ve be n there hot 
 ter days n this." So Cy assumed the din 
 ner-basket and they set forth. 
 
 Over bare, unshaded pasture lots, along a 
 sandy strip of road, through some bar-places, 
 and across a plowed field, where their shoes
 
 168 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 got filled with the hot, dry earth and the 
 sun beat down upon them in all his golden 
 fury, they came at last to descend, along 
 a rather precipitous path, into an irregular 
 green basin between the hills, wherein, as 
 if the latter found it hard to stop so sud 
 denly, cropped up various rough hillocks 
 overgrown with birches and cedars, and 
 draped along their rocky sides with hardy, 
 close-clinging little ferns. 
 
 "Here s where Miss Robin alwers sits," 
 remarked Cy, piloting his companion to a 
 rocky nook high up on one of the " humps," 
 whence an extended outlook was to be had 
 through a rift in the bigger hills. " She 
 says she wants that crack ahead ter breathe 
 threw." 
 
 " One does get a glorious breath here, 
 that s a fact," assented Conrad, stretching 
 himself back luxuriously among the fern- 
 cushioned rocks that gathered him into their 
 green embrace. " Does Miss Robin come 
 here often ? " 
 
 "Pritty of n. She brings her sewin , an 
 plays Titers." 
 
 " Plays Would you mind just saying 
 the name of that game again ? " asked the 
 gentleman, with a bewildered look.
 
 HIGH- LIGHTS. 169 
 
 " Titers. She says they re mostly a bad 
 lot, but he s the best of em." 
 
 " Indeed ? Did she ever happen to men 
 tion which was the worst ? " 
 
 " Yes. His name s well I forgit naow, 
 but he s the feller that fiddled. Come to 
 think on t he ended up with an oh ! " 
 
 "He ended up easier than he deserved, 
 then, if he is the feller I think him," 
 laughed Conrad, a sudden light breaking 
 upon his groping understanding. " Was it 
 Nero?" 
 
 " That s him ! " exclaimed Cy, " near-oh ! 
 Ye know most everythin , don t ye ? " he 
 queried, gazing up into his patron s face 
 with admiring awe. 
 
 " Well, there are a few minor points on 
 which I have, as yet, to be enlightened, Cy. 
 For instance, how Miss Robin plays Titus. 
 You have not made it absolutely clear, so 
 to speak. What does she do ? " 
 
 " Nothin , but sew, an look at me." 
 
 " Neither of which pursuits are, to the 
 best of my memory, accredited to the great 
 Ca3sar," murmured Conrad, lazily. 
 
 " An I m Gladdiater. D ye know him ? " 
 
 " He s legion. Yes, I know him. Well, 
 I 11 play Titus to-day. Where are the wild 
 beasts ? "
 
 170 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " I 11 show ye, if ye 11 wait a minnit ! " 
 Cy s heavy face lighted up ; there came 
 a glow into the dull eyes. He was so 
 pleased that he possessed even one accom 
 plishment by means of which he could lay 
 a few amused moments at his friend s feet. 
 He crept softly down where they had 
 climbed up, and Conrad presently saw him 
 come out upon the arena of smooth green 
 turf, fifty feet below, and lay himself flat on 
 his back in the very centre thereof. He 
 made a sufficiently uncouth figure, out 
 stretched in all his physical disproportion 
 in that favored nook where Nature herself 
 had spared no pains, seemingly, to soften 
 and beautify her own harsh outlines. The 
 athletes of ancient Rome would have 
 spurned aside, with rough disdain, such a 
 claimant to membership in their fraternity. 
 But presently, lying there motionless and 
 happy, Cy began a low, monotonous call. 
 Hark ! what rustled the dry leaves yon 
 der in the thicket ? A brown wood - rab 
 bit poked its nose cautiously from among 
 the lower rocks, and gradually emerged, a 
 second following. 
 
 They sat up on their little haunches, 
 sniffing the air inquiringly ; but Conrad
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 171 
 
 had the wind in his favor, and his perch 
 was high. Presently, seeing only Cy, to 
 whose presence it would seem they were 
 entirely wonted, the shy feet waxed bolder 
 and brought their owners, with hesitating 
 hops, to where the fat boy lay. 
 
 The low call came again. Another and 
 another rabbit deserted its hidden covert 
 and drew near, till some fifteen or twenty, 
 young and old, were hopping and feeding 
 all about him. They came closer, and ate 
 from his hand ; while a few of the larger 
 ones even permitted him to stroke their 
 long, thin ears and gently scratch their 
 timid heads. 
 
 The sun mounted higher and higher into 
 the heavens, and still Cy played with the 
 rabbits while Conrad looked on. He had 
 managed to draw his sketch-book stealthily 
 from his pocket, and the moments flew by 
 as he endeavored to transfer to paper some 
 thing of the pretty tableau before him. 
 
 The soft, graceful little creatures frisked 
 and feasted to their hearts content ; form 
 ing continually new and prettier groupings, 
 so that their unseen portrayer was kept con 
 stantly rubbing out and altering, as his 
 unconscious models tempted him.
 
 172 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 But other eyes had sighted the defenseless 
 wild beasts as they fed and frolicked around 
 and over this most gentle gladiator. Cruel, 
 greedy eyes above a ruthless beak. There 
 came a shiver of wind among the birches, 
 the shadow of stealthy, hovering wings fell 
 upon the little grass plot, and a harsh, angry 
 scream rang, echoing, among the hills as Cy 
 scrambled to his feet, brandishing his big 
 straw hat, and every rabbit scurried out of 
 sight in an instant, while the baffled hawk 
 soared slowly away over the tops of the 
 forest trees. 
 
 " Is that Domitian? " queried Conrad, as 
 Cy came up to where he sat, indicating with 
 the butt-end of his pencil the defeated bird 
 of prey now but a dark speck in the distant 
 heavens. 
 
 " No, sir," answered Cy, innocently, shad 
 ing his eyes with his hands the better to 
 follow the creature s circling flight. " That s 
 an old hawk. He s a terrible big feller, 
 lives over in them woods back o Cap n Cre- 
 hore s. I ve seed his nest." 
 
 " All right, Cy, if you re willing to vouch 
 for him. He made a nuisance of himself so 
 far as I am concerned, though ! " and Conrad 
 glanced ruefully down at his unfinished 
 sketch.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 173 
 
 " Be ye makin a picter o me ? " asked 
 the fat boy, looking over his friend s shoulder 
 and recognizing the various points of resem 
 blance between the half -made sketch and 
 the recently enacted scene. 
 
 " I was. It s not finished, never will 
 be now, I suppose, thanks to Domitian." 
 
 " I in awful humly, ain t I ? " pursued 
 Cy, dejectedly, never questioning the like 
 ness to himself in the outlines so hastily 
 thrown upon the page before him. " Why 
 do ye s pose I be ? " 
 
 " You re not finished yet either, Cy," re 
 plied his friend, in a suspiciously cheery 
 voice, turning toward the spot where the 
 lunch basket reposed ; " but you will be, 
 one of these days, by a master hand ! That s 
 the difference between you and the picture. 
 Now, then, here are sandwiches, and ginger 
 bread, and pie, and a little of everything ! 
 What will you try first ? " 
 
 They made a capital dinner, " the best 
 in Ockley" Conrad felt, no doubt, washed 
 down as it was by cold, sparkling water 
 from one of the never-failing rock springs. 
 But for the tenacious little thread of anxiety 
 that bound his thoughts to a certain closed 
 chamber door two miles away, the whole
 
 174 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 day s programme would have proved thor 
 oughly enjoyable to him. As it was he 
 felt a secret drawing toward nearer neigh 
 borhood, although, with Mrs. Bloom s char 
 acteristic dismissal lingering in his ears, he 
 dared not present himself before the eyes of 
 that energetic matron prior to five o clock, 
 at the earliest. So he cooked up an alter 
 native. 
 
 " Cy, that last piece of cheese was the 
 touch too much. I believe I have over- 
 finished my dinner. What do you say to a 
 little locomotion as an aid to digestion ? 
 Shall we start along homewards ? " 
 
 Cy understood the last five words and 
 wisely ignored the preceding ones. 
 
 " It s turrible hot, an I m turrible full, 
 but then the basket s empty." 
 
 " You re a philosopher, Cy," laughed 
 Conrad. " Come along ! We will keep in 
 the edge of the woods, where it is shady, 
 and when we get to the cascade w r e will lie 
 around till tea-time, and I 11 read you some 
 verses." 
 
 " Verses " was Greek to Cy, but " lying 
 around " sounded intelligible and refreshing. 
 He caught up the empty basket and followed 
 his leader s brisk example with wonderful 
 alacrity, considering the " turrible fullness."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 175 
 
 It was nearly three o clock when they 
 came out upon the bank of the brook by the 
 big 1 basin. Cy threw down first the basket, 
 and then himself with a deep grunt of satis 
 fied attainment. It was delightfully cool 
 and shady here, and the clean, pure sound 
 of the running water seemed to wash away 
 from one s mind all memory of dust and 
 fatigue. Conrad cast aside his hat, and 
 leaned contentedly back against the gen 
 erous trunk of a big beech, his eyes follow 
 ing the steady rush of the brook, his 
 thoughts drifting back, along the stream of 
 time, to that morning when he had first dis 
 covered this lovely spot and so much else 
 beside. A glad little current of undefined 
 feeling had been flowing and growing in 
 his life, too, of late. Following it up to its 
 source, as he had the brook, he found that 
 its first leap out into the sunshine had been 
 on that very June morning when the wise 
 men of Gotham had, by the overturning of 
 their own bowl, been the unconscious means 
 of filling his cup of pleasure to the brim. 
 The little current had deepened and broad 
 ened with a vengeance of late. The shadows 
 were fast being left behind, and the eager 
 torrent was rushing onward to its final leap
 
 176 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 into the glad sunshine of joy, with a song 
 of thanksgiving ? or Conrad would not 
 think of that alternative. It looked too 
 dark and terrible an abysm. He turned 
 back hastily to the present moment, and 
 slipped the strap from Robin s roll of papers. 
 "Look here, Cy! you had first choice of 
 pie I 11 take my turn now at the pie-try. 
 Hark ye, friend ! " 
 
 CAPRICE. 
 
 A sound of dancing footfalls strikes my ear ; 
 
 Mid sombre stems of steadfast woods I catch 
 
 The glimmer of a robe all changeable 
 
 With palest green that ever fades to gray, 
 
 And gray that brightens into palest green. 
 
 Around its hem a border, richly wrought, 
 
 In fresh, young leaves and blades of springing grass, 
 
 With here and there a fair bud peeping out 
 
 Of violet, or frail anemone, 
 
 Or furry-hooded, shy hepatica. 
 
 Above the robe, a wondrous, varying face, 
 
 W T hose sweet lips smile even while the radiant eyes 
 
 Shine tender through a mist of unshed tears. . 
 
 Over the shoulders, in their supple grace, 
 
 Warm-waving hair half hides its deepening gold 
 
 Beneath a veil s dull-tinted, envious fold, 
 
 Whence the sly air, from stealing through it, gets 
 
 A fragrance like the breath of violets. 
 
 " I know you, April, with your rainbow mien ! 
 You fooled me last year, can I trust you this ? " 
 She puts her cool, responsive hand in mine 
 And breathes bright promises for days to come.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 177 
 
 The sunshine falls with kindlier, warmer glow, 
 Bringing a hint of summer time ; I think 
 Fond fool ! " she will not play ine false again." 
 Then all at once the quick eyes fill with tears ; 
 A moist wind strikes me with a sudden chill ; 
 The clear green of her garment fades to gray ; 
 Along the sward the sunlight shimmers pale ; 
 She softly sighs, and turns her head away, 
 And round her draws the dull mist of her veil. 
 
 It was a thousand pities Robin could not 
 have heard her friend read that poem, for 
 his reading was something to hear. Cy 
 watched his face with half-shut, sleepy eyes. 
 The words were meaningless, or nearly so, 
 to him, but the mellow, musical tones soothed 
 the fat boy s very soul, and he manifested 
 his appreciation by yielding utterly to their 
 power. In other words, he fell asleep. 
 
 Conrad glanced at him when the last line 
 was read, and smiled to see the novel effect 
 which his elocutionary powers had produced. 
 Then he went on, reading to himself. There 
 were four poems in all, copied from the 
 originals, all but the old time spelling, in 
 Robin s clear, legible handwriting. The 
 last one held, as Conrad knew, the begin 
 ning of a lifetime s bitterness in its two 
 short stanzas. 
 
 He had felt from the first a strange at 
 traction, a sort of spiritual kinship to this 
 
 12
 
 178 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 dead and gone farmer-poet ; and now, from 
 the warmth and gladness of his own sunny 
 present, his heart went out in keen sympa 
 thy to the man whose sad history had come 
 to its end so far back in the shadowy past. 
 
 ESTRANGED. 
 
 The sunset clouds look strangely gray to-night ; 
 
 The evening air blows keen ; 
 And when I turn to see your window-light 
 That should have made my homeward patli so bright, 
 
 Dark shadows fall between. 
 
 A stealthy wind comes creeping from the meres, 
 
 And all the branches moan. 
 No hand in mine, as in the bygone years ; 
 With weary heart-ache, and with bitter tears 
 
 I tread my way alone. 
 
 Conrad read the few lines over and over. 
 They haunted him somehow. Actually, he 
 was almost beginning to feel as if he were 
 the man who had written them. This would 
 never do ! He sat up again, with a quick 
 jerk, and strapped the sheets together. The 
 sun was fast sinking below the tree-tops. 
 He woke Cy, who rolled over and up with a 
 prolonged snore, and set his face and his 
 feet gladly in the homeward way. As he 
 reached the house from one side the par 
 son and Abijah drove up from the other ; 
 they met at the door.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 179 
 
 " Better," was Mrs. Bloom s laconic reply 
 to the double fire of inquiry opened upon 
 her a moment later. " Consider ble better. 
 Havin the house to herself s done her good, 
 I guess," she added, with an eye - twinkle. 
 " Ef she sleeps good ter-night, mebbe she 11 
 be up an about ter-morrer." 
 
 There was joy depicted upon the two mas 
 culine faces before her as the housekeeper 
 told her tale ; and the expression of one of 
 them was so unmistakable that the worthy 
 woman could not refrain from remarking to 
 its owner, meeting him, later, on his way 
 upstairs : 
 
 " Why Miss Robin did n t up an hev a 
 fever the Lord knows better n I do ! " And 
 as she walked off, leaving that flea in his 
 ear, she said to herself : 
 
 " A little scare does em a sight o good. 
 I never could see a man a-totterin on the 
 verge a thout wantin ter give him a helpin 
 poke ! "
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Oh, but Robin, I m fain to come, 
 
 If your present days are so pleasant ; 
 For my days are so wearisome." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 WHEN Robin came down to a late break 
 fast next morning no one was visible ; but 
 beside her plate stood a little birch-bark 
 basket full of wild raspberries, with a knot 
 of delicate wild flowers and ferns laid lightly 
 on top. For a moment, as she bent over to 
 inhale the rich fragrance, her cheeks re 
 flected the ripe hue of the fruit ; but Mrs. 
 Bloom, bustling in with the breakfast tray, 
 soon dispelled all romance. 
 
 " There, now you ve seen them things I 11 
 put em inter the refidgerater an you can 
 hev em ter-morrer, ef ye must. The idee 
 o fetchin sour fruit to any one that s jest 
 dodged a fever ! That s all a man knows." 
 
 " I suppose," said Robin, demurely, fasten 
 ing the flower-cluster in its place among her 
 muslin ruffles as she spoke, "I suppose 
 Uncle Ike thought I should like them."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 181 
 
 " Uncle Ike ! " exclaimed the housekeeper. 
 " You don t s pose the parson s be n pokin 
 raound amongst the wet grass for that truck ? 
 No, no, Miss Robin ! t was t other one. An 
 he s gone off ter the village naow, afoot. 
 Guess he thought t would be the best way 
 ter dry his boots." She was making off 
 with the bark basket when her mistress laid 
 a detaining hand on her calico sleeve. 
 
 " Softly, Mrs. B. ! you jump to conclu 
 sions. Instead of carrying off my berries 
 just bring me a glass plate, please, and a 
 pitcher of cream. Did you really suppose I 
 should consent to having those lovely things 
 frozen to death in your refrigerator ? " 
 
 " Well, no, I can t say I did ! " retorted 
 Mrs. Bloom, slowly relinquishing her prey, 
 and producing the articles called for with a 
 promptitude suspiciously suggestive of their 
 having been ready beforehand. " I ve be n 
 through the mill three times too of n ter be 
 sech a fool as ter s pose any sech a thing. 
 It s my belief gals would thrive on p ison, 
 under some circumstarnces ! " And having 
 secured that last word, in which her soul de 
 lighted, the jolly old lady departed, chuck 
 ling to herself. 
 
 Robin poured cream into and over her
 
 182 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 pretty crimson thimbles and ate them leis 
 urely and smilingly. If they were sour she 
 did not discover it, apparently. Then she 
 took, from the chair into which she had 
 dropped them, a book and a soft, woolly 
 shawl and went out to ensconce herself be 
 neath the shade of the biggest elm, where 
 Conrad, some half hour later, found her. 
 
 "Are you a lover of novels, Miss llobin? " 
 he asked, when he had both looked and 
 spoken, most emphatically, his pleasure at 
 seeing her again, and she had thanked him 
 for the raspberries, and the flowers, which 
 his eyes had been quick to note in their new 
 resting-place. 
 
 " When I can get time, and a good story, 
 which, I grieve to say, this is not." 
 
 " What is the matter with it ? I am in 
 terested in such criticisms just now. Not 
 well written ? " 
 
 " Oh, very, according to the modern, ac 
 cepted standard." 
 
 " Then what do you object to in it ? " 
 
 " I object to the standard. You perceive 
 that my criticism betrays a very uncultured 
 mind. I do not enjoy clinical literature. 
 This having every inmost fault and foible 
 laid bare, every trait and tendency held up,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 183 
 
 so to speak, on the point of a scalpel, savors 
 a trifle too strongly of the dissecting-room. 
 In fact, with many modern novelists, as with 
 modern surgeons, the more repellent and ab 
 normal the conditions exposed, the greater 
 glory to the operator. Heroes and heroines 
 used to be interesting people ; nowadays 
 they are, mostly, beautiful cases. I feel 
 as if I had been eating agates and can- 
 tharyds, and had brought on a fit of indi 
 gestion ! " And she tossed the offending 
 volume down upon the grass. Then she 
 looked up and laughed. " I am wasting a 
 good deal of moral energy on the old thing ! 
 but, seriously, Mr. Faulkner, do put people 
 into your book as you find them, and leave 
 them to speak for themselves. One likes to 
 make friends on paper as one does in reality. 
 Imagine what a pleasant summer we should 
 have been having if there had been one of 
 these character chemists on hand to analyze 
 every word and action, and report ! " Her 
 merry laugh rang out again. 
 
 " I am no character chemist," warmly re 
 turned Conrad, in whose thoughts the par 
 ticular romance of which himself was the 
 hero was just now occupying first place ; 
 " but I have made some discoveries, never 
 theless."
 
 184 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " And what might they be, pray ? " ques 
 tioned the girl, innocently, though her color 
 rose. 
 
 " A wealth of pure gold, for one thing ! " 
 the young man s tones were growing earnest. 
 The eager, rushing torrent threatened to 
 break bounds. 
 
 " That must be the butter." She spoke 
 lightly, but her eyes were down, and her 
 own voice a trifle unsteady. 
 
 " No, it is not ; although I must confess 
 the butter has helped me greatly in my re 
 searches. I only wish " 
 
 " Here comes Uncle Ike ! " interrupted 
 Robin, rising quickly to her feet as the par 
 son was seen approaching. 
 
 Conrad stooped and picked up the dis 
 carded novel. 
 
 " Miss Robin," he said, speaking quickly 
 and low ; " you must not walk to-day, but 
 won t you drive with me this afternoon?" 
 
 " Perhaps so, if nothing turns up ter 
 pervent, " returned Robin as hurriedly ; 
 making use of the oft-quoted Mrs. Bloom to 
 cover her embarrassment. Then she turned 
 to greet her uncle, who held a yellow en 
 velope in his hand. 
 
 " A telegram from Terry, my dear. He
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 185 
 
 will be at the Falls this afternoon by the 
 4.30 train. We must all drive over to meet 
 him, if you are able." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I am able," answered Robin, 
 slowly ; but she sent one quick glance in 
 Conrad s direction as if to say : " Something 
 has turned up, you see ! " 
 
 For him, he felt as if something crea 
 tion or his plans, either would produce much 
 the same sensation had turned over. He 
 went to his room and flung his unopened mail 
 down upon the table. It remained unopened 
 for the rest of the day. 
 
 Terry came. His white straw hat, with 
 its broad, blue band, was seen waving from 
 the car-steps as the train swept round the 
 curve ; and the quick spring which he made 
 to the platform, the long strides which 
 brought him instantly to the side of the open 
 wagon where his friends sat waiting for him, 
 to say nothing of his beaming face, were evi 
 dence enough of his gladness at being there. 
 The parson was sincerely glad to see him 
 too. If there were any of the party whose 
 pleasure at the meeting was qualified, at least 
 they succeeded in concealing the fact. Terry 
 had no cause to complain of his welcome, 
 as he took the seat left for him beside his 
 uncle.
 
 180 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " I tell you what it is, good people, you 
 don t half appreciate your blessings ! " he 
 exclaimed, baring his curly head to the moun 
 tain breeze as the wagon rolled smoothly 
 along the shaded road. "Just spend one 
 July day where I have spent thirty-one, and 
 you will begin to have some idea of the value 
 of this sort of thing. Gracious ! it s some 
 thing like heaven : one five minutes of it 
 pays for so much." And sitting sidewise, 
 the better to take in all his blessings at once, 
 he beamed across at Robin with such infec 
 tious happiness that she beamed back again 
 from sheer sympathy. 
 
 " How glad she is to see him ! " thought 
 the young man who had not just arrived. 
 It is strange how ready we all are to judge 
 even our nearest and dearest from the out 
 side. At the very moment too that we are 
 ourselves putting forth strenuous exertions 
 to prevent our own outside from revealing 
 that which seethes within. It occasioned a 
 most unreasonable feeling of discomfort to 
 Conrad that Robin should apparently find it 
 so easy and pleasant to have their own short 
 lived plan given up, and should have it in 
 her heart to laugh and chat gayly with her 
 cousin as they drove slowly home through
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 187 
 
 the genial summer afternoon. Meanwhile, 
 keeping all these emotions carefully to him 
 self, he laughed, and chatted with them. 
 
 Mrs. Bloom was at the door when they 
 drove up, to accord a hearty welcome to 
 the new-comer. Terry was a great favorite 
 with her notwithstanding the " exclimation 
 marks." Time would soften these down 
 into decorous periods soon enough. " More 
 over, Miss Robin, ef a boy ain t a real boy, 
 he 11 never be a real man ! " So, as in her 
 estimation the young man was not consid 
 ered to have outgrown his boyhood yet, by 
 any means, she had manifested her satisfac 
 tion with his arrival in the old, boyhood 
 way. The table was fairly loaded down with 
 all the good things for which he had for 
 merly been known to express a preference. 
 
 " By Jove, Tabby ! " he exclaimed, nick 
 ing her scriptural cognomen as no other hu 
 man being ever dared to do, " you Ve killed 
 the fatted calf to-night and no mistake. 
 How is one poor mortal to eat waffles and 
 short-cake and cream-toast all at once ? to 
 say nothing of the fancy articles. I 11 bet 
 Mother Hubbard s cupboard is bare this 
 time ! " 
 
 " No t ain t," contradicted the dame, with
 
 188 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 broad delight depicted on her countenance ; 
 " I look out ter hev it extry full when you 
 come, Master Terry, alwers. Eat away ! 
 ts all good." 
 
 " Its goodness is the worst of it," groaned 
 Terry. " I always heard that starving peo 
 ple were fed a little at a time, but it seems 
 they are n t. Just look at that tumbler of 
 cream ! Here s your good health, Tabby." 
 
 " Thank Miss Kobin fer that, Master 
 Terry. She s a wonderful hand at a dairy. 
 The butter an cream she gits out o them 
 cows o hern is somethin onbelievable, an , 
 too, Debby Hawkins says she d ruther hev 
 our skim-milk than any other folks s that 
 hedn t be n skum." 
 
 " She can have it," laughed Terry, alwaj^s 
 delighted when he could succeed in betraying 
 his voluble friend into one of her more strik 
 ing grammatical lapses. " Cream is good 
 enough for me. I 11 take another glass 
 for breakfast if 1 live through the night. 
 Uncle Ike, how can you insult such richness 
 by putting tea into it? it s a sin." 
 
 " Oh, Conrad and I are old fogies, and 
 like our cup o kindness, " replied the par 
 son. " Besides," he added, his shrewd 
 eyes twinkling, " we like to see Robin make 
 it, you know."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 189 
 
 Conrad smiled, quietly, and handed his 
 cup to be refilled. Terry sobered down for 
 a minute and his heart, or his supper, be 
 gan to weigh a trifle heavy. 
 
 " Have you brought your violin, Terry ? " 
 asked Robin, glad to turn attention from 
 herself and her tea-tray ; " there are one or 
 two things that I want to try over with 
 you." 
 
 "There are a dozen that I want to try 
 with you," said Terry, brightening instantly. 
 " Abijah has just brought the traps, suppose 
 we have a little practice before dark." 
 
 " Suppose we do," assented the parson ; 
 "go and get your tuning up done, Terry, 
 if you are through supper, and we 11 come 
 directly. It is a treat, Conrad, I assure 
 you, to hear those two play together." And 
 the parson applied himself to finishing his 
 tea and toast preparatory to a good time. 
 
 " A treat," Conrad could not but ac 
 knowledge it to be, even though served in 
 a way that was not altogether such as he 
 would have chosen. Often and well as he 
 had heard them each play separately, he was 
 hardly prepared for the perfect command 
 and feeling that blended vibrant piano and 
 quivering violin into what seemed the tone 
 of one transcendent instrument.
 
 190 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Before dark," Terry had said ; but it 
 grew to be long after dark and still the tire 
 less musicians played on, and the charmed 
 audience, swelled to four by the stealing in 
 of Mrs. Bloom and Abijah, listened. 
 
 There are at least two distinctly different 
 musical temperaments. One that under the 
 influence of sweet or harmonious sounds 
 grows quieted, soothed, and happy ; another 
 that under the self-same conditions becomes 
 excited, intoxicated, electrically charged. 
 When they ceased playing, Robin was 
 sweetly subdued, Terry as nervous as a 
 witch. He laid his violin tenderly away 
 into its little black coffin, and began to pace 
 the shadowy room with hasty strides. 
 
 " Terry is letting off steam now," ob 
 served Conrad, as Robin came up to where 
 he was sitting in the deep bay-window. 
 " He tears up and down our little room in 
 the city sometimes until I am ready to crawl 
 under the table for safety." 
 
 " Music takes hold of him tremendously," 
 replied his cousin, apologetically. " I am 
 afraid we have played too long to-night ; 
 but it is always such a temptation to play 
 with Terry." 
 
 "There is some temptation about it for 
 him, I take it."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 191 
 
 " Yes, we both enjoy ourselves ; we have 
 been accustomed to play together ever since 
 we were children. But indeed," she added, 
 smiling, "we do not always forget other 
 people so rudely as we did this evening. I 
 hope we have not tired anybody." 
 
 " Your music could never tire me," an 
 swered Conrad, truthfully ; but he did not 
 follow Mrs. Bloom s praiseworthy example 
 of telling " the hull truth ; " he did not say 
 how bitter he found the notion that she 
 could " forget other people," when he hap 
 pened to be one of them. 
 
 Neither did Robin say that she had long- 
 since ceased to count him in with " other 
 people " at all. Perhaps she thought he 
 should be acute enough to discover the fact 
 for himself.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " What is youth ? a dancing billow, 
 Winds behind, and rocks before ! " 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 " MISTER FORKNER ! " 
 
 " WeU, Cy." 
 
 " Is Mister Jacks n a friend o yourn ? " 
 
 " To be sure he is ; what then ? " replied 
 Conrad, who, seated on his stool in front of 
 Janet s cottage, was working away busily at 
 the sketch he had promised to Robin. It 
 was fast developing from a sketch into a fin 
 ished picture. 
 
 " Nothin , only I was goin ter say I wisht 
 he had n t ha come, an I thought ef he was 
 a friend o yourn, I would n t." 
 
 Conrad laughed ; so did Janet, who was 
 sitting at her wheel and sitting for her pic 
 ture at the same time. 
 
 " Ye ve a proper jeedgement, bairn ! I 
 suspicion t would be an ill chance for ony 
 one to misliken one o Maister Faulkner s 
 friends." 
 
 " Honest criticism is always allowable,"
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 193 
 
 said Conrad. " What have you against this 
 particular friend of mine, Cy ? " 
 
 " Nothin ag in him as I knows on ; I 
 don t like his pistil." 
 
 "Ay, ay, I thought as muckle," nodded 
 his grandmother. " Terry Jackson was al 
 ways rayther a lightsome, careless - spoken 
 callant ; but Cyrus never made objection to 
 him till three years syne, afore he went to 
 Germany, ye ken, whan he came up for the 
 summer bringing wi him his first whisker 
 an his first fire-arm. From that day to this 
 the lad s been fair crazy wi appreheension 
 whanever him an his pistol hae been 
 around." 
 
 " Terry is a good shot, Cy, you need not 
 be afraid, he won t hit you." 
 
 ." It s no for himsel he s feared," an 
 swered Janet for him : " it s just the poor 
 bit beasties he s so fond of. All through the 
 woods an fields he s his pets an playthings, 
 an whan the pistol s by he fair trembles for 
 their lives." 
 
 " That is hard. I must confess I sympa 
 thize with him too, though I doubt if my in 
 fluence goes far enough to suppress the re 
 volver entirely. One thing I can promise, 
 Cy," he said, looking kindly upon the anx- 
 
 13
 
 194 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ious fat boy, " when I am with hiin your 
 friends shall not be hurt, if I can help it." 
 
 " Be ye goin over ter Porter s Pond ter- 
 morrer? " 
 
 " Yes, and you are going too. Be sure 
 you are on hand bright and early, Cy. And 
 by the way," here Conrad bent toward him 
 and spoke a few words in a low voice. Cy 
 nodded, and rising heavily to his feet disap 
 peared down the steps. His grandmother 
 followed the slouching figure with misty 
 eyes. 
 
 " Maister Faulkner," she said, earnestly, 
 forgetting for a moment to turn her wheel, 
 " none save the Lord an the boy hinisel 
 will ever fathom what ye ve been to him 
 this twa month past. Miss Robin s weel 
 she s just Miss Robin, an ye ken a that 
 means as weel, pretty nigh, as I do mysel ; 
 but that a gentleman an a stranger should 
 find aught to companion wi in such as him 
 has been just a won erful upleeftin to the 
 lad. I declare, sometimes it fair mazes me 
 to see how changed he is. He s no half so 
 stupid-like as he used to be. D ye know, 
 Maister Faulkner," she added, hurriedly, 
 smoothing her thread idly in her hands and 
 speaking low, " d ye know it sometimes
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 195 
 
 comes o er me that he is na long for this ? 
 It seems as though the Lord was just sendin 
 him this bright summer to soften down the 
 contrast like atween this an yon." And she 
 motioned with uplifted hand to the fair blue 
 arch above them. 
 
 " Arguing on those grounds, Janet, there 
 would be one more, at least, to go. This has 
 been a bright, bright summer to me too." 
 
 " An may there be mony anither to fol 
 low, say I ! but there s a mighty differ 
 atween yoursel an Cy. He was born 
 among the shadows, poor bairn; his sun 
 shine 11 no be o this warl." 
 
 " We seldom know all of each other s 
 shadows," said Conrad, quietly, deepening 
 some of those in his picture as he spoke ; 
 " there is only one state of things in which 
 we are promised the noonday brightness 
 that knows no shadowing ; but the promise 
 stands. Here every little line of light casts 
 also its line of shade, but there will be no 
 dark places there, Janet." 
 
 Janet looked at him ; a look keen, pitiful, 
 and satisfied all at once. 
 
 " It s true," she said, gravely, while the 
 soft burr-r of the wheel began afresh, " but 
 ye re gey young to ha fund it oot."
 
 196 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 If Cy could have peeped into Mr. Jack 
 son s room next morning and seen the prep 
 arations which that gentleman was making 
 for the day s excursion, he would hardly 
 have given the happy consent which he did 
 to act as guide on the occasion. He could 
 not peep, however, and Terry, being quite 
 ignorant and innocent on his part of any 
 thing unpleasant to others in his proceed 
 ings, completed his arrangements satisfac 
 torily to himself, and then walked out into 
 the summer morning, humming as he went 
 that particular duet which he and Robin 
 had last tackled. The sun was just up, the 
 air cool and perfume-y ; it was an hour of 
 sweet influences. 
 
 Good Mrs. Bloom, stirring briskly about 
 in her big kitchen, felt the influences, though 
 she had no time to stop for them ; and there 
 was something of the freshness of the morn 
 ing in her shrewd, kindly face as she turned, 
 presently, to respond to the familiar greet 
 ing spoken over her shoulder from the open 
 door behind. 
 
 Terry sat on the broad stone step whip 
 ping off yarrow heads with a slender switch. 
 He was apt to have a stick of some sort in 
 his hand ; it was a long established habit,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 197 
 
 dating back to the days when he had wan 
 dered over the farm with Robin, boy and 
 girl together. 
 
 "Ah ! Mr. Terry, is that you ? " said the 
 housekeeper in her crisp tones ; " and what 
 brings you out so early in the morning ? " % 
 
 " Five o clock is not so very early, is it ? " 
 
 " T is for some folks. You never used 
 ter be so fond o sp ilin yer paytent luthers." 
 
 Terry extended a foot and eyed the thin- 
 soled shoe, small enough almost for a lady, 
 with approval. 
 
 " Those are not paytent luthers, my dear 
 woman ; they are the very best of French 
 calf." 
 
 " What s the differ nce ? " 
 
 " As much difference as there is between 
 old Peggy Scannell s black goat and one of 
 those sleek cows yonder." 
 
 " Well, never mind," returned the house 
 keeper, composedly, " I knew there was ca f 
 somew er s only I never mistrusted t was 
 the boots ! " 
 
 When Tabby showed her claws Terry al 
 ways changed the subject. 
 
 " There goes a gray squirrel ! a big fellow, 
 too. Say, Tabby, do you ever make squirrel 
 pie nowadays ? "
 
 198 UIGU-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Hain t sence you was here afore. No 
 body else 11 touch em." 
 
 " I 11 touch em then. Make me one, will 
 you, Tabby ? " 
 
 " Ef you 11 ketch the squirr ls, an skin 
 em, and clean em, an cut em up. I c n 
 put em in with a fork, but I d as lief have 
 nothin ter do with the butcherin ." 
 
 " I 11 ketch em," mimicked Terry again, 
 drawing forth as he spoke a very shiny and 
 elegant little revolver. Mrs. Bloom beat a 
 precipitate retreat. 
 
 " Ain t ye never without that blunderbuss, 
 night nor day?" she inquired incisively; 
 " sh d think t was a stick o candy, the way 
 ye drop it inter yer pocket. Mark my 
 words, Terry Jackson, it 11 bring ye ter re 
 pentance yet ! There s no good ever comes 
 o keepin bad comp ny ; specially when the 
 comp ny s liable ter bust up an kill ye any 
 minnit. Sides, ye don t need it here ; there 
 may be pirits an candy balls down ter York, 
 but we don t raise no sech crops round 
 Ockley." 
 
 " Frogs will do for pirates, and I 11 act 
 cannibal myself. Don t be scared, Tabby ; 
 I like waffles too well to shoot you." 
 
 " Might as well shoot a body as scare em
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 199 
 
 ter death," retorted Mrs. Bloom. " Come, 
 clear out o there now ! I m goin ter 
 sweep." 
 
 " And you want to make a clean sweep, 
 don t you, Tabby ? Well, I 11 forgive you, 
 and bring you the squirr ls too." 
 
 " Don t hurt yerself ter do either," quoth 
 the housekeeper, with dry energy, as the 
 young man moved off ; " both on em s 
 works o sup reragashin, as the parson 
 says ! "
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " Had he stayed to weigh and to scan, 
 He had been more or less than a man." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 CY eyed Terry with apprehension as the 
 fishing party assembled on the lawn. For 
 tunately for their plans, however, all that 
 appeared was a very handsome English rod 
 and a fly-book of unusual perfection and 
 elegance of appointment. Terry considered 
 the use of bait quite too rustical even when 
 after such small fry as perch or pickerel. 
 
 Robin did not go ; she had given up ex 
 cursions of late. She said it was because 
 dog-days made frequent churning necessary, 
 and the dairy needed her. But Mrs. Bloom 
 shook her fat head a good deal over this 
 statement ; though all she said was : 
 
 " Glad ter see ye so prewdent ! Guess 
 that two days headache done ye good. I 
 never knew dogs, nor cats- n -dogs ter stop 
 ye afore." 
 
 Something had stopped her now, how-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 201 
 
 ever ; she stood on the steps with her uncle 
 as the wagon rolled off, and waved a blithe 
 little handkerchief in response to the waving 
 hats. Then she turned, and went in, with 
 a song on her lips, to her morning s work of 
 ordering and beautifying the house. She 
 hurried it a little to-day, for Conrad had 
 left her the latest chapters of his book, and 
 she wanted to get away under the trees with 
 them, the better to consider and criticise at 
 her leisure. Mrs. Bloom, who was never to 
 be prevented from " seein threw a millstone 
 when ther was a hole in it," followed her 
 mistress s quick movements with a watchful 
 eye ; and when Robin passed out through 
 the kitchen, manuscript in hand, on her way 
 to the orchard, said eye twinkled knowingly 
 as she remarked, 
 
 " C nclewded ter let the cream saour, 
 hain t ye.?" 
 
 " No," replied Robin, innocently. " I 
 churned this morning." 
 
 " H m ! why didn t ye let me help ye ? 
 Balled it yet ? " 
 
 " No, it will ball better when it has been 
 kept cold awhile." 
 
 " An when some one s ter hum ter 
 help ! " amended the housekeeper under her
 
 202 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 breath, watching the girl s pretty figure 
 passing slowly up between the trees. " T s 
 unfort nit Terry s took t early risin also. 
 The proverb don t say nothin baout the 
 early bird s findin tew worms. Wonder 
 what she 11 do with em ! " 
 
 Meanwhile the fishing-party had reached 
 its destination so far as horse and wagon 
 were concerned. These were put up at the 
 farm-house nearest the pond ; and the gen 
 tlemen, having arranged with the farmer 
 for the use of his boat, shouldered their ac 
 coutrements, and, preceded by Cy bearing 
 the generous dinner - basket, filed down 
 through the barn-yard and across the vege 
 table garden and pasture to the point of em 
 barkation. 
 
 The boat was a square cut, clumsy, home 
 made affair, and the oars were roughly 
 shaped from wood to which, in some places, 
 the bark was yet clinging. Terry made 
 a grimace as he took possession of that 
 which he was to handle and felt its weight 
 and general unwieldiness. Conrad had used 
 them more recently; he took his place, 
 quietly, and turned the boat about. Cy 
 and the basket, as ballast, were placed amid 
 ships.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 203 
 
 "Now then, Joe," said Terry, "just tell 
 us" 
 
 "My name ain t Joe," muttered Cy, cast 
 ing uneasy glances toward the speaker. 
 
 " It ought to be then, if it is n t. Which 
 of these numerous shores are we to steer 
 for?" 
 
 "Mister Forkner," said Cy, ignoring all 
 other human presence, " d ye see that little 
 kind er pint that runs out there east o the 
 island, that one with a big pitch pine on the 
 end?" Conrad looked in the direction in 
 dicated. 
 
 " Yes, Cy, I see. Shall we make for 
 that?" 
 
 " That s the best place fer perch. Ef ye 
 want pick rel ye must go over yonder in the 
 shadder; there where all them weeds is." 
 
 " There does n t seem to be much shad 
 der anywhere to-day," remarked Terry. 
 " Ockley fish are the only ones I ever saw 
 that were fools enough to bite in a hot sun 
 like this." But he gave his ponderous oar 
 a backward sweep that brought the boat s 
 head if a craft alike stubbed at both 
 ends can be said to have a head about, 
 slowly, in the required direction. Ten min 
 utes rowing brought them to the point, and
 
 204 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Conrad, laying aside his oar, dropped the 
 heavy stone which served for anchor quietly 
 down into the oily black water. 
 
 In the shadow of the big pitch pine they 
 sat and fished. Whether it was because, 
 as Terry had said, they were Ockley fish 
 and therefore fools ; or whether, after the 
 monotonous worm offered by the country 
 lads for their temptation and destruction, 
 they found Terry s delicate little flies too 
 irresistible to be neglected, certain it is 
 that, in spite of the bright sunshine and a 
 provoking little breeze which sprang up and 
 ruffled the surface of the pond, the fish bit 
 well, and every few moments one or the 
 other line came flying through the air, each 
 with its little red-finned struggler securely 
 hooked. Presently, however, as the breeze 
 increased and the flies became an old story, 
 the intervals between luck grew longer, till 
 Terry s stock of patience, never too great, 
 gave out, and he began to reel up in disgust. 
 
 "This is working rather hard for pleas 
 ure, don t you think so, Con ? Here we have 
 been at it for two mortal hours, and only two 
 dozen miserable little things to sho w for it ! 
 Cy, these are not perch at all ; they re noth 
 ing but shiners."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 205 
 
 ** Ef -ye want ter try fer pick rel, Mister 
 Forkner, mebbe they d bite better. The 
 island d be between us an the wind, an 
 they re dreadful greedy fellers, anyhow." 
 
 Conrad, whose mind, to tell the truth, 
 was anywhere but on what he was doing, 
 acquiesced silently, and drew in his line 
 also. Perch or pickerel, it mattered little to 
 him ; his thoughts were busy with things 
 that had to do with far more vital issues. 
 Ever since the day when Terry s coming 
 had so inopportunely cut short what he had 
 meant to tell Robin, he had sought in vain 
 for a chance to begin again. Terry was 
 ubiquitous, and Robin was, largely, an ab 
 sentee. She left the two young men, for 
 the most part, to each other ; except as they 
 drove or walked all together, or gathered 
 for music in the evening, and in that realm 
 Terry was king. 
 
 There were no tete-d-tetes for anybody. 
 To be sure Terry had only been there a 
 week, but it seemed like an age after the 
 easy, hourly companionship that had gone 
 before. Conrad s days were fast becoming 
 numbered, too ; only two weeks to the first 
 of September, and he must not disappoint 
 the Thachers. All this was in his thoughts
 
 206 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 as he pulled his oar in time with Terry s 
 and changed his small hook for a larger 
 one. Declining the combination of pea 
 cock s feathers which Terry offered, with the 
 assurance that it was "a killer," he baited 
 with a bit of perch, and casting his line well 
 over in the " shaclder " sat waiting, with 
 eyes fixed on the gray rocks and coarse, thin 
 grass of the island, strewn with pine needles 
 from the gaunt trees which shadowed them. 
 
 " I say, Con, if you don t mean to land 
 that fellow I wish you d give some one else a 
 chance ! " exclaimed Terry, under his breath, 
 when they had fished, in silence, for half an 
 hour at least. " He 11 have your bait in an 
 other minute." 
 
 Conrad started from his reverie and the 
 pickerel scurried off, taking the bit of perch 
 with him. 
 
 " There, I m done ! " cried Terry, impa 
 tiently ; " that is the only one that has 
 showed his snout at all ; and now he s gone 
 off with a week s provisions. These con 
 founded fish don t know a high-toned fly 
 when they see it ; a worm on a bent pin is 
 about the style of thing that obtains here." 
 
 " Mebbe ye 11 feel better when ye ve hed 
 yer dinner,- suggested Cy. " There s a real
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 207 
 
 good place ter camp down in over under 
 them big oak-trees, ef ye don t mind rowin 
 a little ter git there." 
 
 The oak-trees were across the pond again. 
 Another pull in the hot sun. But the spot 
 repaid them when they reached it, for the 
 oaks cast a dense, cool shade, and among the 
 rocks was a spring. They ate the bountiful 
 lunch which Mrs. Bloom s forethought had 
 provided ; and then Conrad strolled off, 
 among the trees, leaving Terry and Cy 
 stretched out in lazy comfort, beside the 
 remnants of the feast. 
 
 He sat himself down, after a while, on the 
 trunk of a fallen tree ; and by dint of some 
 pretty hard thinking came to a determina 
 tion. This uncertainty and procrastination 
 were not to be endured. He verily believed 
 his brain would give way if he thought it all 
 over much longer. He would not spend an 
 other night like the past three or four ; it 
 should be either better or worse, come what 
 would. He would have an hour with Robin 
 alone, and say his say, even if he had to 
 speak out plainly to Terry and tell him that 
 he was de trop. That Terry s burr-like pro 
 clivities might be based upon a like objec 
 tion to himself had never dawned upon his 
 mind.
 
 208 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Having reached a decision he felt better. 
 The breeze blew freshly toward him, over 
 the lake, and for the first time that day he 
 yielded to its soothing touch and, half lying 
 on the grass, half leaning against the tree- 
 trunk, gave himself up to repose. He drew 
 a book from his coat-pocket ; a quaint little 
 book, " The Family of Sir Thomas More," 
 which Robin had lent him from her own spe 
 cial book-shelves ; and beginning to read, 
 somewhat carelessly, was soon taken posses 
 sion of by the simple beauty of the chronicle, 
 and became lost to all around him. Present 
 ly Terry, tired of Cy and the broken frag 
 ments, came to look him up. Terry was no 
 book-worm ; he perched himself on the old 
 tree, and, thinking in his turn pretty deep 
 ly, for him, apparently amused himself by 
 throwing acorns into the pond. A half hour 
 went by. 
 
 " Con ! " said Terry. 
 
 No answer. Conrad was deep in his book. 
 
 " I say Con ! " and he shied an acorn 
 at the small volume with accurate aim. 
 
 Conrad quietly brushed it off, and went on 
 reading. 
 
 " By Jove, I 11 fetch him ! " muttered Ter 
 ry to himself, and rapidly accumulating a
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 209 
 
 handful of full and empty cups he dashed 
 them, en masse, upon the printed page which 
 was proving so inconveniently absorbing. 
 
 " Hulloa, Terry! what s the matter now?" 
 inquired his friend, looking up in surprise at 
 this sudden onslaught. 
 
 " You re a fine sociable chap, are n t you ? " 
 said Terry, mockingly. " I ve hardly been 
 able to get a word with you since I ve been 
 here. After all these weeks of stewing in si 
 lence, down yonder, I feel like saying some 
 thing semi-occasionally. You could n t stop 
 reading, for five minutes or so, and talk to 
 anybody, could you ? " 
 
 " Yes, I could," said Conrad, dumping the 
 debris and closing his book, " fire away, old 
 fellow ! " and he threw himself back on the 
 grass, after the approved masculine fashion, 
 with his locked hands supporting the back 
 of his head, and his straw hat tipped over his 
 face. 
 
 Thus encouraged Terry sat silent for the 
 first three of his stipulated five minutes. 
 Conrad munched a grass-stalk and watched 
 him, amusedly, from under the hat-brim. 
 
 " Have n t swallowed your tongue, have 
 you ? " he inquired, anxiously, at length. 
 
 Terry certainly swallowed something pret- 
 14
 
 210 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ty hard before he answered, but then his 
 words came out with a sudden impulse which 
 proved his powers of articulation unimpaired. 
 " What do you think of Robin ? " 
 The question was totally unexpected. It 
 shot like an arrow of light into Conrad s 
 brain, and for one terrible instant every 
 nerve in his body seemed to contract with 
 the shock of what the words, or the tone 
 in which they were spoken, revealed to 
 him. He had not made character study his 
 business for so long to remain stupidly blind 
 now to what lay hidden under such a ques 
 tion from such a source. He knew Terry 
 through and through. He could always read 
 his meaning, and had read it often, in lighter 
 words than these, words which others let 
 pass as merely " Jackson s nonsense." He 
 read it now. He knew, from that moment, 
 what, wrapped in his own hopes and dreams, 
 he had never surmised before. Terry was in 
 love with Robin. There was no reason why 
 he should not be, if he wanted to ; they were 
 only cousins by marriage after all. It was 
 no recent tumble either ; it must have been 
 going on for years. Would she did she 
 already had she indeed for years also re 
 turned the feeling ? Was this the explana-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 211 
 
 tion of all her frank, beautiful comradeship ? 
 Was the fact of his being Terry s best friend 
 the reason, the only reason, of her own read 
 ily yielded friendliness ? Was the brightest 
 summer of his life to end in darkness such 
 as this ? He could have groaned aloud in 
 agony of spirit, but he did not. People 
 don t, commonly, when other people are by. 
 He only compressed years of suffering into a 
 two-minutes draught and drank it down in 
 silence, under his hat, while Terry, glancing 
 impatiently at the friendly head-gear, detect 
 ed no slightest ruffling of its sunburned se 
 renity. 
 
 " Well," he broke out, suddenly, " are n t 
 you going to say anything ? " 
 
 The strong white teeth closed on the grass- 
 stalk and gave it a fearful bite. 
 
 " What do you want me to say ? " 
 
 " Say ? why, say what you think ! She s 
 beautiful is n t she for one thing ? " 
 
 "Very." How the word hurt him ! 
 
 " Is n t she one girl in a thousand ? " 
 
 Conrad was silent. He could not answer 
 such a question as that. What had thou 
 sands or ten thousands to do with her, the 
 one woman in all God s universe to him ? 
 
 " What is it that makes her so ? Come,
 
 212 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 old fellow, you pretend to a vast amount of 
 insight ; you ve a mighty sharp nose for the 
 reasons of things, what s the reason of 
 this ? " 
 
 " I cannot tell." 
 
 " Then I am smarter than you, for once, 
 for I can. She s round ! " 
 
 " Round ? " repeated Conrad mechanically. 
 
 " Yes, round ; symmetrical, if you like it 
 better. There are no rough spots and no 
 sharp edges. Her face and figure and brain 
 are all proportioned to each other. Her eyes 
 are as beautiful as her voice, and her voice 
 is as well modulated as her motions. She is 
 as good as she is beautiful, and as graceful 
 as she is good. When she is sober you feel 
 as if a smile would spoil her, and when she 
 laughs you wonder why you ever wanted her 
 to do anything else. She is the most but 
 hang it all! why am I yarning all this off 
 to you, I wonder ? and there you lie soaking 
 it all in as still as a sponge ! " 
 
 " Why not, since of course it is all true ? " 
 
 How true it was he knew better than Ter 
 ry could possibly tell him. Was not his 
 heart indorsing every word with a fresh 
 throb of pain ? 
 
 " Oh, well, you can laugh, I suppose. It s
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 213 
 
 no such laughing matter to me. But then, 
 you re not in love with her." 
 
 The straw hat lay motionless. 
 
 " It s a wonder, too, mind you," pursued 
 Terry, musingly. " I ve been beastly afraid 
 of it, you know." 
 
 " Have you ? " 
 
 Something curious in the tone of these two 
 words made Terry look round. But as noth 
 ing met his eyes save the down-tipped hat, 
 with a long stem of timothy protruding from 
 beneath it, he ascribed the peculiar accent to 
 semi-suffocation and sailed on. 
 
 " You see, Con, you ve a way with you, 
 when you like." 
 
 "Havel?" 
 
 " Yes, you have ! " reiterated Terry, begin 
 ning to wax impatient of these brief, interrog 
 atory answers. " And it s a mighty winning 
 way, too." 
 
 " Is it ? " 
 
 " Confound it all ! " cried the badgered 
 youth, leaping to his feet and with one well- 
 directed blow knocking the other s slight 
 screen into a barberry bush ; " drop your la 
 conics, old man ! What do you want to choke 
 yourself to death with your own hat for ? " 
 
 Conrad laughed and drew himself lazily
 
 214 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 up into the shade ; but there was a contrac 
 tion about his eyes and forehead as of pain. 
 Perhaps the sudden sunshine dazzled him. 
 
 " What s the matter with you, Con ? got a 
 headache ? " 
 
 " No yes nothing ! Get to the point, 
 man, for Heaven s sake, if there is a point, 
 and let s get away out of this fearful heat ! " 
 
 " There is n t any point, just at present, 
 but I mean there shall be before I go back to 
 the city. I promised Uncle Ike not to say 
 a word for two years, but the two years are 
 more than up now, and I ve got a good many 
 words to say." 
 
 " You promised your uncle ? " said Conrad, 
 speaking slowly and with difficulty. " Then 
 the matter is already understood in the fam- 
 
 iiy." 
 
 " Of course. Robin and I grew up togeth 
 er, you know. It has always been straight 
 sailing till old Crabbe went and got the gol 
 ly wobbles. You must confess," he hurried 
 on, laughing a trifle consciously, " that it has 
 been pretty rough on me to stay behind and 
 know there was another fellow and a bet 
 ter one up here where I wanted to be. 
 But I see that s all right now. Robin is not 
 the girl to desert old friends for new ones.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 215 
 
 There s no harm done, and you 11 wish me 
 joy old fellow, won t you? " 
 
 He held out his hand to his friend, sure of 
 his sympathy, and his friend did not fail him. 
 But as Conrad yielded to the other s hearty 
 pressure the first two lines of Launcelot 
 Owen s epitaph burned themselves, like fire, 
 into his memory. Was this why he had felt 
 that strange thrill of spiritual kinship ? 
 
 " God gave me a hard daye s worke 
 But I did not shirke." 
 
 " And I will not shirk ! " he said proudly 
 to himself as he strode slowly back, after Ter 
 ry, to their place of landing. " The rest 
 will come at last." 
 
 It did not begin to come as yet, though. 
 The amount of slow torture which human 
 nature can endure, and yet stand on its feet 
 and give no sign, is fearful to realize. Con 
 rad walked on mechanically, like one in a 
 terrible, dumb dream. His sight was intro 
 verted, reading the sharp, transfixing sen 
 tence that the last half hour had written, in 
 black characters, across the one bright chap 
 ter of his life. Even had there been hope 
 for him, he must, in common honor, have 
 stood aside for Terry s prior claim ; and there
 
 216 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 was no hope. " Robin is not the girl to de 
 sert old friends for new ones ! " How well 
 he knew the truth of Terry s words. 
 
 So absorbed was he in his own trouble 
 that he never saw Cy sitting, unconscious of 
 their approach, under one of the generous old 
 trees. Terry saw, however, and noticed that 
 the fat boy was intent upon something. Fol 
 lowing the direction of his gaze he discovered 
 a large gray squirrel seated on the lowest 
 limb of another tree near by and watching, in 
 his turn, the boy. It reminded him of some 
 thing which he had been near forgetting: 
 the material for Mrs. Bloom s pie. He 
 raised his hand softly, and thrust it into his 
 left breast pocket. 
 
 From beneath the oak where Cy lay, mo 
 tionless, came a low, cluttering sound. The 
 squirrel ran down the branch to its very end, 
 and stopped, his black eyes shining, his full, 
 feathery brush giving little spasmodic jerks. 
 The low call came again. Could there be 
 another squirrel down there among the bush 
 es? The black eyes and bushy tail came 
 nearer, their gray owner approaching warily 
 over the soft grass. Within ten feet of Cy s 
 resting-place he came to a halt, raised him 
 self upon his little haunches and sniffed the
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 217 
 
 air questioningly. Something flashed in the 
 sunlight, as Terry raised his hand with steady 
 aim. Conrad, catching sight of it all too late, 
 made a hasty rush forward, and shouted. Cy 
 turned his head, and saw the detested revol 
 ver gleaming in Terry s grasp. The blind 
 rage that was one of the few evidences of his 
 mental deficiency took possession of him ; 
 and never stopping to see that the squirrel 
 had fled at the first alarm, he rushed frantic 
 ally forward, and wrenched the weapon from 
 its owner s hand. 
 
 It was at full cock. There came a blaze, 
 a report, and poor Cy lay in a heap on the 
 ground with a 22-calibre ball in his side.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " Ah said I not 
 Something is here amiss ? " 
 
 OWEN MEREDITH. 
 
 UP in the hill orchard some one was 
 singing like a bobolink. The clear, liquid 
 notes came floating down beneath overarch 
 ing, fruit-laden boughs and floated in at the 
 library windows where the parson sat and 
 smiled to hear them. 
 
 " Happy and free - hearted as ever, my 
 Robin-red-breast! " he thought to himself. 
 " Terry may have to wait a bit after all. 
 She does not tire of the old home or the old 
 man yet. Just as well, just as well ! the 
 boy is a good boy, but he is young and, 
 sometimes, he seems a little selfish, a little 
 selfish like his father. If only he were more 
 like but there ! comparisons are odious, 
 and girls will choose for themselves." 
 
 The breeze blew over the lawn again and 
 brought another snatch of the old song. 
 Bending forward, the parson could see the
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 219 
 
 girl, in her white dress, moving among the 
 gnarled old trunks of the apple-trees. She 
 held in her hand the manuscript she had 
 been reading, but her eyes were searching 
 the green wilderness overhead and her lips 
 were overflowing with melody. 
 
 " In a fair wood like this, where the beeches are growing, 
 
 Brave Robin Hood hunted in days of old : 
 Down his broad shoulders his brown locks fell flowing ; 
 His cap was of green, with a tassel of gold." 
 
 A farm horse, ridden bareback by a 
 small, barefooted, sunburned boy, came 
 clumsily cantering down the road. Robin s 
 eyes followed the moving object, half un 
 consciously ; while the sweet voice sang 
 on: 
 
 " His eye was as blue as the sky in midsummer; 
 Ruddy his cheek as the oak-leaves in June ; 
 Hardy his voice as he hailed the new-comer, 
 Tender to maidens in changeable tune." 
 
 The horse stopped at the gate, and the 
 boy slid off and tied the end of the leather 
 halter, which served as bridle, to the fence. 
 For one moment a thrill of apprehension, as 
 of some bad tidings, swept over the girl ; 
 but the messenger had gone round to the 
 kitchen door ; some errand to Mrs. Bloom, 
 probably. She passed up, through the or 
 chard, to the boundary wall and went on
 
 220 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 with her ballad, looking off, over the river, 
 to the fair, far-away hills. 
 
 " His step had a strength, and his smile had a sweetness; 
 
 His spirit was wrought of the sun and the breeze ; 
 He moved as a man framed in Nature s completeness, 
 And grew unabashed with the growth of the trees." 
 
 The barefooted boy had come out again 
 and Mrs. Bloom followed him. The former 
 sprawled himself onto his beast s back and 
 cantered off as he had come ; the latter 
 came up, over the short orchard grass, to 
 her mistress ; moving slowly, as if weighted 
 with a heavy message. 
 
 " I think, as I lie in the shade of the beeches, 
 
 How lived and how loved this old hero of song ; 
 
 I wish we could follow the lesson he teaches, 
 And dwell, as he dwelt, these wild thickets among; 
 
 At least for a while, till we caught up the meaning 
 The beeches breathe out in the wealth of their growth ; 
 
 Width in their nobleness, love in their leaning" 
 
 " Miss Robin, my dear ! " 
 
 Robin turned her head ; her eyes, with a 
 dreamy, preoccupied look in them, rested on 
 the housekeeper s face. But no sooner did 
 she catch its expression than she started 
 forward, the dreamy look all gone. 
 
 " What is it ? what has happened ? " the 
 nameless dread came back and took posses 
 sion of her. 
 
 " There, there, my dear ! don t you take
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 221 
 
 on now, don t ! T ain t as ef t was Master 
 Terry, though I don t know but it s wicked 
 of me ter say so when the poor feller may 
 be a-dyiii ." 
 
 " Who is it ? what is it ? " cried the girl, 
 in a desperate whisper. " Tell me ! quick ! " 
 and she fairly shook the portly woman in 
 her eager terror. 
 
 " Why," began Mrs. Bloom, slowly, striv 
 ing to be composed and only succeeding 
 in being exasperating, " Master Terry was 
 shootin somethin an the other chap 
 tried ter stop him, an ter tell the trewth 
 I dunno exactly haow t was, but the pistil 
 went off, anyways, as I Ve alwers expected 
 twould, some day, an hit him." 
 
 " Hit who ? " almost shrieked Robin, pa 
 tience and grammar alike deserting her in 
 the same sharp breath. " Not not " 
 
 She could not have spoken his name just 
 then to save her life. She did not need to ; 
 Mrs. Bloom had not been seeing through 
 millstones all summer for nothing. 
 
 " Not Mister Forkner ? Land alive, no, 
 child ! Cy, Cy s the one that s hurt. 
 Terry 11 hev ter git up earlier n he done 
 this mornin ter blow Mister Forkner s 
 brains out ! Ye might ha knowed that."
 
 222 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Her mistress took no notice of her. 
 Shock and counter-shock had followed one 
 another so quickly that they came near 
 being too much for her. Another kind of 
 girl would have fainted ; Robin only clutched 
 the sharp stones of the wall till they cut 
 her hands, and turned from white to red, 
 and from red to white again with startling- 
 rapidity. The housekeeper s sharp eyes saw 
 and understood it all ; but she was a shrewd 
 woman, and stood quiet till the tense, cling 
 ing fingers had loosened their grasp and lay 
 helpless. Then she said : 
 
 " They re up ter Biram Woods s, an they 
 want ye ter send up the spring-wagon, with 
 some pillers an things, ter fetch him hum 
 in. Leastways they mid the parson, but I 
 knew he would n t know nothin what ter 
 do." 
 
 Robin turned, without a word, and flew 
 down the orchard and into the house as if 
 she had had wings. 
 
 " First down an then up, that s her all 
 over ! " groaned Mrs. Bloom, as she fol 
 lowed more needfully. " She 11 never en 
 dure ter hev three on em as I hev." 
 
 In which declaration Robin would most 
 assuredly have upheld her.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 223 
 
 The parson, sitting peacefully by his win 
 dow, was suddenly startled by beholding first 
 a mattress, and then a shower of pillows, 
 come flying down, from the clouds appar 
 ently, to the grass-plot before him. Then 
 Mrs. Bloom was seen hurrying to the barn, 
 with her apron over her head, and in an 
 other minute Robin came into the room, 
 with her hat on and traces of recent tears 
 about her eyes. 
 
 " Uncle Ike," she said, " we are wanted 
 up at Abiram "Woods s. Terry has contrived 
 to let his revolver go off hind-side-before, 
 somehow, and Cy is hurt." 
 
 " You don t say so ! " exclaimed the par 
 son, springing to his feet and seizing the 
 hat that always lay handy. " That is bad 
 news. But why do you assume that it is 
 Terry s fault, my dear?" 
 
 " I know it must be his fault. Cy never 
 meddles with things that do not concern him. 
 But here is the wagon ; we won t stop to 
 talk about it now. Put in all those things, 
 Abijah, and Mrs. B. just hand me that big 
 umbrella. Now, Uncle Ike, we must drive 
 fast ! " 
 
 It was a silent drive. The parson was 
 trying to account satisfactorily to himself
 
 224 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 for the accident, and wondering how re 
 volvers should have been in requisition on 
 a fishing excursion ; while in Robin s mind 
 gladness for Conrad s immunity and sorrow 
 for Cy s misfortune were waging tumultuous 
 warfare. 
 
 As they drove up to the door of the farm 
 house Terry, rather pale but trying hard to 
 look unconcerned, appeared from within. 
 
 "Well, Robin, jour protegee has been 
 getting himself into hot water ! Nothing 
 very alarming, though, the doctor thinks." 
 
 Robin vouchsafed him not even a glance, 
 but, putting one foot on the wheel, sprang 
 past him and entered the stuffy little room 
 off the kitchen, where Cy lay. Mrs. Woods 
 was sitting by the bedside armed with a 
 palm-leaf fan, which she waved vigorously to 
 and fro to drive away the flies ; talking, the 
 while to Conrad, who stood by the window. 
 He came forward to meet Robin, when she 
 entered, and spoke reassuringly of Cy as 
 Terry had done ; but his face looked worn 
 and grave, and he presently passed out upon 
 the stoop to see that the farmer and his man 
 were in readiness to help lift. 
 
 Robin wondered a little. His manner was 
 not at all as usual, even allowing for the un-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 225 
 
 usual circumstances ; but this was no time 
 for such considerations ; Cy was waiting, and 
 must be gotten home at once. She went 
 back to the wagon and busied herself with 
 mattress and pillows till all was arranged to 
 her liking. Then the four men lifted the 
 wounded boy, finding their united strength 
 none too much for the skillful accomplish 
 ment of the task, and laid him gently down 
 upon the soft bed provided for him. Robin 
 said nothing to him, for he seemed to shun 
 being spoken to, lying with closed eyes, for 
 the most part, and feigning sleep ; though 
 she knew well there could be no sleep for 
 him in his present condition, jolting along 
 over roads whose frequent roughnesses even 
 the spring-wagon and well-arranged cushions 
 were powerless to overcome. So she only 
 took care that the big umbrella should in 
 cline always at just the right angle, and that 
 the well side should take the brunt of the 
 jouncing as the parson drove carefully on, 
 avoiding, as much as was possible, all stones 
 and cradle-holes in his way. 
 
 Terry and Conrad, in their own wagon, 
 had taken a shorter and rougher cut to the 
 village to prepare Janet and the cottage 
 for Cy s reception. Neither required much 
 
 15
 
 226 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 preparation ; the house was always ready, to 
 the extent of its resources, for anything, and 
 its owner had been brought face to face with 
 trouble too often, in her checkered life, to 
 fear it when it came. So, after hearing them 
 out, quietly, she turned with only an added 
 gravity in her face, a slight compression of 
 the lips, and went on with her task of ironing 
 Cy s Sunday shirt, which must not be left to 
 mildew for want of care though the poor fel 
 low was little likely to need it for some time 
 to come. Meanwhile, the two gentlemen, 
 with a neighbor or two to assist in the lift 
 ing, stood waiting at the steps till the parson 
 drove up. 
 
 Cy opened his eyes and looked at his 
 grandmother, then closed them again and 
 lay passive while the men transferred him 
 from wagon to bed. When he was fairly 
 established and made comfortable his grand 
 mother bent over and kissed him, and again 
 he opened his eyes and looked at her. That 
 was all. The one a woman, refined above 
 her station, the other a clumsy, half-witted 
 boy, they yet had thus much in common be 
 side their kinship : that they were at once 
 too proud and too innately delicate to dem 
 onstrate, largely, either grief or affection
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 227 
 
 while other eyes were looking on. Conrad 
 lingered by the bedside as Robin and her 
 uncle passed out into the kitchen with Janet. 
 He bent over the boy and said, with feel 
 ing* 
 
 " You are a brave fellow, Cy ! I shall stay 
 by to see you well out of this. If I had 
 only kept my word a little better you would 
 not have been lying here now." 
 
 The fat boy opened his eyes once more 
 and smiled up into his friend s face, a 
 smile of love and gratitude which came 
 straight from his heart, and wore the beauty 
 such looks ever do wear independently of 
 any blemish of mere feature. The affection 
 and trust, and a vague something undefined 
 which seemed to be conveyed in that one 
 look, were too much for the young man ; he 
 turned abruptly away and followed the others 
 out. As he gained the foot of the steps the 
 parson turned from handing Robin into the 
 vehicle, and evidently expected him to fol 
 low. Terry and the other equipage had dis 
 appeared. 
 
 " Mr. Gary," said Conrad, pausing a lit 
 tle over his words as though he found them 
 hard to say, " I think it will be better for 
 me not to go back to Saints Rest with you.
 
 228 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Janet needs some one with strong arms to 
 help her, and Cy will let me do for him as 
 he will not let a stranger. Besides, I feel 
 in a measure accountable for his trouble, 
 and must see him on the road to recovery 
 before I leave." 
 
 " Leave ! My dear boy, what are you talk 
 ing about ? September is two weeks off 
 yet." 
 
 " I know," replied Conrad, and one quick 
 ear at least caught the repressed pain in his 
 voice ; " but my plans have changed, un 
 avoidably, since morning. Had it not been 
 for this accident I should have returned to 
 Boston to-morrow. I have had news which 
 calls me away from Ockley." 
 
 The parson was just the least bit deaf. 
 He caught words readily enough, but the 
 nice shadings of tone were wont to escape 
 him. He took Conrad s answer at its letter, 
 which was as well, perhaps. 
 
 " News ? not bad news, I hope ; not " 
 He paused, with the peculiar look of impend 
 ing condolence on his face which people wear 
 when they are not quite certain whether 
 there will prove to be a use for it or not. 
 
 " Not sickness, nor death, no. But I 
 must go, for all that," said Conrad, gravely.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 229 
 
 Only I shall wait to see Cy better, first. I 
 can be more useful to him here than two 
 miles off ; so if you will kindly let Abijah 
 bring my trunk to the hotel I shall be greatly 
 obliged. I am more sorry than I can say to 
 break away from your hospitality so sud 
 denly ; but it is not really good-by yet, you 
 know," he added, trying to smile. 
 
 " Good-by ? I should think not ! Let us 
 hope you won t have to go, after all. Abijah 
 shall bring your trunk down, if you wish, of 
 course, but had n t you better reconsider 
 that part of it ? I shall be driving down 
 daily, as usual, and Robin will be with Janet 
 most of the time, if I know her." 
 
 " Thank you," said Conrad, quietly, " but 
 my place seems to be here, just now. My 
 holiday has been a rare one, thanks to you 
 both, but it is over ! " And he raised his 
 hat, and stepped aside to let them pass. 
 
 Somehow, there was nothing to be said. 
 The parson was surprised, and sorry, but 
 could find no good reason for combating 
 his guest s decision. As for Robin, she 
 could not have spoken a word if she had 
 wanted to ; her heart was too full. She 
 hardly dared look up lest Conrad should 
 see what an effect his words had produced.
 
 230 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Her uncle wondered, as they drove home, at 
 the depth of her interest in Cy, as mani 
 fested by her unusually grave and subdued 
 demeanor.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " The promise promised so long ago, 
 The long promise has not been kept." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 ROBIN was sitting in the cool darkness, 
 on the wide east stoop, alone. She had 
 come here on purpose to be alone, and to 
 think ; leaving Terry and her uncle talking 
 together at the front of the house. It was 
 just five hours since they had parted from 
 Conrad in the village street. It seemed 
 five years. Only this morning all had been 
 as usual ; no cloud to mar the happy seren 
 ity of their daily life, except, indeed, the 
 little, indefinable cloud, hardly as big as " a 
 man s hand," of light restraint that Terry s 
 presence had thrown over their former 
 unreserved companionship. Yet that had 
 only been for a week ; it was but common 
 courtesy to set aside their old ways a little 
 out of deference to a new-comer. Conrad 
 was still free to propose walks or drives, if 
 he liked. And she had been so sure he
 
 232 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 would like ; so sure that their interfered- 
 with afternoon of last week would be made 
 good ere the end of this. And lo, a thun 
 derbolt from a blue sky ! 
 
 Robin buried her head in her hands and 
 thought and thought. " Since morning ; " 
 those were his words. But he had read all his 
 letters before leaving the house, she knew, 
 and no communication could have reached 
 him out on Porter s Pond with Cy and Terry. 
 With Terry ! Ah, the light flashed upon her 
 now ! The hands unclasped, the head was 
 thrown back, proudly, in the darkness. She 
 was not blind nor deaf ; she had known for a 
 good while past what was simmering in her 
 cousin s mind. She had thrown in an occa 
 sional dash of cold water, too, as opportunity 
 offered ; but he was only a boy, after all ; 
 he was wont to have sudden freaks in other 
 matters and get over them again ; somehow 
 she had never attached much weight to this. 
 It was only a phase. A little tonic snub, 
 once in a while, kept him pretty straight, 
 and he would grow wiser in time. But 
 now, if he had boiled over to Conrad ! 
 She sprang to her feet and clenched her 
 pretty hands into little redoubtable fists as 
 she thought of it. Ridiculous ! how could
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 233 
 
 Conrad credit such a thing for a moment ? 
 Was this his notion of friendship, to let 
 the silly talk of a boy come between them 
 now, when he ought to know her so well? 
 And then the hands relaxed, and a warm 
 glow shot from heart to face as she remem 
 bered how he had looked and spoken. She 
 smiled to herself, in the darkness, well 
 pleased to think what her hold upon his life 
 must be since even a false impression could 
 give him such pain in passing. For it would 
 pass, of course it would. Had he not given 
 her his promise that no third person should 
 ever interfere between them ? He would 
 never leave Ockley without giving her at 
 least a chance to explain. And she would 
 explain ; there should be no heroic false 
 pride about her. What a mercy that he 
 had been kept from starting off at a tan 
 gent ! She should have opportunity still to 
 prove to him how utterly foundationless 
 Terry s castles were. Then she remembered 
 what had kept him, and her indignation with 
 Terry broke forth afresh. Was it not 
 enough, for one day s work, to have made 
 two people miserable, but he must pretty 
 nearly kill a third ? Poor Cy ! to whom it 
 seemed as if sufficient had been denied al-
 
 234 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 ready, shut up all through this sunny sum 
 mer-time he so loved and reveled in, just 
 because a thoughtless boy had valued his 
 own momentary gratification above a poor, 
 half-witted fellow s simple pleasure. Cy, a 
 fool ! there was great question in her mind 
 as to which was the greater fool of the two ! 
 The idea of any human being, who pretended 
 to the possession of brain, shooting at a 
 squirrel with a ball like that ! One would 
 think the game had been a buffalo ! 
 
 She laughed out to herself at the thought 
 and then caught herself up in a hurry. What 
 if Terry should hear ? Too late ! he had 
 heard ; and the next moment the rustling 
 of the grass warned her that he was coming. 
 Meet him again that night she would not ! 
 She sprang out into the darkness and fled, 
 noiselessly and fleetly, round the opposite 
 corner of the house. Before he could dis 
 cover her flight and follow she was safe in 
 her own room with the door bolted. Once 
 there, strangely enough, all her newly built 
 up hopes dissipated themselves into thin air. 
 The whole burden of pain and misery that 
 the day had brought to herself and others 
 rushed over her in a flood which she felt 
 powerless to stem. She threw herself into
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 285 
 
 the big, chintz-covered chair by the window 
 and cried as she had never cried in all her 
 life before. Yet, sooth to say, her tears, 
 after all, were more for her friend s pain 
 than her own. 
 
 Meantime this friend, at the little village 
 hotel, was having his thoughts too, and un 
 locking his trunk in search of needed ar 
 ticles for Cy. The first thing that met his 
 eyes, lying where he had himself put it that 
 morning to keep it out of harm s Mrs. 
 Bloom s way, was the unfinished painting 
 of Janet s cottage. He smiled, half bitterly, 
 as he saw it and remembered the afternoon 
 when it had been begun. How different 
 had been the evening of that day from this ! 
 The scarlet columbine, for which he had 
 plunged and scrambled at the risk of his 
 neck through the darkness by the river, was 
 lying safe, in its withered brightness, in his 
 little pocket dictionary, from whose pages 
 they had once stood to read together the 
 definition of a certain word. What had be 
 come of the friendship they had plighted 
 then ? Had it, too, withered and faded like 
 the flower ? Nay, he knew but too well that, 
 on his side at least, it had blossomed into 
 such glorious sweetness as he had never
 
 236 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 dreamed of in all his life before. Only, 
 " it takes two to make a bargain." Robin 
 had done all she bargained to do ; there 
 had been no failure on her side ; the trouble 
 lay in the fact that he had done vastly more 
 on his part than the contract called for, and 
 they had need to make their bargain all 
 over again or cancel it forever. The 
 waves of trouble were dashing over him 
 now as they were dashing over Robin, at 
 her chamber window, only two short miles 
 away. But neither could read the other s 
 thoughts, and the soft, warm wind, blowing 
 straight from him to her, told no tales. 
 Memory after memory came surging back 
 upon his heart as he stood there, motionless, 
 the picture in his hand. The thought of 
 that evening on the Ridge, when they had 
 stood together in the moonlight and Robin 
 had sung for him, came back, with a new, 
 terrible sting in its sweetness, and mastered 
 him. Once more the full, rich tones were 
 sounding all about him. How full of prom 
 ise had seemed the words she sung. 
 
 "Oh, rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him, 
 And He shall give thee thy heart s desire." 
 
 His heart s desire ! he had thought then that 
 he knew what that was. And those beauti-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 237 
 
 ful words of the Invocation had been like a 
 prayer for blessing upon them both. Again 
 the melody was beating round him in a flood ; 
 the sweet breath of the wild-grape blossoms 
 floated near, and Robin s face looked up at 
 him in the moonlight. He started as a 
 great brown beetle, attracted by the reeking 
 warmth and light of his kerosene lamp, came 
 booming in at the open window. There was 
 no moon to-night, and out of the darkness 
 below came up the faint squeak of the host 
 ler s fiddle. 
 
 " Pshaw, I am a fool ! " he exclaimed, 
 bitterly; and blowing out the light, went 
 fumbling down the steep, narrow staircase 
 to the street. 
 
 Janet saw nothing to wish otherwise in 
 either his looks or attentions that night, as 
 he shared the watch by Cy s bedside and 
 ministered to his wants as tenderly as a 
 brother could have done. But the fat boy, 
 taught by some half-smothered instinct in 
 his own heart, and his great love for his 
 friend, looked up into Conrad s face with 
 wistful eyes that read the bravely hidden 
 pain and guessed its cause.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " For life was bitter through those words repressed." 
 
 JEAX INGELOW. 
 
 " BEN," said Miss Constance, as she 
 handed her brother his second cup of coffee, 
 " the boy is in trouble." 
 
 " H m ! " returned the lawyer, glancing 
 down the second page of the letter that lay 
 beside his plate ; "I should say it was the 
 fat friend who was in trouble. Con s whole- 
 footed yet, as far as I see." 
 
 " I see farther than you do, Ben." 
 
 " The deuce you do ! may be you see 
 double, old lady." 
 
 " He is in trouble ; " repeated Miss Con 
 stance, slowly, holding out her hand for the 
 letter ; " I see it in every word." 
 
 " You see a heap of it, take it altogether, 
 then." 
 
 " His visit is not ending as he hoped, and 
 I expected, it would end," pursued the lady, 
 paying no heed to the remarks of her skepti 
 cal brother.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 239 
 
 " And how the how did you expect it 
 to end ? " asked Mr. Thacher, awaiting her 
 reply with his coffee-cup half way to his 
 lips. 
 
 "I expected it would end in an engage 
 ment." 
 
 The lawyer stared ; then he took a hasty 
 gulp of the coffee, which proved to be pretty 
 hot, and set his cup down upon its saucer 
 with a sharp click. 
 
 " Thank the Lord," he exclaimed, slowly, 
 " I m not a woman ! 
 
 " The Lord knew what He was about when 
 He made you, my dear, as He always does," 
 returned his sister calmly. 
 
 " It s hard enough," went on Mr. Thacher, 
 " to face trouble when it comes ; but this tal 
 ent for sighting the tail of a tragedy ten 
 miles off, and never winking again for fear 
 you should lose sight of it before it gets here, 
 is something exclusively feminine, which, I 
 feel moved to remark, I m devoutly thank 
 ful men don t, as a rule, possess ! " 
 
 " I told you long ago that Conrad was in 
 love with this girl, which I must confess is 
 hardly to be wondered at." 
 
 " And was n t that bad enough for a young 
 fellow with something under two thousand a
 
 240 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 year to live on, but you must needs get him 
 as good as engaged, and then smash up the 
 whole thing ? How do you know the boy is 
 in trouble ? " 
 
 Miss Constance silently handed back the 
 letter. 
 
 " I ve read it once. There s nothing 
 written in sympathetic ink, I suppose ! " 
 
 " Suppose you read it again, with sympa 
 thetic eyes, Ben." 
 
 Ben took the sheet once more and did as 
 he was bid. When he got through he cleared 
 his throat and blew his nose. 
 
 " Well ? " said his sister. 
 
 " Well ! " repeated the lawyer, unwill 
 ingly ; " of course I see what you mean, now 
 that you Ve put it into my head ; but I defy 
 any third person to see it. The boy s been 
 sitting up nights, and worrying over that 
 sick chap. Great good his holiday will do 
 him at this rate ! It s time he came back 
 to us. Write to him, to-day, Connie, and 
 tell him so. He 11 be better off painting 
 old Victory than dancing after a girl that s 
 too big a fool to appreciate him." 
 
 Miss Constance sighed. " The girl is no 
 fool, Ben ; there has been some misunder 
 standing, I am sure. How I wish I could 
 set it right ! "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 241 
 
 " What s the use of wanting to set things 
 right before you know what set them wrong ? 
 You re a regular woman, Connie ! May be 
 Miss What s-her-name wants somebody with 
 more money and less brain." 
 
 " Ah, Ben ! if you had only done as I 
 wanted you to, and had told Conrad " 
 
 " Fiddle-de-dee, child ! would you have me 
 throw out a bait to the fortune - hunters ? 
 No, no ; the boy has better gold in his head 
 and heart than we can ever put into his 
 pocket. Time enough to pile on the spurious 
 when some level-headed girl has found the 
 true. Don t worry, Connie," he added, 
 kindly ; " I m as anxious to see the boy hap 
 pily settled as you are, only I want him to 
 find his wife while he s poor. He 11 be a 
 dar he 11 be a deal more likely to find the 
 right one. We can pitch in and make mat 
 rimony easy afterwards." 
 
 Miss Constance nodded approvingly, but 
 the nod was followed up closely by another 
 sigh. Evidently, being a " regular woman," 
 she could not so easily get over the feminine 
 yearning to " set it right." 
 
 " Get him here, get him here ! " reiterated 
 her brother, coming round for a good-by kiss 
 before leaving the house. " You 11 fathom 
 
 16
 
 242 IlIGH-LIGUTS. 
 
 it, and set it right, too, if anybody can, but 
 you must get him here first." 
 
 So when she had watched the roans off, 
 down the avenue, Miss Constance seated 
 herself at her secretary, and wrote as fol 
 lows : 
 
 MY DEAR BOY, Ben and I are very 
 sorry that your pleasant summer is having 
 so sad an ending. Perhaps, however, mat 
 ters will result more happily than you fear. 
 Do not be too ready to renounce all hope. 
 There may be some feature of the case which 
 you do not as yet fully understand. Trust 
 you have a good doctor. Of course, under 
 the circumstances, we would not even wish 
 to hurry you from Ockley until all is once 
 more as it should be ; but September is close 
 at hand, and your old room is always ready 
 and waiting. We will hope for good news 
 soon, and a blithe home-coming ; but, merry 
 or sad, remember that this is home and that 
 a warm welcome awaits you. 
 
 Always your loving friend, 
 
 CONSTANCE M. THACHER. 
 
 " There ! " said Miss Constance, laying 
 down her pen with a deep breath of relief,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 243 
 
 " I mean two things, and he will read two 
 meanings, but I flatter myself he won t sus 
 pect they were put there on purpose ! " 
 
 Could the good lady have been a " fly on 
 the wall " when her doubly -worded note was 
 received and read, she would have experi 
 enced a sinking of heart in both directions 
 toward which its sentences were aimed. 
 
 Conrad was sitting at Cy s bedside while 
 Janet snatched the brief sleep rendered in 
 dispensable by the night-watches which had 
 been going on for more than two weeks now, 
 and which she resolutely insisted upon shar 
 ing. They did not allow her to do much 
 through the day, however. Either Eobin or 
 Conrad was always on hand, and sometimes, 
 but this rarely, they were both there at 
 once. At such times their outward relations 
 appeared to others unchanged ; but inwardly 
 each felt the alteration, and each interpreted 
 it in a different way. 
 
 Terry had walked down once since the 
 accident, but his visit excited Cy beyond 
 what was desirable, and he never came 
 again. 
 
 Terry was rather put out by what he con 
 sidered the " unnecessary fuss " made over 
 the sick boy. " If Faulkner saw fit to make
 
 244 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 a fool of himself over a thing like that, let 
 him ! he, Terry, saw no adequate reason for 
 such supreme devotion. The fellow brought 
 it upon himself, and it did n t amount to 
 anything anyhow. At this rate even old 
 Crabbe would have proved more lively than 
 anything he was likely to get in Ockley." 
 So Robin went and came alone (went and 
 stayed usually, now, for Cy grew no better, 
 but rather lost ground, from day to day, as 
 the unwonted confinement wore his strength 
 away ; and Dr. Farnham had begun to look 
 thoughtful and say little), and the breach be 
 tween her and Conrad widened and widened. 
 How often she had thought, with contempt, 
 of the book - heroines who allowed small 
 misunderstandings to swell, and lengthen to 
 hundreds of pages of misery, when one 
 bravely spoken word would have set all 
 straight again and spoiled the story ! How 
 firmly resolved she had been that no such 
 silly weakness should ever cast a shadow 
 over her own life-pages ! yet here she was, 
 after all, in the clutches of a like trouble, 
 against which she was powerless. It makes 
 such a difference whether one is an actor in 
 the play or merely a looker-on ! Could she 
 rush up to Conrad Faulkner and say, " You
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 245 
 
 think I am in love with Terry, but I am 
 not? " How could she be sure that he did 
 think so ? His bearing toward her was, 
 to all outward seeming-, the same as ever; 
 she alone could feel that the friendship had 
 stopped growing. Besides, what time was 
 this for dwelling upon her own affairs when 
 they were all so worried over Cy ? If any 
 thing beyond the sick-bed still troubled Con 
 rad he never showed it now. His every 
 thought and care were for the patient, ap 
 parently. Perhaps he had ceased to care. 
 (She did not realize how successful her own 
 efforts for concealment were daily proving.) 
 If only he would say something, do some 
 thing, ask some question which should give 
 her the opportunity she wanted ! But no, 
 though he was kind and polite as ever, she 
 felt that he held himself aloof ; and when, 
 this afternoon, he laid down his letter as 
 she appeared in the doorway, and treading 
 noiselessly with slippered feet, crossed the 
 floor to give her a chair and relieve her of 
 the basket which she carried, she felt the 
 walls of misunderstanding close in upon her 
 so unbearably that she well-nigh resolved to 
 dash them down with one desperate effort, 
 as Samson did the pillars of the house, even
 
 246 HIGII-LIGUTS. 
 
 though, like him, she should be overwhelmed, 
 with all her future, in the ruins. 
 
 But Conrad gave her no opportunity. 
 He came back presently from the well, 
 whither he had gone for fresh water, and, 
 setting the pitcher down on the table by the 
 bed, beckoned her to the door. 
 
 " I see the doctor s chaise at his gate," he 
 said as she joined him, " and think I will 
 just step over and ask him to call before he 
 starts off again. Cy seems to me not to be 
 getting on as he should. He has a good 
 deal of fever this afternoon, and at times 
 is not quite clear-headed." 
 
 Robin tried to speak, but her heart was 
 too full and^the words choked her. He saw 
 her trouble, but ascribed it all to anxiety 
 for Cy. 
 
 " You must not worry," he said kindly ; 
 " perhaps it is only a notion of mine ; but I 
 think it will be as well to have Dr. Farn- 
 ham s opinion ; he has not been in since 
 morning." 
 
 She bent her head, without speaking, and 
 went back into the room. Conrad hurried 
 away. Cy was awake when he returned 
 with the doctor, but his eyes looked heavy 
 and blood - shotten, and there was a deep
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 247 
 
 crimson flush in his cheeks. A skillful 
 physician s face might as well be a blank 
 wall for all the expression that is allowed 
 to come into it when examining a patient. 
 Dr. Farnham was a skillful physician ; and 
 yet, though he went about his business with 
 cool carefulness, gave his directions quietly 
 as usual, and had a gay word for her at 
 parting, Robin was sure he felt more 
 anxiety about Cy than he admitted. She 
 had seen that inscrutable face of his beside 
 a good many sick-beds, and had learned to 
 penetrate its professional mask beyond the 
 ability of most people. 
 
 Janet had wakened from her nap and 
 come in while he was there ; and to her he 
 had said, as if it were quite a matter of 
 course : 
 
 " You had better consent to have more 
 help nights for a while, Mrs. Burns ; why not 
 get Mrs. Lake in to spell these folks a bit ? 
 Cy will probably be more or less restless, 
 and you and I can t step as briskly as we 
 once could. Mr. Faulkner here is used up. 
 I have put him under strict orders to sleep." 
 And with that, he walked off to his chaise, 
 that waited for him in the street below, got 
 in, and drove away.
 
 248 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 Robin stood looking after the familiar 
 vehicle, with its bob -tailed horse, till it 
 turned a corner out of sight ; and then con 
 tinued to gaze at the spot where it had been, 
 until roused by what Conrad was saying 
 about getting Mrs. Lake to come in, as the 
 doctor had advised. Janet was evidently 
 rather averse to the arrangement. 
 
 " I shall stay with Janet to-night, Mr. 
 Faulkner," said the girl, coming forward 
 and laying her hand on her old nurse s 
 arm ; " she would rather have me than any 
 one else, and I have done no night-work so 
 far, while you have been getting tired out. 
 It is my turn now. I told them at home 
 that I should not be back till morning." 
 
 She stepped to the west window and 
 threw open the blinds, which had been 
 closed all day. The cool, sweet air wan 
 dered in refreshingly, and through the green 
 foliage without shone glimpses of a golden 
 and rose - colored sunset. Cy turned his 
 tired eyes toward the distant brightness, 
 and stopped for a moment his restless 
 movements. Across the street, from the 
 hotel, came the sound of the big bell accom 
 panied by a clatter of dishes and the smell 
 of hot bread. Conrad, seeing that he was
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 249 
 
 no longer needed, went over presently to his 
 tea and left the two women sitting in the 
 gathering twilight together. 
 
 Cy tossed and turned all night long, and 
 Janet was thankful enough for Robin s help 
 and company. The sick boy, who had al 
 ways in health been so ready to come and 
 go at her bidding, now appeared to find her 
 presence more soothing, and her soft touch 
 more grateful, than any other. As the fever 
 increased, and rendered his poor brain more 
 misty than ever, he failed to recognize his 
 grandmother when she came to his side 
 with water or medicine, and would call for 
 " Miss Robin " to come and send her away. 
 
 Over and over he rehearsed the scene in 
 the woods at Porter s Pond ; showing such 
 a nervous dread of Terry and his revolver 
 that Robin almost began to hate her cousin 
 for working such suffering and terror in the 
 poor fellow s life and mind. Towards morn 
 ing he fell, at last, into an uneasy doze. 
 Janet had lain down on the wooden settle, 
 for a few minutes rest, and was also asleep. 
 Robin moved quietly to the window, where 
 the early light was beginning to come in, 
 and drew the blinds, left open for freer air, 
 softly to. As she did so she caught sight
 
 250 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 of Conrad passing from the hotel piazza to 
 the stables. Some minutes later she heard 
 the swish of wet grass, and his step coming 
 up to the door. She opened it. 
 
 " Miss Cary," he said, lowering his voice 
 (he never called her " Miss Robin " now), 
 " I am rested now and you are tired. Qne 
 of the hostlers will be over directly to drive 
 you up home. You will feel the need of a 
 hot breakfast and sound sleep such as can 
 only be had there. I shall stay with Cy for 
 the present." 
 
 She did not argue the matter with him as 
 she would have done a week before. 
 
 She put on her hat and shawl in silence, 
 and let him put her into the buggy, when it 
 came, also in silence. But she would not 
 drive off so ; he had himself put a stop to the 
 old, happy friendliness which he had himself 
 been first to institute ; but at least there 
 should be no noticeable change on her part. 
 She held out her hand, as he stood by the 
 step, and he took it for a moment in his. 
 Their eyes met in a brief look, and then the 
 horse started off, and he was left alone, in 
 the village street, with the touch of her hand 
 yet warm in his, and the memory of her half 
 questioning, half reproachful look haunting 
 him in spite of himself.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 251 
 
 What did it mean? Was she hurt at the 
 new state of things ? Had Terry reckoned 
 without his host? Might it be that she was 
 not in love with her cousin, after all ? For 
 a moment these questions flashed through his 
 mind, and set his heart to beating quickly. 
 Then Terry s words about his uncle came 
 back to him, and all these swiftly raised 
 hopes fell to the ground. It was a recognized 
 fact in the family. There could be no mis 
 take. The girl was tired out, and probably 
 not conscious of her own expression. His 
 summer had been a failure, but it was not 
 her fault ; she had simply treated him as she 
 would have treated any friend of her uncle s 
 and Terry s, and he had made an egregious 
 fool of himself that was all. He went 
 back into the house and seated himself in 
 the chair by the bed, where Robin had been 
 a few moments before.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " I thought that this could scarcely be, 
 Yet has it come to pass ; 
 Sweet, sweet love was, 
 How bitter, bitter grown to me." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 " Miss GARY, Terry is at the hotel, and 
 would like to speak with you a moment." 
 
 Conrad delivered this message in a whis 
 per, and held back the net door that Robin 
 might pass out. They always spoke in 
 whispers now, for Cy was so weak that even 
 the ordinary tones of a friend s voice seemed 
 to disturb him. He lay, for the most part, 
 with closed eyes ; only opening them, at first 
 eagerly, of late languidly, when the barrier- 
 blinds were thrown open, morning and even 
 ing, and his gaze was free to wander away 
 over the well-beloved woods and meadows 
 without. 
 
 Robin s face was white, and her eyes heavy 
 with watching and anxiety. She crossed the 
 village street with a step very different from 
 that of even a few days previous. Conrad s
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 253 
 
 eyes followed her with a yearning pain in 
 them. He would so gladly have shield* her 
 from this trouble that was wearing hel out, 
 if he could ! Yet he never sounded the trou 
 ble to half its real depth. How should he? 
 He had, for her sake, put himself to the use 
 less torture of a few, apparently casual, words 
 with the parson since that morning when she 
 had looked at him so strangely, and the par 
 son had fully borne out Terry s assertion by 
 his easy taking for granted of family plans. 
 Conrad could do no more ; he had laid that 
 ghost of a glance ; that was all he had gained. 
 Somehow it never occurred to him that the 
 parson s taking for granted might be a little 
 too easy. 
 
 In the bare hotel parlor, darkened and 
 close with its shut windows, Terry stood 
 waiting. He had not seen his cousin for 
 several days. He came forward eagerly to 
 meet her, and looked earnestly into her face. 
 
 " Robin," he said, " you are killing your 
 self I you are not the same girl, at all, that 
 you were when I came here, three weeks 
 ago." 
 
 " No," she answered dreamily, " I am not 
 the same girl that I was then." 
 
 " Robin, don t say such dreadful things ! "
 
 254 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 cried Terry, forgetting that he hud said the 
 same himself. Robin s tone made the words 
 sound differently, somehow, and alarmed 
 him. " You will grow foolish yourself if you 
 hang over that boy day and night so. Come, 
 you have manifested your affection for him 
 quite enough ; let some one else step in now, 
 and you come home with me. Uncle and I 
 want you ; the boy is all right." 
 
 Robin lifted her eyes to his face half won- 
 deringly. "Terry," she said slowly, "the 
 boy is dying. Did Uncle Ike not tell you ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? Uncle said some 
 thing about his being very weak ; but of 
 course he is weak. He will be all over that 
 presently. Don t get rattled, Robin." 
 
 " Terry, can t you understand ? Cy has 
 never got on as he should, and since Mon 
 day he has failed rapidly. Now, he is dy 
 ing ; Dr. Farnham says so." 
 
 Robin had not spoken with any thoiight 
 of the effect her words might produce, but 
 they struck home. She was surprised at the 
 change that came over the young man s face. 
 His was but an outer crust of selfishness, 
 after ail. Underneath, waiting only the 
 right touch to develop it, lay the man s 
 strong heart which ever beats quick response
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 255 
 
 to the appeal of helplessness and suffering. 
 Terry had really felt concerned for Cy, but 
 chose not to show it ; to cover it up, indeed, 
 with an extra degree of careless indifference. 
 He had never dreamed but that the fat 
 boy would be all right again in due time, 
 " if only the women would not cosset him to 
 death." Now he could blind himself to the 
 real fact no longer, and back to his mind 
 came, vividly as if it had been but yester 
 day, the scene in the woods at Porter s Pond. 
 He turned away and leaned against the man 
 tel, his head resting on his folded arms. 
 
 Robin, who had kept aloof in the old 
 thoughtless, self-satisfied days, drew near 
 him now and laid one hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " Poor Terry ! " she said softly. 
 
 " Oh, Robin," he cried, raising his head 
 again and looking her full in the face, " it 
 was not my fault ! You don t think it was 
 my fault, do you ? " 
 
 " No, you meant no harm ; you were only 
 bent upon your own pleasure. But, oh, 
 Terry ! I do believe a selfish man is the 
 cause of more misery in this world than even 
 a cruel one, sometimes." 
 
 " Am I a selfish man, Robin ? " 
 
 " No, you are only a boy. A thoughtless,
 
 256 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 careless boy. But oh, Terry ! " she cried, 
 again, " never let it grow upon 3*011 or you 
 will break somebody s heart one day." 
 
 " Xot yours ! I will never break yours, 
 Robin ! " he exclaimed eagerly, all uncon 
 scious how thoroughly he had done his best 
 to break it of late. " Don t you know that 
 you can do anything with me ? Don t you 
 know that you are the only girl I ever cared 
 a straw for ? I have loved you all my life, I 
 think. What a happy summer we might 
 have had together, and to think of its being 
 all upset ! But we have September yet ; 
 we will make up for what is lost, won t 
 we?" And, characteristically forgetting all 
 his trouble of the moment before, he took 
 the hand which had lain upon his shoulder, 
 gently, in his own. 
 
 The girl drew it swiftly back, and herself 
 up to her full queenly height. 
 
 " Cousin Terry, this is no time for idle 
 words ; but since you have spoken as you 
 have I must needs answer, that you may 
 never speak in such a way again ! " 
 
 " Never ! What can you possibly mean, 
 Robin ? Of course I shall speak. Of course 
 you must know that I shall. A man can t 
 keep quiet forever. I have waited two years
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 257 
 
 to please Uncle Ike, but now I am free to 
 please myself." 
 
 " You are too free, by far, to please me I 
 Terry, I do not want to get angry to-day, 
 even with you, but you make it very hard 
 for me to help it. Once for all," she added, 
 proudly, " if you have ever deceived your 
 self, or or any one else, with the idea that 
 I care for you in any way save as a cousin, 
 let the deception be done away with at once, 
 at once ! for I do not, and never can. 
 You know I never can." 
 
 " I don t know anything of the sort ! Why 
 can t you ? Why can t you ? " he repeated, 
 when she*did not answer. 
 
 " Because because it is impossible, that 
 is all." Her pale face grew a shade paler, 
 and the firm line of the lips deepened. 
 
 " It is not impossible, it cannot be im 
 possible ! unless " and he seized her hand 
 again, but not so gently this time, and held 
 it in a tight grip. 
 
 " Let me go, Terry ; I am needed. I 
 must go back to Cy." 
 
 " Wait ! Robin, tell me, do you , by 
 Jove ! it s tough to have to ask the ques 
 tion for another fellow do you care for 
 any one else ? "
 
 258 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Let me go, Terry ! " she cried, blushing 
 furiously now over all her paleness, " you 
 have no right to ask such a question ; how 
 dare you ? " and she wrenched her hand in 
 dignantly away, and flung open the door 
 which he had closed when she first came in. 
 
 He let her go then, and stood watching 
 her as she went back, much faster than she 
 had come, across the street and disappeared 
 among the trees. Then he strode to the shed 
 where old Nahum and the chaise were in 
 waiting, sprang in, and drove off homeward. 
 
 " She did not deny it ! " he said to him 
 self, bitterly, paying small heed to his horse s 
 movements. " Of course it s Faulkner. I 
 did not think he would cut me out like this. 
 Pshaw ! what am I saying ? he knew noth 
 ing of it, how should he ? Con is not that 
 kind of fellow. He would be much more 
 likely to By Jove ! " Terry sat bolt up 
 right as a sudden light flashed upon past 
 and present. Was that what he was gulp 
 ing down under his hat the other day ? Of 
 course he loves her. How could he help it ? 
 and yet he shook hands with me and wished 
 me well. Poor old Con ! I reckon we ve 
 upset one another s apple-carts about alike, 
 after all. No we have n t, though," he added,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 259 
 
 tumbling back into the old bitterness and the 
 chaise corner both at once, " for she loves 
 him. He does n t know it now, but he will. 
 It won t hurt him to worry awhile ; he has n t 
 got to suffer all his life, as 1 have." And 
 the poor fellow groaned, in honest anguish, 
 at the terrible vista of empty years which 
 he was, for the moment, convinced really lay 
 spread before him. 
 
 Nahum, unused to groans, felt himself 
 called upon to pause, and accordingly came 
 to a sudden halt right where he stood, which 
 happened to be half-way down a short, steep 
 pitch, thereby bringing his grief - relaxed 
 driver s nose into sharp communication with 
 the dasher. 
 
 There could have been no more effective 
 counter-irritant administered ; it was as good 
 as a whiff of ammonia. Terry picked him 
 self up in a hurry and, pocketing his misery 
 for a more convenient opportunity, pro 
 ceeded to impel the old horse up-hill at the 
 point of the whiplash, and the top of his 
 climbing speed ; thereby arousing in his 
 equine breast a mixture of amazement and 
 mild indignation which expressed itself in 
 frequent shakes of his wise old head, and 
 layings back of his long, hairy ears ; the
 
 260 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 while his fat, respectable sides fairly heaved 
 and creaked with the unprecedented exer 
 tion. 
 
 " Don t say one word, Uncle Ike ! " ex 
 claimed Terry, the waters of Marah closing 
 over him again as his uncle came out to 
 hear the latest report from the cottage and 
 glanced with astonishment at Nahum, hot 
 and wheezy and turning one dumfoundered 
 eye upon his master as who should say, " Be 
 hold ! " 
 
 " Don t say one word ! I m as wretched 
 as thunder, and have been taking it out on 
 the horse, that s all. I ve made a con 
 founded mess of everything ; and and 
 Cy s dying, they tell me ! " and with a break 
 in his voice at the last words, the poor young 
 fellow sprang away upstairs to hide his sor 
 row and disappointment in his own room. 
 
 After all, in order to have much of the 
 man in him at three and twenty, a boy must 
 have considerable of the baby, too.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " Many hours dwindling to one, 
 One hour whose die is cast, 
 One last hour gone." 
 
 CHRISTINA RossErrn. 
 
 " Miss ROBIN, will ye sing me some- 
 thin ? " 
 
 Robin was beside the western window, 
 looking out into the sunset with absent eyes. 
 She turned from her own thoughts instantly, 
 at the sick boy s call, and went over to where 
 he lay. 
 
 " Indeed I will, Cy. Do you care what ? " 
 
 " That one they sing in church sometimes, 
 baout brooks an sunshine an things, an the 
 feller that could n t stop more n over night." 
 
 So Robin sang the old hymn while Cy 
 lay, drinking in the sweet words and tones, 
 with closed eyes and a happy face. 
 
 "I m a pilgrim, and I m a stranger, 
 I can tarry, I can tarry but a night. 
 Do not detain me, for I am going 
 To where the streamlets are ever flowing." 
 
 Conrad, coming over at that moment from
 
 262 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 his tea, withdrew his outstretched hand from 
 the tell-tale latch, and sat down in the 
 shadow without, to listen. 
 
 "There the sunbeams are ever shining, 
 I am longing, I am longing for the sight ! 
 Within a country unknown and drean r , 
 I have been wandering forlorn and weary." 
 
 " Poor Cy ! " thought the unseen listener, 
 while the tender voice sang through the re 
 frain, " you will be neither forlorn nor weary 
 long, your wanderings are almost over 
 now." 
 
 " Of that country to which I m going 
 My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light ! 
 There is no sorrow, nor any sighing, 
 Nor any sickness, nor any dying. 
 I m a pilgrim, and I m a stranger ; 
 I can tarry, I can tarry, but a night. " 
 
 The girl s tones were inexpressibly sweet 
 and comforting as she sang the last lines, but 
 they did not tremble, nor falter. Robin had 
 got beyond trembling ; her self-command was 
 something wonderful. Cy s voice broke the 
 silence when she ceased. 
 
 " Miss Robin, is Mr. Jacks n anywheres 
 raound naow ? " Terry s name had never 
 passed his lips before, in conscious moments, 
 since the accident. 
 
 " Yes, Cy. Would you like to see him ? "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 263 
 
 The answer to this was inaudible, but ap 
 parently affirmative, for Robin presently 
 came to the door and opened it. Certainly 
 she had known nothing of Conrad s proxim 
 ity, until he rose from the low seat by the 
 door, and stood before her ; yet she did not 
 hesitate, nor seem surprised at seeing him 
 there, but quietly desired him to send some 
 one for Terry, and went back, herself, into 
 the house. When he returned from doing 
 her bidding she was singing again. 
 
 An hour went by. The moon was like 
 transparent silver over the tops of the dark 
 pines. One by one the stars pierced through 
 the unclouded dome above like points of 
 golden nails driven by an unseen hand. The 
 shadows deepened and darkened as the heav 
 enly brightness waxed deepened and dark 
 ened in the sick-room as well, while the min 
 utes winged their unremitting flight toward 
 the supreme instant that should be, for him 
 who lay and waited there, the swallowing up 
 of every earthly shadow in the fullness of 
 eternal light and joy. 
 
 Wheels rolled up the street, and stopped. 
 Robin thought it would be Terry, but it was 
 not. It was Dr. Farnham. He looked at 
 Cy, felt his pulse, and then, thrusting one
 
 264 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 hand under the blanket, felt the extremities 
 also. Then he walked to the window where 
 Robin had been sitting, and looked out into 
 the moonlight till Conrad, who had come 
 into the room with him, began to think he 
 would never speak. When he did, it was 
 only to utter some remark upon the beauty of 
 the night. Then he came back to his patient. 
 
 " Good night, Cy. I shall be in again in 
 the morning." 
 
 The heavy lids lifted, and Cy smiled 
 straight into the doctor s face. A smile of 
 such intelligence, so full of a strange, un 
 earthly peace, that the tender-hearted physi 
 cian could not meet it. He was turning ab 
 ruptly away when the boy held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-by, doctor ; ye ve been dreadful 
 good ter me." 
 
 The old man grasped the weak, white fin 
 gers almost convulsively in his own warm, 
 muscular hand, and fairly broke down into a 
 sudden sob. Then he hurried away. " Poor 
 fellow ! " he said to Conrad on the doorstep, 
 " he 11 not live the night out. I ve an ur 
 gent case five miles off, or I should stay to 
 see him through. He 11 do without me 
 though ; he won t suffer, probably. Poor Cy, 
 poor Cy ! if he s a fool. I begin to think
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 265 
 
 the rest of us are all knaves ! " and the kind 
 doctor wrung Conrad s hand hard, and drove 
 off to care for the little new life that was 
 nearing its beginning, while this one was 
 drawing to an end. 
 
 As Conrad turned to go in again, a hand 
 was laid upon him from behind. It was Ter 
 ry s. He was very pale, and his lips were 
 tightly compressed. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " said his friend, " I am 
 sorry for you, but we could not help it ; 
 he asked for you." 
 
 " Of course ; you did quite right. Only 
 I d rather be shot myself than face him. 
 Shall I go in now?" 
 
 The sound of his voice brought Robin to 
 the door, and she remained outside while her 
 cousin went in alone. Within the little room 
 it was dusky. Terry, coming from the light 
 without, could see nothing at first. 
 
 " Mister Jacks n is that you ? " 
 
 The feeble voice guided Terry s feet to 
 where its owner lay. 
 
 " Oh, Cy ! " was all the young man could 
 say, while the determined lips began, in spite 
 of him, to tremble. 
 
 " Don t feel bad ! I did n t send for ye ter 
 bother ye. I only thought I d kind er like ter
 
 266 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 say good-by, an then I wanted ter ask 
 a favor of ye." 
 
 " I never meant to hurt you, Cy." 
 
 " I know ye did n t ; ? t was my fault, not 
 yourn. I had n t no bisness ter grab the 
 pistil so, but ye see that squir l was an 
 old friend o mine, an I never had many 
 friends like smart folks, so I could n t 
 bear ter see him shot at. Likely he won t 
 miss me so much as I should him." 
 
 Terry was beyond speech by this time. 
 He could only register an inward vow that 
 no squirrel should ever come to grief at his 
 hands again. There fell a silence. 
 
 " Mister Jacks n." 
 
 Terry made a tremendous effort. " Yes, 
 Cy, I am here." 
 
 " Ye know I had a favor ter ask ye." 
 
 " Ask away, Cy. I 11 do it, if it half 
 kills me ! " 
 
 The fat boy scrutinized his face for a mo 
 ment with eyes that, from being always 
 something veiled in expression, had come, 
 of late, to have in them a look of more than 
 earthly clearness. 
 
 "Ye wouldn t ha done it oncet," he 
 said slowly, " but now, I kinder think ye 
 will."
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 267 
 
 "What is it, Cy?" 
 
 " Mister Forkner an Miss Robin I 
 can t say it good, but I guess ye know what 
 I mean." 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 " There s somethin gone wrong atween 
 em. I can see it, ef I be a fool, an I 
 thought, mebbe you could set it right ef 
 ye wanted ter." 
 
 A sudden frown darkened the young 
 man s brow, and his foot beat impatiently 
 against the floor. Cy gazed up at him wist 
 fully. 
 
 " He said ye was his friend. Miss Robin 
 alwers said folks oughter be willin ter do 
 anythin fer their friends." 
 
 No answer. Cy s auditor had hitched 
 himself half round in his chair, and was 
 drumming on the back of it with his fingers. 
 Doubtless he would have liked to bolt, but 
 invisible bands held him fast. " Greater 
 love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
 down his life for his friend." The divine 
 declaration, called back to him by means of 
 dying human lips, was ringing in judgment 
 through heart and brain. Much as he loved 
 his cousin, hard as his trouble was to bear, 
 something told him, even then, that Con-
 
 268 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 rad s love was the truer, and nobler, and 
 more deserving. He had always pleased 
 himself till now ; could he find it in him to 
 so far rise above all his former life as to set 
 himself aside, and, with his own hand, as it 
 were, make the way clear for his friend ? 
 Cy s voice broke in again. 
 
 " Ye like her, don t ye ? I alwers thought 
 ye liked her dreadful well." 
 
 " I always thought so too," muttered 
 Terry to himself, " but I m beginning to 
 think I must have liked myself a darned 
 sight better ! " 
 
 " I can t hear ye ; did ye say ye d do 
 it?" asked the boy eagerly, though his voice 
 was fast becoming weaker. 
 
 Poor Terry ! he sprang from his chair 
 and sought the window, as the doctor had 
 done. There was a mighty warfare waging 
 within him. Love for Robin and innate 
 selfishness arrayed themselves over against 
 friendship and honor, and the fight was 
 fierce. Standing there in the evening hush, 
 broken only by the quick breathing of the 
 dying boy, while the moon stole gradually 
 further and further south until one bright 
 beam fell athwart the darkness of the silent 
 room, the young man fought, in a brief ten 
 minutes, the decisive battle of his life.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 269 
 
 He won it. Won with it also a strength 
 and calmness that had not been his before. 
 He went back to where Cy lay, watching 
 him with anxious eyes, and bending over 
 the low bed said, quietly, 
 
 " So far as it lies in my power, Cy, I will 
 do what you ask." 
 
 The boy s look of gratitude was good to 
 see. 
 
 " I thought ye would," he said. 
 
 " What else can I do ? " 
 
 " Nothin , there ain t nothin else. Only, 
 don t never worry cause I did n t git 
 well. It s all right, I guess." 
 
 Another silence. Then Cy once more 
 held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-by." 
 
 But Terry could not say good-by. He 
 could only hold the passive hand a moment 
 longer, and lay it gently down, and go away. 
 
 " One moment, Mr. Faulkner, if you 
 please ! Janet has gone to Cy ; he will not 
 miss us for a little. I wish to ask you a 
 question." 
 
 Robin turned from watching Terry, as 
 he walked quickly away, and detained Con 
 rad with these words. Her manner was
 
 270 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 very quiet, and unhurried. This was no 
 sudden impulse, it was the outcome of a 
 determination slowly taken, and therefore 
 strong. She would not give up her friend 
 without one last effort. He alone could 
 offer an explanation of the state of things 
 existing between them, and since he did 
 not do so, she would ask it. Then at least 
 she might feel that no false pride of hers 
 had barred the way. 
 
 " Do you remember a promise that we 
 made one Sunday, soon after you came to 
 Ockley ? " 
 
 Conrad s heart bounded and stood still ; 
 but his reply, after a moment, came firm 
 and low. 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 " Have you kept it ? " 
 
 " Miss Robin," with the old memory the 
 old name came, unawares, to his lips, " it 
 has become impossible for me to keep that 
 promise ; I must ask you to release me from 
 it." 
 
 He was not looking at her ; but far away 
 at the river, shining and writhing in the 
 moonlight like a silver serpent. He did 
 not see the look of intensest pain and disap 
 pointment that held her face for an instant,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 271 
 
 whitening it to the very lips. When at last 
 she spoke, the chill of the clear September 
 evening was in her still, proud voice. 
 
 " You are released, Mr. Faulkner. Shall 
 we go in ? " 
 
 Nine ! ten ! eleven ! twelve ! 
 
 The hours rang slowly out, one after an 
 other, from the church tower close by. 
 They were the only sounds that broke the 
 stillness of that long, hard night. In the 
 feeble light of the little night-lamp sat the 
 three watchers silent. 
 
 Cy s eyes were closed, his breathing quiet. 
 They thought him sleeping, and feared to 
 break that slumber by a word. 
 
 One ! two ! three ! 
 
 The early morning air grew chill. Robin 
 stepped lightly across the floor, and fetching 
 her shawl wrapped it carefully about the 
 shoulders of her old nurse. The poor wo 
 man, well-nigh sick herself from constant 
 watching and grief, lay back, half dozing, 
 in her chair beside her grandson. The 
 other two, with only the width of the nar 
 row room between them as they sat, yet 
 separated in truth by a distance greater 
 than miles could measure greater even
 
 272 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 than that viewless space which death itself 
 interposes between loving hearts felt no 
 drowsiness, felt no cold. Their thoughts, 
 continually passing and repassing, wrapped 
 them in numb bitterness as in a mantle, 
 which the hours, as they sped unheeded by, 
 but gathered the more closely, fold on fold. 
 
 Four ! 
 
 How loud and solemn the separate strokes 
 fell upon their ears ! Conrad involuntarily 
 shuddered ; it seemed as if the old clock 
 were tolling a death-knell. 
 
 There came another sound along the vil 
 lage street ; faint in the distance, growing 
 more and more distinct as it neared and 
 passed the house, and dying gradually away 
 as it had come. The sharp, clicking sound 
 of a horse s trotting feet. Dr. Farnham was 
 coming back from his night s work ; he 
 would be in again presently. 
 
 The slender, clean-cut sound seemed to 
 rouse the dulled sense of hearing as the 
 broader, accustomed voice of the bell had 
 failed to do. Cy stirred a little, and opened 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Gran mer ! " 
 
 The old lady started from her doze, gave 
 one keen glance into her grandson s face,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 273 
 
 and, dropping to her knees beside him, 
 buried her gray head in the pillow. 
 
 " Mister Forkner Miss Rob " 
 
 They were beside him in an instant. One 
 look of loving gratitude and farewell to 
 Conrad, then he turned to Robin. He tried 
 to speak, but life and strength were fast 
 slipping from him, and the words were in 
 distinguishable. The rapidly glazing eyes 
 looked into hers the supplication he could 
 not utter, and, translating that look by the 
 power of her own loving heart, the girl bent 
 gently down and pressed her soft, warm lips 
 upon his death-cold forehead. 
 
 For one brief instant the boy s face was 
 transfigured ! Then the glad light died, 
 slowly, from his eyes, the pale lips set them 
 selves in that last, loving smile ; the breath 
 came slowly, slowly, fluttered, and 
 was gone ! And something which seemed to 
 be Cy, yet was not, lay peaceful, still, upon 
 the little bed, while the sunrise of a golden 
 autumn day was flushing in the east. 
 
 Cy had passed out from under the shad 
 ows, forever, into the glad high -light of 
 Heaven s eternal joy. 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " Oh farewell ! we now must part forever; 
 Sad I wander far from thee. :1 
 
 SONG. 
 
 CY died on Friday, and on Sunday they 
 buried him. The little church was full to 
 overflowing, for the fat boy, with his simple, 
 unselfish ways and quiet life, had won for 
 himself, even among those who had laughed 
 loudest at his oddities, more friends than he 
 had ever dreamed of. If there were some, 
 among the people gathered there, who came 
 merely from motives of curiosity, it mattered 
 little ; for even they read something, in the 
 still sweetness of that peaceful face, which 
 touched a very tender chord, and made them 
 too, for the moment, friends. 
 
 But Cy could not be called "the fat boy" 
 any longer. His sickness had been so far 
 kind that it had pruned away much of the 
 outward, physical deformity which had hid 
 den his real self like a mask ; and there was 
 revealed in death something of the delicate 
 outline of face and feature that he came into
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 275 
 
 the world with. The child made manifest 
 again after twenty years of blighted, and 
 overgrown, and, by the world s standard, 
 useless existence. And yet, there was more 
 also. The child had become a man. 
 
 CYRUS BURNS. 
 
 Aged 25 years. 
 
 Coffin -plates do not lie. The clear-cut 
 silver lettering was there to speak to-day, 
 with silent authority the fact that, unper- 
 ceived and unrecognized, a man had been 
 growing up among them, all these years, 
 where careless eyes had descried but an over 
 grown, half-witted boy. " The eyes of the 
 Lord run to and fro throughout the whole 
 earth, to show himself strong in the behalf 
 of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 
 Through the darkness, as of old, God s 
 hand had been at work all these years creat 
 ing a soul for his kingdom. That kingdom 
 which, however great, however wise, no man 
 can ever hope to enter except he first lay 
 aside all mere outward seeming and become 
 " as a little child." 
 
 Terry had begged, as the only thing he 
 could do, to be allowed to provide the flow 
 ers ; and the simple casket was fairly hidden 
 from view beneath roses, and ferns, and
 
 276 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 heliotropes, and fair, white, stainless lilies. 
 Their rich fragrance rose up, like incense, 
 through the stillness, and mingled itself 
 with the sweet organ notes that floated 
 down to meet it ; the bright September sun 
 shine and the soft September air flowed in, 
 through open windows, unreproved ; late 
 lingering birds that had sung their exultant 
 love-songs for Cy s listening ear in June, 
 sang, all unconsciously, his requiem now ; 
 while a great golden butterfly, attracted by 
 the bloom and perfume, fluttered in over 
 the heads of those assembled there, and 
 hovered, like a radiant, risen soul above the 
 delicate blossoms and the sleeping form 
 they covered. 
 
 " The wisdom of this world is foolishness 
 with God." 
 
 People said " the parson fair outdid him 
 self " in the solemn, touching, beautiful dis 
 course he delivered from these wonderful 
 words. He himself, looking down from his 
 pulpit upon the quiet face below, remember 
 ing words and smiles that had moved those 
 still lips, from time to time, through weeks 
 of suffering bravely borne, felt to the very 
 bottom of his heart, that simple Cy had out 
 done them all.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 277 
 
 Hard as that hour was for all in the little 
 band of friends that had been nearest to the 
 boy : for his grandmother, sitting there alone 
 in her old age ; for Conrad, with his bright, 
 brief summer-time bohind him, his darkened 
 life before ; for Robin, suffering in outward 
 silence, pouring forth her heart s trouble 
 only in the quivering, throbbing organ-tones 
 that had been born of like anguish centuries 
 before her day ; it was hardest, by far, for 
 Terry. His had been the hand to weave all 
 this intricacy of grief, and pain, and misun 
 derstanding into the bright, happy web of 
 his friends living; his the deed and word 
 that had transformed their cloudless sunshine 
 into the shadow of death itself. And to 
 undo the mischief in such incomplete wise 
 as was left possible to him, he must rend 
 asunder forever the airy fabric of his own 
 hopes, which, for two long years, he had 
 been so blithely fashioning ; must lay upon 
 his life-canvas, side by side with the bright 
 est vision of his three-and-twenty years, the 
 deep, dark shadows of repentance and re 
 nunciation. 
 
 It was agreed, on all sides, that if the 
 parson had never preached, Miss Robin had 
 never played, "anything like so feelin afore."
 
 278 UIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 It is absurd for people to assert that any 
 given musical composition has its own in 
 variable tale to tell. There were at least 
 two hearts in the little church that day for 
 which those clinging minor chords bore hid 
 den meaning ; yet the message that came to 
 the one was totally unlike that which the 
 other received. 
 
 When all was over ; when the flower- 
 laden casket had been lowered to its resting- 
 place in the spot Cy had himself chosen by 
 the river-boundary of the little village ceme 
 tery ; when all the people had gone away, 
 and the cool, green sods had been carefully 
 replaced above the new - made mound, Con 
 rad and Robin, standing one on either side, 
 raised their heads as by mutual consent, and, 
 looking full into one another s face, clasped 
 hands across the grave. 
 
 " Shall we say good-by, here ? it is a good 
 place." Conrad s voice was low, and not 
 quite steady, but Robin s clear tone never 
 wavered as she answered him. 
 
 " The very best. Good-by ! " 
 
 Without another word, another look, they 
 parted, and went their separate ways. He 
 to the hotel to pack his trunk, and be driven 
 a little later to the Falls, thence to take the
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 279 
 
 midnight train for Boston. She to the side- 
 gate of the cemetery, where Terry and her 
 imcle were already waiting. 
 
 " Robin, my dear, I have a call in another 
 direction. Abel Rogers has had a second 
 stroke. Terry will drive you home. I must 
 hunt up Conrad again, too, and say good- 
 by to him. The poor boy seems sadly cut 
 up by all that has happened. We must get 
 him here again, another year, for a better 
 ending to his visit. Go right to bed, dear 
 child," he added, putting her carefully into 
 the chaise, " you need rest, sadly. Terry will 
 excuse you. I shall be back to tea." 
 
 Rest, or something, Robin did indeed need 
 sadly ; but the strain had been too intense 
 and long-continued for relaxation to come 
 at once. Bolt upright, white, and silent she 
 sat by Terry s side, while Nahum, remember 
 ing his former experience with his present 
 driver, bestirred himself to climb the hills 
 alertly.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " Pardon the faults in me, 
 For the love of years ago : 
 Good-by." 
 
 CHMSTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 FEOM time to time Terry glanced at his 
 cousin, but her eyes never once turned to 
 ward him. There was a fixed, battle-worn, 
 enduring look in her face that he could not 
 bear to see, and yet that he could scarce 
 keep from noting, stealthily, either. A deep, 
 long sigh of relief fled from the girl s pale 
 lips when Nahum came at last to his delib 
 erate stop before the home doorway ; and 
 she sprang from the chaise, and passed 
 swiftly through the hall, as one who seeks 
 to escape and would not be stopped. 
 
 Terry understood, yet he stopped her, just 
 this once. He overtook her at the stair- 
 foot, and laid a gentle, but detaining hand 
 upon her own as it rested on the rail. 
 
 " Cousin Robin," he said, quietly, calling 
 her, with a generous grace that was some 
 thing new in Terry, by the name he had
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 281 
 
 never used before since they were boy and 
 girl, " I am going back to New York to 
 night ; won t you say good-by ? " 
 
 " You, Terry ? " 
 
 Her voice spoke mingled surprise and re 
 lief, and the little emphasis on one word told 
 of another feeling, too. She had not forgot 
 ten that some one else was to take the mid 
 night train. 
 
 " Yes, /," replied her cousin, with a little 
 accentuation on his part. He knew so well 
 that there would probably be but one pas 
 senger from Ockley, after all. 
 
 " I have not said good-by to uncle, I 
 could n t ; you must do that for me." 
 
 Then, seeing him so brave and unself 
 ish, so much a man in his disappointment, 
 Robin s heart smote her. She came down 
 the step or two which she had mounted, and 
 held out both hands to him. 
 
 " Terry, if I have seemed hard and un 
 feeling, forgive me ! I am both, I believe, 
 just now. It seems, somehow, as if I were 
 frozen up." The dreary little smile upon 
 her tired face touched him to the quick. He 
 had been forbidden to feel for himself, he 
 was beginning to feel for others. 
 
 " Don t speak like that, Robin ! " he ex-
 
 282 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 claimed, drawing a quick, sharp breath, " it 
 hurts. I know I have done a horrible two 
 weeks work, but it can be undone, some of 
 it, and it shall." And the young fellow 
 drew himself up with a look of resolution 
 on his face that had never been there before. 
 
 Robin did not understand. She thought 
 he spoke of himself, and his own troubles ; 
 she was glad for him that he could speak so 
 bravely. " That is right, Terry ; undo it all, 
 undo it quickly. It was never meant to be, 
 or I should have wanted it too, and I do 
 not. The right one is ready for you, some 
 where, and you are ready for her, or will be. 
 You mistook one girl for another, that was 
 all." 
 
 " I don t know that. It may be so, but I 
 am not quite ready to agree with you now. 
 If there be another Robin in the world I 
 have yet to find her, and " Terry lifted 
 his head proudly " anything less I do not 
 want ! " 
 
 " You are a noble fellow, Terry ! I never 
 knew half how noble before. You will find 
 a great deal more, some day, than you ever 
 found in me ; and meanwhile, I am proud to 
 be your cousin." 
 
 She would not call him " friend ; " that
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 283 
 
 word had been profaned. She held out her 
 hand, both hands, again. He took them in 
 his own and looked, with a long, wistful, 
 hungry look, into her eyes. 
 
 " Good-by, little girl," he said, tenderly ; 
 " if only one of us can be happy, I am glad 
 that one is you." Then, all at once, while 
 she looked wonderingly at him, he caught 
 her in his arms, kissed her once, twice, three 
 times, turned, and was gone. 
 
 She went slowly on, upstairs, wondering 
 still at his strange last words, and feeling 
 that in uttering this third farewell, she had 
 also bidden good-by to all her happy girl 
 hood, forever. 
 
 As for Terry, now that the supreme mo 
 ment was over, all his new-found strength 
 seemed to desert him. It had been compara 
 tively easy to speak brave, unselfish words 
 with Robin s hand in his, and Robin s eyes 
 looking approval at him ; but now he had left 
 her behind, and the hardest part of his task 
 lay yet before him. He plunged down the 
 steep bank to the river, and strode along the 
 narrow path that hugged the winding stream. 
 It was a weary, dreary way to his unwilling 
 feet. Every tree, every rock, every clump 
 of ferns and tuft of water-weeds that lie had
 
 284 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 known so long and well, had a word for him 
 that day. The happy summer-time was over 
 and gone forever. Autumn had already be 
 gun to lay her withering finger on many a 
 leaf and flower. " The time of the singing 
 of birds " was past ; only here and there a 
 stray partridge crept shyly away through 
 the undergrowth, or rose with hurrying whirr 
 from some hidden covert at his feet. The 
 river flowed on still. Summer or winter its 
 ceaseless waters never failed nor faltered; 
 yet even the river bore a sadness in its song 
 that had not been there before. The car 
 dinal flowers were all gone ; they had picked 
 the bright scarlet spikes together, Robin and 
 Conrad, and Cy and he, only a month ago. 
 Now the month was gone, and the flowers : 
 and of those who sought their vivid blooms 
 so gayly two were drifting apart who should 
 have been together ; and one had passed away 
 from birds, and flowers, and friends, out of 
 hearing of the rapid rippling river, that, flow 
 ing ever on amid his old-time haunts, flowed 
 also now beside his still, green grave ; and 
 one was leaving far behind the Eden of his 
 boyhood to forge out, with God s help, upon 
 the world s rough anvil that " whole armor " 
 for the want of which so many a gallant
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 285 
 
 head has been laid low in the first charge on 
 life s fierce battle-field. The true metal for 
 it all was in him ; the hammer and the anvil 
 would not fail ; but first must come the fiery 
 furnace, and the purging, and Terry shivered 
 before the fierce, hot pain even while he 
 went his swift, unswerving way to meet it. 
 
 In the stuffy hotel bedroom Conrad was 
 packing his trunk. Clothing, books, and 
 papers lay on the floor about him ; in his 
 hand was the manuscript of his partly writ 
 ten story. He had risen to his feet and 
 stood turning over the leaves with a grave 
 face, as Terry came in. The afternoon had 
 been cool, and in the little open grate lay 
 the smouldering remains of a recent fire. 
 Terry flung himself into a chair ; something 
 in the coincidence of things carried them 
 both back, in memory, to the little New York 
 study, and their last morning together there. 
 They had been fast friends, these two. 
 
 " Nearly packed ? " asked Terry, care 
 lessly. 
 
 " All, but. I want to get rid of some of 
 this rubbish ! " and hastily gathering up 
 all the odds and ends of wrapping paper 
 that lay scattered about Conrad thrust them 
 into the grate, adding thereto the few sticks
 
 286 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 yet remaining in the wood-box. Then, tak 
 ing several sheets from the pile of manu 
 script, he deliberately tore them across, and 
 flung the fragments upon the blazing pile. 
 
 " Hold hard, Con ! " exclaimed Terry, 
 jumping up as the other was about to repeat 
 the process, " what are you about ? " 
 
 " Don t get excited, Terry ; I am merely 
 burning my ships nothing more." 
 
 The words were light, but there was a 
 bitter tone to them that his friend had 
 never heard from him before. 
 
 " Don t do that, Con ; you will want 
 them again." And Terry coolly removed 
 the pile of manuscript to a place of safety. 
 
 " Hardly. Just hand the stuff back here, 
 please ! " 
 
 But instead of doing as he was bid Terry 
 came closer, and laid a hand on his friend s 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Con, old man," he said, trying to smile 
 and failing dismally, " don t get mad with 
 a fellow. I m going to say good-by in a 
 few minutes, and you won t see me again, 
 very soon. But first you re better up in 
 history than I am would what s-his-name 
 have burned his ships if there had n t been 
 hard fighting to be done, in a strange land ? "
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 287 
 
 Conrad looked up in surprise ; it was a 
 new freak for Jackson to be putting history 
 questions. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " he said ; " my 
 papers, please ! I m in rather a hurry." 
 
 But Terry had thrust his hands into his 
 pockets, and was striding up and down the 
 room ; letting off steam according to his old 
 habit. 
 
 " I mean just that ; " he answered, 
 slowly, as if he found his words hard to 
 speak. " You re making ready for hard 
 fighting, and there s no fighting to be done. 
 Or if there is, it s not for you. You can 
 go back to wherever you came from ! " 
 
 Conrad stood stock-still, arrested midway 
 in his progress across the room, his face be 
 coming like marble for whiteness and fixity. 
 " Do you know what you are saying, boy ? " 
 he cried, hoarsely and low ; " if you don t, 
 for Heaven s sake quit talking ! if you do, 
 speak out speak plainly." 
 
 Poor Terry! his sharp hour had come. 
 There was a hard, dull pain at his heart, 
 but the man was in him, he never flinched. 
 
 " Con," he answered, turning, like an 
 animal at bay, to face his death-blow. "I 
 know just two things, for sure. Robin does
 
 288 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 not love me, and never will ; and she does 
 and will always love some one else. 
 Who that some one is you know best, I 
 think." 
 
 He had fought bravely, but he could fight 
 no more. The strength had gone clean out 
 of him with those few, plain words. He 
 turned to the darkening window and laid 
 his vanquished head down, wearily, upon his 
 folded arms. 
 
 Victory, too, is hard to bear sometimes. 
 The swift, triumphant gladness which had 
 flashed into Conrad s eyes at Terry s words 
 faded and died away as he noted the price 
 at which his triumph had been bought. 
 Thankfulness and joy were there still, but 
 they shone through something very like 
 tears. There was silence, for a time, be 
 tween the two. 
 
 Then Conrad crossed the room and laid 
 his arm, lightly, across his friend s shoulders. 
 
 " Terry," said he, " I little thought, three 
 months ago, that you and I would ever 
 come to stand on opposite sides of a thing 
 like this. It is useless to play the hypocrite, 
 now, and say I m sorry, for I m not. I m 
 glad ! " (the ring in his voice told how glad.) 
 " But I have n t suffered these weeks past to
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 289 
 
 crow over you now, and a man who can do 
 what you have done is not to be pitied, ex 
 actly. There s only one thing to be said. 
 When I thought things were in your favor, 
 hard as it was, I never grudged you your 
 happiness for a moment. I know you well 
 enough to feel sure that you will never 
 grudge me mine. Our friendship can stand 
 even this strain." 
 
 " Yes, by Jove, it can ! " exclaimed Terry, 
 raising his head proudly, but keeping his 
 face carefully turned toward the window. 
 " I m hard hit, Con, and no mistake, but 
 I m not such a fool as to want what does n t 
 belong to me for all that. May be, some 
 day, as Robin said, I shall find what does 
 belong to me, and then I 11 hold on in 
 spite of the devil ! " He grasped Conrad s 
 proffered hand in his own, appreciating for 
 the first time what that other hand-shake, 
 three weeks before, had cost his friend ; but 
 for all his brave words, the boy was sore at 
 heart ; and when Conrad had left the room, 
 he threw himself, face downward, upon the 
 low lounge by the fire and lay there, motion 
 less and still, while the red flame danced 
 and flickered casting weird shadows over 
 walls and ceiling, and rose, and fell, and 
 
 19
 
 290 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 sobbed itself to death in a blue quiver. The 
 embers glowed, and deadened, and cooled to 
 soft, white ashes ; but yet the prostrate figure 
 lay there and did not stir.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " Thou, and the evening star, and she and I." 
 
 EDWIN ARNOLD. 
 
 CONRAD went on and up, over the hills, 
 in the cool, early evening. On and up till 
 the narrow brown road lay in a long, curling 
 ribbon behind him, and only the last steep 
 hill remained to climb. He had never 
 thought to climb that hill again! 
 
 He had come fast, for his feet kept pace 
 with his brain, and his brain was in a whirl. 
 He had not paused, as yet, to look back over 
 the past. Possibly, had he done so, the 
 future might have seemed a bit dubious to 
 him, remembering Robin s proud, still face 
 of late. He had not got so far, either, as to 
 hazard a peep at the future, or, possibly, that 
 might have sent him about-face to the past 
 for counsel. He had thought and action 
 for the present only, but such thought and 
 action were at high pressure. 
 
 The fair full moon was rising in silent 
 majesty over the eastern hills ; the shadows
 
 292 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 of the tree-trunks along the roadside fell 
 like black, forbidding bars across his way. 
 He trod them under foot, and pressed on. 
 Far off in the woods an owl was hooting ; 
 the cool autumn wind stirred fitfully among 
 the branches, and over in the meadow count 
 less fall crickets polished their black legs 
 with busy chirping. He opened the little 
 side - gate, noiselessly, and let himself 
 through. It seemed a lifetime, almost, 
 since he had last laid his hand upon its 
 iron latchet. No one was in the porch, no 
 one in the study. He passed out again, and 
 round to the side door-yard. Mrs. Bloom 
 was coming across from the barn-yard with 
 a milk pail in either hand ; the moonbeams 
 flashing back from their shiny tin curves as 
 she walked. 
 
 " Is that you, Parson Gary ? " she called 
 out, catching sight of a man s tall figure 
 emerging from the house shadow ; " we re 
 late with the milkin ter-night, caount o 
 the funer l puttin us back some." 
 
 " It s I, Mrs. Bloom. Where is every 
 body?" 
 
 " The Lord preserve us all ! " ejaculated 
 the housekeeper, letting fall her milk-pails 
 where she stood, and coming forward quick-
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 293 
 
 ly. " Where is everybody, sure enough ? 
 Or where hev they be n, ruther ! I never 
 clreamp o seein your face ag in, Mister 
 Forkner. Be ye come ter stop this time ? " 
 she scrutinized him sharply as she spoke. 
 
 " That is not for me to say," replied Con 
 rad, gravely. 
 
 " H m ! donno as t is naow. Three 
 weeks back I sh d ha said t was in a 
 maysure." 
 
 " Where is Miss Robin ? " asked Conrad, 
 again, chafing inwardly at being so far de 
 pendent upon the housekeeper s clemency 
 that he must stay where he was till she chose 
 to answer him. 
 
 Mrs. Bloom s rigid features relaxed, and 
 there came a tearful pucker into her fat face 
 that would have been ludicrous but for its 
 cause. 
 
 " She s in trouble, poor thing, that s 
 where she is ; an I wish all the fellers in 
 York had be n drownded in a pint pot afore 
 she d had her pretty, happy life destroyed 
 by em ! As ef t warnt enough ter see poor 
 Cy a-layin dead there to-day, all along o 
 that kerless Terry an his murderin blun 
 derbuss ; but Miss Robin must be goin 
 round with somethin in her lovin little
 
 294 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 heart that s worse n any bullit, fer it s turn- 
 in her cold an still too, only she can t die 
 an git threw with it like Cy s done. She 
 come out here, just now, with her white face, 
 an cold hands, an her big eyes fit ter burn 
 us all up ; an not a word ter me nor no 
 body, but up an away through the cold, wet 
 grass, with her thin shoes an not a rag over 
 her shoulders, poor dear, an I not darin ter 
 speak a word, like an old fool ! " She put 
 her apron furtively to her eyes, and Conrad 
 stood waiting. " Fer the Lord s sake, Mis 
 ter Forkner," she exclaimed, facing round 
 upon him abruptly and fiercely, " ef ye ve 
 found out what a durn fool ye ve be n, an 
 mean ter own to t, go after her ! She s in 
 the hill orchard." 
 
 Conrad waited for nothing further ; he 
 had got all he asked for and a good deal 
 more. He hastened away, through the trees 
 and up the slope, the echoes of Mrs. Bloom s 
 unminced remarks yet buzzing in his ears 
 like a swarm of hornets ; while she, worthy 
 woman, resuming the burden she had dropped 
 to battle so fearlessly in her young lady s be 
 half, followed him with damp eyes till he was 
 out of sight. 
 
 " Drat the men ! " she said to herself,
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 295 
 
 as she hurried into the house and began 
 to bustle about to make up for lost time ; 
 " they re queer critters, the best on em. / 
 know em ! Some on em won t take no fer 
 an answer ef ye hit em over the head with 
 the shovel, an more don t know beans when 
 they re right afore their noses ! Ef ever I 
 see the course o true love a-runnin smooth 
 an easy t was this time, till that boy Terry 
 come pokin around an lay in hisself right 
 acrosst the stream like a dam well never 
 mind ; he ain t wuth swearin about, an he s 
 got a blamed good duckin by it too, poor fel 
 ler ! that s one comfort." 
 
 Mrs. Bloom s remarks, like her sympa 
 thies, were getting to be a good deal mixed. 
 
 Conrad passed up through the hill or 
 chard ; now in moonlight, now in shadow, 
 till, at the very top, from beneath spreading 
 apple-boughs that made a fragrant gloom, 
 he emerged into open pasture-space flooded 
 with silver light. At any other time the 
 clear, pure beauty of the night itself would 
 have held him spell-bound. A wonderful 
 shadow-play was going on all over the sur 
 rounding hill-sides, and down in the valley 
 below. But to-night he had eyes for only 
 one object in all the gracious panorama that
 
 296 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 unrolled itself before him. Robin, her white 
 dress gleaming in the moonlight, stood by 
 the old stone wall alone. She did not hear 
 him coming; her eyes were upon the far, 
 immovable hills, and something" of their up 
 lifted strength was in the firm, true poise of 
 her graceful figure, and the still set of her 
 features, outlined against the light. The 
 girl was a soldier every inch. She might 
 suffer, or die, but it would be " on the field 
 of battle," her face to the enemy s lines. 
 
 " Miss Robin ! " 
 
 He could feel, standing beside her, that 
 she started from head to foot ; but she 
 turned instantly, unhesitatingly, and con 
 fronted him without a word. Then he saw in 
 her face the look of which Mrs. Bloom had 
 spoken ; the intense, wide-eyed look of one 
 who has suffered beyond the possible relief 
 of tears. That look, without a spoken word, 
 revealed at last, to his short - sightedness, 
 all that she had been enduring through 
 these hard days and nights when he had 
 fancied he was having all the suffering to 
 himself. In the light of those dark, sorrow 
 ful eyes he stood convicted. 
 
 There was nothing for her to say; she 
 had already done her utmost. She stood 
 and waited for him to speak.
 
 SIGH-LIGHTS. 297 
 
 He could be brave, as well as she. He 
 looked her full in the face ; the words came 
 hardly, but they came for all that. 
 
 " I have been mistaken. Three weeks 
 ago something was told to me that blotted 
 the very sunlight out of heaven itself. It 
 was a mistake ; but I believed it. I thought 
 I had good reason to believe it. Now I see 
 that I was wrong. AVill you forgive me?" 
 
 " Who told you something ? " 
 
 Her words were clear and cold as if 
 carved in ice, but the hard look in her eyes 
 began to soften. 
 
 " Terry, himself." His words were clear 
 too, but they were not cold, and his hand 
 some face was all aglow. 
 
 " And who has told you differently now?" 
 
 " Terry, himself." 
 
 " Brave boy ! " Her eyes shone, and a 
 soft color crept up into her cheeks. 
 
 " Brave, yes, he is all that ! Not one 
 man in ten thousand would have spoken as 
 he spoke to-night. His words made me 
 glad ; they lifted a weight from my heart 
 that had gone nigh to crushing it. But 
 what is it all to profit me unless you for 
 give me, Robin?" 
 
 She drew herself up to her full height,
 
 298 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 and the glorious rush of color to cheeks aud 
 brow was something to see as she answered 
 him in impetuous words. 
 
 " Mr. Faulkner, what the past has been to 
 us, we both know too well for either to at 
 tempt denial. It has been much, very much 
 to me ; I am not ashamed to own it ! " 
 Truly there was no shame, nor need for it, 
 in the deep, womanly eyes that met his so 
 steadfastly. She went on, more hurriedly : 
 " When I saw, as I could not help seeing, 
 that something had gone wrong, I was sorry 
 I was hurt, but that was all. I felt so 
 sure you would make it all plain, so sure," 
 the steady voice wavered a little here, " you 
 would keep your promise as I kept mine. 
 For I have kept it ! " she asserted proudly, 
 " kept it in the face of much that would 
 have seemed, to many an older woman than 
 I, excuse sufficient for breaking it. Kept it 
 to the extent of reminding you of your own, 
 and you flung back the friendship you 
 were first to seek ! " 
 
 The pain and bitterness of that last night 
 at the cottage were in her face once more as 
 they had been then ; and Conrad s eyes were 
 not upon the river this time, he saw it all. 
 
 " I was a fool ! " he c^ied, hotly, " a
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 299 
 
 blind, blundering, half -crazy fool! but I 
 have suffered for it too. Can you forgive, 
 Eobin?" 
 
 She laid her right hand instantly into his, 
 held out to take it. 
 
 " Yes, I can forgive." 
 
 " And forget ? " 
 
 She would have withdrawn her hand, but 
 he held it fast, as one who had no mind to 
 let it go again. 
 
 " And forget, Robin ? " he repeated, look 
 ing down into her face with earnest eyes. 
 
 " It s ill patching a broken friendship," 
 she said slowly, but her voice had lost its 
 clear control, and her eyes fell before his 
 steady gaze. 
 
 He answered not a word, but the strong 
 hand clasping hers drew her closer, closer, 
 while the other arm crept round, unseen, 
 and held her fast. 
 
 " Robin," he said, then, and the deep, full 
 tones had a thrill in them that fell like 
 music on her tired ears, "our friendship 
 broke, not because it was weak, but because 
 we tried to make it hold too much. There 
 is another word, not half as long ; but it 
 contains all friendship and infinitely more 
 besides. I think it is the word we have
 
 300 HIGH-LIGUTS. 
 
 been spelling to ourselves all along. Shall 
 we spell it together now ? " 
 
 How should she answer when her heart 
 was full, almost to bursting, with the meet 
 ing tides of sorrow and great joy ? Not one 
 word came from the firm-set lips ; but they 
 quivered away from their firmness, like a 
 child s. She could do no more. The long, 
 brave fight was ended ; the fountains of the 
 great deep were broken up ; the proud little 
 head drooped down, down, like a tired bird, 
 to its resting-place, and Robin cried as 
 though her heart would break. 
 
 A few days later old Ben Thacher and his 
 sister Constance were sitting out under the 
 trees on the lawn at Winford. That is, their 
 bodies were there ; where they themselves 
 were is not so easy to say, for Mr. Thacher 
 was sound asleep in his lounging-chair, and 
 Miss Constance was deep in a book. For 
 a long time the stillness remained unbroken, 
 save as the wind rustled the leaves of the 
 elm-branches overhead, or as the lady turned 
 those of the volume in her hand. Suddenly 
 there broke upon the stillness the ringing, 
 metallic hoot of a locomotive whistle ! Miss 
 Constance dropped her book, consulted her 
 watch, and poked her brother.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 301 
 
 " Ben Ben ! the train is at the junction ; 
 I heard it just now." 
 
 " My gracious, Constance ! what possessed 
 you to let me sleep so long ? Do my best, I 
 can t get to the station before he does, now." 
 
 " May be you will have time ; they wait at 
 the crossing, you know." 
 
 " Well, well, I must be off ! Hope Quinn 
 has got the horses in. Will you come ? " 
 
 " No. I won t hinder you any more." 
 
 And indeed he did not give her a chance, 
 for he was halfway to the stables before the 
 words were well out of her mouth. 
 
 She laughed to herself as the buggy tore 
 down the road in a cloud of dust, and she 
 caught sight of her brother s hat lying on the 
 grass where he had tossed it before going to 
 sleep. Then she settled once more to her 
 reading, to be shortly roused, for the second 
 time, by a hand laid on her shoulder, and 
 Conrad Faulkner s pleasant voice in her ears. 
 
 When Mr. Thacher returned, ten minutes 
 later, hatless and crestfallen, without the 
 guest he went to seek, he found his sister 
 just where he had left her. but her face was 
 radiant, and the interrupted novel lay, in an 
 ignominious sprawl, upon the grass beside 
 the hat.
 
 302 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 " Ho-ho, how self-satisfied we look, to be 
 sure ! Guess the conquering hero has ar- 
 rove, after all. Did he drop from the clouds ? 
 and has he gone back the way he came? " 
 
 " Not a bit of it ! He has only gone to 
 his room. He got off at the crossing and cut 
 through the woods." 
 
 " Cut me too, the rascal ! However, I sup 
 pose this is no time for showing spite. Cu 
 pid s blind, he d never see it if I did. How 
 does the fellow look ? " 
 
 " Well, and very happy, Ben." 
 
 " H m ! I suppose so ; they all do at 
 first. Is he prepared to look happy till 
 October for our exclusive benefit ? " 
 
 " He wants us to give up the Moosehead 
 plan, and go back to Ockley with him." 
 
 " I 11 warrant he does, young scamp ! " ex 
 claimed the lawyer, with a beaming face ; 
 " after keeping us waiting all this time. You 
 nipped that proposition in the bud, of 
 course ? " 
 
 " I said we would go." 
 
 " The deuce you did ! You and he together 
 make a pretty go-ahead team, old lady. There 
 seems to be nothing left for me but to put 
 my tail between my legs and trot along after 
 the wagon. Hulloa ! here s the fellow now !
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 303 
 
 Well, sir," seizing Conrad s two hands and 
 working them briskly up and down like 
 steam pumps, " I don t see as there s much 
 left for me to say. Connie, here, seems to 
 have said everything and a little more. 
 What train do we expect to take to-morrow 
 morning ? I must be packing up." 
 
 " Day after to-morrow will do very well," 
 said Conrad, from whose happy face the 
 gathered gravity of years was swept away. 
 
 " Do very well ? no such thing ! I 11 tell 
 her you said so, though. Twas for your 
 pleasure (and the old lady s) you came here ; 
 you shall go back for mine. If I can t boss 
 the line of travel, at least I 11 boss the time 
 of starting. I want to see this girl with a 
 bird s name that s been setting us all by the 
 ears for three months, and upsetting all my 
 plans. I want to inspect her dairy, and 
 taste her butter, and find out whether or 
 no she s fit to be a poor man s wife. For 
 you re a poor man, you know, Con ! " And 
 Mr. Thacher bestowed a most undignified 
 and vigorous wink upon his sister, in return 
 for her remonstrant shake of the head. 
 
 " I know I used to think so," replied Con 
 rad, not at all cast down ; " I do not think so 
 now."
 
 304 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 , noiv, of course not!" repeated 
 the lawyer, trying in vain to frown. " Now s 
 a great time with you ; the heyday of youth, 
 and all that. But," he added abruptly, turn 
 ing upon Conrad with a sharp scrutiny, " by 
 and by is coming, too. There are all sorts 
 of days in life, boy, as well as sunny ones. 
 Three months ago you said you could n t af 
 ford to keep a wife ; why have you changed 
 your mind ? " 
 
 And Conrad, looking straight into the old 
 man s face, answered, with all his great joy 
 shining in his eyes : 
 
 " Because I cannot afford to live with 
 out her any longer." 
 
 When Robin carried the good news to Ja 
 net, the old woman s face fairly shone. 
 
 " Then a s come right at last, Miss Robin, 
 an it s I that s main glad for ye baith ! If 
 ever onybody deserved the best things o this 
 weary war! , it s just them that s gettiu em 
 noo." 
 
 " If only we could all be happy together ! " 
 said Robin, the one little cloud in all her 
 bright new sky coming over her face, as she 
 remembered through what depth of sorrow 
 this joy had been brought about.
 
 HIGH-LIGHTS. 305 
 
 " An so we can," replied Janet, cheerily; 
 " wha s to hinder ? " 
 
 " When I think of Terry and Cy " - 
 
 " Hoots, lassie ! " interrupted her old nurse. 
 "Ye ve no call to pity Maister Terry, my 
 dear. The lad s pains are just wha folks ca 
 growin pains ; he 11 but be the bigger 
 mon for them, some day. An as for Cy 
 my Cy," added the old woman, with a ten 
 der gleam in her deep-set eyes, " he s won 
 till the heart o it all. He would na change 
 places wi ony o ye ! " 
 
 Robin s face cleared, and the happy look 
 crept back again. 
 
 " I min Maister Faulkner sayiii one 
 day," went on Janet, "how we nane o us 
 ken muckle o ane anither s shadows ; but 
 there s twa sides to that, as there maun be to 
 everything sae long s there s a hither an a 
 yon. Look at thae twa bonnie cloodies," 
 pointing to where, at either side of the blue 
 dome above them, swam a soft-piled vapor 
 bank ; " what for, suppose ye, the ane s 
 white as the driven snaw, an the ither black 
 as deith itsel ? " 
 
 " Because we are on the sunny side of one, 
 and the shady side of the other," said Robin, 
 smiling. 
 
 20
 
 306 HIGH-LIGHTS. 
 
 "Aweel, apply that noo, as the pairson 
 says, to life an deith, joy an sorrow ; aye re- 
 memberin where we stan . Aye remember- 
 in too, that whan we win to the Lord s stan - 
 point, we shanna see things one-sided ony 
 mair. The darkness an the lieht are baith 
 alike to Him ! "
 
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 A 000705916 5