funny, wild sort of whistlin' that didn't have any tune to it that
I recognized. It gave me a queer feelin'. It made me think of fairy
stories--an' things like that! Pretty soon I seen a figure on the
crest of the hill. There was a triangle of geese away up overhead an'
the boy was walkin' along lookin' up as if he was followin' the trail
of the wild geese.

"He was up there walkin' between the sunset an' the stars with his
head bent back, and his hands stuffed into his pockets, whistlin' as
if he was goin' home from school. An' such whistlin'."

"Nobody could ever whistle like Dan," she said, and smiled.

"I rode up to him, wonderin'," went on Cumberland.

"'What're you doin' round here?' I says.

"Says he, lookin' at me casual like over his shoulder: 'I'm jest
takin' a stroll an' whistlin'. Does it bother you, mister?'

"'It doesn't bother me none,' says I. 'Where do you belong, sonny?'

"'Me?' says he, lookin' sort of surprised, 'why, I belong around over
there!' An' he waved his hand careless over to the settin' sun.

"There was somethin' about him that made my heart swell up inside of
me. I looked down into them big brown eyes and wondered--well, I don't
know what I wondered; but I remembered all at once that I didn't have
no son.