It did not touch her, but the act called forth all the resentment and
fierce indignation of the young fellow who looked on.

"Stop!" he shouted. Then, because he sought for words to comfort and
could think of no others, he said to Priscilla, "Don't let them kill your
ideal; hold to it in spite of everything!"

"Yes," the words came slowly, defiantly, "I'm going to!"

"Go!" Nathaniel was losing control. "Go--you!"

Then, as if waking from sleep, the girl turned, and with no backward
look, went her way, Nathaniel following.

Travers, exhausted from the excitement, stretched himself once more upon
the mossy spot from which Priscilla had roused him. He was sensitive to
every impression and quivering in every nerve.

What he had witnessed turned him ill with loathing and contempt.
Brutality in any form was horrible to him, and the thought of the pretty,
spiritual child under the control of the coarse, stern man was almost
more than he could bear. Then memory added fuel to the present. It was
that man who had conjured up some kind of opposition to his mother--had
made living problems harder for her until she had won the confidence of
others. The man must be, Travers concluded, a fanatic and an ignoramus,
and to think of him holding power over that sprite of the woods!

He could not quite see how he might help the girl, but, lying there, her
dancing image flitting before his pitying eyes, he meant to outwit the
rough father in some way, and bring into the child's life a bit of