"I can milk," said Chad, eagerly, and Dolph laughed.

"All right, I'll give ye a chance," he said, and old Joel looked pleased, for
it was plain that the little stranger was not going to be a drone in the
household, and, taking his pipe from his mouth but without turning his head,
he called out:

"Git up thar, Melissy."

Getting no answer, he looked around to find Melissa standing at the foot of
the bed.

"Come here to the fire, little gal, nobody's agoin to eat ye."

Melissa came forward, twisting her hands in front of her, and stood, rubbing
one bare foot over the other on the hearth-stones. She turned her face with a
blush when Chad suddenly looked at her, and, thereafter, the little man gazed
steadily into the fire in order to embarrass her no more.

With the breaking of light over the mountain, breakfast was over and the work
of the day began. Tom was off to help a neighbor "snake" logs down the
mountain and into Kingdom Come, where they would be "rafted" and floated on
down the river to the capital--if a summer tide should come--to be turned into
fine houses for the people of the Bluegrass. Dolph and Rube disappeared at old
Joel's order to "go meet them sheep." Melissa helped her mother clear away the
table and wash the dishes; and Chad, out of the tail of his eye, saw her
surreptitiously feeding greedy Jack, while old Joel still sat by the fire,
smoking silently. Chad stepped outside. The air was chill, but the mists were
rising and a long band of rich, warm light lay over a sloping spur up the