here, with your wife and daughter, at the cottage on Heavytree. Come,
old man. Here, boys, give him a lift;" and in another moment a dozen
strong and willing hands had raised the old man, and bore him in triumph
to the street up the steep grade of Heavytree Hill, and deposited him,
struggling and confused, in the porch of a little cottage. At the same
instant two women rushed forward, but were restrained by a gesture from
Henry York. The old man was struggling to his feet. With an effort at
last, he stood erect, trembling, his eye fixed, a gray pallor on his
cheek, and a deep resonance in his voice.

"It's all a trick, and a lie! They ain't no flesh and blood or kin o'
mine. It ain't my wife, nor child. My daughter's a beautiful girl--a
beautiful girl, d'ye hear? She's in New York with her mother, and I'm
going to fetch her here. I said I'd go home, and I've been home: d'ye
hear me? I've been home! It's a mean trick you're playin' on the old
man. Let me go: d'ye hear? Keep them women off me! Let me go! I'm
going--I'm going--home!"

His hands were thrown up convulsively in the air, and, half turning
round, he fell sideways on the porch, and so to the ground. They picked
him up hurriedly, but too late. He had gone home.




THE FOOL OF FIVE FORKS


He lived alone. I do not think this peculiarity arose from any wish to
withdraw his foolishness from the rest of the camp, nor was it probable