of the one from the vices of the other, and training it after more
breadth and refinement. But Raines and Easter did not lend
themselves to the picture so readily, and gradually it grew vague
and shadowy, and the figure of the mountaineer was blurred.

Clayton did not bring harmony to the two. At first he saw nothing
of the mountaineer, and when they met at the cabin Raines
remained only a short time. If Easter cared for him at all, she did
not show it. How he was regarded by the mother, Clayton had
learned long ago, when, in answer to one of his questions, she had
said, with a look at Easter, that " Raines was the likeliest young
feller in them mountains "; that "he knew morn'n anybody round
thar"; that " he had spent a year in the settlemints, was mighty
religious, and would one day be a circuit-rider. Anyhow," she
concluded, " he was a mighty good friend o' theirn."

But as for Easter, she treated him with unvarying indifference,
though Clayton noticed she was more quiet and reserved in the
mountaineer's presence; and, what was unintelligible to him, she
refused to speak of her studies when Raines was at the cabin, and
warned her mother with an angry frown when the latter began
telling the mountaineer of "whut a change had come over Easter,
and how she reckoned the gal was a-gittin' eddicated enough fer to
teach anybody in the mountains, she was a-larnin' so much."

After that little incident, he met Raines at the cabin oftener. The
mountaineer was always taciturn, though he listened closely when
anything was said, and even when addressed by Easter's mother his
attention, Clayton noticed, was fixed on Easter and himself. He
felt that he was being watched, and it irritated him. He had tried to