night before the Fourth. The quarrel was
as plain as though typewritten on the face
of each. Marston would not come in that
night and the Blight went dinnerless to bed
and cried herself to sleep. She told the
little sister that she had seen the Wild Dog
again peering through the bushes, and that
she was frightened. That was her
explanation--but I guessed a better one.





VI

THE GREAT DAY

It was a day to make glad the heart of
slave or freeman. The earth was cool
from a night-long rain, and a gentle breeze
fanned coolness from the north all day
long. The clouds were snow-white, tumbling,
ever-moving, and between them the
sky showed blue and deep. Grass, leaf,
weed and flower were in the richness that
comes to the green things of the earth just
before that full tide of summer whose
foam is drifting thistle down. The air was
clear and the mountains seemed to have