lips. There were tiny drops along the roots of her shining hair,
for the climb had been steep, and now the shadow of disappointment
darkened her eyes. The mountains ran in limitless blue waves
towards the mounting sun--but at birth her eyes had opened on them
as on the white mists trailing up the steeps below her. Beyond
them was a gap in the next mountain chain and down in the little
valley, just visible through it, were trailing blue mists as well,
and she knew that they were smoke. Where was the great glare of
yellow light that the "circuit rider" had told about--and the
leaping tongues of fire? Where was the shrieking monster that ran
without horses like the wind and tossed back rolling black plumes
all streaked with fire? For many days now she had heard stories of
the "furriners" who had come into those hills and were doing
strange things down there, and so at last she had climbed up
through the dewy morning from the cove on the other side to see
the wonders for herself. She had never been up there before. She
had no business there now, and, if she were found out when she got
back, she would get a scolding and maybe something worse from her
step-mother--and all that trouble and risk for nothing but smoke.
So, she lay back and rested--her little mouth tightening fiercely.
It was a big world, though, that was spread before her and a vague
awe of it seized her straightway and held her motionless and
dreaming. Beyond those white mists trailing up the hills, beyond
the blue smoke drifting in the valley, those limitless blue waves
must run under the sun on and on to the end of the world! Her dead
sister had gone into that far silence and had brought back
wonderful stories of that outer world: and she began to wonder
more than ever before whether she would ever go into it and see
for herself what was there. With the thought, she rose slowly to
her feet, moved slowly to the cliff that dropped sheer ten feet