pioneer days had been weather-boarded and was invisible somewhere
in the big frame house that, trimmed with green and porticoed with
startling colors, glared white in the afternoon sun. They could
see the two ponies hitched at the front gate. Two horsemen were
hurrying along the river road beneath them, and Jason recognized
one as his uncle, Arch Hawn, who lived in the county-seat, who
bought "wild" lands and was always bringing in "furriners," to
whom he sold them again. The man with him was a stranger, and
Jason understood better now what was going on. Arch Hawn was
responsible for the presence of the man and of the girl and that
boy in the "gal's stockings," and all of them would probably spend
the night at his grandfather's house. A farm-hand was leading the
ponies to the barn now, and Jason and Mavis saw Arch and the man
with him throw themselves hurriedly from their horses, for the sun
had disappeared in a black cloud and a mist of heavy rain was
sweeping up the river. It was coming fast, and the boy sprang
through the bushes and, followed by Mavis, flew down the road. The
storm caught them, and in a few moments the stranger boy and girl
looking through the front door at the sweeping gusts, saw two
drenched and bedraggled figures slip shyly through the front gate
and around the corner to the back of the house.




III

The two little strangers sat in cane-bottomed chairs before the
open door, still looking about them with curious eyes at the
strings of things hanging from the smoke-browned rafters--beans,