presence. "Reckon our boy'll be here all right," Nathan continued.

"_Our_ boy!" The Doctor caught a naughty word between his teeth--a feat
he rarely accomplished.

The ladies all looked sweetly interested. One of them putting her arm
lovingly about Charity cooed: "So nice of you to come, dear." She had
remarked to another a moment before, "that a fire wouldn't keep the girl
away from the depot that morning."

The Doctor felt distinctly the subtle, invisible presence of the Ally,
and it was well that someone just then saw the smoke from the coming
train two or three miles away, around the curve beyond the pumping
station.

The negro porter from the hotel opposite the depot, came bumping across
the rails, with the grips belonging to the two traveling men, in his
little cart; the local expressman rattled up with a trunk in his shaky
old wagon; and the sweet-faced daughter of the division track
superintendent hurried out of the red section-house with a bundle of big
envelopes in her hand. The platform was crowded with all kinds of people,
carrying a great variety of bundles, baskets and handbags, asking all
manner of questions, going to and from all sorts of places. The train
drew rapidly nearer.

The Doctor's old heart was thumping painfully. He forgot the people, he
forgot Corinth, he forgot everything but the boy who had come to him that
day on the river bank.

Swiftly the long train with clanging bell and snorting engine came up to