indeed. Ann's skin had lost the pale pink of transplanted Northern blood. Her sweet face had almost lost the dignity of sorrow. It was lined, weather-beaten, at times almost vacant. The Re

ir change had gone beyond nature. Upon them, as upon their elders, had settled the silences and the va

its eager eyes sometimes shining like the high lights in a deep pool or suddenly grown slumberous with dreams, began to proclaim him a Leighton of the Leightons. So evident became the badge

nd Nat. The two were inseparable. Each had a pony, and they roved at w

When he learned that Leighton had been a schoolmaster, he did not rest until he had persuaded him to undertake the instruction of such of his children as were not already of use on the

the Leighton household; on

Sometimes on his pony, sometimes on foot, Lewis wandered with his flock over the low hills. When the rains had been kind and the wilderness was a riot of leaf and bloom above long reaches of verdant young grass, his journ

nnamon and spice, a confection prized to this day, openly by the young, secretly by the old. Nor did Lewis receive her with empty hands. One day a monster guava, kept cool under moist leaves, greeted her eyes; the next, a

g for her pale face. She was thin and lanky. Her hair, which matched the color of her eyes, might have been beautiful, but hair done in hard, tight braids has no chance to show itself. Lewis only knew that even when m

cking kid and handle him for an hour, gently, but deeply, seeking out bone and muscle with his thin, nervous fingers. Then he would mold a tiny and clumsy image of the kid in clay. No sooner was it done than idleness would

he morning sun, sometimes his fingers forgot what cunning they had, sometimes black thought fell upon him and held h

another. Lewis sat with hands locked about his knees and stared across the low hills out into

Dom Francisco, the cattle king, whose herds by popular account were

ce a pillar of dust. It came rapidly to him. From it emerged Natalie on h

fast," he said, glancin

hing the

gly, and then repeated-"no. I

d to pasture, but more often scampered ahead till a call from Lewis checked them. Natalie laid her han

aid, "what i

hey were both seventeen, but his inch

Marriage, Nat, is just mating-like birds mate. First you see them flying about anyhow; then two fly together. They build a

ndeed? Then she shook the frown from her. "Lew," she said gravely, but pla

ks and shook her hand fro

ay? They tell y

lie, tears in her eyes

rm across her shoulders in an awkward gesture of affec

" sobbed

oing, Lew had leaped upon her

ie, "Lew! Shall I

not h