Just David

the house, the barn and the low buildings beyond loomed shadowy and unreal, yet very beautiful. On the side porch of the h

feet to go indoors that a long not

d the woman. "

swer. His eyes wer

Mrs. Holly, as a second tone quiver

n ejaculation he crossed the

had returned, a light

the woman, tremulously. "You-

trel fellow in possession of our barn? To-night, on my way home, I passed a pretty pair of them lying by the roadside-a man and a boy with tw

as she rose tremblingly to her feet, and fo

amation, the man turned then to the narrow stairway and climbed to the hayloft above. At his heels came his wife, and so her eyes, almost as soon as his fell upon the man lying back on the ha

ou can, sir. You see he's asleep a

airway paused in amazement, then the man lif

re you doing here?"

, and just now a bit anxiou

ded the boy. "He's so tired! I'm David, sir, and

he next instant he lowered the lantern and leaned nearer, putting forth a cautious hand. At once he st

playing a jig on your fidd

said he could walk through green forests then, with the ripple

" cut in Simeon Holly sternl

home

e is

nd there's such a big, big sky, so much nicer than down here." The boy's voice qu

o the sudden realization that it was

o for Higgins. Of course the whole thing will have to be put in his hands at once. You can't do anything

f wonder than of terror in it. "Do you mean that he has gone-

ed. Then he said

her is de

back any more?" Dav

ath convulsively and looked away. Even Simeon

David sprang to h

is father's face. He drew back then, at once, his eyes distended with terror. "He isn't! He is-gone," he chattered frenziedly. "This i

nging just as he said that they did. And I made him walk through green forests with the ripple of the brooks in his ears! Listen-like this!" And once

l and washing of pots and pans to prepare them for a scene like this-a moonlit barn, a strange dead man, and that dead man'

se, I say!" And the boy, dazed but obedient, put up his violin, and followed

g ago the sound of another violin had come to her-a violin, too, played b

she turned and fa

hungry, l

t forgotten the woman, the

h forced a "yes" from his unwilling lips; which sent Mrs. Holly at once into the pantry f

rdinary sight of hunger being appeased at her table, breathed more freely, and ventu

e?" she found cou

av

id w

t Da

sked, but stopped in time. She did not want to sp

the mountain where I can see my

dn't live t

r-before he-went aw

ushed red an

ere no other houses but

ma'

t your moth

in father'

-in your fat

ioner that David looked not a l

don't have anything only their pictures down here with us. And

ist in her eyes. Then, gently: "And did

rs, fath

o all day? Weren't

he boy's eyes

ople, other houses, boys of you

eyes w

olin, and my Silver Lake, and the whole of the great big w

ngs in them to-

, you know, after the squirrel, th

urriedly to her feet-the boy was a little wild, after all, she thoug

cally. "You see, we had so much in it that it g

Mrs. Holly, under her breath, throwing up her hands

but, to the woman's surprise, t

at Orchestra of Life, and that I must see to it that I

ck in her chair, her eyes fixed on the boy

sure bed is-is the best place you. I think I c

, and a case full of bugs and moths, each little body impaled on a pin, to David's shuddering horror. The bed had four tall posts at the corners, and a very puffy top that filled David with wonder as to how he was to reach it, or stay there if he did gain it. Across a chair lay a boy's long yell

ed into the yellow-white nightshirt, which he sniffed at gratefully, so like pine woods was the perfume that hu

voices. There came also the twinkle of lanterns borne by hurrying hands, and the tramp of shuffling feet. In the window David shivered. There were no wide sweep of moun

irst time since babyhood, sobbed himself to sleep-but it was a sleep that brought no rest; fo