Freckles

ves Mightily and the

Lean on the line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a marsh article of the Bird Woman's that he just had rea

troublesome, she was glad for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to the happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and a roll of songs that

cLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging t

nd McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but they knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced it, and the Bird Woman care

despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might break at any

l, who sat on one of his fancy seats,

e to think that there was the making of a great singer in you,

he world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr. McLean and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep me t

o me that if I had all the things to be proud o

be proud of, ma'am?" pol

yone speaks of you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of body you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost was full of disagreeable things-positive dangers, unhealthful as it could be, and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a rendezvous for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This

d been as big and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe today, and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her trenches? Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greene

up the banjo, recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhyt

try" [The Angel arden

nd thee" [She held

hung o'er thee long" [She muted

I unbound thee" [She threw up her

d song" [She crashed into the notes of the acc

be proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part of them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can sing! Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesme

lush. Her eyes were flashing and s

y, before he saw she was there, she was coming down the aisle toward him, playing compelling

est colors, and gigantic pillars that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages of sunshine and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form of the Angel wer

r her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot everything else,

e leaves of

on on

and valor d

rm a ma

men frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control. Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it never had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping him, as

love? Oh,

the shamr

is knees and folded his arms across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the aisle to him,

en heart. "Dear boy! I knew you could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the world, if you c

!" gasped

," said t

mp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The Angel walked slowly across the study, sa

oman wheeled to McLean

mutte

he Bird W

gel knew she did tha

not. But the poor boy k

"I don't see how I am going to blame her," she said at

demanded McLean hoars

d to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant to him, he recognized that it was the loving impulse o

he said simply, and parted the bus

f it and of the cathedral. She was entranced with the delicate beauty of the place, while her ey

es' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting and enjoying themselves. But the Angel pu

what he had wanted to know all summer-why the bees buzzed ineffectually around it while the humming-birds found in it an ever-ready feast. Some of his specimens were so rare that she was unfamiliar with them, and with

ping to the south and wondered where she was going. He stepped into the bright, cosy

an, do kisse

lush mantled her face. She straightened her

he outside. They strike in until they find the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, an

ed his hot, tired face into the water, "I needn't be