The Place Beyond the Winds

new or dangerous. Suddenly, and entirely subconsciously, she felt her kinship with life, her relation to the lovely May day which was more like June than May-and a rare thing for Kenm

he hardships of farming among the red, rocky hills of Kenmore instead of wrenching a livelihood from the water. This capacity for tilling the soil instead of gambling in fish had made of Glenn, and a few other men, the real aristocracy of the place. Nathaniel's grandfather, with his wife and fifteen children, had been the first white settlers of Kenmore. S

d to; the plain statement of fact was enough t

ud of his handsome wife-twenty years younger than himself. Inwardly he was proud of that, within himself, which had been capable of securing Theodora where other men had failed. Theodora had caused him great disappointment, but Nathaniel

(that was the only way he looked at it) five children-all girls, when she very well

he right direction. Then came the second girl, a soft, pale creature with ways that endeared her to the mother-heart so tragically that when she died at the age of two Theodora rebelliously proclaimed that she wanted no other children! This blasphemy sh

d alone, viewed the future superstitiously and with awe. Even Nathaniel, hope gone as to a son, resignedly accepted the fate

of all the others. She has the clear, dark skin of the first, the blue eyes

less sought in aristocratic circles, but so great had been the need the night when Priscilla made her appearance, tha

r, Nathaniel, smoking before the fire in the big, clean,

ong Jean made t

ut the child being a girl: the lure of the States can't touch her, and Nathaniel may have some one to turn to for care and what

ed Mary McAdam, cautiously thinking of he

to much," Long

uld come to her, as it had to all Kenmore mothers, when she would have t

ndent and charming. Still Theodora took long before she capitulated, and Nathaniel never succumbed. Indeed, as years passed he grew to fear and dislike his young daughter. The little creature, in some subtl

Priscilla in her small one-faced each other fearsomely for a time; then the c

" he muttered, taking

s only seven then,

ow dar

f I screw my eyes ti

ously; he wanted desperately to set himself right b

e from her face. She went close to her father, and leaning toward hi

that or Cilla

press upon him that past a c

width of the room and the square deal table between them. Then began the chase that suddenly sank into a degrading and undigni

she had never loved before, her small daughter. If the child was a conscience to her stern father, she was a materialization of all the suppressed defiance of the mo

moment the fury, outwardly, subsided, but deep in a

ght her little daughter to read by a novel method which served the double

esties So and So," that was rich in vowels and consonants. When Priscilla found that by taking innocent looking little letters and stringing them together like beads she could make words, she was wild with d

re her, her dark, blue-eyed face flushing and paling, "wil

p of the porch; "with the boys" had

glinting suddenly under his brow, "girls don't nee

want to know things." She was an intense atom

pisode of the small, fat mustard jar which always graced the middle of the dining ta

gated, suffered, and learned! Well, she

set forth his scheme of life

ed them-they will tame and keep you safe. You'll marr

other word, but there was a

rd night she pronounced her ultimatum. Kneeling by the tiny gable window of her grim little bedchamber, her

tony heart to let me go to school; if you don't d

niel's stony heart did not melt, and at the end of the three days Priscilla ceased to pray for

undergrowth and a few well-grown trees. From this spot one could see the Channel widened out into the Little Bay: the myriad islands, and, off to the west, the

ded to evolve. She invented weird words, meaningless but high-sounding; she propitiated her idol with wild dances and an abandon of restraint. Before it she had moments of strange silence when, with wonder-filled eyes, she waited for suggestion and impression by which to be guided. Very young was she when intuitively she sensed the inner call that was always so deep

the bare kitchen, morning and night, set forth the rigid, unlovely creed of his belief. This fell upon Priscilla's unh

essed the girl to a greater or lesser degree, but they were like pictures thrown

y and Michael McAlpin, with little Jerry-Jo, the son of old Jerry, were vital factors in Kenmore. They occupied the exalted position of rural expr

llous way, and so, as a firm, they had surmounted every inquiry and suspicion of a relentless government and were welcomed far and wide, not only for their legitimate business, but for the amount of gossip

ht vaguely, as she might have of a story

ok strangers hard. Then, added to this, the Traverses aroused doubt, for no one, especially Nathaniel Glenn, could account for a certain big, heavy-browed man who shared the home life of the Hill Place without any apparent right or position. For Mrs. Travers, Glenn had managed to conjure up a very actual distrust. She was

trength, Glenn would have nothing to do with his neighbours, four miles bac

ce, and mentally relegated them to the limbo of the damned under the classification of "them, from the States." The

om which to make talk. The family were reserved, and Tough Pine, the Indian guide they had impre

bout the Far Hill people than she did about the inhabitants of heaven a

topped at the wharf of Lonely Farm. While old Jerry went to the farmhouse with a package, Jerry-Jo remained on guard deeply engrossed in a b

and Island, had drawn her four dollars every year from the English Government, and ruled her family with an iron hand; his father was Scotch-Irish, hot-b

ly needed discipline. He meant to keep her in her place, so he kep

o, Jer

ul

d you get

r him up

e distortion that he was quite awful to look upon, and left no doubt in the girl's mind

, "and a fiddle and pictures and gewgaws.

ly offered to lend her one of the books until his father came back, and Priscilla eagerly stepped from stone to stone until she could reach the v

over they sang themselves into your very heart. They told you, lilting along, of a road that no one but you ever knew-a r

then Jerr

Priscilla, come do

, one large, full tear escaped the blue eyes and lay like a pitiful kiss on the fair

ather's

d up and a demon se

it back to you! It's mi

p the path and annihilate her, but she stay

stopped short. Then the girl's mood changed. Quite gently and noiselessly she ran to Jerry-Jo and held the

cried; "you

," she explained; "and, oh! Jerry-Jo, it is m

her rich voice rising and falling musically, and poor Jerry-Jo, hyp

faltered over the words at the first attempt, but with the second they rushed vividly to her mind and seemed set to the music of that "pat-pat-pat" sound on the water. An unaccountable excitement seized her-that new but

paddling straight for the landing-place! For a moment Priscilla hardly knew him. The winter had worked a

e wonderful change in her, for eighteen is keen about fourteen, partic

Her reddish hair was twisted on the top of her head and made her look older and more mature. Her uplifted face had the shining radiancy that was its c