Then I'll Come Back to You

ght, blamed his sleeplessness upon the weather. It was fully an hour before his usual, not-too-early hour of rising, when he slowly descended the wide s

d Caleb's step and the latter stood for a time in the doorway, contemplating the small, square-set s

who chanced to have big eyes. Merely because they had so persistently denied him sleep-those thoughts of Old Tom and his cherished tin box and the boy's own unmistakable poise and surety of self which even the shuffling boots and ragged clothes had only made the more impressive-merely because they persisted in endless procession through his brain, while he rolled and tossed and re-arranged the pillow, he had grown more and more peevishly eager to discount and discredit them, during the darkness. But when morning came, and

he stood and studied him, and while he studied it all came back again, until the illusion, if such it were, was far more vivid, far more compelling than it had been the night before. Caleb told himself that to look only meant the discovery of new and compelling "points"

e, a little perplexed, turned to follow the direction of that fascinated gaze, Allison himself squeezed through a narrow aperture in the box hedge and hailed him jovially from the far edge of the lawn. And Caleb Hunter's brows drew together in a bit of a frown when a slender figure in kilted black velvet and bright-buckled l

ange as the mood was, at that moment he couldn't help but feel, too, somehow a little sorry for the boy-he couldn't help but think-- His eyes went from Steve's forward thrust head, from the hair shaggy and unkempt for all

tion for his body. Caleb had never given it a serious thought up to that moment, but now it came back to him with added cumulative force. He recollected that he had often wondered at the child's unconscious adaptation of mood to the clothes she happened to be wearing; he recalled how he had seen her demure and distant in misty, pastel-ti

an she was to be-of the dainty grace and more than usual beauty which was there in the promise of the years. And he who was fond of insisting to his sister Sarah, that there was many a boy back in those hills who, with his chance, might some day achieve greatness, suddenly

r though she did pause to stare at his white drill trousers and unbelievable man-sized boots with frankly childish astonishment, the next instant she had recovered hers

Uncle Cal," s

ed once from the little girl's face, from the time she appeared in the hedge gap until she mounted the steps, utterly oblivious to his nearnes

the words hanging upon tongue-tip by her instant disappearance inside in search of Sarah, Caleb caught no hint of the thoughts behind those impassive

iry fashion across the lawn, surpri

r Allison-and Cale

hands. It was their unvaried formula of greeting, whether they h

nds in his pockets, gazing at the averted face, unconcealed and growing amusement in the scrutiny, until Caleb, not yet aware of the boy's woods-taught habit of seeing while seeming not to

reluctance as reasonless as it was unnoti

to have a look at the city which you have been so instrumental in arousing to its prese

could have hugged him for his deliberation. The boy inclined his head; he

hen," the latter exclaimed with quite

. For an instant he stood, his eyes, grave and inscrutable, full upon Allison's

pe, and then burst into one of his r

en stopped to look down again into the small face before him. "We

what this early morning ca

on of the sudden, prideful something which had warmed hi

sual raid upon the co

ed heavily to

s the skirmish line-scouts-videttes-whatever you please to call 'em. There's no-one up ye

truancy of Barbara Allison and her father-one of the little human foibles which Ca

e said, and he tur

sked. "Will you tell her, please, that we are to

arger man to a chair. And this time it was Caleb w

him? Those shoes, and those trousers-pants, I guess is the word,

tion. There were faint red welts st

yours, di

re, and he omitted any reference to Old Tom, except for the most hazy explanation that the boy had no immediate kin. But with an increasing eagerness he dilated upon the small foot

McLean to give him a ride in the cab of one of tho

n disappointed. But, without any confessed reason for so doing, Caleb had aimed rather at the opposite effect. And Allison turn

chance to show someone his pet buzz-saws and things. I'll walk down with you, myself, after breakfast. I m

e lead of Sarah Hunter's choice. He noticed, too, that the boy's eyes did not once lift to those of Barbara Allison, opposite him. And while the lit

f water and the prolonged drouth which was burni

" he said, "if it'd only rain a bit, I'd like to take a trip

as an excuse to go back north, don

joke over his round-about methods was an

to rain,"

ward him, his eye

In the general course of thing

upted him, sha

he stated inflectionlessly, "and it

try to hide his broa

not unkindly. "Well, at that, your guess when it come

he boy shoo

n't thinkin' it will. It'll jest be rainin', come su

-known attitude toward the vice of gambling checked him in the rash offer. Besides, he wondered how he could make sound anything but fool

loped a sudden and unshakable resolve to be one of the party, and after his remonstrances h

ant to come as much as all that, but-but

hill he voiced his

to first motives. But the other sex is beyond me! She's always turned up her dainty nose at the noise and d

single glance for her escort. Caleb, noting that Steve's head was forward-thrust, knew that his eyes must be fastened hungrily upon the town in the valley; and he understood th

ly transparent," he mused. "And she-she was the most un

r one of his voluble tours of the premises. But when Caleb had explained the main errand upon which they had come, after a long,

is it?" he asked then. And, after a moment: "An' do you t

right they were. It was a struggle for him to take

e I kin,"

neer in the diminutive cab. "It's car-reful you'll be, Misther e

Steve, with one foot upraised, hung back. He faced toward

bby she'd lik

le higher, half wheeled and slipped

I don't care t

e engine rolled out of the yard and went clanking down the uneven, crooked track, leaving a dissolving trail of steam behind. When it returned the little

cLean demanded with an assumption of an

ith a proprietary hand. As grave of mie

ed. And then, cocking his head judiciously: "I'll hev

pidly deepened to amazement, for there were few steps in the processes upon which the boy could not talk as fluently and technically as did the

t called attention to an unsawe

a stick to be wasted, does

ely into a pile of sawdust, his piping voice

ated succintly. "Dry

atively, McLean dropped one hand upon the b

e afther knowin' where to find a riverman av the old

ention. They followed him out, Steve hard at his heels, and Barbara Allison, lips pouted, tight to her father's side. After a brief exam

mith that I'll be wantin' a strip av str-rap iron, two feet in l

again in a twinkling, empty-handed,

de," he said, and the words were broken by his panting breaths. "But he s

he word, po

h eagerness, uplifted to his. Quiet endured for a long time, and then, at a chuckle from Allison, Steve wheeled-he wheeled just in

they were purple where they had been gray before. And Caleb had never seen a face grow so white-so white and set and dangerous.

mned funny, aither! An' I-I'll be goin' down now to teac

rd the shop, an

stimate whether our spruce would cut two million feet or less, an' you'd have come as close as mor-rtal man could, I'll wager. 'Twas a trivial th

is employer McLean

ess of his face, did not know what to say himself. He only knew that he, too, felt unreasonably bitter against Allison for his burst of mirth

ths were the same, Steve," awkwardly he tried to comfort him. "I guess there was a tim

whirled-the boy-and his eyes blazed, hurt, shamed, bitter, into Caleb's kindly on

er hed a chance to learn that they wa'n't no difference between them figger

ed blindly up the steps an

when he turned he saw that here were thunder-heads piling up in the southwest. One long finger of black cloud was already poked up over the horizon. He remembered the boy's prophecy of the breakfast table;

ery. Out of his deep desire to heal his hurt he even promised him the use

e left him alone for a while-alone with his bruised spirit