“Joan should bear half, anyway!”

Just what it was that Joan should share Nancy could not have told, she simply knew that she wanted Joan—­wanted what Joan represented.

With the passing of winter and the early coming of spring Nancy and Doris reacted to the charm of The Gap.  The shut-in days were past.  Almost before one could hope for it, the dogwood and laurel and azalea burst into bloom and the windows and doors were flung back in welcome to spring.

The grounds around Ridge House needed much attention, and Doris contrived to make Uncle Jed believe that he was the gardener.  Nancy, surrounded by dogs, no longer pups, wandered on the Little Road and timidly took to the trails.  It was quite exciting to go a little farther each day into the mysterious gloom that was pierced by the golden sunlight.  Gradually the girl felt the joy of the mountaineer; vaguely the emotion took shape.

What lay just around the curve ahead?  What could one see from that mysterious top?  Was there a “top”?  If one went on, overcoming obstacles, what might there not be?  These ambitions were quite outside the by-paths once or twice taken with Father Noble.

Doris was glad to see the light and colour in Nancy’s pretty face; she was grateful, but inclined to be anxious when Nancy wandered far.

“Is it quite safe?” she questioned Jed.

“Dat chile is as safe as she is with Gawd,” Jed reverently replied—­and perhaps she was, for God’s ways are often like the trails of the high places—­hidden until one treads them.

Nancy, by May, had lost all fear of the solitude, and with seeking eyes she wandered farther and higher day by day.  She brought back wonderful flowers and ferns to Ridge House; she grew eloquent about the “lost cabins” as she called them, secreted from any gaze but that which, like hers, sought them out.  She took gifts to the old people and timid children.

“It’s such fun, Aunt Dorrie,” she explained, “to win the baby things.  At first they are so frightened.  They run and hide—­they never cry or scream, and bye and bye they come to meet me; they bring me little treasures, the darlings!  One gave me a tiny chicken just hatched.”

But beyond the last cabin that Nancy conquered was a hard, rocky trail that led, apparently, to the sharp crest called by Uncle Jed Thunder Peak.

“Does any one live on Thunder Peak?” asked Nancy of Jed.

The old man wrinkled his brow.  He had not thought of Becky Adams for years; at best the woman had been but a landmark, and landmarks had a habit of disappearing.

“No, there ain’t no reason for folks to live on Thunder Peak.  It’s a right sorry place for living.”

Jed found comfort, now he came to think of it, in knowing that Becky had departed.

“Whar?” he asked himself, when Nancy, followed by two of her dogs, went away; “whar dat old Aunt Becky disappeared to?” Then he pulled himself together and went to deliver the message Nancy had confided to him.