“How’s Mavis?” asked Jason abruptly.

“Reckon you wouldn’t know her.  She’s al’ays runnin’ aroun’ with that Pendleton boy an’ gal, an’ she’s chuck-full o’ new-fangled notions.  She’s the purtiest gal I ever seed, an’,” he added slyly, “looks like that Pendleton boy’s plumb crazy ’bout her.”

Jason made no answer and showed no sign of interest, much less jealousy, and yet, though he was thinking of the Pendleton girl and wanted to ask some question about her, a little inconsistent rankling started deep within him at the news of Mavis’s disloyalty to him.  They were approaching the lane that led to Steve’s house now, and beyond the big twin houses were visible.

“Yo’ Uncle Arch’s been here a good deal, an’ he’s tuk a powerful fancy to Mavis an’ he’s goin’ to send her to the same college school in town whar you’re goin’.  Marjorie and Gray is a-goin’ thar too, I reckon.”

Jason’s heart beat fast at these words.  Gray had the start of him, but he would give the Blue-grass boy a race now in school and without.  As they turned into the lane, he could see the woods—­ could almost see the tree around which he had circled drunk, raging, and shooting his pistol, and his face burned with the memory.  And over in the hollow he had met Marjorie on her pony, and he could see the tears in her eyes, hear her voice, and feel the clasp of her hand again.  Though neither knew it, a new life had started for him there and then.  He had kept his promise, and he wondered if she would remember and be glad.

His mother was on the porch, waiting and watching for him, with one hand shading her eyes.  She rushed for the gate, and when he stepped slowly from the buggy she gave a look of wondering surprise and pride, burst into tears, and for the first time in her life threw her arms around him and kissed him, to his great confusion and shame.  In the doorway stood a tall, slender girl with a mass of black hair, and she, too, with shining eyes rushed toward him, stopping defiantly short within a few feet of him when she met his cool, clear gaze, and, without even speaking his name, held out her hand.  Then with intuitive suspicion she flashed a look at Steve and knew that his tongue had been wagging.  She flushed angrily, but with feminine swiftness caught her lost poise and, lifting her head, smiled.

“I wouldn’t ‘a’ known ye,” she said.

“An’ I wouldn’t ‘a’ known you,” said Jason.

The girl said no more, and the father looked at his daughter and the mother at her son, puzzled by the domestic tragedy so common in this land of ours, where the gates of opportunity swing wide for the passing on of the young.  But of the two, Steve Hawn was the more puzzled and uneasy, for Jason, like himself, was a product of the hills and had had less chance than even he to know the outside world.