Neighbours

mill-pond was a mill; an old-fashioned woolen mill which was the occasion and support of the little town. Beside the mill was a water-wheel; not a

ur day; my father started work at seven in the morning and worked until six at night. His days were full of the labor of the mill, but his evenings and the early, sun-bri

f this dam rose about two feet above the level of the water in the mill-pond, and was about two feet wide. Along this crest my father walked on his way

ell meet her at four, bare-footed and golden-haired and blue-eyed, with a wisp of white cotton dress and a gleam of white teeth set between lips of rose-leaf. Demurely down the road she came to

she said, when her little

" I said, with the mature auth

d at me elfishly from under her y

native gallantry, as well as a pleasant feeling of competence, urged that I immediately lead her across that two foot strip of masonry. But t

r, Jean," I conceded, "bu

With almost uncanny intuition she thrust at the

t say anythin

ou can

he sand beside hers,

he'd take me over, quick," she

usion to him as her big brother, who would take he

with masculine recklessness, starting

ul and came up spluttering, choking, frantic. The slippery wall gave no grip for my hands, and in a moment I must have gone down again, but Jean's head came

ome rushing out at a pace which had quite upset the operatives on his route. I was dragged up on the dam in a moment, and I

er, but he took her up in his a

issed her on the face, which he hardly ever did to me. Then homeward he led me, wet and miser

owel, and put in bed, and given a large tumblerful of hot choke-cherry wine, because it was still early in the season and the water was col

get thrashed

're awful bad you don't get thrashed; its o

d escaped punishment. My ideas of wickedness were well defined. Wickedness consisted of telling lies, using bad words, disobeying one's parents, getting drunk, and cutting wood on Sunday. All our religion was negative; it consisted entirely of Thou Shalt Nots. It w

gs and a suit with an uncomfortable white collar, and the four of us walked in great solemnity to the church of our faith. There were other churches in town, but I had already learned that it was almost as bad to go to them as not to go at all; in

a surreptitious killing of beetles, with which the church was infested. The building was small, but the preacher shouted at the top of his voice, as though in competition with the rival preacher two blocks down t

kitchen door, and which was a much more immediate menace than any possible torments of the after-world. I spent

locust-cloud of axe-men which had swarmed through the country twenty years before. All the good pine had been cut out then, but the hardwoods, being heavier and more difficult to market, had been left, and with them my father had wrestled many a sundown hour, and into the night until he could n

ween the bars and followed the path, now a cow-path winding sinuously about the trunks of sturdy maples, until it brought me under the shadow of the great, green arms. Far aloft the old tree towered in majestic symmetry, and the morning breeze passed through its branches with a sound as of a mighty wind. I

ce. It was a vision of Jean; a vision which has remained with me through the years, growing, thrilling in my moments of happiness, fading in my hours of darkness, but at no time quite obscure. Perhaps it was my

her golden locks held together by a midget sunbonnet, save for some vagrant curls which nestl

e big tree", she expla

a sudden sense that this young woman had led me into

ou know what you have to do

ing that possibly my behavior had been r

s-to-mawwy-her," she said, speaking very slowly at first, but fin

her face was radiant with t

ou! Only grown-ups d

e gwown-ups

with a sudden burst of resolution

e retraced our way down the cow-path, along the rows of sprouting corn, by the stables

our little figures dropped their shad

inning to discover that Miss Jean was a young wom

g my chubby legs for the or

th a smile that broadened unt

n't know what that meant, but she gave us each a doughnut, and we w