"She's jealous of her friend, at last," he
concluded, and this conviction gave him little comfort. Burt soon
overtook him, and their ride was comparatively silent, for each was busy
with his own thoughts. Lumley was directed to join them at the fire, and
then was forgotten by all except Amy, who, by a gentle urgency, induced
him to go to the kitchen and get a good supper. Before he departed she
slipped a banknote into his hand with which to buy a dress for the baby.
Lumley had to pass more than one groggery on his way to the mountains,
but the money was as safe in his pocket as it would have been in Amy's.
"I swow! I could say my prayers to her!" he soliloquized, as he hastened
through the gathering darkness with his long, swinging stride. "I didn't
know there was sich gells. She's never lectured me once, but she jest
smiles and looks a feller into bein' a man."
Miss Hargrove had noted Amy's influence over the mountaineer, and she
asked for an explanation. Amy, in a very brief, modest way, told of her
visits to the wretched cabin, and said, in conclusion: "I feel sorry for
poor Lumley. The fact that he is trying to do better, with so much
against him, proves what he might have been. That's one of the things
that trouble me most, as I begin to think and see a little of life; so
many people have no chance worth speaking of."
"The thing that ought to trouble me most is, I suppose, that those who
have a chance do so little for such people.
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