Page:A fool in spots (IA foolinspots00riveiala).pdf/95

 they were being alarmed by all sorts of imaginary things. Aunt Judy was pitiful. She bore up under it for the young woman's sake, but now and then she would lag behind and cry softly to herself, for her boy was dear to that old heart. When they began to go up the side of the mountain, Darwin had to go first to break back the thick undergrowth. Presently he stumbled and had to catch at hazel bushes to keep from falling.

"'Good God!' he exclaimed, 'and he tried to save me from this!'

"But his words seemed to die away within his lips, and in dreadful self-reproach he bent over Jerry, shuddering at the deathly cold of his face and hands. There, before them, the boy Jerry lay, spent and done. His head rested upon a bed of blood-withered ferns."

Frost gazed at the vaulted expanse a moment, then said:

"So that accounts for the birth-mark?"

"Yes, and partially for her being here. Loyal to that noble slave, she came down and nursed Aunt Judy five weeks, until she followed her boy to that land lit by the everlasting sun. Listen!" The Major heard the piano; taking his handkerchief he wiped his eyes. "Pshaw, tears! why I am as soft as a girl, but that music makes my eyes blur; I