The girl could not have told why.

She had a vague feeling that it was better to stay away.

But this feeling did not prevent her climbing the Old Trail to the Lookout on the shoulder of Dewey, and she spent hours at the big rock, looking over the valley to where the smoke from Aunt Mollie's kitchen curled above the trees.

And sometimes, against the sky, she could see a man and a team moving slowly to and fro in the field back of the house.
When this happened, Sammy always turned quickly away to where the far off line of hills lay like a long, low cloud against the sky.
Every week the girl rode her brown pony to the Postoffice at the Forks; and when she had a letter, things were different.

She always stopped then at the Matthews home.
One day when this happened, Dad and Pete were on the ridge above the Old Trail, just where the north slope of Dewey shades into the rim of the Hollow.