But the girl is a daughter of a neighbor, and no kin at all." "Indeed!" exclaimed the other, "you have only one child then ?" The amused smile left the face of the old mountaineer, as he answered slowly, "There was six boys, sir; this one, Grant, is the youngest.

The others lie over there." He pointed with his pipe to where a clump of pines, not far from the house, showed dark and tall, against the last red glow in the sky.
The stranger glanced at the big man's face in quick sympathy.

"I had only two; a boy and a girl," he said softly.

"The girl and her mother have been gone these twenty years.

The boy grew to be a man, and now he has left me." The deep voice faltered.