ON THE ROUND-UP Mose was awakened next morning by the whirring of the coffee mill, a vigorous and cheerful sound.

Mrs.Reynolds and Cora were busily preparing breakfast, and their housewifely movements about the kitchen below gave the boy a singular pleasure.

The smell of meat in the pan rose to his nostrils, and the cooing laughter of the baby added a final strand in a homely skein of noises.

No household so homelike and secure had opened to him since he said good-by to his foster parents in Rock River.
He dressed and hurried down and out to the barn.

Frost lay white on the grass, cattle were bawling somewhere in the distance.