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THE MOUNTAIN GIRL

[Illustration: _"We will go home--to my home--just like this,
together."_

FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 311._]


The Mountain Girl

By PAYNE ERSKINE

Author of "When the Gates Lift Up Their Heads."

[Illustration]

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. DUNCAN GLEASON

A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK


COPYRIGHT, 1911, 1912, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

_All rights reserved._




CONTENTS


CHAPTER                                                            PAGE

     I. In which David Thryng arrives at Carew's Crossing             1

    II. In which David Thryng experiences the Hospitality of
          the Mountain People                                        10

   III. In which Aunt Sally takes her Departure and meets Frale      25

    IV. David spends his First Day at his Cabin, and Frale makes
          his Confession                                             35

     V. In which Cassandra goes to David with her Trouble, and
          gives Frale her Promise                                    47

    VI. In which David aids Frale to make his Escape                 59

   VII. In which Frale goes down to Farington in his own Way         68

  VIII. In which David Thryng makes a Discovery                      76

    IX. In which David accompanies Cassandra on an Errand of Mercy   86

     X. In which Cassandra and David visit the Home of Decatur
          Irwin                                                      94

    XI. In which Spring comes to the Mountains, and Cassandra
          tells David of her Father                                 103

   XII. In which Cassandra hears the Voices, and David leases
          a Farm                                                    111

  XIII. In which David discovers Cassandra's Trouble                120

   XIV. In which David visits the Bishop, and Frale sees his Enemy  131

    XV. In which Jerry Carew gives David his Views on Future
          Punishment, and Little Hoyle pays him a Visit and is
          made Happy                                                144

   XVI. In which Frale returns and listens to the Complaints of
          Decatur Irwin's Wife                                      152

  XVII. In which David Thryng meets an Enemy                        164

 XVIII. In which David Thryng Awakes                                172

   XIX. In which David sends Hoke Belew on a Commission, and
          Cassandra makes a Confession                              180

    XX. In which the Bishop and his Wife pass an Eventful Day at
          the Fall Place                                            189

   XXI. In which the Summer Passes                                  198

  XXII. In which David takes little Hoyle to Canada                 207

 XXIII. In which Doctor Hoyle speaks his Mind                       212

  XXIV. In which David Thryng has News from England                 218

   XXV. In which David Thryng visits his Mother                     224

  XXVI. In which David Thryng adjusts his Life to New Conditions    234

 XXVII. In which the Old Doctor and Little Hoyle come back to
          the Mountains                                             244

XXVIII. In which Frale returns to the Mountains                     253

  XXIX. In which Cassandra visits David Thryng's Ancestors          265

   XXX. In which Cassandra goes to Queensderry and takes a Drive
          in a Pony Carriage                                        276

  XXXI. In which David and his Mother do not Agree                  288

 XXXII. In which Cassandra brings the Heir of Daneshead Castle
          back to her Hilltop, and the Shadow Lifts                 300




THE MOUNTAIN GIRL




CHAPTER I

IN WHICH DAVID THRYNG ARRIVES AT CAREW'S CROSSING


The snow had ceased falling. No wind stirred among the trees that
covered the hillsides, and every shrub, every leaf and twig, still bore
its feathery, white load. Slowly the train labored upward, with two
engines to take it the steepest part of the climb from the valley below.
David Thryng gazed out into the quiet, white wilderness and was glad. He
hoped Carew's Crossing was not beyond all this, where the ragged edge of
civilization, out of which the toiling train had so lately lifted them,
would begin again.

He glanced from time to time at the young woman near the door who sat as
the bishop had left her, one slight hand grasping the handle of her
basket, and with an expression on her face as placid and fraught with
mystery as the scene without. The train began to crawl more heavily,
and, looking down, Thryng saw that they were crossing a trestle