in an agony of fear. His breath whistled between his teeth.

The perspiration ran down his face and body in little streams.
Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp

close to him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran--how far
he did not know; but at last he gained control over himself and

retraced his steps. His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on
his body. When he reached the place from which he had started to

run, he turned and with measured steps made his way down the line.
After a time he realized that he was only walking, so he faced

that sea of horrors again. When he came toward the corduroy,
the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.

Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes
of terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery

that he did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he
would fall dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's

rolling call: "Freckles! Freckles!" A shuddering sob burst in the
boy's dry throat; but he only told Duncan that finding the wire

down had caused the delay.
The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart

pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he
was brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one

knew it; for he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering.
All these things, in so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had

been set to watch the first weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the
Boss at the south camp; but the innermost, exquisitetorture of the

thing the big Scotchman never guessed, and McLean, with his finer
perceptions, came only a little closer.

After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living,
that he had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed

was safe in his pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-
stepped, dodged, and hurried to avoid being late again, but he

was gradually developing the fearlessness that men ever acquire
of dangers to which they are hourly accustomed.

His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the
trail with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club.

After its head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn
repugnance for snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to

show Duncan. With this victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the

swamp, flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him,
and he had his revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to

laugh at the big, floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day,
watching behind a tree, he saw a crane solemnly performing a few

measures of a belatednuptial song-and-dance with his mate.
Realizing that it was intended in tenderness, no matter how it

appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the boy sympathized with them.
Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by

the next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own
miracle in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone

among her sights, sounds, and silences.
When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter

loneliness was the companionship of the birds and beasts of the
swamp, it was the most natural thing in the world that Freckles

should turn to them for friendship. He began by instinctively
protecting the weak and helpless. He was astonished at the

quickness with which they became accustomed to him and the
disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned that

he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more
frequently for their benefit than his own. He scarcely could

believe what he saw.
From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a

short step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the
impulse to caress and provide. Through fall, when brooding was

finished and the upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast
on its seeds and berries, Freckles was content with watching them

and speculating about them. Outside of half a dozen of the very
commonest they were strangers to him. The likeness of their actions

to humanity was an hourly surprise.
When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,

shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green
things of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he

watched the departing troops of his friends with dismay. He began
to realize that he would be left alone. He made especial efforts

toward friendliness with the hope that he could induce some of them
to stay. It was then that he conceived the idea of carrying food to

the birds; for he saw that they were leaving for lack of it; but he
could not stop them. Day after day, flocks gathered and departed:

by the time the first snow whitened his trail around the Limberlost,
there were left only the little black-and-white juncos, the

sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming
cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.

Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale,
and twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of

December the strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed
from the grass and bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and

food was very scarce and difficult to find. The birds scarcely
waited until Freckles' back was turned to attack his provisions.

In a few weeks they flew toward the clearing to meet him. During the
bitter weather of January they came halfway to the cabin every

morning, and fluttered around him as doves all the way to the
feeding-ground. Before February they were so accustomed to him, and

so hunger-driven, that they would perch on his head and shoulders,
and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets.

Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food
he could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of

apples, turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and
tied to the bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle.

One morning, coming to his feeding-ground unusually early, he found
a gorgeouscardinal and a rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a

cabbage-leaf, and that instantly gave to him the idea of cracking
nuts, from the store he had gathered for Duncan's children, for the

squirrels, in the effort to add them to his family. Soon he had
them coming--red, gray, and black; then he became filled with a

vast impatience that he did not know their names or habits.
So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost;

never on the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles
at his work, faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.

The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry

away a scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight
on every payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was

necessary for his board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his
money he did not know, but it gave to him a sense of freedom and

power to feel that it was there--it was his and he could have it
when he chose. In imitation of McLean, he bought a small pocket

account-book, in which he carefully set down every dollar he earned
and every penny he spent. As his expenses were small and the Boss

paid him generously, it was astonishing how his little hoard grew.
That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life.

He was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through
every rigor of rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a

wonderful strength of body, paying his way, and saving money.
Every man of the gang and of that locality knew that he was under

the protection of McLean, who was a power, this had the effect of
smoothing Freckles' path in many directions.

Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his
hungry heart was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he