she was. Accordingly, he left the main road, which ran around the base
of the Ridge, and took a foot-path which led winding up through the
woods over the Ridge. It was a path that Gordon often chose when he
wanted to be alone. The way was steep and rocky, and was so little used
that often he never met any one from the time he plunged into the woods
until he emerged from them on the other side of the Ridge. In some
places the pines were so thick that it was always twilight among them;
in others they rose high and stately in the full majesty of primeval
growth, keeping at a distance from each other, as though, like another
growth, the higher they got the more distant they wished to hold all
others. Trees have so much in common with men, it is no wonder that the
ancients, who lived closer to both than we do nowadays, fabled that
minds of men sometimes inhabited their trunks.

Gordon Keith was in a particularly gloomy frame of mind on this day. He
had been trying to inspire in his pupils some conception of the poetry
contained in history. He told them the story of Hannibal--his aim, his
struggles, his conquest. As he told it the written record took life, and
he marched and fought and lived with the great Carthaginian
captain--lived for conquest.

"Beyond the Alps lies Italy." He had read the tale with lips that
quivered with feeling, but as he looked up at his little audience, he
met only listless eyes and dull faces. A big boy was preparing a pin to
evoke from a smaller neighbor the attention he himself was withholding.
The neighbor was Dave Dennison. Dave was of late actually trying to
learn something. Dave was the only boy who was listening. A little girl
with a lisp was trying in vain to divide her attention between the story
and an imprisoned fly the boy next her was torturing, whilst Phrony was
reading a novel on the sly. The others were all engaged in any other