“I had not the slightest idea to whom she referred. Next morning she called me to her. ‘Dear,’ she said, ‘you are going away.’
“‘Oh, where to?’ I cried in my childish delight and anticipation of travel.
“Noting my eagerness and mistaking it for joy at leaving home, my mother, with tears streaming down her dear white face, said, ‘Are you happy to think of it?’
“‘No, not that, mother,’ said I, ‘but I should like to see and learn of things which I have heard so much about and have known so little.’
“‘Well, dear, you are to go away from us and go into school. We, your father and I, have concluded that it is best.’
“‘But mamma, won’t that cost a great deal of money?’
“‘Yes, but your father now has his affairs in shape so that he can afford to educate you.’
“As my mother finished this last sentence a fresh torrent of tears sprang from her eyes. It was all a mystery to me, for I had known of my father’s difficulties; I could not understand the sudden turn of affairs. I quickly resolved upon a plan which would at least enlighten me; there was in the employ of my father a young man by the name of Landrie Grayson, everyone called him ‘Lannie.’ He was a trusted man of affairs; things which other men were never consulted upon were always brought to Lannie for his advice. Lannie could explain to me the cause of this sudden resolution on the part of my parents.
“Lannie stood quite six feet tall, while his broad shoulders looked as though he could carry with ease and grace the burdens which might quickly crush other men out of all semblance of humanity. If his blue eyes were tender, they were only a relief from the firmly set jaws, which plainly said, ‘I will,’ without so much as a movement of the rather thin lips. I knew that Lannie would know and tell me, for he was honest; he had been in the family for years; I had learned to lean upon him as a brother, and as I sought him out from among the whirling pullies, singing saws, and swiftly crawling belts that day, I felt proud to think that I had at different times during my infancy sat on one of those square shoulders or clung tenaciously to that sinewy neck, as Lannie had waded through slough and brush, taking me from place to place in the forest; he had killed the snakes and chased away the wild boars that would so frighten me in childhood, and when young squirrels were susceptible to capture he would always keep the cage well filled with every known variety with which the woods abounded. If Lannie was the strong rod on which I learned to lean, wherein was I to blame?
“Lannie saw me as I wistfully watched and waited, then giving some orders (for he was papa’s foreman), he came to where I was standing and said, ‘What is it, Ailene?’