Any one who knew Elmer Chenowith well could have assured that anxious mother she could place the most implicit trust in a boy built after his type; his word was as good as his bond any day in his home town; and that is where they know a boy best of all.
Pretty soon they sighted a cabin through the trees. Smoke was coming from the chimney, made of slabs, and hard mud that had gained the consistency of cement by the drying process. Elmer smiled when he saw that it was of the same blue consistency as the thin column that had caught his attention on the preceding morning, and caused him to stroll that way later on. Yes, and he could catch the incense of burning hickory, than which there cannot be anything more delicious in the nostrils of a real fire-worshipper such as Elmer.
Their coming must have been noticed, for quickly a form appeared in the open doorway. It was that of a small woman, evidently Conrad's mother, for the boy quickly waved his violin toward her, and called out joyously:
"Here he is, mother; I've brought Elmer home with me to meet you, just as I promised I would!"
She greeted the scout warmly, and asked him inside where it was cool, out of the sun. Elmer felt rather than saw her eyes fixed eagerly on his face. Apparently Conrad's mother must have been more than satisfied with what she saw there, for she looked very contented, and even happy.
They were soon chatting as though the best of friends. Elmer told her about his home, and how he felt positive there were several well-to-do people in the town, lovers of good music, who would, if only they could hear Conrad play, be delighted to make up a generous purse and see that the grandson of so famous a man as Ovid Anderson was placed under the proper teacher in New York.
He also told about the father of one of his comrades having sent a girl abroad to have her voice cultivated, and how after she came to sing in opera, and turned out to be a great star, she had insisted on returning every cent he had expended on her, so that he might pass it along to some other poor girl or boy who had the gift of music, without the opportunity to accomplish results through lack of means.
Elmer was too wise to mention that name of Snodgrass when telling this; he feared that it might be too much like flaunting a red flag before a bull; for if Mrs. Shock shared Jem's antipathy for the Snodgrass clan, she would likely decline to let Conrad profit by such generosity.
It was plain to be seen that what he said interested her greatly. She told him more or less of her hopes and fears concerning the prodigy over whose future such clouds of uncertainty hung. Elmer sympathized with her, too, and quite won her heart by his manner; but then that was not an unusual thing with the scout leader, who by Nature had been gifted with a winning way that gained him hosts of loyal friends.
A little to the boy's surprise, too, she even ventured to speak of herself. Naturally she must have guessed that his curiosity would be aroused on finding the daughter of a famous man mated with one whom people deigned to look down on, and even shun, though, for that matter, Jem Shock wanted none of their society.