It was the mountain above them that alone had not changed, he went on to tell them, although it was the mountain that had made the valley what it was. It had given its treasures of gold and silver, the timber and pasturage of its lower slopes; its roaring streams watered the fields and the valley was fertile with soil washed from its rocky shoulders.
“A good part of the mountain belongs to me,” John Herrick said, “and a bit of it to Beatrice, too. I can go higher and higher, blasting its rocks, cutting its trees, but at a certain point I have to stop. There is no man yet who has conquered the wind and clouds and cold of the summit, and Gray Cloud Mountain is still master of us all.”
When at last he ceased talking, it was only because Hester had dropped asleep in her chair and the gray dawn was showing behind the windows. Beatrice was still listening eagerly, and so was Olaf, who heaved a long sigh as the story came to an end.
“I wish I were going to do things like that,” he said wistfully.
“You are,” returned John Herrick, “and so is Beatrice, and Hester, too. There are just such adventures ahead of all of you, in times like these: every person who is growing up now will find his share of strange, new things to do. Now you must take Beatrice home, Olaf. You children should not have let me talk the whole night away.”
Dan O’Leary, who had said very little, got up and held out his hand to Olaf as he said good-by.
“We’ll be glad to see you down in the town,” he declared. “We’ve got over some things we used to think about you, and we’ve learned a great deal this night.”
They rode slowly down the hill, and Beatrice and Olaf turned in at her gate, still discussing the night’s adventure.
“He is a real man, John Herrick is,” was Olaf’s final verdict as they reached the steps of the cabin. “You can’t beat him for fairness or for pluck. And you know, the first time I saw you, I thought you were like him. I believe I had begun to understand that you belonged to each other long before any one told me so.”
She lingered on the steps, watching him lead Buck away to his stable and then mount his own horse.