"I thought you were never coming," said he. "I have been looking for you for many days."

"I were a comin', but I couldn't.... And I can't go with ye to see Daddy."

Her eyes filled with tears, but she hastily wiped them away with her sleeve.

"Of course you are going," replied the professor. "I suppose you think you can't go in with bare feet. But I will get you a pair of shoes."

"I could get a pair good 'nough for a squatter," Tess assured him, "but I can't go."

"Why?"

"'Cause I can't! I has somethin' to do."

"Can't you do it after you return? Your father will be so disappointed if you do not go to him when you have promised."

He was gazing at her keenly. Her eyes dropped upon her folded hands in her lap.

"I knows that," she breathed, "but I can't go, just the same."

Young did not persist in the argument.

"It is almost a certainty that your father will get another trial," he went on presently. "I shall act as his lawyer, and, little girl, when the snow flies again, your father will be home in the cabin with you."

She flashed him a radiant smile through the tears which still clung to her lashes. He loved to watch the color coming and going swiftly, and the glints thrown into her eyes by the sun.