Lit ie by little the children grew
up; hot just as the youngest was get
tin g beyond the need of hourly a:ten
•ion, Ezra while cutting wood, broke
his leg and was laid up for several
months When he got about the farm
again he wag so lame that it took aF
his strength to do the necessary work
and Nancy who went out into the
fields to lighten his labor*, spared him
the T.*fn of referring to the trip to M*
Washington.
After that, gradually, as the needs
in her home became ley? urgent. Nan
cy found herself becoming a sort o
village mother, who was sought, or
went unasked, to nurse the sick or
comfort the ionely. Several times Ez
ra mentioned the trip they had so
long been planning, and each tim*
Nancy looked at the mountain and
smiled sadly, and told him she could
not leave some dying grandfather, sick
child or bereaved wire.
‘Thank heaven, the mountain’ll
s’ay there, Ezra." she said. No one
can take that away before we go.”
After the children had all left home
and Ezra had become too old to man
age the farm alone he sold his horse
and hired what help, tie needed from
a neighbor. Now that the horse was
gone they could no longer drive across
country as they had always planned
•o the base of the mountain. But
though they gave up actively expect
ing the trip they st;!l talked of it as
they looked at their old friend at sun
rise. or at noon, or in the starlight.
.So the years passed. One summer
morning, however, from the kitchen
window- Nancy saw the white dust of
an automobile down the road.
