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writing schools in Lane County, and never could write in the presence of any one without explaining how it was done—he rested his arm on the pad of muscles under his forearm, he held his pen so the nails of his little finger and his ringfinger glided smoothly over the paper, thus . . . here Zed broke into easy gyrations with his pen and drew a bewildering bird. The boys were in amazement at his expertness. Then on a page of pink notepaper he reproduced this form from the Ever Ready Letter Writer, or Epistolary Forms for All Occasions:

Without pausing he wrote a duplicate note to Miss Mary Lou Meredith. The two hill youths murmured oaths of admiration at Zed's performance. As a matter of fact, the only form of art ever practised among the hillmen is beautiful writing. This occasionally breaks away into the purely decorative and becomes a floridly drawn bird. It is only through handwriting that the pictorial art can form a liaison with the useful and practical and thus find any lodgment in the culture of Lane County. These narrowly hedged artists pleased that calligraphy will be useful in book-keeping; but none of them ever keep books. It is, in reality, a tiny tendril of pure art creeping up by subterfuge in that arid spiritual soil.

Abner was to carry Tug's note, and Tug, Abner's, to their respective girls. The two young hillmen set out at once, Tug to the Grand, and Abner walked on out of the village to Squire Meredith's place.

The poorhouse boy swung along happily out of the village into the country again. An extraordinary charm had fallen over the world for Abner. The colour of the light falling