"I worshipped her!" "Oh-h-h!" "From a distance," he hastened.

"She was as pure as Winnsome is now.
Little Winn looks like her.

Some day she will be as beautiful." "She is beautiful now." "But she is a mere child.

Why, it seems only a year ago that I was toting her about on my shoulders! And--by George, that was a year before her mother died! She is sixteen now." Nathaniel laughed softly.
"To-morrow she will be making love, Neil, and before you know it she will be married and have a family of her own.

I tell you she is a woman--and if you are not a fool you will take her away with Marion." With a powerful stroke of his paddle Neil brought the canoe in to the shore.
"There!" he whispered.