The Mountain Girl by Emma Payne Erskine Chapter 17 Page 2

preventing such disaster. Write to your mother and comfort her heart, — she needs it. I was careful not to betray to her what your condition has been, as I discovered you had not done so. Hold fast and fight for health, and be content. Your recuperative power is good.”

David was filled with contrition as he opened his mother’s letter, which was several weeks old and had come by way of Canada, since she did not know he had gone South. For some time he had sent home only casual notes, partly to save her anxiety, and partly because writing was irksome to him unless he had something particularly pleasant to tell her. His plans and actions had been so much discussed at home and he had been considered so censurably odd — so different from his relatives and friends in his opinions, and so impossible of