"Poor Pal!" Dan stroked the drooping head of the faithful little animal which had raced down the rough mountain road as he had never raced before. Then, quite irrelevantly, the youth asked: "Would you mind if I call you Margaret? It fits you better than Meg." Instantly Dan was sorry he had made the request, for he saw the sudden clouding of the girl's brow. The joyousness of the moment before was gone and when she spoke there was a note of sorrow in her voice. "Mr. Abbott," she began with sweet seriousness, "I forgot when I said that your friendship would be the reward I would ask, yours and Julie's and Gerald's--I forgot who I am, or rather that I do not know who my parents were. My real name is not Meg. Mammy Heger called me that after a little sister of hers who had died when a baby. Mammy loved that other Meg and so it meant a great deal to her to call me by that name." Then, sighing wistfully: "I wish I knew my real name," she concluded. Dan took her hand in a firm, friendly clasp as he said earnestly: "Meg Heger, I don't care what your name is, I don't care who your parents were. I care only to be your friend, your very best. Of course I would not wish to call you Margaret since it would be displeasing to you." The girl withdrew her hand, replying: "Call me Meg. I'm used to that and hearing it won't make me think. Oh, I've thought about it all so long and so much!" Then as they started walking side by side, leading their horses, the girl confided: "Next month, when I am eighteen, Teacher Bellows, Pa Heger and I are going to start on a long, hard trip. We're going to find, if we can, the tribe that was living in the deserted mining town on Crazy Creek the year that I was brought to the Heger cabin." How her dark face brightened, and Dan realized that he had never dreamed that anyone could be so beautiful. "If we find them, then I shall know," she concluded. For a few moments they walked on in silence. "If they tell me I am the daughter of----" The girl hesitated as though dreading to utter the name of Slinking Coyote, then began again, "If I am a member of their tribe, I shall live near them and help them. I shall be a teacher to their children. It will be my duty. But if, as Pa Heger and Teacher Bellows think, my parents were of a foreign race, my future will be different." Dan, knowing how deeply humiliating the conversation must be for the girl and wishing to change the subject, exclaimed: "How stupid of me! I brought Bag-o'-Bones down for you to ride. You must be very tired after your wild race to Scarsburg." The girl smiled gratefully. "I believe I am very, very tired," she confessed, "which happens but seldom. I had thought that I was tireless."