"Oh, mother, mother!" she sobbed, "I choose you for my model. Help me; I am sure you can help me to be more like you." A strange sense of strength came to her as she arose. She had been struggling without a definite goal. She had known, the small voice within had often told her, that she was despicable, but she had not found a way to change, but surely Dan's suggestion would help her. She clearly remembered her mother, gentle, courageous and always loving. With infinite tenderness Jane again addressed the miniature: "Oh, mother, if you had only lived, you would have helped me carve a character more lovely, but alone I have made of it an ugly thing, but now, dearest one, I'll begin all over." But even as the girl spoke she feared that it might be too late to ask Julie and Gerald to forgive her and try to love her. CHAPTER XXV. JANE'S RESOLVE The lunch was prepared, the potatoes had cooked quite to pieces, but still the children did not return. Jane was becoming terrorized. She was startled when there came a sharp rapping at the front door. Running into the living-room, her hand pressed to her heart, she saw standing there a tall, uncouth-looking mountaineer. She believed, and rightly, that it was the trapper who lived near them. He began at once: "Dan Abbott came to our place nigh an hour ago sayin' the young 'uns was lost. Meg and me wasn't to home, but my woman said she'd tell whichever of us come fust and we'd help hunt. Ben't they back yet?" Jane shook her head. "Oh, Mr. Heger," she cried, "what do you suppose has happened to them? Do you suppose they have been harmed?" It was unusual for the kind face of the man to look hard, but at that moment it did so. His voice was stern. "Dan Abbott said 'twas you as let them young 'uns go to hunt for him, not knowin' whar he was. Wall, Miss, I'll tell ye this: If 'tis they ever come back alive, yo'd better keep them young 'uns a little closer to home. Thar's no harm if they stay on the road. Nothin's likely to happen thar, but 'way off in the wilderness places, wall, thar's no tellin' what may have happened. I'll bid you good day." Here was still another of her fellow men who scorned her. Of course, Dan had not told him the whole truth, that she had said she hoped she never again would see the children. Oh, why had she said it? She knew, even in her anger, that she had not meant it.