The evening was passed in much the same manner that every evening was passed under Godfrey’s roof. There were no candles to light the hovel, and even if there had been there were no books or papers to read, no games or anything else to engage in to make the time pass pleasantly. In one corner of the cabin beside the fire-place was a pile of resinous knots which David had picked up in the woods. One of these was occasionally placed on the coals, and while it blazed up and threw a feeble light about the room, David and his mother talked of the past and speculated concerning the future. This was the way David’s education had always been conducted. The remembrance of these evening interviews with his mother went through life with him, and the moral lessons that were then inculcated stood him in good hand in after years. Dan and his father had their own peculiar ways of putting in the time that elapsed between the cleaning away of the supper dishes and the hour for retiring. Dan always stretched himself out on the floor and went to sleep, while his father nodded on the bench outside the door. On this particular evening Godfrey did not seem to slumber very heavily for every now and then he would straighten up and look steadily toward the corner in which Dan lay. He appeared to be waiting for something. It came at last in the shape of a gentle snore, and then Godfrey arose and stole away in the darkness. A few minutes later he came back, and taking possession of the miserable “shake down” he called a bed, was soon sound asleep. CHAPTER VI. OUR FRIENDS, THE GORDONS. Reader, are you tired of Godfrey Evans and his dismal surroundings? If you are, let us go up to General Gordon’s, where we shall be sure of a hearty welcome and more agreeable companionship. The house in which the general and his family now live does not look much like the noble mansion they called home a few years ago; but it is very neat and comfortable, and there is always room enough under its hospitable roof to accommodate visitors, who are greeted and entertained in good old southern style. It stands on the spot where the old house stood, and in the midst of extensive grounds, which a few years ago looked like a tropical garden. They still retain some of their old-time beauty, but yet wear an air of neglect; and many of the rare and valuable plants, which Mrs. Gordon and her daughters took so much pride in cultivating and protecting from the fury of the winter rains and sleets, have perished for want of care, and have not been replaced. On one side the grounds slope down to the shores of Diamond lake--a little sheet of water about four miles long and half a mile wide, surrounded on three sides by a dense forest of tall trees, so heavily draped with climbing plants, mosses and grape-vines, that to a person seated in a boat in the middle of the lake, it would seem to be almost impenetrable.