The Judge was at the County Seat--at the station buying his ticket to go back to his “little girl”--when the train from the West came in. In the dusk he caught a glimpse of a tailor-made suit which seemed familiar to his eye, and that made him look twice at the wearer. “Why! Bless my soul, child--and Sherwood, too! Well! Well! What are you doing here? I wrote to you about it. Didn’t you get my message, Evy?” “Yes, Daddy, dear; you said: ‘Be at the station tonight ready to go home--I start from here.’ But as everything was packed I thought I’d come up and join you, and we could both start from here.” “And,” added Sherwood, after they had gone into the now empty waiting-room, “I wanted to see you, sir, before you left.” “Why, of course! Glad you came to see me off, Sherwood. You must come down to see us, you know; and meet mother and the girls. We’ll---- Eh! What’s that? * * * What! * * * Evy--my little girl?” The Judge stuttered and stammered, bewildered at the suddenness of the attack. * * * * * Sherwood talked long and earnestly; and the Judge’s eyes wandered to the daughter who had, until now, never seemed other than his “little girl.” But she had “grown up” under his unseeing eyes; and now somebody wanted to take her from him. Sherwood---- Well, Sherwood was a fine fellow; he would make his way in the world in spite of the luck that was against him now. “My boy,” (and the Judge laid his hands affectionately on the young man’s shoulders as they stood facing each other) “I know you to be a gentleman, and I believe you to be every inch a manly man. I want my child to marry not what a man has made, but what he is made of. You will win in the world’s rough and tumble of money-making, if you’re only given a chance; and I’ve been going to tell you that there’s a place waiting for you in our San Francisco office when you are ready for it. And now I’ll add, there’s a place in my family, whenever Evy says so. “As to your not having much more than the proverbial shilling just now, that cuts no figure with me. Why not? Let me tell you.” He put his arm around Evaleen, drawing her to him. “This child’s mother took me ‘for better or worse’ twenty-five years ago this very night, when I hadn’t a dollar in the world that I could call my own--married me on an hour’s notice, and without any wedding guests or wedding gowns. She trusted me and loved me well enough to take me as I was, and to trust to the future (God bless her!) and neither of us have ever had cause to regret it.” To have this assurance from the Judge before he knew of the wonderful story Sherwood had to tell of the secret of Crazy Dan’s tunnel, added to the joy of the young people who now felt they were beloved of the gods.