XXIV. In which David Thryng has News from England 218 XXV. In which David Thryng visits his Mother 224 XXVI. In which David Thryng adjusts his Life to New Conditions 234 XXVII. In which the Old Doctor and Little Hoyle come back to the Mountains 244 XXVIII. In which Frale returns to the Mountains 253 XXIX. In which Cassandra visits David Thryng's Ancestors 265 XXX. In which Cassandra goes to Queensderry and takes a Drive in a Pony Carriage 276 XXXI. In which David and his Mother do not Agree 288 XXXII. In which Cassandra brings the Heir of Daneshead Castle back to her Hilltop, and the Shadow Lifts 300 THE MOUNTAIN GIRL CHAPTER I IN WHICH DAVID THRYNG ARRIVES AT CAREW'S CROSSING The snow had ceased falling. No wind stirred among the trees that covered the hillsides, and every shrub, every leaf and twig, still bore its feathery, white load. Slowly the train labored upward, with two engines to take it the steepest part of the climb from the valley below. David Thryng gazed out into the quiet, white wilderness and was glad. He hoped Carew's Crossing was not beyond all this, where the ragged edge of civilization, out of which the toiling train had so lately lifted them, would begin again. He glanced from time to time at the young woman near the door who sat as the bishop had left her, one slight hand grasping the handle of her basket, and with an expression on her face as placid and fraught with mystery as the scene without. The train began to crawl more heavily, and, looking down, Thryng saw that they were crossing a trestle over a deep gorge before skirting the mountain on the other side. Suddenly it occurred to him that he might be carried beyond his station. He stopped the smiling young brakeman who was passing with his flag. "Let me know when we come to Carew's Crossing, will you?" "Next stop, suh. Are you foh there, suh?" "Yes. How soon?" "Half an houh mo', suh. I'll be back d'rectly and help you off, suh. It's a flag station. We don't stop there in winter 'thout we're called to, suh. Hotel's closed now." "Hotel? Is there a hotel?" Thryng's voice betokened dismay. "Yes, suh. It's a right gay little place in summah, suh." He passed on, and Thryng gathered his scattered effects. Ill and weary, he was glad to find his long journey so nearly at an end. On either side of the track, as far as eye could see, was a snow-whitened wilderness, seemingly untouched by the hand of man, and he felt as if he had been carried back two hundred years. The only hint that these fastnesses had been invaded by human beings was an occasional rough, deeply red wagon road, winding off among the hills.