"Joe I is!" returned the old man, placidly, stretching his gnarled hands toward the blaze, and grinning delightedly; "I reckon you all begin fur to projec' 'Whar's Joe?' long 'bout dish yer time o' day, so I done p'inted my tracks in dish yer way." "It must have been you that Guard was barking at," I said, stirring the fire into a brighter blaze. "No; hit wa'nt me. I yeard his racketin' as I come up along. Hit war' some udder varmint, I reckons. What fur he want ter bark at me?" "True enough. Well, we're just awful glad you've come back, Joe," Jessie told him. "Leslie has been out all the afternoon and she hasn't had her supper. I waited for her before eating mine, so now I'll fix yours on this little table beside the fire and we can all eat at the same time." Joe accepted the proposition thankfully, and, after seeing him comfortably established, we seated ourselves at the large table near the window. I was hungry after my long ride and fell to with a will, but I presently observed that Jessie ate nothing. "Why don't you eat your supper, Jessie?" "I can't," she replied, pushing away her plate; "I'm so worried. Leslie, have you thought that if the agent refuses to issue a deed to us we shall have no home? I feel just sure of it, for we haven't money enough to re-enter the claim, hire a surveyor, and all that." "Must there be a new survey made?" "So Mr. Wilson says; he says that it will be the same, in the eye of the law, as if no entry had ever been made." "The eye of the law must be half blind, then!" I exclaimed, indignantly. "As if the survey already made and paid for, was not good enough, and when we know that a new one would only follow the same lines!" "That's just what I said to Mr. Wilson. He said that surveyors had to have a chance to earn their living, and this way of doing business was one of the chances," Jessie replied, dropping her head dejectedly on her hand. "Well; don't let's worry about it, Jessie dear, we must keep on hoping, as father used to say. He used to say, you know, that no one was ever really poor until he had ceased to hope. We will do our best and God will look out for the rest, I guess. I don't believe He intends to let our home be taken from us. He wouldn't have given us such good men for witnesses if He had." "Yes, they are good. If we were only able to borrow a little more money now I should feel quite safe. If we could just borrow money enough to--" "Woe unto him that goeth up an' down de lan' seeking fur t' borrow money! Borrowed money, hit stingeth like an adder; hit biteth like a surpunt! Hit weaves a chain what bin's hit's victims han' an' foot! Hit maketh a weight what breaks his heart, amen!" In the interest of our conversation we had, for the nonce, forgotten Joe, who was quietly toasting his ragged shoes before the fire, until his voice thus solemnly proclaimed his presence.