"Thaine can walk the two miles. He's made of iron, anyhow. But Leigh can't make the five miles 'up stream,'" Asher declared. "Jim," Virginia Aydelot said gravely, "Pryor Gaines will be our teacher for many years, we hope, but he is hardly equal to tilling his ground now. John Jacobs holds the mortgage on his claim still that he put there after the grasshopper loan, which he could not pay. Life is an uphill pull for him, and he bears his burdens so cheerfully. I believe Mr. Jacobs would take the claim and pay him the equity. We all know how unlike a Shylock John Jacobs really is, even if he is getting rich fast. Now, Jim, why not take Pryor into your home and let him drive up to the school with Leigh and the other little folks down your way. We can pay him better wages and he will have a real home, not a lonely cabin by himself, and you will be fortunate in having such a man in your household." "Just the thing, Virginia," Jim declared. "Why haven't we done it before? He always says I'm his heart and he's my lungs. We might stack up to a one-man power. Old bachelors should be segregated, anyhow, out here. The West needs more families. And think what Pryor Gaines' cultivated mind will mean to a little artist soul like Leigh Shirley's. Glorious!" "Well, Virgie, if you will also segregate John Jacobs and Dr. Carey, we'll settle the bachelors once for all. A quartette of royal good fellows, too, State-makers who really make. They ought to be in the legislature, but Carey and Pryor are democrats and Jim and Jacobs are republican. They balance too well for the interests of any party. Anyhow, if Pryor agrees, the school problem is fixed," Asher asserted. Pryor Gaines did agree, to the welfare of many children, who remember him still with that deep-seated affection of student for teacher unlike any other form of human devotion. But especially did this cultured man put into Leigh Shirley's life a refining artistic power that stood her well in the years to come. CHAPTER XI LIGHTS AND SHADOWS They saw not the shadow that walked beside, They heard not the feet with silence shod. --Whittier.