Deborah is proud and happy with her boy; who, though he be
crippled in body, has a heart and mind stronger than given to many.
The Doctor seldom goes fishing now, though he still cultivates his roses
and, as he says, meddles in the affairs of his neighbors. And still he
sits in his chair on the porch and watches the world go by. Martha says
that, more and more, the world, to the Doctor, means the doings of that
minister Dan Matthews.
It was a full month after Dan left Corinth when he wrote his old friend
that he was going home. The Doctor carefully packed his fishing tackle
and started for Mutton Hollow.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE HOME COMING
"Some things, thank God, are beyond the damning power of our
improvements."
And now this story goes back again to the mountains to end where it
began: back to where the tree-clad ridges roll, like mighty green billows
into the far distant sky; where the vast forests lie all a-quiver in the
breeze, shimmering in the sun, and the soft, blue haze of the late summer
lies lazily over the land.
Beyond Wolf ridge, all up and down Jake and Indian creeks, and even as
near as Fall creek, are the great lead and zinc mines. Over on Garber
the heavily loaded trains, with engines puffing and panting on the heavy
grades, and waking the echoes with wild shrieks, follow their iron way.
But in the Mutton Hollow neighborhood, there are as yet no mines, with
their unsightly piles of refuse, smoke-grimed buildings, and clustering
shanties, to mar the picture.
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