II 



Midday North and South 



(British IT) 



COLIN COLLINS sank slowly to the soft greensward at the top 

 of the low bluff overlooking the river. The sun was setting in a 

 blaze of flaming glory that tinted the shiny greenery overhanging 

 the water with an orange sheen. Blue smoke drifted in gentle shreds 

 from the snug cottages of the settlers below the bluff. Everything 

 was so utterly peaceful that the young man began to cry. He sat 

 silent and alone, experiencing emotions he had never known before, 

 while the tears gathered of themselves in the corners of his eyes and 

 rolled slowly down his cheeks to fall splashing on his dirty, bare feet. 

 Not only was this behavior new to the young man; it was alto- 

 gether out of character for one who had been sold into bondage by 

 his own mother almost before he could take care of himself, had been 

 imprisoned before he was twelve for stealing his own food, had been 

 apprenticed to a criminal who was hanged by the roadside for rob- 

 bery on the King's Highway, and had then been jailed again at the age 

 of fourteen for running away from his defunct master's squalid home. 

 It was even more preposterous for one who had suffered passage in 



