His mother mustn't know
that he had been in a fight. But when he felt the touch of her hand on
his forehead that night as he rose from her knee he couldn't bear the
thought of deceiving her again and so he confessed.
"It wasn't wrong, was it, to fight for a thing like that?" he asked
wistfully.
"No," came the answer. "He needed a thrashing--the little scoundrel, and
I'm glad you did it."
XI
The school flickered out in five weeks and the following summer another
lasted for six weeks.
And then they moved to the land Tom had staked off in the heart of the
great forest fifteen miles from the northern banks of the Ohio. He would
still be in sight of the soil of Kentucky.
The Boy's heart beat with new wonder as they slowly floated across the
broad surface of the river. He could conceive of no greater one.
"There _is_ a bigger one!" his father said. "The Mississippi is the
daddy of 'em all--the Ohio's lost when it rolls into her
banks--stretchin' for a thousand miles an' more from the mountains in
the north way down to the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans."
"And it's all ours?" he asked in wonder.
"Yes, and plenty more big ones that pour into hit from the West."
The Boy saw again the impassioned face of the orator telling the
glories of his country, and his heart swelled with pride.
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