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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tess of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller
+White, Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Tess of the Storm Country
+
+
+Author: Grace Miller White
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 13, 2007  [eBook #22064]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 22064-h.htm or 22064-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/6/22064/22064-h/22064-h.htm)
+      or
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+
+
+
+
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+by
+
+GRACE MILLER WHITE
+
+Illustrations by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1909, by
+W. J. WATT & COMPANY
+
+
+
+WITH
+LOVE AND GRATITUDE
+I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO
+MY FATHER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+One September afternoon, not many years ago, three men sat on the banks
+of Cayuga Lake cleaning the fish they had caught in their nets the
+previous night. When they glanced up from their work, and looked beyond
+the southern borders of the lake, they could see, rising from the mantle
+of forestry, the towers and spires of Cornell University in Ithaca City.
+An observer would have noticed a sullen look of hatred pass
+unconsciously over their faces as their eyes lighted on the distant
+buildings, for the citizens of Ithaca were the enemies of these squatter
+fishermen and thought that their presence on the outskirts of the town
+besmirched its fair fame. Not only did the summer cottages of the
+townfolk that bordered the lake, look down disdainfully upon their
+neighbors, the humble shanties of the squatter fishermen, but their
+owners did all they could to drive the fishermen out of the land. None
+of the squatters were allowed to have the title of the property upon
+which their huts stood, yet they clung with death-like tenacity to their
+homes, holding them through the rights of the squatter-law, which
+conceded them the use of the land when once they raised a hut upon it.
+Sterner and sterner the authorities of Ithaca had made the game laws
+until the fishermen, to get the food upon which they lived, dared only
+draw their nets by night. In the winter whilst the summer residents were
+to be found again in the city, Nature herself made harder the lot of
+these squatters, by sealing the lake with thick ice, but they faced the
+bitter cold and frozen surroundings with stolid indifference.
+
+A grim silence had reigned during which the three men had worked with
+feverish haste, driven on by the vicissitudes of their unwholesome
+lives. Moving his crooked legs upon the hot sand and closing a red lid
+over one white blind eye, Ben Letts spoke viciously.
+
+"Tess air that cussed," said he, "that she keeps on saying fishes can
+feel when they gets cut. She air worse than that too."
+
+"And she do say," put in Jake Brewer, grasping a large pickerel and
+thrusting his blade into its quivering body after removing the scales,
+"that it hurts her insides to see the critters wriggle under the knife.
+She air that bad too."
+
+Ben Letts scratched his head tentatively.
+
+"She ain't had no bringin' up," he resumed, again plying the
+sharp-bladed knife to his scaly victims, "and they do say as how when
+she air in a tantrum she'll scratch her dad's face, jumpin' on his back
+like a cat. Orn air a fool, I say."
+
+"So says I too," agreed Brewer; "no wonder his shoulders air humped. But
+you never hears as much as a grunt from him. He knows he ain't never
+give her no bringin's up, that's why."
+
+"Some folks has give their kids bringin's up," interposed Ben Letts with
+a glance at the third man, who was industriously cleaning fish and had
+not yet spoken. "And they hain't turned out no better than Tessibel
+will."
+
+At this the industrious one turned.
+
+"I spose ye be a hittin' at my poor Myry, Ben," he muttered. "I spose ye
+be, but God'll some time let me kill the man, and then ye won't be
+hittin' at her no more, 'cause there won't be nothin' to hit at. It air
+dum hard to keep a girl from the wrong way, love her all ye will."
+
+For an instant Ben Letts dropped his head.
+
+"We always wondered who he was, but more wonder has been goin' on why ye
+ain't made no offer to find the fellow."
+
+"Ain't had no time," said the desperate cleaner of fish; "had to get
+bread and beans, to say nothin' of bacon."
+
+"But why didn't ye send the brat to the workhouse?" asked Jake.
+
+"Satisfied" Longman, as he was called, shook his head.
+
+"I was satisfied to let it stay," was all he answered.
+
+"My old mammy says," offered Ben Letts, "as how yer son Ezy asked
+Tessibel Skinner to marry him and as how she slicked him in the face
+with a dirty dishrag."
+
+He slowly closed the scarlet lids over his crossed eyes, suspending the
+pickerel in his hand the while.
+
+"Tess ain't had no mother," remonstrated Longman, after a long silence,
+pausing a moment in his bloody work and allowing his eyes to rest upon
+the magnificent buildings of the University, rearing above the town,
+"and Myry says that them what has ought to be satisfied."
+
+Just then a shadow fell upon the shore of the lake near the fishermen.
+
+"There air Tess now," muttered Letts and his two companions eyed a
+figure clad in rags, with flying copper-colored hair and bare dirty
+feet, which dropped down beside Longman without asking whether or no.
+
+"Cleanin' fish?" she queried.
+
+"Can't ye see?" growled Ben.
+
+"'Course I can," she answered; "just wondered if ye knowed yerselves."
+
+"Where be yer dad?" queried Longman, smiling as he caught up two long
+fish, depositing one beside him where it flopped helplessly about upon
+the hot sand.
+
+"Gone to Ithacy," replied Tessibel, and without change of expression or
+color caught the floundering fish in her dirty fingers.
+
+"I air a hittin' the little devil on the head with a stone," said she,
+and with a pointed rock she expertly tapped the fish three times behind
+the beady eyes and threw him down again motionless.
+
+"Suppose seein' the fish wrigglin' gives Tessibel mollygrubs in her
+belly," grinned Jake Brewer, but Ben Letts broke in.
+
+"How be yer toad to-day, Tessibel?"
+
+This he said with a malevolent smile, as he took from his pocket a huge
+hunk of tobacco and munched a generous mouthful therefrom.
+
+"Pretty well," answered Tess pertly, and measuring the blue water with
+her eye, she sent a flat stone skipping across it. Then with darkening
+face she wheeled about upon the heavy squatter.
+
+"But air it any of yer business how my toad air, Ben Letts?"
+
+"Naw," laughed Ben, nudging Jake in the ribs with his bare elbow, "only
+I thought as how he might be dead." Then he whispered to Brewer, "Wait
+till I get at him."
+
+"Dead--dead, who said as how he air dead? Ye in't been a rubberin' in
+his hole, have ye, Ben Letts?"
+
+Ben only laughed in reply.
+
+"Ye have, Ben Letts, ye have, damn ye," screamed the girl now glowering
+above the fishermen with eyes changing to the deep copper of her hair.
+"Take that, and that, and that."
+
+She had snatched the long fish from his fingers, and with swift swirls
+slapped it thrice into the fisherman's face. Turning she flashed away,
+her long shadows giving out the smaller ones of the tatters that hung
+about her.
+
+"I'll be goldarned," gasped Letts, "and I'll be goldarned twice if I
+don't get even with her some of these here days. The devil's built his
+nest in her alright, and if hell fire don't get her, it'll be 'cause she
+air burned up by her own cussed wickedness."
+
+He rubbed his face frantically with the soiled sleeve of his shirt,
+spitting out the scales and blood that hat lodged between his
+dark-colored teeth.
+
+"Ye're always a tormentin' her, Ben," said Longman; "now if ye was only
+satisfied to let her alone, I air a thinkin' that she wouldn't bother
+ye. Tess air a good girl, for Myry says as how she can hush the brat
+when he air a howlin' like a nigger."
+
+"She'll cast a spell over him, that's what she will," muttered Ben
+Letts. "Her ma could take off warts afore she was knee high to a
+grasshopper, and so can Tess. Once she whispered ten off from Minister
+Graves' hand under his very eyes when he was a laughin' at the idee."
+
+"Wish they'd lit on his nose," broke out Jake Brewer, darkly, "he
+wouldn't be makin' it so hard for us down here. He gets his bread on
+Sunday if any man does. But they do say as how, when he sees Tess a
+comin' along, he scoots like a jack-rabbit."
+
+"Sposin' the Dominie don't laugh now, sposin' he don't," put in Longman
+with a chuckle, "he air lost the ten warts, ain't he? Tess ain't the
+worst in this here county."
+
+"She can keep the bread-risin' from comin' up," objected Brewer; "she
+did it with us one day last winter. She scooted by our hut and down
+dropped the yeast. Wouldn't as much as let her step her foot in my
+kitchen bakin' day. Air we goin' out again to-night, fellers?"
+
+"Yep," answered Ben Letts. "Sposin' Orn'll go, too. He air in town but
+he'll get back, Orn will. There ain't no man on the shores of this here
+lake that can pull a net with a steady hand like Orn Skinner. Pity he
+has such a gal."
+
+Letts gave another wipe at the scales which still clung to his neck and
+his eyes glittered evilly as he looked in the direction the girl had
+taken. He turned when Longman touched his arm. For years it had been the
+custom of the fishermen to allow the subject of netting to remain
+undiscussed. They plied their trade, spent a term in prison if detected,
+and returned to again take up their occupation of catching and selling
+fish. Ben Letts knew he was venturing upon dangerous ground.
+
+"Broad daylight," he growled, catching the expression upon his
+companion's face, "and there ain't no one in sight that'll tell."
+
+"Better be satisfied to keep yer mouth shut, Ben Letts," cautioned
+Longman, "nettin' air bad for the man what gets caught."
+
+"Got any bait out there?" he finished, pointing lakeward to a bobbing
+box anchored a distance from the shore.
+
+"Not a damn bit," replied Jake Brewer, "don't need it now. Keep the bait
+cars a floatin' to blind the eyes of some guy that might be a rubberin'.
+They don't know a minnie from a whale, those city coves don't."
+
+"Ain't that Orn's boat comin' under the shadders of the trees?" queried
+Longman, rising to his feet and wiping his long jack-knife on his
+blue-jeans breeches. "Yep, it air him," he added, getting a closer look
+at the approaching flat-bottomed boat in which sat a big
+round-shouldered individual working vigorously away at the oars. Orn
+Skinner was called the "Giant Fisherman," because even in his bare feet
+he was seven inches above every other man in the settlement. Two
+enormous humps stood side by side on his shoulders, and a grizzled head
+lifted and sank with each sweep of the oars. Glancing around to direct
+his course, Skinner saw the men waiting for him in front of Jake
+Brewer's hut. With a sharp turn he swung the boat shoreward and a few
+vigorous strokes sent it grating upon the sand. Jumping out he dragged
+the boat to a safe mooring, from where the waves could not beat it back
+into the lake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+In the beginning, it is said, God made the heavens and the earth. He
+made the seas and all that in them is, with the myriads of fish, the
+toads, the snakes and afterward man. Then to grace His handiwork, He
+created the heart of a woman--the loving, suffering, unteachable heart
+of Eve.
+
+The first tinge of thinking sorrow comes into a woman's heart at the age
+of fifteen, and this was the beginning of Tessibel's sorrow, as she
+lifted her feet over the hot sands and sped onward. Tessibel was what
+most people would call a careless, worthless jade. She shamefully
+neglected her father, but covered the fact to him by the wild, willful
+worship which she bestowed upon him. If he uttered a word of
+disapprobation she would fling herself, like a cat, upon his crooked
+shoulders and bend back his head until the red of her lips met his---
+the pathos in her red-brown eyes quieting his qualms as to the dirt he
+had to go through to get into bed.
+
+In the mornings, either in summer or winter, he was obliged to tumble
+the ragged girl from the roped cot he had made for her (when at last she
+had reached an age too old to sleep with him), and force her, grumbling
+the while, to eat the bacon and fish he had prepared. But he seemed
+happy through it all, for the brown-eyed girl brought back to his mind
+the slip of a fishermaid who had died when Tessibel was born. True,
+there was more copper in the girl's hair and eyes than there had been
+in the mother's--more of the bright burnishing like that of a polished
+old-fashioned kettle hanging over the spigot in a tidy housewife's
+kitchen. But Tessibel's one room was never tidy nor had she a kettle. In
+one iron frying pan she cooked the fish and bacon, while a small tin
+pail held the water for the tea. These were the only cooking utensils of
+the hut.
+
+Tess could climb to the top of the highest pine tree in the forest
+yonder; she could squirm through the underbrush with the agility of a
+rabbit. She loved every crawling, hateful thing, such as all honest
+people despised, and she once fought with the son of an uphill farmer
+for robbing a bird's nest, making him give up the eggs and restoring
+them herself to the top of a pine tree in the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves.
+
+According to the ideas of all who knew her, save her father and Myra
+Longman, Tessibel was full of eccentric traits; for who but Tess would
+feel the "mollygrubs," as Ben Letts had said, at the wriggling of the
+agonized perch and pickerel, as they flopped painfully upon the sands;
+or who but Tess would mind the squeaking of the mother-bird calling for
+her own. It was something of this "mollygrub" feeling that hastened her
+dirt-caked feet, as she rounded the mud cellar near her father's hut,
+and sped back of the weeping willow tree hanging in green fringes over
+the cabin. She dropped quickly upon her knees before a large log, which
+in some former time the flood-waters had dashed to its place.
+
+Tessibel ran her red, bare arm into the hole in the end of the log. Then
+she sat up and gazed around.
+
+"He air gone," she said aloud, "he air gone. Ben Letts has took him,
+damn his dirty hide. He ain't no more good than--"
+
+Something caused her to close her lips. A large high-warted toad sprang
+into her dirty lap and slipped to the ground through the rent in her
+skirt. Tenderly she took the reptile in her fingers, for she loved this
+warted monster who seemed by the turn of his head to reciprocate in some
+way the devotion the girl showered upon him. She lifted him close to her
+face, and intently searched his poppy eyes.
+
+"I said, damn his hide, Frederick," she said in a low tone, "'cause I
+thought he took ye. And ye ain't done nothin' to him, have ye? Ye was
+just out huntin' flies, wasn't ye, Frederick? Don't never stay long or
+ye'll git hit with a spear. Ezry Longman don't like ye nuther, 'cause I
+kisses ye, and 'cause, on my birthday, I hit his mug with a dishrag when
+he was tryin' to kiss me fifteen times, and was askin' me to marry him.
+I'd rather kiss--"
+
+Her sentence remained unfinished. She looked up to see a tall boy
+leaning upon a rake, a boy with pale gray eyes, and an evil face. His
+short hair looked as if it had passed through the fingers of a prison
+barber. His blue-jean breeches were held up by a rope fastened in the
+button holes with small iron nails, and the blue blouse which had been
+clean that morning was now drenched with perspiration.
+
+"Ain't ye got nothin' better to do than to be kissin' a toad," he
+expostulated, without waiting for the girl to greet him, although she
+had risen to her feet, holding fast to her reptile treasure.
+
+"Ain't nothin' to you, air it, what I does as long as Daddy don't care?"
+she retorted, and sullenly counted one, two, three, four, five, six,
+seven, eight long weeping willow leaves which had died that day and had
+fallen to the ground. She gathered each leaf between her great bare toe
+and its next-door neighbor, deftly throwing them aside as she counted.
+
+"I care," stolidly said the boy coming nearer, "and ye air a goin' to
+throw that toad away, does ye see? Ma says as how ye could be made into
+a woman if ye hadn't got batty with birds and things. She says as how
+when ye sing to the brat that yer voice sounds like an angel's, and
+that's why the kid sleeps. He air a cryin' all the time to have ye sing
+to him."
+
+Tess hadn't expected this. She did love the tiny unwelcome child of Myra
+Longman, a child without a father, or a place in the world. Tess loved
+the babe because there was an expression in its eyes that she had once
+seen in a wounded baby bird's ... a pitiful unborn expression which
+would go with the brat to its grave.
+
+She stooped down and placed the toad again in his hole, shoving him deep
+down into his cavity, for the sun was going down and Frederick would
+sleep as long as there were no flies about.
+
+The boy spoke again.
+
+"Mammy says as how if ye don't stop runnin' wild ye'll be worse than
+Myry with another--"
+
+Suddenly the clenched fist of the girl flew up and struck the fisherman
+with a swiftness and force that took him from his feet. Tessibel was
+standing over him rigidly.
+
+"I hates ye, I hates ye, I'd ruther marry--yep, I'd ruther marry my toad
+or a man as ugly as him than you, Ezry Longman, does yer hear, does yer
+hear?"
+
+The lumbering body raised itself from the ground. The squint eyes were
+almost closed, only a glint of the gray ring that surrounded the pupil
+showing between the lids.
+
+"Ye think that ye can hide from me what ye be a doin'," burst out Ezra.
+"Why did ye name that toad after the student of Minister Graves? Just
+'cause he wears nice clothes and don't do no honest rakin' of hay, nor
+catchin' a fish only by trollin'. Ye loves that feller, that's what ye
+does."
+
+Bewilderment leapt alive in the girl's brown eyes. The shade deepened
+almost to black as the thought the boy had planted in the sensitive mind
+took root and grew. Then the dirty young face flooded with crimson which
+tinted the rounded neck and colored the low forehead, and Tess dropped
+down beside the log and covered her face with her hands. The fisherman
+was so surprised that he uttered not a word while the wild storm broke
+over the girl's heart, dying away in a smothered moan.
+
+Without a glance at the boy, she lifted herself slowly from the earth
+and walking, erect and tall, into her father's hut, closed the door with
+a bang. She slipped the leather fastening into its place and dazedly
+adjusted the iron peg in the opening to hold it. Tessibel's heart had
+manifested its hitherto unknown burden and the woman lived amid the dirt
+and squalor of the fisherman's cabin.
+
+Tessibel's peremptory leaving and the hauteur in her face were so
+foreign to her that Ezra Longman did not dare follow. He leaned upon his
+rake looking after her, his gray eyes gathered into an incomprehensive
+squint. Had Tess again cuffed his ears, he would have been secretly
+delighted; but this manner, so unlike her, seemed to take her as far
+above him as that flock of black crows yonder, flying to the forest to
+find shelter for the night.
+
+"Tessibel," he called helplessly, under his breath, but Tessibel did not
+hear. He limped away not knowing that she had passed as effectually out
+of his life as if she had not dwelt in the rickety cabin on his right.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Ben Letts rose to his feet after cleaning his jack-knife in the water
+and took the same path around the mud cellar which Tessibel had taken.
+The cabin door was closed--Tess nowhere in sight. Ben had intended--Ben
+didn't know just what his intentions were. He stopped short when his
+eyes fell upon Frederick's log. It took a long time for a thought to be
+born in the dense brain of the fisherman, but one was there, for the
+cross eyes opened and the red tongue licked greedily at the thick chops
+like that of a wolf when he comes upon prey for which he does not have
+to fight. Letts looked sneakily at the hut window where hung the
+remnants of a ragged curtain--all was quiet. He quickly ran his long arm
+into the opening of the log and with a snap of his teeth drew out the
+high-backed toad.
+
+Holding the reptile in his hand, he slunk behind the willow tree and
+stood an instant in abstract hesitation. Suddenly his fiendish face
+became flooded with the exultation of a plan fully matured. He let the
+toad fall to the ground, needing both hands to draw the blade of his
+jack-knife. Frederick hopped vigorously along in the direction of his
+log, but Ben, gorged with the instincts of an inquisitor, snatched him
+up as he was about to escape. After divesting Frederick of all the
+ornaments which nature had given him, the man allowed him to hop about,
+grinning, as he watched the rapid leaps of the toad. Frederick had
+forgotten the path to his log, he could only turn around and around as
+if he had been born to radiate in a circle. Ben could have watched this
+tumbling toad all night, so great was his joy at the sight, but it was
+getting dark and soon the call would come for the fishermen to gather
+for the netting and he would be expected to go.
+
+Taking the toad gingerly up from the earth, he returned it to the hole
+in the log, and with but a hasty glance at the dirty curtain which hung
+limp and ugly at the cabin window, sneaked away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After leaving Ezra Longman, Tessibel stood in the cabin for one single
+moment with the terrible thought which the boy had planted there,
+burning in her brain. She had but a few times seen the minister's son
+who lived in the big house on the hill and not even to herself had she
+mentioned that he was her ideal of manhood--he was as far above her as
+the learned minister was above her own squatter father. Her heart seemed
+to almost stop beating as she sprang headlong into "Daddy's bed" and
+covered herself with the ragged blanket.
+
+Only when she heard her father pounding at the door did she lift her
+head. She jumped swiftly from the bed to let him in. No thought of
+supper for him had entered her mind. He looked his hunger as he noted
+the absence of a fire, and spoke rather mournfully, but Tess cut him
+short. The lithe young form bounded squarely upon the bible-back of the
+fisherman. She drew back his shaggy head, her bright wide eyes shining
+into Skinner's and a low voice deepened by the first arousal of womanly
+emotion which had ever come knowingly into the young life, was murmuring
+to him.
+
+"I loves ye, Daddy, I do. What does ye care for supper when I loves ye
+like this. Daddy, I could--just bite ye hard, that I could, I love ye
+so."
+
+"Get off my back, Tess," ordered Skinner, trying to loosen her fingers
+from his hair. "I air tired, Brat, and there be nettin' to-night. Ye air
+goin' to Mis' Longman's till we get back."
+
+"Won't get off till ye kisses me square on the bill, Daddy," replied the
+girl softly, "square where I does my eatin's." And square on "the bill"
+the girl got the caress--and then eagerly hastened to fry the inevitable
+fish.
+
+"I air coming after ye to Longman's when the nettin's over," broke in
+Orn Skinner presently, his mouth full of bread and fish, "and ye'd best
+duck yer head in the lake, Tess, afore ye go. Yer face has a week's dirt
+caked on it."
+
+Tessibel allowed her red lips to spread wide in a loving smile.
+
+"Ye air a durn good Daddy, ye air, and I loves ye, if my face be dirty."
+
+She rose quickly and came to his side.
+
+"Daddy," she began, twisting his big head so her eyes met his, "Can't I
+go nettin' to-night? I air a good helper, ain't I, Daddy?"
+
+Orn Skinner dreaded the wheedling tone in Tessibel's voice and the
+pleading in the eyes so like her mother's. He dropped his gaze upon his
+plate and slowly shook his head.
+
+"Nope, Tess, ye air goin' to Longman's. Don't ... now there be a kiss
+... sit down and eat ... that air a good brat."
+
+The last ejaculation was brought forth by Tess herself. She had turned
+back to her place at the table and had complacently begun to eat the
+crisp, brown fish.
+
+"And ye ain't to stay on the ragged rocks, nuther, Tess," cautioned
+Skinner, rising from the table. "Ye be a good Tess. Scoot along now."
+
+The fisherman moved lumberingly to the water's edge, pushing his boat
+into the lake, and stepped in. Thrusting his powerful head down between
+his shoulders, he pulled lazily away at the oars until he lost sight of
+the shore on which stood the small silent figure in the fast gathering
+gloom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess did not fancy netting nights. She always feared that something
+might happen to her father. But she knew, too, that they could not live,
+even meagerly, through the long winter unless the nets were used. So
+this night after she had received many kisses, "square on the bill," she
+watched her father's bent shoulders, rising and falling with the motion
+of the oars as long as she could see him, and turning, scudded through
+the underbrush which grew in profusion near the forest--up to the rugged
+rocks toward the Longmans' hut. She slid down beside a large stone as
+she heard the lapping of oars below her on the lake, and knew that
+"Satisfied" Longman and his son Ezra were going to join the others at
+Jake Brewer's shanty.
+
+She was alone under the heavens, alone with the eagles and sleepy
+twittering birds--she could think of what had been forced upon her that
+day. She bitterly regretted the tears shed before Ezra, and she must
+never, never again look at the student Graves. She felt that to see his
+face, even from a distance, would cause her to drop dead before him.
+Every muscle tingled and her eyes burned with unshed tears. She had
+never dared to speak even to his sister, the pretty Teola Graves, who
+fluttered about with pink ribbons among her curls and wore high heels on
+her shoes.
+
+Suddenly Tess opened her lips and sent ringing over the lake in glorious
+tones of pathos, the hymn she loved best,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin',
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel knew what it meant to almost perish from the cold. She had felt
+the cruel blasts of the winter winds upon her chilblained feet, for she
+had never known the luxury of shoes. She had also seen the dying and
+understood what it meant to turn a longing face toward heaven, with a
+burning desire to know what was beyond.
+
+Such a voice as Tessibel's had never been heard upon Cayuga lake. Ben
+Letts said it put him in mind of listening to the wild cry of a lost
+soul, while Myra Longman could hear only the songs of angels in the
+exquisite tones which fell, pure and sweet, from the red lips. Tess knew
+nothing of breath power, nothing of trained trilling tones, but nature
+had given her both and like the birds of the air she used them.
+
+The girl had not moved from beside the stone near which she had fallen.
+The night was so strange, so different from any night Tessibel had ever
+known. Her whole idea of life had been altered that day by the word of
+a fisherman, and the woman's heart grew larger and larger, until the
+squatter girl felt that it was going to burst. Something crawled over
+her bare foot and brought her to her senses. Leaning over she drew to
+her lap a long, slimy lizard, which she held caressingly in her fingers.
+She lifted him high up and looked at him through the moonlight.
+
+"Green," she said slowly, "ain't he a dandy. But I don't dare carry him
+even a little way for fear he'll lose his house. I bet he has a pile of
+green babies."
+
+Dropping the lizard beside the rock, she sped away.
+
+Just before reaching the Longman cabin, she raised her voice and sang
+again,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin',
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+Some one opened the door and she bounded in.
+
+"Glad ye come, Tessibel," said Mrs. Longman, a small wizened old woman.
+"The brat air sick to-day. He does nothin' but squall so that my head
+air a bustin' the hours through. Give him to Tessibel, Myry."
+
+"After she air rested a spell," replied Myra, who resembled her mother,
+but was smaller and thinner. "He seems to have a pain, Tess."
+
+"Mebbe he has," responded Tessibel, "give him to me."
+
+The wee boy stopped his tears immediately. His back grew limp and his
+fists opened out as Tessibel began to sing. This time the song was, "Did
+ye ever go into an Irishman's shanty?"
+
+The child fell asleep and Tessibel laid him gently in the box prepared
+for him. Bed room was scarce in the huts of the fishermen and the small
+members of the family slept on rope beds, let down from the ceiling. But
+Myra's child, still too tender and always sick, slept in a box which his
+grandfather, "Satisfied" Longman, had made for him as soon as he was
+born.
+
+"It air a seemly night for the men to fish," commented Myra when
+Tessibel had seated herself again. "I air always a hopin' that nothin'
+will happen to none of them."
+
+"The hull bunch air cute," assured Tessibel, "and Daddy can row faster
+than any man on this here lake."
+
+"But when them game men gets after 'em with the permit to shoot, that's
+what I fears," complained Mrs. Longman--and she sighed.
+
+The fisherwoman's life she had led had been harder than most women bore,
+for Ezra was going a crooked path, while Myra, well--the brat slept in
+the cradle. Both girls saw her glance toward it and read her thoughts.
+
+Myra's face deepened in color, Tessibel hummed a tune.
+
+"'Taint no use to try to bring up children anywheres decent," the woman
+broke in sharply, after a silent moment. "God! but to see one's own--"
+
+"Ma," Myra's voice was pleading, "it air over and ye said--"
+
+"I knows I did, and so did yer Daddy. But I ain't thinkin' only of ye
+to-night, Myra, look at the mess that Ezry's a makin' of things, and
+just 'cause ye won't marry him, Tessibel."
+
+"I ain't never goin' to marry no one," said Tess sullenly; "goin' to
+stay with Daddy."
+
+"Yer Daddy won't live allers," interposed Mrs. Longman, "and what's
+more, yer better off with a man what will look after ye as Ezy will. Be
+ye a thinkin' of it at all, Tessibel?"
+
+The girl shook her head.
+
+"Nope, 'taint no use; don't like Ezy anyway."
+
+"Ezry ain't the worst boy in the world," defended the mother; "if the
+right woman gets him, Tess, he'll make her a good man. Ye couldn't think
+of tryin' him, could ye?"
+
+Tessibel shook her head again. She shuddered perceptibly, and Myra
+thought she realized the feeling in the girl's heart.
+
+"Don't bother her, ma, don't bother--"
+
+"If ye'd a bothered a little yerself, Myra," broke in the woman
+pettishly, "we might all been better off. It ain't 'cause of the brat,
+air it, Tessibel?"
+
+She shot a glance at the infant's box.
+
+"Why 'cause of the brat," asked Tessibel sharply, "why 'cause of the
+brat?"
+
+"He air a come-be-chance, ye know--"
+
+"That ain't no fault of his'n, air it," demanded Tessibel. "Nope,
+'tain't nothin' to do with the brat. I loves him, I does, come-be-chance
+or no. It don't make no difference to me."
+
+Myra pressed Tessibel's bare toe with hers in loving fellowship.
+
+"Ye allers was a funny gal, Tessibel," ruminated Mrs. Longman. "Now Ezy
+says that yer takin' a likin' to such things as toads, lizards and
+snakes, shows as how ye needs some one to help ye. God'll make ye a
+happy mother if ye'll keep yer nose low in the air, and not think too
+much of yer betters."
+
+Ezra, then, had told his mother of the student. A frown deepened on the
+girl's brow. She hated Ezra Longman with an inward fury for what he had
+said that day.
+
+"Ye might have a come-be-chance, yerself, Tessibel," warned Mrs. Longman
+as she went to bed, clambering up the long ladder to the loft, leaving
+the girls alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Outside the Longman hut the wind had quickened its pace up the dark
+lake, but inside there was no sound save the small snore of the infant.
+
+"Don't hurt you and me bein' friends, does it, Myry," broke in Tessibel
+impetuously, "'cause I can't love Ezry?"
+
+"Nope, I wouldn't love him nuther. Ma don't know all that's to know and
+I wouldn't a married the brat's pa if I could," and she shivered, for
+she knew that she had lied to Tess.
+
+This was the first time Myra had mentioned her trouble, that is, in just
+that confidential manner. Tessibel came closer. Had it not been a
+mystery since the coming of the brat, who had been responsible for his
+tiny life?
+
+"It air some un what ye knows, too, Tessibel," Myra said, shifting her
+eyes from her companion's face to the box where the infant lay, but Tess
+did not ask the name. Suddenly Myra leaned over and whispered something
+in the other girl's ear, and Tessibel started as if she had been stung
+by an adder.
+
+"Nope ... it ain't him," she cried, starting up, "he air bad but not so
+bad as that."
+
+"It were him," replied Myra, "and he beat me that night on the ragged
+rocks and that air what broke my arm. Ye remember?"
+
+Tessibel nodded. She had heard a secret that not even Myra's mother
+knew--she felt intuitively that Myra intended her to keep silent. She
+did not dare to speak again, fearing the woman above was not asleep. But
+Myra, with less fear, resumed,
+
+"'Taint no hopin' the brat will live, and if he does he'll get his
+eatin's alright. What brats don't? But, Tessibel, I telled ye this to
+keep ye away from the ragged rocks for there air no tellin' what will
+happen to ye. And yer that pretty--"
+
+Tessibel stared blankly.
+
+"Pretty! pretty!" she gasped, stumbling over the words, "ye say pretty.
+Me--pretty, Myra Longman?"
+
+"As if ye didn't know it," scoffed Myra, "but yer face air allers so dum
+dirty that ye can't see nothin' but yer eyes, and yer matty old hair--it
+air a shame to live like ye do."
+
+Tessibel sat up. This was her first ambitious moment. Never had lips
+said such things to her, and she had always known Myra Longman. Rising
+from the chair she disappeared into the outer room, and Myra could hear
+the splashing of water and the shuffling of feet as Tessibel stood first
+on one and then the other, washing her dirty face. She mopped the long
+red hair in and out of the wash-basin, and Myra was not prepared for the
+vision which Tessibel made in her new state of cleanliness. The impetus
+of being good-looking by an effort of her own had blackened the copper
+colored eyes. The long fringed lashes dripped with pearls of water while
+the skin had reddened from the vigorous rubbing, but it was very, very
+clean.
+
+"I wants yer comb, Myry Longman," said Tessibel slowly shaking herself
+like a big dog.
+
+Myra hesitated.
+
+"Ye got too much dirt in your hair yet," said she, "but if ye'll take
+care of yer mop, I'll be givin' ye a comb to yourself."
+
+Tess did not deny the accusation of her filth. She took the comb and
+drew it through the wet locks. Myra was regarding her critically.
+Tessibel--was beautiful. In the last year Ezra's sister had seen the
+change coming. The complexion had whitened under the perpetual dirt and
+the long eyes had gathered an expression of knowledge, while their color
+changed from light to dark with passing emotions.
+
+Myra bent her brows as she examined Tessibel closer. The skin was clean
+and shone with the glossiness of much soap. The low brow was covered
+with small wet ringlets, which turned and twisted here and there in
+luxurious confusion. Over the shoulders, hidden by a soiled calico
+blouse, the copper colored mass hung in dripping flame-like waves.
+
+"You air pretty," said Myra slowly, "but ye air so dum dirty no one can
+ever see it. Why ain't you washed up like that every day?"
+
+"Never knowed how before. Didn't see nothin' to keep clean in my face."
+
+As Tessibel spoke she stood before the glass looking at her own
+image--spying upon the prettiness which Myra said was there.
+
+"This hair air like red snakes," she gasped passionately. "Just like the
+snakes that eats the little birds in the spring. In the sun their backs
+air red like this--and this--and this."
+
+She was angrily tearing at the beautiful tightly curled ringlets with
+but one thought dominating her brain. Students never liked red haired
+girls with eyes which looked like copper.
+
+"Don't," ordered Myra, catching the rough hands as they pulled at the
+profusion of redness. "Don't, ye air tearin' it out by the roots, and it
+looks like--like the sun when it air goin' down in one ball of fire. It
+air beautiful."
+
+Beautiful! beautiful! Tessibel caught her breath and looked at Myra with
+a yellowish glint, born of a new emotion in her eyes. Was the brat's
+mother making fun of her? All her short life had this been Tessibel's
+portion. Ben Letts had followed her along the ragged rocks over which
+her bare feet flew with the swiftness of eagle's wings and when he found
+she could not be induced to stop he would shout in defiance, "Brick top,
+red head," and such names that went deep into the sensitive little
+heart. When she reached home she would tear at the curls and cut them
+fiercely with the knife which her father used to skin his fish and large
+eels. Yet nature would send more and more of the burnished gold to adorn
+Tessibel's head, and not until to-night had she ever heard one word in
+praise of it.
+
+The reformation had begun. Tessibel went again to the soap and water and
+Myra looking through the crack of the door, saw Tess dragging madly at
+her hair, sopping it first in the pan and then in the deep bucket which
+Ezra used to give the pig their swill. Once Myra saw the mass of gold
+disappear into the pail, and when Tessibel came again to view she was
+sputtering, coughing, and blowing the cold water from her nose and
+mouth.
+
+"Won't be much left if ye keeps on at yer hair that way," called Myra
+grimly, "but the soap air good for cleanin' it. There air other days and
+nights, too," she went on sarcastically, "and it air almost midnight.
+Yer Daddy'll be here soon. Wonder if the game warden air out to-night?"
+
+As if in answer to her question they heard the dipping of oars and a
+little later a boat was dragged to its moorings on the shore.
+"Satisfied" Longman entered with his son and Ben Letts.
+
+"Daddy were tired and didn't come for me?" asked Tessibel.
+
+"Your Daddy didn't come child," replied the elder Longman, whilst Ben
+Letts stood with his squint eyes lowered. He had an exquisite feeling
+within him, longing for the sight of the girl after she had heard their
+news.
+
+"I air goin' home to Daddy--I ain't afeared to go home alone," she said
+stoutly and defiantly, for Ben Letts made a move to accompany her. "I
+ain't afeared of the night things, nor nothin' that crawls nor flies. Ye
+knows I ain't afeared, Myra."
+
+"Ye ain't goin' home to-night, Tessibel," said Long man, "for yer father
+ain't there."
+
+At first Tessibel didn't comprehend. She thought of the care which was
+taken to keep the fish fresh for the market. Daddy was putting the
+pickerel and numerous eels in the blind fish cars until they could be
+cleaned. She looked into "Satisfied" Longman's face.
+
+"Air he a carin' for the fish?"
+
+Longman shook his head in the negative.
+
+"Where air he then?"
+
+Tessibel's voice was sharp and penetrating. It awoke Mrs. Longman
+upstairs and the infant in the box beside the rope cot.
+
+"He air gone to prison," put in Ezra opening and shutting his eyes, and
+licking his thick lips with his red tongue. "He air where ye won't see
+him to scratch his face when ye goes into a tantrum. He air in prison."
+
+The bronze eyes widened and lengthened till the very fear in them
+startled her companions. The tall, slight figure with its weight of
+rags, swayed to the hut floor--the clean shining face gathered into a
+painful pucker, while the two fists which had fought many a hard battle,
+clenched until the nails entered the calloused skin under each finger.
+Not one word came from the tightened white lips. The dumb agony was
+worse than a child's frantic scream of fear. Somehow, Ben's mind went
+back to the toad, when it also had borne its misery dumbly.
+
+"Satisfied" Longman, stooping down, grasped the girl and stood her on
+her feet. No one had ever seen Tess like this. Ben leered, the sides of
+his fat cheeks protruding in the joyful emotion he felt at Tessibel's
+suffering.
+
+"He killed the gamekeeper," he grinned, leaning back against the wall.
+"He air where ye won't hurt him now."
+
+The tortured Tess could bear no more. She had striven to be brave when
+she thought of "Daddy" in the small cell which she had heard many times
+vividly described. She had thought vaguely of months, perhaps a whole
+year without him, but Ben's words made her father a murderer, and
+murderers went away sometimes never to return. Her Daddy!--and Ezra had
+said that she could never scratch his face again. She hurt Daddy? Did
+every one in the settlement think that? She sank down beside Myra's
+father and winding her arms about his legs implored him to say that it
+was only Ben's and Ezra's fun.
+
+"It air fun, only fun, Satisfied, ain't it," she pleaded, "for Daddy,
+poor old Daddy, never killed no man."
+
+"We all says as how it were a mistake," replied Longman. "Ben says the
+gun went off in yer Daddy's hands and the warden dropped, and the other
+gamekeeper took yer Daddy away at the point of his pistol. I were at the
+north reel and couldn't save him nohow."
+
+Tessibel understood. It was all plain now. She loosened her arms and
+painfully raised herself. The shock had hurt her flesh, and made her
+sore and lame. She started dazedly toward the door, "Satisfied" trying
+to stop her flight, but the strong young body, mad with grief and newly
+found despair, slipped through the friendly fingers, and the night,
+Tessibel's night, gathered her into its arms, till she was lost in the
+long shadows of the pine forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A night owl hooted in Tessibel's ear as she ran. A bat whirled into her
+face--then took himself off. Over the shadowy rocks which cut and
+bruised her feet, Tessibel flew.
+
+Daddy was home in the shanty; he was in his bed tired from hauling his
+nets. She remembered Ezra had grinned at her as with one hasty look she
+had fixed his face in her mind. He had lied to her. Daddy was in the
+hut, and if he were up waiting for her--there passed through Tessibel's
+small mind the thought of how joyfully she would hop to the bowed
+shoulders, and she longed for the kisses she knew would be hers. She
+halted before the dark hut and waited. Insects whizzed about her ears as
+though they little feared her. The long branches of the weeping willow
+dragged themselves across the tin roof with a ghostly sound. This was
+Tessibel's night of heart experiences--her first day and her first
+night. Oh! to go back to yesterday, with the hidden fear of the student
+sleeping soundly in her breast and a Daddy, a dear stooping old Daddy.
+She slipped open the shanty door, lighted a candle and looked around.
+The frying pan lay bottom up on the floor where she had dropped it. The
+tea pail was on the table; a cut loaf of bread lay beside it, covered
+with a host of small red ants. All this was familiar to Tess. She kicked
+the pan from her path with her bare foot, and sat down on the three
+legged stool which her father used at his meals. Portions of fish and
+plenty of bones were spread about upon the floor, but the littered
+shanty did not distress her newly found notions of cleanliness.
+
+Daddy might go away to the black place where they had taken the Canadian
+Indian, who had killed his squaw. Tess remembered hearing how he had
+been carried to prison, twelve men had found him guilty of the crime and
+at last--Tessibel started up with a groan--the Canadian Indian had been
+carried to the place where the rope was.
+
+Daddy Skinner and the Canadian Indian. Tess dared think no longer. She
+caught a glimpse of herself in the cracked mirror which Skinner used
+when he plied the pinchers to his beard--and her wild eyed bronzeness
+caused her to give a startled ejaculation. Daddy was gone; and Frederick
+the toad, was her all. The thought of the reptile she loved brought her
+quickly to her feet. Frederick should sleep in the shanty while Daddy
+was away. Tessibel halted apprehensively in the open doorway.
+
+From the shore willows, hoot owls pierced the inky night with their
+sonorous cries--while in throaty discord, a million marsh frogs bellowed
+farewell to summer. The lake shores caught the unceasing waves in
+eternal laps, the rhythm soothing the ears of the squatter girl as her
+unfathomable gaze pierced the midnight gloom. But the weight of sorrow
+and longing on the strong nature, untried by emotion, strangled the
+rising fear, and Tessibel advanced a step to the pebbly path. Once
+outside in the darkness, she lifted her voice and repeated as of yore,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+Never before had the words roused her as now--Daddy Skinner needed that
+refrain.
+
+She darted around the corner of the mud cellar, and shoving her hand
+into the familiar hole in the log, Tessibel drew Frederick quickly out.
+She dropped him into her blouse and retraced her steps to the shanty.
+She could never be lonely and quite without hope if Frederick were with
+her. Hadn't she loved him for four long months, and daily fed him his
+portion of flies? She took him from her bosom, where many times he had
+sunk into toad dream-land, and without looking at him placed him on the
+floor.
+
+"It air a bad night for us, Frederick," she said out loud, "it air. But
+you'll not sleep in the log to-night, but in Daddy's bed. And I'll just
+pretend ye air Daddy, and when ye croak with the daylight ye can have
+all the flies lightin' on the sugar, and then we air goin' after Daddy
+and bring him home to the shanty, Frederick."
+
+Tessibel turned her head and glanced at Frederick. Generally when she
+spoke he would give an answering grunt. She gazed at him but dared not
+venture closer. Had she lost her mind like Jake Brewer's sister, when
+they brought home the body of her drowned husband? Tessibel lighted
+another candle and then the third--the match burned low between her
+fingers as she touched it to the fourth. Once more she looked upon the
+horrid sight--terror striving and struggling for some outlet in her torn
+young soul. Frederick blinked a pair of beady eyes, filmed with
+death,--he moved a mutilated body with painful jerks, but there was
+nothing to show the girl that he felt her presence. The silent awful
+pulsating of the toad manifested its dumb suffering. A candle flickered
+as she sought to solve the problem. The night wind flapped the dirty
+curtain and Tessibel turned her head slowly toward it. A bird's cry from
+somewhere in the weeping willow, came in through the window. With silent
+intensity, she dragged her body slowly across the floor toward the
+flattened reptile--above him she squatted--the gorgeous hair sweeping
+the filth strewn floor. Tess could mark the places where the beloved
+warts had been--she knew how many there were even to the tiny ones. With
+the halting precision of the ignorant, she had counted them singly every
+day. But the severest heart wrench of all was to come to Tess. The great
+squat hind legs, which had been her pride, when Frederick jumped through
+her rounded arms--curled to make a hoop--were gone, and the movements of
+Frederick's body left a tiny trail of dark blood upon the shanty floor.
+She couldn't touch that dying thing. In her vehement desire to relieve
+him of his pain, she burst into song which went upward and outward,
+ringing over the lake, returning again, only to be sent further and
+further into the heavens.
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+This was all Tessibel knew of the hymn--over and over she sang it,
+fearfully watching the toad move grotesquely in the candlelight. Time
+after time the blinking eyes closed and flew open--again and again
+Tessibel sent her importunate prayer into the heart of the Great
+Unknown.
+
+Frederick gave a great deep sob, his fat sides lifted and fell twice,
+and as the petitionate lips of the girl sent the song once more into the
+night, he flopped over on his back, straightened out the little wounded
+stumps, and died.
+
+Daddy Skinner, the Canadian Indian, and Frederick! Tess couldn't
+separate the three--the prayerful mood died with the toad. She opened
+her lips and uttered two great piercing shrieks, which sounded and
+resounded through the rafters of the shanty, out into the darkness and
+up to the ragged rocks. It was the cry of a wounded human thing,
+amounting to but little in the great whirling universe. The dying of the
+scream brought words from her lips.
+
+"Daddy Skinner, Daddy Skinner."
+
+Then twice in equally shrill longing, resounded the name of her dead
+friend.
+
+"Frederick, aw, aw Frederick!"
+
+Both cries followed the prayer, echoing their agony out through the
+window--the flapping curtain with its tatters offering no impediment for
+its outgoing.
+
+Suddenly Tessibel staggered to her feet, for back to her through the
+window, from somewhere near the mud cellar, came an answering voice,
+deep-toned and vibrant--
+
+"What? What?"
+
+Frederick, the student, stood in the door of the dirty shanty, looking
+upon an unkempt, copper-eyed girl, and a great squat, dead, wartless
+toad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"You called me?"
+
+A silence.
+
+"You called me?"
+
+The student repeated the words twice, so satisfied was he that his name
+had been called out in tones of great insistence.
+
+Tessibel was deaf to his words. His presence had filled her completely.
+Leaning against the post of Daddy's bed, she glued her eyes upon the
+student's face, the fringed lids sprung to their fullest capacity. The
+extreme fascination in her gaze held the boy spellbound--then the
+eyelids quivered and it was over.
+
+Frederick glanced hurriedly about the room, the untidiness of it all
+striking his sensitiveness. He noted the pungent smell of fried fish
+mixed with inferior grease, the ant-covered bread, the confusion of
+ragged bed-clothes, and lastly of all, the other Frederick. Tessibel
+gasped as the newcomer looked longest upon her dead. She thought she saw
+him shiver as he stepped back a little.
+
+This brought her grief vividly back to her. The pain, as acute and sharp
+as the knife which had ended the life of Frederick, entered her already
+riven soul. The instant before a mingled sensation of shame and
+embarrassment had swept over her because of the appearance of the hut,
+and her own bare legs and feet; but the helpless dead sent even that
+from her.
+
+"He air gone," she said chokingly, coming forward with a totter.
+
+Disgust rested paramount upon the student's face. Surprise followed this
+as Tessibel threw herself in limp unconcern beside the other Frederick
+and gathered the stiffened toad into her arms. She rocked to and fro as
+a mother might who had suddenly discovered that the great White Mystery
+had robbed her of her child. Tessibel's maternal instinct was being
+strongly developed in her agony of the hour, and the identity of
+Frederick the student, was lost in Frederick, the toad, her one little
+friend, to whom she had told all her sorrows, and had been ruthlessly
+torn from her. Already she could feel the short front legs growing
+stiff, and the throat which had so often grunted for its supper, was
+falling into a curve. The great mutilated back which had lifted and then
+receded with every breath was still, and Frederick lay like the lump of
+clay that he was, in the arms of his foster mother. Tessibel's child by
+adoption would never again gather into his slit of a mouth the flies
+which favored the sugar. Then Tess, still clasping her dead friend,
+lifted her head. A stranger had intruded upon her grief. She gathered
+her bruised, sore feet under the short, ragged girl's skirt, and lifted
+a woman's soulful face toward the student.
+
+"What do ye want?" she asked sullenly.
+
+"You called me?"
+
+"It were him I wanted," she said hysterically, hugging her little dead
+burden.
+
+"The toad?"
+
+"Yep, he were all I had,--him and Daddy, and--Daddy Skinner air gone
+too."
+
+Then Tessibel forgot the student, and the forlorn red head with its
+burden of curls lay relaxed upon the lifeless Frederick, while the
+child-woman wept in abject loneliness.
+
+Impetuously the second Frederick stepped forward, the movement closing
+the door with a bang, and causing the candles to lift their smothered
+flames and flicker smokily. The wind shrieked through the broken window
+and the cracks between the shanty boards. A storm played with the water,
+casting its grayness into white capped rollers which beat upon the shore
+like the restless spirits of an ocean. Still the girl wept on,--wept for
+Frederick, for Daddy, and once a shuddering thought went through her
+mind of the Canadian Indian.
+
+"He killed the gamekeeper, Ezy says,--Daddy Skinner," she whimpered.
+
+Suddenly she sat up, her small round face puckered into such lines of
+pain that the student turned his head away, feeling dangerously near
+tears. He had always been taught, by his father and by his mother who
+feared contagion, that of all people in the world, the squatters must be
+most avoided; they had no hearts; they killed men and broke the laws
+simply for their own gain. But here was a girl magnetically drawing him
+toward her. Dirty? Yes, and barefooted, wild-eyed and untaught, but
+suffering--and such suffering! Frederick Graves, like his father, would
+teach the Gospel of Christ, of peace and good-will to all mankind,--but
+the deep burnishing of the beautiful hair as it swept the floor in red
+curls had much to do with Frederick's sympathy, for man-like, he looked
+upon Eve in her beauty and pitied.
+
+"Your father is Orn Skinner, who shot the gamekeeper to-night?" he
+asked presently.
+
+Tess nodded, still looking fearfully into his face.
+
+"He was disobeying the law," replied Frederick gravely.
+
+Again she nodded, for Tess had no spirit to thwart an argument at that
+moment.
+
+"People who disobey the law," went on the student in his youthful
+righteousness, "take their life in their hands, and other people's too.
+Don't you think that the woman left without her husband, the
+gamekeeper's wife, is weeping for him?"
+
+It was a new thought for Tess, but she would not harbor it. It didn't
+seem quite just to Daddy. She drew down the red lips at the corners, and
+helplessly clung closer and closer to the toad.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked the student. "You lived here with your
+father, but you can't stay here alone."
+
+"It air my home," she said distrustfully, "and I stays here and hangs to
+this here shanty till Daddy comes back. Aw, he air comin' back, ain't
+he? He won't go to that place--?"
+
+She closed her lips, fearing to utter the thought.
+
+Frederick shook his head.
+
+"Poor child," he said, with a fatherly air. "It is a dangerous
+position."
+
+If the case had been placed before Frederick Graves to decide, yesterday
+he would have hanged Orn Skinner for the murder of the gamekeeper. But
+to-night--well, to-night his ideas of men and ... of women, too, had
+changed.
+
+"But he didn't mean it," went on Tess, casting back the unruly hair
+which shrouded her face in its new state of cleanliness. "He wouldn't
+have hurt a fly, Daddy Skinner wouldn't."
+
+A whistle from the outside, heard plainly through the beating of the
+wind, caused Frederick to fling open the door.
+
+"Yes, father," he said loudly, "I'm here. I missed you on the way. Come
+in a moment if you will."
+
+Tessibel gathered herself more closely into a small human ball than
+ever. She had feared the minister since the time she had talked off his
+warts with the wizard words she had learned from a hag living on the
+ragged rocks.
+
+"What's this," demanded the Dominie, looking sternly at her, and she
+dropped her eyes in confusion.
+
+"It's Orn Skinner's girl," replied his son. "Skinner is the man who shot
+Stebbins to-night. You heard Deacon Hall talking about it at the
+cottage."
+
+This explanation was superfluous, for the minister well knew the girl
+and her father.
+
+"It's a nice mess your father's got himself into," he said harshly.
+
+Tessibel lifted her head.
+
+"He didn't mean to do it, sir," she replied, not daring to rise, because
+of her bare, long legs.
+
+"Didn't, eh?" roared Graves in his wrath, placing his hand on his son's
+shoulder. "He was right glad to have the chance to use his gun, or why
+did he take it with him?"
+
+Tessibel raised her eyes to the rafters, and her face flooded with
+color. The rifle was gone--Daddy Skinner had taken it with him. She was
+too young to argue with such a man and only wiped her face with her
+sleeve and sobbed.
+
+"God will see that justice is done, my girl. Your father will hang, do
+you hear?" shouted Graves. "Hang by the neck till he's dead, and this
+shanty will be burned with all its filth!"
+
+Frederick clutched his father's arm, his face changing from red to white
+as he watched Tessibel. She had clambered to her feet, ridiculously
+tangled in the rags of her dress. The dead Frederick was forgotten,
+falling with a great thud upon the floor. Her face was so mobile, so
+glassily white that if the hand of death had smitten her, she could not
+have looked ghastlier.
+
+Standing before them, the tears drying over the hot blood which rushed
+in torrents afresh from her heart to her face, Tessibel learned her
+first lesson in suppressed emotion. She took two steps backward and
+wound her hands behind the post of Daddy's old-fashioned bed.
+
+Truly it was Tessibel's first day and first night!
+
+"He air to be hanged dead?" she asked, the painful shiftiness of her
+eyes settling questioningly upon the minister's face. "Aw, he air good,
+Daddy Skinner air, gooder than ye be, with ye cross and ye crown that ye
+sing about. Gooder than all ye whole church, if his gun did kill the
+gamekeeper. We has our rights to live, to eat bread and beans, like ye
+have, hain't we? If Daddy Skinner air hung, then Tessibel hangs too."
+
+Here the tired young face drooped a little.
+
+"Ye'll hang him will ye? Well! ye won't--cause--cause--"
+
+Her red head flashed back upon the uncovered shoulders--the wild eyes
+lifted a moment to the rocking rafters in the roof.
+
+"If ye lives in the sky, Jesus, that cares for the dyin', take Daddy
+Skinner and Tessibel--"
+
+Her eyes dropped to the pan on the floor, against which the stiff body
+of the toad lay, and she ended,--"And Frederick."
+
+It was a prayer,--a rough prayer, from untaught lips, but through the
+action which followed, it instantly lost its dignity. Tessibel forgot
+her lesson--forgot all save the taunting face of the minister. She gave
+her familiar leap in the air and came down with a cry upon the Dominie's
+chest.
+
+"Ye'll kill him, will ye? Then I--I air goin' to kill ye," and deep into
+the face of the minister sunk the ten little toad-tainted fingers.
+
+Frederick loosened her by extreme effort from his father's body and
+thrust the gasping preacher outside the door. The student placed his
+hand upon the panting girl's shoulder.
+
+"You're wrong," he said gravely, "Your prayer was good and God heard.
+There is in the sky a suffering Christ and His cross--and by your
+prayers you may save your father, and also save--poor little Tessibel
+Skinner." Then glancing about the filthy room he added, "and cleanliness
+is next to godliness."
+
+She opened the door proudly--his words had taught her a newer dignity.
+
+"This air my shanty," she said. "I air sorry I hitted yer Daddy's face,
+cause--cause he air yer Daddy. Scoot now!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+For one short moment after the going of Frederick, Tessibel stood,
+gapingly, looking out into the darkness. The student had gone and with
+him her horror of the minister. The steps died away and dazedly she
+closed the door. She remembered the day she had talked the warts off
+from Graves' hand--remembered how he had said to her that she was
+possessed of the devil. Just what that meant the child didn't know, but
+the darkening frown on the minister's face plainly told her that it was
+nothing pleasant--since then she had scurried away when the Dominie had
+appeared.
+
+This was the first time she had heard the student's voice, for he had
+spent most of his summers away from home, and the fisherman's child had
+had little chance to see him. He had said that the cross and crown would
+save her daddy--had said to pray to the God of whom she knew so little,
+and his words had given birth to a great faith within her.
+
+Tessibel's fingers were stained with Frederick's blood and shudderingly
+she looked at them in the candle light. Frederick lay where she had
+dropped him, his fat white belly sunken and misshapened. The very
+stillness of him made the girl round him in a circle, watching him with
+an intentness which showed her superstitious fear of the stiffening
+dead. Then her great love for him overwhelmed her and she darted like a
+bird toward her friend.
+
+"I were afraid of ye, Frederick," she groaned softly, "but I ain't no
+more. Ye wouldn't hurt the kid what loves ye so, would ye, if ye air
+dead."
+
+She turned the great body over and sobbed. Again the words of the
+student softened her grief, and through Frederick Graves, for the sake
+of her loved ones, she accepted his mysterious far-away God and His
+sacrificed Son.
+
+With loving hands she tumbled the toad into a soiled rag and placed him
+in the corner. There was nothing left for her to do save to rescue Daddy
+Skinner from the black cap, and she must see him before the rising of
+the sun. Mother Moll, the settlement witch, would tell her if Daddy
+Skinner were in danger.
+
+She opened the door and stood for a moment before stepping into the
+abating storm. Her eyes fell upon a giant pine tree at the edge of the
+forest, far beyond her father's hut. It was silhouetted against a light
+streak in the southern sky, its long arms extending straight into the
+air. The branches of the tree had always made a fantastic figure in
+Tessibel's eyes. It took the form of a venerable old man and it had been
+one of her vivid imaginings, since she could remember, that some time
+the man shaped against the skies would step down in the flesh. Tess had
+grown to love him in sunshine and in rain--to watch him in silent,
+mystified longing as he bent toward her day after day. In the nodding
+head and swaying arms, Tessibel suddenly established Frederick's deity.
+As a man from the east worships his sun god through a wooden image, so
+Tessibel directed a prayer to this moving figure in the pine tree. Her
+pain-drawn lips parted slightly as she stood for a short space of time
+watching him.
+
+"If ye be a God," she breathed, "help me see my Daddy."
+
+She said this with bowed head, for grief and the student's admonition
+had made a path for reverence through her soul.
+
+Then she closed the cabin door and started toward the shore. Pushing a
+flat boat into the lake, which was still turbulent from the storm, she
+deftly rounded the long fishing dock, rowing to the bobbing little fish
+car which held Daddy's eels. She pulled out the nail, and holding up the
+top of the car, ran her hand quickly about inside. Drawing out four huge
+eels, she threw them into the bottom of the boat, closed the trap door
+and rowed away toward the shore.
+
+Inside the shanty, she placed the fish upon the wooden table and stood
+for an instant regarding them. One long eel drew itself into tense half
+circles, turning over and over until as he neared the edge of the table
+Tessibel caught him. Longer the girl's eyes rested upon this one.
+Suddenly she snatched him up--slipping him, wriggling, tail-end first
+into the water pail, still holding fast to the pointed head.
+
+"God made ye beautiful," she crooned, "ye can stay there and let me pet
+ye. I air got to have somethin' to love."
+
+Turning back to the table, she contemplated the remaining fish for
+thirty seconds or so in indecision. Had her own desire ruled, she would
+have put them all back into the lake--she would not have killed them;
+but to-night--to-night it was for Daddy's sake--he was more to her than
+all of nature's creatures. With expert fingers, she sent the life from
+the twisting eels, and gathering them into a small bag, Tessibel slung
+them over her arm and broke off into the dark forest, the twigs
+cracking under her small bare feet as she went. Here and there the curls
+of red hair would catch in the branches, and the girl would tear them
+loose, leaving a blazed trail of copper threads marking her path.
+
+Up to the ragged rocks she went, through the gorges and brooks until she
+came in sight of a small dark hut set deeply in the opposite bank of a
+ravine, through which water was flowing. To reach the hut the child
+scaled the deep gorge and clambered up the other side.
+
+The shanty was dark and Tessibel stood long looking intently at it. Over
+the top, which was covered with tar paper, scraped the branches of a
+large tree--the wind was dashing a dead vine mournfully against a broken
+window. Although on friendly terms with Mother Moll, Tess had always
+stood in awe of her, but the squatter girl had infinite confidence in
+the future events foretold by the witch. To-night she must see the
+woman--must ask her news of Daddy Skinner from the fortune pot. The dead
+fish hanging upon the slender arm were to propitiate the witch's anger
+for being dragged from her bed in the night.
+
+Tess stepped shivering to the door and knocked. Receiving no answer, she
+sent another pealing sound through the howling wind, for she knew Mother
+Moll was there.
+
+Suddenly a voice came from within.
+
+"What in the devil's name do ye want here, at this time of the
+darkness?"
+
+"It air Tess, Ma Moll. I wants yer fortune pot."
+
+"Go home and come agin to-morry."
+
+"Won't," Tess sent back defiantly, "air goin' to see ye to-night. I air
+goin' to give ye somethin' for yer luck pot."
+
+A scramble, a hurrying sound from within, and the door was dragged open.
+Tess stepped into the dark room,--the whizzing of insects overhead
+coming dimly to her through the rocking of the shanty. One broad-winged
+clammy night bat whirled close to her, but was gone before she could put
+up her hand.
+
+"It air a bad night that brought the brat out to me, so it air," growled
+the hag, "be it the headless man from Hayte's place what air been
+hauntin' ye, or the Indian squaw with her burnt brat?"
+
+She was feeling about for a match as she croaked out her words. Tess did
+not answer, but waited until Mother Moll lighted a candle and then
+dropped her load upon the floor.
+
+"They air for the luck-pot, I says, Ma Moll," said she, opening the bag,
+and displaying the eels, "I comes to know what air in it for me."
+
+"Air they dead eels what you found on the shore," asked the hag
+suspiciously, "Maybe them ain't fresh ones."
+
+"I killed them myself but a time ago," responded Tess. "It hurts them to
+lug them livin' out of the water, but they fills your pot for many a
+mess."
+
+It was a tempting wage for the hag. She blew the dying grate embers into
+a blaze over which she hung a small iron pot. The bats had ceased the
+infernal flapping of their grotesque wings, and were clinging trembling
+to the rafters above. Tess could mark them through the shadows, as one
+by one she slowly counted them.
+
+Ma Moll was crooning over the kettle. She was a woman older than any
+one even dared guess. With a cackling laugh she always answered
+questions as to her age with the assertion that she was "nigh on to two
+hundred and a deal more than that," and no one could contradict her, for
+she was old when Orn Skinner was a small boy.
+
+Tess, taking her eyes from the hanging bats, allowed them to rest upon
+the hag. The small dwarfed figure was not so tall as her own and the
+rounded shoulders, drawn down by great age, held a head grizzled and
+shriveled. A few tufts of gray hair hung over the ragged wrapper-like
+garment which covered the thin body. Great bunches stood out on the bare
+feet, while the long fingers stirring the liquid in the pot, were
+knuckled high on each hand.
+
+"Air it the headless man what I spoke of," Moll asked again peering into
+the pot, "no--it ain't that ... it air somethin' worse than that."
+
+"Worse than that," echoed Tess coming forward, and sinking down upon her
+knees beside the hag.
+
+"It air worse than the squaw and her burnt brat ... Aye, worse--"
+
+"Worse--than--what?" faltered Tess, with a sob in her throat.
+
+"It air the shadder of a rope--"
+
+Here the hag moved closer to the bubbling kettle while the red-brown
+head pushed nearer and nearer.
+
+"And there air a loop in the end," went on Mother Moll.
+
+Tessibel caught her breath. It was the black place--the rope of the
+Canadian Indian. The awfulness--the loneliness of her despair made her
+whimper brokenly behind a tattered sleeve. The hag was muttering her
+incantations and did not heed the girl.
+
+"The rope air a long 'un and a stout 'un," Ma Moll's voice had raised to
+a shrill cry as she described the instrument of death. Tessibel's head
+was now close to the hag's. Her wild terror-stricken eyes following the
+stick as it stirred the contents of the pot.
+
+"Air the loop around a neck, and air there humps under the head what's a
+hangin'?"
+
+She quivered as she spoke. The thin body of the hag crept nearer to the
+child--the gray straggling locks mingling with the copper curls, and the
+youthful shoulders of the fishermaid contrasting strongly with those of
+the bent old woman.
+
+The hag was searching for the humps--her wild old eyes glaring into the
+seething mess. A trembling bat loosened its hold upon the rafters above
+and blinded by the light of the candle, thrashed its zig-zag course
+about the shanty, banging first the window, then the door, and causing
+both watchers to lift their heads. They saw him as he fell fluttering to
+the floor, lifting his body pantingly up and down.
+
+Again they gazed into the pot, and as one thin hand held the whirling
+stick the hag's bony finger pointed mysteriously to the shadow marking
+the future.
+
+"Be there humps," persisted Tess, "big round humps standin' out as how
+the hills stand by the lake?"
+
+The hag replied in a hoarse whisper:
+
+"There be no humps, but there air a dead man."
+
+So thoroughly did Tess believe in the witch's words that she sank back
+with a cry, upon her wet red feet.
+
+"It ain't daddy," she breathed slowly, hardly daring to utter the name.
+
+"There be no humps," repeated Ma Moll. "There air a storm and a dead
+man, but his face ain't a showin'. There air another dead one on the
+shore. He ain't the same kind of one, he air--"
+
+"A gamekeeper," filled in Tess.
+
+The witch wobbled her head in assent, as Tessibel leaned over to follow
+the long finger defining the shadow.
+
+"There air a shanty," Mother Moll went on, "a child alone, and dead
+things layin' about and there air a--a--"
+
+The two heads were now bent directly over the pot. Tess caught her
+breath in a sob. Was Daddy Skinner coming back to the shanty? The dragon
+blood sputtered, boiling higher and higher, over the heat of the fire,
+as the witch dug it upward from the bottom of the kettle.
+
+"A prison cell and a man," ended Moll.
+
+"Be there humps?" gasped Tess.
+
+An acquiescent nod came from the gray-grizzled head. Tessibel wound her
+fingers about the arm-bone of the hag.
+
+"Air there a cross with a Christ hangin' on it?"
+
+The witch looked deeper into the dark mixture, her eyes squinting to
+narrow slits, and Tess continued:
+
+"A hangin' Christ that air hurt, and be there thorns a-diggin' in Him?"
+
+Deeper and deeper into the sizzling pot stared the faded blue eyes of
+the hag, the dark wide-spread ones of the girl following every movement
+of Ma Moll's hand.
+
+"Aye, there air a cross for ye, brat, to carry on yer back--"
+
+"Air there no Christ a bearin' one for Daddy?"
+
+Suddenly the door burst open, and the raging wind flickered out the
+candle. It had been so sudden that Tess screamed, and the witch muttered
+a curse. The rain tore its way through the small dirty room; the bats
+loosened their hold upon the wooden rafters and circled the darkness,
+first into the open, then into the room--against and away from
+Tessibel's face, until the girl broke into wild weeping.
+
+Ma Moll had failed to find the cross. The wind forcing the door bespoke
+evil for Daddy. Without the student's Christ how could she save him?
+
+"Go home, brat," ordered the hag. "Go home, there air a cross with a
+Christ hangin' to it, and there were a dead man without humps."
+
+Out into the rain the sound of the hag's words ringing in her ears, the
+whizzing bats for the first time filling her with a strange mysterious
+fear, Tessibel went. She turned into the dark forest of which she was
+not afraid, and crossing the gorges again, sought the upper hill which
+led to the tracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Elias Graves was pastor of one of the largest churches in Ithaca. His
+family consisted of his wife, his son Frederick, and his daughter Teola,
+a girl of sixteen, and little Babe, the spoiled pet of the family.
+Besides a beautiful town rectory, he owned the lake farm and held the
+title to the small piece of property upon which Orn Skinner squatted.
+That the hut and its filth injured his own magnificent cottage no one
+denied.
+
+It was true he only spent ten or twelve weeks of the summer in the lake
+house, but every man desired his own. For several years there had been a
+continual fight between the pastor and the fisherman--Orn Skinner
+answering the minister with the squatter law of the state which gave him
+the use of the few feet of ground upon which his shanty stood.
+
+Still the Dominie insisted that some day he would rid his summer home of
+the pest and the time had come.
+
+After leaving Tessibel he walked up the long lane leaning on the arm of
+his son, sputtering against his enemies.
+
+"The very idea of that malicious brat jumping upon me as she did. She
+ought to have a sound whipping."
+
+Frederick shivered slightly. His heart was full of sympathy for the
+primitive girl who had so devotedly loved her toad.
+
+"We would be rid of the whole family if we could get that girl away,"
+went on his father, "then I could file a request to take what belongs to
+me. Hall said only to-night that he would like to see all the squatters
+gone. We've decided to make a move."
+
+Frederick tried to make a small complaint, but the minister commanded
+him to silence.
+
+"Get rid of them I will, do you hear?" he shouted, "they have no moral
+right there whatever the law says. Get rid of them, I will."
+
+When the Dominie reiterated strongly his whole family remained silent,
+and this time Frederick dared pass no remark. He wondered if it were not
+for just such people as the Skinners that the Christ had suffered. He
+felt an incentive rising in his heart to seek guidance from the Book,
+for although Frederick Graves greatly reverenced his father he would not
+give up his own opinions without a struggle.
+
+"I've got this Skinner just where I want him after all these years,"
+hurled forth the minister, as they passed the pear orchard, and then
+added:
+
+"But I don't understand how you came to be in the hut."
+
+"I heard the girl crying," replied Frederick curtly.
+
+"I missed you when we left Hall's," explained the Dominie. "Charlie
+called me back to ask about the plans for the new church, and if I had
+not whistled just when I did, you might have been in that hut still, I
+suppose."
+
+Frederick found himself wishing that his father had not whistled, his
+mind going back to the girl in the shanty, whom he had left with her
+living grief--and her dead.
+
+He saw his sister, Teola, standing on the broad porch waiting for them.
+The girl scented something unusual in the angry tones of her father's
+voice. She followed Frederick alone into the library which looked out
+upon Tessibel's hut.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Frederick shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
+
+"Nothing much."
+
+The brother and sister had grown into a confidential friendship during
+the past two years. Teola's face dropped as she heard Frederick's
+halting answer.
+
+"I know better," she retorted decidedly. "You have been having words
+with father."
+
+"No, not words," replied the boy, "but you see father thinks that no one
+can have any ideas but himself. It sort of makes me tired, for sometimes
+I know when a thing is right or wrong."
+
+"What was the matter?" insisted Teola once more.
+
+"The Skinners," replied Frederick slowly.
+
+"You mean the squatters?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Aren't they alright where they are?" hesitated Teola.
+
+"Skinner killed the gamekeeper to-night, and the girl is alone in the
+shanty. Father doesn't seem to realize that they have souls to be saved
+as well as the rest of the world."
+
+Teola thought an instant before answering.
+
+"They are so dirty," she said at last.
+
+"That's true," Frederick reflected, "but nevertheless they are human."
+
+"Were you in the hut?"
+
+"Yes, with father."
+
+"Whew! What did he say?"
+
+The question was answered by loud words from the minister talking to
+his wife in the dining room.
+
+"I tell you," said his voice, ringing out so that the two listeners
+could hear, "those squatters have got to go. I'm not the only one who
+thinks that way. If they had the instincts of decency I wouldn't say a
+word, but they haven't. I say it's time to make a move."
+
+"You know," continued the minister, "that their hut is in direct line
+with our view. There's no buying them off ... I've tried that. Now that
+Skinner is arrested it won't be hard to frighten the girl away, for she
+can't stay there alone."
+
+"I'm not so sure," mused Mrs. Graves; "those people are not easily
+frightened."
+
+"She's afraid of me," shouted the Dominie, "and she will be more so
+before I get through with her and her father. If Skinner is hanged, she
+shan't stay there."
+
+Later there was a long discussion between the father and son upon the
+rights of squatters, which ended in Frederick's going to bed before it
+was half finished more disgusted and unhappy than he had ever been
+before. He looked out upon the lake. The wind was still rolling the
+water into white crested waves, and his eyes could scarcely outline the
+small hut under the willow tree. Into the boy's life something had
+come--a new something he could not explain, while out of it another
+something as hard to define had gone forever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two jack rabbits perched on the tracks above the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves lifted their long ears and listened. Human steps at this time of
+night were out of the ordinary. The dog at Kennedy's farm beyond the
+tracks heard them, too, and bayed loudly. Then as they grew more
+distinct he bounded toward the fence, capering madly about, to scent the
+intruder. It was but a forlorn little figure, but Pete, the brindle
+bull, lifting his voice in a pleased howl, crouched close to the fence
+as a small hand came through to pet him.
+
+"It air only Tess," said a voice in which tears had gathered. "Ye air
+glad to see Tess, ain't ye?... Tess air glad to see ye, too ...
+Frederick and Daddy air gone and I must be goin'."
+
+Tessibel placed her face down near the big dog and he shoved out his
+long red tongue, touching her with delight. The girl hugged the large
+head with an admonishing appeal that Pete must go back to his
+kennel--and stepped again to the track--that long, black winding road
+which she must travel before reaching her destination.
+
+It was raining again, the water falling in steady drops upon the bare
+head. Frequently the girl wiped the water from her face with a torn
+calico skirt. Once she sat down and gathered her feet under her wet
+dress to stop their stinging pain--and here alone under the dark sky,
+Tessibel offered up her first balanced prayer, for had not Frederick
+said that God would save Daddy Skinner.
+
+"He do say," and she lifted her eyes upward with a simultaneous wipe at
+her face, "that there air a God who'll help my Daddy ... I wants to find
+my Daddy ... for a minute ... a little minute ... be it pleasin' to ye,
+Goddy?"
+
+Tessibel always put "dy" to Dad to make it more effective--and it was
+with the same sweet, serious voice, with which she would have pleaded
+with her own father, that she made familiar with the majesty of heaven.
+She could make no distinction between Daddy Skinner and Jehovah. Both to
+her were the reigning powers of the earth. Daddy she had always known,
+but the other--Frederick had said it was good to pray. She rose
+stumbling, and at three o'clock in the morning entered the city of
+Ithaca, walking up State street drabbled and thoroughly wet. She knew
+the streets that led to the city jail, for many a time when selling
+greens and berries had she gone steathily to the gray stone building and
+examined the barred windows.
+
+She crossed Dewitt park, and passed by the churches which surrounded the
+jail. Around and around the ivy-covered stone structure wandered the
+rain-soaked, barefooted girl. She could not distinguish one ray of
+light at first in any of the windows.... Suddenly she stopped and took a
+long breath. Up near the roof line a faint light flickered ... some one
+was moving to and fro. Tessibel could distinguish a rounded shadow on
+the ceiling of the cell, and tears choked her, as she saw cast upon the
+wall the shadowy outline of a large humpbacked form. It was Daddy--Daddy
+Skinner, and Tessibel backed from the building, straining her eyes to
+get a better view of him. Now the image was in sight, again it
+disappeared--Daddy was walking up and down, but he did not come near
+enough to the window for her to see his face.
+
+Seven times she counted Daddy's rounded shadow on the wall, and seven
+times it faded. The eighth--a grizzled head cast its outline distinctly
+across the bars.
+
+"Daddy--aw--Daddy Skinner."
+
+It was only a loving name breathed by a troubled child, but it was
+caught in its upward flight by the father's ear above. Tess saw the
+pictured humps pause, and as she whispered the name again, Daddy Skinner
+came to the iron lattice. She could discern her father plainly through
+the rain and held her arms up toward him.
+
+"It air lonely in the shanty, in the ... shanty ... without ye, Daddy,"
+she breathed, "and Tessibel ... air sorry ... for all her badness. Come
+home, Daddy ... dear, good Daddy ... and Tess--"
+
+She stopped, for a sight strange and unusual fell upon her. Daddy
+Skinner was looking down, clinging to the bars mightily, his under lip
+shaking, his dark teeth chattering together--the grizzled head making a
+sharp picture of misery in the barred window. Emotion in her father was
+new to Tess. A little frightened cry fell from her lips and she clutched
+hurriedly at the thick creeping ivy which clung to the old gray stone
+building.
+
+"I air comin', Daddy Skinner," she cried. "I air comin'."
+
+She followed the main body of the ivy on its upward growth, slipping and
+sliding on the wet creeper as she made her perilous ascent. Daddy
+Skinner was near the roof and it took Tessibel many torturing minutes to
+reach him. He knew she was coming by the continual dragging at the ivy,
+but he dared not speak, for the guard walked outside his door in the
+hall, and the sound of a voice would bring danger to Tess. Once he
+strained his face to the bars--saw her climbing frantically, and the
+sight made him dizzy. He could only wait--wait the interminable time
+until the red-brown head appeared and the wide eyes stared into his.
+Skinner quietly drew his child to the stone sill and placed his fingers
+over her lips to enjoin silence. Tess understood and even drew softer
+breaths, holding tightly to the beloved hands.
+
+"I comed for kisses on the bill, Daddy," she breathed. "Tess ... air
+lonely without ye."
+
+The livid, shaking lips met the quivering mouth through the iron rods. A
+long, long kiss, such as Tess had wanted quieted her suffering a little.
+It was the same old Daddy whom she was going to save by praying. She had
+asked to see him only a minute, and the student's God had granted her
+prayer.
+
+She whispered again, shivering and shaking with the cold.
+
+"Did ye kill the gamekeeper, Daddy?"
+
+The gray head shook the answer, "no."
+
+"If ye did ye didn't mean to, did ye?"
+
+The two negative replies made Tessibel's heart bound. It would be easier
+for God to help him if he had not committed a crime, and for no instant
+did she doubt his word. She kissed him again passionately, clinging to
+his lips with all the young growing emotion in her body.
+
+The squatter clung desperately to the body of his child. He could not
+let her go, fearing she would fall to the hard stones below, but he knew
+that she stood in danger of being discovered and dared not detain her.
+
+"Kin ye get down again?" he whispered.
+
+"Yep, Daddy Skinner, and ye ain't goin' to hang, 'cause some one what
+can, air goin' to help ye."
+
+"Who air he?"
+
+"God ... up there!" and Tessibel motioned with her hand toward the dark
+sky. "He says as how He helps folks like us ... that a cross was beared
+for us ... and I says to Him to-night, and I says every day till ye
+come back to the shanty ... that He lets ye free, Daddy.... I asks the
+sheriff to-morrow if I can come afternoons to see ye. And, Daddy, I
+holds the shanty till ye come home."
+
+He kissed her small pinched face again and again--and took his arms
+away. Tess slipped down the creeper and when she reached the ground
+called softly:
+
+"I air here, Daddy Skinner."
+
+She saw him pressing against the bars, his lips shaking and his eyes
+closely shut as if he were stumblingly offering a prayer for the child
+of his fisherman soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The fraternities of Cornell University gave home and social comforts to
+students, rich and popular enough to be invited to join them. Each
+fraternity had its own spacious house, with its staff of servants, where
+the members lived during the college year.
+
+Every first-year man had the ambition to join one, which if he attained
+assured him a luxurious home during the four years he spent in Ithaca.
+
+One evening, three weeks after Tessibel's secret visit to her father in
+the city jail, twenty fraternities were preparing all the practical
+jokes which boyish minds could concoct, with which to initiate their new
+candidates to full membership. Five new men were to join the "Cranium"
+fraternity. The house of this society stood high upon the eastern hill
+above the lake and overlooked the forest-mantled town. The first story
+of the building contained the smoking, dining, billiard and two drawing
+rooms. Above were sleeping chambers and private studies for the
+students, and annexed to the house proper was a small stone structure
+built purposely for the initiation of the new members.
+
+On this night all interest was centered upon the annex where Frederick
+Graves, Dan Jordan, Billy Dillon, Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston were to
+be taken through the "stunts."
+
+In the afternoon the five young men had been locked in one of the
+student's rooms, and told that they would receive their dinner during
+the proceedings that evening. The gravity which had settled upon the
+upper classmen frightened the three smaller candidates, for Billy, Oscar
+and Jimmy were miniatures in size compared to Dan Jordan and Frederick
+Graves.
+
+"Do you think they are going to hurt us," asked Billy Dillon, turning to
+the two larger students. "I don't want to be hurt--I like the thought of
+being a fraternity man, but I don't want to go through any business that
+will injure me."
+
+"Neither do I," put in Oscar Brown. "I promised my mother--"
+
+"It won't be well with you fellows if those chaps downstairs hear you
+talking that way," cautioned Jordan, "besides the initiation is only
+fun, and any of us are willing to stand jokes."
+
+After a three-hour wait, a group of sophomores, and the freshmen's
+tormentors--appeared upon the scene and ordered the candidates to follow
+them into the dreaded annex. In this "torture chamber" the older
+members, juniors and seniors, seated on benches placed around the wall,
+were waiting gravely the arrival of their victims.
+
+The honors of the occasion had been given into the hands of the
+sophomores, and as they trailed in followed by the quaking applicants, a
+hush fell over the expectant members of the society.
+
+The five freshmen were ordered to stand in a row, and Richard Hall, the
+spokesman of the second-year class, came forward, holding up one hand in
+mock reverence.
+
+"Gentlemen," he began, "I first christen you all in the name of the
+'Cranium' Fraternity. I give you, Dillon, the name of 'Swipes.' You,
+Brown, shall be dubbed 'Shorts'--here he hesitated an instant, perusing
+a slip of paper which lay on the table beside him--Preston, you may add
+another 'S' to make a trio--your name shall be 'Spuddy.'"
+
+Hall allowed his eyes to gaze reflectively upon Dan Jordan.
+
+"To a big fellow like you, Jordan," he resumed, "I give 'Captain.'" His
+voice dropped as if he had either overlooked or forgotten Frederick, and
+the young fellow waited expectantly.
+
+Suddenly Hall flashed him a glance, then dropped his eyes with twitching
+lips.
+
+"'Parson' is good enough for you, Graves."
+
+Sweeping the five candidates with his searching gaze, he took up the
+speech again--
+
+"If at any time your fraternity brothers desire to call you by your new
+names and you refuse to answer, you shall receive the punishment which
+goes with disobedience."
+
+"Gentlemen," he said again, dismissing the last subject with a wave of
+his hand, "it gives us great pleasure to receive you into this
+fraternity, but before we can give you full membership it is necessary
+for us to go through a few more formalities."
+
+Hall's eye fell in hesitation upon the ponderous form of Dan Jordan.
+
+"You will all no doubt soon see the value of prompt obedience," his
+voice rang out, and a smile touched each corner of his lips, but faded
+instantly.
+
+The three little freshmen moved uneasily--Hall, with a touch of irony in
+his tones, directed the rest of his instructions to them.
+
+"We have decided," resumed the speaker, "to initiate you fellows all at
+one time."
+
+Oscar Brown sighed in relief. "Misery loves company," and if the society
+had any indignities to bestow, he would not be alone.
+
+"We have found it necessary in times past," Hall took up again with a
+tragic tone in his voice, "to use discipline upon such occasions as
+this, and if by chance an incoming member becomes obstreperous, we
+employ a friend to help us--he holds an honored position in our
+fraternity ... Mr. Manchester, introduce 'Mazuka.'"
+
+The sophomore thus adjured, stepped nimbly to the corner, and lifting
+from a hook a long vicious-looking carpet beater, brought it toward
+Hall.
+
+"Handle him with reverence," shouted the spokesman, taking it carefully
+in his hands and turning it over with a benign smile. "Many a time has
+'Mazuka' done good service for this frat! You will understand," the
+freshmen heard him say, "that an indecorous smile on any of your faces
+will immediately call for three strokes from 'Mazuka,'" and he waved the
+carpet beater threateningly, "and for disobedience you will get five. We
+will now proceed to business. 'Captain' Jordan and 'Parson' Graves,
+please step forward ... Blindfold the eyes of those two, Frank," Hall
+ended, addressing one of his classmates near him.
+
+He turned to a group of his companions--and after whispering with them,
+came back saying aloud--"that's a good one to begin with."
+
+Directing his eyes upon Jordan, he said:
+
+"Down upon the floor and scramble like an egg, Captain."
+
+A titter came from Billy Dillon.
+
+"Duck that fresh chicken for laughing," shouted Hall, "and give him
+three strokes of the 'Mazuka.'"
+
+A sophomore brought a pail of cold water, and two other students,
+grasping the little fellow, immersed his curly head in it. They then
+stood him on his feet and laid the carpet beater three times across his
+back. Billy almost wished he had not chosen the fraternity life, but the
+others were suffering with him, which made it easier than if he had been
+alone.
+
+Meanwhile Dan Jordan was industriously trying to imitate a cooking egg.
+
+"Scramble, Captain, scramble," cried a sophomore, prodding Jordan with a
+stick.
+
+"Cook the 'Parson,' too," shouted some one, and Frederick was ordered to
+follow the movements of his friend.
+
+A faint flush mounted to the broad brow of the minister's son and he
+hesitated.
+
+"Bring the 'Mazuka,'" commanded Hall, and the eager sophomore rushed up
+with the persuader.
+
+"Scramble, you," he roared, waving the carpet beater dangerously near
+Frederick's head, and down beside his strapping friend dropped the
+dignified Frederick--two more long legs, and two more heavy arms were
+wiggling over the floor.
+
+"Those eggs are burning, give them some grease," suggested a senior from
+his seat near the wall.
+
+An agile, willing sophomore snatched a bucket of water and emptied its
+contents over the two floundering giants. As the icy bath submerged the
+freshmen, Dan Jordan, sputtering and gasping, bounded to his feet.
+
+"Five strokes of the 'Mazuka' for the 'Captain,'" shouted the delighted
+Manchester waving the carpet beater, "he got up without permission."
+
+Three students held Jordan fast and the little sophomore, dancing with
+glee, belabored the huge half "scrambled egg," each blow resounding
+through the room.
+
+"There! I guess that will hold him a while," chuckled the chastiser,
+putting the carpet beater under his arm, his face reflecting the
+pleasure of well-performed duty.
+
+Frederick, wet and looking very bored, was still flopping about the
+floor, and after passing a few more remarks about rotten eggs and
+undignified positions, the sophomores allowed him to stand up.
+
+"Now put the wet booby in the corner," ordered Hall, and Frederick was
+accordingly led away.
+
+Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston, a little pale after witnessing Dan
+Jordan's punishment, were then told to come forward. Both trembled
+perceptibly as they were blindfolded by a sophomore and commanded to lie
+upon their backs upon the floor.
+
+"You fellows are going to get that dinner we promised you now," he said,
+stooping over the frightened prostrate students, and giving the bandages
+a last tightening pull; "the first course consists of something you are
+sure to like, and we guarantee them to be absolutely fresh. Bring the
+supper in, for these kids are hungry!"
+
+Some one brought a dish and the two boys could plainly hear the rattle
+of the cover as it came off.
+
+"Open your mouths," came the next command.
+
+Oscar Brown timidly opened his lips and waited, but Jimmy Preston,
+thinking the joke had gone far enough, obstinately refused to open his
+lips.
+
+Bang! came the carpet beater over the side of his leg, and his mouth
+flew open like a trapdoor.
+
+"That's just a little reminder for you to do as you are told, Spuddy,"
+the wielder of the "Mazuka" laughed.
+
+"Here's the dinner, boys," cried Hall, "and I bet you can't imagine what
+we've brought you.... Do you know what that is, 'Shorts'?"
+
+Brown shivered, for something snake-like and cold was drawn across his
+cheek.
+
+"It's an angle worm," continued the speaker, "and you're going to eat
+it.... Don't be afraid, 'Spuddy,' you needn't wiggle, you are going to
+have one, too," he added the last part of the sentence, seeing a shudder
+pass over the form of the other blindfolded boy.
+
+"Keep your mouths wide open," shouted a senior.
+
+Simultaneously the two boys felt the promised but undesirable dinner
+drop into their mouths. With a groan Oscar Brown rolled over on his side
+and allowed his portion to fall slowly out. But Jimmy Preston, amid
+howls of joy from the onlookers, jumped to his feet and tore the bandage
+from his eyes.
+
+"No fraternity for me," he yelled. "I've never heard of such a dirty
+trick. If you fellows--"
+
+His disgusted gaze fell upon the plate held by a sophomore convulsed
+with laughter. Jimmy rubbed his eyes, blinked, and looked again--blank
+astonishment taking the place of his anger. In the dish were only a few
+strings of cold cooked macaroni.
+
+"Golly! What a fool I am," and Jimmy glanced about upon the grinning
+faces with a sheepish air.
+
+"That's what you are alright," said Manchester, trying to be serious and
+securing a better grip upon the carpet beater. "Who said you could take
+that bandage off. That will cost you five strokes of the 'Mazuka.' ...
+Here, fellows, hold him on his stomach over that chair, so that I can
+get in some of my fine strokes.... One ... two ... three ... four ...
+five ..."
+
+Jimmy was jerked to his feet, the injured expression upon his sorrowful
+face plainly showing Manchester that his strokes had been telling ones.
+
+"There! We're through with you for to-night, 'Spuddy,' old boy," said
+Manchester, proudly feeling his biceps. "Go sit down ... if you can,"
+and Jimmy limped away with a muttered "thank heaven."
+
+During a conference in undertones, amid giggling and snickering, Richard
+unfolded a new plan. Then he said in a loud voice,
+
+"One of you fellows see if the surgeon is here yet. And hurry back."
+
+Billy Dillon who had remained in trembling silence during the
+proceedings, received his bandage without a complaint, although his face
+was ashy pale, and his knees shook beneath him as Hall approached.
+
+What did they want a doctor for? They surely wouldn't do--anything bad
+enough to need a surgeon. Thoughts like these went racing through his
+frightened mind, the sophomore leading him in terrifying darkness to a
+chair near by. Silence fell upon the room, and all that Billy could hear
+was his own excited breathing, made louder by the explosive beats of his
+heart.
+
+"Swipes," he heard Hall say, "we've decided that we can't stand that
+pretty face of yours around, but as we like you and don't want to send
+you away, we will change the expression on it. A gash on each of those
+rosy cheeks will alter your whole appearance, so much, that not one of
+your lady friends will ever recognize you again. In after days, when you
+grow to be a man, you will thank us for this. Frank, tell Dr. Wallace to
+come in."
+
+A pause ... and Billy heard the door open and close, and someone coming
+toward him, the person smelling strongly of drugs.
+
+"Is this the unfortunate young man," asked a strange, but not altogether
+unfamiliar voice.
+
+"Yes," Billy heard Hall answer in heartbroken tones, "and please,
+doctor, do the best you can for him."
+
+"Oh, we'll fix him alright in just about a minute," responded the
+strange voice. "Mr. Hall, will you please hold his arms, for when
+patients are excited they sometimes forget themselves, and ... now ...
+my instruments, please."
+
+Billy's arms were held tightly behind him, and for a moment he heard
+nothing--then came to his ears the sound of a box being unclasped
+and--horror of horrors--the rattle of surgical instruments.
+
+Would they dare cut his face? Why his father would--
+
+Billy felt the cold blade of the knife touch his flesh, and hot blood
+run down to his chin.
+
+Upon this he became possessed by the strength of a giant. Jerking his
+hands loose he struck out with all his might, his fist hitting something
+with the force of a kicking donkey. There was a sound of some one
+falling and a roar of laughter went up from the students as Billy was
+grasped by what seemed a thousand hands. The bandage was snatched from
+his eyes and he looked upon a sorry sight. Manchester, the expert
+wielder of the Mazuka, had failed as a surgeon. He lay a few feet away
+amid pieces of broken ice, which he had pretended was a surgical
+knife--his coat bespotted with hot milk which represented poor Billy's
+blood, and his left hand clasped tightly over a swollen eye.
+
+"What hit me?" gasped the fictitious Dr. Wallace.
+
+"What hit Manchester, fellows?" one of the seniors managed to howl out
+to the convulsed fraternity members.
+
+"I believe that rascally freshman did it," exclaimed Manchester
+excitedly, "bring me the 'Mazuka,' and I'll put a bunch on him that
+never will come off."
+
+"Gee Whiz! Look at his eye," some one called out.
+
+This brought Manchester to a standstill.
+
+"What's the matter with it," he groaned, putting his hand again to his
+face, "is it gone?"
+
+The lids were puffed shut, and were rapidly darkening. Richard Hall,
+laughing uproariously, held a pocket mirror for the young sophomore to
+peep into. After a moment's contemplation of his bruised face,
+Manchester came forth in a hoarse whisper,
+
+"That freshman's got to die--If I only ... had an ax," and his one eye
+gazed wildly around in search of a weapon.
+
+"Come, come, Teddy Manchester," soothed a tall senior, "we'll arrange
+with the freshman alright. Don't work yourself into unnecessary
+excitement."
+
+"And he shall use all his spending money for your tobacco, Teddy, for
+the entire year," cajoled Hall, "and black your boots and brush your
+clothes, into the bargain, and besides you will get a chance to get even
+at the Freshmen's Banquet," he whispered.
+
+"Gentlemen," he concluded, turning with a winning smile upon the
+assembled society, "we have five new members in the 'Cranium'
+Fraternity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Minister Graves' city home, the Rectory, was a magnificent house,
+covered with a thick growth of ivy; one bay window ornamenting it on the
+west, another looking on the street.
+
+The first evening in November, the family was seated about the table,
+the minister reading the evening paper. "Babe" was arguing with her
+mother that all little girls should be allowed to roller skate upon the
+pavement; that "there wasn't a bit of danger in it."
+
+Frederick was silently eating his dinner--Teola following his example.
+Suddenly the minister ejaculated:
+
+"Ah, that's good."
+
+"What's good, father?" inquired Mrs. Graves.
+
+"Skinner is brought to trial to-morrow. The paper says there isn't the
+slightest hope for him to escape. And listen to this:
+
+"Of all the happenings in the annals of the Ithaca courts the following
+is the most extraordinary. Orn Skinner, the squatter, who is to be tried
+this week for the murder of Emery Stebbins, the game warden, is the
+father of a girl some fifteen years old. The day after his incarceration
+the girl presented herself at the office of the sheriff, asking
+permission to see her father. The sheriff thought wiser not and refused
+the request. But the night before last the girl was discovered
+ascending, like a squirrel, the thick growth of ivy that covers the
+stone structure of the jail. For nearly a month she has been tramping
+the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks after dark, reaching the jail at
+midnight, and holding converse with her father on the stone sill of his
+cell window, two stories above the ground. The girl was closely
+questioned but refused to answer, probably fearing the consequences of
+visiting a prisoner without the consent of the sheriff. Skinner has been
+removed to an inner cell, the authorities fearing some plan of escape.
+The girl is very pretty, with long red hair, and brown eyes, and those
+who have seen her say that she is like a frightened rabbit, refusing to
+talk with any, save a few of her kind."
+
+The Dominie grunted, as he finished reading.
+
+"I should think they would remove him to an inner cell," said he. "Such
+goings on! The girl ought to have a taste of the rawhide."
+
+"Maybe she loves her father and wanted to see him," ventured Babe, who
+had no reverence for paternal opinions.
+
+"Love, love," retorted the Dominie, "all the love those people have in
+their lives you could put in a nutshell."
+
+"Her father's trial comes up to-morrow--I wonder if they will allow the
+girl to attend."
+
+This was from Frederick--he had not seen Tessibel since the night he had
+told her how to help her father. His face gathered a crimson shade as he
+remembered that he had promised her that he, too, would pray for her
+Daddy. The sympathy he had felt in his heart, throbbed again as he
+thought of her lonely grief--and the dead toad. He would keep his
+promise to Tess--pray that something might come into her life if
+somebody went out.
+
+"Mother," said Teola, changing the subject abruptly, "why can't we have
+a toffy pull. I want one so badly."
+
+"It's such a messy thing," sighed Mrs. Graves, looking about upon the
+tidy home, "and not one of you young people can keep your sticky hands
+from the curtains and furniture. But I suppose, if you will have it,
+nothing I can say will alter it. But remember this: I won't have those
+boys and girls tramping through my house and mussing up everything."
+
+As they rose from the table Teola followed her brother into the hall.
+
+"Frederick, if I arrange the toffy pull, do you suppose Mr. Jordan would
+come?"
+
+She dropped her eyes--the blood curling to the edge of the tiny ringlets
+that clung to her forehead. Her brother gave a low laugh.
+
+"He would be only too pleased, Sis, and he is a capital chap. He's a
+great favorite at the frat with all the boys. Shall I invite him?"
+
+"Yes ... for day after to-morrow evening. Will that suit you?"
+
+"Let me see," reflected Frederick, "we are having a meeting at the
+fraternity, but we might come down afterward, unless we are kept too
+late."
+
+"Don't let them keep you," pleaded Teola, flashing her brilliant eyes
+into Frederick's face, "you and Mr. Jordan have influence enough to get
+away, even if you are freshmen."
+
+The student stooped and kissed his sister fondly.
+
+"I'll arrange it to suit you, Sister ... I want to go to the Skinner
+trial to-morrow. I suppose father will go, too?"
+
+"Everybody will be there," rejoined Teola. "I wonder if his daughter
+will be permitted to see him after she has been discovered breaking the
+law."
+
+This time it was Frederick who flushed--it suddenly dawned upon him that
+he was going to the court simply to see the squatter girl again. He
+explained his embarrassment by exclaiming:
+
+"Poor little soul! She is the loneliest child in the world. I wish we
+could do something for her!"
+
+"Father wouldn't let us," put in Teola in dismay; "then, too, I don't
+know what we could do for a squatter."
+
+"Neither do I, that's the problem," finished Frederick, and after he was
+gone Teola mused long with Dan Jordan in her mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the break of the first day of the Skinner trial, smoke could be seen
+curling up from the chimney of Tessibel's hut. A candle stood in the
+window, flickering its smoky flame toward the light streaks in the east.
+From the lighthouse to the ragged rocks the lake was covered with the
+ice and snow of an early winter. Beyond, the little waves curled up and
+washed over the frozen masses, adhering here and there, making an icy
+fringe along the edge. Flocks of wild ducks fluttered close to the lake
+surface, filling the morning air with discordant quacking.
+
+Tessibel had not forgotten that her father was to be brought that day
+before his accusers,--she had made elaborate preparations for the
+reception of her dear one, when he should be free to return to her. She
+would stay in the shanty during the trial--and pray.
+
+Daddy was playing a part in a most agonizing drama--he and the student
+and herself were the principals--while a few others, their enemies, made
+the background.
+
+... When the curtain fell Tessibel would bring "Daddy" home to the
+hut--and it was for this that she was preparing.
+
+The bed had been dragged from the wall, and the squatter girl was
+sweeping out the dust of ages which settled again upon the coats and
+among the webby meshes of the net now dry and shrunken from disuse. One
+leg was missing from the stove, but three red bricks shoved under the
+side did the work of the broken part; the ancient frying pan with
+patches of grease upon it suspended itself from a newly driven nail in
+the wall.
+
+Tess had learned many things since her father's imprisonment--had
+learned that a girl of fifteen couldn't run barefooted in the open with
+impunity. She had found a pair of Daddy's old cast-off boots, tied rags
+about her feet, and clambered into them.
+
+How like a woman she felt with covered legs! True, the water gushed in
+through the holes that Daddy had cut in the soles on the rocks, but the
+tops were whole--and Tess looked upon them with pride.
+
+When the daylight flooded the cabin Tess blew out the candle and viewed
+her work with delight. How pleased Daddy would be--after this she would
+be a model housekeeper. He should sleep in the morning until she had
+prepared his breakfast, and her fingers would fly in the summer,
+gathering the berries and fruit to make more money so that he should
+not run risks with the netting!
+
+That first day of waiting seemed interminably long, but Tess spent it
+happily, for ever vividly into her mind came the words of Frederick the
+student--that God would hear, and answer.
+
+Day by day her faith in the efficacy of her petitions had grown upon
+her. In spite of the fact that she had been caught by Daddy's enemies in
+her nightly scrambles up the ivy at the jail, God had answered in
+letting her see her father so many times at the end of her midnight
+walks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three men of squatter's row staggered through the storm up the Lehigh
+Valley tracks. They passed the line of huts, making an occasional
+comment upon the inhabitants of some lighted shanty.
+
+It was the evening of the second of November, the first day of Orn
+Skinner's trial. The squatters had turned out in great numbers to see
+how the humped prisoner looked before his condemnation, for all believed
+that the fisherman would hang. It would be establishing a new precedent
+if Skinner were acquitted--and Ithaca never established new precedents
+with squatters.
+
+So mused the men as they sullenly toiled toward home, each satisfied in
+his heart that, if Skinner went the way of others from the row, it would
+be but another act of revenge upon the part of the townspeople, for had
+not one and every witness save Elias Graves testified that day to the
+good character of the accused man?
+
+The headlight of a locomotive sent them to the side track.
+
+"Orn's face were yaller'n saffron, wern't it, when Minister Graves said
+as how he were a cussed pap of a cusseder gal," said Ezy Longman to Jake
+Brewer and Ben Letts.
+
+"He were that mad," agreed Letts, "that the humps on his back just riz
+up and down--he were that mad he were."
+
+"But it were screechin' funny when the jedge made the parson speak out
+what Tess done," laughed Jake Brewer.
+
+"You bet," assented Ezry Longman. "But why weren't she there to-day?"
+
+"Don't know," answered Jake. "She were home, I guess. She 'lows as how
+her Daddy comes home to-morry ... I 'lows as how he don't."
+
+"I 'lows it, too," grunted Ben Letts.
+
+They walked on in silence for some time, the wind crooning its endless
+tune through the telegraph wires. As they passed Kennedy's, Pete, the
+brindle bulldog, howled in rage at not being able to attack the
+squatters. The dog snapped viciously at all strangers--and more than
+this would he have done if he had had an opportunity to reach Ben Letts
+and Ezra Longman. These men had spared neither stones nor sticks, in
+times past, to arouse the dog's ire; and Pete never forgot an enemy.
+
+At the end of the lane, the candle in Skinner's window flickered them an
+invitation to stop. Tessibel answered their knock and embarrassedly
+offered each a chair as the door closed behind them.
+
+"It ain't ended?" she faltered with a hasty glance at the three stolid
+faces, the post of Daddy's bed supporting the supple young form.
+
+"To-morry," replied Jake Brewer.
+
+Ben Letts moved uneasily in his chair. It was the first time he had
+ventured into the presence of Tessibel since he had put Frederick to
+death.
+
+"He air comin' home, then?"
+
+There was a question in the pleading voice as her eyes fell first upon
+one and then another.
+
+"Nope," grinned Ezry, "he air to be took away."
+
+Tessibel shrank back further and further, every muscle tired in its
+agony of burden-bearing. The rotten post squeaked loudly, bending
+beneath her weight, and over her in lightning rapidity swept the shadow
+of the rope, snatching her father from her--and God. The student had not
+limited the power of the cross; but Tess had discovered its limitations
+in Ezra Longman's statement--limitations that made her quiver with pain,
+as she pictured the evil thing which darkly menaced her loved one.
+
+"He air a damn liar," burst forth Jake Brewer, "the jedge ain't said no
+words what Ezy says he has."
+
+Tessibel heard and understood. The splendid, buoyant youth gathered
+instantly together, faith in the eternal promise of God sweeping over
+her once more. She might have known that Daddy was safe. Every long day
+had been filled with petitions, hurled at the feet of the Almighty:
+Tess, in her ignorance, had juggled with the sacred name of Jehovah,
+expecting the fulfillment of her prayers just as a boy, filled with
+ecstatic faith, expects his ball to come back to him after he has tossed
+it into the air. So would Daddy Skinner come to her, snatched from the
+shadow of an ignominious death, through some miracle of God's goodness.
+
+"It air over to-morry?" she stammered, holding no grudge against Ezra
+Longman for his untimely joke.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Then he air comin' home to-morry night?" she said almost in a whisper.
+
+Ben Letts, looking at Ezra, closed one red lid, letting it fall slowly
+over the blurred blind eye. Neither he nor the boy spoke.
+
+Letts brought his squint gaze back to Tess.
+
+"He air comin' home to-morry night?" she repeated questioningly, raising
+her voice a little with an insistent glance at each fisherman. This time
+Tess read denial in their faces, but smiled radiantly. What did they
+knew about it? What did fishermen understand of the student's God ... of
+the faith that would bring Daddy home to her in spite of the twelve grim
+men, and all her father's enemies in Ithaca. Hadn't she consigned the
+beloved humpbacked father to Him who held the worlds in the hollow of
+His hand.
+
+Ben Letts still gazed steadily at Tess, the red eyelids opening wider
+and wider. She had never been so beautiful before. During the past two
+months the girl had grown into a woman, into a soulful creature whom the
+squatter Ben ardently desired for his wife. Ah, he would see to that!
+
+He shoved his great legs up and down before him tumbling these things
+over in his mind. The taming of such a girl would be his vicious
+delight. The first thing to do would be to ply the scissors to the red
+curls. Ben could see that the hair was clean, each curl clinging
+lovingly to its mate, yet living apart--so different from the matted
+locks of the Tess he had always known.
+
+"Yer Daddy got good and mad to-day," remarked Jake Brewer abruptly, the
+deadly silence grating upon his nerves.
+
+"What about?" said Tess sharply.
+
+"Dominie Graves were in the witness-box, and said as how yer pap were a
+wicked daddy of a wickeder gal, and the jedge made him tell as how ye
+was so cussed, and yer daddy's humps riz up like a cat's back wet with
+cold tea."
+
+Tess waited expectantly.
+
+"And the Dominie said as how ye twiggled yer fingers to yer nose at
+him," continued Jake. "Did ye?"
+
+The pale face went to a deep crimson--she remembered the day well. The
+Dominie had caught her stealing berries and like all the weaker ones in
+a strife Tess had used her tongue bitterly--and had twiggled her
+fingers.
+
+The squatters went away, leaving Tessibel with a new feeling of shame.
+Ben Letts went with reluctance--he dared not remain. After Skinner had
+gone the way of all squatters who incurred the penalties of the law, he,
+Ben Letts, would have the girl for weal or woe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The last day of Skinner's trial found Tessibel taking her lonely way
+toward town. She was going for Daddy Skinner--to bring him home to a
+shanty which she thought was clean, although the ragged curtain still
+flapped its tatters over a dirty window and the cobwebs hung listlessly
+from Daddy Skinner's unused net. But Tess had done her best, and her
+heart sang with delightful expectancy as she neared the dangerous open
+trestle which spanned the Hoghole gorge.
+
+When she turned into town, her mind was at work with the thought of how
+she would bring Daddy triumphantly through the row of squatter huts,
+lead him even through the streets of Ithaca. Her vivid imagination
+played with the scene: Frederick the student would see her; he would
+know that together they had saved the dearest life ever given into the
+hands of a jury.
+
+Up the snow-covered street, through Dewitt park, and Into the little
+lane she tramped. Here Tessibel halted. The court-room was so crowded
+that an overflow of men stood in the street with overcoats tightly
+buttoned, stood listening for the words that would satisfy their
+demands: Orn Skinner must die. A demonstration of joy ringing from the
+court made the child shiver--then smile. Not even the wicked jeering of
+Daddy's enemies could shake her faith in the student's word. Twelve
+jurors sat in their chairs, but a useless set of men, for a unanimous
+ban of death had been pronounced upon the fisherman before any one of
+the jury had taken the oath. Some of the evidence did not reach their
+ears for they were thinking of other things--the man of two humps was as
+far away from their homes or their hopes, as the rope that would end
+him.
+
+During the trial the prisoner had remained silent in his chair, with a
+stolidity that aroused no sympathy for him. Not once was he seen to lift
+his eyes to the judge; and but once, when Tess was being maligned by
+Dominie Graves, did the bible-back rise and fall as if the heart beneath
+were beating wildly. Skinner had not been allowed to testify in his own
+defense, and, knowing the futility of it, he had not insisted upon
+speaking.
+
+His attorney made a few feeble remarks which, because of the speaker's
+indifference and his disbelief in his client, fell without effect. The
+prosecuting attorney took but ten minutes to sum up the case, telling
+the jury that they knew their duty too well for him to attempt to
+instruct them. "But," said he, "I will add one word of your own
+convictions. These people have infested our beautiful city, sapping its
+life like a great pest. The law is nothing to them--human life less.
+There is one thing, gentlemen of the jury, of which they stand in awe,
+and it is in your hands to give them one more lesson. That one thing
+they fear is--the rope."
+
+He sat down amid a dense silence. The judge spoke shortly and the twelve
+jurors filed out past the stooping prisoner, who seemed to care so
+little that he did not look upon them as they went.
+
+Twenty minutes elapsed and the court officer announced in stentorian
+tones that the verdict had been reached. Solemnly the twelve men seated
+themselves whilst an expectant flutter passed over the room.
+
+Then a voice droned:
+
+"Prisoner, rise."
+
+The lumbering form painfully raised its two humps.
+
+"Prisoner, look upon the jury; jury, look upon the prisoner."
+
+The grizzled head settled itself back between the two pulsing humps; the
+steady eyes under the shaggy brows looking out for the first time in two
+days upon the row of men who hated him--all popular citizens of Ithaca.
+
+"Foreman, of the jury, have you found the prisoner innocent or guilty?"
+
+A pause, a hush; then a deliberate:
+
+"Guilty of murder in the first degree."
+
+A little higher rose the bible-back of the fisherman, lower sunk the
+large head between the deformed shoulders, like the receding head of a
+turtle, hiding itself under its shell when an enemy draws near. Skinner
+still stood with hypnotized eyes fastened on the jury; one thought in
+his mind--Tess.
+
+"Orn Skinner," began the judge, "is there any reason why the sentence of
+this court should not be pronounced upon you in accordance with the
+law?"
+
+The fisherman turned his piercing eyes upon the judge, but attempted not
+to speak.
+
+"Orn Skinner--"
+
+The judge was interrupted, there was a disturbing commotion in the back
+of the court-room. He lifted his gavel for silence, his gaze falling
+upon a dripping, shivering, red-haired girl, who raised to his face a
+pair of copper-colored eyes in which shone a soul, the magnitude of
+which the judge could not fathom with all his dignity.
+
+"Orn Skinner," he finished, turning again to the fisherman, "twelve men
+have found you guilty of murder in the first degree. The court, then,
+passes its sentence upon you: you are to hang by the neck until you
+are--dead."
+
+The ponderous form of the doomed man straightened as though unafraid,
+whilst the commotion increased--Tess was madly tearing her way through
+detaining hands. Once free, she started up the aisle, the most
+ridiculous little figure ever seen in Ithaca. The red hair was in curls
+to the girl's hips--the young form covered with but a calico blouse
+confined about the waist by a piece of hemp rope. Four huge thorns held
+together the edges of a rent down the center of the skirt, which came
+just above the knees, Daddy Skinner's cowhide boots lifting themselves
+under the hem.
+
+Every one save him whom she loved was unseen by Tess, and everything
+unheard save the terrible sentence of death.
+
+The pain-puckered wrinkles settled out of the wan little face; a smile
+brightened the brown eyes and dimpled the tender twitching mouth,
+altering the woful expression--for what was the mandate of an earthly
+judge compared to the majestic promise of Heaven? the student had
+said--but her smiling eyes fell for a moment on those of Frederick
+Graves. The boy partly rose but sank back again, white to the ears, a
+picture of mental suffering. Here through the silence came a shock to
+the citizens of Ithaca. Sweet as a spring bird carolling its love song
+rose Tessibel's beautiful voice:
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+On and on up the aisle toward Daddy Skinner, forgetting or not knowing
+that she was desecrating the dignity of the honorable judge upon the
+bench, Tessibel clattered. Still no hand stayed her progress. Daddy
+Skinner was standing outside the railing, close to his attorney, guarded
+by a deputy. His fierce eyes turned at the sound of her voice, and the
+sight of his beloved snapped them shut like a vise.
+
+The old beard, now shaggy and unkempt, trembled, whilst a parched tongue
+licked over the lips.
+
+The long arms of the humpback slowly rose, and Tessibel sang herself
+into the throbbing bosom of her father.
+
+The prisoner's great horny hand descended upon the curly head and for a
+moment the fingers of the girl tried to pry the wrinkled eyelids open.
+Her singing ceased, and she spoke--no great orator ever had a more
+intense audience.
+
+"It air--it air Tess, Daddy Skinner, did ye think that her--had
+forgot--and Goddy?"
+
+Everyone in the room heard the musical voice.
+
+"The jedge didn't know," Tess went on, "that God promised that ye was to
+come home with Tessibel." And then, loosening herself from the trembling
+fingers, Tess leaned toward the judge, a wealth of hair falling over
+each shoulder.
+
+"Did ye, kind, good man?"
+
+His Honor, fascinated by the sight, bent toward her to make sure of her
+words.
+
+"I air Daddy's brat," she urged with a smile, "and Goddy in the sky
+said as how Daddy Skinner would come home with Tessibel ... He air to go
+with me, ain't he?"
+
+Her voice, raised in sudden entreaty, the long eyes filled with an
+anguished anxiety, sent a pang of pity unknown before through the heart
+of the judge.
+
+The audience rose as one man--only a swish and another dead silence.
+
+"Ye air to come, Daddy Skinner," and without waiting for any further
+consent she took her father's hand and drew him slowly through the aisle
+up which she had so lately sung her way.
+
+A man stepped into her path from among the spectators. Tess glanced up,
+and saw before her the lowering face of Dominie Graves. From every other
+soul in that room she had been given the bible-backed prisoner, for the
+majesty of human law had been forgotten in the appeal to the higher one.
+
+"Stop," shouted the pastor, determined to see the sentence of the court
+carried out. He had placed himself directly in the squatter-girl's path,
+and, turning toward the jury, flashed indignant eyes upon them.
+
+"Have you all gone mad?" he demanded. "Are you going to allow a murderer
+to escape from your hands?"
+
+For one instant the condemned giant and the man of God scanned each
+other's faces with intensity. There was dumb pleading in the one gaze,
+and hard supremacy in the other. A spasmodic tremor ran over the
+spectators--Tess had struck a note of tragedy in the affair which had
+been overlooked by the thoughtless throng.
+
+The judge, startled, spoke confusedly,
+
+"Of course, of course," said he, "such a thing as this--"
+
+"Would make our city the laughing-stock of the state," put in Graves,
+his interruption of the judge passing unheeded. "Skinner, you know you
+can't leave this court with that girl--"
+
+Here a small boy broke in:
+
+"She's the girl that twiggled her fingers at the minister."
+
+Dominie Graves hushed the speaker with a wave of his hand, and went on:
+
+"You have committed a murder, Skinner, and have been condemned to die by
+hanging."
+
+His voice was low and vibrant.
+
+"And there's no escape for you, Skinner," he finished.
+
+As his voice died away, Ithaca received another impetus to curiosity and
+interest. A tall man in the back row rose and came forward.
+
+"Mr. Graves," said the stranger solemnly, "you say that this man is to
+hang for murder. I say that he shall be given another chance for his
+life, and that he shall not hang if I can prevent it."
+
+Deforrest Young, the noted professor of law from the University, was
+looking at Graves. A frown gathered on the broad brow of the minister,
+and every one gasped as the professor took Tessibel's hands in his.
+
+"My child," and he bent lower that she might hear, for her bowed head
+was the only evidence of her grief, "Your prayers have accomplished more
+than you think. Keep on praying and pray hard, and the next time you
+come here you shall take home--your Daddy Skinner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Twenty young people had gathered for the toffy pull at Minister Graves'.
+Tess was the topic of conversation; every one was eager to talk of the
+unheard-of action in the court-room that day.
+
+"My mother says," chimed in a pretty girl, "that when that Skinner girl
+walked up through the court room, she sounded like a horse trotting
+along."
+
+"She had on a pair of man's boots, that's why," said another, "but she
+has a beautiful voice, hasn't she?"
+
+This question was directed to Frederick Graves.
+
+"Yes," he assented, flushing to his high-forehead line.
+
+"And besides a beautiful voice," broke in Richard Hall, "she has a
+mighty pretty face--and such hair! If she hadn't been crying and had so
+many people around her, I should have spoken to her. She's worth
+consoling!"
+
+A sharp pang of jealousy shot through Frederick's heart. That another
+should make lighter the burdens of the squatter girl filled him with
+unrest. A pleading face flashed across his vision and Tessibel's voice
+rang anew in his ears. He was living over again the moments spent in the
+cabin, and his heart thrilled at the memory of the momentary glance sent
+to him over the heads of the spectators in the crowded court-room.
+
+Teola entered the drawing-room, turning the conversation from Tess to
+the pleasure of the evening.
+
+"Will some one help me pull the toffy?" said she.
+
+Her eyes were upon Dan Jordan--he rose quickly to his feet and followed
+the girl smilingly to the kitchen.
+
+"I wanted you to help me get it ready," Teola said; coloring.
+
+"I'm glad you chose me," replied Dan.
+
+"I didn't ask you, did I?" The beautiful head hung low over the brown
+mixture in the kettle.
+
+"Your eyes did," laughed Dan. "Didn't you notice that none of the other
+boys got up when you spoke." His glance filled with merriment as he went
+on: "I think, too, that I should have been a little--jealous if anyone
+else had--helped you."
+
+"And your hands are so strong," murmured Teola.
+
+"You only wanted my hands," queried the boy, trying to catch a glimpse
+of her face. "I wish you had wanted me for some other--"
+
+Teola stood with the long wooden spoon twirling in her fingers.
+
+"I did want you for yourself, Dan--"
+
+And then she stopped and nothing could be heard but the click, click,
+click, of the toffy as it snapped to and fro in the huge fingers of the
+student.
+
+"I'm mighty glad that I chose Cornell for my college," broke in the boy
+presently. "I thought first of going to Yale.... And you're pleased,
+too, Teola, that I came to Ithaca? Aren't you?"
+
+"Very glad," came the low voice distinctly.
+
+"And I've never been so ambitious in all my life as I have since I've
+been here, and known you, and I was wondering to-day if--if--"
+
+Frederick's voice broke off the words; his big form loomed in the
+doorway before Dan could finish his sentence.
+
+"Haven't you kids finished that toffy? Better let me help, too."
+
+There was a noticeable tremor in Teola's voice as she replied:
+
+"We've finished, Frederick, and you can carry the butter and those
+plates."
+
+"I've something important to tell you, Teola," whispered Dan.
+
+The girl did not answer, but the student knew that she would listen to
+him in some future time.
+
+The drawing-room was festooned with evergreens and winter ferns, wound
+here and there with streamers of various-colored ribbons. Two large
+lamps, one in the window, and the other on a table near the dining-room
+door, sent forth their light through red shades. Glass dishes filled
+with apples and golden oranges decorated the top of the piano and
+surrounded the lamps.
+
+When Dan and Teola left the kitchen, both flushed with the first
+emotions of their youthful hearts, there came to them gurgles of girlish
+laughter, intermingled now and then with the loud voice of some merry,
+happy boy.
+
+After two hours of strenuous toffy-pulling the tired young revellers sat
+down to plates heaped with goodies.
+
+Just at this juncture a ring of the door-bell pealed through the house.
+A silence fell over the company and a sound of altercation came to them
+distinctly. Suddenly the drawing-room door burst violently open and a
+spectacle, in strange contrast to the cheery scene about them, flashed
+upon the eyes of the young people. A red-haired girl, unkempt and
+dripping, wild anxiety portrayed upon her face, stood in the doorway.
+There was not the slightest embarrassment in her glance as her peculiar
+eyes traveled the lines of boys and girls, sitting round the wall. When
+at last they fell on Frederick, she took an impetuous step toward him, a
+brilliant smile lighting the wan face. Stupefaction rested upon the
+student as he recognized Tessibel Skinner.
+
+"It air time--to pray," said she, looking straight at him, as he slowly
+rose from his chair. "Daddy Skinner air to be took away--unless yer God
+stops the rope."
+
+Every word was distinct--unless God would stay the rope. The words
+repeated themselves over in the boy's brain and his face deepened in
+color. It was the beautiful faith of the wild, untaught young girl with
+the hot blood rushing in her veins that called forth the flush. His
+heart sickened with his own lack of confidence in God. He was to preach
+of a crucified Saviour, but no such faith and hope as this of Tessibel
+Skinner's would aid him. He was even now ashamed of the girl in cowhide
+boots and torn, thin skirt.
+
+As these thoughts floated past him, he saw the young squatter wither
+under a giggle from a girl in the corner.
+
+"Look at her feet," were the words that changed Tessibel's frankness to
+embarrassment, her eager pathos to wofulness.
+
+Tessibel shrank close to the door, for the first time realizing how out
+of place she was.
+
+"I were--I were--a fool to come, but--but--"
+
+The earnestness of the vibrant voice, the proud, appealing young face
+moved Frederick to pity and self-reproach.
+
+"It was right--you should have come," said he, gently taking her hands,
+"and no one dare question your privilege to ask a prayer for your
+father."
+
+Still retaining her fingers in his, he turned, explaining:
+
+"This is Miss Skinner whose father is suffering now from a stroke of the
+law. We, who have fathers and mothers whom we love, must wish her well."
+
+Tessibel sank down, down, among her boots and rags, his words reducing
+her to tears. Teola came to her brother's side. She had never before
+been actually in the presence of a squatter, for, when they had brought
+fish and berries to the back door, her mother had always ordered the
+children to the front of the house; but now, filled with sympathy she
+stooped down and placed her hand upon Tessibel's head. The touch was so
+gentle that the fishermaid lifted her eyes to see who sorrowed with her.
+
+The squatter covered the white fingers with tears and kisses. Then she
+struggled to her feet, the nails in Daddy's boots scraping the polished
+floor, making long white marks. To Tessibel there were no other persons
+in the room save Frederick and his beautiful sister. She made a queer
+upward movement with her head, wiping the tears away with the tattered
+sleeve.
+
+"I was afeared ye'd forget Daddy Skinner," she murmured. "The big man
+from the hill said like you did. And I says it air prayin' time and I
+comed."
+
+She had forgotten the tears of a few minutes before, forgotten that
+twenty pairs of searching youthful eyes watched her every movement and
+mentally criticized her, from the masses of long hair to the rock-torn
+boots on her feet. She only remembered the student--that he was smiling
+into her eyes, and that, his sister, too, Teola Graves, had sympathized
+with her.
+
+With a radiant, grateful smile, she turned to go, the door opening under
+her eager grasp. It was here that Dan Jordan spoke:
+
+"Won't Miss Skinner have some coffee?"
+
+Tessibel looked at him with an incredulous glance. He, too, had come
+forward and stood with his kindly gray eyes fixed upon her face.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," hurriedly put in Teola, "pardon me--I forgot....
+You shall have my cup.... Here, Tessibel! I may call you that, mayn't I?
+Please drink some of mine."
+
+Teola held the cup invitingly to the shivering lips, and Tessibel
+swallowed it down in one gulp.
+
+"I air goin' now," she said desperately, wiping away coffee drops that
+lingered upon her face, "and ye ain't goin' to forget?"
+
+This last was to Frederick, and he shook his head emphatically. He would
+not forget again; he would make the girl's father a special medium to
+establish a line of faith between the God he professed to love and
+himself--the quality of which should be no less than the one that
+Tessibel had cultivated during her weary weeks of waiting.
+
+No thought entered anyone's mind of asking the girl if she were afraid
+of the dark night--she seemed so much a part of the darkness, of the
+falling snow and thrashing trees, that she was allowed to depart without
+a question. As he stood on the Rectory steps, the clicking of the big
+boots came to Frederick long after the slender form had disappeared from
+sight.
+
+After that the party broke up, for the merriment had died in Tessibel's
+grief. An impression had been made upon the thoughtless boys and girls,
+and a shadow rested on each face as they bade "good-night" to their
+young hostess.
+
+"She's the prettiest girl I ever saw," confided Teola to Frederick
+afterward; "her eyes are the color of a marigold."
+
+In her heart Teola was glad that she had gone to the squatter in
+sympathy, for, upon leaving, Dan Jordan had whispered words that had
+burned deep into her soul:
+
+"You are an angel, Teola _dear_, and I--love--you."
+
+For one instant the tall student had bent his head, laying his lips upon
+hers--and had gone without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The last day of the trial was so different from that of Tessibel's
+dreams! Again she must cross the dark Hoghole trestle alone on her way
+to the hut. But the singing in her heart when she left the Rectory took
+away the pain of her loneliness. Frederick Graves had said that she had
+done right in coming to him and asking prayers for "Daddy Skinner." Her
+faith in the student carried her above the material things of the earth,
+more than her absolute faith in God, for like women, Tessibel lived and
+had faith through the man of her choice.
+
+It was nearly midnight when she passed Kennedy's wheat field in which
+capered Pete, the brindle bulldog. She called to him softly, pronouncing
+his name twice in loving resonance, which brought a low, pleased howl
+from the coarse throat of the dog. But the exhausted squatter-girl did
+not wait to touch the long, red tongue as Pete thrust his nose through
+the fence. She passed quickly down the lane to her father's hut. Turning
+the corner of the mud cellar, she saw dimly a man's form leaning against
+the shanty door. Her eyes were accustomed to marking correctly through
+the darkness, and it took Tess but a moment to ascertain that the
+lounging figure was Ben Letts.
+
+In an instant, the first real fear she had ever felt swept over her and
+she drew back into the shadows. As a child she had fled from this man
+because he tantalized her; as a woman she dreaded him more than any
+reptile that came from the earth.
+
+The man, hearing footsteps, raised his head; the silence continuing, he
+dropped it again, thinking he had been mistaken, and resumed his former
+position of waiting.
+
+Tessibel wondered if she should go bravely forward--insist that the
+shanty was hers, and that he should go away. The mud cellar was between
+her and the waiting man, and as she peered closer to see if Ben were
+still there one brilliant tangle of hair fell over her shoulder. Ben
+Letts caught the movement and Tessibel knew it.
+
+Alert as a young deer, she turned and fled back up the lane. Daddy's
+boots impeded her speed and one after the other she kicked them off. She
+could hear the man running after her, shouting his rage into her
+tingling ears. He was gaining upon the girl and commanded her to stop.
+
+"If I get my claws on ye once," he growled, "it'll be bad for ye."
+
+Tessibel heard and flew faster. There was no one to help her and her
+only salvation lay in her own two sturdy little legs and bruised feet.
+She reached the tracks but did not dare run the ties--she might trip in
+the darkness, and nothing could save her from her enemy. Her eyes,
+strained with convulsive fright, lifted one moment to the sky, and her
+glance fell directly upon the giant pine whose branches formed the image
+of her fantastic God. Her lips fell apart with a gasp--she fancied her
+Deity sent her an assurance of aid.
+
+"Goddy--Goddy," was her petition, "for the love of yer Christ ... and
+the student."
+
+Suddenly out upon the air rang the voice of one of Tessibel's friends.
+The brindle bulldog from Kennedy's farm had heard the unequal race. With
+short tail raised, his fat neck bristling with stubby hair, he started
+for the tracks, as Tess did for the fence when she heard his growl. As
+the girl came on and on, the dog bounded along the ground toward her.
+Tess opened her lips and spoke sharply--and a pleased bark came in
+response.
+
+God had heard and answered her. One wild leap in the air, and the sound
+of tearing clothes as her already tattered skirt came in contact with
+the barbed wire--and Tess was crouching down in the safe-keeping of the
+brindle bull. The dog whirled frantically around, licking her face. Fear
+weakened her tongue--she could not speak--only little spasmodic sobs
+burst from the parted lips. She caught the huge dog to her breast and
+waited.
+
+Ben Letts was on the tracks; she could hear his big chest heaving with
+fast-coming breath. He halted on the other side of the fence.
+
+Pete scented an enemy and straightened out his strong muscles like whip
+cords, a hoarse growl coming from between his jaws.
+
+Ben leaned over the fence with an oath.
+
+"Ye'd better come away from him," he grunted threateningly. "Ye air
+thinking the brute can save ye--but I'll put a bullet through his pate."
+
+Tessibel knew that the man had no rifle with him; and by the time he
+could get one she and the dog would be far away. Her mind worked fast
+under the pressure.
+
+"What do you want, Ben Letts?" she demanded.
+
+"I just wanted to talk to yer," wheedled the man. "Come over the fence,
+will ye?"
+
+"Ye can talk to me here," sullenly replied Tess. "I don't want to hear
+none of yer dum gab."
+
+"It air somethin' nice--it air candy," feigned Ben. Then the tones
+hardened in the coarse voice, and he ended:
+
+"Ye can't stay always with the brute."
+
+"To-night I can, and in the day I ain't afeared--I don't want no candy."
+
+The brindle bulldog lifted his head again and sent a low snarl in the
+direction of the fisherman--Ben in his rage had come too close to the
+fence. The animal's warning sent him back. Months before, Pete had
+buried his teeth in the man's hand and Ben would bear the marks to his
+grave.
+
+"Ye go home, Ben Letts," insisted Tess. "Ye ain't no business here. Go
+home to yer mammy."
+
+"I'm a-goin' to stay, just the same," rejoined Ben, sitting down upon
+the tracks.
+
+Tessibel wound her arms around the dog's neck, banking the red curls
+under her cheek for a pillow. It was good to rest with her friend.
+Between the fence wires she could see the branches of the pine tree, its
+shadowy arms creating odd figures across the light streaks in the sky.
+What a wonderful being the student's God was! He had listened to the cry
+of a squatter and had saved her.
+
+"Yer daddy ain't a-comin' home," Ben Letts broke in upon her
+meditations.
+
+"He air," retorted Tess. "He air the nextest time I go for him."
+
+"It air a lie," insisted the fisherman, "ye comes with me to the
+minister and I'll make yer an hones' woman. Ye'll have to cut that mop
+and settle down like a woman should. Do ye hear?... Tessibel, I says an
+hones' woman!"
+
+Tessibel shifted her head from Pete's neck and sat up.
+
+"Ye says as how--ye and--me--will go to the minister?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"And we air to be--married ... eh?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"How about--the--brat--and--and--and Satisfied's girl?"
+
+Myra's secret had slipped from her. Ben's silence invited her to
+proceed.
+
+"Yer brat air sick to his grave, he air," said she mournfully, a tear
+settling in her voice, making its sweetness rough, "and Myry air a-dyin'
+of a broken heart.... If yer wants to make an hones' woman, make her
+one, that air what I says, I does. And ye broke her arm on the ragged
+rocks! Ye did! And then yer comes--and talks about bein' hones'," the
+musical voice rose to a cry. "Ye can't make a woman hones' for ye ain't
+hones' yerself."
+
+Without a sound Ben rose from the tracks, reached for a stone and
+whirled it through the fence at Tessibel. The stone missed her, but
+struck the dog. Trembling with rage, Pete lifted his great body with a
+low, vicious growl.
+
+Tessibel sprang from the ground, whilst another stone hurtled through
+the air, catching her curls in its flight. Then she lifted the lower
+wire of the barbed fence. Pete crouched, and wiggled his flattened body
+through. Ben hadn't expected this--he turned and ran. The skurrying legs
+of the dog carried him quickly on after the fisherman. While Ben,
+screeching like a great night owl, hooted out his fear of the maddened
+dog, and yelled for Tess to call him off.
+
+The girl did not speak, only waited, waited until a louder cry from the
+hunted man assured her that Pete had gripped him. Tessibel scarcely
+dared breathe; her friend, God's earthly instrument, sent to save her,
+and her mortal enemy were in deadly combat.
+
+Ben's cries had ceased, but the listening girl could hear the two bodies
+as they turned over and over beyond on the tracks--and rolled into the
+ditch. Her feet were nearly frozen but she gathered them under her skirt
+and dumbly waited.
+
+Then came no sound--there was nothing but a deathly silence in the dim
+shadows near the land.
+
+Would she ever see either Ben or the dog again? There was no danger that
+Pete would--
+
+"Ben," she called loudly, leaning over the fence. No answer came from
+the deep trench by the railroad bed.
+
+"Pete, Pete, come to Tessibel, come to Tessibel."
+
+Out of the blackness came the dog, his head hanging low, the angry
+sparkle in his eyes quenched.
+
+Tess raised the wire once more for Pete's body to wriggle under. The
+girl shouted anxiously for Ben but no answer came to her call.
+
+Crouching beside Pete, Tessibel reasoned out a way of escape: if she
+took the brindle bulldog to the hut with her, she would be safe from Ben
+were he lurking about. She propped the lower wire of the fence high
+with a stick so that Pete could reach Kennedy's barn on the hill again
+when she sent him home. Together the girl and the bristling Pete slid
+silently to the railroad tracks, Tessibel holding tightly to the dog's
+collar. Some fifty feet beyond he twisted his heavy neck, set forth his
+huge jaw, and refused to move.
+
+Beside the track was a long dark object--it was undeniably,
+unquestionably quiet. Tess tugged at the dog's collar and dragged him
+resisting from the spot.
+
+Down the lane ran the squatter and the dog with no pause save to pick up
+the cowhide boots from the side of the path, where Tess had cast them in
+the mad race. She clasped the head of Pete as she opened the hut door.
+
+"Ye can come in, too, Pete," she whispered, lifting the ugly head, "and
+go home in the morning."
+
+Tessibel locked the door, but did not light a candle. Slipping her wet
+clothes to the floor, she crawled into Daddy's bed, and with the
+forgetfulness of youth sank into a sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next morning after her encounter with Ben Letts, Tess sat up in bed,
+wondering what had happened. Then she remembered. One slant ray of sun
+breaking through the dirty curtain showed that the day was far advanced.
+She jumped out of bed, opened the door and allowed Pete to scamper away.
+
+After kindling a fire and frying a fish, she sat down to eat.
+
+Suddenly a knock on the door startled her. Ben might return even after
+his lesson of the night before. Without unclasping the lock, she called
+out:
+
+"Who air it?"
+
+"It air me, Tessibel. Open the door.--It air Myry!"
+
+Tess flung open the door with a smile. She drew back, seeing Myra's
+seamed face, white and drawn.
+
+"Ye be sick, Myry?"
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"Air it the brat, then?"
+
+"Nope, it air Ben Letts. He were hurt by the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's
+Farm. Ezy and 'Satisfied' found him near dead on the tracks and took him
+home."
+
+Tess stood waiting, wide-eyed, without a word.
+
+"He wouldn't say nothin' about it," complained Myry; "just says that he
+air goin' to get even with some one."
+
+"Have ye seen him?" stammered Tess.
+
+"Yep, this mornin' in his shanty. He were cut bad. They got the horse
+doctor to sew him up. He air sick, Ben air!"
+
+"And the brat," demanded Tess, changing the subject purposely.
+
+"Sick the hours through," replied Myra bitterly. "He hes got the
+pitifullest cry that breaks my heart all the time. But he ain't so sick
+as his pappy."
+
+"Ben Letts ain't a-goin' to die, air he?"
+
+Tessibel's woful expression caused Myra to shake her head emphatically,
+her thin lips twitching, then tightening under the nervous strain.
+
+"Nope, he ain't, but he air goin' to be sick a long time. He air the
+brat's pa, and I want to do somethin' for him."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He air wantin' to see ye, Tessibel. Will ye go to him?"
+
+"Nope," Tess burst forth spontaneously.
+
+Myra looked at her curiously.
+
+"He ain't amountin' to much," she ventured, "but he air a pappy--that
+air somethin', ain't it?"
+
+"Yep," mused Tessibel. "A daddy air more than a mammy."
+
+So had Tessibel and Myra been brought up to believe. The squatter women
+fawned at the feet of their brutal husbands, as a beaten dog cringes to
+its master. That Ben Letts had broken Myra's arm on the ragged rocks,
+and yet the girl wanted to aid him, showed Tess the superiority of the
+male sex, and Myra loved the squint-eyed fisherman, she evidenced it in
+every action.
+
+The lips of the younger squatter were sealed about the trail which she
+herself had laid in the midnight tragedy. But through the tender young
+heart flashed the hope that the experience with the dog would cause Ben
+Letts to turn his face toward the wretched, shrunken creature, who had
+suffered so much through him. She contemplated Myra an instant.
+
+"Do ye want me to see him?" she asked, rising.
+
+"Yep," replied Myra, the dull eyes filled with a momentary sparkle. "He
+hes somethin' to say to ye, and I did say as how ye would come."
+
+"Air he alone?" questioned Tess.
+
+"Nope, his mammy air with him--we'll go now--eh?"
+
+Slipping on Daddy's boots was Tessibel's assent, and they started
+through the underbrush in silence.
+
+"The brat ain't goin' to die, air he?" asked Tess presently.
+
+It had been several days since she had seen Myra's little son. The
+troubles of Daddy Skinner had taken up every moment of her time.
+
+"Mebbe," grunted Myra unemotionally; "he howls like a sick pup from
+mornin' till night."
+
+"I air a goin' home with ye, Myry," assured Tessibel; "he won't yap when
+I sings to him."
+
+The lake had risen over the strip of beach, its waters freezing against
+the rocks. This forced the girls to take the path through the wood to
+the hill beyond. Until they came in sight of Ben Letts' cabin, they said
+no more.
+
+At their knock Ben's mother softly opened the door. Her shaggy gray hair
+had not been combed and her fierce old eyes glowed with agony unsoftened
+by tears.
+
+"Ben air too sick to get up," she explained awkwardly, presenting each
+girl a chair, "I said as how ye couldn't come, Tessibel, but Ben said
+Myry were to bring ye."
+
+From the back room came the sound of belabored breathing and a hoarse
+voice called for Tessibel. The squatter girl rose to her feet, her color
+changing from red to white. The thought of the fisherman with his
+dog-bitten face was repulsive to her.
+
+"Ye be goin' in with me to see him, ain't ye, Myry?" The brown eyes
+entreated that she should not be sent to Ben Letts alone.
+
+Myra Longman shook her head. She knew that the brat's pa did not want to
+see her, and again she shook her head as Tessibel waited.
+
+"He air been askin' all the mornin' for ye, Tess," urged Mrs. Letts,
+"Ben ain't no likin' for Myry, Ben ain't!"
+
+A dull red flush crimsoned Myra Longman's face. She watched Tess
+enviously as the girl tiptoed through the doorway and disappeared.
+
+Ben Letts was stretched out on the rope cot, his massive head and thick
+neck swathed in bandages. Two huge hands, with patches of plaster here
+and there lay outside the red Indian blanket. The swollen upper lid was
+tightly pressed over his blind eye, the squint one slowly opening at
+Tessibel's entrance.
+
+She looked down upon the bandaged face but for a moment; neither of them
+spoke.
+
+"I see ye comes," Ben broke in at last.
+
+"Yep, I's here ... What do ye want?"
+
+A drop of salt water oozed from the weak eye; Ben moved his head as if
+in pain.
+
+"Sop up the tear with the rag, will ye, Tess?" he grunted. "It air
+burnin' like hell fire."
+
+Tessibel took the soiled cloth in her fingers, and not too lightly did
+as Ben bade her.
+
+"Ye didn't tell Myry how I comed sick, did ye?" asked Ben, settling his
+head back upon the pillow.
+
+Tess gave a negative gesture.
+
+"Er no one else?"
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"Ye be a pert girl, Tessibel, and I were a cuss for trying to scare
+ye--but the brindle bull has got to die."
+
+"Nope, he ain't got to die," frowned Tess.
+
+"When I gets up he eats what I gives him," assured Ben. "He has to die,
+I says, I does.... But ye be a pert gal, Tess."
+
+Ben moved his head to bring the girl within the vision of his one eye.
+
+"What be ye wantin' with me?" Tess muttered. "I wants to go home."
+
+She saw another tear roll down the plastered cheek, and repeated her
+operation with the rag.
+
+"What do ye want?" she demanded again.
+
+"To tell ye thet I air a goin' to make an hones' woman of ye. I's a
+goin' to marry ye. I knows I's a pappy, but the brat'll die, and he'll
+be forgot like yer daddy will!"
+
+Tess instantly froze into a white, tense little form. She did not follow
+the fisherman's glance as he motioned her to take up the cloth.
+
+"I's a tellin' yer mammy to wipe yer old eye," she said pettishly. "I
+ain't got no notion of bein' an hones' woman ... I hates yer like I
+hates Ezry Longman."
+
+She wheeled to go out, but the man stayed her with a grunt.
+
+"I's to be sick for a long time," exclaimed he, "and mammy will step to
+the grave most any day ... I wants pert fingers to put the plasters on
+my cuts."
+
+Here he groaned and fought for the cloth, the salt tears scorching the
+rents in the skin as they rolled hot from the red eye and soaked into
+the plasters. The squatter girl mechanically wiped away the tears,
+turning again.
+
+"Myry air pert," she said, halting in the door. "She air more than
+that--her fingers air lovin' ones. These," and she held up her two brown
+hands, "would be hurtin' ye, cause I hates ye so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel and Myra walked away from Ben's hut in silence, up the ragged
+rocks to the Longman shanty.
+
+"Ben were askin' to marry yer, Tess, weren't he?" demanded Myra as they
+approached the door.
+
+Tess nodded.
+
+"Were he sayin' as how ye could take care of him?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Be ye goin' to?" The intense longing and misery in her voice made Tess
+gasp:
+
+"Nope, he air too mean a cuss to live. If he air the brat's pa, let the
+brat's ma take care of him. The brat air a good little devil."
+
+Mrs. Longman was moving about in the loft overhead when the two girls
+entered the shanty.
+
+Tess went to the wooden box and looked down upon the small, pinched face
+of the sleeping infant. The babe had worn out his little lungs,
+screeching in his pain, the small faded eyes rolling backward as he
+slept.
+
+The young mother came quietly to the side of her Squatter friend.
+
+"If the brat dies," she began in a low, tense tone, "be ye goin' to
+marry Ben Letts?"
+
+"Nope, I ain't never goin' to marry nobody!"
+
+"Yep, ye will, when ye gets done bein' a baby!"
+
+Tess drew her eyes from the dozing infant and glanced at Myra.
+
+"I wants a Bible," said she deliberately.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To read out of!"
+
+"Can ye read?"
+
+"Nope, not much, but I can spell out words, and write a bit. And the
+Bible says as how, if ye seeks, ye'll find what ye seeks."
+
+The shining eyes were sending a truthful message into the heart of the
+young mother.
+
+"That ain't nothin' to do with Ben Letts," muttered Myra.
+
+"Yep, it air," insisted Tess. "It says what ye seeks ye find. Ain't ye
+seekin' Ben Letts?"
+
+"I knows where he air already," sullenly replied Myra.
+
+"But ye can seek his lovin's, can't ye?... I's a seekin' Daddy--and
+somethin' else."
+
+"What?"
+
+"To be readin' and writin' like--like the minister's gal does. I air
+a-seekin' it every day!"
+
+"How?"
+
+Tess flushed. She could not tell Myra of the long bearded God in the
+pine tree, nor of the stumbling prayers she had repeated night after
+night. Myra understood that she could sing, so Tess said laconically:
+
+"I sings for it sometimes, and that air a seekin'."
+
+Myra grunted.
+
+"I can't sing," and she frowned.
+
+The babe whined in the cradle and Tessibel took him up. The glorious
+voice hushed the child to sleep, Myra Longman bitterly scanning the
+beautiful face. There were only two years between her and Tessibel, and
+her own poor, ghastly wrinkled face looked years older. If she were only
+pretty, Ben might love her. Tess had the splendid vigor of healthy
+youth--Myra, the worn-out complexion of a bad digestion. Beans and bacon
+had made the one beautiful--and destroyed the other.
+
+Suddenly Myra leaned over with a new expression in her eyes.
+
+"Tessibel, I tries to seek Ben Letts and his lovin's for me and the
+brat."
+
+Tessibel placed the small boy in the box, then she and Myra obeyed Mrs.
+Longman's fretful demand that they draw up and eat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+That evening Minister Graves came blustering in after his family were
+seated at the table. What was this ridiculous thing that he had heard?
+His home disgraced, his position ruined, his children ostracized. He
+glanced at Teola and Frederick. His wife, fastening Babe's napkin under
+the child's chin, remonstrated.
+
+"Why, father, what's the trouble?"
+
+"I was making a clerical call on Mrs. Robman to-day," fumed the Dominie,
+"and that girl of hers, and a saucy one she is, too, burst into the
+room, and, mother, what tale do you think she told--before us?"
+
+Frederick glanced at his sister, but Teola's eyes were upon her empty
+plate. Mrs. Graves shook her head.
+
+"That that Skinner girl came here last night and in all her rags and
+filth drank coffee from our daughter's cup! Madame, did you ever imagine
+that such a disgrace could fall upon you?"
+
+Mrs. Graves looked helplessly from her husband's distorted face to her
+son and daughter.
+
+"She came into your home," went on the minister, "and was asked to take
+refreshments from your cups. Mrs. Robman said that she disliked to think
+that such degraded guests were allowed in your home.... Do you
+understand what that means, Mrs. Graves?"
+
+"Let Frederick explain, father," pleaded the trembling wife; "he was
+going to speak and you stopped him. What and how did it happen?"
+
+"The girl came to the Rectory to ask prayers for her father," said
+Frederick, an expression darkening his eyes which his mother dreaded.
+
+"Prayers ... prayers!" roared the minister, "Prayers for a squatter and
+a murderer!... And drinking coffee from your cups. Such a disgrace can
+never be lifted from this house."
+
+"What hurt did she do?" irreverently asked Babe. Frederick was thankful
+for the child's frank question.
+
+"Hurt? Harm, you mean. If she should just hurt a person that could be
+mended. Harm was what she did!"
+
+"What harm?" persisted Babe.
+
+"Madam, you see your children are all growing up like heathens. There
+arn't any of the parents whose sons and daughters were here last night,
+who won't think a long time before they allow them to come again. You
+understand, don't you, that that squatter covered with germs of all
+kinds drank from your daughter's cup."
+
+Mrs. Graves started preceptibly. She was noted for a fear of germs.
+
+"Teola, your mouth must be scoured with peroxide ... Oh, if some one
+would only tell me how it all happened!"
+
+Frederick rose from his chair and impulsively laid his hand on his
+mother's shoulder. To Teola he looked so tall and strong, so capable of
+explaining, that she rose, too.
+
+"I will tell you mother," said the student. "The girl was in distress.
+In some way she had been led to believe that prayers, effective prayers,
+could bring about any desired result. She simply came to ask us to pray
+for her father."
+
+Teola was by his side now, reassuringly pressing his arm.
+
+"And where would she go," she broke in suddenly, "if not to a minister's
+home?"
+
+The pastor's whole family, at least the members that had been
+submissive--for Babe had always challenged her father's commands--was
+rising against him. His wife, instead of taking her willful children to
+task, was weeping; his son and daughter stood beside her refuting every
+word he said. He brought down his hand with a bang, his eyes narrowing
+into a slit.
+
+"You will every one do as I say," he cried. "Frederick, you are to stay
+away from classes for two days, your professors knowing that you have
+disobeyed your father. If your fellow students ask you why you are
+absent, you must tell them what I have said. And, you, Teola--"
+
+Frederick stopped the rush of words.
+
+"If I stay away from college two days," he said in a low tone, so
+deliberate that every word burned into the mother's brain, "I shall
+never go back again. I am no longer a child and I won't be punished. And
+what is more, I shall leave your home forever. You may take your choice,
+father, but not until I make another statement. The girl from the lake
+asked me to pray for her. That is my intention, and I shall do more if
+possible. I shall use every bit of influence I have to aid her father to
+escape hanging.... Also, if you punish Teola, you will never see me
+again."
+
+Mrs. Graves had risen from her chair. She walked straight to her
+son--placed her hand upon him.
+
+"Frederick, you wouldn't leave your mother?"
+
+The strong arm pressed about the wearied little form reassuringly.
+
+"And you can bet, papa Graves," put in Babe, "that I'll go with mamma
+any old day, that's what I will."
+
+Teola stood irresolutely, looking first at Frederick, then at her
+father. She went toward the minister and almost whispered,
+
+"Father, let me speak! The girl came without having been invited by
+anyone, and she did not stay five minutes. She was drenched through, and
+cold ... I gave her my cup of coffee, and she stated her errand and went
+away."
+
+The minister rose, leaving his supper untouched, put on his overcoat,
+not one remonstrating word coming from his family, and went out.
+
+Pastor Graves made his way up the town through the main street to Bates'
+drug-store, his hunger having died in his anger and amazement.
+
+He was positive that he could have brought his children to terms, had
+not their mother taken sides with them. His thoughts went back to the
+early days of his married life when nothing had disturbed their peace;
+the children obeyed, and Mrs. Graves thought her husband's word the
+essence of all law.
+
+He turned into the drug-store in the middle of the block. Here met,
+nearly every evening, the head ones of his flock for a little while to
+talk over religion and politics. Outsiders called it the "Amen Corner"
+of Ithaca.
+
+"Ah," exclaimed the druggist, "you're early, Graves. Must have had your
+supper at the going down of the sun."
+
+Graves coughed his embarrassment and sat down.
+
+"Feeling sick, Elias?"
+
+The druggist opened the door for a child to pass out.
+
+"No, not ill, only disgusted with the world in general."
+
+"Skinner's girl coming to the court went against your notions, eh?"
+
+"And every one else's with any sense," snapped Graves.
+
+"Professor Young stopped in here to-day on his way up the hill," resumed
+Bates, "he had been over to the jail, talking to Skinner, and he says
+that the man will be murdered if the state hangs him."
+
+"That's all Young knows about it," growled the minister. "You and I know
+these people, Bates, better then Young does, and Skinner's word isn't
+worth the powder to blow it up with."
+
+Bates took his accustomary position on the book-keeper's stool and
+spread his long hands out on his knees.
+
+"Well, the professor says," he went on, "that Skinner can prove that he
+didn't use the gun."
+
+"How can he prove it?" asked Graves sharply, "only by the oaths of men
+with no more veracity than he has. I wouldn't believe one of those
+squatters if he used the sacred oath twenty times over."
+
+"Maybe the next jury will think differently," argued the druggist.
+
+"Bigger fools they then," interrupted Graves. "I don't know what the
+town is coming to if the fishermen can shoot down our officials without
+even remonstrance. I'll tell you what, Bates, there'll be a city war
+over Skinner. Let Young take up the cudgel, and I'll see what the church
+can do. There's power in the pulpit, I can tell you that."
+
+Bates agreed to this.
+
+"If the citizens of this city," continued the minister, encouraged by
+the evident acquiescence of the druggist, "should take this matter up as
+a body, ten men like Young couldn't bring about Skinner's acquittal."
+
+"I'm not so sure," muttered Bates.
+
+"I'm sure," insisted Graves strenuously, "very sure, for, if to a man
+every one is ready to do his duty, what kind of a jury could they have?
+Like yesterday's--conviction, swift and sure."
+
+"But" objected the druggist, "a juror who takes his oath in a murder
+case, must know little or nothing of it. Men would not be accepted if
+for a week or month they had listened to combative sermons against the
+prisoner. And you certainly wouldn't have a juror perjure himself, would
+you, Graves?"
+
+"The district attorney is no fool," replied the minister, softening his
+argument under the shocked expression of Bates; "he knows when the state
+is to be benefited by the outcome of a trial. He can leave off certain
+questions; it has been done."
+
+"I know it," interrupted Bates. "But--it seems hardly fair."
+
+Just then the door opened, and Silas Jones, the richest man in the town,
+took his seat with the other two "Ameners." The fascinating subject of
+the day, the unusualness of the squatter trial and the girl with the
+singing voice, continued to be the topic of conversation. Minister
+Graves' family, in standing out against him in a matter so near his
+heart, only strengthened his desire to see the end as he wished it to
+be--the sentence of yesterday executed against the fisherman without
+another trial.
+
+"Young lost his senses to-day, don't you think so, Silas?" he asked.
+
+"Well," drawled Jones, "if Skinner didn't commit willful murder, I'd
+hate to see him hang. It wouldn't do any harm as I see to give him
+another chance."
+
+"You'll change your mind in church next Sunday," commented the parson.
+"I'm going to show every man his duty clear and plain."
+
+He brought down his hand upon his knee with an egotistical slap.
+
+"All folks don't think the same way you do, Dominie," persisted Jones.
+"Now then, Bill Hopkins of the toggery shop, he don't believe in women
+speakin' in meetin'."
+
+The minister distinctly remembered this. More than once had he taken the
+delinquent Bill Hopkins to task for taking his letter to another church,
+but Bill could not be induced to return, because the creed had not been
+followed by its members, nor enforced by the shepherd of the flock.
+
+Hopkins was the best-read man in the whole county, and his voice went
+far when he spoke, but for over a year his place among the "Ameners" had
+been vacant--also his pew in Graves' church. The Dominie needed such men
+as Bill in his congregation if he would win his fight against the
+squatters. These thoughts were prominent in his mind when the door
+admitted a great gust of wind--and the famous Bill Hopkins. The parson
+caught his breath. Bill spoke a genial good-evening, shook hands around,
+and bought a small bottle of witch-hazel, some camphor, and was about to
+leave, when Graves ejaculated:
+
+"Sit down, Bill."
+
+Bill sat down, took his hat from his bald head, and placed his fingers
+complacently around a smooth white wart on his cranium, and waited.
+
+He looked questioningly at the rich man, and the druggist with the
+wide-spread hands. The church subject had been thrashed out long
+ago--the women of the congregation gaining the day in spite of the
+august presence of some of the deacons, who openly declared that the
+female portion of the church was unbecomingly usurping the authority of
+the men. Because of this flagrant disobedience of the church's creed,
+Bill Hopkins had taken his name from the roll, and was known to have
+said that he would not be led by a shepherd who could not order his
+flock. To-night he smacked his lips for the coming argument while the
+minister, glad to have him among them again, felt his hopes rise higher.
+
+Bates flattened his hands with delight, noticing a smile that drew down
+the corners of Jones' lips. Long ago the pleasant religious argument of
+Ithaca's "Amen" corner had become a thing of the past, because of the
+absence of Bill Hopkins. He had been the zest of the crowd.
+
+The Dominie, forgetting his grievance of the supper table, straightened
+himself for the combat. He had suddenly conceived a plan whereby he
+could gain a friend to aid him in the coming squatter fight. Bill
+Hopkins still waited with a quizzical expression in his shaggy-browed
+eyes.
+
+"Strange happenings in town for a few days past," said Graves.
+
+"The Skinner case?" asked Bill, rubbing gently the smooth white wart.
+
+"Yes," assented the minister. "What do you think of it all, Bill?"
+
+"The girl's a brick," commented Hopkins--and sank into silence.
+
+"The girl's not being tried for murder," rebuked the minister sharply.
+
+"But she played her part with feelin' and power," was the drawling
+reply.
+
+The clergyman saw a flitting expression of triumph in the druggist's
+face.
+
+"She'd make a capital actress," ruminated Graves.
+
+He glanced at the rich man to see if he coincided with him, but that
+gentleman was looking into the street.
+
+"We all act in this world," excused Bill; "even you ministers use
+methods that you have found in elocution to bring your beliefs to bear
+upon your congregations."
+
+Graves did not relish being classed with the squatter's child, but he
+made no comment upon it. He changed his tactics.
+
+"Bill," said he, "have you altered your ideas about the church?"
+
+"What ideas?"
+
+"Well, about women having the privilege of speaking in meetings."
+
+Bill shook his head, and Graves resumed:
+
+"Well, I'm changing my mind ... I'm going to stop this nonsense."
+
+The rich man sat up and the druggist, scenting a religious rumpus, drew
+his stool nearer. Bill coughed loudly.
+
+"Those women," continued Graves, "have had their own way too long ... I
+shall put a stop to it immediately."
+
+Bill Hopkins wondered what was coming. It behooved him to wait and see;
+so he settled back with his head bowed and his piercing eyes directed
+steadily upon the pastor. A dark flush mounted to the minister's face.
+He had expected that such condescension to an ex-member would be
+received with enthusiasm. As no other of the "Ameners" offered a word,
+Graves continued:
+
+"Next thing that we know, the women will be coming into the church with
+uncovered heads. I wonder I've stood it so long."
+
+Still Bill did not speak. He could remember that when the dispute had
+been at its height these had not been the sentiments of Pastor Graves.
+In fact, when a delegation had gone to the parsonage to demand obedience
+to the constitution of the church, the Dominie had replied that the
+ladies had come out victorious in the matter, and that it was an
+old-fashioned idea to forbid the women to speak or pray in public if
+they so wished; and the crest-fallen delegates had gone away from the
+rectory, and Bill Hopkins, with several others, from the church.
+
+Seeing that not one of the respectable "Ameners" was going to help him,
+the Dominie sputtered out his wrath in another direction.
+
+"If Young had kept his hands off that Skinner business, there wouldn't
+have been the slightest chance of the fisherman winning out."
+
+"Ah! here's where the shoe pinches," thought Hopkins; "the parson needs
+help to wrest Skinner's squatter rights from him."
+
+But he did not voice his thoughts.
+
+"I guess that's right, Dominie," were his spoken words. "Skinner didn't
+have many friends in the court until that girl came in. She certainly
+did make a change in the ideas of most people in this town."
+
+"Fools! to let a child like that break up the dignity of a court-room."
+Graves settled back angrily in his chair. He had lost in the game he was
+about to play with Bill Hopkins--lost before the game had begun.
+
+"Skinner can thank his kid for his life, nevertheless," interjected
+Jones, "for another jury will never convict him.
+
+"Think not?" queried the druggist.
+
+Bates' question remained unanswered, for Dominie Graves turned the
+subject again.
+
+"Bill, if I come out strong in the church and give you your own way in
+the disputed question, then you must do something for me. I'll speak to
+you later about it."
+
+"Pretty far along in the day," was Bill's answer, "but as you please,
+Dominie. I don't know what you want, but most of your friends will stick
+by you if the church is run on its old plan and according to the creed
+and the Bible."
+
+When Minister Graves walked home he felt that in spite of family
+differences he had scored a point in getting from Hopkins a tacit
+consent to come back into his congregation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+When the family gathered about the table the next morning in the
+rectory, the Dominie told his wife solemnly that he wished to talk with
+her after the children had gone to school. Breakfast over, he broached
+the subject of the women talking in prayer meeting, Mrs. Graves
+listening eagerly. As the pastor's wife she had done the best in her
+power; but her power had been weak, and the stronger ones in the
+congregation had ridden over her convictions and teachings.
+
+There was Augusta Hall, the beautiful wife of one of the deacons who had
+demanded that she be allowed to voice her sentiments in public; and
+other women had followed her lead, although it had been absolutely
+against the tenets of the church.
+
+This woman was in Mrs. Graves' mind, when the Dominie brought down his
+hand upon the table, saying he had decided to stop once and for all the
+nonsense in his church, which was keeping the best of his members away.
+
+Mrs. Graves breathed Mrs. Hall's name meekly to her husband.
+
+"She can leave the church," growled Graves. "In my mind it's almost
+sacrilegious for women to dare to go so far that some of the best of its
+members will leave a well-regulated church. Maria, you must talk to Mrs.
+Hall and bring her to reason."
+
+"If you can't succeed," replied Mrs. Graves, "how do you expect me to?
+You're her pastor."
+
+"I will go and talk to her first, then you follow close upon my heels,
+Maria, and between us both, we will get Bill Hopkins and Carey back
+among us. If they come the rest will."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late in the afternoon Mrs. Graves put on her bonnet, and, with a sigh,
+tied the strings under her withered chin. In the very moment when the
+congregation had at last become reconciled to the privileges extended to
+its female members, another church war was to be fought. But the little
+woman dared not refuse her husband's command, so she climbed the long
+hill toward the south and timidly rang the bell marked "Hall."
+
+Her husband would have been there and gone, for the afternoon was well
+toward its close.
+
+As the servant ushered her in, Mrs. Graves heard loud voices coming from
+the drawing-room, and instantly recognized one of them as the
+clergyman's.
+
+"It's all very well, Mrs. Hall," he was saying, "for the women to work
+if they can do it without showing too much authority, but, my dear lady,
+I have been studying into this matter and it is positively against the
+Scriptural injunction for women to speak in church."
+
+"Where did you read that?" asked Mrs. Hall, handing the Dominie a Bible,
+which he did not take in his half-extended fingers.
+
+"I know, and you know where it is without looking," said he sharply.
+"There is a command from Paul that all women should keep silent in the
+church in the presence of men."
+
+"Paul was an old bachelor," irreverently answered Mrs. Hall. "What did
+he know about women and their needs?"
+
+"He received the commandments from God," replied the pastor gravely.
+
+"Not that one, and what's more, I am going to talk all I want to, and if
+there is a man who does not want to hear, let him go away until he
+either changes his mind or desires to take things as they are.... Why!
+the women have been speaking in our church for over a year."
+
+At this juncture, Mrs. Graves walked in, pale and weary. She dropped
+weakly into a chair.
+
+"Your husband has just informed me," snapped Mrs. Hall, her beautiful
+face flushing as she spoke, "that we are not to speak any more at the
+church meetings. Do you approve of that, Mrs. Graves? I'm sure--"
+
+"Like all dutiful and obedient wives," came the sharp interruption from
+the minister, without giving his sorry-looking spouse a chance to speak,
+"my wife thinks as I do. Mrs. Hall, allow me to entreat you to follow
+the dictates of your conscience, and obey your husband always."
+
+"My husband gives me my own way," answered Mrs. Hall with a toss of her
+head.
+
+"There he is wrong, but I shall leave you to talk things over with my
+wife. On Sunday I shall make it the theme of my sermon and I hope before
+Wednesday, my dear Mrs. Hall, that you and some others will look upon
+the matter in a different light."
+
+The Dominie wended his way toward the business quarter of the city and
+turned into the Gas Company's office. Inquiring for Mr. Hall, he was
+ushered into a private room marked "President," and heartily greeted one
+of the deacons of his church.
+
+"Anything wrong?" asked Hall, noticing the expression upon his pastor's
+face.
+
+"No, only I called about a new rule which we're going to pass Wednesday
+evening, and you can help us if you will."
+
+The president looked up inquiringly.
+
+"The women must no longer speak at the prayer meeting."
+
+Mr. Hall half rose from his chair as these words fell from the
+clergyman's lips, but he sank mutely back.
+
+"It has become necessary to enforce the laws of the church," explained
+Graves, "and I have taken up this matter with some of the members--also
+with your wife."
+
+Mr. Hall dropped his eyes upon his left hand with the fingers of which
+he was bending back those of his right.
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+"I think it will be necessary for you to talk with her, Hall; surely you
+have enough influence over her to make her see that it is absolutely
+necessary that women should cease their--"
+
+"I thought, Dominie," broke in the deacon, "that we had long outgrown
+such notions. You had better let matters go on as they are."
+
+The minister shook his head emphatically, and looked searchingly at his
+parishioner.
+
+"Fact is, Mr. Hall, you know that it is not a personal thing with me,
+but for the good of the church. Hopkins has left and Carey only comes
+when he feels like it. Several others stay away without a place to
+worship, simply because the ladies will have their way. I have no
+trouble with my wife and no man would if he were to demand obedience as
+God says that he should. I shall preach upon it Sunday."
+
+"Don't make it too strong," ventured Hall, thinking of his beautiful
+wife.
+
+As far as he was concerned it made no difference whether women were
+silent or not, whether they wore hats to church or came in with bare
+heads. He was happy in his home life, and was not willing to bring about
+discord by arguments that meant nothing to him. When the church matter
+had come up before, he had acquiesced without a word, had watched the
+fight as it progressed, and when it ended had settled back to enjoy
+peace--a happy official of Ithaca's gas company.
+
+He looked out under his brows at the clergyman, as he fingered the
+paper-cutter on his desk. He took it up mechanically and read the
+inscription on the handle: "From me to you."
+
+His wife had given it to him, and Hall mentally wondered if the woman
+who could think of, and would dare to use, such a unique expression
+would be frightened by a word from him.
+
+Without asking Augusta, the husband knew that his wife would be the
+first woman to rise to speak next Wednesday evening. This much he
+intimated to Graves. An expression of sarcasm flitted over the
+clergyman's countenance, but it quickly vanished--Graves was trying to
+add to his strong friends that day. He only remarked that he hoped it
+would be settled amicably. The president ventured another shot:
+
+"Dominie, there's a complete turn in the affairs of Skinner; he says
+that he did not commit the murder--that he positively did not pick up
+the gun from the shore. Simply because he owned the gun is no proof that
+he used it. Young says--"
+
+"Young had better attend to his campus business," interrupted Graves.
+"He will have all he can do. There's no doubt in my mind that Skinner is
+guilty. I should have thought that his conviction was proof of that."
+
+"But he didn't have a chance to prove his innocence," replied Hall. "He
+has such a good reputation among his own people that Young is going to
+take up subscriptions for another trial."
+
+Elias turned sharply upon the gas official.
+
+"Few people who understand the matter will give money to save the life
+of a squatter. That's another thing I'm going to preach upon next
+Sunday. The very manner in which they live would prove what bad citizens
+they are."
+
+"We can't hang a man," argued Hall, "because he doesn't live in
+accordance with our stilted notions. Professor Young says that the girl
+is a genius--that she has a beautiful voice. I promised that if he took
+up--a contribution for the family that I would send him a check."
+
+Elias Graves rose hastily to his feet, forgetting to put out his hand as
+he went out. He now hated Tessibel Skinner with a deep religious hatred,
+and it would be war between him and her for the life of the imprisoned
+squatter.
+
+President Hall, with a smile upon his face, closed the door of his
+private office after his pastor had departed.
+
+"It's evident why Graves wants the women turned down," mused he; "he
+thinks that he will draw about him again such men as Hopkins and Carey
+and that they will help him in removing Skinner from his land. I won't
+help persecute the poor devil--Gad, but that daughter of his did turn
+things upside down. I wonder what Augusta will say to me when I go
+home?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a keen, cold and blizzardly Sunday morning when the bells of the
+different churches rang out upon the air. Ithaca was astir and her
+citizens anxious to worship. For one-half hour the streets teemed with
+well-dressed people, then became as silent as if the town were
+uninhabited. Minister Graves took his place in the pulpit and scanned
+the pews which were filled to overflowing. Not only had his members
+come, one and all, but people from other congregations were standing at
+the back of the railing, eager to hear the mighty effort which would be
+given forth from the clergyman's eloquent tongue. Elias Graves took his
+text from Genesis--"And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
+rule over thee."
+
+The minister leaned far over his flock, as he finished this impressive
+text.
+
+His eyes fell upon Deacon Hall's pew, then upon his own in which sat his
+wife with Babe near her. Frederick was between Teola and the little
+girl, and they were all earnestly watching their father--something was
+going to happen, but they did not know what. The deep voice broke out
+into a prayer, followed by a soulful anthem from the choir.
+
+Minister Graves rose with dignity, and began his sermon.
+
+"It is my intention," said he, "to divide my sermon this morning
+directly in two, because my subjects are so entirely different. Before
+the expiration of it, you will see the force of my argument and will, I
+hope, profit by it."
+
+He continued by saying, a house divided against itself would surely
+fall, that even a stone structure built upon sand would slip into the
+sea.
+
+"Brethren, the sea of which I speak is a sea of discontent and
+disobedience. From my reading text you will see that God commanded that
+woman should be obedient, that she should obey her husband to the
+letter--to the letter, brethren."
+
+There was a decided rustle of silken petticoats in the church.
+
+"It was the disobedience of our first mother," spoke the clergyman,
+"that threw Adam into ill-repute with his Creator, and also Adam's love
+for her that drove him from the Garden of Eden. Brethren, God is good to
+mankind, ever ready to listen to his appeals. If Adam had only believed
+in the greatness as well as the goodness of God, he would have spurned
+the woman who had dared to so flagrantly disobey, instead of following
+her from the garden.
+
+"Adam had more than one rib," went on the minister, "and how readily and
+kindly would God have disposed of the first sinning Eve and under the
+pleasant sleep of the man, Adam, extracted another rib out of which he
+would have constructed another and yet more beautiful woman. Some of us
+are finding it impossible to keep order in our families, and until we
+do, we cannot expect to live to the glory of God."
+
+A loud hacking cough came from Deacon Hall's pew and many heads were
+turned toward it. This disconcerted the clergyman for a moment, but he
+picked up the threads of his sermon and resumed:
+
+"If every man in this little city would rely upon the goodness of God to
+supply him with another Eve, when the woman joined to him in holy
+matrimony disobeys His law, it would be a simple matter to re-establish
+order in his household. Just as happiness was given to Lot after the
+turning to salt of his wife."
+
+The minister paused--the silence was so deathly that it appalled him. He
+allowed his eyes to fall upon the memorial window with a man's face upon
+it. The words underneath the figure passed before him dimly. Then he
+remembered that he was preaching a sermon. Was he not the chosen
+shepherd of the flock? Was he not the one man called by God to show
+these people the righteous paths in which to walk? Should his voice be
+silenced because others did not believe as he did? And was he not
+showing them the light through the Scriptures? With these thoughts in
+his mind and renewed energy in his voice he spoke again:
+
+"I should be the last man in the world to raise a false alarm, neither
+do I desire to enter homes and bring discord there. But I read from a
+passage under my hand, 'If thy right hand offend thee cut it off.'
+
+"From the words of the Scriptures I have proven to you that a household
+must be ruled by the husband and by him alone. And that it is the duty
+of every wife to obey her husband as long as she shall live.
+
+"I shall ask the women of this congregation not to rise next Wednesday
+evening in the prayer meeting, either to pray or testify. The privilege
+has been withdrawn as one perniciously against the tenets of the
+church. For Paul says in first Timothy, 'I suffer not a woman to teach
+nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence;' also I give
+you Paul's further command, 'Let the deacons be the husband of one wife,
+ruling their children and their own houses well.'"
+
+He ran over the last few words quickly for the louder rustle of silk
+could be heard. The minister changed his subject and gave them another
+text which said that the wicked people of the earth should be cut down.
+Was the minister going to sanction the killing of wives who refused to
+obey their husbands? Had he lost his mind? But his voice rang out upon
+the congregation upon a subject in which they had recently become so
+interested.
+
+"There is on our city," said the clergyman, "a terrible blot. The wicked
+ones of Jerusalem could not equal them in wickedness.
+
+"The plans of God in keeping peace among his people are to be carried
+out to-day, with as much vigor as they were three thousand years ago. I
+need not give you the details of a murder committed a short time ago
+within the limits of our city. The very fact that the murderer has the
+chance of another trial after his conviction demonstrates that something
+must be done, and quickly. If the secular law is not able to wipe out
+such a blot then the church must help. It is my idea, brethren, that the
+weeds of the earth must be cut down, and by weeds I mean bad men. If a
+petition is handed you to sign asking time for Orn Skinner, I ask you
+one and all not to place your names upon it."
+
+The clergyman suddenly stopped, closing his Bible. "Papa would cut off
+Tessibel's father's head if he could, wouldn't he, Frederick," whispered
+Babe.
+
+Frederick gave the child a reproving glance and the little girl sank
+back after explaining that if Skinner were hung "papa" would have the
+land which ought to be his.
+
+But as his father was speaking again the student turned his serious face
+toward the pulpit.
+
+"Brethren," finished the pastor impressively, "before I close I would
+adjure every one of you to take the reins of his household into his own
+hands," and then looking straight at Deacon Hall, he concluded:
+
+"And if you have never had the reins, then I command you to take them
+this day and rule your homes as God would have you. 'Let us pray.'"
+
+Augusta Hall made but one remark on her way home from church.
+
+"Wednesday evening, I am going to show Dominie Graves that he can't rule
+every woman in Ithaca, and I want you to go with me, dearie."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Orn Skinner was to be taken to prison the Monday after the famous sermon
+preached by Dominie Graves. Professor Young had gained permission for
+Tessibel to spend fifteen minutes with Skinner before his departure.
+There was something about the fishermaid that touched his heart. Her
+ignorance, her devotion to her father, and the loveliness of the anxious
+young face haunted the professor during his working hours, and at night,
+when he could not sleep, he created plans for her future and her
+father's release. He persuaded himself continually that Tessibel was not
+the motive for clearing the fisherman of the murder charge, it was the
+love of justice--justice to the squatter and his lovely child. Often the
+lawyer had set his jaw when he thought of Minister Graves and the
+evident malice shown by the parson against the fisherman.
+
+That Monday afternoon he met Tessibel as she came into the jail-yard,
+much the same Tessibel he had seen in the court-room.
+
+Professor Young took the girl's hand in his and led her into the small
+waiting room of the stone prison. He desired to be alone with her for a
+few minutes that he might satisfy himself as to her history, which since
+her dramatic entrance into the court-room had been so distorted.
+
+"You have no mother, I understand, my dear," he began.
+
+"Nope," and Tessibel shifted one boot along the seam in the red carpet.
+
+"Do you remember her?"
+
+"Nope; don't remember none but Daddy."
+
+"Have you ever been to school?"
+
+Tessibel shook her head, displaying her teeth in smile which quickly
+faded.
+
+"Squatter's brats don't never go to school," she muttered.
+
+She edged away from the professor, raising her eyes pleadingly to his.
+The man read the desire the girl dared not put into words, but without
+heeding her glance he proceeded to question her.
+
+"Would you like to go to school?"
+
+"Nope, all I want air Daddy home in the shanty. That air enough for me."
+
+She suddenly turned her face away toward the door that led to the upper
+cells.
+
+"But if I assure you," urged Professor Young, "that your father will
+positively get another trial, which is all that can be done at present,
+would you then like to study?"
+
+A definite shake of her head and another quick glance was Tessibel's
+answer.
+
+"I wants to read the Bible," she said, presently turning toward the
+professor; "it air a dum hard book to read, I hear."
+
+Professor Young tugged at the corners of his mustache to keep down a
+smile.
+
+"It would be easy for you to read any book if you went to school," he
+told her. "How old are you?"
+
+"Comin' sixteen."
+
+"And cannot read--it's a pity! And wouldn't you like to learn to sing?"
+
+Young was desirous of touching a responsive strain in the girl.
+
+"Dum sight rather see Daddy--that's what I came here for! Ain't ye going
+to let me see him?"
+
+Professor Young rose with a sigh. Like the rest of her race, she did not
+know gratitude. He had worked diligently, preparing an appeal for a new
+trial which would bring acquittal to her humpbacked father, and he was
+interested in her own welfare, but her thankless words checked his
+inquiry. The professor did not realize what love meant to Tessibel, for
+every desire within her paled into insignificance beside her passionate
+devotion to Daddy Skinner.
+
+Tess followed him silently up the long winding stairs, her heart
+thumping in anticipation. The deputy's search of her clothing brought a
+flush to her face, but without a word she allowed him to draw off the
+great boots and quietly watched him as he turned them upside down,
+receiving them back gravely. Her longing to see Daddy Skinner, to be in
+his arms, to hug the grizzled head, overshadowed even this indignity. So
+long had it been since Tess had nestled in the shaggy chin hair, that
+her heart was sore and wildly impatient. Faith in Frederick's God had
+been forgotten--no other thought occupied her mind save that they were
+going to take away her beloved--the only one left to her. She deigned
+not a glance at Professor Young after the deputy had gone, and measured
+the oilcloth-covered floor restlessly with the stamp, stamp, stamp of
+the big boots.
+
+Professor Young's presence was no more to her than the small insects
+which scurried from the edge of the floor covering into the light and
+then back into their hiding places, afraid of the human giants which
+loomed up before them. What did she care for reading, writing and such
+things. She wanted to be with Daddy Skinner--wanted him home in the
+shanty, as of old.
+
+She kept her eyes riveted upon the open door. Suddenly she leaned
+forward, for the ominous clanging of irons came to her ears. She thought
+of the night she had been found scaling the ivy to Daddy's cell--how
+long she had waited in the darkness for only a little word about him.
+They had given her none, and her vivid imagination brought back the
+anguish of that lonely walk through the storm to the hut.
+
+Approaching footsteps made her alert, and in the paling of the sweet
+face Professor Young divined the tumult going on in the tender,
+uneducated heart.
+
+"Child," exclaimed he, "don't make your father's going away harder for
+him!"
+
+"Shut up," muttered Tess, just as the huge shackled prisoner appeared at
+the door.
+
+Every muscle in the strong young body stiffened. Tess had not seen her
+father since the trial. Intensity narrowed the eyes, the drooping white
+lids covering the lights in the brown iris, the small hands clutched
+convulsively. Daddy Skinner--her Daddy--was standing before her, his
+blue-gray eyes piercing her very soul from under the long shaggy brows.
+She bounded toward him, and two creatures of primeval passion met in one
+long embrace. It was the passion of an aboriginal father for his child,
+of a primitive girl watching her loved one separate from her through the
+portals of death. Tess had lifted herself deftly to the bible-back, and
+lowered her head to the grizzled face, the man's large mouth covering
+the twitching lips of the girl. The shrouding red hair hid the squatter
+faces from the professor, and he turned his eyes away. He could not look
+upon them without distressing emotion. The strange maid was an enigma to
+him and he found himself wishing that he might guide her future. When
+Young glanced again, the fisherman had seated himself and had slipped
+Tessibel from his shoulders, gathering her closely into his great
+embrace--for she was the brawn of his brawn and the bone of his bone.
+
+Under the squatter's huge red arm, the fisher-girl had wedged her head
+tightly, the low brows were taut with pain, the bronze eyes defiantly
+closed. Tess was as firmly fixed in her position as the iron chains that
+encased her "Daddy's" ankles. She had come to stay with Daddy Skinner,
+to go with him where he went, in spite of the great man from the hill,
+in spite of the majesty of the law--even in spite of Daddy himself.
+
+The deputy warden with open watch stood over the prisoner with observing
+eye. The fifteen minutes allowed the girl were gone, and he slowly
+touched the humpback on the shoulder.
+
+"Time's up, Skinner," said he. "Sorry, but it's the law, you know."
+
+Skinner tried to draw the curly head from under his arm but the muscles
+in the girl's body only tightened, the white lips grew more rigid.
+
+"It air time fer me to go, Tess," murmured the squatter in her ear.
+
+"I air--I--I air a goin' with ye."
+
+The words were scarcely more than the flutter of a breath. The deputy
+warden stepped forward a little, then back to his place by the door; the
+professor rose but sank again to his chair; the bible-back of the
+fisherman pulsated as if a separate heart was beating in each great
+hump. Tess was as immovable as if nature had aided her to grow into her
+position. Skinner again tried to loosen the bare red arms.
+
+"Ye can't go to prison with me, Tess," he said coaxingly; "set up like a
+good brat ... Daddy'll kiss ye good-bye."
+
+"I air goin'," she insisted. "It air like a dead man's yard without ye
+in the shanty.... I can wash dishes. I can do a hull lot if ye'll take
+me with ye, Daddy Skinner."
+
+Not one whit less rigid was the slender body, the closed lids only
+pressed tighter together.
+
+The deputy grunted impatiently.
+
+"Come, Kid," said he gruffly; "it's the law ye're tamperin' with. Do you
+hear? Let the prisoner go."
+
+Professor Young felt his throat tighten. The pitiful sight of the girl,
+the ragged skirt, the terrible unkemptness of the small body, almost
+brought a shout from his lips. It was a new sensation to the learned
+man, a stinging, rebellious, pitying sensation, a feeling that he wanted
+to shake the girl from her father's arms, and then care tenderly for
+her. One great boot had fallen from Tessibel's many times frozen foot.
+The little toe marked and cut by frost, limply hanging independent of
+its fellows, made Young wince.
+
+Suddenly Tessibel sat up and wound her arms more tightly about the big
+humpbacked body.
+
+"I can't go back to the shanty without ye, Daddy," she whimpered, "and
+they said--as how ye was comin'--home to stay.... And I ain't
+goin'--darned if I air."
+
+Young turned his head again toward the window. He could not banish the
+wish that Tess would listen to him.
+
+The deputy placed his hand firmly upon the prisoner's arm, the fisherman
+himself trying in vain to loosen the girl's fingers from the shaggy
+beard.
+
+"I--I--air to go with Daddy--I air--I air!"
+
+Tessibel brought out the words snappingly, but Skinner, with the aid of
+the deputy, opened the clenched hands. Tessibel gave way; she was unable
+to stop the awful impending danger that hung over her--absolute
+separation from Daddy Skinner.
+
+"Daddy, Daddy," she gasped, sitting up straight: "man--man, let me go
+... I air dyin' without my Daddy ... I air alone--all alone!"
+
+The official moved anxiously as she made this appeal to him. She was now
+standing on her bare feet, but she bounded forward as the bible-back
+rose and fell, and large tears dragged themselves from the lowered lids
+of the fisherman's blue-gray eyes. She pantingly caught her father's
+hand in hers.
+
+"Kisses, Daddy Skinner, kisses on the bill for Tess--before ye go ...
+Tess air a bad brat--"
+
+She could not finish the sentence for the squatter had pressed her to
+him convulsively. Then Skinner dropped the slender, relaxed body into
+the wooden arm-chair, and iron-hampered, took up his march behind the
+deputy. The professor mutely watched the storm, desperate and terrible,
+break over the squatter girl. Her wild weeping settled into sobs, the
+sound of which rent and shook the man's emotions. At last he ventured to
+speak:
+
+"Child, may I be your friend?"
+
+"'Taint no friends I want. It air somethin' to love--to kiss. It air
+Daddy I want."
+
+The voice came brokenly from the veil of red hair.
+
+Just then the great iron door clanged in the distance behind the
+prisoner. Tessibel sprang to the open door, straining her ears to catch
+another sound from the "black place" which had enveloped her father
+within its menacing shadows.
+
+"He air--gone.... Daddy--air--gone!"
+
+The words were spoken slowly, and hurt the watching man almost as if the
+torture were his own. A shriek rose from the rounded white throat and
+the girl threw herself bootless upon the floor, and screamed in
+passionate childish sorrow, the wealth of disheveled hair mantling the
+dirty jacket, and covering the woful face.
+
+Neither the professor nor Tessibel heard the hurrying footsteps upon the
+stone floor in the prison corridor, but Tess, still in the frenzy of her
+new grief, heard her name spoken through a maze:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!" And then again: "Tessibel Skinner!"
+
+The squatter raised a pale, tear-streaked face to Frederick Graves. She
+sat up with a painful flush, drawing the bare legs closely under the wet
+skirt. The student spoke again:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner has forgotten that God rules and is just. Have your
+prayers proven nothing to you?"
+
+Tessibel gazed scarlet and embarrassed, into Frederick's face, her under
+lip quivering. The red head sank slowly down, and the exhausted child
+wept as only a hurt child can weep.
+
+"I were a-goin' with him," she cried between her sobs, "I could have
+washed dishes in the prison--to be near Daddy. I air such a lonely Tess
+'out him in the hut."
+
+The student lifted her gently in his arms and seated her in the wooden
+chair. With the tenderness of a brother, he placed the great boots once
+more upon the girl's feet, and Tessibel was ready to start again upon
+her long tramp through the row of huts to her shanty home.
+
+The tears had ceased to flow, and with bowed head she was hanging upon
+every word the student uttered. Professor Young went quietly out,
+unheeded by either girl or boy.
+
+"No one blames you for your grief, child, at being obliged to leave your
+father," Frederick said huskily. "But are you going to take off the
+'Armor of God' and forget all that He has promised you?"
+
+Tessibel blinked ignorantly at the long words, "Armor of God," "Armor of
+God." It was something she had not heard before--perhaps it meant that
+the student's Christ would not help her now. It all came back in a flood
+of light--her utter faithlessness in the prayers of the student, in the
+pine-tree God who had waved her so many assurances. She had not dared to
+look into the noble face above her, but when they stepped from the jail
+into the street, she raised her eyes to Frederick's and murmured:
+
+"I air sorry cause I were so cussed ... I only wanted to go with Daddy."
+
+"I realize that," replied Frederick, making preparations to walk with
+her by drawing his coat collar tightly about his neck, "but it was
+impossible, and, from now until the time he comes back, study your
+Bible."
+
+Tess halted a moment, looking up steadily into the dark eyes of the
+tall boy.
+
+"Does the Bible talk of Daddy Skinner?" she entreated; "does it tell as
+how he air comin' home?"
+
+"Indeed, yes," was the student's answer. "There's nothing the Bible
+doesn't contain. The Saviour was nailed to the Cross bearing his misery
+to give you a heavenly harp and crown, Tessibel. If you read Matthew,
+Mark, Luke and John, you will see it all plainly. You can be happy if
+you pray and are a good girl while your father is away." Then, desiring
+to ease the tense-drawn face, he added:
+
+"It will please him if you write him often and tell him about yourself....
+Come now, it's getting too dark for you to walk those tracks. Child,
+haven't you a friend in town with whom you can pass the night? It's
+frightful to tramp that distance alone."
+
+Tess stiffened instantly. Daddy's shanty was in her care, and of what
+night had she ever been afraid?
+
+"I air a goin' home," she answered almost sullenly; "ain't a dum bit
+afraid of nothin'."
+
+As Frederick turned to her side, Tess glanced up confusedly.
+
+"Ye can't walk with me through the streets of Ithacy," said she.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Cause--well, cause ye can't, that's why!"
+
+Frederick understood, and, gravely lifting his hat, turned in the other
+direction with the remark that he would see her again soon.
+
+The girl stood for some seconds staring fixedly after him. Then, wiping
+her face with the sleeve of a ragged jacket, she started off toward the
+squatters' row.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Many were the troubling thoughts which possessed the mind of Tess as she
+strode along. In the fulvid depths of her red-brown eyes there dwelt an
+expression of misery. As the child took her way through the streets,
+with none to care whither she went, her face lighted with a sudden
+determination. Frederick had told her to read, to study, to pray--that
+these three with faith would save Daddy Skinner from the rope of the
+Canadian Indian; but the student, like all those having plenty, forgot
+to enquire how Tess was to read without books, or study without anyone
+to teach her. True, Tess could pick out a few words which Daddy had
+taught her, could haltingly count the stars in the heavens at night, and
+the rain-drops on the shanty window. She could read the names upon the
+store signs and had often seated herself on the railroad tracks with a
+bit of newspaper to stammer forth the words she knew.
+
+But it was a Bible she needed--to learn about the student's God and the
+Christ. Tess was more interested in the cross than the crown, more
+interested in the nails that had opened the wounds in the Saviour's
+hands and feet, than in any royal head-covering that might come in some
+future time to her. There was too much misery in her own life, too much
+desperate desire for her loved one, to allow the glitter of a promised
+crown to affect her. She wanted to know of the suffering Christ, to
+read of how He had promised--Here Tess stopped and tossed back the red
+hair. What was it she wanted to read about? Ah, yes--not heaven and its
+glories nor hell and its terrors, but of Daddy Skinner back in the
+shanty.
+
+The Bible would tell her just how to bring him back,--but where should
+she get one? At the squatter mission, of course. Tessibel remembered
+that once she had been coaxed to enter the mission, but the children had
+laughed at her rags and after that she could not be induced to go again.
+Then in the bitterness of her heart she had thrown stones and clay from
+the edges of the track through the open window upon the other children,
+and had been told by the superintendent never to come near the small
+church again. But that was four long months ago, and not once
+since--since the horror of Daddy's going, had she even looked toward the
+mission.
+
+The dusk fell, slowly striking out the day-shadows from the railroad bed
+and she halted where the two tracks met. The mission was opposite her.
+Would she dare ask for a Bible? A rich, warm light flooded through the
+window and then the old squatter who had kept the place in order for
+many years came out and closed the door. Tessibel's eyes followed his
+form through the dim twilight until he disappeared into his shanty.
+
+Her hand clutched convulsively the knob of the mission door; it yielded
+to her touch, and for the second time in her life Tessibel Skinner was
+inside the mission room. The small reed organ stood open: a hymn book
+stretched back with a rubber band caught her eye. A bright bit of red
+carpet wound its way about the altar. The squatter did not pause to
+examine the pictures on the wall nor even an instant before the glowing
+fire. Her eyes were searching for a Bible--the shade deepening in them
+as she sidled toward the nearest seat.
+
+She read "H-y-m-n-a-l" on the back of the first book--dropping it she
+gathered up another.
+
+"H-o-l-y B-i-b-l-e," she spelled.
+
+Thrusting it into her blouse, she bounded out into the night, and raced
+up the railroad track almost to the Hoghole trestle before she stopped,
+satisfied that no one had seen her theft.
+
+Then, taking the book from her bosom, she kissed it reverently.
+
+"Them old fools ain't goin' to have every damn Bible in this here town.
+I air a right like them to this un." Again she kissed it, as she
+mumbled: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
+
+That night the candle burned longer in the Skinner shanty, and an auburn
+head bent over an open book. A faltering voice spelled out the
+sufferings of the Nazarene. Once Tess smiled wanly when reading of how
+the Saviour had borne all the woes of the world--that any one believing
+could be saved. Her head nodded over the pages, and almost instantly the
+rapt face dropped upon the open Bible and Tessibel slept.
+
+A strange dream filled her sleep. A great light flashed suddenly into
+the sky--Tessibel's sky--and through the brightness of it she could see
+the cross with the Man upon it; could see the nail prints in the swollen
+flesh, the thorns pressing into the bowed head. Then as Tessibel dreamed
+she moved upon the open Bible and groaned with the dream-Christ upon the
+cross. Directly in front of the crucified Saviour Daddy Skinner was
+coming toward her with the student.
+
+She started up--a cry of disappointed anguish escaping her lips. The
+candle had burned out in the grease cup, the wind was rocking the shanty
+and making the rafters creak dismally. Tess shivered as she tossed her
+clothes upon the floor, and crept exhausted into Daddy's bed. The last
+thing she heard was the splashing of her pet eel in the water-pail.
+
+The next morning, on a piece of yellow paper, she scratched Daddy a
+small note. Frederick's words that her father would be pleased with it
+filled her with a desire to write. For three hours she struggled with
+her first letter.
+
+     "daddy the ice air a goin out of the lake ben letts air a gettin
+     well he air a cuss i air lonlie yit without ye i red my bible last
+     nite i cribbed it frum the mishion it says as how god air gooder
+     then i thote he wer cum home and i reads as how a brite lite was a
+     shinin about the cross and as how the christ ruz up here air a
+     story bout a squatter brat it air bout tess she cride and cride fer
+     her dady til her eel what she luved herd her and he cride hisself
+     to deth this here mornin he wer belly up in the bucket i air yer
+     brat dady
+
+     "the man on the cross ruz fer the hull world aint it nise to ruz."
+
+This delicate effusion of love to her father, Tess read over many times.
+With pardonable pride she folded it carefully and placed it in the Bible
+where she had read about the cross and dying Christ.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+On Wednesday evening Deacon Hall tucked Augusta's pretty hand under his
+arm with a happy sense of proprietorship. He was proud to stand by his
+beautiful wife in her fight for church liberty. Hall really believed, as
+he had told Dominie Graves, that the world had outgrown its foggy
+notions, and he delighted in hearing Augusta air her ideas in meetings;
+in watching the rich blood mantling and playing under the transparent
+skin; and in listening to the modulated tones of the vibrant voice.
+Augusta was his style of woman. The thought of her force of character
+made him throw back his shoulders that Wednesday evening as they neared
+the church door. Few members had gathered for the hour was early. Deacon
+Hall nodded pleasantly to Bill Hopkins, and a broad smile parted the
+latter's lips, giving his square face a softer, more genial expression.
+Bill calmly took his seat on the left side of the room; crossed his
+legs, placed his fingers about the white wart, and then sat looking
+thoughtfully out of the window into the lighted street. For the first
+time in many months Bill Hopkins was in his chair at the weekly prayer
+meeting. His one idea in being present was to witness the Dominie's
+success in keeping the women in their places. He had had conscientious
+scruples about remaining in a church, which, in spite of the fact that
+its tenets forbade its females to rise and voice either prayers or
+opinions before the males, countenanced this very abuse.
+
+Bill Hopkins had no objection to women in their places--in fact, he
+enjoyed the company of a pretty woman--but it was not her place to try
+and teach him. Hopkins had the overwhelming idea of the physical and
+moral superiority of men, while, as far as intellectuality was
+concerned, women were leagues and leagues behind.
+
+Many a warm argument had been held between Bill and the pretty Mrs.
+Hall, and as this lady came into the chapel she saw the former elder
+seated in his old chair, the familiar wart shining high and white on the
+bald pate. She tilted her pretty chin an instant before inclining her
+head, then to the amazement of those present, she parted from her
+husband in the middle aisle, marching to the right, her amiable deacon
+taking the left. Bill Hopkins smiled inwardly as the thought flashed
+over him that there must have been a secret female conclave among the
+strong-minded women as well as among the men during the past week. The
+same idea occurred to the minister's mind as he saw his members separate
+in the middle aisle.
+
+He drew his brow into a pucker which furrowed the flesh between his
+brows. Mrs. Graves was seated at the rear of the room to the right, her
+eyes upon an open book in her hand. She did not raise them as her
+husband took his chair behind the small pulpit table upon which lay a
+huge Bible marked by a dangling blue ribbon. The clergyman bent his head
+a few moments in secret prayer, drew the book toward him, opened it,
+found his text and placed the marker carefully between the pages. He
+coughed slightly and with an extra effort raised his eyes to his
+congregation. This is what he saw:
+
+The middle aisle divided almost every woman from her husband; only here
+and there had a timid wife with lowered eyes followed her lord and
+master to the left.
+
+Dominie Graves caught a peculiar gleam in the eye of Augusta Hall and
+followed the line of her vision which was leveled at Bill Hopkins. There
+was no enmity in the latter's mien, but Dominie Graves knew that when
+the elderly deacon toyed with the white wart his nerves were vastly
+disturbed. For an instant the thought traveled through the clergyman's
+brain, that if Tessibel Skinner could work with her magic words on the
+dull protrusion upon Hopkins's glistening head the former deacon would
+lose his favorite occupation. He looked doubtfully down upon his own
+hands and remembered the warts which Tessibel had whispered away. Then,
+trying to drive all thoughts of the fisher-girl and her squatter father
+from his mind, the minister rose to his feet. Frederick Graves had been
+watching his father intently and as he saw his effort to rise the boy
+whitened a little and settled back. Just growing into manhood and
+beginning to think for himself, the lad blushed with shame at the state
+of affairs that rose before his eyes this night. He threw a sidelong
+glance at Hopkins and met a dejected expression from the eyes of his
+mother. She looked so tired, so humiliated, that a bitter rebellious
+feeling arose in Frederick's heart against his father. Then his mind
+wandered again from the church to Tessibel Skinner in her shanty home.
+The quick look she had given him in the court-room had impressed him as
+nothing else could. He saw again the bright head thrown back in eager
+appeal and the shining eyes filled with pain. How he wished that his own
+faith in the Infinite had a touch of the strength which made that of
+Tessibel stand alone by itself! Little did Frederick realize or know
+that the intensity of the fishermaid, the wonderful faith and trust she
+had exhibited in her time of trial and trouble, had come to her from
+him. Every prayer Tessibel had uttered, every devout wish of her heart
+for Daddy Skinner, had been vaguely centered about the student. Her love
+for the Christ of whom she had heard so little was based upon the power
+of attraction that Frederick Graves held for her.
+
+Twice had he, unobserved, seen Tessibel through the hut window; and the
+picture of the tired little figure with its drooping prayerful attitude
+came back with a force that brought a great lump into his throat,
+invigorating his desire to raise the standard of his own love for God's
+words and promises.
+
+His father's eloquent voice brought him back to the present and, as his
+eyes fell upon Hopkins, he saw the nervous fingers twiddling the great
+white wart and a smile forced itself to his lips.
+
+Then he dragged his truant mind from outside subjects and concentrated
+his attention upon the pulpit.
+
+"In accordance with the creed of the church," the clergyman was saying,
+"and of the laws under which our beloved congregation holds together, I
+speak. It is with love for all I adjure you this night. When I say that
+the subject of my talk will be upon duty you will not be surprised, for
+you, one and all, know what I mean. I shall ask the sisters in the
+church not to rise again to speak. If they desire church work there are
+the poor, the blind, and always the needy. By needy I mean those
+desiring the faith of God and yet being unable to grasp it without help.
+To the dear sisters of the congregation I commend all these." He made no
+allusion to the division of the men and women, nor to the sermon of the
+past Sunday.
+
+After the hymn he sat down, bowing his handsome dark head quietly, and
+remaining mute in the dismal silence that followed. Suddenly an elderly
+woman with a meek face struggled to her feet, glancing toward Augusta
+Hall for an encouraging smile. Several trimmed hats however loomed up
+between her and the deacon's wife, so still standing she lowered her
+eyes and began to pray. Simultaneously with hers a masculine voice broke
+through the air mingling with the weak petition of the woman. Frederick
+Graves lifted his head quickly--the trend of war cutting through his
+mind like a knife. It had evidently been planned before the meeting just
+how severely the women were to be dealt with, for Frederick noted that
+his father's eyes did not raise from his reverent position at the
+unusual happening. As the man's voice grew louder, importunately seeking
+guidance in this unhappy church affair, the woman closed her lips and
+fell backward upon the seat crying weakly. The masculine voice rose
+higher and clearer and finished the petition with ringing clarity.
+Another embarrassing silence out of which came scarcely a breath.
+Augusta Hall caught a glimpse of the piercing blue eyes peering from
+under the shaggy brows of Bill Hopkins. The deacon was watching her, and
+Augusta knew that he exulted as one woman after another was driven to
+her chair by the masculine voice of her shouting opponent.
+
+So far the men held the day. This was demonstrated to Augusta Hall and
+Bill Hopkins by the undertoned sobs that continually emerged from behind
+the numerous white handkerchiefs. So dense was the quietude of the
+painful meeting that Frederick Graves could plainly hear the thumping of
+his own heart. Suddenly Augusta with a slight cough and a rustle of her
+fine skirts rose to her feet. She started to speak reverently in a low
+tone. It was the usual petition that blessing should descend upon the
+missions, the sewing circle and the children's work--and here her voice
+wavered a little, for a man's bass voice joined in with her own. It was
+that of the deacon who carried the offering plate each Sunday morning,
+opposite her husband. On and on both man and woman shouted their words
+with strength and rapidity upon their hearers' ears. The Deacon's voice
+lifted and fell with the power of an orator. Augusta strained forth her
+tones high and clear. Minute after minute until fifteen had passed was
+the oratorical word display of each pitted against the other.
+
+Dominie Graves' fingers were twitching nervously beside his well-shaped
+nose. Bill Hopkins still twiddling his wart had drawn himself to a
+straighter position, and was listening with all intentness. The pallor
+of Deacon Hall's face deepened as Augusta talked on and on until all
+thought of prayer had left her mind, and her words shaped themselves
+into a discourse. She was holding the floor against the church official,
+whose brow was now running with the sweat of his embarrassment--his
+voice had become fainter and his words fewer and less well chosen.
+Augusta's voice, on the contrary, rang clearly through the room, a
+prepared speech upon the aptitude of women and their field of labor. Her
+husband was watching her intently--and thought how beautiful she looked
+as the blood mantled to her white forehead, descending and rising as her
+thoughts took turn after turn. The unfortunate deacon was mumbling forth
+a few ill-connected sentences. At last with a groan he sank to his seat
+and placed a handkerchief to his fevered brow. Presently Augusta sat
+down and there was again an awful silence. No one advanced another
+petition and Dominie Graves pronounced a halting benediction.
+
+The congregation rose hastily and hurried toward the doors, with no
+desire for further discussion.
+
+Bill Hopkins leaned back against the outer door and as Mrs. Hall passed
+him he grasped her hand.
+
+"You had nerve," said he, "I'm not saying it's the right kind ... but
+it's nerve just the same, and, well, I do believe that you women have
+gained the day in this church."
+
+Augusta, leaning on her husband's arm, looked down meekly from a pair of
+wicked twinkling eyes--she could be a sweet clinging creature if she
+wished, and this was her special charm to Deacon Hall.
+
+Suddenly she raised her gaze and looked winningly into Bill Hopkin's
+face.
+
+"I suppose you won't give me the money I asked you for, to aid Skinner,"
+she said slowly.
+
+"I'll send you the check to-morrow morning," and Bill Hopkins' big
+shoulders disappeared through the open door.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It frightened me at first," exclaimed Deacon Hall to his wife
+afterward, "but, as your voice went up and up, I knew my little woman
+would win, God bless her."
+
+"And we'll win about poor Skinner too," rejoined Augusta. "Every man and
+woman so far has agreed to help a little, and I don't want you to try to
+drive the squatters from our lake property."
+
+Here her words were checked by a sudden thought which darkened her
+eyes--she burst forth with a rich low laugh:
+
+"That'll make two triumphs over my haughty parson."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+A sense of embarrassment accompanied Dominie Graves to the breakfast
+table the next morning after the triumphant victory of Augusta Hall. He
+made no remark upon the disagreeable episode of the previous night, and
+ate silently amid the chatter of Babe and the monosyllabic answers of
+her mother. Teola to break the strain spoke of the sleigh-ride and dance
+coming off that evening.
+
+"I fear it will be too cold," objected Mrs. Graves, in her fretful,
+weary voice.
+
+"I can wrap up warmly," argued Teola. "All the girls in town are going
+and Dan will take care of me. We are going in separate sleighs to
+Slaterville. I'm going, mother, and that's all there is to it."
+
+"It seems to me that you are growing rather friendly with that young
+Jordan, Teola," her father said. "He's been here every night for a week,
+hasn't he?"
+
+Teola muttered sullenly that she wasn't the only girl in town who had
+callers, and looked pleadingly to Frederick for aid. The young student
+flashed her a smile.
+
+"Teola will be perfectly safe to-night, father," he exclaimed.
+
+"Are you going?"
+
+"No," answered Frederick, "but sister would be no safer if I were. I
+have implicit confidencs in Dan Jordan and the country roads are
+perfect.... By the way, Dan would like to take a class of boys in the
+Sunday School. I told him to see you about it."
+
+The mollified minister finished his meal without further comment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sleigh-ride was a thing of the past. That it had brought disaster to
+Teola Graves showed in the tired eyes as they rested on the sky, gray
+with the coming morning. She had stolen silently into the house,
+reaching her chamber without disturbing either father or mother. At the
+window she halted. Here and there a star sparkled, dying dim in the
+advancing sky. Teola's eyes rested upon the street below for several
+minutes, then dragged her gaze upward and beyond--beyond to the long
+road that led to the yard of the dead which stretched over the hillside,
+rearing its monuments among the leafless trees, like sentinels over
+sleeping soldiers. There was something alluring, something compelling to
+the pale girl, watching the birth of her first real day of living. The
+University frowned down upon the graveyard; in its turn the graveyard
+frowned menacingly upon the town. A snow-bird peeped a "good-morning" to
+its mate in the Rectory eaves. A bell pealed out twice, striking the air
+with its sonorous sound reverberating into the hills. And still the girl
+stood waiting for--she knew not what.
+
+Yesterday girlhood offered Teola Graves happy hours of peaceful
+meditation--to-day, the new day brought the woman its ceaseless silent
+agony of regret and remorse, strong forces of which she had known
+nothing.
+
+If Dan were only glad that she loved him, if he loved her in return.
+Suddenly tears welled into the dark eyes; Teola Graves hid her face
+from the new world of painful joy--and forgot in sleep.
+
+Teola's next hour with her lover was the most embarrassing one of her
+life. Dan took her hands in silence, and the seriousness of his face
+bespoke his heart pain.
+
+"Sweetheart, is there anything in all the world that I can say to you to
+make you love me more--precious, precious little darling!"
+
+"Only say that you do love me, Dan," breathed Teola, "and--and--"
+
+"Don't turn your eyes away from me, sweetheart--love you, Teola? I'll
+study so hard, dearest, and when I finish college we'll get married, and
+go away and have a home of our own. Teola, forgive me and have faith in
+me! Will you, sweet?"
+
+"Yes," murmured the trembling lips--and Teola buried her flushed face
+upon the broad breast of Dan Jordan and was happy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Frederick Graves had been made president of the freshman class, a short
+time after entering the "Cranium" fraternity. He was considered by most
+of his fellow students a serious, earnest worker and had been taken many
+times into consultation with the upper classmen concerning plans for the
+development of the society.
+
+In past years at the end of every January, the freshmen had held a
+banquet in the opera-house of the city. This event called forth
+practical jokes of all descriptions upon the first-year men from the
+sophomores and seniors, giving many anxious and worried moments to the
+younger students over the outcome of the one important event of the
+year. It had also been the custom to try to capture the president of the
+freshman class and hold him in seclusion until after the banquet,
+thereby making his opening speech impossible. The dread that they should
+lose their leader became more and more apparent among the banquet
+holders as the days advanced, and extensive plans had been made to
+protect Frederick Graves from his class enemies. For one whole month
+previous he had not been allowed to walk alone about the town, and it
+had been ordered that he should sleep at the fraternity house instead of
+at the Rectory, in order that the young president might be guarded
+against any surprise concocted by the sophomores.
+
+One evening at the Cranium Society several freshmen were seated in the
+billiard-room.
+
+"It's a great note," muttered Shorty Brown, "that we have to wait on
+those big lubbers of sophomores and seniors. I'd as soon die as to run
+down the hill after their letters."
+
+"You might as well go, Shorts," put in Spuddy Preston; "you'll only get
+yourself disliked if you don't, and you'll be made to go in the end. The
+blessing of it all is that they did the same thing in their turn."
+
+He took a slow measure of the distance between himself and the cuspidor,
+and shot a piece of gum into it.
+
+"It doesn't make it any pleasanter," put in Swipes Dillon. "Just think
+of me, I haven't had a cent to spend on myself for weeks. Manchester's
+capacity for smoke is enormous. I wish I had knocked his head clean off
+his neck."
+
+He looked gloomily out of the window as he muttered this, but instantly
+brightened as he finished:
+
+"But I can stand almost anything if they don't get hold of Graves. That
+would spoil our fun altogether."
+
+He unbent the small round body drawn up in a woful-looking ball, sitting
+up to hear what the others had to say.
+
+"Just let them take him!" growled Shorty Brown. "We will make it warm
+for those sophs, but they're such sneaks that we can't put a moment's
+trust in them. Why don't you say something, Captain?"
+
+"Nothing to say, Boy," replied Jordan musingly, "only that we must do
+all we can to shield Frederick. If they once get him we won't see him
+until after the banquet. I fear, too, they might hurt him, for he would
+be sure to put up a fight."
+
+"So would I," boasted Spuddy. "You bet I would."
+
+Swipes broke into a ringing laugh.
+
+"You'd make a nice fighter, Spud," he chuckled; "you're not bigger than
+a minute with fifty seconds in it. Gosh, I wish something would happen.
+I'm tired sitting about doing nothing."
+
+His words came to Dan Jordan through a dim maze of tangled thoughts.
+During all his short, happy life anxiety had never been his companion
+until now. It strangled his class ardor and made conscientious study
+impossible. Teola Graves' tearful, pain-stricken face rose constantly
+before him. His own eyes darkened at the thought. Oh, to go back to the
+toffy pull--to live over again those last few weeks--how different it
+all would be, and how repentant he was. He sighed and shook his great
+shoulders and rose to his feet.
+
+"I wonder where Graves is now," he exclaimed. "I met Armstrong and Howe
+coming up the hill last night, talking with their heads close together.
+I noticed that they stopped suddenly when I came upon them."
+
+The blood had crept accusingly into his face as he spoke Frederick's
+name. Never for one moment in the presence of Teola's brother had he
+forgotten--how could he ever forget! But he did love Teola Graves madly
+and wished with all his soul that he were through college. He had hoped
+that in the excitement of the banquet his remorse would be quieted a
+little, but his conscience lashed him so constantly with self-reproach
+that it seemed imperative for him to give up his studies, marry Teola,
+and take her away.
+
+"Let's all go down town," cried Swipes in a loud tone with a side wink
+at Spuddy, "and get boiling drunk. If something doesn't happen--"
+
+"Lordy," groaned Spuddy, "Swipes is always wanting something to happen.
+I bet it will before long. What you wish for you'll get, old horse!
+Don't forget that."
+
+Spuddy went on tapping the window, staring out into the gloom.
+
+"We'd better go down town and look for Graves and see that he is all
+right," said Dan. "That will be enough for you kids to do now. It's your
+evening anyway to guard him."
+
+The four freshmen walked down the hill together. Dan separated from the
+three at the Ithaca Hotel with the injunction that they should keep
+their eyes open for the young president, guarding him while the other
+night watchers were having a play spell.
+
+On the next corner Dan Jordan ran into Frederick with two of his own
+classmates.
+
+"You fellows can go now," exclaimed Dan to Frederick's companions;
+"Brown, Preston and Dillon are just up there on the next corner, to
+protect Graves while you fellows go to supper. How are things going now,
+Frederick?"
+
+A sinking sensation attacked his heart as he asked this question, and he
+remembered afterwards that he had expected Frederick to impart ill news
+to him. The fear had come from his over-burdened conscience.
+
+"Everything is all right, but Teola wants to see you. Could you go down
+for a little while?"
+
+Dan nodded and turned with a happier heart toward the Rectory, leaving
+Frederick looking for "Spuddy," "Shorts," and "Swipes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Three hours afterwards the three little freshmen walked zig-zaggedly,
+arm in arm, up the long hill toward the University Campus.
+
+Shorts had a shaky grasp of one arm of Dillon, and Spuddy the other. On
+through the cold night they dragged him, until they reached the broad
+white carriage way that led to the fraternity house. Here Swipes
+stumbled, loosening himself from the grasp of his companions.
+
+"Well, ju--just look at him," growled Spuddy in a disgusted tone; "he
+ought to freeze stiff. Look how his le--legs wab--wabble! They lo--look
+like four--four--"
+
+"Shut up, Spud," cried Shorts. "He's only got--got two legs. What the
+mat--matter with you?... You're as drunk as he is. Don't let him drop on
+those stones!"
+
+"I ain't drunk," retorted Preston. "What's the mat--matter with you,
+yourself? I bet I can ge--get into--that--that fraternity without any of
+the fe--fellows seeing me!"
+
+"I don't believe you will," returned Shorts in a more sober manner.
+"Look there, Spud, the whole house is alight. I say--Swipes--Swipes,
+it's after midnight, and the fraternity is all lighted up."
+
+"I--I--I don't care if it is," grunted Swipes in a low, thick voice.
+"I--I want to go to bed. Tha--that's what I want to do."
+
+He sank into a stupor again but the boys dragged him to his feet.
+
+"Do you want Jordan and Graves to see you like this, Swipes?" demanded
+Shorts stopping in the center of the carriage drive. "If you don't--you
+take a mighty quick sneak up the back stairs, and--"
+
+The sentence was never finished for the door opened and Dan Jordan's big
+form loomed up before their dazed eyes.
+
+"Is that you, Shorts?" called Dan.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where have you been for the last three hours?"
+
+"Down there," mumbled Shorts in a smothered tone, desiring to hide their
+plight if possible.
+
+"For the love of all that's good, Shorts," groaned Spuddy, "let me get
+into the house and change my clothes.... There goes Swipes again in the
+snow. Get up, fool, here's the 'Captain.'"
+
+"To--to the devil with the 'Captain,'" muttered Swipes.
+
+But Dan's next sentence completely awoke the senses of all save Swipes.
+He only grasped it dimly through the cobwebs of his drunken brain.
+
+"Where's Graves?" demanded Jordan, coming to the top step.
+
+The silence that followed was as grim as the falling snow. Spuddy and
+Shorts were dragging the limp Swipes up the long steps.
+
+"Graves?... We haven't seen him," interjected Shorty Brown, and Dan
+Jordan answered gravely:
+
+"Then the sophomores have captured him, that's a certainty! He hasn't
+been here, and he hasn't been to the Rectory."
+
+Shorts, now thoroughly sober, followed the big freshman into the
+drawing-room, where a dozen or more downcast-looking boys were curled up
+on divans. Swipes was being urged up the broad oak stairs, Spuddy now
+and then giving him a severe poke in the ribs. Preston perched the
+hapless boy against his chamber door with the injunction to get to bed
+the best he could. Swipes turned helplessly to his room-mate.
+
+"Look here, Spuddy, help a fellow, will you? Just give me my pyjamas."
+
+"Get them yourself!" retorted Preston, shoving Dillon into his
+bed-chamber. "It's a nice mess we're in with the 'Parson' gone."
+
+With a disgusted kick at Swipes he left him reeling desperately once
+more. Dillon swayed forward from the center of the room toward the
+doorway. He had heard as in a dream Spuddy's parting shot about fellows
+getting drunk and forgetting how to act. Suddenly the floor rose up and
+hit him on the nose, but the polished boards, so bright that he could
+see his face in them, fell back politely, leaving Swipes standing,
+looking helplessly about him. Every piece of furniture, bed, bureau,
+table and chairs, flew around and around him in the wildest disorder.
+
+His eyes reeled after them, in their flight through the room. Around and
+around past the bed to the door--once Swipes thought they would fly
+through. Bracing himself to catch the flying bed, he came up with a bang
+against the beveled mirror which broke and splintered under his weight.
+He was lying in the ruins when some one came and put him to bed.
+
+The regret of the little freshman the next morning when the dismal news
+of the missing president came to him was intensely genuine. They told
+him that the whole town had been searched, but that Graves had
+disappeared as completely as if he were no longer on the earth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Dan Jordan left Frederick Graves on the corner of Ithaca's main
+street, the young president began to search for his three classmates.
+Shorts and the other two must be somewhere near for Dan had told him so.
+He turned to the left, walking toward "Jay's" resort, where with his
+knowledge of the three little freshmen's habits, he would probably find
+them. It was a nuisance to be followed about and guarded as if he were a
+criminal, yet he would go through anything rather than be absent from
+the banquet.
+
+Suddenly he felt a bag thrown over his head and he was dragged
+completely off his feet. Then with much force he was shoved into a
+carriage, a heavy hand held over his mouth. He heard a pair of horses
+whipped into rapid motion. Frederick could not imagine in which
+direction he was being driven, for the constant turning of corners made
+it seem to the smothered boy that they were tearing around in a circle.
+
+Suddenly the vehicle came to a sharp standstill. During the ride his
+ankles and wrists had been tightly corded, and no sooner had the
+carriage halted than several pairs of hands carried him swiftly up a
+flight of stairs into a house and along a carpetless hall.
+
+When the cloth was removed from his head, Frederick was in the presence
+of two sophomores, Mathew Armstrong and Paul Howe.
+
+"Hard luck," said Armstrong, looking at Frederick with a grin.
+
+"Rather," he replied, glancing about. "But what can't be cured must be
+endured. If I am to stay here, I hope I am to be fed."
+
+"Not with banquet cake, Freddy," laughed Howe; "you'll have plain
+bread--until after the banquet. Now just give us your coat and vest, old
+chap, and your collar and tie."
+
+Frederick's ready obedience made Armstrong exclaim jovially:
+
+"That's the right attitude, isn't it, Howe? No one would think to look
+at you, Graves, that you were so docile. You knew what you were saying
+when you said, 'what couldn't be cured must be endured,' and I say,
+'all's fair in love and war,' so you stay here until after that grand
+supper."
+
+Without answering, Frederick turned his eyes gloomily about his prison.
+The room was almost bare. In one corner was a bed, in another a cot with
+some blankets upon it. A long window ran nearly to the floor, minus a
+blind on one side while on the other a green shutter hung by one hinge,
+making a creaking noise as the wind swung it back and forth. Frederick
+reasoned that the window faced the street for he could hear crunching
+footsteps in the hard snow as pedestrians passed.
+
+A wagon rolled squeakingly by and all was quiet.
+
+In the night Frederick endeavored to plan his escape. He believed the
+house to be within the city limits, but during the long, dark drive he
+had lost all sense of direction. Through the flickering of the smoky
+lamp he saw Armstrong with a revolver in his hand, watching him
+intently. So the darkness passed and the daylight came in at the window,
+throwing long slant rays upon the dusty floor and lighting the faded
+paper on the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Dominie Graves had a consultation with Dan Jordan over the disappearance
+of his son, and then climbed the University hill to Professor Young's
+office.
+
+"I feel sure that Frederick has not been harmed," said Graves after
+greeting the professor, but there was question in his voice.
+
+An expression of deep concern spread over Young's face.
+
+"I heartily hope not," responded he, "for I know of no finer young man
+in the University."
+
+"I think the boy would put up a great fight if he had a chance," resumed
+the minister, "but with a lot of fellows against him one chap can't do
+much. I hardly know what to think. There seems to be nothing to do but
+to await his return. Young Jordan said last night that they had searched
+every place where it was possible for him to be, but the boy was not to
+be found. His mother is growing anxious."
+
+"I should think that she would be worried," replied Young. "It's a
+beastly practise this stealing of the freshman's president, and unworthy
+of such a college as this. I shall be glad when it is abolished. There
+is nothing during the year that creates such furore as this banquet."
+
+A file of papers was under Professor Young's hand and as he spoke he
+toyed absent-mindedly with one of the long official envelopes. Dominie
+Graves caught a glimpse of some words that made the color rush hot into
+his face. The envelope contained an appeal for a new trial for Orn
+Skinner. He coughed slightly and opened a new topic.
+
+"I see you are still interested in Skinner?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Have you succeeded in getting him a new trial?"
+
+"Not yet, but at any hour I expect to hear that the governor will give
+me an opportunity to defend him. I fully believe that the man is
+innocent, that he ought to have another chance for his life. As I said
+in the court-room the squatter trials are but farces. I don't approve of
+them."
+
+"You're but a stranger in our town," interposed the Dominie. "When
+you've been here as long as I have, Professor Young, you will see that
+the strictest measures are necessary with these people. The rope is none
+too good for that man, Skinner."
+
+"God forbid," ejaculated Young, "that I should live ever to wish away a
+man's life on any--personal motive."
+
+Tessibel's sweet upturned face, shrouded in red-brown hair rose before
+him, but it did not obscure the dark flush that swept over the handsome
+face of the minister. The professor had intimated that he thought
+personal motives were being used to persecute the squatter. This tried
+the patience of Elias Graves as he sat gathering an argument to refute
+the accusation. He had even persuaded himself that it was for the good
+of the town to remove one after another of the loathsome fishermen
+either by the rope or imprisonment. Without their men the squatter
+women also would disappear from the shores.
+
+He rose with a sense of coming evil stealing over him for the man seated
+opposite was a tower of strength and his own position in the town had
+been weakened in the late church conflict. The reins of affairs were
+being swept from his hands. He could not speak out more emphatically
+than he had against Skinner. On all sides, friends were rising
+mushroom-like to rescue the fisherman from the hangman's noose.
+
+If he himself could gain a few strong friends he would be able to sweep
+the squatter from the face of the earth.
+
+As he walked toward the Rectory after leaving Professor Young he set his
+teeth hard, these thoughts rushing through his mind, and inflaming his
+desire to rule in Ithaca as he always had. Even his anxiety about
+Frederick was obscured by the multitudinous plans that one after another
+were born in his brain. He closed the library door of the Rectory with
+an annoyed air and dropped into an arm-chair to think.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor Young sat long after the departure of Dominie Graves, looking
+at the bundle of papers in his hand. He had not dared to venture to the
+Skinner hut, although his heart called constantly for the red-haired
+girl who was holding the shanty home against her enemies. He knew that
+Tess was living as best she could, existing on the meager fare allotted
+to her kind. Young had seen Tessibel but once since her father had been
+taken to Auburn Prison and his face flushed as he thought that in a few
+days he would be able to tell her that her "Daddy" had received a stay
+upon his execution, that he honestly believed the shadowing rope would
+never seek the beloved head again.
+
+It was only of late that Deforest Young would allow himself to admit
+that Tessibel Skinner had a stronger hold upon him than he ever thought
+possible for any woman to obtain, much less a child of such a race. He
+knew now that his life's interest lay in making a woman of her, a woman
+such as only Tess could make, with her deep primeval nature and splendid
+soul. If the girl could but return his love in part, it would place him
+in a position to help and educate her, but his great growing love gave
+birth to a fear that he might not be able to awaken in the squatter girl
+a soul affection for himself. Nevertheless he would spare nothing to
+elevate her. He expected a hard task to prove Skinner not guilty, and
+every hour he hoped to receive a letter from the Governor of the state
+giving him the desired year to gain the necessary evidence in favor of
+the fisherman.
+
+He was still meditating in this strain when the Governor's letter was
+handed to him. For almost an hour he sat with his head in his hands,
+building an imaginary home, which he had never thought would be his, and
+in still sweeter imaginings he held close to his heart a fair, sweet
+girl, growing into her heritage of womanhood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For two whole days Frederick Graves had been held a captive in his
+unfurnished prison. He knew that forty-eight hours marked the time
+before the banquet, also that if he could not escape before then he
+would have to be absent from the class dinner. Only once had Armstrong
+spoken to him that day and an expression of fine scorn upon the
+handsome president's face had been the answer. The sophomore was
+stretched out upon the bed, the revolver still in his hand, and drumming
+with the fingers of his left hand upon the much soiled wall:
+
+"Graves," he began, "if you think this is any snap for me or that I like
+my job you're mistaken. I hate to be cooped up here as much as you do."
+
+Frederick might not have been within hearing of the words for all the
+attention he paid to the speaker. Armstrong sat up straight with a deep
+far-fetched yawn.
+
+"Come on, Graves," implored he, "let's play cards. It's hanged dismal
+with nothing to do."
+
+Still Frederick kept his dignified silence. He looked down upon his
+coatless arms and pondered, then raised his eyes to the long window, but
+settled them again upon his boots. From the corner of his eye he saw his
+jailer place the revolver upon the table--it roused him suddenly for he
+was getting desperate to escape. With lightning-like rapidity he made up
+his mind to action. Lunging forward he brought his right fist in heavy
+contact with his companion's nose while the strong left hand swept the
+revolver under the opposite bed.
+
+Simultaneously with the sound of the falling weapon came the crash of
+broken glass--Frederick Graves had swept like a young hurricane through
+the long window. The falling of the heavy body, and running footsteps
+brought Armstrong hastily to his feet. He dazedly brushed back a lock of
+hair from his brow, scrambled back under the bed after the gun then
+rushed to the broken window.
+
+"By gosh, that was brave," ejaculated he.
+
+Three times he fired the pistol into the night--the signal of trouble
+to give to his classmates--then sat down and waited disgustedly, nursing
+his bruised nose.
+
+Frederick landed in the street, stunned for a single instant, but the
+snow was soft and the moment critical. He gathered himself up, rubbed
+off the blood that trickled from his fingers, and broke through the
+street on a run. He found himself in the lower portion of the town not
+far from the Leigh Valley tracks. To go eastward toward home would
+attract attention for he was without hat, coat, or vest, and it would
+probably lead to his recapture. He crossed the inlet bridge, passing a
+man here and there who stared after him as if he were a shade, which had
+risen from its grave seeking some kindred soul to haunt.
+
+As Frederick passed the lighted squatter mission, the thought of the
+warmth within made his teeth chatter. He would have given much to have
+been able to place his cold hands over the fire which burned brightly in
+the room. Suddenly he stopped in his rapid flight for liberty for
+stepping to the tracks directly in front of him was the squatter girl.
+She had not noticed him and the student knew that she was homeward
+bound.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!"
+
+The girl stopped, electrified, and tossed up her head.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!" called Frederick again.
+
+When the girl recognized him, she came toward him with the awkward,
+conscious gait of a maid walking before the man she loved. Her eyes took
+in the half-clothed form of the student with one hasty glance.
+
+"What air the matter?" she asked in an undertone.
+
+Had the student been brought face to face with a dilemma like that of
+Daddy Skinner? With the instincts of a squatter Tess could think of
+nothing that would intimidate but the law.
+
+"I have just escaped," replied Frederick, shivering.
+
+Then he was in danger. He needed her as she had needed him, and Tess had
+no doubt but that he was on his way to her shanty to ask her aid.
+
+"Ye air runnin' from some bloke?" she demanded slyly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But ye air cold," said she, "ye can't walk four miles without a coat."
+
+"Where are you going to take me?" Frederick scented a place of safety.
+
+"To my hut," replied the squatter stoically. "Wait! Ye stop here a
+minute."
+
+She bounded into the road from the railway tracks, leaving Frederick
+staring helplessly after her. At the door of the mission she halted with
+the slyness that had been taught her from the cradle, bending her head
+forward to ascertain if any person were witness of her action. She
+opened the door and fled like a young deer toward the organ, then,
+ripping the crimson cloth from the altar, she fled out again into the
+night, running pantingly toward the student.
+
+"It air for you--put it on," she ordered, proffering him the embroidered
+spread.
+
+"Where did you--?" hesitated Frederick.
+
+"Put it on, I say. I'll fan it back some time if ye will. Ye can't
+freeze with that--and there air bacon, fish and bread in the hut."
+
+Her voice was low and vibrant with untried emotions. Something uplifting
+in the criminal action of the girl so touched Frederick that the
+nearness of tears called a throb to his throat. Without expostulating he
+wrapped the brilliant covering about his head, the embroidered ends
+hanging to his waist. Frederick Graves appreciated for the first time in
+his short, shielded life the awful temptations that make these squatter
+people in their cold and misery take what did not belong to them. He
+followed Tessibel, with no spoken word; on and on, up past the lighted
+huts, to the gaping gorge under the trestle. Tessibel knew that the
+student could not traverse it without her help, and she also knew that
+to touch his hand would be the sweetest of happiness to her. At any
+other time her soul would have recoiled from such temerity, but the life
+and welfare of Daddy's deliverer were at stake. She halted abruptly. The
+night was so dark she could scarcely outline the student as he stood
+near her.
+
+"Take hold of my hand," she ordered. "It air the trestle. It air a long
+one and the steps be far apart."
+
+Without a demurring word, Frederick grasped the strong fingers she held
+out to him. A smile, obscured by the darkness, played about the girl's
+sensitive mouth. The young body was pulsing with life--with intense
+gratitude, for was not she, Tessibel Skinner, helping her friend? With
+halting steps the boy and girl commenced the most perilous part of their
+journey, Tessibel leading the way. The student stopped in the middle of
+the long trestle.
+
+"Are we nearly over?" he asked in a low voice. The awful magnificence of
+the dark night, the rushing water tumbling and roaring over the rocks
+beneath them, awed him into what was almost timidity.
+
+"Nope; come on, don't stop here," urged Tess. "'Taint a good place."
+
+At the end of the gap Tess tried to draw her hand away, but it was a
+feeble motion and she ceased as she noted that Frederick was still
+clinging to it.
+
+"Let me walk with your hand in mine," he said simply with no extra
+pressure of the fingers within his. "It is dark for us both."
+
+During the rest of the journey a silence fell upon them. Kennedy's
+brindle bull, scenting a friend, capered madly for a word from Tess, but
+the squatter paid no heed to her dog chum.
+
+She took her hand from Frederick's to unfasten the door and light the
+candle. While they were walking the tracks, the woman in her had tried
+to remember in what condition she had left the hut. She looked about
+hastily. Before lighting another candle she smuggled the frying pan from
+the floor and picked up the loaf of bread that had fallen behind the
+stove from the table. While Tessibel lighted the fire, Frederick sat
+huddled in the wooden rocking-chair, still wrapped in the crimson
+altar-cloth, and watched the girl, who, as she moved clumsily to and
+fro, uttered no sound save now and then a characteristic grunt. Instinct
+told the squatter that she would choke the sensitive throat of the
+student if she raised the dust by sweeping and she refrained from using
+a broom, but Frederick wished vaguely that she would gather up the fish
+bones and crumbs of bread from her path that they might not crunch so
+audibly under her heavy boots. An open Bible placed on Daddy Skinner's
+stool attracted his attention in his survey of the room. Through the
+flickering light he could see the passages Tessibel had marked. He must
+say something or his brain would burst.
+
+"You have a Bible, I see?"
+
+His words sounded strained and his voice foreign to his own.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Can you read it?"
+
+"I spells at it," Tess replied in tones a little surly.
+
+"Where did you get it?" asked Frederick presently.
+
+She waited a moment before answering, straightening up from the oven
+where she had placed the cold bacon left from her breakfast to heat.
+
+"Where did I get what?" she demanded.
+
+"The Bible," replied Frederick.
+
+He had asked about the book in the first place for something to talk of,
+for the roaring of the wind through the hut's rafters distracted him. He
+desired to hear the squatter say something--it all seemed so much like a
+dream that he feared to awaken only to find himself in the empty house
+with the sophomore's revolver staring at him.
+
+"I cribbed it from the mission," answered the girl, pronouncing her
+words plainly. She leaned toward him and finished abruptly. "I took it
+from the place that comed from."
+
+She was pointing toward the warm red altar-cloth bound about Frederick's
+head. Alas, Tess had needed a Bible and had stolen it; he had needed
+warm covering and had accepted it. There was no difference between the
+minister's son and the squatter's daughter. Vicissitude had forced each
+into a like position, and somehow Frederick lost his sense of right and
+wrong, for he could not sit in judgment upon either action. Never before
+in all of his short young life had he really needed anything for
+personal comfort--but the altar-cloth. Tess saw the struggle going on in
+his mind; she bent toward him, reasoning:
+
+"I needed the Bible, didn't I? Didn't ye say that to save Daddy
+Skinner's life I had to have it? Ye needed that red rag what ye got
+round yer head. There air only one way in this world--" She was moving
+toward him inch by inch, the soles of the fisherman's boots dragging the
+bread crumbs and fish bones beneath them. "Ye takes what ye need to save
+yer life, or the life of yer Daddy. Folks mostly never steals what they
+ain't needin'."
+
+The message went straight home to Frederick. He could not combat such
+reasoning. He knew well that he would have frozen but for the timely
+stealing of the altar-cloth--also, he knew that the Bible was as
+necessary to Tess as the altar-cloth was to him. He mentally lashed
+himself into a state of unrest. Why had he not thought of a Bible and
+given Tess one? It would have been so easy for him to have supplied her
+small needs!
+
+He was watching the girl through the gloomy haze of the bacon smoke, but
+spoke no more until Tessibel ordered him to draw up to the table and
+eat.
+
+"Have a piece of bacon," said she.
+
+Frederick held up his plate, and Tess shoved a generous portion into it.
+She gave him a tempting brown fish, cut a slice of bread, placing it
+upon the side of his tin plate, and commenced to eat rapidly from her
+own.
+
+Neither boy nor girl mentioned sleeping until the hands of the small
+nickel clock on the shelf in the corner pointed out the hour of eleven.
+Then Tessibel opened the subject without hesitation or embarrassment.
+
+"It air time fer ye to turn in," said she, banking the embers in the
+stove for the night.
+
+"I shall sit up," replied Frederick stiffly.
+
+"There air two beds," commented Tess in simple ignorance of all law save
+necessity. "Mine air under Daddy's--see?"
+
+She dragged the rope cot from under the larger bed--a cloud of dust
+rising white to the shanty's rafters and settling like a soft mist upon
+the student.
+
+"I air goin' to sleep here," explained Tess with no mention of the
+lately exposed dirt. "I only slep' in Daddy's bed cause he wasn't
+here.... Ye go to bed while I gets the sticks fer the mornin'."
+
+Frederick placed his hand on her arm almost timidly. She was so
+different from any girl he had ever known!
+
+"Please allow me to get the wood for you."
+
+Two rows of white teeth bared themselves in a frank smile.
+
+"I's a squatter," she said, "and squatter women allers gets the wood.
+Scoot to bed."
+
+When Tessibel came in from the mud cellar, Frederick lay with his face
+toward the wall, Orn Skinner's soiled blankets wrapped closely about his
+shoulders. Tessibel placed the leather strap over the staple in the
+door, and barred up for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+For almost an hour Tessibel lay thinking deeply, her brain alive with
+the past rapid happening of events. That the student would ever sleep
+under her roof was more than she had dreamed. She could hear him
+breathing evenly; he was asleep with "Daddy's" blankets wrapped tightly
+about his finely shaped head. Through the dim light Tessibel could
+follow the outline of the great form stretched out on the roped bed. A
+feeling of thanksgiving swept over her--she was his protector. She had
+not thought of asking about his crime. Of course he was fleeing from the
+law, but he could have done nothing that would lessen her desire to aid
+him. If he had murdered, then it was necessary that he should; if he had
+stolen, it was the common lot of all men in need. The one thing to do
+was to keep him from the clutches of the law. She felt herself getting
+drowsy, and soon the even breathing of the squatter and the student told
+that both slept.
+
+Tess would never know what time it happened. Suddenly her eyes flew open
+and through the light of a lantern she saw Ben Letts leering into her
+face. The frosty air was blowing in gusts through the window which the
+squatter Ben had forced open. The horror of the situation came slowly
+over her. For the instant she forgot the student sleeping in her
+father's bed, and Ben Letts had not noticed him.
+
+Ben began to speak in low tones:
+
+"If ye wants to live, don't holler ... Get up!"
+
+Tess crawled out of bed, fully dressed. Frederick slept on, hearing no
+sound, for the cold room had compelled him nearly to cover his head.
+Suddenly the presence of the student came into the girl's mind; but she
+only threw a furtive glance at the sleeping youth.
+
+"What do ye want?" she demanded vaguely.
+
+"First ye air to come with me to the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's--I air
+got somethin' for him.... He air dead in the mornin' by the hand of the
+girl what loves him."
+
+There was unlimitable sarcasm in the vile, low face as Ben hissed this
+out.
+
+"And after that?" asked Tess, edging toward the lower part of "Daddy's"
+bed. There she could reach for the covering over Frederick, and he would
+save her. The feeling of the night before that she was his protector
+vanished. He would--
+
+"Never mind after that," growled Ben. "Ye had yer chance at bein' hones'
+and ye wouldn't take it."
+
+Tessibel slipped her feet into Daddy's boots--she was strangely buoyant
+and unafraid. It was the woman in her rising to that supreme moment when
+she should call upon the man she loved, and he would answer. Ben was
+leaning against the wall, his eyes having sought for no other person in
+the room.
+
+With the agility of a hare, Tessibel dashed around him toward Frederick,
+and snatched the blankets from the bed. The workings of Ben's mind were
+so slow that the form of the student loomed up, before he realized that
+the minister's son was in Tessibel's cabin.
+
+"Ye air here to save me, Frederick," cried Tess, the light of the
+lantern sending a ray into the upturned widening eyes.
+
+Letts dropped his under jaw, his body relaxing in fear. He was an arrant
+coward like the most of his downtrodden race. Then something shifted
+through his thick brain, and he smiled knowingly.
+
+"So the high and the low air together--eh? The Dominie's son, and the
+fisherman's brat--the student--and the--"
+
+Before he had finished the sneering words, Frederick had struck him full
+in the face. Boyish dignity--his father's position--God--everything was
+forgotten save Tess. He only knew that she was being maligned, and that
+her holy mission of rescuing him from the frost of a night like this was
+being turned into evil by a squint-eyed fisherman whom he had never seen
+before.
+
+Into the man's fat flabby body crashed Frederick's strong fists.
+Tessibel stood looking on, her head bent forward alertly. One arm was
+clasped about her neck--excitement sparkling from the flushed face and
+panting lips. Once the throat sound that came when she was excited
+rolled forth; otherwise she was silent.
+
+Thrashed from side to side, his ragged coat made worse by the severe
+shaking Frederick was administering, Ben Letts groaned audibly.
+
+"Have you had enough?" demanded the student, standing over the
+fisherman.
+
+"Yep, I's a goin' home."
+
+Tess laughed low and wickedly. She loved to see the blood oozing from
+the mark in the ugly face. Every drop matched those dragged from the
+hearts of the brat's mother, who had suffered for Ben, and of the poor
+little miserable child himself, struggling for life in the Longman
+shanty.
+
+"You'd better go home," ordered Frederick, "and I want to tell you
+something. If I ever hear you uttering a word about my being in this
+hut, I'll follow you to the ends of the earth, and flog the life out of
+you.... Don't try any of your tricks on me, either."
+
+Frederick shivered as the wind swept cold from the frozen lake to his
+damp brow. Ben had lifted his lantern and was swaying toward the door.
+
+"I'll go hum," said he, "but I ain't done with ye--some day--"
+
+Frederick bounded forward like a whiplash, but Tess held him back. Ben
+gave a quick jump and was gone.
+
+"He wasn't worth a-hurtin' any more," Tess commented, lighting a candle.
+"I know he air the man what killed my other Frederick."
+
+The name slipped out with loving intonation.
+
+Then the boy and the girl turned and faced each other. The shanty rocked
+in the wind like the cradle of a child. The willow mourned its tale of
+winter over the roof, scraping the broken tin in hollow groans,
+shrieking now and then as a gust roared through it.
+
+For fully three minutes after the going of Ben, Tessibel stood looking
+at the student. He had saved her from Myra's fate, from a hated thing
+that made her teeth press hard together, and her eyes gather an
+expression of melting gratitude.
+
+"It were--it were--"
+
+But the halting tongue could not finish. Untutored as she was, Tess had
+read the message in the student's eyes. Love teaches in one night its
+dreadful longing and response. Its domineering power brought Frederick
+Graves nearer to Tess in her rags. It made them equal, even as all are
+equal in love--and in death. In an instant the girl in the fish-tainted
+tatters was clasped close to his heart, the bright, beautiful face
+lifted to his. Then came the kiss, the making of which blended two lives
+indissolubly together. The paleness of death settled over the boy; the
+strong muscles of his shoulders stood out beneath the whiteness of his
+shirt sleeves, while his fingers pressed the red-brown head closer to
+him, his kiss deepening the crimson richness in the squatter's face. It
+was the one supreme passionate moment of Tessibel's life. The sound of
+the whistling wind left her ears. The cold night blasts driving through
+the window were as the faint breezes of a summer's evening. The
+smoldering candle lifted its flame, blazing forth a glory that
+surrounded the student with a golden halo. Tessibel had experienced her
+first kiss. The nature in her demanded that she know the fullness of
+it--the pitying fullness which would bring to her that which it brings
+to all loving women dominated by the passion born within them. The blood
+of her race, her uneducated primeval race, rose and clamored for its
+own. In her untutored youth she could have crushed the lad in her wild
+longing for such another kiss.
+
+Pantingly she drew herself from Frederick. Why? Tess could never tell
+why! Myra's love for Ben Letts rushed over her overwhelmingly.... The
+"brat's" mother knew the sweetness of a kiss, and in it had forgotten
+the blasting winter winds on the ragged rocks where Ben Letts had broken
+her arm.
+
+Frederick, ashy-pale, struggled for control; a consciousness of the
+ignorance of the girl--and his own godly profession broke upon him; and
+he sank upon the stool with a sob. His face in his hands filled
+Tessibel's soul with remorse. Delicately, with the touch of a lady born,
+she rested her hand upon the student's dark head. The small fingers,
+used to the drudgery of a fisherwoman's life, lifted the damp hair from
+the high forehead. Her woman's sense of the fitness of things rose
+keenly to quiet the boy's grief over his indiscretion.
+
+"It were good of ye to remember that Daddy were gone," she whispered.
+"He gives me kisses on the bill."
+
+All passion had left her tones. Of course, thought the student, she was
+but a child--but a forlorn beautiful child born without--without what?
+If he could have known--
+
+The next moment he did know. With abandon, complete and absolute, the
+hot blood coursing madly from her heart to her face, Tess threw herself
+upon the shanty floor. Frederick Graves drew her quickly to her feet.
+
+"Tess ... Tessibel ... Tess ... Stand up, Tess!"
+
+The last word came out in a shout. He had her in his arms, and she was
+clinging to him as ivy clings for life to an old church.
+
+Tessibel made no effort to support herself. She was leaning limply
+against him with closed eyes.
+
+"It air good to forget--sometimes," she stammered, "I air a forgettin'
+all but the--student."
+
+As on that memorable day when "Daddy" had been taken to prison in
+Auburn, and she had planted herself in his arms not to be removed, so
+Tess hung to Frederick. Ben Letts was forgotten, the suffering child in
+the Longman shanty whom she loved was forgotten; even Daddy Skinner was
+forgotten. Tessibel had found her man, and all the experiences of her
+kind could not help her in her hour of temptation.
+
+"Tessibel, Tess, we can't forget, stand up." The boy's words spread
+through the dazed brain. Frederick dragged her arms from his neck,
+forcing her to the stool.
+
+"Tessibel, have you forgotten--the Christ, your father and me?"
+
+Had she forgotten him? Only him she had remembered--only his voice rang
+through her like the sweetest music. But she was so quiet now that the
+boy seated himself beside her, drawing her hands into his.
+
+"Tess," he began, intensely, bending to look into the flushed face,
+"Tess--look at me!"
+
+Slowly the brown eyes dragged their gaze upward until the boy and girl
+were staring wide-lidded directly at each other.
+
+"Tess, have you ever thought that, some time, we might be more to each
+other--some time in the future when you have learned and studied much?"
+
+Wonderingly she drew her hands from his, hiding them in the folds of the
+torn gingham skirt.
+
+"I air a squatter," she got out at last. "You be high--I air low, as Ben
+Letts said.... But, but," she faltered, finishing her sentence brokenly,
+"But I's yer squatter."
+
+For one bitter moment the Longman child with its old-man face flitted
+across her vision. She shivered, rose hastily, and went to the stove,
+scattering the lids from their openings before uttering another word.
+
+Frederick was watching her critically.
+
+"You ought to go to school, Tess," he said presently.
+
+"I has to stay here," she replied beginning to stir the embers. "If I
+left the hut alone yer pappy could fire it, and Daddy and me wouldn't
+have a home.... Ain't nice nights like this to be without a roof to
+cover ye."
+
+Frederick realized this. Had he not been that very night with no place
+to lay his head, and no kindly hand save hers to give him something to
+eat? He flushed deeply at the mention of his father, and marveled that
+the squatter girl had not spoken with any hard feeling in her tone. It
+was what could be expected--so her voice implied; if she left the shanty
+alone, the rightful owner could then take back what the law would not
+allow if the squatters remained.
+
+"Ye be a goin' to stay here to-morry?" asked Tess later by five minutes.
+
+"If I may."
+
+"Be ye goin' to tell me what ye air hidin' for?"
+
+Frederick threw back his head and laughed. He had forgotten to tell her.
+
+"Of course. You see I am the freshman class president.... The boys in
+the upper classes kidnaped me, and kept me prisoner in an unused house
+at the inlet.... I escaped last night, and you brought me here."
+
+The story was so tame--so unlike what Tess had expected to hear that she
+drew a long, disappointed breath. There had been a vague wish within her
+heart that she were going to be of infinite benefit to him. It was such
+a little thing to lose a fine supper. His life had not been in danger as
+she had supposed.
+
+"You understand, Tess, that it's a disgrace to our class not to have the
+president there," Frederick burst forth, "even if he is kept away by
+force. I would rather sacrifice anything than have it happen--only, I do
+not want to harm your good name, Tessibel."
+
+Tess stared at him blankly.
+
+"Squatter's brats don't have no names.... Ye can't do me any harm."
+
+"Oh, yes, I could," insisted Frederick. "What if that scoundrel who was
+here a little while ago should say that I were here?... It would harm us
+both."
+
+Tess paused in her breakfast preparations long enough to say simply,
+
+"Yer Christ wouldn't let him harm ye, would He?"
+
+The boy swept her with an incredulous glance.
+
+Did she so thoroughly have faith in a miraculous interference in human
+affairs by divine power? The delicate face was lighted with exquisite
+coloring which came and went in the morning light like the tints of a
+sea-shell. The bright trustful eyes were shining into his, every motion
+of the lovely head and body bespeaking the blind faith in which the
+squatter girl lived. Frederick found himself wishing impetuously with
+all his soul that he could command a faith like hers. His own seemed so
+dead, so unlike a living faith that he sighed as he turned toward her.
+
+"Tessibel," he said honestly, "you are a better girl than I am a boy ...
+I am learning many things from you." Then, looking up with a smile after
+a moment's thought, he finished: "No, I believe with you, that it is
+impossible for him to harm one of us if we have faith in God."
+
+"So, I can help ye to-morry if ye ain't in Daddy's fix?"
+
+Then Frederick understood that she would have saved him, even if he had
+been in danger of his life.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "you can aid me.... Do you know where my fraternity
+is?"
+
+Tess shook her head with a troubled expression.
+
+"I can tell you where it is! I want you to go there and ask for Dan
+Jordan and tell him I am here. You must speak to no one else about me,
+or they will come and take me away, and I told you I would almost rather
+die than not be with my class at the banquet."
+
+Tessibel's spirits rose high. She could help him--after all.
+
+"How air ye goin' to get into the place where ye eats without gettin'
+took again?"
+
+A flashing intelligence leaped into the brown eyes during her question.
+
+"I knows how I can help ye." She lowered her voice and began to describe
+the escape and the final fulfillment of their plan.
+
+Frederick chuckled when she had finished.
+
+"That's capital. You tell Dan Jordan, then, to-morrow what you have told
+me. You see the banquet takes place to-morrow night."
+
+"Yep, I tells him, so I will. I goes to town early to-morry and up to
+your house.... Come and eat now!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+The next morning at eight o'clock Tessibel walked eastward up the long
+hill toward the college. The "Cranium" fellows were yet asleep. The
+whole house was tired out from looking for their captured president. The
+underclassmen did not know that Graves had escaped, Frederick's enemies
+keeping them in ignorance as long as possible.
+
+Tessibel turned into the carriage drive toward the fraternity with a
+fish-basket upon her arm.
+
+A man cleaning snow from the flight of steps addressed her.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"I want to see Mr. Jordan.... He air here, ain't he? I has somethin' for
+him."
+
+"Give it to me," ordered the janitor, "I'll take it to him."
+
+"Can't! He said as how I wasn't to give it to no one but hisself, and I
+won't, so there!"
+
+"He ain't up yet."
+
+"Don't care, I'll wait, then.... Tell him, will ye, that I air a
+waitin'?"
+
+Dan Jordan wondered as he crawled slowly out of bed what a girl could
+want of him at that early hour. He met Tess at the front door, and
+without waiting for him to speak Tessibel said in an undertone.
+
+"I has somethin' to tell ye.... I air Tess the squatter's brat, what ye
+gived the coffee to at the parson's house. I said as how I has
+somethin' to tell ye!"
+
+"Will you tell me now?" asked Dan kindly. "You see, I can't ask you in
+here--"
+
+"I ain't a comin' in," and lowering her voice with a furtive glance she
+almost whispered, "I knows--I knows where the minister's son air."
+
+Dan started and looked at her sharply. She could mean no other than
+Frederick. He placed his fingers on his lips.
+
+"You have fish to sell," he asked, "I will take them all. Go around to
+the back door and leave them...." Then in a lower tone he ordered, "Meet
+me in five minutes at the bottom of the hill."
+
+The last of the sentence was breathed rather than spoken. Dan Jordan
+turned into State Street some minutes afterwards, and he could see the
+glistening red head of the fisher-girl as she swung her empty basket on
+her arm and jingled the money in her hand which she had received for the
+fish.
+
+"Tell me quickly where Mr. Graves is," commanded Dan rushing toward her.
+
+"He air in my hut," answered Tess bluntly.
+
+"Did the boys bring him there?"
+
+"Nope, he got away.... And I took him there."
+
+She described the plan she and Frederick had formed.
+
+"Ye see by that way ye can get him to the supper, can't ye?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dan delightedly, "and we will never be able to thank you
+enough for what you have done. Let me assure you that we are very
+grateful to you."
+
+"Aw, shut up!" Every white tooth showed in the wide smile, "I ain't
+done nothin'. He air done more than that for me."
+
+The sweet face lighted by the infinite love for the student hidden in
+her hut spoke its own secret to Dan Jordan and through his recently
+acquired knowledge of heart emotions, he stared vaguely at the girl.
+Would Frederick--no, no--the minister's son was a better lad than he.
+His eyes filled with tears and a lump came into his throat. He stood
+watching the figure of Tess moving away, and regarded intently the great
+boots, the ragged skirt, the beautiful ringlets and the proud young head
+set so well upon the sloping shoulders. Dan's mind reverted to another
+girl, no older than the squatter, and with a sigh mournful enough he
+turned back to the fraternity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess walked down the lane, running as she neared the foot of the hill.
+She wanted to impart to the student what Dan had told her. With her
+fingers upon the hut latch she stopped short. Voices came from inside.
+She dropped her hand--Ben Letts was there or another squatter. Suddenly
+she opened the door and stood in the entrance. Frederick was seated upon
+"Daddy's" stool; Professor Young was standing in his fur coat with his
+back to the stove.
+
+The student's face had blanched to the hue of death; an expression such
+as Tess had never seen in human eyes rested in his. He was speaking and
+the girl's ears caught the words.
+
+"I would forfeit my life before I would harm her, believe me!" Two pairs
+of masculine eyes turned at the opening of the door, and both men were
+looking into the eager face of Tessibel. The Professor did not come
+forward to meet her; his manner was stiff and formal. For a moment even
+the student's last words left her mind, and Daddy Skinner rose before
+her.
+
+"Ye be here to tell me about Daddy?" she asked.
+
+"You needed me to come more for yourself than to tell you of your
+father, child!" said Young with accusing eyes upon Frederick.
+
+A sullen expression flitted across Tessibel's lips.
+
+"Ye didn't need to come, if yer a goin' to make the student sorry," she
+answered haltingly. "Ye has yer own business to mind."
+
+Tess was standing between them, her glance turning first to Frederick,
+then to the Professor. She didn't fully understand his words, but she
+knew that Frederick had been hurt by something the lawyer had said.
+Young began to button his coat. He had thought the girl worth saving,
+and Frederick had ever been in his mind as the perfection of young
+manhood. His throat tightened; he looked at Tess and thought of his love
+for her. It was almost mastering him. Why should he suffer over such a
+girl, who insulted him even while he was trying to help her?
+
+Frederick stood up wearily. Professor Young ought to realize the
+situation, to remember that some shelter was necessary for him. Tess was
+stolidly arranging the table.
+
+"You do not know how I came to be here," said Frederick briefly.
+
+"It is enough that I see you here," replied Young.
+
+In a temper Tess slammed the oven door loudly.
+
+"She found me on the tracks," explained Frederick. "I escaped from the
+sophomores and she brought me here. I should have frozen to death
+otherwise--and I did not think that it might harm her."
+
+"It ain't hurt me," cried Tessibel coming forward. "He air the one what
+helped me get my Daddy Skinner out of trouble. He air my friend!"
+
+The rage of the girl when she wheeled impetuously upon him made the
+Professor catch his breath. He had been the one who had done all the
+work, had given her father a new lease of life. He had come now to tell
+her about the letter, and to hear her say that a lad with no influence
+whatever had done that which it would have been impossible for him to
+do, to hear Tess give the credit which should be his to Frederick made
+Young pass his fingers through his hair nervously, and wonder just what
+the student had done to gain such praise. His own love for Tess, his
+great desire, pleaded with him to believe in both the boy and the girl.
+Tessibel's soulful expression went far in giving back to Deforest Young
+the hope that had made his days brighter and filled the future with
+promise.
+
+"May I stay with you to dinner, Miss Tessibel?" he said, shaking his
+shoulders. "I did not understand ... In fact I had forgotten about the
+banquet. I am glad you helped Mr. Graves make his class dinner.... May I
+stay?"
+
+Frederick stepped forward, holding out his hand.
+
+"Thanks," he said brokenly; "I shall never forget this--in you."
+
+The clasping of the two hands and the smile on the lips of the student
+made Tess broaden her own.
+
+"Yep, jerk off yer coat, and eat," ordered she. "Air ye heard about
+Daddy?"
+
+"Yes." Young hesitated a moment.
+
+"What is it, Professor?" ejaculated Frederick. "Don't keep her in
+suspense."
+
+"Daddy ain't a-goin' to hang!... He can't!" Her eyes turned to
+Frederick. "'Cause ye said he couldn't."
+
+The boy flushed to the roots of his hair and glanced at Professor Young.
+Again she was giving the credit to Graves--credit the lad so little
+deserved. Frederick felt this, and muttered:
+
+"She doesn't understand yet what you've done, Professor--I'm sorry!"
+
+"They've placed a stay upon your father's execution," explained Young,
+"that will give us a chance to prove him innocent.... I am positive that
+he didn't kill the gamekeeper. I went to the prison last week."
+
+"Ye seed him?" asked Tess eagerly, striding close to him. He felt the
+hot breath against his face and a feeling of longing coursed through his
+veins.
+
+"Yes," was all he said.
+
+"What did he say about me?"
+
+"Everything good! You will have him very soon here with you, Tessibel."
+
+The girl was fatigued with turbulent emotions, lonely and heartsick. The
+shadow of the rope was gone from Daddy Skinner. Like a relieved child
+she sank down upon the floor and began to whimper. Both men were
+silenced by the swaying red head. The bacon sputtered in the frying pan
+upon the stove, spitting the grease to the lids, where it burned away in
+tiny yellow flames.
+
+Then Tess raised her head.
+
+"What a bloke I air to cry when Daddy air a-comin' home.... We air
+a-goin' to eat now," she ended, wiping her eyes.
+
+Before the meal was over Tess was on better terms with Young than she
+had ever been before. He outlined to the delighted girl his visit to the
+prison.
+
+"Your father says, child," he related, "that he took the gun from the
+stern of the boat, and laid it on the shore, near where he was hauling
+the net.... He heard a shot and ran forward and was arrested. He swore
+to me that he did not fire the gun and I believe him. The fatal step was
+in his taking the rifle at all, because that was disobeying the law."
+
+"Ye air my friend, too," Tess said beamingly, leaning over and taking
+the Professor's hand in hers. Before he could stop her, she had raised
+it to her lips, kissed it several times, and dropping it again, calmly
+went on eating.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+At the "Cranium" Fraternity, Dan Jordan was closeted with three little
+freshmen. Swipes looked downcast.
+
+"I want to do something to help," he wailed; "I feel as if it were all
+my fault that the parson is gone. We can't have any fun without him.
+It's tedious, too, being cooped up here not being able to go anywhere
+for fear of being taken ourselves."
+
+Dan cleared his throat preparatory to speaking.
+
+"If you fellows won't peach," said he in an eager undertone, "I'll tell
+you something and you can help."
+
+"What?"
+
+"We'll have Graves if you will all do as I tell you."
+
+"Watch me," cried Swipes, turning a somersault. When he was in the most
+harrowing position, Brown gave him a swift kick.
+
+"Give him one for me, Shorts," whispered Spuddy, but Swipes was on his
+feet again, ready to listen.
+
+There was a general hurrah when Jordan in subdued tones had outlined the
+plan.
+
+"Where are Graves' evening clothes," demanded Dillon; "we must smuggle
+them into the opera-house some way."
+
+"They'll be there all right," replied Jordan; "they've gone in with the
+caterer's stuff. You'd better send your own best togs in a barrel or the
+sophomores will see to it that you won't have them when you want
+them.... Now mind, mum's the word."
+
+The fishermen of squatter's row did not recognize the stranger who
+slouched along by the side of Tessibel, the night of the freshman
+banquet. She was on her way to the city with her fish. One after another
+women poked frowsy heads from the hut windows at the barking of their
+dogs. But Tess went steadily on, not even heeding her companion who
+hurried his footsteps to keep close to her.
+
+"Ye sells yer fish for a shillin' a pound," said she after a few
+minutes' walk.
+
+The man nodded. Once only did he raise his eyes. They were passing a
+dingy-looking empty house, with a large broken window.
+
+Just then, Ben Letts, accompanied by Ezra Longman, met them. The red
+head of the squatter girl rose a little higher, the lines growing deeper
+about the narrowed lids. To the fisherman she deigned no good-morrow,
+nor had she a thought of them after they had passed.
+
+"He air a new squatter," said Ben laconically, turning to look at the
+queer pair.
+
+"He air her uncle," added Ezra pompously; "he air here to help her pappy
+out of his scrape."
+
+Ben did not answer, but stepped to the tracks with another evil backward
+look at Tess and her squatter friend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Forty or fifty sophomores loafed about the opera-house watching the
+caterers buzz to and fro. Tables had been spread inside for several
+hundred guests, and the president's chair was decorated with roses and
+winter ferns. Three little freshmen and Dan Jordan, surrounded by many
+juniors went calmly in to inspect things.
+
+Several underclassmen stood disconsolately inside.
+
+"Be on your guard," whispered Dan, passing them.
+
+The fifty sophomores outside were waiting for something to happen.
+Graves would be produced--how, they could not tell. The strangeness of
+the actions of Frederick's fraternity brothers made the affair more
+unsolvable. Threatening looks were showered upon them as freshman after
+freshman, guarded by juniors, filed in. Dan Jordan slouched to the door
+of the opera-house, his eyes falling mechanically upon Tessibel Skinner
+across the street. He heard her arguing with the man from the café about
+her fish. Tessibel then crossed to the opera-house.
+
+"Does ye want any fish?" she smiled, showing her white teeth.
+
+"No," replied Jordan. "What have you?... Eels?"
+
+"No, nothin' but bullheads and suckers."
+
+Dan looked about, grinning upon the sophomores.
+
+"There's enough of them here already.... I want some eels--"
+
+The sophomores pretended not to hear. They were not interested in
+fishermen, but kept their eyes open for a carriage that would dash in
+from the main street with the rescued president within it.
+
+"Sling them eels over here," commanded Tessibel, beckoning to the
+slouching squatter across the way. The man with the basket offered the
+contents to Dan.
+
+"I'll take what you have, too, girl," said Jordan in a loud voice, "how
+much do they weigh?"
+
+"Don't know," replied Tess.
+
+"Take them in and get them weighed," said Swipes, innocently coming to
+Dan's side.
+
+"Hey there, you old guy," chuckled Spuddy; "drag your fish into the
+opera-house and dump them out.... We're going to have some fun.... If we
+can't have our president, eels will have to do."
+
+The squatter disappeared inside the building.
+
+"A pile of fun they'll have without their president," grunted a
+sophomore.
+
+Tessibel gathered her empty basket upon her arm and amid the smiling
+looks of the students who stood watching her she walked away with her
+head high in the air.
+
+But Dan Jordan, with a mighty yell, triumphantly taken up by his
+classmen, grasped the hat from the squatter's head. The smiling, open
+face of Frederick Graves was before them. The sophomores never quite
+puzzled out how the freshman president was in his chair at the banquet,
+and directly in front of him in the place of honor was a huge dish of
+eels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shaking the snow from her shoulders like a great dog in a storm, Tess
+knocked softly on the Longman shanty door. Mrs. Longman had gone to the
+city with Satisfied, and Myra, with the whining brat in her arms,
+welcomed her.
+
+One whole week had passed since Tess had seen the student--seven long
+interminable days since--and now she had come to ask Myra Longman some
+of the mysterious questions about the kiss that Frederick had given her.
+Myra relinquished the child to her and the little fellow sank to sleep
+under Tessibel's crooning voice. His regular breathing told her that he
+slept; she placed him in the box and sat thoughtfully down.
+
+"Air Ben Letts been here lately?" she asked after a pause.
+
+Myra shook her head.
+
+"He ain't got no time for such as the brat and me," she replied
+bitterly.
+
+Tess waited until Myra had ceased scattering the shanty chairs in her
+rage.
+
+"Did he say as how he loved ye that night in the storm on the ragged
+rocks?" she asked presently.
+
+"Yep, he did say it, he did," answered Myra.
+
+"Air he--air he a-knowin'--how to kiss?"
+
+The very word slipping from her lips brought back with a sudden joy that
+night a week ago, and the never-to-be-forgotten kiss of the student. She
+could feel again the warm, strong lips pressed to hers--the long
+muscular arms enfolding her.
+
+Myra scanned her face closely.
+
+"To kiss--yep; but he ain't never kissed the brat."
+
+There was wonderful longing and passion in her tones.
+
+This was a new thought for Tess. The "Pappy" should kiss his brat--but
+were they one and the same kisses? She remembered the sweetness of that
+first caress "Daddy" had given her on the stone window ledge of his
+cell. It was tinged with bittersweet--bitter because Daddy was going
+away, sweet because she had desired it so fondly. But it had not been
+like the student's kiss. She was going to ask Myra Longman to solve the
+first great problem of her life.
+
+"Air the kisses what ye had from Ben Letts--burnin' ones? Did ye lose
+the thought of the night and the night things on the ragged rocks?...
+Did ye want 'em again and again--more and more kisses till they scorched
+yer face like the bread oven in the spring?"
+
+Tess had risen to her feet, had whitened to the small ears covered with
+the tawny hair. Myra had risen also. Both girls were eying each other
+with intentness. Tess started to speak again, coming forward a step
+toward the other squatter.
+
+"Did ye forget the storm, the wavin' trees and all 'cept--Ben Letts?"
+
+"Ye air been to the ragged rocks," moaned Myra, sinking down upon the
+floor in a heap.
+
+In a twinkling the meaning of Myra's words dawned upon Tessibel.
+
+"I ain't been there with Ben Letts," she replied suddenly. "I ain't got
+no likin' for the brat's Pa's kisses--"
+
+"But ye hev been to the ragged rocks," insisted Myra, settling back with
+a sob against the box where the child slept.
+
+"Nope, I ain't; but I had a kiss, and Myra, it were--like the singin' in
+the heavens what the song tells about--like the feelin' in here," she
+placed her hand upon her heart, her eyes flashing golden, "when the
+world air filled with flowers and the birds air a singin'.... Were it
+like that with Ben Letts? Were it?"
+
+"Nope," replied Myra sulkily, "Ben Letts ain't got no singin' kisses."
+
+She rose languidly, tucked the blanket closer about the sleeping child's
+head.
+
+"Tessibel," she broke forth hoarsely, "for all women folks there air
+brats a cryin' for their Pa's to tell 'em yep or nope. And there air men
+a-walkin' on the ragged rocks with singin' kisses for yer pretty face
+and tangled hair. There air a brat sleepin' till it's dead in the box."
+The tired young mother allowed her hungry gaze to fall upon the quiet
+infant. "Tessibel, yer brat--"
+
+But Tessibel bounded out of the door, over the snow-covered rocks like a
+deer. She would not lose the sweetness of the kiss in Myra's warning
+words--that penetrating holy kiss she had treasured for seven long days
+and nights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The torturing thoughts that had filled the mind of Professor Young at
+finding Frederick Graves in the cabin of the fisher-girl were new
+sensations to him. He loved Tessibel, and in her lay his future
+happiness. Her stolid indifference to his endeavors to aid her through
+her father had blasted his hopes somewhat. Then again he would
+feverishly reason that she had been born to overlook all save those whom
+she desired and for whom she fought. It was like her kind. Excuses for
+the girl in the aid she had given the student ran willingly through his
+brain. If Tess had seen the young fellow in the storm, it was but like
+the tender, loving heart to aid him. It was no proof that Frederick had
+found a place in her affections. With these thoughts in his mind he had
+worked for several days, quietly hoping that the girl might seek him.
+
+Tess found him waiting at the shanty door for her one afternoon after
+returning from town. She smiled a welcome as she recognized her visitor.
+
+"It air about Daddy ye comed," she said, lifting the padlock from the
+staple.
+
+"Yes, child, I wanted to tell you of some new friends your father has
+made in Ithaca--strong friends to aid him."
+
+"Friends," echoed Tess wonderingly. "Daddy Skinner had fishermen for his
+friends--and not people of Ithacy--come in," she added. The fire
+crackled on the hearth and Tess sat down to listen with open lips.
+
+"I can't explain just how this came about," said Young, "but some of the
+people who were in the court-room the day your father was convicted have
+risen to befriend him."
+
+Professor Young did not add that he himself had urged that money should
+be raised for a second defense.
+
+"So last night," he went on, "there was a meeting of several prominent
+men and money has been placed in my hands for another trial for your
+father."
+
+Tess tried to understand the long words, and blinked knowingly. The
+import of it was plain. Daddy was coming back--but how soon?
+
+"When air he comin' home, then?" she demanded.
+
+"After another trial.... See if you can read this?"
+
+From a long envelope the lawyer took a piece of paper. Tess examined it
+carefully for some moments. Young eyeing her with a sense of happiness.
+He would fight for this child as man never before fought for woman. She
+would love him out of gratitude if for nothing else. He took the paper
+she was holding out to him.
+
+"Can't read a damn word--can't read writin' anyway. Tell me what it says
+about Daddy."
+
+"It's a list of names," replied Young, "mostly members--"
+
+"Of Graves' church?" put in Tess eagerly.
+
+Hadn't the student been praying for just this? she thought.
+
+"Yes; they are all desirous to see your father home again with his
+little daughter."
+
+"Air the minister givin' money for Daddy?" was the anxious demand.
+
+Young shook his head. He felt a sudden swift-coming desire to tell her
+enough about the minister's family to make her hate them all. Deforest
+Young realized for the first time that he was jealous of the student, of
+a tall dark lad of whom in the past he had taken no more notice than of
+many other students.
+
+He drew a long breath.
+
+"Not exactly the minister," said he, flushing with shame. "Here--let me
+read the names to you. William Hopkins of the toggery shop, one hundred
+dollars. Do you know him?"
+
+Tess shook her head in the negative.
+
+"Deacon Hall and his wife Augusta gave one hundred dollars."
+
+"I know her," Tess cried, "and I knows him a little, too. I tooked them
+berries and fish--they has a cottage below the ragged rocks."
+
+"And there's the druggist, Mr. Bates--he did not put down his name on
+the list, but he gave fifty dollars."
+
+Tessibel listened to the explanations as Young read on, making it all
+plain to her as he proceeded.
+
+She was leaning far over toward him, her chin resting on her open palm.
+
+"They be dum good blokes, to give their money to a squatter, ain't
+they?"
+
+The professor started perceptibly. She did not understand that all had
+been done under his supervision; he had tried to impress upon her his
+great desire to help her, but no words of praise fell from her lips for
+him. He would have willingly given worlds had she said that he was "a
+dum good bloke."
+
+"They are all sorry for you and your father," he ended lamely.
+
+"It was the student, Graves, what brought Daddy the money," she burst
+out with a vivid blush.
+
+"No, the student, Graves, had nothing to do with it," was the grim
+reply.
+
+"He's a-been prayin' since Daddy went away--that air somethin'," Tess
+said stubbornly.
+
+Professor Young rose--then seated himself again. He had come for
+something else, something that meant work and satisfaction for him.
+
+"Now that your father is sure to be saved, will you leave this hut?" he
+asked peremptorily.
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"But it's not fit for you to be here alone, Tessibel. Listen ... I'll
+save your father's squatter rights, if you will study in some good
+school until he returns."
+
+"Aw, cuss! Who air to pay all the money?" Tess got to her feet with
+effort.
+
+"I will," deliberately answered Young.
+
+"Nope, I air goin' to stay here," snapped Tess. "I can fish and live
+likes I have been doin' till Daddy comes. I promised him I'd stay. I can
+read the Bible now," she ejaculated, promptly producing the book from
+under the blankets of the bed. "I's a-readin it every day.... If ye
+don't believes, ye can listen and see."
+
+She tossed back the curls from her shoulders as she ended emphatically:
+"I air a goin' to bring Daddy home through this here book--the student
+says."
+
+Again the terrible jealousy of the handsome student flashed alive in the
+professor. Tess had opened the Bible to a chapter she had never read
+before.
+
+"And straightway in the morning," she spelled, "the chief priests--Aw,
+that ain't no good! Wait till I find about Daddy."
+
+Then suddenly she threw the Bible down upon the floor.
+
+"There air places what says as how Daddy air a comin' home. The student
+says it air there. I ain't found it yet but I air a-lookin' for it every
+day. 'Tain't in that place where I just read about them geezers, the
+priests."
+
+The lawyer stood up. A pain seized him. He would save this ignorant girl
+in spite of herself, marry her in spite of Frederick Graves. It would be
+as difficult as scaling the icy mountains, but he would force her to
+love him more than the whole world.
+
+"You understand," he said shortly, "that these good people have given
+money toward helping your father come home. It will be some time before
+the trial will come up, but when it does--I will bring him back to you."
+
+The assurance in his tones brought Tess to his side.
+
+"Ye be a lawyer," she said abruptly, "and the squatters says as how
+lawyers air liars and tramps, but ye ain't no tramp, and ye ain't no
+liar, ye ain't--and when I sells a lot of fish I air bringin' ye the
+money for what ye air a doin' for Daddy and me. I says once and I says
+again as how ye air Daddy's friend, and I air glad that the student's
+meeting-house folks gived ye a little money to help us."
+
+Mist had gathered in her eyes and she slipped her fingers into Professor
+Young's. She laid her lips upon his hand, covering it with tears and
+kisses. Opening the shanty doors, she said:
+
+"I likes ye, I likes ye, but how much a squatter's brat likes don't make
+no difference. Ye go now, for the tracks get dark about five."
+
+"I have my horse at the top of the hill," replied Young, confusedly.
+
+The sensation from the moist lips upon his flesh prompted him for one
+brief moment to take the girl to him. He was filled with a strange
+desire to force this rude shanty maid from her surroundings and place
+her in another life with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+That night, as Tessibel slept and dreamed of Frederick, another girl
+waited for her lover. Teola Graves watched for the approach of Dan
+Jordan with strange emotions. When he was with her, his great strength
+and constant assurances that everything would go rightly with them gave
+the girl courage and confidence. But in the night-watches, when youthful
+sleep refused to come, she was afraid--afraid!
+
+She stood just outside the door, upon the veranda, shrinking from the
+raw winter wind. Relievedly she noticed Dan's tall form, when he swung
+around the corner.
+
+"You should not stand in the night wind, dear," Dan chided, gently
+kissing her. "There! now, I have come for a good chat. Teola, do not
+look so sad--please."
+
+The little drawing-room in the Rectory was partially dark when they
+seated themselves on the divan.
+
+"I am so unhappy Dan; so different from what I used to be. Then, life
+was sweet and I was glad to live--"
+
+"But you don't want to be dead now, sweetheart!--Think of it, Teola.
+When I shall have finished college, I shall be of age. We will go away
+from Ithaca, and no one will ever know--"
+
+"But we shall know, Dan. If I had only been a good girl!"
+
+Dan was visibly moved.
+
+"Let's make a bargain," said he suddenly. "To-night we won't talk of
+anything but the pleasantest of things. I have something funny to tell
+you."
+
+"I have something to tell you, too," breathed Teola.
+
+"Is it pleasant?" demanded the boy, bending and forcing the lowered eyes
+to his.
+
+Teola shook her head.
+
+"Then we will leave it until to-morrow," he exclaimed. "I'll tell you my
+news. Shorts, Spuddy and Swipes are in disgrace at the fraternity. If
+Shorts would keep away from those other two fellows, he might get
+through college. It was really their fault Frederick was stolen."
+
+"What have they done now?" asked Teola listlessly. She had little
+interest in the boys of the society, for, nestled close to her heart,
+was a secret she could not forget. She had a realization that something
+unusual had fallen upon her of which she was afraid.
+
+"Well, you see," explained Dan, "there is a comic opera playing here.
+This afternoon, Swipes, Shorts and Spuddy took some of the chorus girls
+to the house, when the other fellows were away. They might have known
+the officers would have found it out. Sure enough, they did! The little
+rascals were all drunk on champagne, and the girls had to be sent to
+their hotels in carriages. The kids received a great beating, let me
+tell you. They are all in bed, in the cupola prison rooms, trying to get
+over big heads."
+
+Teola wanted to smile, to be happy, but the smiles refused to come. Dan
+turned the subject.
+
+"Haven't they gathered a deal of money for Skinner?"
+
+Teola nodded, and presently responded,
+
+"Yes, and father thinks it is so strange. Mrs. Hall and Professor Young
+were at the bottom of the plan. They think the Skinner girl is a great
+marvel. I, too, think she is beautiful--and so does Frederick."
+
+"She has a lot of courage," mused Dan, thinking of the girl who had
+rescued the class president from the hands of his enemies. Teola knew
+nothing of this episode, for Frederick had asked him to be silent upon
+it.
+
+"Your father does not wish the man liberated?" The question in Dan's
+voice brought a flush to Teola's pale face.
+
+"No; he thinks the tribe is a menace to the town, and he is sure the man
+is guilty. They do tell dreadful things of them, and I can't help but
+believe some of the tales, although I feel sorry for the girl. But her
+coming to the toffy pull that night made a great deal of trouble for
+brother and me."
+
+"So I supposed. But I love you, Teola, for the manner in which you
+treated her."
+
+Teola straightened herself from her lover's arms, and was about to
+speak. She would tell him, then, tell him her secret--tell all the fears
+that weighed upon her heart, as if they were loaded with lead. He would
+comfort, and tell her not to worry--cheer her, until she could smile
+again and be happy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shorts, Swipes and Spuddy had broken the laws of the fraternity. Rather
+than suffer the disgrace of leaving it, they had elected a severe
+punishment.
+
+"I'd rather be cut to pieces, boys," Swipes hiccoughed, turning upon the
+grave seniors, "than let my mother know what a beast I've been. Go ahead
+and lick!"
+
+Afterward, the three little freshmen slunk to the rooms in the top of
+the Society house, which were kept ready for young men whom the officers
+reprimanded. They had been ordered to bed for three days, and were
+thankful that the punishment had been no worse than it was.
+
+Swipes demanded a cigarette.
+
+"Go to sleep," ordered Shorts. "It was all your fault in the beginning,
+and you're drunk."
+
+"No such thing! I couldn't haul a whole bunch of girls up here alone,
+could I, if I'm drunk! Could I, now? I wish there wasn't any such a
+being in the world as a woman.... They bring heaps of trouble on us poor
+men."
+
+Saying this, Swipes tumbled into bed, and sank into a stupor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cry of "Fire!" rang out upon the night air, startling Dan Jordan and
+Teola Graves. The volunteer fire companies were gathering from all parts
+of the town, and Dan stepped on to the Rectory veranda as a hose-cart
+rolled by. In an instant he was back in the drawing-room.
+
+"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said he, with a strangling kiss upon Teola's
+pale lips, "I am sure it's our fraternity house. I must go, dear. I
+must, I must!"
+
+He pressed her to him again, bounded through the door and was gone.
+
+"Dan! Dan!" exclaimed Teola. "Dan, come back! I have something to tell
+you ... I'm so--afraid--so afraid!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Teola stood watching the yellow flames kiss the sky. The whole campus
+gleamed under the lurid glare of the fraternity fire; the light in the
+heavens told her that it was no ordinary conflagration.
+
+Until the day of her death she would not forget that night. She was
+longing to hear one word from Dan or Frederick. Her world seemed charged
+with hideous forces hitherto unfelt. Teola sickened, and waited. If Dan
+would only come back!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The very moment after he had fallen asleep, it seemed to Swipes, Shorts
+was pulling him out of bed, and the room was full of smoke. Spuddy was
+sleeping in the next chamber, and the first sound came to him in a
+haze-like dream. He thought he heard a roar of thunder, and rain
+descending upon the roof. Never mind. He was safe in bed, and had just
+escaped expulsion from his fraternity. As he rubbed his aching head, a
+dazed resolution took form in his brain. He would never get drunk
+again--never--never! Then the fumes of the wine brought visions of
+bright-colored dresses, of pretty faces and tender loving arms, such as
+his father had told him to beware of. He would toss such joys from him,
+if it brought him--Spuddy groaned, turned in bed, and tried to wake up.
+But to wake up was to realize his disgrace. He groaned again, a sharp
+pain ripping through his head. He heard the sound of voices--he was
+dreaming, of course; the wine floated fantastic visions again through
+his misty brain, relieving it of the effort of thinking. Then Shorts'
+voice rang in his ear.
+
+"For the love of God, Spud, get up! The house is on fire, and we're
+boxed in this cupola like rats in a trap."
+
+Spuddy sprang out of bed. The thunder he had dreamed of was the roar of
+the fire in the walls of the great house. The rain descending on the
+roof was the water being thrown from the long fire-hose. A strong stream
+of ice-cold water suddenly broke the window, driving Swipes against the
+wall. He whimpered drunkenly.
+
+"Plagued fire! 'Course the house had to burn down on a night like this!"
+
+Screams and cries from the crazed mob below came up to the boys through
+the broken pane. The water ceased its flow, and Shorts, the most sober
+of the three, crept to the opening. Spuddy had crawled back to bed. Far
+beneath him, Shorts could see his fraternity brothers running wildly to
+and fro, frantically waving their arms to him. He could hear orders
+given in loud tones, and recognized the voices of Frederick Graves and
+Dan Jordan. It all flashed upon Shorts in a moment how greatly he and
+his chums were to blame for the disaster, for the fire must have started
+in the dining-room. He thrust his head through the lurid gleam to
+attract attention, and saw the men and boys in the yard bringing ladders
+to rescue them. Now they were splicing them together, to make it
+possible to reach the great height. Shorts made quick resolves.... If he
+lived.... He turned with a groan, and dragged Spuddy from the bed to the
+open window.
+
+"Stay there, and be ready, if you don't want to die," he commanded
+curtly.
+
+Shorts saw the ladder rear upward, and a form dart from the shadows. Dan
+Jordan was coming, hand over hand, toward him, the long ladder creaking
+under his weight. Jordan's face appeared at the opening.
+
+"Come out here," he commanded Shorts.
+
+Shorts pushed Spuddy forward.
+
+"Take him first, Captain," he said, with a twist in his voice. "He's
+drunk."
+
+Spuddy hung limp on the window-sill for an instant, and was then
+gathered into Dan's long arms. Shorts' bleared eyes saw the little chap
+handed safely to the earth, and the ladder again creaked under the
+upward steps of the big freshman. Shorts pushed Swipes toward the window
+as Dan called his name.... Now he was alone, and he leaned as far out as
+he could.
+
+"God! God!" he groaned. "The Captain's face is scorched brown.... God!
+dear God, bless him!"
+
+The crowds below were sending up cheer after cheer; myriads of sparks
+shot rocket-like high into the air, dying in the snow as they fell.
+Streams of water poured into the flaming windows. Jordan was coming up
+again.
+
+"Come out, Shorts," he heard Dan say, and he clambered over the sill.
+
+"Slip into my arms, old man," the deep voice persuaded. "Come, now; let
+go.... There, hang limper.... You're heavier than the others."
+
+He felt Dan take a downward step, and his head whirled around and
+around. They passed window after window, Shorts being carefully held
+under Dan's arm. Flames licked at them greedily, touching and shriveling
+their flesh. Smoke choked their nostrils cruelly. Shorts could feel the
+trembling of Dan's body, as his burned fingers grasped each rung of the
+ladder. To his mind the figures below looked like goblins dancing in the
+light.
+
+Suddenly, midway to the ground, the ladder creaked and groaned
+hideously. Jordan halted.
+
+"The ladder is bending, Shorts," he breathed hoarsely. He did not
+finish his sentence, but shouted,
+
+"Catch him!"
+
+Little Brown shot into the air like a rubber ball.... A crashing sound
+broke over the silent, gaping throng below. Then a giant form turned
+twice in the air, shooting downward like a stone from a sling.... The
+crowd parted, and Dan Jordan struck the frozen ground. His fraternity
+brothers lifted up the unconscious boy, and the great roof above, with a
+sickening din, sank into the fire.
+
+The bitter frost hardened the streams of water pouring from holes in the
+burning house into ropes of ice. Toward morning, the fire died, leaving
+the huge frame, like an ice-covered palace, looming darkly against the
+college hill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In another fraternity house, Shorts was in bed, face and hands swathed
+in bandages. Swipes and Spuddy, tear-stained and pale, stood by the
+door, waiting.
+
+"If only they would come and tell us something!" moaned Spuddy. "Boys,
+if the Captain goes, I'm done for."
+
+"We'll make it all right with him," came hopefully from Shorts. "He
+can't die, fellows! He's as strong as a horse. If he hadn't thrown me
+out into that snow pile, I would have been crushed under him. I'll never
+forget that in all my life," he finished, with a shudder.
+
+"Gad, but he looked dead when they picked him up," said Swipes in
+despair. "I'm done for, too, if--if.... Here comes some one! It's
+Teddy!"
+
+He stepped aside, and Manchester, entering deliberately, closed the
+door. Then he sat down dazedly.
+
+"He's gone, boys. The Captain's gone." The words came in a stammer
+through pressed lips.
+
+"I wish it had been I," muttered Swipes brokenly, when they were alone
+again. "It was all my fault." He burst into a wild sobbing. "I'd give my
+very life to have heard--the Captain--say he had forgiven me."
+
+"I was more to blame than you were," replied Spuddy. "My mother.... God!
+look at that sun!"
+
+Bright rays slanted golden through the window upon the three woful
+little freshmen who had ruined the "Cranium" Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+One day in the following July, Tessibel was going to Mrs. Longman's hut,
+with a list of Bible words she did not understand. She stopped at the
+edge of the forest, and listened to a curious sobbing sound she thought
+issued from beyond the gorge. Then, thinking herself mistaken, she ran
+nimbly on, avoiding the long thorns that lay in her path. The noise came
+more distinctly through the clear air, making the squatter girl lift her
+head and pause again. There was no mistake this time.
+
+"It ain't no pup," she said aloud, "'cause a pup don't snivel like
+that."
+
+Raising the red head, she tore long threads of hair loose from the
+briars, and, drawing the masses of curls about her shoulders, broke into
+the opening of the forest. Some one was crying, and any sign of
+suffering brought an immediate response from Tess. It might be Myra, or
+it might be some little lost child. Spurred on by sympathy, she bounded
+over a bed of dead chestnut burrs, waded through the water to the other
+side of the creek, and struggled up the rocks.
+
+Teola Graves, crouched in an attitude of suffering and despair, was
+seated on the gnarled root of a huge tree. Tessibel watched her for an
+instant. Here was a holy personage to the squatter, touched with the
+finger of the mysterious God the student worshiped. And was she not the
+sister of Frederick, and had not Teola given her coffee from her own
+cup that winter night? Tessibel had not spoken to the minister's
+daughter since her father had been taken away to Auburn, and some of the
+intensity Tess had felt upon that one great day of her life came back to
+her as she stood hesitant, watching the student's sister.
+
+Perhaps the girl was weeping for some pleasure denied her--perhaps for a
+jewel to wear about her neck. She went forward impulsively, and laid her
+hand upon the rounded shoulder.
+
+"What be ye blattin' over?" she stammered, with a tinge of awe in her
+voice.
+
+Teola struggled to her feet, suppressing her grief. The question stopped
+the flow of tears, and the two girls, so differently situated, the one
+the daughter of an eminent minister, and the other a squatter,
+wonderingly eyed each other.
+
+"I thought I was alone," was Teola's answer.
+
+"So ye was," replied Tess. "I heard ye cryin' from the lower ledge of
+the rocks. What air the matter?"
+
+Infinite pity and tenderness in the coarse words, spoken in a sweet,
+persuasive voice, brought a fresh burst of tears from Teola.
+
+"I'm--I'm ill to-day."
+
+"Ye'll be all right to-morry.... 'T'ain't much, air it?"
+
+"It is very much to me," whispered Teola. "I'm so lonely, and so
+afraid!"
+
+Tessibel sat silently down beside the other girl, twining one arm about
+the twisted root of the tree. She was used to sorrow, used to watching
+the agony of human souls without hope. A bird in the top of the tree
+above them sent a plaintive note into the hot air. Another answered
+from the forest, and Tessibel raised her head and saw a scarlet bird
+take wing and disappear into the branches of the wood trees.
+
+She waited for Teola to speak, but at last, seeing there was no
+cessation of tears, she leaned over and touched her.
+
+"Be ye lonely for yer ma?" she murmured.
+
+Teola shook her head in the negative.
+
+"Then for yer pa?"
+
+"No!"
+
+Ah! Tess had forgotten. Had she not seen Frederick go away weeks before,
+in a boat filled with pots and kettles and food for a camping
+expedition? Had he not smiled at her brightly as she passed him on her
+way to the fish line? She could remember the tense feeling in her
+throat, and felt again the hot blood rushing madly into her face. Of
+course, the girl was weeping for her brother!
+
+"Then air ye blattin' for the student?"
+
+She could scarcely utter the last word, scarcely let Teola hear her
+voice use that beloved name.
+
+"Yes, I was crying for him," replied Teola. "He is dead, you know."
+
+For one instant Tess thought the world had lost its sun. Her face
+creased into lines, which tightened rope-like under the tanned skin. How
+could Frederick have died, and she not have known? She rose unsteadily
+to her feet, uttering one grunt significant of her suffering.
+
+"Were he drowned?" she asked, in a voice so pained that Teola raised her
+head and looked at her. She did not understand the meaning of the
+whitened lips nor of the tense drawing-down of the long red-brown eyes.
+
+"No," she replied slowly, "he was killed in the fire on the hill last
+winter."
+
+The muscles relaxed in the squatter's face. Her legs refused to bear the
+slender body, and Tessibel dropped again at Teola's side. The kiss she
+had cherished burned hot upon her lips. Her student lived. The
+minister's daughter cried for the other one, for him who had called her
+Miss Skinner, and who afterward helped her smuggle Frederick into the
+opera-house.
+
+"Why! he air been dead a long time, ain't he?"
+
+"Yes; six months."
+
+"And ye air a-lovin' him yet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But he air dead," philosophized Tess. "He ain't with no other girl."
+
+Teola shivered violently.
+
+"Oh, I know that; I know that. But I--I need him. I want him so!"
+
+"But he air dead," said Tess again steadily.
+
+For many minutes neither spoke. For Teola's new burst of agony settled a
+solemnity upon Tess which she could not throw off. Forgetting her
+squatter position, she slipped her hand between the white fingers of the
+weeper. Teola did not care if the girl's finger-nails were filled with
+black soot, did not care if the squatter were covered with a dirty,
+ragged dress, or if her bare feet were calloused from the rocks. Tess
+was a human being who sympathized with her, and sympathy was as
+necessary to Teola's soul at that moment as breath was to her body. In
+the spasmodic whitening of the other girl's face Tess realized a
+desperate heart agony.
+
+[Illustration: "THEN YE AIR COMIN' HOME WITH ME TO THE SHANTY."]
+
+"Ye air sick," she said at last, an enlightened expression widening her
+lids. "A woman's kind of sick, ain't it? Eh?"
+
+"Yes," answered Teola, flushing deeply; "yes."
+
+"Then ye air a-comin' home with me to the shanty." Tess muttered this in
+a sly voice, almost in a whisper.
+
+Teola raised her glance, and read in the eyes bent upon her that her
+whole secret was known. Tessibel Skinner, her father's foe, the daughter
+of a murderer, was helping her to her feet.
+
+"I'm too sick to walk," she wept, in a barely audible voice. "I tried to
+throw myself from the rocks, over there, but the water was so silent,
+blue and terrible, that I couldn't."
+
+"Ye be comin' with me," insisted Tess stolidly.
+
+She was urging her forward, holding Teola by both arms.
+
+"I can't! I can't! Leave me here--I am so ill! I am going to die!"
+
+"Ye air to come," commanded Tess. "And, if ye will, I'll lug ye when ye
+can't walk. Women like ye don't die, and Mother Moll will come to the
+hut to-day."
+
+"Mother Moll!" echoed Teola. "Mother Moll! Oh, you mean the witch? And
+will she--oh, will she help me so they will never know?"
+
+"Yep. And now shut up. Ye air a woman, and was borned for things like
+this. If ye walks a spell, then I lugs ye across the gully."
+
+"And my father and mother--"
+
+"Shut up, I says," ordered Tess. "It ain't no time to think of fathers
+and mothers. They don't know nothin' about it, does they?"
+
+"No," said Teola. "They have been in Europe with my little sister for
+nearly four months. I've been alone all summer, with Rebecca, our maid,
+and Frederick, my brother--"
+
+Her lips closed over a moan of pain, and she did not continue her
+sentence.
+
+Through the forest, over the gullies, and down toward the Skinner hut
+the two girls went slowly, Teola whimpering in her agony of soul, and
+Tess carrying her when she could not walk. Only once did Tessibel stop.
+
+"Hold a minute," she said gruffly, releasing Teola. "One of the dum
+thorns went clean through my toe.... It air out now.... Come along! What
+does I care, if it does bleed!"
+
+Teola drew a sigh of relief when they crept under the willow tree. The
+hut was in its usual dirty condition, the Bible in the accustomed place
+on the stool. The suffering girl did not notice that the table was
+littered with the remains of the dinner, and Tess put her in Daddy's
+bed, and said, with a compelling, forceful glance:
+
+"Ye air to stay there till I gets back.... And remember we air a woman,
+and women, when they loves men, keep their mouths shet.... Even if their
+man air dead.... Ye won't let anyone hear ye a-yelpin' while I air gone,
+will ye?"
+
+"No, no! Go quickly, Tessibel," murmured Teola. "Go quickly!"
+
+This time the briars and thorns pierced the squatter's bare feet without
+avail. Tess was rushing away upon an errand of love. Was she not perhaps
+saving the sister of the student from death--keeping from him a
+knowledge that would rend his heart? Since that night when Daddy Skinner
+had been taken to prison, Tess had but once visited Mother Moll. In her
+impatience, she did not wait to reach the hut.
+
+"Mother Moll!" she shouted, bounding across the gully. "Come out! Tess
+air here!"
+
+"Come in," commanded a cracked voice.
+
+Tessibel entered the shanty, finding Mother Moll stretched out on the
+bed, with a corn-cob pipe between her shriveled lips.
+
+"Get up from there, Ma Moll," ordered Tess, "and come to my hut. I wants
+ye."
+
+"It air too hot," muttered the witch. "I ain't a-movin' from the bed
+to-day."
+
+Tessibel bent over the wrinkled face, and looked determinedly into the
+blood-shot eyes.
+
+"I got someone what air sick," she exclaimed, grasping the hag's arm
+forcibly. "Ye air to come with me.... See? And if ye does come, I gives
+ye a mess of eels every week for a year--and more'n that. I'll pick yer
+berries from yer own patch, if ye can't pick them yerself."
+
+"Who air a-ailin'?" asked the old woman, crawling out of bed.
+
+"Never mind. Come along."
+
+It was a strange couple, forging the gorges and gullies, pushing aside
+the brambles to the lane almost opposite Minister Graves' home. In the
+summer's quietude, the squatter girl could mark the long chairs on the
+Dominie's front porch, and the hammock sagging from the hooks in the
+corner. No one saw the witch and Tessibel enter the hut; no one heard
+the girl slip the night lock into its fastening. Teola, frightened and
+miserable, raised her head, and looked once at Mother Moll, then dropped
+it again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Dusk had fallen over the lake, closing the shanty within the shadows of
+the weeping willows. Mother Moll had departed before sunset. Tessibel
+had four candles streaming their twinkling light upon the bare floor of
+the hut, and was busying herself at the stove. A voice from the bed
+faintly whispered:
+
+"Did you tell Rebecca what I told you to? Tell me again what you said to
+her."
+
+"I telled that ye was to stay to-night with a girl below the ragged
+rocks, and she didn't give a dum. She air only a workin' girl; she ain't
+yer own flesh and blood."
+
+"And the baby, Tessibel? May I see my baby?"
+
+"Nope, not to-night."
+
+"Please, Tessibel! Please! Are his eyes grey, and has he dark hair on
+his head?"
+
+"If ye don't shut up, I takes the brat to Ma Moll.... Now, then, drink
+this tea, and eat this bread. To-morry ye has to go home, ye know."
+
+"But my baby, Tess! What shall I do about my baby?"
+
+The nervous whining in Teola's voice brought Tess over to her. The
+squatter forced the soiled blanket over the young shoulders.
+
+"If ye sleeps to-night, I tells ye in the mornin' about the brat....
+Sleep, now."
+
+For more than an hour Tessibel sat with Teola Graves' baby clasped
+tightly in her arms, moving back and forth silently in the wooden
+rocker. A broken board squeaked now and then under the girl's weight,
+but she slipped the chair into other positions, and rocked on.
+
+She marveled at the child born but that afternoon. The eyes were large
+and grey. Locks of damp hair fell over a wrinkled, broad brow, giving
+the infant the expression of an old, old man. In the light Tess could
+mark every feature. She had never seen a babe so small, and so
+sickly-looking. She ran her fingers over the right cheek, tenderly,
+rubbing down a livid mark that extended from the dark hair to the upper
+part of the breast. It was the birth-mark of fire, red and gleaming
+crimson as the brightest blood, and it had been because of this mark
+that Tess had refused the young mother's request to see her child.
+Perhaps in the morning it would be gone. If not, Teola would be stronger
+and better able to bear the shock. After wrapping the infant closely in
+a warm cloth, Tess took it in her arms, and laid herself down beside
+Teola; and the trio slept as all youth sleeps, until the morning sun had
+been shining long in the window.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Be ye better now?" asked Tess, trying to stand Teola on her feet.
+
+"I am dreadfully ill yet," was the whispered answer. "But I want to see
+my baby.... And what shall I do with him? Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"He air a-sleepin' now," replied the squatter. "And he stays here with
+me, ye hear? Ye can't take him to yer pa's house, and the hut air good
+enough for him to live in, if it was good enough for him to be borned
+in."
+
+"You mean, Tessibel, that you will care for my baby, until I can
+arrange something for him?--So that my father and mother may not know--"
+
+"Er the student," broke in Tess.
+
+"My brother! Tess, my brother Frederick! He must not know. It would kill
+him--and me. You, Tess,--you swear that you won't tell him?"
+
+"I ain't a-tellin' him nothin'. I swears it, ye hear? I swears I won't
+tell the student nothin' about the little kid."
+
+"Of course you won't," answered Teola weakly. "I trust you, Tessibel."
+
+There was a deep questioning in the squatter girl's eyes as they rested
+upon the quiet bundle on the foot of the bed. How could a mother leave
+her child in the care of a stranger?--leave him in a squatter's hut,
+where the rats scurried hungrily about the floor, and the bats fluttered
+among the ceiling rafters!
+
+"Don't look like that, Tessibel!" Teola burst in. "You understand, don't
+you, that I can't tell them?--that I can't take him home? My brother
+loves me better than any other person in the world, and I love him as
+much as he does me."
+
+The blood suffused the drawn face to the hair line.
+
+"And I want to see my baby before I go," she pleaded.
+
+Tess shook her shoulders, and hesitated awkwardly.
+
+"He air to sleep.... And ye ain't no business a-wakin' him up, nuther."
+
+Suddenly a dread flashed into Teola's mind.
+
+"Tessibel, he is.... There is something the matter with him!" She was
+fully dressed, tremblingly holding the post of the bed for support.
+"There is something the matter with him!" she gasped again.
+
+"Nothin' that air a-hurtin' him," soothed Tess. "He air marked with the
+fire what killed his pa, that air all.... See, t'ain't much."
+
+She lifted the babe from the bed and held him up. The covering dropped
+from the shoulder, exposing the brilliant scar.
+
+"Not much," moaned Teola. "Not much! Poor little baby Dan!"
+
+The mark gleamed out on the wizened old face, the deep veins in the thin
+skin showing darkly. To Tess it looked more horrible than in the night
+before. But she had to reassure the mother--the little mother who,
+before that year, had never known one twinge of agony.
+
+"It sure goes away sometime," said Tess.
+
+Teola took the infant in her arms for a moment only. Moving the child
+caused the large grey eyes to open, the mouth widening into a yawn.
+
+"Take him, Tess!" mourned the mother. "Oh, I--I want to die. Dear God!
+Dear, good God! Dan!... Dan, I want to come to you!"
+
+In the presence of such grief Tessibel was silent.
+
+She covered the infant again, and for some minutes she sat by the bed,
+with her fingers tightly pressed in those of Teola. It was a tragedy
+with which Tess could not cope. So she remained there until Teola cried
+herself into a quietude that left an expression of wonder, knowledge and
+sorrow. As Tess led her up the hill to the minister's cottage, she saw
+that tears would come no more; that the mother would never know the
+emotions of a girl again. Teola resembled the squatter, Myra, with her
+pain-drawn face.
+
+"She falled from the rocks," glibly lied Tess, as Rebecca placed the
+pale girl in a chair. "Better put her in bed.... She has a bad ankle....
+She couldn't walk much."
+
+The frightened maid quickly responded to the advice of the squatter.
+
+"She found me," pleaded Teola, "and you will let her come once in a
+while to see me?"
+
+Rebecca hesitated.
+
+"Your mother and father--"
+
+"They are not here yet, and I am so lonely and ill. Let Tessibel come
+once in a while!"
+
+"I have my doubts," said the maid, and she followed Tess down the long
+stairs, just to see that the fisher-girl did not steal anything. Let
+that dirty squatter come into a minister's home! No, not again, vowed
+Rebecca inwardly. It was only the girl's duty to save a human being from
+a fall over the rocks. Tess turned and faced the woman when they were
+alone.
+
+"I air a-comin' again," she said slyly, "and I ain't one what tells that
+ye slides from the house every night to the lake with Deacon Hall's
+coachman, I ain't. I has a tongue in my head, I has, but it ain't
+a-waggin' 'bout no coachman and yerself."
+
+Tess saw instantly that her point was gained. That anyone had seen her
+meet the man by the light of the summer's moon had never entered
+Rebecca's head for one moment.
+
+"And I don't steal from the minister's house, nuther," assured Tess,
+with a smile. "I brings ye some berries to-morry, and gives them to ye.
+And ye can keep the Dominie's money for a rag of a ribbon to light the
+coachman's eyes with."
+
+She smiled again, and left Rebecca, with wide-open mouth, gaping after
+the scurrying figure.
+
+In the hut Tessibel lifted the blanket from the scarred face, and
+contemplated it earnestly. She had forgotten all save the babe and the
+student. She knew that the Longman brat had sugar rags--she had arranged
+them herself many a time. Tearing a piece from the cloth that was
+wrapped about the child, she went to the shore, and washed it clean in
+the blue lake water. Filling it with bread and a liberal amount of
+sugar, Tessibel soaked it in some warm milk, and put the sop-rag into
+the small, gaping mouth. She must make a place for him to sleep during
+his stay in the shanty. Daddy would not need all the old coats hanging
+about the wall, and the blankets were longer than was necessary. From
+the back of the stove the squatter dragged a small box, and turned the
+splinters of wood into the fire. This, too, she washed in the lake,
+setting it in the sun to dry. From one of the hooks among the rafters
+she took a large-sized grape-basket, which also received its cleansing
+treatment. After a bit of blanket had been cut from those on Skinner's
+bed, Tess slipped the infant into the basket, to see if it were long
+enough. The tiny feet did mot reach the bottom.
+
+"Ye air to sleep many a day in it," she said aloud, "for yer legs ain't
+as big as a rabbit's, and yer face ain't any beautifuller than Ma
+Moll's.... But ye air a livin' and that air somethin'."
+
+Hardly had she got the words from her lips and fitted the cover securely
+before the door opened, and Ezra Longman stepped into the hut.
+Tessibel's clear hearing could detect an unmistakable smack from the
+babe.
+
+"What did ye come for, Ezy?" she asked. "Air Myry all right, and yer
+ma?"
+
+"Yep. I come to see ye to-day. Ben Letts says as how ye air a-goin' to
+marry him some time. Did ye tell him that?"
+
+"Did he tell yer that?" asked Tess, instead of answering the boy's
+question.
+
+"Nope. Jake Brewer says as how Ben telled him one night that when yer
+daddy air dead ye air goin' to his shanty. Ye ain't, air ye, Tess?" The
+pale eyes of the young squatter boy darkened under the emotion that rose
+in his breast. He looked at the girl he had loved since she had taken
+her first step. Every wicked act he had committed he laid fretfully at
+the door of her refusal to marry him.
+
+Tessibel watched Ezra, waiting for him to speak again. She feared the
+child would cry out--feared that the dark secret of the improvised
+cradle would get into the hands of her enemies.
+
+"Daddy ain't a-goin' to die," she said, quietly giving the grape-basket
+a touch with her foot, and deftly shoving it under the bed. Another
+smack told her that the infant was awake.
+
+"And, what air more, Ezy, I ain't a-goin' to marry Ben Letts, or nobody
+else, for a lot of years.... I air a-goin' to wait here for Daddy."
+
+"And if yer Daddy goes dead?" inquired Ezra longingly.
+
+"If he goes dead," she interrupted, lifting her unfathomable eyes, "if
+he air hanged, then I comes to the Longman shanty and marries yer....
+Now go, dum quick!"
+
+She had quieted one of her enemies with a promise which she would never
+be forced to keep. For was not the student's God going to save Daddy
+Skinner? And wasn't she going to Auburn prison to see him? That clean
+skirt in the corner, washed and dried in the sun, Tess was going to
+wear. She was going with the great man from the hill. Suddenly came the
+thought of the babe. With whom could she leave it? Her face whitened
+with grief.... Of course she could not go now.
+
+She turned again to Ezra, who was loitering at the door.
+
+"Ye go now, Ezy, and tell Myra I ain't a-comin' this evenin', and I
+hopes her brat won't be yelping too much."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day Tess appeared at the back of the minister's cottage, with a
+basket slung over her arm. Rebecca ushered her up the stairs to the
+pretty blue room. Teola moved her head languidly, but, recognizing her
+visitor, brightened a little.
+
+"I am so glad you came. Tell me how he is.... I have nearly died to see
+him."
+
+"He air well. Have ye had a doctor?"
+
+"Yes, and I have told him all about it, for I was so sick. I told him
+about you, and he ordered Rebecca to let you come and see me. He is a
+friend of my father's, and will never tell anyone."
+
+Tess walked to the door, and listened; then laid her finger on her lips.
+She raised the basket from the floor, slipped back the cover, and Teola
+Graves was peeping in upon a tiny sleeping face.
+
+"He air a-goin' with me wherever I has to go.... I ain't a-comin' here
+again with him, fearin' some one will know.... I think ye be happier,
+now that ye hes seen his bed--eh? Now I air a-goin', and when ye gets
+well ye can come to the hut to see him. He air gettin' powerful hungry.
+He can smack louder than a dog can holler.... Poor little devil!"
+
+That night, a small figure left the Skinner shanty bent upon an act of
+theft. Up through the lane to the tracks, with a small pail in her hand,
+Tessibel went. The brindle bull capered about her as she slid through
+the wires. Without the slightest compunction, Tessibel returned to the
+shanty with the warm milk which she had taken from one of the fine cows
+at Kennedy's; then by the light of the candle she filled the tin cup,
+and warmed it over the fire. This, too, would have to be sweetened.
+Spoonful after spoonful she emptied into the smacking lips, and, when
+the babe slept, Tess placed it under the blankets, and took up the Bible
+to read of the promises of the student's God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+During the illness of Teola, Tessibel had forgotten that she had
+promised Professor Young she would come some morning to his office in
+Morril Hall on the hill. Two weeks after the birth of the baby, Tess
+filled his small stomach with warm milk, shoved the sugar rag into his
+mouth, hung the child's bed over her arm, and made off toward the
+tracks. The sun was far in the heavens before she stopped at the
+building in which Deforest Young had his office. He was looking from the
+window, and saw her glance about hastily, settling the cover to her
+basket a little closer.
+
+"That child will be my ruination," he muttered, seating himself at the
+desk. "She affects me so strangely that I can't get her out of my mind.
+To bring her to a place of safety.... But what can I do? She won't let
+me help her!"
+
+The thought of Frederick Graves came over him with torture. Was it
+possible for her to love a lad who could not, and did not aid her? If he
+could but guide the girl, he would know who her companions were.
+Tessibel stood in the door, the red curls covering the burden upon her
+arm--one would have thought it was purposely done, if she had not placed
+it carefully in the corner. She awkwardly seated herself in the chair
+Young had placed for her near him.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said he. "I have been looking for you
+for many days."
+
+"I were a comin', but I couldn't.... And I can't go with ye to see
+Daddy."
+
+Her eyes filled with tears, but she hastily wiped them away with her
+sleeve.
+
+"Of course you are going," replied the professor. "I suppose you think
+you can't go in with bare feet. But I will get you a pair of shoes."
+
+"I could get a pair good 'nough for a squatter," Tess assured him, "but
+I can't go."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I can't! I has somethin' to do."
+
+"Can't you do it after you return? Your father will be so disappointed
+if you do not go to him when you have promised."
+
+He was gazing at her keenly. Her eyes dropped upon her folded hands in
+her lap.
+
+"I knows that," she breathed, "but I can't go, just the same."
+
+Young did not persist in the argument.
+
+"It is almost a certainty that your father will get another trial," he
+went on presently. "I shall act as his lawyer, and, little girl, when
+the snow flies again, your father will be home in the cabin with you."
+
+She flashed him a radiant smile through the tears which still clung to
+her lashes. He loved to watch the color coming and going swiftly, and
+the glints thrown into her eyes by the sun.
+
+"It air the student's God what will bring him." She bent eagerly toward
+him, with a quick motion. "Be ye one of the prayin' kind what tells God
+all ye needs? Daddy would have been a-hung by the neck till he was dead,
+only the student telled me how to pray and he air a-prayin', too."
+
+She finished the sentence in a low tone. Young leaned back in his
+chair, grasping at the arms to hide his emotion. The girl was so close
+to him that he could feel her warm, swift-coming breath upon his face.
+How long would he have to suffer over this primitive child? But he loved
+her, and the only course left him was to snatch her from young Graves
+while there was opportunity to see her now and then. Her brown eyes were
+piercing his very soul. The childish excitement upon the upturned face
+almost tempted him to force her into his arms, to awaken the soul
+beneath the soiled jacket, to make the girl into a woman in spite of her
+environment.
+
+"You are still determined to live in the hut?" he said, after clearing
+his throat, and overlooking her question.
+
+"Yep, till Daddy comes home. And then I's a-goin' to make him get offen
+that land, 'cause it ain't his'n. It air Minister Graves'."
+
+"But your father has his squatter's right," put in the lawyer, feeling
+that he was giving the student less chance if he said this. "No one can
+take the place from him."
+
+"He ain't got no right there," she insisted again, "'cause I asks the
+student, and he says as how Daddy can have the ground by the law, but
+that it air a-belongin' to his pappy."
+
+Her face was perfectly grave and serious, and she spoke slowly.
+
+Would the name of Frederick Graves always be flaunted in his face?
+Deforest Young believed that he was beginning to hate the boy. Suddenly
+he leaned over, and touched the bell. It pealed loudly through the
+building. Tess sat up. The bell disturbed her, and she cast her eye upon
+the basket, with a shifting, darting glance. The janitor appeared at the
+door.
+
+"Hyram," said Young, "could you find a vessel which would hold berries
+or fish? I would like to take some home with me."
+
+"I ain't got no fish nor berries," said Tess, rising with a burning
+blush.
+
+"Then what have you in your basket?" asked the lawyer, getting up also.
+"Child, you need not feel badly over the money I give you for the food
+you sell." He was standing beside her when his eyes fell upon the
+waiting janitor. "Never mind, Hyram," he exclaimed, "Miss Tessibel says
+she hasn't anything to sell."
+
+Hyram closed the door before Young spoke again.
+
+"Why won't you let me help you, poor little girl?"
+
+Tess stepped between the professor and the babe, lifting the child's bed
+in one hand.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to-day," she muttered sullenly. "And when I says I
+ain't got nothin', I ain't."
+
+"Then why did you bring that with you?" insisted Young, with a motion of
+his hand. "It is certainly heavy, or you would not have laid it down so
+carefully.... Child, if you won't let me give you anything, please allow
+me to buy the food which you work so hard to get."
+
+His hand fell upon the handle of the grape-basket, but Tessibel's
+remained obstinately on the other side.
+
+"I's a-wantin' ye to help Daddy Skinner," she whispered, with drooping
+lids. "I don't need no help."
+
+At that moment a wail from the infant startled them both. Professor
+Young's hand dropped as if it had been struck. Tess only grasped the
+basket more firmly. Her secret was out. Without a word, she slipped the
+cover from the child's face, and pushed the sugar rag into its mouth.
+
+"Ye can see it ain't no fish," she said stolidly.
+
+"A child!" murmured Young. "Where did you get that baby, Tessibel
+Skinner?"
+
+"He air a little bloke without no one to take care of him, and I has him
+in the basket--that's all."
+
+It seemed for a long time to the man that his brain would burn from the
+fire kindled in his heart. The sight of the marked baby horrified him,
+but he took the basket from her hands, and placed her forcibly in a
+chair. Tess allowed him to do so without speaking.
+
+Young set his teeth fiercely.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, do you want to save your father--from hanging?"
+
+"Yep," she answered, her eyes roving toward the babe.
+
+"Then listen to me. Is that child yours?"
+
+Her glance sought his for a twinkling, as if she thought he had lost his
+mind.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Nope."
+
+She was not disloyal to Teola in saying this.
+
+"I have offered you all the help a man can give to another human being."
+Here his voice broke a little. "All I have offered to do for you, you
+have refused. Now, if you want me to continue to help your father, you
+are to tell me whose child it is."
+
+Before the vivid mind of the girl rose the handsome, manly face of the
+student. Her labor for the child and its mother had been wholly for
+Frederick's sake--not for anything in the world would she have consented
+to do what she had done, if it had not been to save him pain.
+
+"Well, 'tain't mine," she drawled after a time, "and it ain't belonging
+to anyone ye know. It air only a brat what ain't nothin' but a
+grape-basket to sleep in. And now ye says that if I wants my Daddy saved
+from the rope, I must tell yer whose it air. I says it ain't mine. And I
+says as how ye knows a new little bloke when ye sees one. Here it air!
+And if ye don't know that it ain't mine, then ye air a bigger fool
+lawyer than I thinks ye air."
+
+She was speaking rapidly, and had again slipped the cover from the babe,
+lifting it from its bed. The fire scar was uppermost, and the loud
+smacking of the half-naked child caused the man to sink into his seat.
+The blood-red cheeks of the squatter denoted perfect health. The eyes
+were wide, confiding and entreating. Young held out his hands and took
+it from her. Then, for the second time in her life, Tess noted emotion
+in a man. Once in Daddy Skinner, in the jail--she had given way before
+it. And now in the strong friend of her father, who laid his face on the
+body of the infant, and sobbed.
+
+In an instant Tess was on her knees before him.
+
+"Air ye a-blattin' 'cause ye thinks it air my brat? Aw, ye knows it
+ain't. Ye knows I air but a-takin' care of it till its ma can. If I
+swears by the student's God, will ye believe?"
+
+Young rose, white and nervous, from his chair. With tender fingers he
+placed the little one in the receptacle, set the rag securely between
+its lips, and turned to Tess.
+
+"I believe you, child," he said wearily. "I thought at first--oh, it
+was an awful thought for me ... because I love you, Tessibel."
+
+Tess blinked her eyes as if she were looking into a powerful sun. The
+strong form of the lawyer was bending over her. She lifted her face to
+his, not realizing the greatness of his love. She only knew that he was
+her friend--Daddy's friend. She grasped his hands in hers, kissed them
+tearfully, and took up the basket.
+
+"I were a-goin' with ye on Thursday, but I can't now. Thank ye for
+believin' me, and I'll work as hard as ye says I must, and if I air a
+bad brat, then I air sorry."
+
+She had gone out, crying bitterly, before he could say another word; but
+a happier feeling was in his heart than had been for many weeks. She had
+promised to work, and in that promise had failed, for the first time, to
+utter the name of Frederick Graves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Tess air a-gettin' stylish," said Mrs. Longman, rattling the newspaper
+one Sunday morning. "Her name air right here, in print."
+
+"What do it say, Mammy?" asked Ezra, lighting his pipe with a piece of
+burning paper.
+
+"As how Tessie air a-goin' to see her Daddy, with the big man on the
+hill."
+
+Ben Letts shoved his big boots from one side to the other, plainly
+disturbed by the news.
+
+"Folks on the hill air a-doin' better if they minds their own business,
+I air a-sayin'," grumbled he. "There ain't no reason why Orn Skinner
+can't go dead, like other squatters has before him."
+
+His red bandana handkerchief sought the blurred blue eye. A pair of
+pale gray ones from above the smoking pipe of Ezra Longman settled upon
+Ben Lett's face, with a tightening of the thick lids.
+
+"Tessibel air so sure that her father air innocent that I hopes they
+prove it," Myra Longman said, trundling her babe to and fro, in the huge
+wooden rocker.
+
+"There be some folks as knows more than they'll tell," put in Ezra,
+keeping his eyes upon the squatter Ben.
+
+"And there air folks what thinks they knows a dum sight more than they
+can prove," replied Ben.
+
+The great white eye jerked open, the crossed blue one twisting to bring
+Ezra Longman within its vision.
+
+An expression of deadening hate flashed for a moment across the red
+face, and the white eye closed again. Myra had seen the by-play, and sat
+up with a gasp. What was there between Ben and her brother?
+
+Placing the child upon her mother's lap, she stirred the stew bubbling
+in the pot on the stove.
+
+"Scoot, and get an armful of wood, Ezy," ordered she; and no sooner had
+the tall boy disappeared than she slipped after him.
+
+She stood beside him at the wood pile, staring down upon the crouched
+form.
+
+"Hold a minute, Ezy," commanded she.
+
+Ezra stood up.
+
+"What air the matter with yer and Ben Letts?"
+
+"Nothin' ain't the matter."
+
+"There air," insisted Myra, "and it air Tess what air a-doin' it. Ben
+Letts air a-lovin' Tessibel. And ye hates him."
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Tess ain't for none of ye! She ain't like other squatters. The man from
+the hill says as how Tess can read better'n most gals can, and she has
+done it all herself."
+
+"Don't care," grunted Ezra, stooping again. "Ben Letts can keep his
+hands offen her, or I tells what I knows."
+
+This was Myra's chance. She grasped the boy's arm, and twisted him about
+so that he faced her.
+
+"What can ye tell?"
+
+"Somethin'."
+
+"About Skinner?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Ye'd hang Ben Letts if ye could. But ye won't, ye see? Ye'd not hang a
+man what ought to be in yer own fambly, would ye?"
+
+"If I tells Pa Satisfied that ye said that, Myry," muttered the boy, "he
+wouldn't wait for the law to handle Ben Letts--he'd shoot his dum head
+offen him quicker than a cat can blink."
+
+"I knows a hull lot about you, Ezy," warned Myra, "and if ye tells on
+Ben, I tells on yer, too. I loves Ben Letts, I does!"
+
+"Bid him keep from Tess, then," answered Ezra sulkily, filling his arms
+with wood. Myra looked after him fearfully.
+
+The trouble between her child's father and her brother had come upon her
+so suddenly that she had given Ezra another hold upon the man she loved,
+by telling him her secret.
+
+That afternoon she followed Letts a short distance along the shore
+toward his cabin. When out of sight of her own home, she ran forward.
+
+"Ben! Ben!" she called.
+
+The fisherman turned impatiently.
+
+"What air ye wantin', Myry?"
+
+"Be you and Ezy hatin' each other?"
+
+"He ain't nothin' but a brat," replied Ben scornfully. "Let him keep out
+of my way, or I fixes him."
+
+"He air a-sayin' the same thing," cautioned Myra. "Ye air a-seekin'
+Tess? He says as how ye air to keep from her."
+
+She was walking beside him, her red hands rolled in her gingham apron.
+The hot sun shone on her colorless hair, which was drawn back from the
+plain face.
+
+"Ye air a-helpin' him with Tess," Ben grunted presently. "If ye ever
+wants me to come to yer hut, keep yer mouth shet, and let me and Ezy
+fight it out. Do ye hear?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Then scoot home now."
+
+Myra turned, and then stopped.
+
+"Ben," she called softly again.
+
+"What be ye a-wantin' now?"
+
+"If I keeps Ezy away from Tess, will ye--?"
+
+"Ye air a-wantin' me to do somethin' for ye, Myry?" Ben answered, coming
+toward her eagerly.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"What?"
+
+"If ye'll kiss the brat when Mammy and Satisfied ain't a-lookin'--"
+
+"Scoot home, I says. Scoot home," shot from Ben's lips.
+
+And home she went, this girl of but eighteen with an old woman's face,
+a tired young heart beating lovingly for the brat in the box and--for
+its father.
+
+Her mother was still spelling from the paper when she returned.
+Satisfied was stretched on the long wooden bench outside the door. Ezra,
+with his cap pulled over his nose, sat sulking in the corner. Ben was a
+powerful enemy. The boy knew that the fisherman would stop at nothing to
+gain an end. But Tess had told him that she wouldn't marry Ben, and Myra
+had as good as told him that the squatter was the cause of her trouble.
+He knew another secret that would bring a halt upon Ben's pursuance of
+Tessibel Skinner. He had told Myra to warn him. Suddenly he rose from
+his chair, set his cap far back on his head, and disappeared into the
+underbrush that lay thick back of the hut.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cause of the hatred between Ezra Longman and Ben Letts was quietly
+eating her dinner. Teola's child lay smacking the sugar from the wet
+rag. The large, knowing gray eyes were directed toward the sunlight upon
+the wall, the blood-red scar shining more crimson in its rays.
+
+Tess was picking the flesh from the spine of a fish, throwing the bones
+on the floor. Youthful as she was, she was already beginning to show
+fatigue from staying awake nights, and caring for her dark secret in the
+daytime.
+
+With the alertness of an Indian she heard the crackling of twigs in the
+underbrush. She closed the door, slipped the lock and tucked the babe in
+the basket, and waited. Somebody was coming from the hill above,
+breaking the branches as he ran. It was Ben Letts, probably. A light
+tap came upon the door. To Ben she would not open, but, glancing at the
+window, she saw Ezra Longman's face pressed against the pane.
+
+Slipping back the lock, she flung open the door.
+
+"Ezy, ye air allers a-comin' when I wants to read the Bible. I tells ye
+to stay away from the shanty, and ye won't!"
+
+Would the babe remain quiet until the pale squatter boy had departed?
+
+"Ben Letts air a-comin' to see ye to-day," Ezra returned sulkily, "and I
+comed, too."
+
+"Did he tell ye as how he was a-comin'?"
+
+"Nope; but I knowed."
+
+"He can't come in," replied Tess, crossly. "I ain't no notion for
+company, nohow.... Air the men a-nettin' to-night?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Air Ben a-goin' with ye?"
+
+"Yep; Ben has a heavy hand, and nets air hard to haul."
+
+Scarcely had the words fallen from his lips before Letts appeared at the
+door. Both boy and girl saw him, and Tessibel rose up.
+
+"Sunday ain't a good day for ye to be comin' here, Ben," she said
+sullenly. "I air a-wishin' to be alone to-day."
+
+In spite of the girl's flashing eyes, Ben stepped in, glared at Ezra,
+and took the stool, from which he moved the Bible with trembling hands.
+Tess had never been quite so frightened--never so fearful of her own
+squatter men-folk. Ben and Ezra had come to stay a long time, for each
+had dragged off his cap, leaving his dirty head exposed. Still the babe
+slept on, no tell-tale smack coming from it. Tess lifted the Bible,
+determined to let the men sit as she read, curled up in the wooden
+rocker, humming as she swung to and fro. A shadow dropped long upon the
+shanty floor. In the doorway stood Teola Graves, tall, thin, and
+distressingly pale. Tessibel had not seen her since the day she had
+carried the babe to the hill-house. That was three whole weeks ago. Tess
+moved awkwardly from the chair, motioned for Ezra Longman to get up, and
+stuttered out an invitation for the girl to be seated.
+
+Teola shook her head, and Tess noted her quick survey of the hut.
+
+"I can't sit down," she said weakly, although she allowed Tess to place
+her in the chair. "I have been ill for some time, but I could not forget
+how kind you were to me when you found me on the rocks, with my ankle
+sprained."
+
+The white eye of Ben followed the blue one in its twisting search for
+the minister's daughter. Teola Graves had lost her sparkling beauty; had
+lost the vivid coloring and the shy expression of youth that had rested
+in the dark eyes until the death of Dan Jordan. From her face Ben's one
+eye turned to the beautiful squatter, and he settled back with a firmer
+resolve that she should be his. Tess stood thinking rapidly. She made no
+attempt to introduce the strange trio.
+
+Then she allowed her fingers to come in contact with Teola's shoulder,
+pressing into the girl's mind some message.
+
+"Ye be a-goin' to see the sick woman to-day, ain't ye?"
+
+Tess could scarcely utter the words. Would Teola understand what she
+wanted to impress upon her? Her fingers sought the shoulder again.
+
+"Yes," came the low answer.
+
+"Might I ask ye to take her a bit of fish, what I promised her? I has
+company now, and can't go. And I thought as how if you was a-goin', ye
+might do it for me."
+
+She stooped and raised the grape-basket in her hand, tendering it to
+Teola. The white lips became paler--the young mother understood.
+
+"It air a nice day, and the sun will do ye a heap of good," explained
+Tess. "If I didn't have company, I wouldn't ask ye."
+
+Ben Letts stared sharply. Ezra Longman stupidly shuffled his feet upon
+the floor. Teola accepted the basket, and answered Tess with meaning:
+
+"I'll take it for you, if you will wait until I return with the money.
+The fish are to be paid for, aren't they?"
+
+"Yep; come back when ye can. I allers need the money."
+
+For some minutes Tessibel stood in the door, watching the tall figure of
+the Dominie's daughter as she struggled through the brambles surrounding
+the mud-cellar creek, until she was lost to view.
+
+Tess took a long breath. Ben and Ezra must go before the babe returned.
+She set herself to rid the shanty of the two men. Without speaking, she
+took the Bible, and repeated slowly aloud some of the passages she knew
+best. Both fishermen stared at her in admiration. To read and not spell
+out almost every word was more than Ezra's own mother could do, and she
+was the best-educated person in the settlement.
+
+"'But I know ye that ye have not the love of God in ye,'" read Tess.
+
+Ben Letts broke in upon the girl's voice:
+
+"Tessie, will ye row on the lake after the goin' down of the sun? I'll
+take my fiddle.... Ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"
+
+"Nope," she replied, her eyes still upon the book. "'I am come in my
+Father's name, and ye--'"
+
+Ezra interrupted the unfinished verse.
+
+"Tessibel, will ye go to the meetin' at Haytes'? The man says as how the
+squatters air welcome."
+
+"Nope.... 'receive me not,'" read Tess. "'If another shall come--'"
+
+Ben burst forth with an eager invitation:
+
+"Will ye come to Glenwood for some ice-cream, Tessie? It air gooder'n
+pie on hot nights; and ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"
+
+"Nope.... 'In His own name, ye will--'"
+
+"Ye don't like no ice-cream, do ye, Tessie?" put in Ezra Longman.
+
+"And ye don't like no meetin's on the hill, eh, Brat?" chuckled Ben.
+
+Suddenly the Bible flew into the corner, and the girl, with an oath,
+jumped to her feet. Neither man had ever seen her in such a temper. She
+grasped the broom.
+
+"Get out of here!" she screamed. "I don't want nothin' but to be let
+alone! See? Scoot! Or I'll bang hell out'n both of ye."
+
+She virtually swept her callers into the sun, and slammed the door in
+their faces. With remorse in her heart, she sought the place where she
+had thrown the beloved Bible. One page was quite torn, across--the back
+badly bent.
+
+"It do beat the devil how I could be such a bad brat as to hurt ye like
+that," she cogitated, smoothing out the crumpled pages with loving
+fingers. "That damn Ezy and Ben air worser than fleas. But I air
+a-believin' that they won't be comin' back just yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Tess closed the door of her shanty, looked about to see if anyone were
+watching her movements, then she, too, broke into the high weeds that
+surrounded the running brook under the mud cellar. Her little ruse in
+giving the child to its mother delighted her. She would find Teola, and
+bring her and the babe back to the shanty. Softly she parted the
+branches that hid the spot where she had first seen the Dominie's
+daughter. Through the maze of brambles she saw the girl, with the child
+clasped closely in her arms. The cloth in which Tess had wrapped it had
+fallen from the little shoulders, leaving them white, save for the
+blood-red mark of fire. Teola lifted the infant, and kissed it
+passionately, bending her head over it, praying. Tess could not enter
+upon such a holy scene. She sank down upon the turf. The basket yawned
+upon a bed of moss, its flannel rags hanging over the edge. Teola was
+making the babe ready to return to its bed, when Tess slipped under the
+branches of the short sumac trees, and entered the clearing.
+
+"Come back to the shanty," she said. "Ye be here too long."
+
+"I can't. I must go home, Tessibel.... I could hardly get away as it
+was. Oh, Tess, isn't he beautiful?... Don't you think the mark will soon
+go away? What makes him open his mouth so much? Possibly the sugar rag
+is too large."
+
+"Nope, 'tain't that. He be tired, and that air what makes him gape like
+that. Wait until he gets some bigness. He air little yet."
+
+"I haven't asked you, Tess," and Teola turned troubled eyes upon the
+squatter, "I haven't been able to ask you how you feed him. And where do
+you get the milk?... Oh, if I only had some money! When mother is home,
+I do get a little. But Rebecca won't give me a cent. Tessibel, where do
+you get the milk?"
+
+The babe was still clasped in her arms.
+
+"I crib it from the cows at Kennedy's. They all has too much for their
+calves, anyhow."
+
+"You mean you steal it, Tess?" asked Teola fearfully. "Oh, Tessibel! Oh!
+Oh, Tess, Tess, how good you are!"
+
+"I ain't good," Tess retorted. "It ain't good to steal, air it? And
+squatters ain't never good, they ain't. But the brat's got to eat, ain't
+he? If I ain't got no milk, then I has to crib it. See?"
+
+Bitter tears were falling upon the head of little Dan. They were the
+mother's first tears since that day when Tess had led her up the hill to
+the summer cottage.
+
+"But Kennedy will shut his cows up soon," announced the squatter. "Then
+I don't know what to do. The brat air too little to eat fish, he air."
+
+Suddenly Teola conceived an idea.
+
+"If I should put out a little milk behind the house, in a pail, could
+you come after it, Tessibel?"
+
+"Yep," replied Tess eagerly. "I could crib it from your yard, if ye'll
+let me."
+
+"Yes, yes; that's the way to do," replied Teola, with a faint smile. "If
+I can't get the milk out, you go into the kitchen. Simply take all you
+can get. Take all you want. My father and mother will be home soon.
+They know by this time I am ill. My brother also gets back from camping
+at the same time. You see how careful I shall have to be, Tessibel. And
+in September, we go back to the city, for school always takes us home
+then. If I could only have my own baby. My own precious baby!"
+
+Tessibel grunted. Teola misunderstood her.
+
+"Oh, I am grateful to you, dear! I think that you are the best girl in
+all the world. So does my brother Frederick. He says--"
+
+She stooped to cover the child, her voice ceasing.
+
+The babe had been carefully tucked in.
+
+"He's a been sayin' what?" The tones of the squatter were eager, her
+eyes so bright that Teola did not answer for a moment.
+
+"He says that there is no girl as good as you, and that your faith in
+God is what he would rather have than anything else in the world.... Oh,
+Tess, if I could only believe, and be sure that soon the baby and I
+could go to--his father!"
+
+"If ye asks, ye can go," replied Tess solemnly. "The student says what
+ye asks with faith ye'll get. Ain't that enough to prove it?"
+
+This fell reverently from the lips of the girl. Faith in Frederick
+rather than faith in God had given birth to her believing soul. But
+neither girl realized it. Both were silent for some minutes. Teola was
+looking dreamily at the opposite hill, the basket with its precious
+burden already hanging on the squatter's arm. Tess had learned that such
+loud smacks as the infant was giving were indicative of hunger. So she
+made a move to go.
+
+"I takes him back to feed him. He air hungry."
+
+"Oh, Tess, if I could only feed him! If I could only always have him! I
+wish--I wish I were a squatter. Then I would face the world with my
+baby.... Oh, I am so unhappy and ill!"
+
+True, she was ill, for there came to Tessibel's ears a cough that echoed
+against the rocks with the familiar sound of death in it. It sounded
+like that of a fisherwoman she had known in a shanty below the great
+rocks, who had died and been taken to the Potter's field.
+
+"I air a-prayin' every day," said Tess, with a lump in her throat, "that
+ye be taken with the brat to the sky--to the brat's pa what ye loves....
+Air that the prayin' ye wants?"
+
+Teola nodded, and Tess, smiling tenderly, hesitated, and whispered:
+
+"The student's God can do anything He wants to. Asks Him to let ye go
+'cause ye be sick, and the brat air sick, too, and--the winter'll be
+cold for him."
+
+She touched the handle on her arm lightly, turned, and disappeared.
+
+Teola sat for some moments dry-eyed, looking at the high hill across the
+blue water, thinking of the next few weeks, and of how she and the babe
+would be called away. If she only had the precious uplifting faith of
+Tessibel! Something must come to her and the baby. Her stern father, who
+hated Tessibel Skinner with all his heart, must never know of the little
+Dan. Her mother, weary and nervous, would go to her grave from the
+shock; and Frederick--
+
+Teola straightened at the thought of her brother. He would help her in
+all things, even in the tragedy that now covered her life. Of that
+Teola felt sure, but the humiliation would be too great. Better die
+apart from her child. With another racking cough, she turned her face
+toward home, two hectic spots shining clear and red upon the white
+cheeks. Rebecca silently helped her to bed.
+
+That night, at ten o'clock, after Tess had silenced the child in her
+arms and Teola had lost her nervousness in a stupor, three boats shot
+from different points of the west shore, and quietly oared a path
+through the moonlit lake toward the netting place.
+
+The occupants of one boat were Satisfied Longman and his son. In another
+Jake Brewer sat, alone. In the third Ben Letts puffed upon his pipe. His
+thoughts were upon the one person he desired--Tess. Like most of
+mankind, he wanted what he could not get; wanted the girl who turned a
+mocking, beautiful face toward him and used such a bitter tongue. Tess
+was responsible for the scars upon his face, but he would feel them well
+carried if he gained the girl--and tamed her. That Tess was a devoted
+admirer of the student Graves made her none the less desirable. Ben
+dipped his oars with dexterous aptitude and shot under the shadow of the
+trees. An instant later, his boat was beside those of the other
+squatters, and he was standing with his hand upon the north reel. Out
+into the lake the net was carried by Satisfied Longman and Jake Brewer.
+Ben could see the tall, thin form of Ezra through the shadows, guiding
+the ropes as they slipped through his fingers. Here was a boy aspiring
+to the love of Tessibel Skinner. Ben heard the swish of the net far out
+in the lake as it took to the silent waters, heard the dipping of the
+oars, and saw the boats strike for the shore. Then Ezra came toward him,
+at the command of his father, Satisfied Longman.
+
+During that evening, Deforest Young was calling upon Deacon Hall. He
+refused the Deacon's invitation to row him to the city.
+
+"Thanks," said he, "but the night is delightful. I think I shall walk. I
+shall go by the shore and skirt to the tracks at the Hoghole."
+
+He failed to say, however, that his reason for walking was that he
+desired to catch a glimpse of the red-haired Tess. He had not seen her
+since the discovery of the new-born babe.
+
+The candle was lighted in the Skinner hut, and he tapped gently. For an
+instant there was no response, He knew the girl was at home--there had
+been a sudden discontinuance of a humming when he knocked.
+
+"Miss Skinner, it is I--Professor Young," he called. "If it is too late,
+I will come again."
+
+The door was promptly thrown open.
+
+"Come in," said Tess with a smile. "I thought as how it were someone
+else."
+
+"I have been at Deacon Hall's," explained he. "They agree with me that
+you ought to go and see your father. I did not tell them why you could
+not. Where is the little child?"
+
+Tess glanced at the babe.
+
+"I keeps him in the basket or the box in the daytime, but nights I takes
+him to bed with me. The rats be so dum thick that one of them big
+fellers would chew the little chap's ear offen him afore I could stop
+it."
+
+She said it so naturally, as if she were speaking of the most ordinary
+thing, that Young felt a hysterical desire to laugh. It was a dreadful
+thought, this of the rat in the box with the babe.
+
+"Are the men netting to-night?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.
+
+"Yep, they be."
+
+"I suppose there is no stopping it," sighed Young; "and they run such
+dreadful risks. But, if there were no laws about it, there would be no
+fish left in the lake."
+
+Tessibel's brow gathered a thick network of wrinkles. She had heard the
+subject discussed and argued from her babyhood days. The best fish in
+the waters must be kept for the gentlemen who came for sport during the
+season. But the fishermen, who needed bread for their families, were
+forced by the law to go without.
+
+"There oughtn't to be no laws about fishin'," she frowned, in decision.
+"It air wicked, when brats air a-wantin' bread and beans."
+
+Young saw danger ahead in the argument, so he switched to the
+home-coming of the minister's family. From that he again spoke of the
+infant, who was whimpering a little. Tess took him up, and warmed the
+milk.
+
+"I shall go now, child," said Young, rising. "You are tired. You ought
+to go to bed."
+
+"Yep, I air tired, I air," answered Tess, wearily "Good-night."
+
+Once out upon the shore, Young looked back at the hut. It was dark. He
+saw three boats flit silently by him toward the city, as if phantoms
+guided them. They crossed the moonbeams, and Young lost them in the dark
+shadows near the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+Keeping to the water's edge, Professor Young walked rapidly toward
+Ithaca. He knew that further up the shore the fishermen were drawing
+their nets; he did not wish to advance upon them. Since knowing Tessibel
+Skinner, he had become more lenient toward the law-breakers.
+
+He turned into the forest at the side of the Hoghole, but the sound of
+voices brought him to a standstill.
+
+Ezra Longman was shouting out a threat.
+
+"Ye be a-tryin' to get Tess, and I tells ye to look out."
+
+"Shet up!" responded Ben Letts.
+
+"If ye air a-wishin' to live," came the boy's voice again, "I says for
+ye to keep away from her."
+
+"I lives 'cause I lives, and I ain't afraid of ye, nohow."
+
+The Professor barely caught the words, for they were gurgled in the deep
+throat.
+
+"I wants Tess for a woman," Ben broke out, "and for a woman I air
+a-goin' to have her. She'll care for Mammy and me. I gets her. See?"
+
+The north reel stopped turning, but the south one went on silently. Ben
+Letts and Ezra Longman were turning over and over on the sand, at grips
+with each other.
+
+Professor Young uttered no word. Then Ezra's voice came from under Ben's
+big body.
+
+"I tells what I knows about Skinner if ye don't get up and let me be,"
+said he. "I tells--"
+
+Red fingers closed over his throat, and Ezra Longman spoke no more. As
+the south reel kept turning around and around, the rope slackened from
+the north reel in the water; and still Ben Letts held his deadly fingers
+pressed about the neck of his enemy.
+
+Professor Young saw Ben sit up and bend his head to the heart of the
+other fisherman. Then, with a furtive glance about, he lifted the boy in
+his arms, and came toward Young, grunting under his burden. Young drew
+back into the overhanging branches.
+
+The squatter stumbled up the rocks, dragging the boy after him, and with
+a mighty effort lifted him high in the air, and tumbled the body into
+the Hoghole.
+
+In another instant, Ben was back upon the shore at the reel, turning
+swiftly until silently it caught up with the other, just as the net
+dragged in the shallow waters, with bushels of flopping fish inside.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor Young lowered himself into the Hoghole. It was necessary for
+him to use the greatest caution. The lad came to the surface directly
+below him, and the Professor saw him catch at a jagged end of a rock.
+
+"Can you breathe?" asked Young, in a low voice. "And can you help
+yourself a little?"
+
+"Yep," came back the faint answer.
+
+"Then, when I put out my foot, take hold of it, and make no noise, for
+your enemy is but a short distance away, and he meant to kill you. Now,
+come up.... There! Don't lean too heavily upon me, for the rocks are
+slippery."
+
+Without any more conversation, the two men, one wet and weak, with
+bleeding head, with a gash over his right brow, crossed the forest
+toward the tracks. By dint of persuasion, Young forced the boy to give
+his father's name. He had caught enough of the talk between the
+fishermen to know that Tess was the cause of their quarrel. But what
+Ezra had threatened to tell about Skinner he did not know. Two miles
+from Ithaca the boy became light-headed and feeble. His tongue was
+loosened in his delirium, and Young heard a story that made his heart
+beat faster and revived hopes he had considered almost dead. Through the
+moonbeams that slanted to the tracks he imagined he saw a little figure
+skirting the rays, with flying red hair. Not for anything in the world
+would he lose sight of the boy. He had the first clue in the case that
+so interested him. Acquittal for the father of Tessibel Skinner was
+within his grasp. It was late when he dragged Ezra, laughing and
+gibbering, into a private hospital. He installed a nurse beside the boy,
+bidding her keep a record of any delirious mutterings he might make, and
+to observe silence about them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ben Letts wondered what Satisfied Longman would ask about his son. He
+spoke to the father first, his thick brain trying to avoid trouble.
+
+"Ye air both got a lot of nerve to keep three men at the south reel,
+when I air the only one here."
+
+"Where's Ezy?" asked Longman.
+
+There was no anxiety in his voice. He was tumbling the fish into the
+cars.
+
+"I ain't no way a-knowin' where he air. He skipped away, and said how
+he wanted to speak to his pappy, and I ain't seed him since.... Ezy were
+a fool when he was born."
+
+"Gone home, like a sneakin' kid," put in Jake Brewer. "He ain't no
+hankerin' for nettin'. He ain't been right since Orn Skinner shot the
+gamekeeper."
+
+"He air my brat," replied Longman, "and he air good, if he does do what
+he oughtn't to sometimes. I air satisfied with him.... Let's go home."
+
+And, silently, as a spectral fleet, the boats lapped their way back,
+edging the shore carefully.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Far into the night Satisfied Longman and the tired mother waited for
+their boy.
+
+"He'll show up to break'us," soothed the father; but the mother trembled
+with terror. It was the first evening Ezra had missed the netting, and
+he had never been from home for a whole night.
+
+As day after day passed, it was noised about the settlement that Ezra
+Longman had run away, some saying that he had been seen upon a line of
+canal boats going to Albany. The mother watched each hour for some word
+from him. Then, with a sorrowful expression in the faded eyes, she said
+to Myra:
+
+"If Ezy had had any edication, he'd 'a' writ. He'll be a-comin' home
+some of these days."
+
+After that, the fisherman's hut carried along its usual routine--while a
+boy in the city was wrestling with fever, and the head of the law school
+hung upon his muttered words with avidity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You think he is very ill, Tess?" Teola asked, early one evening in
+September, when she and Tessibel were alone in the Skinner hut. Tess
+came forward to the wooden box, holding in her hand the frying-pan
+filled with bacon fat, and gazed down upon the baby Dan, contemplating
+the wee old-man face thoughtfully.
+
+"He air sick! He air a look on him what air on Myry's brat--kind of
+sickly. That air because he has so many lines in his face, and he air so
+little," she finished, wrinkling the sun-tanned cheeks and shrugging her
+shoulders almost disdainfully.
+
+Teola knelt down, and slipped one slender arm under the dark head. These
+two girls had been drawn together during the past few weeks by a tie
+stronger than death. It had brought Frederick nearer to the squatter,
+and little did Teola realize that, had it not been for her handsome
+brother, her secret would have been discovered long before. It was of
+him she was thinking as she bent over the fire-scarred babe on this
+stormy September night in the fisherman's hut.
+
+"I may not be able to come down to-morrow, Tessibel," she said, looking
+up into the serious face, "because my brother is coming home early in
+the morning."
+
+The frying-pan fell to the floor; the fat spattered and ran across the
+broken, tilted boards until it congealed into rounded miniature
+mountains. Teola turned a puzzled face toward the fishermaid, but there
+was nothing about the girl to tell her why the accident had happened,
+for Tessibel, grappling with a huge cloth, was wiping the floor
+furiously.
+
+"I was saying, Tess," repeated Teola, "that I may not come down
+to-morrow.... Oh! hear how it rains, and the thunder!... Tess, since he
+died, and the baby came, thunder-storms make me shiver."
+
+"It ain't nothin' that'll hurt ye," grunted Tess from her position on
+the floor.
+
+"I know it, unless one stands directly in the lightning's path. But I am
+such a coward, Tessibel! You have so much faith--that's why you're not
+afraid."
+
+The pathetic face turned suddenly upon Tess with a questioning look.
+
+"My brother, you know, thinks you are such a good girl--and--and--you
+are a good girl, aren't you, Tess?"
+
+"Squatters ain't never good," answered Tess in a low tone, her eyes
+dropping under the steady gaze of the other girl. "But I--I love the
+student's God, I does."
+
+She was standing with rag hanging from her right hand, her face
+illumined by a deep flush that disappeared only when it met the red
+hair.
+
+"I believe that you do love Him, Tess," Teola breathed. "And Frederick
+told me that if he had your faith, he could do anything in the world.
+You know, the Bible says that if we had faith as large as a mustard
+seed, we could move a mountain."
+
+Her voice faltered on the last words. Tess grunted significantly.
+
+"Aw! a mustard seed ain't no bigger than a speck of dirt."
+
+"I know it, Tess; I know it. But one only has to have a little faith in
+God to enable Him to answer every prayer we utter."
+
+She grasped the thin baby to her breast frantically, kissed the crimson
+mark up and down, until where the frenzied lips had traveled the flesh
+turned purple. Oh! to have faith to believe that she might soon have
+her child with her always--always! Of late there had crept over Teola
+the shadow of the great beyond, into which her student lover had been so
+hastily summoned. The shrieking of the wind, and the mournful fluttering
+of the tiny hands made her shiver, and she coughed slightly.
+
+"A mountain air bigger than that hill with the look-out on it,"
+ruminated Tess, picking up a huge knot of wood from behind the stove.
+
+"I know that, too," replied Teola.
+
+For the space of many minutes only the smacking of the baby lips upon
+the sugar rag and the roaring of the turbulent wind were heard in the
+hut. Suddenly the vibrations of a great peal of thunder shook the shanty
+with violent effect; a streak of lightning shot zig-zaggedly through the
+room like some livid, malicious spirit. Teola screamed in terror.
+
+"It hit some place near here," said Tess.
+
+"Yes, and wasn't it awful? Oh, if the storm would only cease!"
+
+"It air comin' nearer," answered Tess, with the keen instincts of a
+squatter. "It air got to turn sidewise through the window afore it goes
+over the hill. What air ye afraid of, if ye believes that ye can move a
+mountain if ye has the faith? God wouldn't hit the brat with lightnin',
+would He?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't the faith, Tess!" moaned Teola, rocking to and fro in her
+keen agony of soul. "Long ago I stopped believing the way I did when I
+was a child. I prayed that night when Dan was killed, until my head
+ached and pounded for days. I wanted to see him once more, and God
+wouldn't let me; and then I prayed again--" Teola buried her face in the
+breast of the infant, and sobbed, "I prayed that the baby might die
+when he was born, but God didn't see fit to take him. Somehow, it
+doesn't do any good to pray any more."
+
+Tess paused in her work, standing with her hands on her hips, a solemn
+expression in the long eyes.
+
+"Yer faith wasn't as big as a speck of dirt, then, were it?" she
+queried. "And maybe mine ain't for Daddy. But the student air a-prayin'
+for him! It air a damn shame ye ain't got him a-prayin' for yerself and
+the kid.... Ye'd a seen yer man before now, and the brat would 'a' died,
+too."
+
+With a start caused by the squatter's words, Teola laid the child down,
+crouching back upon her feet. She eyed the fisher-girl critically. What
+a strange mixture of good and bad--of the holy and the unholy--lived in
+the tawny, magnificent squatter! She answered hesitatingly:
+
+"But if my brother should know about the baby, it would break my heart,
+Tessibel. It would kill me--and him, too! Nothing could ever make me
+tell him. You understand, don't you, Tess?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+It was as Tess had said. The storm was coming nearer, sending vivid
+shafts of lightning in splendid awfulness across the sky. Torrents of
+rain descended, thrashing the lake into uneven, towering crests of white
+foam. The weeping willow tree groaned over the shanty roof, jarring and
+tearing at the broken bits of tarred tin.
+
+"Tess, Tess, how can you bear that awful noise, constantly through the
+night? It frightens me to death. It sounds like the spirits of people
+who are dead."
+
+She shivered again, the cutting rasp from the chimney place stinging her
+with fright.
+
+"It air spirits," replied Tess softly. "There air one kind of spirits
+for the sun when it air a-shinin', and the waves just a-ripplin' over
+the lake. They air good spirits. But on nights like this there air bad
+ones--the ghosts of Indians, squaws, and sometimes of the Letts'
+family--them dead 'uns."
+
+She paused, her low voice trailing into silence on that one word "dead,"
+the luminous eyes burning with superstitious fear. How many times had
+the squaw and her burnt brat, now long since called to the land of their
+fathers, moaned through the winter nights, making the shanty ring with
+their piteous plaints! How many times Tessibel had imagined that she had
+seen the headless man from Haytes' Corner flit from the shadows of the
+long lane and lose himself in the overhanging willows on the shore!
+
+Suddenly a foreign sound pierced the storm. Tessibel drew near Teola.
+Both girls were standing over the wooden box. The violence of the storm
+impelled them to grasp each other's hands. In through the broken window
+the strange sound was borne again.
+
+"A boat's a-beatin' agin the shore," said Tess quietly. "Some one air
+a-comin' in out of the rain."
+
+The words were only formed on her lips when the door opened abruptly.
+Tessibel turned her head; Teola dropped her hand and uttered a cry.
+Frederick Graves, with his fingers upon the door, was closing it against
+the fury of the storm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+"You didn't mind my running in, did you, Tessibel?" asked Frederick,
+turning toward the squatter with a broad, comrade-like smile. Then he
+noticed his sister, with surprise.
+
+"Ah, Teola! you, too, were caught in the storm? What a blessing to have
+a shelter like this! Miss Tessibel won't mind if we stay until it is
+over. I came home before I was expected. I almost wish, now, that I had
+waited until morning. But I am safe here, though.... Whew! it is a
+terrible night."
+
+The distance between Teola and Tessibel widened perceptibly. Neither
+girl attempted to speak, and the student smiled at the embarrassment
+upon his sister's face. He made to go toward her.
+
+"You needn't mind being here, dear," he said in a low tone. "I don't
+believe as Father and Mother do. I shouldn't ask for you to be in a
+better place than this hut."
+
+He turned his face toward the roof, letting his eyes sweep the cobwebbed
+net, the old coats upon the wall; and lastly to the stove, out of the
+top of which jutted the smoking knot.
+
+"There is here," he continued impressively, "a feeling of rest and
+contentment to me.... I believe, Tessibel Skinner, that your faith
+permeates every inch of it."
+
+He lifted the lid of the stove, and shoved the smouldering wood from
+sight. His deep voice came again to Tessibel's ears as if from afar:
+
+"I wish I could impress upon my father what it means to pray and be good
+and pure under such circumstances as surround you. I mean, you know,
+Tess"--here he turned squarely upon her--"I mean that, for one so young,
+you have purity of faith and uplifted confidence in God's goodness."
+
+His voice was silenced by a half-smothered cry dragging itself from the
+squatter's throat. Then he noted that something was wrong. Teola, pale
+and wretched, had gradually placed a greater distance between herself
+and the wooden box. Tess had involuntarily drawn closer to it. She dully
+comprehended that Teola was ashamed of the rabbit-like body, struggling
+for a mere existence. Expressions of consternation, of indecision and
+terror swept over her face. Her eyes dropped for an instant upon the
+silent infant. The child gave one great yawn, and whiningly dropped the
+sugar rag. Just at this juncture, lightning flashed through the cracked
+window and played above the face of the babe until the red of the fire
+mark from head to shoulder glowed crimson under the blotched skin. The
+tiny, scrawny arms were bare, the withered mouth opened and shut,
+gapingly. As the eyes of the boy fell upon it, he went so deadly white
+that Tess thought he was going to fall. Without a word, he walked to the
+box, considering the wrinkled baby face like a man in a trance. His gaze
+took in the flaming brand, the gray eyes fastened upon the candlelight,
+and the tiny, searching fingers, which constantly sought something they
+could not find. It seemed an eternity before he gathered himself
+together, forcing his eyes upward to rest first on Teola, then upon
+Tess.
+
+He was the first to speak.
+
+"Where--did--that--child--come--from?"
+
+There was imperious inquisition in the dark eyes.
+
+His voice had changed, until the deepness of it was terrifying.
+
+Teola came nearer to him. Tessibel dropped down beside the infant.
+
+"I want to know where--that child--came from?" commanded the boy once
+more. "Whose child is it?"
+
+Tess swung her body round upon the shanty floor, turning cloudy,
+rebuking eyes upon Teola. She, Tessibel Skinner, crouching squatter-like
+over Dan Jordan's baby, had sworn never to tell Frederick his sister's
+secret, and no thought of doing so entered her mind. The minister's
+daughter must speak the truth. The mother of the babe would answer the
+question put by the student.
+
+Quickly Tess turned over her great desire for the freedom of her father,
+followed by the passionate wish to retain the love and prayers of
+Frederick Graves. If she denied the child, he would turn upon his
+sister, and the shivering girl would divulge her trouble. It would be
+the same as breaking her oath. Yet Frederick must not think the child
+hers. She turned toward Teola again, and seemed about to open her lips,
+when the expression upon the other girl's face stayed her tongue. It was
+a mixture of despair, illness and fright. Tessibel imagined she had
+discovered beneath the pain-drawn face a desire to claim her own. Ah!
+Teola would gather her babe, that tiny bit of shriveled flesh, into her
+arms before the whole world. There rose in the squatter's heart a vast
+respect for Myra Longman, who had taken her child from the beginning of
+its tiny life, and defied the babbling tongues of the settlement
+gossips. Teola Graves, although of a different class, was no less a
+mother--she would do the same. Tessibel sat up, waiting for the
+confession. Why was the minister's daughter so silent?--why so deathly
+looking?
+
+"I will be answered," insisted the student. Then, centering his eyes
+full upon Tess, he added:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, _it_ is--yours!"
+
+Teola's lips were pressed closely together. Spasms of pain drew them
+down at the corners, making the girl resemble a woman twice her years.
+With a sudden inspiration, she turned upon her brother.
+
+"Frederick, Frederick," she stammered. "Don't blame her too much. She is
+only a girl."
+
+A cry escaped from the lips of Frederick; another followed from those of
+Tess. The minister's daughter was throwing the motherhood of the babe
+upon her. Teola had branded her squatter savior with a nameless child--a
+horror from which the student shrank! She saw unbelief rise quickly in
+his eyes, and saw him draw aside his long rain-coat as it almost touched
+the box upon the floor. Shrinking disgust of the wriggling, whimpering
+thing on the rags made Frederick involuntarily reach out his hand to his
+sister, but his eyes were bent upon Tess.
+
+"And you're the girl I've trusted!" he gasped, as Teola neared him
+slowly. "Yours is the faith I've envied!--your life the one standard I
+wish to gain!... God!" he groaned, "you--you--you the mother of that!"
+
+His bitter tones stung her to the quick, whipping her into immediate
+action. Fire gold-brown and swift as lightning swept into the flashing
+eyes. Frederick's sister had thrust the child upon her. The secret was
+dead between them. Tess remembered her oath--remembered her love for the
+boy, and Teola's cowardice. Her despair gathered as her false position
+was forced upon her.
+
+She stooped, and grasped the babe in her hands with a passion that tore
+the meager clothing from its body. She crushed the infant to her as if
+indeed Teola's words were true. The small dark head fell limply upon her
+bosom, the thin legs hung straight and bare over the soiled jacket. One
+little hand clutched her torn sleeve, as if there lived in the
+infant-brain a fear of harm. Tess, instinct with potent life and rage,
+wheeled like a tawny tigress furiously upon Frederick and Teola.
+
+"Air it any of yer damn business," she demanded hotly, "if I wants to
+have a brat?"
+
+She had silenced the student by the condemning words, which seared his
+soul like molten lead. A dazed terror gathered in his eyes. He smoothed
+his forehead with trembling fingers. The lightning forked about the
+squatter and the babe, illuminating the small head and the bony body of
+the child. Tess felt it shiver and mechanically she lifted her skirt,
+wrapping him close within it. Her gaze took in sneeringly the shrinking
+form of Teola, and the arm of the student encircling his sister's waist.
+For one instant she hated them both with all the strength of her
+half-savage nature. Still, no thought came of breaking her promise.
+
+"Ye can both go to hell," she ended distinctly.
+
+A fierce cry from Frederick closed her lips, and the anger within her
+changed to terror. What was she doing? Blasting his love, his faith,
+his confidence with words that blackened her soul with perfidy and her
+life with dishonor. Had she not told the student that long-ago night
+that she loved him?--that she was his squatter for ever and ever? And
+was she not now at this moment keeping a secret from him for his own
+sake? Something in her small, ghastly face brought the lad in his boyish
+agony, impulsively forward.
+
+"For God's love--and mine, Tess--tell me, it isn't true! Tell me you are
+shielding someone else--"
+
+Teola caught her breath painfully, and Frederick ended:
+
+"Some other squatter girl."
+
+"I ain't got no other squatter's brat here," she cried, turning her eyes
+upon Teola. "It ain't no other squatter's brat, air it?"
+
+"No, no, Frederick," replied Teola, white and wan; "she has told you the
+truth--it isn't another squatter's child."
+
+Hope died in the boy and outraged feeling leaped into its place. He held
+Tessibel's eyes with his relentlessly.
+
+"Did you expect to mix prayers for your father with filth like that?" he
+demanded, pointing to the hidden infant in the fold of her dress. "Did
+you expect God to hear you, when your life was full of--sin?... I am
+ashamed I ever loved you, ashamed that I took my life from your
+hands.... I wish I were--dead! I wish I were dead!"
+
+Teola gasped in her new understanding. The squatter and her handsome
+brother loved each other! Never for one moment had it dawned upon her,
+until she saw the tall boy drop beside the stool and sob out his heart
+agony upon the open Bible.
+
+If she dared speak the truth, she could assure him of the goodness of
+the fisher-girl. But her lips sealed themselves with her soul's consent.
+She raised her face, giving Tess one look of terror. Reaching out, she
+touched her brother's arm.
+
+"Frederick, come home with me. This is awful--awful!"
+
+"I don't want to go home," sobbed the boy, in pitiful abandon. "I didn't
+know anything could be so hard to bear. And I loved her faith and her
+character--and her beautiful face.... Oh, I love her, I love her,
+Teola!"
+
+The squatter listened to every passionate word, listened until her face
+whitened into a despair that settled there and did not vanish. She had
+not moved from the wooden box, nor ceased pressing the half-clad infant
+to her breast. Turning, she shot a soul-cutting glance at the other
+girl, who owed her very life to her. The glance pleaded for the
+miserable boy by the stool, for the sick babe held close to her heart,
+and lastly, for herself, her squatter honor, and the powerful love she
+had for the student brother. From the depths of her eyes came a demand
+to Teola that she tell the truth. The answer was but a slight negative
+shake of the proudly-set head, followed by an embarrassment that Teola
+covered by leaning over her brother, and raising him from the floor.
+Frederick allowed his sister to lead him by the wooden box, past
+Tessibel to the door. His eyes traveled back to the open Bible upon the
+stool, where but a moment since his own dark head had rested. Then he
+laughed--laughed until the sharp sting of his tones made the fisher-girl
+grunt in her characteristic way.
+
+Striding forward, he snatched up the book, tore off the covers, and in
+another minute had thrust it through the smoke into the stove.
+
+"There goes your faith--your canting trash about your love for the
+Saviour! I might have known that one of your kind could not rise above
+the grossness in you. I hope you will be as miserable and as unhappy as
+I am.... I hope that child will...."
+
+Tess stopped him with a cry. She stooped down, and placed the little Dan
+in his bed without a word. Her anger was gone, and from the waters of
+bitterness that swept over her a better Tess lived. Her faith in the boy
+died instantly, and a higher, nobler and greater faith in the crucified
+Saviour lived instead.
+
+She would never tell Frederick that his sister was mother to the little
+being he had scorned, nor would she as much as utter the name of Dan
+Jordan. Covering the child tenderly, she faced Frederick Graves without
+a touch of the awkward girlishness that had hitherto marked her
+movements. A glorified expression lightened the white face and shone
+from her eyes. He had taught her a lesson of independence she could not
+have learned through any other person. Without one glance at the
+shivering young mother, she walked to the door, and opened it, as she
+had done that night when he had come first to the hut.
+
+"Ye can go," she said, "both of ye. Ye burned my Book, ye did, but ye
+can't take it out of my heart. The God up their ain't all yers. He air
+mine--and Daddy's--and--the brat's."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+The rain rushed in through the open door. The wind shook the dust in
+clouds from the overhanging nets, waving the long cobwebs that hung in
+fine threads from the ceiling into fantastic figures.
+
+Frederick, still supporting his sister, stepped into the glare of the
+lightning. Tess closed the door behind them, and stood with her back
+against it. The high chest lifted and lifted, the white, tightened
+throat choking down the sobs that tried to force themselves to her lips.
+"She were a damn sneak," were the first words she said, shudderingly
+covering her face with her hands.
+
+"Aw, aw, I ain't a-goin' to have it here.... I can't have it here."
+
+She was thinking of the child, now twisting and turning for more sugar.
+A whine from its lips drew Tess slowly toward it. She stood looking down
+upon it for many minutes. The baby had taken away her all, for Tess
+realized now the extent of her love for Frederick. Nothing would make
+the days shorter; there was no looking forward to a kindly nod or a
+gracious word from him.
+
+"I hates ye," she said out loud, slowly, leaning over the infant with a
+frown on her face, "but I hates yer ma worse than I hates you. Yer ma
+air a piker, she air."
+
+The babe whimpered and shivered. Tessibel wrapped its bare shoulders in
+a piece of the blanket.
+
+"I could throw ye out in the rain, I hates ye so," she burst forth in
+sudden anger. "Ye ain't no right in this shanty."
+
+Her eyes glittered with rage and humiliation; her head sank nearer and
+nearer the fire-marked child, her shock of red hair falling like a
+mantle of gold across its thin body. The twisting fingers entangled
+themselves in the tawny curls, drawing the squatter down until her face
+was almost in the box. With a grunt of abhorrence she spread out the
+wiry little hands, extricating lock after lock.
+
+Once free, she squatted back upon her feet, scrutinizing the child with
+no sign of sympathy in her eyes. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of the
+forest and the lake beyond through the window. She could see the rain
+falling in quantities into the water, and the great pine-tree, in which
+sat her God of Majesty, whitened under the zig-zag glare of lightning.
+The superstitious, imaginative girl rose unsteadily to her feet.
+Pressing her face to the smeared pane, she saw the jagged lightning
+tearing again toward the tree; then it played about the figure that Tess
+had grown to love. The old man amid the branches bent toward the
+squatter, and held out his waving arms. A cry burst from Tessibel's
+lips. She opened the door, standing in bold relief against the
+candlelight, and shot her hands far into the dark night.
+
+"Oh, Goddy, Goddy!" she breathed, catching her breath in stifling sobs.
+"The student air gone, and the Bible air burnt, and Daddy air in a
+prison cell. Might'n I asks ye--?"
+
+She turned, with heaving bosom, without finishing. Bending over the
+child, she drew him into her arms. With the same sublime expression of
+suffering, she went back to the open door and knelt in the beating rain,
+and tendered the little child toward the God of her dreams.
+
+"Might'n it please ye, Goddy, to bless the brat--and Tess?"
+
+The student was no longer the motive power of her prayer. Tess, the
+squatter, was struggling with a new faith of her own. Flash after flash
+brightened the sky, and still she knelt, offering the sick child for her
+God to bless. One long peal of thunder shook the inky waters, and
+rumbled reverberatingly into the hills. Tessibel's eyes were riveted
+upon the pine-tree. The wind dropped the shaking branches for a
+minute--the arms extended straight toward her. With fast-falling tears
+she bowed over the wailing baby, and stood up with a long breath.
+
+"Goddy, Goddy, it air hard work for ye to forgive Tessibel, I knows....
+To-day I loved the student best"--a sob tightened her throat--"to-night
+I love you best, and ... and the Man hanging on the Cross."
+
+She closed the hut door, and seated herself at the oven, and warmed the
+infant with tender solicitude, forcing the warm, sweetened water into
+the meager body. Then she slipped off her clothes, gathered the little
+Dan to her breast, and crept into bed.
+
+"I said as how I hated ye, brat," she whispered, "but I don't hate ye
+now, poor little shiverin' dum devil!"
+
+During the rest of the storm the babe slept, but Tessibel wept out her
+loss of the only love she had ever known save Daddy Skinner's--wept
+until, from sheer exhaustion, her head dropped upon the dark one of Dan
+Jordan's babe, and she slept.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning, Tess rose languidly. Without a smile or a prayer, she
+arranged the sop for the babe, then sat down beside him to think. Such a
+radical change in her life brought an influx of indescribable emotions.
+Her Bible was gone--the one book out of which she was learning the
+secret of happiness and patience. She remembered how, the night before,
+the realization of her despair had brought her closer to the Cross. Out
+of the brightness of the lightning she had received a promise of a
+blessing. Still, the tender, sensitive heart was bleeding for its own.
+But Tess had the hidden God to help her--and the child. She sat watching
+him; she could see that he was growing thinner, growing more emaciated
+as the days passed. He could eat only the food Tess forced into his
+mouth. But the sugar rags kept him from whining. At this moment he was
+eying the window-pane with intelligent intentness.
+
+"Ye air the miserablest little devil I ever seed. No pappy, and a mammy
+what air afraid to say ye air hers. I hated ye last night, but ye air
+such a wrinkled little tramp that this mornin' I promises ye to keep ye
+till ye dies."
+
+She was bending over the babe, watching every expression that flitted
+over the drawn mouth. In this position she did not hear the door open
+silently, as Teola stepped in.
+
+The minister's daughter whispered to the crouching squatter:
+
+"Tessibel, can--can you ever forgive me?"
+
+Tess stood up and took a long breath. Teola noted how the night had
+changed the brilliant coloring to a whiteness that startled her. An
+agony of remorse broke over her, and, dropping upon her knees, she wept
+upon the face of little Dan.
+
+"Tess, I've nearly died all through the night.... Oh, can you forgive
+me?"
+
+"I ain't no business to be a-forgivin' ye. It be the brat what ye air
+to asks forgiveness of."
+
+Teola sprang to her feet.
+
+"Tess!" she cried sharply. Never had the girl appeared in this light.
+
+"It air hard on the little kid," Tessibel said meditatively, "when its
+ma says what another woman air a-mothering it for good and all."
+
+This remark came forth in even tones. Teola had not thought of the harm
+she had done the child of Dan Jordan, by throwing the motherhood upon
+the squatter. She turned her troubled eyes, first upon Tess, then upon
+the child.
+
+"Tessibel, I do love him, even if I disowned him. But I haven't the
+courage you have. You looked so beautiful when you said he was yours....
+And Frederick is ill to-day."
+
+Tessibel's heart thumped loudly.
+
+"I heard him crying all night, Tess," went on Teola, "and, oh! so many
+times I wanted to go and tell him that you were--a good girl; but I
+didn't have the courage. But I know that sometime--Tess, will you pray
+for me?"
+
+"I ain't doin' no prayin' to-day," replied Tess. "To-morry, mebbe....
+Aw! I wanted the student to pray for Daddy, and to like me--"
+
+Teola never forgot the scene that followed.
+
+The fisher-girl settled in a heap upon the floor, bowed the tired head,
+and wept.
+
+"Tessibel! Tess," called Teola, touching the girl's shoulder, "listen.
+I'll tell him!--I'll tell him! He shall come back to you to-night--if it
+kills me."
+
+Tessibel lifted her white face.
+
+"Ye be goin' to tell him that the brat air yers?" queried she brokenly.
+
+"I'll go and make it all right with him. He shall come to you to-day....
+Oh, what a wicked girl I was! Kiss me, Tess."
+
+Elias Graves' beautiful daughter sank on the breast of the squatter, and
+there was a kiss of forgiveness.
+
+The baby whimpered. Teola drew away from Tessibel with a long sigh. She
+reached for the milk-can.
+
+"There ain't none there," Tess said, with a touch of joy in her tones.
+"It air all gone. He et all that you brought him."
+
+"And I can't get him any more now," moaned Teola. "Oh, Tess, I'm so ill!
+I wish I were dead!"
+
+A tall boy had repeated the same words the night before. Tess drew
+herself up painfully. She pitied Teola from the bottom of her heart,
+but, in spite of her pity, she could not help the thrill of happiness
+when she thought of Frederick coming, and knowing all.
+
+"It ain't no use to wish ye were dead," said she, "'cause ye can't
+allers die if ye wants to. When I thought Daddy was a-goin' to the rope,
+I say every day I were a-goin' to die.... Women ain't a-dyin' so easy."
+
+She was preparing the warm sop for the child, and taking him from his
+mother's arm, she sat down in the rocking chair. She did not speak again
+until she had drained the sweetened water from the bread-crusts, and the
+child had smacked it down eagerly.
+
+Suddenly she spoke, handing the babe to Teola.
+
+"Can't ye put out a drop more milk evenin's?"
+
+"I took all there was last night, and the night before, too. And this
+morning Rebecca was furious--she had to go without milk in her coffee. I
+don't know that I can get any to-night."
+
+"The weather air so cold now," explained Tess, "Kennedy won't let his
+cows stay in the fields nights. I might crib some more if I could. Every
+time I steals up to yer house, I thinks yer woman'll see me; and yer
+Pappy and Mammy comes home to-morry."
+
+Teola nodded.
+
+"If yer Pappy catched me swipin' milk, he'd knock the head offen me. I
+steals it just the same.... I air afraid of yer Pappy, though."
+
+"No wonder," replied Teola, and she lapsed into silence.
+
+Her father hated the squatter girl--hated the fishermen who still plied
+their unlawful trade under the noses of the gamekeepers.
+
+Teola was crying softly. She felt it was only just to relieve Tess of
+the stigma she had placed upon her. But to go home and face the proud
+young brother with the story of her sin--with the lie she had told--were
+almost unbearable. Then another thought pierced her. Could Tess keep the
+baby all winter? And would she herself have the courage to live, knowing
+that he might sometimes be hungry and cold? Frederick would help her.
+She was glad she had decided to tell him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As she walked up the long hill, she saw her brother standing on the
+porch, and noted the pallor of his face, the expression of misery in his
+eyes. At first the boy did not see her--not until she called his name
+softly.
+
+Teola sank upon the upper step.
+
+"It takes away my breath to climb that hill," she panted, when she
+could speak. "It grows harder and harder every day."
+
+"I shall be glad when we leave this old cottage," was the boy's moody
+reply. "I never knew how much I hated the lake until to-day."
+
+Teola did not answer to this, for she knew that she was to blame for
+that hatred. Frederick was looking at the hut under the willow wofully.
+
+"If anyone had told me what I saw last night," he blurted out, a moment
+later, "I believe I would have killed him.... I loved her, Teola."
+
+Now she would tell him--send him back to Tessibel with joy in his heart.
+She sprang up impetuously.
+
+"Frederick," she began quickly, "let me tell--"
+
+But he interrupted her.
+
+"You need not tell me that I have to forgive her for such a thing as
+this because of ignorance.... It's too horrible!... I shall never get
+the sight of that child out of my mind.... That streak of awful, lurid
+red ... that yapping mouth ... those clawing hands.... God! the disgust
+I felt.... Teola! Teola! You are ill! Rebecca, come here! Come! Come!"
+
+Together they lifted her from the porch where she had fallen, like a man
+stabbed with a knife. Gurgling from her lips poured the fresh red blood
+from the diseased lungs. Teola tried to speak, tried to tell Frederick
+the truth, but the awful tugging in her chest, and her brother's order
+that she must not speak, closed her lips upon the good resolution. Added
+to his command came one from the doctor, who arrived later, that she
+must not speak one word until he came the next day. The hemorrhage had
+been brought on by Frederick's description of her child. After her
+brother had gone, she thought of the hour when she could tell him, but
+with a thankful feeling in her heart that it had been delayed a little
+time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Until the great University bells chimed the hour of midnight, Tessibel
+waited in the hut for Frederick.
+
+"She hes forgot to tell him," she muttered wearily, pulling the sleepy
+babe into her arms, "and--and he ain't a-comin'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+Tess saw the minister's family arrive in the small lake steamer, and saw
+Frederick meet them at the dock. She was watching from between the
+tatters of the ragged curtain, and noted that Teola had not come down
+the hill with her brother. This disturbed the squatter, for the baby's
+mother had looked ill when she left the day before, with the resolution
+to tell the student her secret. As Minister Graves passed, she saw
+Frederick looking fondly into his father's face, but he sent no friendly
+glance toward the hut snuggled under the willow. The watching girl saw
+that the student's face was haggard, and a thrill swept over her. It was
+because of his love; he wanted to be with her! But he thought she had
+been--Tess turned her head from the window, blinded by tears. But for
+the child in the box! There swept into her mind a text she had learned.
+"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove." Ah! if she
+could have such faith, only such a little faith, she could bring the boy
+back--bring back, through God's goodness, the student she loved.
+
+"I air a-lovin' ye, Jesus," she trembled. "I takes care of the brat till
+he croaks. Give me back--"
+
+Emotion left the prayer unuttered in her breast.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At eight o'clock that evening, Tess, hugging the fence, sneaked up
+through the rain. She turned into Graves' orchard, scurrying barefooted
+toward the house, casting glances at intervals behind her. Through the
+small garret window she could see Rebecca moving in her room, preparing
+to go out. The library, facing the lane, was dark. But the streak of
+light flung long upon the porch told the squatter that the Dominie's
+family was in the drawing-room. Tess ventured to the back of the house,
+drawing near the dark kitchen. Here was where Teola had placed the milk
+for several days. She scraped about in the inky darkness, but her
+fingers touched nothing. The babe's mother had forgotten to put out the
+pail! Until the coming of the Dominie and his wife, Tess had had but
+little fear, but now her breath came spasmodically. There was danger of
+detection if she crept into the kitchen to obtain the milk. If she could
+only get into Kennedy's barn! If the cows were only out to pasture! Tess
+turned the handle of the kitchen door softly, and stepped in. A light
+streak came from the drawing-room, and she located the ice-safe through
+the dim shadows. Teola had told her to take the milk from there if she
+failed to find it outside. She advanced slowly into the kitchen, holding
+her breath, but her heart thumped so loudly that she feared the family
+would hear it.
+
+Kneeling down at the refrigerator, she fumbled for the lock. The door
+slid open silently. A small pail of milk stood behind the butter-plate,
+and Tessibel, clutching it in her fingers, rose up. As she did so, a
+light flashed into her face, and she looked up to find Dominie Graves
+towering over her, his brows caught together with anger.
+
+"So Miss Skinner is the thief who takes our milk! The hymn-singing
+girl!... Ah, it is you!"
+
+Tessibel dropped her eyes, still holding the can of milk.
+
+"I air a-stealin' yer milk," she said presently, lifting her gaze. "Air
+ye goin' to--let me have it?"
+
+"No, my lady, I am not going to let you have it," he mimicked. "But
+something else you are going to get."
+
+The Dominie stepped to the kitchen door leading into the yard, and
+turned the key in the lock. He placed the lamp on the table, the
+squatter waiting with fear-laden eyes.
+
+"For a long time," went on the Dominie, in slow, measured tones, "I have
+thought it would be a good thing to give you a sound whipping. The Bible
+says, 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child.' ... I am going to do
+something your father forgot to do, Miss Skinner."
+
+The sneer in his voice and his slur on her father brought a bright flush
+of anger to Tessibel's face.
+
+"Ye can cowhide me if ye wants to, but don't say nothin' against my
+Daddy!"
+
+"I'll say what I wish to! Now, then, how many times have you stolen from
+this house?"
+
+Tess looked about for some way of escape; then pondered.
+
+"I dunno," she replied sullenly.
+
+"I can just about tell," answered Graves. "Rebecca says that for many
+mornings she has had no milk for her coffee. And I left the kitchen door
+unlocked to-night purposely to catch the thief. Let me see.... I think
+we've been robbed for ten days? That means ten good stripes for you,
+Tessibel Skinner.... Put down that milk!"
+
+"I won't do it," Tessibel whitened. She had not believed the minister
+when he had threatened to whip her. He was trying to scare her. He would
+probably take away the milk, and send her home again. But he had
+stepped to the wall, and taken a riding-whip from a nail. Tess had seen
+that whip before, once--the time she had twiggled her fingers. Graves
+had shaken it at her from his saddle-horse. Then she had not been
+afraid.... The clergyman came toward her.
+
+"Ye hit me with that whip," growled Tess, "and--and--I'll kill ye!"
+
+"Oh! you will, eh?... Well, then, there it is!"
+
+A stinging blow fell across her shoulders, and another and another. The
+slender body writhed silently, turned and twisted to escape the
+descending whip. Drops of milk spattered upon the floor. Never before
+had Tess known such physical pain. The minister was counting the blows
+deliberately as they fell. At the eighth stroke, the girl opened her
+lips and uttered a long, piercing cry--an intense, vibrating cry. The
+last blow fell upon Tessibel's shivering back,--and Frederick appeared
+in the doorway. His father leaning against the wall breathlessly, the
+whip hanging limply from his hand; Tessibel Skinner, barefooted and
+weeping, with a pail of milk clasped in her fingers--was what the boy
+saw. He had no chance to speak before Teola, too, with streaming hair,
+her nightrobe clutched convulsively in one hand, opened the hall door.
+
+The scene whirled before her like a frightful nightmare.
+
+The fisher-girl turned and faced her.
+
+"Yer Pappy air a-beatin' me ... I hev a-been stealin' milk."
+
+Her words fell between little, broken gasps. They touched Frederick as
+he never had been touched before. He stepped forward hastily to speak.
+
+"I air a-needin' the milk," she explained, bowing her head before him.
+"I has to have it!"
+
+The infant rushed into Frederick's mind ... the squalid cabin, that
+twisting thing, with thin, discolored veins. It had been for him that
+Tess had stolen. Teola staggered toward her father, a cough racking the
+emaciated frame. Minister Graves threw his arms about her.
+
+"Go back! Go back quickly, child! You should not have ventured out of
+bed. I will settle with the squatter."
+
+"You whipped her!" breathed Teola.
+
+"Yes, and will again, if I catch her stealing from my kitchen. Now,
+miss, you can go home. Put down that milk; and, if I find you here in
+the future, I shall put you behind the bars, with your father."
+
+Frederick counted the beats of his heart through the blank silence. He
+felt impelled to reach forward to Tessibel,--to say something to relieve
+the white, tense face. His father was waiting for the squatter to take
+her departure. But Tess remained with the pail in her hand.
+
+Suddenly she lifted her streaming eyes to the minister's face.
+
+"I has been beaten.... And I air a-feelin' so--bad! Air I to have the
+milk? I needs it." Tess sobbed again, and continued, "I ain't a-carin'
+so awful about the lickin' as I does about havin' the milk."
+
+She came forward close to him, with searching sweetness in her gaze. The
+Dominie drew back, fearing the soiled dress would touch him. The girl
+was making the appeal to him alone, and a cloud of color gathered
+slowly over his face under her steady eyes. He regained himself, and
+replied,
+
+"No, you can't have the milk, no matter how much you may need it."
+
+"Some one'll die without it," she entreated again, lowering her voice,
+throwing no glance at the silent boy or shivering girl.
+
+"Then let them die," retorted the clergyman. "I do not believe
+you--anyway!"
+
+He was weakening a little, the attitude of his son and daughter striking
+him almost to consent. Frederick's eyes were filled with hauteur unusual
+to the boy, and Teola was clinging to his neck, weeping wildly. The
+children had never approved of his persecution of the squatters, but
+both of them could see that the girl had been caught in open-handed
+theft.
+
+"Father," Teola implored, "give the girl the milk. She says she needs
+it--"
+
+"Yes, Father," interrupted Frederick, "give it to her.... She won't
+steal again.... You won't, will you--girl?"
+
+This was the first word to her since that night he had lost faith in
+her. His voice seemed harsh; it fell upon her, numbing her senses. Her
+body went cold as if a frosty gust had struck it.
+
+"You won't steal again--ever? Will you?" demanded he.
+
+Tessibel struggled to speak. At last there came a fluttered confession,
+which made Teola Graves shiver like an aspen leaf. If she could only
+summon courage to tell her arrogant father the truth! She could not bear
+to look upon her squatter friend, nor upon Frederick's white face.
+
+"I has to steal," said Tess. "I has to have the milk.... I can't get it
+no way else."
+
+"There! There!" exclaimed the Dominie, with a derisive laugh. "If that
+isn't depravity, I don't know what is.... Now, then, miss, put down that
+pail, and go!"
+
+He strode forward and grasped the handle in his fingers. But Tess held
+it firmly. Her mind flashed to the child in the hut, smacking fiercely
+through the long night ... she thought of the morning, of the hungry
+gray eyes and the ceaseless baby whimper--and defied the minister.
+
+"I air a-goin' to have it," she insisted. "Take yer hand offen that
+handle."
+
+Graves gasped for breath, but did not relax his hold upon the pail. With
+a motion as quick as lightning flashes, Tess lowered her head, and set
+her teeth into the Dominie's fat white hand. A cry of pain escaped him,
+and he opened his fingers.
+
+"I said as how I got to have the milk--and--and I air got it! Open that
+door!"
+
+Tess shrieked out the last words, her eyes, full of hatred, bent upon
+Graves. Frederick strode forward, turned the key in the lock, and Tess
+sprang out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel ran swiftly through the orchard, out into the lane, her rage
+dying out in her fear for the babe. She had never left him so long
+before. Her flesh still tingled from the Dominie's blows, but her
+admission before Frederick that she was compelled to steal hurt her
+worse than the blue welts rising upon her shoulders. She regretted, too,
+that she had bitten the clergyman's hand, but that had been done for
+the baby--little Dan had to live.
+
+She came to an alert standstill in front of the cabin. She saw the light
+from a candle flickering out through the window. Tess was sure she had
+left the hut dark--she had extinguished the light just before going out
+for the milk. Who was in the hut? Or had she made a mistake, and left
+the candle there? For the sake of the child she had to enter. She set
+down the pail, lifted her skirt, wiped away the traces of tears. Then,
+flinging wide the door, she came upon Ben Letts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+
+Ben was standing beside the bed, with the open grape-basket in his hand,
+looking down intently upon the child. His one eye flashed past Tess in
+its blindness, while the watery one with the red veins running through
+it distorted itself into a squint, and brought its evil gaze upon her.
+The fat chin, covered with a stubby growth of hair, shook with malicious
+pleasure, the dark teeth set grimly through the brown, tobacco-stained
+lips.
+
+"It air a brat!" he said at last, Tess standing paralyzed. "Air its
+Pappy the--"
+
+He did not finish. Tess snatched the basket from his hand, and covered
+the whining babe.
+
+"Ye be allers snoopin' yer nose in some one's else's business," she said
+darkly, her fear of him growing with each minute. "Ye can't keep from my
+hut any day, and ye ain't no right here nuther."
+
+"I telled ye and the student that the time'd come when I'd get even with
+ye both--and it air here!... It air here, I say!"
+
+"The student ain't nothin' to do with this here brat," retorted Tess.
+"Ye thinks as how ye knows a heap.... Well, ye don't.... And it air time
+for ye to be a-goin' now, Ben Letts!"
+
+"I air a-goin' to stay," said he, "Daddy's" stool creaking under his
+weight.
+
+From a tree near the forest Tess could hear the screech of a night-owl
+die away in smothered laughter. The scraping of the willow on the tin
+roof came dimly to her in the silence. If some other squatter would only
+come along! God had always saved her from Ben Letts.--Dared she pray?
+Her eyes sought the window. If she could only see the pine-tree
+God!--send Him a little petition--He would forgive and save her. Dominie
+Graves had gone completely from her mind; only a wish, a desperate wish,
+came to escape the man who had constantly thrown his menacing shadow
+across the path of her life. Suddenly her bosom heaved. A verse was
+thrown bomb-like into her mind. Tess opened her lips and muttered,
+keeping her eyes upon the fisherman.
+
+"If ye have faith as the grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain--"
+
+The time between the present and that night the student had left her in
+bitter sorrow faded. In her imagination she was alone in the rain, with
+the child upon her hands, offering it up to the dark God for a blessing.
+The same uplifting faith was upon her. The Crucified Savior would
+protect her.
+
+"I believe! I believe!" she ejaculated. No soul-desiring thought of
+Frederick interrupted her uprising faith. She needed him no more to pray
+for her.
+
+"A mustard-seed air--a--a mighty little thing, ain't it, Ben Letts?"
+
+Tess stood up, looking beyond him like one in a dream.
+
+"Yep," grunted the fisherman, staring.
+
+He had never understood the moods of Tess. She was as incomprehensible
+to him as the myriads of stars that strung themselves through the sky.
+
+But his inability to understand her made him desire the girl the more.
+He had come at an hour when he was sure Tess would be alone. He would
+force her to come to his cabin, to marry him even before her father was
+hanged. Ben's eyes settled again upon the basket. Through his heavy
+senses sifted a wave of hatred for the miserable child, whining for the
+milk Tess had stolen. Ben moved his great feet, tearing up a long
+splinter from a broken board with his worn-down heel. It startled Tess
+from her reverie. In upon her faith came the sickening thought of
+Frederick, his confidence in her blasted and gone; it choked a prayer
+that lingered upon her lips. Ben rose to his feet, an oath belching from
+his ugly mouth.
+
+"Put down that basket. Put it down, I says!"
+
+Never had it entered her mind before to conciliate the dark-browed
+fisherman who had pestered her with his attentions, but her frightened
+womanhood caught at the idea.
+
+"Wait till I gives him somethin' to eat," she said stolidly. "If he
+yaps, someone'll hear him."
+
+Ben sat down and watched her narrowly. Tessibel had grown so beautiful
+in the last few months that the brute force in the man rose in his
+desire to possess her. There was one way to bring the girl on her knees
+to him, one way to bow the proud red head--the little child made no
+difference to him. And some day he would get even with the student, too.
+The small bare feet of the squatter girl noiselessly plied their way
+from the smoking stove to the sugar-bowl, thence to the basket. Tess
+held the warm, sweet milk to the infant's lips, lifting the withered
+chin that the child might drink the better. Her mind was working
+rapidly. How should she escape and rescue the babe? She went back for
+more milk, wetting the corner of the cloth and wiping little Dan's
+face. Then she gazed straight at Ben Letts, and said,
+
+"How air yer mammy?"
+
+It seemed the most natural thing that she should ask this of him.
+
+"She air well," answered Ben, thrown off his guard. He took out his
+pipe, and continued:
+
+"When ye comes to the shanty, ye can't bring that brat."
+
+"Nope; I ain't a-goin' to bring him," Tess replied, whispering a prayer
+for aid.
+
+"What be ye goin' to do with it?"
+
+"I don't know yet." A muttered petition fell over the baby's face, but
+she said aloud: "I think it air a-goin' to croak."
+
+"I's a-thinkin' so, too," Ben said thoughtfully. "He hes the look of
+death on his mug, Tessibel.... Air it yer brat?"
+
+"He air mine now," she answered slowly, raising her head, "and I stays
+here with him till he dies."
+
+"Nope; ye be a-comin' to my shanty to-morry. Mammy air expectin' ye....
+And ye'll be glad to come--afore I gets done with ye!"
+
+Tess shivered. She remembered Myra's broken wrist, and heard again the
+woful cry from the other squatter girl as she told of the harm done her.
+If she could get out of the shanty, she could run from him, but that
+would leave the child to his mercy. She glanced toward the door.
+Whatever came to her, she must protect the babe. Lifting him from his
+bed, she sat down at the oven, and extended the blue legs toward the
+heat.
+
+"He air so damn thin," she said in excuse, "that he allers yaps if he
+air cold.... Have ye seen Myry's kid lately?"
+
+"Yep; to-day. He air a-growin' a little more pert."
+
+"Glad for Myry," was Tessibel's comment.
+
+"Ye ain't heard nothin' from yer Daddy, have ye?" asked Ben, presently.
+
+"Yep. I had a letter from him. He air a-comin' to the shanty as soon as
+he air out."
+
+"He ain't a-goin' to get out!"
+
+"Yep, he air; sure he air."
+
+"Air he a-knowin' of yer brat?" Ben was staring at the child.
+
+Tess stared back at him. She had forgotten that she had intimated that
+the baby was hers.
+
+"I ain't tellin' Daddy nothin'.... His troubles be enough for _him_."
+
+Her tone was low and bitter. She turned the babe with its back to the
+heat to gain time. She had almost decided to run away--she could not
+face Myra's fate.
+
+"This durn stove ain't got no fire in it," she said, laying Baby Dan in
+the box. "I's a-goin' for a stick of wood!"
+
+As Tessibel walked past him, Ben did not stop her--squatters never saved
+steps for their women. The girl flung open the door, but hesitated on
+the threshold. During the instant of her indecision, a silent panorama
+of night passed before her. Heavy rain clouds dipped almost to the dark
+water, obscuring the city and the University hill beyond. A great
+steamer attached to a number of canal boats lay as a thin black line in
+the center of the lake. An owl left the branches of the hut tree and
+circled into the safety of the shore willows, and a stealthy barn cat,
+with thread-like legs, crept from the water's edge toward the lane with
+a trailing dead fish in his jaws. He turned glistening green eyes upon
+Tess, and leapt away with his treasure.
+
+Oh! to be out once more in the darkness with the child--out among God's
+creatures, her creatures, there she would be safe--safe from Myra's
+terror.
+
+Glancing back at little Dan, she saw his large gray eyes fixed gravely
+upon the candlelight. To leave him there was like sending him into the
+jaws of death. To take him was impossible. She turned back, closed the
+door with a gasp, and faced Ben Letts.
+
+He was at her side in a moment.
+
+"I air got ye now," sounded in her ear like the roar of the sea. She
+felt the man crush her in his arms, felt the thick lips upon her face.
+
+"Ye think ye be such a smart kid that ye needn't never mind what a man
+says to ye. I knows that brat don't belong to yerself. I ain't seed ye
+all summer for nothin'. Tell me, whose air he?"
+
+Tess wrenched herself free, and sent forth scream after scream. A horny
+hand left a red mark across the fair face. It was the right of the
+fisherman to beat the woman he loved.... Tessibel Skinner was feeling
+for the first time the aggressiveness of the male.
+
+"Ben, Ben, I tells ye the truth if ye wait a minute."
+
+Ben relaxed his hold a little, and the girl continued:
+
+"The brat ain't mine--it air a woman's on the hill. She didn't like it,
+and gave it to me, with a little money, till Daddy comes back."
+
+"Whose brat air it?"
+
+"A woman's I says, a-livin' on the hill."
+
+The words struggled through the fishy hand.
+
+"Ye'll take it back to her to-night, ye does; then ye comes with me to
+the shanty. Yer Daddy ain't a-comin' here no more."
+
+Suddenly Tess heard footsteps crushing the pebbles near the hut. She
+could be saved, if she-- She wrenched her face upward, and screamed,
+
+"Rescue ther perishin'!"
+
+The words were sent out in such a strain of agony that Ben Letts thrust
+his fingers to her throat. With an oath he closed them together.
+
+"I loves ye, ye hussy; that air why I chokes ye!"
+
+The room whirled around before Tessibel's gaze. She tried to draw her
+breath beneath the tightening grasp. The door burst open, and Frederick
+Graves received a desperate look of entreaty from the squatter-girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+
+The babe smacked loudly. The September wind whirled its rain and dead
+willow leaves over the hut floor. A rasping sound, like the filing of a
+saw, came from the tin roof.
+
+Frederick Graves took in the scene with one sharp glance. He saw the
+fisherman, in ugly doggedness, towering over the small figure of the
+squatter-girl. Then he flung himself upon Ben Letts. He tore Ben's
+fingers from Tessibel's neck, leaving the skin reddened and scratched by
+the nails. Tess sank to the floor. The student's fist came down with a
+stunning blow upon the partly upturned face of the squatter Ben, and the
+fellow tumbled over.
+
+"Stand up," said Frederick to Tessibel, lifting her gently to her feet.
+Her hand fluttered to her eyes, then to her throat. Still dizzy from the
+choking, she sank into the rocking-chair.
+
+"What were you two fighting over?" demanded Frederick impetuously.
+
+Tess gathered her senses at the sound of his voice.
+
+"He were a-tryin' to make me come to his shanty with him--to be
+his'n--and I ain't a-goin'!"
+
+She whimpered a little, but choked back the tears, and raged:
+
+"A squatter-girl can't live a minute without some damn bloke wants to
+take her from her Daddy's shanty.... I ain't a-goin', I says!"
+
+How brave she felt, with the student near! for there was an expression
+upon his face that gave her courage. He looked so strong, so brave--and
+he had come when she had prayed. Something took from her the terror of
+the night when she had proclaimed her motherhood to him. Perhaps Teola
+had told him the truth. When he had turned from her in the agony of the
+confession, he had scorned her with his proud, dark eyes. Now he threw
+her the same protective glance that she had received before the tragedy.
+
+The silence in the room became oppressive.
+
+"I ain't a-goin'," she said again, to break it.
+
+Ben was upon the floor. He feared to rise, for Frederick stood
+threateningly over him.
+
+"She goes to my shanty," insisted Ben, screwing his face to peep through
+the swollen lids. "She and the brat goes to my hut.... I air its pappy!"
+
+Frederick staggered back against the door with a groan, Tess catching
+her breath in a sob. She could not exonerate herself because of Teola;
+she knew from Frederick's emotion at Ben's assertion that his sister had
+not told him. But he should not believe the lie that Letts had uttered.
+
+She saw the fine face of the student fall into his hands, and shudder
+after shudder run over the giant frame. Ben Letts leered at him with his
+twisted face, as a demon might at a soul in torment. The boy suffered
+for her--that was enough. The front portion of her skirt had been almost
+torn away in her struggle, and unconsciously she lifted it, and pinned a
+thorn more closely in its place. But for an instant she held back the
+words ready upon her tongue, and with one long step she reached
+Frederick, placing her hand upon his arm.
+
+"Don't touch me, please," he shuddered. "It's awful--awful! And I--I
+loved you so!"
+
+"Haw!" chuckled Ben, settling back against the child's box. "I says as
+how the gal comes to my shanty. She brings the brat to its pa."
+
+Frederick moodily considered the ugly face. The sneer that accompanied
+the declaration roused his rage; the brute had sealed the doom of
+Tessibel Skinner. Again the student was oblivious of his love for the
+profession he had chosen; forgot that the one book he had studied more
+than any other taught him that the God he worshiped would avenge all
+wrong. In one step he was upon the fisherman. He lifted Orn Skinner's
+stool, and brought it down with a crash upon Ben's head.
+
+Tess uttered a sharp, frightened cry, speeding to interrupt another
+blow.
+
+"Get out of the way," cried the student, pushing her from him. "I am
+going to kill him!"
+
+With no ungentle touch she grasped Frederick's arm, holding the stool in
+the air.
+
+"Ye air to wait," she said, in low, swift tones, her gaze dominating his
+flashing eyes. "Ye'll kill him if ye hit him again.... Wait till I says
+what I's a-goin' to ... I loves my Daddy, that ye knows--better'n
+anything in the hull world--better'n God--better'n--better'n--"
+
+"Better than the child?" demanded Frederick, placing his foot upon Ben.
+
+A grunt issued from the girl's lips.
+
+"Yep, a hundred times better than the brat! And I says this: that I
+hopes my daddy's neck'll be twisted by the rope, I hopes that I never
+sees him again"--her voice was raised high above the whistling wind and
+dashing rain--"I hopes," she finished, "that his soul'll shrivel in
+hell--"
+
+"Stop! stop!" muttered Frederick. "Why are you saying such things?"
+
+"I hopes it all," insisted Tess, bending her head nearer, "and I swears
+that I hopes it if Ben Letts ain't a liar!"
+
+Frederick's foot slipped from the round, fat body. He took a long
+breath, brushing a damp lock from his brow.
+
+"I believe you," he surrendered slowly. "Oh, God! Tessibel, I believe
+you--and I love you, in spite of that!"
+
+His glance swept over Ben's prostrate body to the death-like child. Letts
+sat up with an oath, rubbing the inflicted bruises. Frederick helped him
+to his feet.
+
+"You go home," he said, piercing the fisherman with his burning eyes.
+"And let me warn you against fastening any of your lies upon this girl,
+for whatever she is, or whatever she has done, I know that you lied
+to-night.... Now go!" Frederick pointed toward the door.
+
+Letts, muttering threats and curses against the student and the
+squatter-girl, stumbled out into the storm. Ben's head was splitting
+with pain. A gash on his nose bled until his torn sleeve was thickened
+with blood. He staggered out of the rays of the candle, and took the
+path to the hill. The sound of footsteps caused him to sink down beside
+the way and wait. Was the student--? No, the person was coming from the
+other direction.
+
+In the dim light he saw a man dripping with water totter toward him.
+Ben peered out upon the wobbling legs, and in another instant had fallen
+back, shivering with fright and superstitious fear. Ezra Longman, his
+face haggard and ghastly white, stood directly in front of him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Frederick closed the door upon Ben, and Tess turned upon him sharply.
+
+"It were a lie he told ye," said she, "and he weren't worth killin'."
+
+"I don't want to speak of him," stammered Frederick, "I came to talk to
+you. It nearly killed me to-night, when my father whipped you, and I
+want to save you from such things in the future.... My father gives me
+an allowance--I want to buy the milk for the little child. Will you let
+me, Tess?" His face had grown scarlet, his eyes fell before hers. The
+girl seemed glued to the spot. "It will save you from stealing," resumed
+the boy. "I can't bear to have you steal."
+
+The tragic tone stung Tessibel. Teola had promised to tell him. She
+herself would; it was only right that he should know. She took two
+impetuous steps forward, opened her lips--but again remembered her oath.
+
+"I air a-thankin' ye for the milk," was all she said.
+
+With an embarrassed air, Frederick tendered her a silver dollar.
+Tessibel stepped back, hesitant.
+
+"It will make me happier, if you will take it," he urged.
+
+Tess extended her fingers, blushing crimson, but took the coin from his
+hand. A sob choked the utterance of further gratitude.
+
+"Professor Young says," broke in Frederick, after a painful silence,
+"that he is going to bring your father back here before the winter....
+But, Tess, I don't want you to live in this shanty. I want you to be a
+better girl, Tess. Will you? Will you?"
+
+His eyes rested upon the child. The darkness of the night, the ghostly
+sound of the wind, the swish of the thousands of wet leaves over the
+roof, roused the romance in the girl until she felt an impulse to tell
+him the whole painful story; to feel his kisses warm upon her face, to
+have his arms about her, to kneel with him again, and hear his earnest
+voice interceding for Daddy Skinner.... But her oath! It was Teola's
+secret, not hers.
+
+"Ye couldn't go on a-trustin' me the same as before ye knowed of him?"
+Her head inclined toward the infant in a large-eyed question.
+
+Frederick shook his head.
+
+"No," he ejaculated; "no! Nevertheless, I would save you from--worse.
+The more I think of it, the more I believe that you were honest in your
+desire to know God and the truth. He will forgive you your sin,
+Tessibel, if you ask Him."
+
+"If God air forgivin'--then couldn't ye forgive, too?"
+
+It took a desperate effort to utter the words. Nothing but her love for
+him could have forced them from her.
+
+"That's different," reddened the boy. "I wanted--I wanted to marry you
+some day."
+
+To marry her! She drew a great, heaving breath, more strongly tempted to
+tell him than before. But, as she struggled with her desire, her face
+grew paler, and the drooping mouth gathered sad lines.
+
+She did not reply, and the student continued,
+
+"You have one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, Tess. It
+is a God-given gift, and He will hold you responsible for it if you
+neglect it."
+
+"I air only a squatter," she moaned forlornly, shaking the red curls.
+"Daddy air a squatter, too, and if he air a-comin' home, then I stays
+with him. If he says as how we stay in the shanty, then we stays, even
+if it air yer Daddy's. I asks Daddy Skinner to give it back, but a brat
+can't boss her Pappy, can she?... Ye sees, don't ye?"
+
+"Yes, Tess, I see," slowly replied Frederick. "But it's not because of
+my father I want you to go. You have the squatter's rights, and may
+remain if you wish.... It is for your own sake. You are sixteen ... But,
+of course, the--child--has changed your life."
+
+"It ain't changed my lovin' you!"
+
+This was the first open confession of her love. She made it
+emphatically, almost sullenly. Frederick whitened, and turned his face
+away. In the terror of the thought that she would lose him again, Tess
+sank upon her knees beside him. This time he did not thrust her aside.
+The strong young hands pressed upon his shoulders, and the sensitive
+chin trembled. Tess turned her face up to his.
+
+"Don't!" he breathed hard. "Don't, Tess!"
+
+But the girl heeded him not. Of a sudden, Frederick raised his eyes and
+looked directly into hers. The jealousy that had risen tiger-like in his
+breast, forcing him from her, and demanding that he should never look
+upon her face again, yielded precedence to a nobler and stronger
+thought. He would help the girl with her living secret--help her, and
+make her better. Long and fixedly he studied the beautiful face, until
+he had read to the finish the tale of passion and longing. The auburn
+head bent nearer and nearer, the panting lips imparting the sweet breath
+of youth. Then they both forgot the whistling wind and the falling rain
+... forgot even the wriggling, fire-branded babe in its bed.
+
+Frederick's lips closed down upon the girl's, and the dark hair of the
+student mingled with the red curls of the squatter.
+
+"I shall never let you go again," murmured Frederick, his lips roving in
+sweet freedom over the flushed cheeks.
+
+"And I ain't a-goin' ter let yer go, nuther," whispered Tess. "I works,
+fishes and berries the years through--but I air yer squatter."
+
+The child, as if in pain, cried sharply. The student's arms slipped
+limply from Tessibel, and he stood up.
+
+"I had forgotten it for a moment, Tess. The infant has changed your life
+and mine.... I have loved you dearly--I love you still. But the child is
+between us, and always will be ... I must remember it.... Ah! I have
+forgotten one thing I came for. Here!"
+
+He was holding a small Bible out to her.
+
+"In my temper I burned yours. I'm sorry. I was bringing you this when I
+heard you cry."
+
+Tess took the book in her hand mechanically, and the hope rekindled in
+her heart died. Frederick bent over her for one short moment, looking
+into her eyes.
+
+"Forgive me if you can, Tess--and--and be a good girl!"
+
+He opened the door, and was gone before she could stop him. With
+chattering teeth, she flung herself upon the stool, resting her head in
+her arms on the table, heeding not the second whining command from the
+infant.
+
+Suddenly, with flashing eyes, she bounded up. She would tell him. Teola
+had promised that he should know. Why not be happy, and make him happy?
+She would call him back, and--
+
+The door opened under her impulsive hand. She faced the storm--and the
+tall, gaunt, emaciated form of Ezra Longman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+
+Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that
+Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and
+dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from
+Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy.
+
+"Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here? It air yer
+own self, ain't it, Ezy?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Where air yer been?"
+
+"I dunno. I air sick unto death, I air."
+
+"Have ye seen yer mammy?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Nor Satisfied?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Then ye be a-goin' there now, ain't ye?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Was ye to Albany?"
+
+"Nope. I were sick in a house, and the big man from the hill were
+a-takin' care of me. I weren't a-goin' to stay no longer, so I runned
+away. I air a-goin' home to Mammy."
+
+"Yep, that air right," rejoined Tess with conviction, "for yer mammy air
+a-grievin' every day for ye, and Satisfied air a-gettin' older and
+older-lookin'. They thought as how ye might be in Albany."
+
+Another loud cry caused Ezy to turn his head toward the infant.
+
+"Ye air the same as Myry," he said slowly; but before he could say
+another word, the girl interposed hastily:
+
+"It ain't my brat.... It belongs to a woman on the hill. I gets paid for
+it."
+
+To every other man save to the one she loved was Tess able to deny the
+motherhood that had been thrust upon her. To the student she stood
+condemned of a sin he could not forgive. But to Ezra, Ben, and Professor
+Young she had told the truth.
+
+The weakness of the squatter as he sat on the floor, panting for breath,
+aroused Tessibel's sympathy, and she proffered him a cup of little Dan's
+milk.
+
+"Drink it," she commanded, "and then scoot to yer mammy. And--and ye
+needn't say as how I air a-carin' for another woman's brat, will ye,
+Ezy?"
+
+"Nope; I ain't a-sayin' nothin' ... I goes home to my mammy."
+
+If Tess had never seen the hue of death upon a human face, she saw it
+now. The boy rose totteringly, and Tessibel, with a tender expression in
+her eyes, opened the door.
+
+"Ezy, I's sorry for ye! I's sorry that I slicked the dirty dishrag in
+yer face. Ye forgives me, don't ye, Ezy?"
+
+"Yep." And Ezra stumbled away.
+
+Tess watched him stagger along the shore through the rain, the shadows
+of the weeping-willow trees at last swallowing him up.
+
+She turned back into the hut, barred the door, and fed the child with
+sweetened milk, forcing particles of bread into the yawning throat.
+Teola had sent the student from her, never to return, yet she fed the
+child tenderly, tucking it, with its sugar rag, in the warm blanket.
+
+She snuffed the end from the candle, that it might burn brighter, took
+the little Bible, and sat down to read.
+
+"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" she haltingly
+spelled.
+
+Her eyes sought the small outline of Dan Jordan's babe in the bed. She
+hardly understood Paul's figurative words, but vaguely imagined that the
+apostle was afflicted with something like the wizened child which had
+been thrust upon herself.
+
+Loud, impatient noises issued from the blanket. Tess rose, settled the
+baby more comfortably, and sat down again. Her eyes sought another
+verse.
+
+"If ye have the faith of a grain of mustard-seed--"
+
+The passage brought a vivid blush to her face. She rose silently, and
+knelt by the window.
+
+"Take this here body of my death," she prayed, "and give the poor brat
+to the Christ! Make its ma tell the student, and give Tessibel faith
+like a mustard-seed." Thus ended her prayer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ezra Longman, sick unto death, as he had said, floundered his way along
+the wet path. The long walk through the storm from Ithaca had so
+weakened him that he could hardly stand upright. He wanted to see his
+mother once more, to be with Satisfied, and to warn Myra of the coming
+evil. A conversation he had heard between the nurse and Professor Young
+had decided him to go home if he could, for Ezra knew that his sister
+loved the ugly fisherman who had tried to put him to death in the
+Hoghole.
+
+As he neared his cabin home, he saw the candle streaming its flickering
+ray upon the path that led to the rocks. He saw his mother snuff the
+flame and Satisfied take Myra's child up from the floor, but he did not
+see his sister. As if in answer to this thought as to her whereabouts,
+Myra appeared directly in front of him, carrying a pail of water from
+the spring. She did not notice him until he pronounced her name in an
+undertone. The pail dropped from her hand, splashing its contents over
+her garments, and she uttered a little frightened cry. He whispered her
+name again and Myra timidly put out her hand.
+
+"Air it yerself, Ezy?" she implored.
+
+"Yep, I air here. I comed to see Mammy and Satisfied, and to tell ye
+that it air time for ye to be savin' Ben Letts if ye loves him. Ben
+throwed me in the Hoghole, he did, but I know that ye loved him, and I
+comed."
+
+The boy staggered with weakness, and his sister threw an arm around him.
+
+"Ye air to come to Mammy," she urged. "Mammy loves ye, Ezy dear."
+
+"Wait," whispered the boy. "Ben Letts air to be arrested."
+
+"What?"
+
+The cry was sharp--the words hurt.
+
+"Ben Letts air to be tooked to jail. It were him what killed the
+gamekeeper. It weren't Orn Skinner."
+
+"Who were a-sayin' it were Ben?" demanded Myra, her mouth hard and
+lined.
+
+"I says it," replied Ezy. "I seed him when he done it, and I comed to
+tell ye, and to see Mammy and Satisfied."
+
+"Then come in, and go to bed, for ye be sick."
+
+A change gradually came over Myra: cunning grew in the faded eyes and
+determination straightened the thin shoulders, as she led her brother
+into the hut.
+
+"Mammy," she called softly, opening the door, "here air Ezy!"
+
+"Fetch him in," cried Satisfied.
+
+Mrs. Longman sank weakly into a chair. The sight of her son, her only
+son, white and emaciated, and the appearance of the livid scar on his
+brow drew a painful cry from her lips.
+
+"He air sick," continued Myra, "put him to bed."
+
+"Where air ye been all this time, Ezy?" asked Longman, assisting him
+into the small back room. But Ezra was too ill to tell the story, and
+the mother hushed him to sleep just as she had in those childhood days
+when he had been good, and always at home.
+
+Meantime, Myra, pale and thoughtful, moved about the shanty. Her mind
+was upon one subject--she must save Ben Letts from the dreaded rope. She
+did not question the verity of her brother's statement, for she realized
+that Ben was not only capable of killing the inspector, but also of
+placing the guilt upon an innocent man. It did not, however, change her
+squatter love. The more she thought of Ben's danger, the more she loved
+and wanted to save him, the more determined she grew to take him away to
+some place where the officers could not find him.
+
+"Goin' to bed, Myry?" asked Longman, taking the candle and climbing the
+ladder to the loft.
+
+"Yep, but I air a-goin' to rock the brat a little while. Ye and Mammy go
+to bed. I locks the door."
+
+She settled herself in the wooden rocking-chair, trundling the child to
+and fro, and murmuring a doleful tune. Her son was now almost two years
+old, and beginning to toddle about upon a pair of crooked, thin legs. As
+often as Ben had visited the hut he had never deigned to look at the
+child, but Myra had a dull hope that, if she saved the fisherman, he
+would show some affection for the little boy.
+
+An hour later, the regular breathing of her father and mother told Myra
+that they both slept. Ezra, too, was sleeping, for she had bent over him
+but a little time before. The clock on the mantel pointed to midnight.
+The girl rose, and fed the baby, dropping some paregoric into his milk
+to keep him asleep, and then drew a large shawl about the little one,
+rolling him gently in the warm folds. Finally, she took a piece of paper
+and a pencil from the shelf.
+
+"Mammy," she wrote, "I's a-goin' to save Ben Letts. Ezy tells ye about
+it, as how Ben Letts killed the gamekeeper it werent Orn Skinner. I
+takes the brat cause it air Bens I luves yer and Satisfied."
+
+She pinned the note to the handle of the copper kettle upon the stove,
+and, lifting the child in her arms, slipped through the door without a
+sound.
+
+The rain still fell steadily, the turbulent roll of the lake lost only
+in thunder's roar. Once on the ragged rocks, Myra walked swiftly, afraid
+of the shadowy objects and ghostly sounds that spectered her path. She
+threw despairing glances about her, and shrank from the imaginary
+sneaking figures haunting the dismal night. Almost running, she reached
+the Letts' shanty.
+
+How soon would the officers come for Ben? They might have been there
+before her. The cabin was dark, and she tapped timidly upon the kitchen
+door. Only a great snore from the sleeping Ben inside answered her.
+Trying the latch, it lifted in her fingers, and she crept stealthily
+through the narrow aperture, encircling the child with her left arm.
+
+"Ben!" she whispered. "Ben!"
+
+The squatter turned, muttering sleepily.
+
+"Mammy! What be the matter, Mammy?" The fresh night air startled him.
+
+"Who air it?" he demanded hoarsely.
+
+"Myry," breathed the woman again. "Get up.... They air a-comin' to take
+ye to prison for the killin' of the gamekeeper. I comed to help ye, Ben
+Letts."
+
+The words soaked slowly into the sluggish brain. Tired from the beating
+Frederick had given him, and lazy by temperament, Ben did not at first
+realize that Myra's message meant the hangman's rope for him. He turned
+again in bed, and sat up. Were the officers of the law waiting for him?
+
+"Ezy air home," resumed Myra rapidly, leaning tensely toward him. "He
+walked through the rain from Ithacy. He says as how ye air goin' to be
+tooked to prison. I has the brat here with me ... we air a-goin'
+away.... Get up, Ben. Hustle yer bones!"
+
+The blue-jeans breeches, streaked with the blood of many a fish, were
+drawn on in a twinkling. The great squatter boots quickly covered the
+horny feet, and trembling, Ben waited for Myra to lead him from the
+cabin.
+
+"Where be we a-goin'?" he asked in a whisper.
+
+"I takes ye 'cross the lake to Ludlowville, and then we goes into the
+hills. A awful storm air a-scootin' along from the north, but we can't
+wait, for ye'll be took."
+
+By this time they were nearing the shore. The autumn lightning shot out
+from the sky, veering to the north and unmasking the black, raging lake
+and the distant city. A heavy roll of awe-inspiring thunder followed the
+flash. The man and woman did not speak until the flat boat topped the
+breaking waves.
+
+"The storm air a-goin' to be worse," shouted Ben, scanning the dark
+clouds. "It air foolhardy to try it, ain't it, Myry?"
+
+"Yep; but we go, all the same. I stays with ye, Ben!"
+
+He did not answer to this, nor did he ask a question then about the
+return of Ezra. He was satisfied that what he had supposed was the boy's
+wraith--the disembodied spirit of the lad he had thrown into the
+Hoghole--was the living Ezra Longman. On his way home from the Skinner
+hut, Ben had planned a terrible revenge upon the student and Tessibel,
+but the advent of this unforeseen discovery had placed his enemies
+beyond his reach. The thought of Tess brought a rasp from his throat.
+
+The creaking oars, under his experienced fingers, carried the boat far
+from the shadowy shore. Through the frequent lightning he could plainly
+see Myra in the stern, holding to the child. It was all ending
+differently from what he had hoped. That he had killed the gamekeeper he
+knew well, but, when Ezra Longman had disappeared into the Hoghole, Ben
+thought it took from the earth the only witness of his deed.
+
+On and on through the night sped the boat, until Myra and Ben could see
+the lights on the college hill. Here and there in the valley beyond, the
+lightning revealed a farmhouse, the inmates of which were quietly
+sleeping.
+
+Presently Ben spoke:
+
+"What hes Ezy been a-sayin'?"
+
+"Nothin' but that ye throwed him in the Hoghole, and tried to kill him,
+and that ye killed the gamekeeper."
+
+"Where hes he been all this time?"
+
+"I dunno. He air awful sick, and Ma put him to bed."
+
+Their voices rose high above the shrieking of the wind. Myra's last
+words were screamed out. The boat tossed like a bit of tinder, but it
+was in the hands of a fisherman: Ben knew how to keep it in and out of
+the troughs of the waves. Once the boat lurched mightily, and Myra gave
+a frightened cry, wedging the child between her knees. Higher and higher
+rolled the waves.
+
+"We hev got to bail the water out," yelled Ben. "Bail, Myry, while I
+rows."
+
+The mother grasped the sleeping child tighter between her knees, and
+began to throw the water into the lake. Suddenly a great wave half
+filled the boat.
+
+"Ye can't do it, Ben," Myra screamed. "Ye can't keep the boat top up,
+and we'll all die to once.... Does ye love yer brat, Ben Letts?"
+
+The voice, prophetic and high-pitched, struck terror to the heart of the
+fisherman. He stopped rowing, and shouted out over the waves for help.
+The lightning made day of the inky night for an instant, and the
+squatter Ben saw the woman, holding the child under one arm and clinging
+to the side of the boat with the other, creep toward him.
+
+"Keep away!" he bellowed. "Keep the boat top up!"
+
+Another flash.... She was closer, her white face and her staring eyes
+frightening him. He raised one great boot to ward her off, but she was
+at his side before it touched her. A large wave lifted one oar from the
+lock and bore it away on its crest. The boat, without pilot power,
+tipped dangerously. Loosening her hand from the side of the boat, Myra
+wound one arm about the knees of the squatter.
+
+"Ben Letts," she cried, shrieking the words into his ear, "kiss yer brat
+afore he dies with ye, will ye? Ye ain't so much as ever touched him."
+
+A dark storm-cloud broke directly over their head--one brilliant sheet
+flared the sky from the north to the south. The child, sleeping heavily
+under the drug, was close to the squatter's face. A revulsion of feeling
+overwhelmed Ben--approaching death aided the ghosts of his past bad
+deeds in their attack upon his wretched, over-wrought soul.... With a
+sob, he laid his lips upon the slumbering babe. A long kiss followed the
+first; another, and then another.
+
+Myra gasped, and drew the boy back to her. The boat reared high in the
+boiling, seething waves, and the next whitecap wrenched the child from
+her hands, snatching it into the water.
+
+"Ben Letts, our brat air gone!... There he be!... God!... There! There!"
+
+Through a sudden, resplendent flood of light, they saw the babe poised
+for one brief instant on a huge, foaming shoulder of the lake. In her
+frenzy the squatter woman was murmuring over and over strange,
+inarticulate words which Ben did not heed. Their arms were locked
+tightly about each other. Ben Letts slowly fixed his cold, shivering
+lips on those of the girl, drawing her closer and closer into his
+embrace. The majesty of death was upon them, this squatter father and
+mother. Another glare of light showed them still clinging together, but
+the one following failed to reveal either man, woman or boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+
+Professor Young knocked at the Skinner hut. Tess smiled at him from
+between the tatters of the curtain, and unlocked the door, standing, as
+her friend took the wooden rocker.
+
+"Daddy air a-comin' home," she breathed timidly.
+
+"Soon. Sit down, child. I have much to say to you.... We have discovered
+the murderer of the gamekeeper. We have positive proof that it was not
+your father."
+
+Tess squatted on the floor, crossed her legs, and waited.
+
+"Who were it?" she asked presently, as if afraid to speak.
+
+"Ben Letts."
+
+"The damn bloke!" she ejaculated, a dangerous light gathering in her
+eyes. "And he were a-lettin' Daddy be hung for his own dirty work! He
+air a wicked cuss, he air!"
+
+"Ezra Longman saw him when he committed the murder," Young told her,
+watching the interest gather in the eager face. "Letts used your
+father's gun. That accounts for his having been accused."
+
+Tess nodded her head.
+
+"Ezy were here last night," she commented quietly. "He were sick."
+
+"He was under my care for a long time," explained Young, "and last night
+escaped and walked home through the rain.... He is dead."
+
+"Dead!" gasped Tess. "Dead!"
+
+Impetuously she bent toward him, and finished:
+
+"Ezy Longman ain't dead!"
+
+"Yes, he is," replied Young. "He died in his father's hut, last night. I
+have just left there, and I feel heartily sorry for them both."
+
+"Myry?... Did ye see Myry?"
+
+"She's gone with Ben Letts."
+
+"Gone where?"
+
+"We don't know, but the officers are looking for them. I think the boy
+heard me tell the nurse that he would be held as a witness in your
+father's next trial. He must have warned Letts upon his arrival home,
+for--"
+
+"He knowed Myry loved Ben," broke in Tess.
+
+"That's what I thought," Young answered. "I found Longman and the mother
+mourning over the boy. They hope to hear from the girl soon."
+
+"If Myry and Ben was in the storm last night--" began Tess.
+
+"They may be dead," ended Young gravely. "Myra took her child with her.
+I found this note on the dead boy's bed, and brought it away with me. I
+would have liked to have put the boy on the witness-stand. Nevertheless,
+I hope to release your father on the evidence I have, without a trial."
+
+For several moments silence reigned in the hut. The sun streamed through
+the window, and a steamer sent a shrill whistle over the lake, the sound
+echoing among the rocks. Tessibel was thinking of Ezra Longman;
+Professor Young was thinking of her.
+
+Presently she leaned over, and took the letter from the man's hand,
+spelling out Myra's written message.
+
+"Myry air a-writin' so dum well," she observed, handing it back, "that
+I can't make it out. What air she a-sayin'? You read it."
+
+Young read the badly-spelled note.
+
+"I knowed the brat was Ben Letts'," she said, after the man's voice had
+died away. "He were a cute kid."
+
+"We hope to find them all," interposed Young thoughtfully. "But, if we
+don't, the evidence I already have--this note, and the fact that the
+fisherman is a fugitive--will liberate your father. I shall go to Albany
+to-morrow to see the Governor. I am sure he will consider the evidence I
+have. Then we shall know."
+
+"You think the man at Albany will give him to me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I do! I would not raise your hopes if I did not. If you
+persuade your father to leave here--" He stopped and looked at her with
+a questioning glance.
+
+"I tells him that the hut ain't his'n," she asserted abruptly.
+
+"If you do go away, I shall try to get your father steady work in the
+city. Would you like that?"
+
+"Yep," replied Tess, in a thick voice. "He wouldn't have to net no more.
+And he wouldn't have no more froze toes."
+
+"Neither would you, Tess," answered Young.
+
+Suddenly Tess saw the man staring at her arm, where several blue
+stripes, mingling with red, ran long from her shoulder.
+
+"Heavens! child, what's the matter with your arm?"
+
+The brown eyes clouded. Tess swept her jacket over the marks, and
+muttered,
+
+"It ain't nothin'. I scratched it on some thorns."
+
+Professor Young leaned forward, and tilted the little chin upward. Still
+the eyes remained upon the floor.
+
+"Tess!" he pleaded. "Tess! Are you telling me the truth?"
+
+"Nope; I's lyin' to ye."
+
+She tossed her head up angrily.
+
+"I had a damn good lickin'," she finished.
+
+Young sprang forward, and grasped her arm.
+
+"Who dared to mark you like that?" he exclaimed, standing her on her
+feet. "Wait. I want to see it. Who did it?"
+
+He pushed back the sleeve, and stood analyzing the bruised shoulder and
+arm.
+
+"Who did it?" he persisted, drawing a quick, sharp breath.
+
+"Dominie Graves," muttered the girl.
+
+"What!" Two deep creases marked the fine brow.
+
+"He licked me," reiterated Tess, with an indifferent droop to her lids.
+"He had a right. I were a-stealin'."
+
+"Tessibel! Tessibel! Look at me."
+
+She swept him with a glance of truth.
+
+"Are you--? Tess, I demand to know it all--all! Please, tell me about
+it!"
+
+"There ain't much to tell," she returned; "only that I were a-stealin'
+from the Dominie's kitchen, and he licked me for it."
+
+"What did you--steal?"
+
+"Milk for the brat.... He can't starve, can he?"
+
+Slowly Professor Young dropped her arm, gazing at her mutely.
+
+"Ye ain't mad at me?" she ventured, watching him narrowly.
+
+"No! I'm only sorry--infinitely sorry for you."
+
+The tender tone in his voice, the mist rising in his eyes, brought Tess
+to his side.
+
+"I thanks ye for all ye been a-doin' for Daddy and me," she said
+brokenly. "I does thank ye.... Don't look at me like that--it air
+a-hurtin' me."
+
+The low voice, filled with unshed tears, rang with emotion.
+
+A sudden inspiration seized Young.
+
+"Child, if I bring your father back to you, will you--marry me?"
+
+The unexpected question sent Tess staggering back; a tearful smile
+spread the red lips.
+
+"Ye'r' batty," she said presently, with a dissenting shake of the red
+curls. "Ye'r' gone plumb crazy.... I's a squatter, nothin' but a
+squatter. I stays here with Daddy. I marries no man. See?"
+
+The proud face of Frederick Graves rose before her. She turned away with
+a groan.
+
+Young misinterpreted her expression.
+
+"Circumstances have made you a squatter.... Sit down. I want to say more
+to you, Tess. Don't say you won't marry me, just yet. When your father
+comes home, we will talk to him about it.... I love you, child."
+
+"My Daddy air a-wantin' me with him," faltered Tess. "He said oncet as
+how he wouldn't give me to nobody. Ezy Longman wanted me to marry him,
+but I hated him.... I don't now, though, 'cause he air dead."
+
+"Tessibel, will you let me give you some money to buy milk for the
+strange little boy?"
+
+"Somebody gived me some money after my lickin' last night, so I don't
+need none now."
+
+A jealous feeling rose instantly in Young's heart.
+
+"Who gave you money last night?"
+
+"The student," replied Tess. "He said as how I shouldn't steal no more
+milk for the brat. I takes the student's money, I does."
+
+A faint suspicion flashed over the lawyer.
+
+"You told me the truth about the child belonging to a woman on the
+hill?"
+
+Without answering his question, Tess stammered,
+
+"Ye said as how ye trusted me, and I were happy because ye did.... Ain't
+ye trustin' me now?"
+
+"Yes, child; but I am so bitterly unhappy over you, and my love for you
+makes me jealous--"
+
+"Of the student?" queried Tess.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, ye needn't care no more about him, 'cause he don't like me no
+more. He ain't never carin'--" She cut the words off with a snap. "I
+were a-goin' to lie then," she went on slowly. "He air a-carin',
+but--but--"
+
+She dashed a loose curl from her eyes, and flung herself headlong upon
+the bed, with a burst of sobs that drew Young quickly to her.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, you love Frederick Graves?"
+
+Tess straightened, and looked at him fearfully.
+
+"Yep, I air a-lovin' him," she wailed.
+
+"And he doesn't love you?"
+
+"He be a-lovin' me, too." She was hardly able to utter the words.
+
+"Then why do you weep, if you love him and he loves you?"
+
+Tessibel's eyes settled upon the babe, yawning in the sun. Young
+followed her gaze.
+
+"The child has separated you?" he said slowly.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause--'cause--"
+
+All Teola's perfidy rushed over her in a twinkling. All the student's
+suffering stung her as if she had been struck in the face. She bounded
+from the bed, possessed of a dark spirit.
+
+"A damn bloke air a-doin' it. It were a oath I took.... Will you go
+now?--Please!"
+
+"Yes," assented Young. "But it is all a mystery to me. I cannot
+understand it."
+
+And Tessibel, thinking of Teola, the child, and its dead father,
+muttered:
+
+"I ain't understandin' it, nuther.... Good-bye."
+
+Transfixed, Tess stood for many minutes where Young had left her. A
+shadow dropped upon the path. Teola, pale and ill, came toward her, and
+she did not move.
+
+"My father and brother have gone to Ithaca, and I--Tessibel! Tess, don't
+look at me that way! Don't! don't!"
+
+"You forgot to tell him," dropped from the squatter's lips.
+
+"No, I didn't forget. Tessibel, I've tried, and I can't tell him.... I
+haven't the courage," she ejaculated, waiting long for a reply from the
+rigid girl. Her lips trembled as she faltered:
+
+"My father was cruel to you, Tess!"
+
+"I were a-stealin'," Tess muttered. "He wouldn't a whipped me if he--had
+knowed about it, would he?"
+
+"No, no! He would have died first.... Tessibel, why didn't you tell
+him?"
+
+"Didn't ye say it would kill the student if he knowed it? And I swored,
+didn't I? when the brat was borned, that I wouldn't tell--and I ain't no
+liar--leastwise about no brats. If it air told, the brat's ma's got to
+tell it," she finished.
+
+Teola dropped beside her infant.
+
+"I'm afraid to tell it. My father and brother have such confidence in
+me!" She shifted about, and looked at Tessibel. "We are going to move to
+the city, Saturday.... I have been thinking about the baby's milk--"
+
+"I has money now," broke in Tess. "I don't have to steal no more. Daddy
+air a-comin' home soon, too."
+
+"I know it. Father heard from Professor Young all about it. I am so glad
+for you, Tess. What will you say to him about the baby?"
+
+"I dunno," grunted the squatter.
+
+She answered no more of Teola's questions, but for a long time remained
+moodily looking, with narrowed eyes and burning heart, at the minister's
+daughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+
+Two days later, on Friday evening, Teola slipped quietly from her home,
+and the Skinner hut opened to her timid knock. Tess had no more fear
+when visitors came. Ben Letts had gone with Myra, and Ezra Longman was
+dead.
+
+The girls eyed each other for one embarrassed moment. The day for
+separation was at hand: Tess would face the lean winter, Teola the
+burden of a conscience in torment.
+
+"Come in," muttered Tess.
+
+"Tessibel," Teola burst out spontaneously, "we are going away to-morrow.
+I wish I were going to stay with you and the baby!"
+
+Gloomily Tess scrutinized the young mother, checking an ejaculation that
+rose to her lips.
+
+"I don't understand what you are going to do," said Teola. "Tess, do you
+think he is very ill? You do! I can see it in your face. Look how he
+yawns, and screws his mouth, and shuts his eyes! Oh, he is suffering,
+Tessibel!"
+
+"Yep, he air sick," replied Tess, turning her back. She had grown to
+love the hapless thing, and knew that he suffered as all human beings
+suffer when they go slowly away to the mystery of mysteries.
+
+Teola's next words brought her about sharply.
+
+"Tessibel, do you--hate me?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Oh, what a coward I am! Frederick has forbidden me to come here."
+
+"That air 'cause he air a good bloke," snorted Tess. "But if he
+knowed--"
+
+"I can't get my breath when I think of telling him, Tess."
+
+"He ain't to know never, then?" bounded from Tessibel's lips, the
+passion in the tones lowering the voice almost to a whisper.
+
+"No," replied the young mother; "I can't tell him."
+
+The squatter just caught the next words, "But I am going to die, too,
+Tess."
+
+The conviction in the statement made Tess spring back.
+
+"Ye ain't yet. Ye ain't goin' yet!"
+
+"The doctor says I am very ill here." Teola placed her hand upon her
+chest. "I've had three hemorrhages. People ill like I am never get well.
+I don't want to--either," she ended brokenly.
+
+She looked so forlorn, so thin and ill that Tess went awkwardly to her.
+
+"I takes care of the brat if ye goes before him," said she.
+
+"Thank you, dear," drifted from the depths of the child's box. "And
+forgive me all the sorrow I have caused you."
+
+"I has forgivin' ye," assured Tess, seating herself. "I were--sorry
+about the student, though."
+
+"I know, I know; and perhaps God won't forgive me, for I've been so
+wicked! I make up my mind every night, when I can't sleep, that I will
+tell; then in the daylight I am afraid."
+
+Tess did not answer.
+
+"I shall think every moment of the day about you two here. Oh, my
+precious baby! If I could only take him with me! That mark will never
+disappear," she concluded, rubbing the tiny red forehead with her
+fingers. "If he only goes when I do! God couldn't be so cruel as to let
+him live, with his face like that, and have neither father nor mother."
+
+"Nope," replied Tess with decision. "He'll take the brat, too."
+
+"Will he die soon, Tess?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Why do you think so? Why?"
+
+"He air too thin to hold out much longer. He don't eat, nuther. He don't
+do nothin' but smack all day long on them sugar rags, like a suckin'
+calf. And there ain't no makin' him eat."
+
+"But he doesn't cry much," argued Teola.
+
+"That air 'cause he air so weak. Ma Moll were here with the hoss doctor,
+and they says he air to croak dum quick."
+
+Teola raised her head, startled.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know you had had a doctor. I was going to speak about it
+to-night." She dropped her eyes, reddened, and then added, "But the
+horse doctor, Tessibel?"
+
+"Squatters allers has the hoss doctor--they air cheaper."
+
+"But he can't die!" Teola moaned. "Not now--not yet! He has never been
+baptized. If he died now, he wouldn't go to Heaven!"
+
+"Aw! shut up. He air a-goin' in faster'n any of them. Don't you worry
+yer head over that. God ain't that kind of a bloke that He wouldn't take
+in a sick brat what ain't never done no harm."
+
+Tess had risen, and was standing over the child, Teola having placed
+him back in the bed.
+
+"But you don't understand, Tess dear! You see, it's this way: the Bible
+says that if a child isn't baptized, he will go to a place where he must
+stay always. He won't go to Heaven. You understand?"
+
+"Air the Bible a-sayin' that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Won't he go to a place where God'll find him, if he ain't sprinkled?"
+
+"No."
+
+"That air strange. The poor brat air so blue, so shiverin'--he air so
+sick! Aw! Christ'll love him, 'cause he ain't got no friends."
+
+Her eyes spread wide with infinite compassion as she contemplated the
+grave-shadowed child.
+
+"Did the student tell ye that the Bible were a-sayin' that?" she asked
+peremptorily.
+
+"Yes; and my father has often preached upon it. I know that it is true,"
+insisted Teola. "A child must be cleansed of its original sin in the
+church.... You see? You see, Tess?"
+
+"I don't see--I don't know, nuther. But what the student says air right.
+If the little kid ain't to see God's face 'less he air slapped on the
+head with water in the church, then the brat air got to be tooked
+there."
+
+"But--but, Tess, is it possible?"
+
+Again the squatter bent her head to gather the words.
+
+"He air a-goin' to die," she replied with conviction, "and he has to be
+hit with the water, if he air a-goin' to die, don't he? Air that what ye
+means?"
+
+Teola, dropping her face upon the babe, bowed her head in assent, and
+wept silently, until the cough that had fastened itself upon the
+slender chest since the coming of the child, dried the tears.
+
+Tess remained quiet until the paroxysm had passed.
+
+"Air yer pappy a good sprinkler of brats?"
+
+Teola nodded.
+
+"Air it likely he would sprinkle this 'un'?"
+
+"I don't think my father would turn away a dying babe that needed
+cleansing of its sin by the Holy Ghost."
+
+"The Huly what? The student were a-talkin' 'bout him once."
+
+"The Holy Ghost," explained Teola. "He lives in the church, and when a
+baby is baptized He comes and stands by the font, and when the water
+falls upon it, He takes away all the sin that it is born with."
+
+Tess grunted disbelievingly.
+
+"Can ye sees him?"
+
+"No; He is a spirit."
+
+"Ye mean that he air like the headless man from Haytes, and the squaw
+with her burnt brat?"
+
+They were both down beside the babe again, Tess eying the mother
+eagerly.
+
+"Oh, no, Tess! Those are but superstitions. This is the truth. No matter
+how little the child is, he won't go to a holy place if he isn't
+baptized."
+
+"Air the Huly Ghost livin' only in the church?"
+
+"Yes, He doesn't stay anywhere else."
+
+"Who says it air true?"
+
+"God."
+
+"Your brother's God?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, of course, it air so. Why didn't ye say so before? Could the brat
+be sprinkled this comin' Sunday?"
+
+"Yes; yes, it is baptismal Sunday. Deacon Hall's new baby is to be
+baptized, and lots of others, too!"
+
+"Then yer brat air goin' to be sprinkled with 'em," decided Tessibel.
+
+"Tess!" gasped Teola. "How? How?... I should die if I had to take him to
+the church."
+
+"I takes him," replied Tess grimly. "I takes him, and I says to yer
+pappy, 'Dominie, I knows that ye don't like me nor my Daddy, but here
+air a brat what air sick to death.... He can't find God by hisself
+'cause he air too little, and God won't try and find him if he ain't
+sprinkled. Will ye do it?'"
+
+Teola shifted her position, and looked into the squatter's face. It was
+gleaming with heavenly resolve and uplifted faith.
+
+"Tess, would you dare?" gasped she.
+
+"Yep! The little brat has to go. I takes him."
+
+The fisher-girl clambered to her feet, and shoved another log into the
+stove.
+
+"It air a chilly night," she commented, "and the ghosts air a-howling
+like mad, 'cause Ma Moll's been here. She can raise spirits any time of
+night."
+
+Teola evidently did not hear. Her eyes were fixed upon the face of the
+babe, her mouth twitching nervously at the corners. She wondered
+silently what her father would say when Tess presented the child for
+baptism on Sunday morning. She could imagine her own happiness after it
+was all over. She thought she would get better for a time. She
+remembered how her mother had worried over her cough, how her father had
+advised with the best doctors of the city; but they had gravely shaken
+their heads, saying that the girl might grow out of it; they hoped she
+would. But day by day she had seen herself growing more and more
+slender, more and more fragile-looking. And, as Teola knelt over the
+child in the flickering candlelight, Tess shivered superstitiously. The
+young mother was so white that the squatter could almost have imagined
+her one of Ma Moll's ghosts.
+
+"They be a-callin' ye from yer house," remarked Tess, after a long
+stillness.
+
+"Yes, I hear them.... It is my father. But I am so tired that it seems
+as if I could never climb the hill. I'll see you a minute to-morrow,
+Tess.... If I can't, will you bring the baby to the church Sunday, at
+eleven o'clock?... Thank you, dear; thank you.... Good-bye, precious
+little Dan.... And--and forgive me, Tessibel!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+
+Minister Graves watched his child painfully climb the front steps. He
+could see, even through the dim shadows, how thin she had become, how
+she panted for breath over the slight exertion of walking up the hill. A
+thought that stung him like a whip seized him, convulsing his heart and
+shaking his powerful frame as if he had been attacked by sudden ague.
+Was his daughter going to die? She could not die--God would not take her
+from him! He remembered Teola's birth, with a groan of pain: remembered
+how he had taken the dark-haired babe, so tiny and helpless, into his
+study alone, and had uttered the sincerest prayer of a father's life,
+that the blessings of Heaven would cover his new-found treasure and
+would guide the little footsteps during the whole bright future--her
+future must be bright, with his love to shield her. He could remember
+each succeeding day--his pride and ambitions for her--and now--
+
+Teola paused on the top step, clinging to the veranda pillar. He came
+hastily to her, the darkness covering the emotions that had paled his
+face, and bent over the exhausted girl, kissing her lips tenderly.
+
+"Teola, darling! My darling, why will you persist in being out at
+night?... See, now, how you are coughing.... Child, what would become of
+me, if anything should happen to you?"
+
+Teola knew the heart of her father. He had sternly preached orthodox
+doctrine, had persecuted the squatters according to his beliefs; but he
+loved his children, and especially had he idolized her. The thought of
+the babe in the fisherman's hut sped through her mind, her father's
+consternation and horror if she should be compelled to tell her secret.
+But Tessibel stood in her place as mother to the little boy, and had
+taken an oath that nothing could force her to break. The squatter had
+been the scapegoat upon which had been heaped the sins of a girl no one
+had thought capable of doing wrong. Teola, resting in her father's arms,
+struggled with her conscience, trying to press down the moral weakness
+that had compelled her to keep the tragedy in the cabin quiet. The
+minister helped her to her chamber, and, after she had retired, went in
+and prayed with and for her. His voice, low and tender, with the
+exquisite tones of an orator, was strangely moved.
+
+"Child," he groaned, "I would give much to see you in good health
+again."
+
+"I shall never be better, dearest; never. I know now that I cannot--that
+I sha'n't--"
+
+His hand covered her lips.
+
+"If you want to break my heart, Teola," he cried, unnerved, "then say
+what you were going to. I can't, and won't, bear it! You are not yet
+eighteen. You've always been well until these past few weeks.... Oh, I
+wish your mother and I had never gone abroad--or that you had gone with
+us.... But you begged so hard to stay at home!"
+
+Teola had coveted the chance to tell him of the little human link
+between Dan Jordan's life and hers. She raised herself on her pillow,
+the long hair mantling her shoulders and aureoling the death-like face.
+
+"Father," she gasped. "Father! Let me tell you something about Tessibel
+Skinner. No! Don't put your fingers over my lips! Don't! Don't! Listen."
+
+"Teola," interjected Graves gravely, "if you want to displease me--"
+
+"She's so lonely," broke in the girl, her courage ebbing away under the
+bent brows of her father. "I thought--you--might help her."
+
+"Go to sleep," replied the minister, "there's a good girl!...
+Good-night."
+
+For a moment, Teola lay panting nervously. She had been so near the
+confession, so near telling her father about the little babe in the
+shanty. She slipped out of bed to the window. The wind still flung the
+dead leaves, whirling them to and fro in the orchard like willful
+spirits. The night had darkened until, to Teola, shivering and ill, it
+seemed alive with shadowy goblins which mocked at her.
+
+She could just make out the dark line of the hut under the willow
+branches. A candlelight flickered a moment in the window, and was gone.
+Teola moaned long, muttering loving messages to the child cuddled in
+Tessibel's arms. She loved it, but could not bring it home--yet! At last
+sleep, a deep, fatigued sleep, enveloped her. She was too tired to
+dream.
+
+After Tess was alone, she made ready for bed. The child whimpered
+drowsily. The squatter lifted it up with infinite tenderness, binding
+the rags more closely about the scrawny body.
+
+"Ye don't amount to as much as the tuft on Kennedy's mare's tail," she
+said aloud. "Eat now, I says, or I opens yer mouth and pours it full."
+
+The words, gathered from the vocabulary of the squatter, were harsh,
+but the emotion in the tones softened them.
+
+"Ye air a-dyin' 'cause ye won't eat, kid, and ye have the smell of a
+dead rat, too. Yer lips be that blue--and yer mouth air like a
+baby-bird's.... Eat, I says, damn ye.... Will ye swallow that?"
+
+She held the withered lips open, and filled the cavity with warm milk.
+
+"Eat, I says," crooned the girl; "eat, and Tess takes ye tight--like
+this--and the rats can't bite ye, or the ghosts get ye till ye air dead.
+Tess loves ye, ye poor little brat."
+
+The child, strangling for breath, gulped down a mouthful of milk, but
+the jaws set again, and the lips settled into a blue line. Tess prepared
+the sugar rag, putting in a large amount of sweet, and dipped it in the
+tea-pan in which she had warmed the milk. Then she allowed a little of
+the syrup to fall upon the lips. The mouth snapped upon it, and long
+after Tess had gathered the infant into her arms the smacking went on
+and on, until both slept. Neither heard the wind that rattled the hut
+boards, that rasped its endless sawing on the tin roof; neither heard
+the willow branches brushing to and fro against the rickety chimney. The
+child slept the sleep of a human creature moving silently toward death;
+and Tess the sleep of the exhausted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning she stood in the doorway, grimly watching the
+cottagers' boats, loaded with household goods, one by one as they
+passed. This time of year was prophetic of the coming winter, and told
+Tess a few more weeks would see the snow piled up about the hut and the
+lake covered with ice. Deacon Hall's private launch steamed by, with
+huge piles of bedding heaped up on the bow. One after another of the
+summer residents disappeared in the inlet, and Tess was waiting for the
+hill-house people also to leave.
+
+She heard Frederick's voice in the lane, and closed the door, pressing
+her face to the window. She saw him climb into his father's little yacht
+to make it ready for the summer's stock from the cottage. Teola, too,
+was on the shore, and Tess saw the girl turn longing eyes toward the
+hut. Then, with a boyish tug at his belt, Frederick started up the hill.
+His face in profile showed the squatter that he had changed--he was
+thinner, paler, and looked years older. Closer pressed the sweet face to
+the dirty pane, brighter grew the brown eyes. Drawn by his own desire,
+the student turned and looked at her. First an expression of eagerness
+leaped into his face; then one of sorrow settled upon it. He went on to
+the cottage without even nodding his head. He would soon come down with
+his father, mother and sister Babe, and Tess would see him no more.
+
+She sank down upon the bed beside the sucking child, and did not hear
+the hut door open softly.
+
+"Tess, Tess! It's Teola, dear. What is the matter?"
+
+The squatter choked back her tears, and sat up.
+
+"There ain't nothin' the matter," she replied sulkily. "I can cry if I
+wants to, can't I?"
+
+"But, Tessibel, I have never seen you cry like that before, never! Is it
+money? Here, dear; here is a dollar. Father gave it to me. It will buy
+some milk, until I can send more. Oh, let me see my baby again. Darling
+little man! Your mother does love you, even if she must leave you. Tess,
+he looks worse than he did when I went home last night. You--you will
+bring him to the church to-morrow?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"And, Tess, I left a lot of white cloths on the pear-tree near the barn.
+I could not bring them to you before, for Mother only sorted them out to
+throw away this morning. Oh, the baby looks so thin and ill, Tess!"
+
+Tears trickled down upon the infant. Teola pressed her lips again and
+again to the thin mouth. The vivid mark was offering its crimson tinge
+sharply against the dead blue of the rest of the baby face.
+
+"And, Tess," burst forth Teola, "how gladly I would give you a dress for
+yourself if I could, and a dress for him! You can't bring him like this
+to the church. You don't mind coming as you are?"
+
+"Nope," came the bitter interruption from the squatter. "I don't need no
+clothes to have a brat sprinkled. I air a squatter, and squatters don't
+give--a hell about nothin'."
+
+Her looks belied the words. With the dignity of a queen, the fine young
+head had settled back upon the broad shoulders sloping bare at the arms.
+The sweet face gave the lie to the hardened speech uttered from the
+grief she had just spent upon the bed.
+
+"Don't speak like that, Tess! Don't! don't!" gasped Teola. "Some day,
+after the babe and I are dead--"
+
+Teola had come close to the fisher-girl, her pale face thrust
+beseechingly forward. Tess hesitated; then flung out her arms and drew
+the minister's daughter into them. Her eyes were filled with awe
+indescribable.
+
+"I's a mean brat to make ye say that," she faltered. "I brings the kid
+to-morry to the church. And, yes, I gets him a dress, too. See? And I
+buys milk for him, and makes him eat, and he sleeps here," Tess pounded
+her own strong breast, and ended, "till his dead pappy and his ma come
+after him, poor little cuss."
+
+Both girls cried softly, till Frederick's voice on the hill rang out
+sharply in answer to a question from his father. Teola kissed her babe
+over and over, drawing a small shawl about her shoulders, and picked a
+path out through the fish-bones on the floor. When Frederick returned to
+the boat, she was listlessly throwing small stones into the water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+
+Tessibel watched Minister Graves' yacht steam by the Hoghole, across the
+head of the lake and into the inlet. With it went the hopes of
+reconciliation with the student; the Dominie and his glowering glances
+of hatred; and Teola with her illness, leaving her the helpless babe.
+
+She suddenly decided to share her secret with Mrs. Longman. She would
+beg a dress for little Dan to wear to the church for his baptism. She
+had stubbornly kept the presence of the child in her hut from her
+squatter friend, although Myra had usually had a way of worming into her
+innermost confidence. But Tess had given her oath and loyalty to Teola,
+and feared to tell the other girl the parentage of the child, lest Myra,
+who loved Ben Letts, should blab the truth to him.
+
+During the weeks the babe had been with her, Tess had sent endless
+excuses about her absence to the Longman hut. She had to read the Bible;
+was waiting for someone to bring her a message from Daddy; fishing;
+getting ready for the winter; anything to keep Myra in ignorance of the
+tragedy being enacted in Skinner's hut. But now Myra was gone with Ben;
+Ezra was dead; and Mrs. Longman would not be curious about the little
+child.
+
+She prepared the basket with the clean clothes that Teola had left on
+the tree, and, with the easy grace of a barefooted squatter, set out for
+the ragged rocks with bounding steps.
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOSSED HER FACE UP TO THE SUN.]
+
+Across the lake the patches of forest, shaded with the scarlet and
+green of dying leaves, relieved the bareness of the harvested
+wheat-fields. Tessibel had a passion for the tumbling waves, they seemed
+to speak an unknown language to her, but to-day the lake was smooth like
+polished, clear, blue glass, and the birds were racing in flocks over it
+from the north toward the south. Their flight was so rapid that the
+squatter paused and followed them with her eyes. One flock after another
+disappeared behind the college hill so quickly that Tess could scarcely
+bid them farewell. They were her summer friends, had filled the day with
+brilliant song, and the night with love-twitterings.
+
+Tessibel's forest solitude and rambles, her communion with night things
+had passed, gone with the coming of Teola, gone with the care of the
+babe. A longing for her old free life came back to her. She stooped down
+and placed the basket upon the rocks, and, with her arms flung over her
+head, tossed her face up to the sun. Her soul was dreaming, and the
+dream changed the half-closed eyes from brown to black.
+
+She stood silently, her gaze roving after the fleet-winged birds. They
+were leaving her to the winter--and the sick child.
+
+But Daddy, dear old Daddy, was coming back home! She caught her breath.
+At that moment her father was the panacæa for all that she had suffered
+during the last few weeks. Tears welled into her eyes. Just then another
+great flock of black birds, huddling together, skimmed by through the
+clear air. Tess threw out her hands.
+
+"Good-bye, good-bye!" she shouted, with conflicting emotions. "Come
+back again soon. It air lonely in the winter without ye."
+
+As if the birds understood the longing in a kindred soul, the flock
+halted an instant, seemingly loath to go, circled their mass of black
+toward the sky, swept to the water's edge, poised for the fraction of a
+second, then shot towards the University hill, and disappeared.
+
+With the light-heartedness of youth, Tess reached the Longman cabin. A
+silence reigned within which at first astonished her. The door was
+closed, and Satisfied was nowhere in sight. She paused before rapping,
+and looked to the shore for the boat. Disappointment shot through her:
+Satisfied and Mrs. Longman had gone to the city. Nevertheless, Tess
+tapped lightly, and then again. But no voice ordered her in. She lifted
+the latch, felt the door yield to her touch, and stepped inside. Four
+lean rats scurried cornerward, sinking from sight into dark holes;
+numbers of lizards tailed silently backward from the sunbeam slanting
+across the shanty door. But the sight was so usual to Tess that she
+merely turned her head slightly, and smiled as if to departing friends,
+and closed the door behind her. A long object stretched out upon a board
+arrested her steps. It was covered with a sheet, and the breathless
+gloom of the shanty caused Tess almost to drop the basket as she set it
+down. The silent, white thing on the board brought an exclamation of
+fear from her. With horror settling deep in her eyes she backed against
+the door. Did the sheet cover death? No; for Ezra had been carried to
+his grave the day before. The thought freed her from a terror that had
+gripped her senses at first. She took two steps forward, bent down and
+looked under the board. Little streams of water had made dark tracks
+across the hut floor. The corners of the sheet were drenched through.
+This sent Tess back once more to the door. Would she dare lift the
+sheet? Controlling her fear by an effort, Tess gathered her courage
+together and crept again to the long board. With shaking fingers, she
+lifted the cloth, and drew it back gently. Then a horrified cry fell
+sharply from her lips, and she dropped it. Ben Letts and Myra Longman,
+hugged in each other's arms, lay dead before her.
+
+Fascinated and trembling, she stood considering the livid squatters, no
+sound, after the first cry, issuing from her pale lips. The dead faces
+were so close to each other that a human hand could not pass between
+them. Upon the plain face of Myra rested a peaceful expression, as if
+she possessed a quietude she had never known before. Her eyes were
+closed, and one arm was tightly clasped about Ben's neck--the other
+about his waist. The storm had loosened the meager hair, had flung it in
+disorder over the fisher-girl's shoulders. Ben's brown teeth gleamed
+dark; the drawn lips were stretched wide, as if a pain, dreadful and
+torturing, had opened them never to be closed again. His two huge arms,
+twisted about the frail frame of the girl, were locked together by the
+horny fingers. To Tessibel it seemed that Myra smiled faintly in the
+possession of her longed-for happiness. She had Ben Letts at last, and
+forever--he was her gift of the storm, the eternal gift of a wild night.
+Myra had sought, and had found him.
+
+The shanty door pushed open. Like one in a dream, Tess was still looking
+down upon the dead. Lifting her gaze, she saw Satisfied watching her,
+his eyes glowing with subdued pain.
+
+"Myry air dead," he said, in a low voice, coming forward.
+
+"Ben Letts, too," added the squatter girl.
+
+"And the brat," finished Longman.
+
+Tess, startled, lifted up her head.
+
+"The brat! I had forgot him," she muttered. "He air dead, too?"
+
+"Yep. He air here."
+
+Longman drew down the sheet still further, exposing the lifeless baby.
+The thin little body lay between the father and mother.
+
+For many minutes they surveyed the dead trio in rapt attention.
+
+"Where air Myry's ma?" asked Tessibel presently.
+
+"Back there, in Ezy's bed. She air sick, and so air Mammy Letts."
+
+"Ezy were buried yesterday," ruminated Tess.
+
+"Yep, and Myry be a-goin' to the same place. Ma and me air--alone."
+
+There was something strangely pathetic in the quiet words, in the
+stolid, ugly face with its hard lines, in the mouth twitching at the
+corners as he spoke. Tess sprang toward him, and wound her strong young
+arms about him.
+
+"Myry air happy," she burst forth; "happier than when she were livin'
+with you. She air with Ben Letts."
+
+Satisfied, towering over her, blinked confusedly at her words. Puzzling,
+he drew his heavy brows down darkly.
+
+"Myry were a-seekin' Ben," Tess went on hurriedly, "and the brat
+couldn't stay without its pa and ma. I says as how Myry air happy,
+Satisfied."
+
+"She were a-lovin' Ben Letts?" The pain in his clouded blue eyes stung
+Tess to the heart. The grief of this lonely old man, bereft of his all,
+seemed the most tragic spectacle she had ever faced.
+
+"Yep," she replied, trying to smile through her tears; "she were
+a-lovin' him, and were a-seekin' his lovin's all the time. It were only
+in the storm--she found what she were a-seekin'."
+
+She turned her head sharply toward the dead.
+
+"Ye can see she air a-smilin', Satisfied, can't ye? And Ben air
+a-huggin' her up to him. That air somethin' Myry wanted. And ye air
+a-goin' to leave them like that, ain't ye? Don't tear Ben's arms loose,
+'cause Myry won't be happy if ye does. Can't ye put 'em in a box, just
+like they air?"
+
+Longman made a protesting motion. Some fishermen had picked the two dead
+ones up, locked in each other's arms. And he himself had covered them
+with a sheet, without making an effort to part them. He had not thought
+of putting them in the squatters' cemetery together.
+
+"And let the brat stay with 'em, too," Tess broke in on his reverie.
+
+"Yep," he replied; "I lets 'em all stay together. What Myry seeked for
+and found, she can have for all of me."
+
+The listening girl knew there was hatred in the father's tones for Ben
+Letts. Well, she had hated Ben too, but he was all Myra's now, and there
+was no more hatred for the ugly squatter in the heart of Tessibel.
+
+"She air a-smilin', Satisfied," Tess said again.
+
+Longman loosened Tessibel's arms, and, walking slowly forward, looked
+down upon his daughter.
+
+"I hain't seed before that she were a-smilin'," he said, taking a long
+breath. "Ye says as how she air happy, Tess?"
+
+"Yep; she air with Ben Letts."
+
+"I air a-goin' in to tell her ma that Myry air happy," asserted Longman,
+with relief in his voice. "I thank ye, Tess, for tellin' me that she
+were. I weren't thinkin' of nothin' but the storm, the water, and the
+time that ma and me were a-sleepin' when Myry were a-dyin'. She air
+happy, ye air sure, Tess?"
+
+"Yep, for she were a-seekin' Ben Letts. She told me as how--" Tessibel
+choked back the words.
+
+"She told ye what?"
+
+Tess was going to tell him of the night on the ragged rocks and of
+Myra's broken wrist, but, with a flashing glance at the dead woman,
+changed her mind. In her vivid imagination she thought that Myra was
+silently entreating her not to speak ill of the dead man in her arms.
+
+"She told me that Ben were the brat's pa, and that--" her eyes gladdened
+as she finished--"she were a-lovin' him; and, Satisfied, when we air
+a-lovin', and lovin' damn hard, then ain't we happy when we air with
+them what we loves?"
+
+She had come close to him, standing near the dead man and woman. The
+girl slipped her hand into Longman's reassuringly, as she asked the last
+question.
+
+"Yep," replied Satisfied, disappearing into the back room.
+
+Tessibel had forgotten the child in the basket. She turned her eyes
+toward it, and a movement of the cover told her that the little Dan was
+awake. She was bending over it when Longman appeared at her side.
+
+"Mammy says as how ye air to come in, Tess," he said, his eyes falling
+upon the child. "Whose brat air it?" he asked, with no shadowing
+suspicion in his glance. "Where did ye get it, Tessibel?"
+
+"I air a-carin' for it for a while. I comed, Satisfied----"
+
+Could she ask these people in sore grief for a dress that the dead child
+on the board had worn?
+
+"Ye comed for what?" asked the man.
+
+"I air a-wantin' to take him to the church, and I ain't got no dress for
+him. Would Mammy Longman let me take one?"
+
+"Yep. Go in, and tell her. She air in bed."
+
+Tess covered the babe's face, and placed the basket on the table.
+
+"I can't leave him in the hut," she explained; "the rats air too thick."
+
+"Yes," was all Longman said, and he fell to thinking deeply.
+
+Tess crept away to the back room.
+
+"I comed to see ye, Mammy Longman, and----"
+
+"Sit down on the bed," interrupted the tired voice. "Myry and Ezy air
+both gone. Satisfied says as how Myry air a-smilin' and as how ye said
+she were happy. Satisfied and me feels better, we does."
+
+Tessibel choked back the welling tears.
+
+The gray head resting upon a soiled pillow, the pale face turned toward
+the wall, which had not turned to her, struck Tess deeper than
+Satisfied's stolid grief.
+
+"Ye be sure Myry air happy?" came the tired voice again.
+
+"Yep."
+
+Mrs. Longman threw her eyes on Tessibel.
+
+"If she air happy, what air ye cryin' for?"
+
+"'Cause it air lonely for ye and Satisfied without her and the brat. I
+knows, 'cause I ain't had Daddy in such a long time."
+
+"We was lookin' for Myry back, but not like--"
+
+Tess broke in upon her words.
+
+"Mammy Longman, I air a-carin' for a little chap what ain't goin' to
+live, and I wants a dress to take him to the church. Will ye let me have
+one?"
+
+Mrs. Longman sat up, a new interest dawning in her faded eyes.
+
+"To a church? Why to a church? He ain't dead yet, air he?"
+
+"Nope; but his ma wants him took to the church where the Huly Ghost air,
+to have the water put on him.... Can I take the dress?"
+
+"Yep, Tess; take one from Myry's box. They ain't good, but our little
+brat wored them."
+
+Aimlessly, she lay down again and ceased speaking, but whimpered until
+Tess left the room. The girl made her choice from the small stock of
+dresses that had been worn by the Longman family, and had at last
+descended to the little dead boy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On her way home to the hut once more, Tess paused on the rocks. The
+spectacle at Longman's had filled her eyes with the shadow of longing.
+She had seen Myra clasped in the arms of the man she loved. Tessibel's
+thoughts flew to the student. She could imagine her own happiness if she
+had been in the storm, and Frederick had taken her in his arms, and
+they should have--
+
+"I wish almost I was Myry," she moaned, "and the student was Ben
+Letts.... No, no! not that! not that!"
+
+She sank under the burden of a new thought. Myra had sought, and had
+found--had searched for Ben in the storm, and had found him. Myra had
+had more faith than she had.
+
+"Faith the size of a mustard-seed," flashed into her mind. Her own past
+unbelief pressed upon her, and the color fled from her cheeks, leaving
+them pale.
+
+She opened the basket, and put her wistful face close to the sleeping
+child, her mental tension gone in her uprising faith.
+
+"I thought as how ye were a-keepin' the student from me, but ye ain't.
+God ain't ready to let me have him. But he air a-goin' to let me have
+him some time. I air glad I got ye, and I hopes that ye live, too. Myry
+air got Ben Letts, and I air a-goin' to have--Frederick." She walked
+home in a reverie deep and sweet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+
+Sunday morning, Tessibel was out upon the tracks, walking swiftly toward
+the city. She could hear the church bell at Haytes Corner ringing out a
+welcome to the country folk; she could hear the tolling of the chapel
+bell from the University hill. Clothed in the clean skirt she had washed
+at the time she had thought of going to Auburn prison, and a worn but
+clean jacket, Tess felt fit to face the best-dressed in Ithaca. Of
+course she was barefooted, for Daddy's boots were too big to wear into
+the house of the student's God. Earlier in the morning Tessibel had sat
+for a long time upon the small fishing dock, swinging her feet in the
+clear water. They, too, like the skirt and jacket, were clean.
+
+In the basket, snuggling in the nest of white clothes, lay little Dan.
+He was robed, in the much-worn garment of the Longman child, and
+Tessibel had looked at him with pride as she settled him in his bed
+preparatory to her trip.
+
+She passed swiftly through the city, and crossed Dewitt Park. How
+vividly she remembered the many midnights she had taken the same way,
+turning toward the jail to visit "Daddy"!
+
+Tessibel paused before Minister Graves' church, and heard him read in
+deep tones from the Scriptures: "Suffer little children to come unto me,
+for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." The harmonious voice floated
+through the window to the fisher-girl, now crouched in the sun. Every
+word fell distinctly upon her ear.
+
+She lifted the basket cover, and peeped in upon the babe. He looked
+bluer and thinner than Tess had ever seen him; his lips rested upon the
+rag with no indrawing movement. Unblinkingly stared the wide gray eyes
+when the sunbeams flashed upon his face. The vivid birth-mark grew
+fainter in the yellow light. Tess drew him into the shade, and waited.
+
+The tones rolled out like thunder when Dominie Graves bade the members
+of his flock bring their children to the Holy Font, that they might
+receive the blessing of God, and everlasting life. Tess heard him say
+that the Father in Heaven demanded that all children should be baptized
+in the name of the crucified Saviour--that to put off such a duty might
+prove dangerous to their eternal welfare. Many of the long words the
+squatter did not understand, but she gathered enough to know how
+necessary it was to obey the minister's commands. She glanced again at
+the babe, with a worried pucker between her eyes. There was the same
+stare, the same unmoving lips. But he was quiet, and Tessibel let him
+lie.
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden--" rang forth the
+powerful voice. It fell upon the red-haired girl and soothed her.
+
+Tess knew that Teola would be expecting her, and that Frederick would
+turn his face away when she presented the child for baptism, but no
+cloud gathered into the downcast eyes, for Tessibel's faith had grown
+since she knew that Myra's prayers had been answered. Had she not seen
+the girl clasped in the arms of the fisherman, who had once said that he
+hated her? Had she not seen the smile upon the dead lips which dripped
+with lake water? Tessibel had never before been so confident in prayer,
+and upon this beautiful Sunday morning, in the white light of day,
+kneeling under the church window, she believed that God would give her
+back the student--some time. She thought of the pain that would rest in
+the proud dark eyes of the boy when he saw her; but she smiled, because
+she knew that God lived, heard and answered the prayers of the
+heavy-laden.
+
+An anthem rolled up from the church choir, chanting out the love of
+Christ, chanting His crucifixion and death for a dying world.
+
+"Come unto me, come unto me," it sang, and "Come unto me," rose from the
+lips of the squatter waiting to take the little human thing, with its
+burden of sickness and death, to Dominie Graves, that he might petition
+the Holy Ghost to take away its sin.
+
+"Come unto me," again sang the choir. Then silence. Tess leaned nearer
+the window. Dominie Graves read out the names of the babies to be
+baptized that day.
+
+A carriage rolled rapidly to the church door, and Deacon Hall,
+accompanied by his wife, stepped to the pavement. The Deacon held a
+bundle with long white draperies hanging from it. It was their new baby,
+with lace upon its frock, going in to receive a blessing at the altar of
+God. Tess peered down upon the little Dan, and pulled the coarse dress
+closer about his chin. A violent wish born of the love she had for him
+came into her heart. Oh, that she had one bit of lace, to make his skin
+look less blue and the mouth less drawn! The wide eyes were still fixed
+upon her, immovable and unblinking. Once only had she seen the lids
+fall slowly downward, to rise again over the unseeing eyes.
+
+"He knows he air a-goin' to church," she muttered lovingly. "I wonder if
+that air why he air so good.... Mebbe the spirit of his pappy air here."
+
+She heard the names fall from the lips of the clergyman, as he took the
+infants, one by one, and placed his hand upon them with the water.
+
+"I baptize thee, John Richard," Graves said slowly, "in the name of the
+Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+"Of the Holy Ghost...." He was the Spirit of God Who stood by the
+children, to take away the sin with which they had been born. Teola had
+told Tess so. The Holy Ghost would take away the sin of little Dan.
+
+"I baptize thee," broke the silence, time after time, amid the tiny
+splashes of falling water. The last must have gone up to the altar, for
+Tess heard the minister telling the fathers and mothers the duty they
+owed their children.
+
+"I finish my service to-day," said he, "by praying God to bless you all,
+and calling down the good-will of Heaven upon your children just
+baptized in His name."
+
+Tessibel did not wait to hear the rest. She raised the child from the
+basket, shielding him from the sun with her body, stretched him out
+reverently upon her hands, and tiptoed up the long flight of steps into
+the church. A sea of heads rose before her startled vision. Transfixed,
+she paused in the door, waiting for Graves to cease speaking. Her eye
+caught the pew of the minister. Teola sat next to Frederick on the end,
+Mrs. Graves between her and her younger daughter. Tess noticed the
+tense expression upon the sharp profile of the babe's mother. How glad
+Teola would be when the baby was baptized! How happy in the new-found
+Heaven for her child!
+
+The minister's voice had fallen into a prayer. And still Tess waited
+with the dying infant, staring wide-eyed upward at the great church
+dome. Every head was bowed: no one saw the strange girl, with hair flung
+wide about her shoulders, nor the tiny human being resting upon her
+hands.
+
+Silence fell upon the congregation, and Tessibel commenced her walk down
+through the sea of faces to the pulpit. She gave no glance toward Teola
+as she passed, but kept her eyes fixed upon Dominie Graves, who, without
+noticing her, had turned to the little flight of steps that led to his
+pulpit. When he reached the Bible stand, and opened his lips to speak,
+his gaze dropped upon the squatter. At first he thought he was dreaming.
+He looked again--looked at her--at the child--and paled to his ears.
+Tessibel was holding the infant up toward him, with a beseeching
+expression in her eyes that staggered him.
+
+Teola had seen Tess pass, and had caught a glimpse of the thin child
+upon her hands. The pursed baby lips, from which hung the useless sugar
+rag, made her lower her head to the prayer cushion, shuddering
+violently. Frederick had also seen the squatter--everyone in the church
+had seen her, and the silence grew wider and wider, until even breathing
+was hushed to catch her words.
+
+Her low, sweet voice began to speak; it thrilled through the
+congregation like the song of angels.
+
+[Illustration: "BE YE GOIN' TO LET HIM GO A PLACE WHERE GOD CAN'T FIND
+HIM?"]
+
+"I has brought ye a dyin' brat, Dominie Graves," began Tess with
+shaking voice, "who has got to be sprinkled, or he can't go to Heaven."
+
+The vast silence of the edifice echoed her petition.
+
+The gaping minister never once took his eyes from her face, and made no
+move to answer her.
+
+"It air a-dyin', I say," she went on, "and I wants ye to put the water
+on it."
+
+So deadly in earnest was the girl that a sob broke out in the back of
+the church. The lithe, barefooted squatter, and the feeble, dying child
+offered a living picture of pathos, which with its tragedy slowly dawned
+upon the more sensitive minds, silently telling its tale of human
+suffering. Minister Graves refused to answer her. He wore the same
+expression of scorn Tess had seen in the student when she had
+acknowledged the child as hers.
+
+"Be ye goin' to sprinkle him?" she demanded steadfastly, her voice
+growing stronger with her emotions. "Be ye?"
+
+"No, I'm not." Graves' voice fell like the sound of a deep-toned bell.
+
+"Be ye goin' to let him go to a place where God can't find him? Be ye?"
+Tess entreated.
+
+Anger and revolt glinted through the golden-brown of her eyes; she
+swayed back a little from the font, still holding out the babe.
+
+"He air so little," she pleaded with a choke, "and so awful sick. Mebbe
+he won't live till mornin'. He can't hurt the others, now they air done
+with the water, can he?"
+
+She peeped into the marble basin, and lifted her eyes to his face.
+
+"There air lots of water left. Be there other babies wantin' it worse
+than this one?"
+
+She turned half-way round, and faced the wall of white faces, sending
+the question out in high-pitched tones.
+
+Then Graves spoke with austerity and strength, riding down his anger
+with a mighty effort.
+
+"You will please take the child from the church. You have your own
+squatter mission for such as that."
+
+He had forgotten his members--forgotten that he was a man of God. As he
+bent toward her, he remembered only that she was the girl who had
+thwarted him, who had won in the squatter fight against his own
+influence. Tessibel heard the words "squatter" and "mission." It had not
+occurred to her to take the child there. She looked down upon the little
+fire-marked face. Would baby Dan live until she could get him there? He
+might be dead before she could carry him to the inlet and cross the
+tracks to the young rector's house. Teola had said that the baby would
+never be with his father without baptism, that even she, his mother,
+could not see him when she, too, went away. Little Dan, uncleansed,
+would live far from the bright angels. Her anger rose in a twinkling.
+She took another backward step, threw the red curls into a mass over her
+shoulder, and spoke again.
+
+"Air I to take him from the church without the water?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll be damned if I's a-goin' to take him away," she flung back,
+panting. "He air so near dead, he air blind--look at his eyes! I says,
+he air to be sprinkled, he air! If ye won't give the Huly Ghost a
+chance at him--" Here she stepped forward to the font, flashed a look of
+hatred at Graves, and suddenly dipped her hand into the water.
+
+"I sprinkles him myself," she ended.
+
+The drops fell upon the livid baby face, dripping down upon the bare
+feet of the squatter.
+
+"I baptize--" Tess wavered for lack of words. She had thought she could
+not forget the benediction.
+
+A voice from the back of the church broke in abruptly upon her
+hesitation.
+
+"I baptize thee, child," it rang, "in the name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+Bill Hopkins was in the middle aisle, coming toward her. Tess snatched
+one glimpse of his face, still holding her wet hand upon the dark-haired
+babe.
+
+"Say it, girl," Hopkins commanded. "Say it, quick. The child is dying."
+
+"I baptize thee, child, in the name--" gasped Tess.
+
+She stepped back again, throwing an entreating, silent appeal to the
+huge, bald-headed man.
+
+"Of the Father, and of the Son," repeated Bill.
+
+"Of the Father, and of the Son," echoed Tess.
+
+"And of the Holy Ghost," ended Hopkins.
+
+"And of the Huly Ghost," whispered Tess.
+
+"Amen" rolled from a hundred tear-choked throats, like the distant
+murmuring of the sea. Hopkins sat down, saying no more.
+
+Minister Graves had sunk into his chair, and on the girl's last words
+the congregation drew a long, gasping breath. The eyes of the babe gazed
+steadily on into the shadows of eternal silence; the water seemingly
+unfelt upon its head. The small boy was slipping away to that place of
+mystery where his father, Myra and Ben Letts had gone. The long days of
+suffering with the child in the hut rushed over Tess. She dropped on her
+knees, facing the pulpit, and hugged him to her breast, and whispered,
+
+"Suffer little children to come unto me--"
+
+Then another voice, shrill, sobbing and terrible, hushed her prayer. The
+squatter instinctively shifted her position toward the Dominie's pew.
+Teola Graves was standing up, tall and pale, and was looking directly at
+the minister.
+
+"Father," she cried, "Father, if you don't take the baby and baptize him
+in the name of the Saviour, you will consign to everlasting darkness--"
+She lost her breath, caught it again, and finished, "your own flesh and
+blood. God! dear God, take us both to Dan!... Tessibel, Tessibel, give
+me my baby!"
+
+She wrenched herself loose from Frederick's detaining fingers, and was
+in the aisle before her brother realized what had happened.
+
+"He's my baby," she cried, between the spasmodic pressures upon her
+chest. "Tess! Tess, is he dead?"
+
+"Yep, he air dead," fell from Tessibel; for she had seen the large,
+glazed eyes draw in at the corners and the little face blanch. The tiny
+spirit fled as the frantic girl-mother clasped her babe to her breast.
+
+"But he air gone to his pappy," consoled the squatter.
+
+For one awful moment, Dominie Graves looked into the accusing eyes of
+his congregation. Bill Hopkins was seated, with his face in his hands,
+but Augusta Hall, with her new baby folded tightly in her arms, was
+looking at him in dark-eyed disdain.
+
+Graves swayed dizzily, ... caught at the pulpit table for support.
+
+"Jesus," he appealed dizzily, "Christ Jesus."
+
+Frederick pressed his way to his sister's side. The squatter threw up
+her head before him: for the first time since that last dreadful night,
+she looked directly into his eyes, her dishonor slipping from her like a
+loosened garment. Frederick's soul shone forth in the glance he sent
+her. God in His own time had given her back the student.
+
+Tessibel turned, and passed up through the mute gathering. Bill Hopkins
+put out his hand, and touched her.
+
+"Child," he said brokenly, "you are the one bright spirit in this
+generation."
+
+But Tessibel did not understand. She went down the long flight of steps,
+and into the sun-lit street, with but a backward glance at the
+rag-draped basket she had left under the church window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+
+Tessibel was a child again, a happy, free-hearted child. The body of her
+death had fallen away as Christian's burden had slipped from his
+shoulders at the foot of the cross. The babe had gone to its father with
+the blessing of the Holy Ghost!
+
+Then Tess thought of Teola, and stopped on the tracks, the Dominie's
+last words rushing into her mind. She had understood the import of them.
+It had been carried to her by the awful expression upon Graves' face. He
+was sorry, this minister who had persecuted her father and
+herself--sorry for Teola, sorry for the brat!
+
+"The Dominie ain't likin' Daddy and me, though," she murmured. "But the
+student air a-likin' me!"
+
+For the next two miles she sang lustily, childishly, with the complete
+abandon of a girl without a burden. Daddy Skinner was coming home, and
+God had given her back the student. The remembrance of his eyes thrilled
+her from head to foot.
+
+Tess passed down the lane, glad for Myra, glad for Teola and her
+child--glad for everyone. She was still singing when she crossed the
+wide plank that spanned the mud-cellar creek. She saw Professor Young
+leaning against the shanty door, and the memory of their last
+conversation, when he had asked her to marry him, made her pause
+awkwardly, the color flying in rich waves from the red forehead ringlets
+to the shapely neck.
+
+Young took her hand, looking searchingly into her face.
+
+"Where is the child?" he demanded in low tones.
+
+"I took it back to its ma--she wanted it," was all Tess replied. "Air ye
+comin' in and tell me about Daddy?"
+
+"Your father will--"
+
+Tessibel halted, with her hand on the door, waiting for him to finish.
+
+"Go in, child. I will tell you--in there."
+
+He spoke slowly, deliberately.... Tess gazed at him, trying to read his
+thoughts. Nevertheless she obeyed him, pressing open the door with an
+impatient movement of her head. She had waited so long for just this
+moment. To know when the big, humpbacked father was coming home seemed
+more precious to Tessibel than all the uplifting joy she had experienced
+that day. Her eyes swept the hut; then they rested in a frightened
+glance upon Daddy Skinner seated on his own stool. He was smiling at her
+with misty, shaggy-browed eyes, his lips showing his dark teeth with
+each incoming breath.
+
+Deforest Young saw the girl bound forward, and the red curls shroud the
+huge fisherman's face. Tears blurred his sight. He turned into the day
+to regain his control.
+
+"Ye be here to stay!" gasped Tess, sitting up presently, and holding the
+thick neck with her curved arm. "Ye ain't never goin' back to Auburn?"
+
+"Nope; I's here to stay with my pretty brat.... Air ye glad to see yer
+Daddy?"
+
+"Glad! glad! Daddy, daddy! I air a-goin' to be your brat till we dies!"
+She had nestled, as in the old days, completely under his chin hair,
+crying silently, deeply, with low-caught sobs.
+
+For a long time they sat thus, until the man outside entered and spoke
+to them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess jubilantly cooked the fish for dinner, spattering the bacon fat
+upon the floor. She smiled alternately at her father and Professor
+Young; she caroled like a spring bird with bursts of happy song. Then
+they three sat down to the table to eat the homely squatter fare.
+
+A sickening longing swept over Deforest Young. To have the love of this
+girl he would be willing to live in the shanty--to eat just such food
+for the rest of his life. But during the few days past, he had fully
+realized that he could not make Tess love him. He would never speak of
+love to her again.
+
+Yet it pleased him to remain with them through the long afternoon, with
+Tess near him to watch the sun sink behind the western hill.
+
+He had drawn on his coat preparatory to leaving, and stood with
+Tessibel's hand in his. A sharp, quick knock on the door stayed his
+farewell. Orn Skinner lifted the latch, and Frederick Graves entered at
+the fisherman's bidding. His face was drawn and pale, his eyes red from
+weeping. Tessibel's heart bounded in sympathy, but she remained backed
+against the shanty wall until his eyes searched hers for a welcome. He
+spoke first.
+
+"My sister is dead," he said slowly, his voice breaking as the tears
+came into the dark eyes; "and my father sent you this."
+
+Daddy Skinner was seated blinkingly on his stool; Professor Young, hat
+in hand, waited for the girl to take the extended paper. But for several
+seconds she stood staring at Frederick, with wide-eyed wonderment. He
+had said that his beautiful sister was dead, that she had gone with the
+thin babe to her loved one, even as Myra Longman had gone with Ben
+Letts. To Tess it was but another answered prayer, showered from Heaven.
+She felt no thrill of grief; she was only glad that the pale, sick
+mother had had her wish.
+
+She took the paper awkwardly, and scanned it with painful embarrassment.
+
+"I can't read the writin'," she said, handing it back. "Will ye tell me
+what it says?"
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't, Tessibel! I am so ashamed, so miserable!"
+
+Tess silently handed the paper to Professor Young; then she slipped
+forward and stood close to Frederick, rapidly considering his face with
+forgiving eyes.
+
+Young turned to the student.
+
+"Shall I?"
+
+An acquiescent nod gave him permission to lift the note and read:
+
+
+     "Dear Child:
+
+     My daughter is dead. Frederick will tell you. If you can forgive me
+     for all I have done against you and your father, will you come here
+     to us, and tell Mrs. Graves and myself of the past few weeks.
+     Frederick has told me that he loves you, and of your sacrifice for
+     Teola. I can only say at present that we thank you.
+
+                                Yours in grief and gratitude,
+                                                        Elias Graves.
+
+     P. S.--When your father comes back, I shall ask you to give
+     him the title of the ground upon which your house stands."
+
+Professor Young read it slowly, word by word; each breath taken by the
+four people could be plainly heard in the silence that followed.
+
+Frederick broke it.
+
+"Tess, will you come to our home, and tell Father and Mother
+about--Teola?"
+
+The name slipped into a whisper from his lips, and, leaning against the
+hut door, he burst into boyish, bitter tears.
+
+"Forgive me, please," he murmured; "but it was so awful! And what she
+must have suffered!... And I didn't know--we none of us knew." He lifted
+his face, swept them with a heartrending glance, and finished. "She died
+in the church to-day with the baby."
+
+"She air happy to be with the man what she loves, ain't she?" said Tess,
+softly.
+
+Frederick grasped her hands, her brilliant smile easing the pain that
+like a knife stabbed his heart.
+
+"You think she was happy to die, Tess?... Tell me all she said.... Did
+she know she was going away?"
+
+For an instant the rapid rush of questions daunted Tessibel. But she
+sorted them out, commencing from the first one to answer them.
+
+"Yep, she air happy," she said positively; "awful happy. She wanted to
+go to her man in the sky.... He were a-waitin' for her every day, and
+she knowed she were a-goin' to die, 'cause--'cause she prayed every
+night that God'd take her and the brat."
+
+"Prayed? She prayed to die, when we all loved her so?" stammered
+Frederick.
+
+"Yep. She were a-lovin' the burnt student better'n anything else. And,
+when women air a-lovin' like that--"
+
+She ceased abruptly, and her own love for him attacked her as lightning
+attacks an oak in the autumn. Teola Graves had gone willingly to the
+burnt student, and Myra Longman had loved the ugly fisherman with a love
+that hurt like hers.
+
+No one asked the short-skirted, barefooted girl to finish her sentence.
+The three men understood that her last passionate statement rang from
+the depths of her woman's heart. Frederick lifted his head.
+
+"Tess--Tessibel, I can only say with my father that we all love you for
+what you have done for her."
+
+His voice broke.
+
+"And for myself, I say again, as I have said many times, that I--I love
+you--with my whole soul!"
+
+His fingers closed over hers in an intense, desperate clasp. How long
+she had waited for him to tell her this once more! And he had confessed
+his great love in the presence of Daddy Skinner and the big man from the
+hill.
+
+Her father watched her, this child whom but a year before he had left
+almost a baby. She was a woman now, with a woman's voice and a woman's
+love. The fisherman passed his hand over his face with a forlorn
+gesture. Had he found his darling again but to lose her?
+
+Impetuously Tess turned toward him, and met his misty gaze with her
+tear-dimmed eyes. The student was still clinging to her hand.
+
+"I air Daddy's brat," she whispered. "But I says," and she flashed
+Frederick a lightning-like glance through the red lashes before she
+dropped her eyes, and murmured, "but I says, as how I said before, that
+I air yer squatter."
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+"The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay"
+
+There Are Two Sides to Everything--
+
+--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &
+Dunlap book wrapper.
+
+You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocketbook.
+
+Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog.
+
+_There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+EMERSON HOUGH'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+THE COVERED WAGON
+NORTH OF 36
+THE WAY OF A MAN
+THE STORY OF THE OUTLAW
+THE SAGEBRUSHER
+THE GIRL AT THE HALFWAY HOUSE
+THE WAY OUT
+THE MAN NEXT DOOR
+THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE
+THE BROKEN GATE
+THE STORY OF THE COWBOY
+THE WAY TO THE WEST
+54-40 OR FIGHT
+HEART'S DESIRE
+THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE
+THE PURCHASE PRICE
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+GEORGE W. OGDEN'S WESTERN NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE BARON OF DIAMOND TAIL
+The Elk Mountain Cattle Co. had not paid a dividend in years; so Edgar
+Barrett, fresh from the navy, was sent West to see what was wrong at the
+ranch. The tale of this tenderfoot outwitting the buckaroos at their own
+play will sweep you into the action of this salient western novel.
+
+THE BONDBOY
+Joe Newbolt, bound out by force of family conditions to work for a
+number of years, is accused of murder and circumstances are against him.
+His mouth is sealed; he cannot, as a gentleman, utter the words that
+would clear him. A dramatic, romantic tale of intense interest.
+
+CLAIM NUMBER ONE
+Dr. Warren Slavens drew claim number one, which entitled him to first
+choice of rich lands on an Indian reservation in Wyoming. It meant a
+fortune; but before he established his ownership he had a bard battle
+with crooks and politicians.
+
+THE DUKE OF CHIMNEY BUTTE
+When Jerry Lambert, "the Duke," attempts to safeguard the cattle ranch
+of Vesta Philbrook from thieving neighbors, his work is appallingly
+handicapped because of Grace Kerr, one of the chief agitators, and a
+deadly enemy of Vesta's. A stirring tale of brave deeds, gun-play and a
+love that shines above all.
+
+THE FLOCKMASTER OF POISON CREEK
+John Mackenzie trod the trail from Jasper to the great sheep country
+where fortunes were being made by the flock-masters. Shepherding was not
+a peaceful pursuit in those bygone days. Adventure met him at every
+turn--there is a girl of course--men fight their best fights for a
+woman--it is an epic of the sheeplands.
+
+THE LAND OF LAST CHANCE
+Jim Timberlake and Capt. David Scott waited with restless thousands on
+the Oklahoma line for the signal to dash across the border. How the city
+of Victory arose overnight on the plains, how people savagely defended
+their claims against the "sooners;" how good men and bad played
+politics, makes a strong story of growth and American initiative.
+
+TRAIL'S END
+Ascalon was the end of the trail for thirsty cowboys who gave vent to
+their pent-up feelings without restraint. Calvin Morgan was not
+concerned with its wickedness until Seth Craddock's malevolence directed
+itself against him. He did not emerge from the maelstrom until he had
+obliterated every vestige of lawlessness, and assured himself of the
+safety of a certain dark-eyed girl.
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART
+Why was Barbara held captive in a deserted hermit's hut for days by a
+"man without a heart" and in the end how was it that she held the
+winning cards.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF A ROGUE
+Twenty-four hours after his release from prison Bruce Lawn finds himself
+playing a most surprising role in a drama of human relationships that
+sweeps on to a wonderfully emotional climax.
+
+THE MATHERSON MARRIAGE
+She married for money. With her own hands she had locked the door on
+happiness and thrown away the key. But, read the story which is very
+interesting and well told.
+
+RICHARD CHATTERTON
+A fascinating story in which love and jealousy play strange tricks with
+women's souls.
+
+A BACHELOR HUSBAND
+Can a woman love two men at the same time?
+
+In its solving of this particular variety of triangle "A Bachelor
+Husband" will particularly interest, and strangely enough, without one
+shock to the most conventional minded.
+
+THE SCAR
+With fine comprehension and insight the author shows a terrific contrast
+between the woman whose love was of the flesh and one whose love was of
+the spirit.
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF BARRY WICKLOW
+Here is a man and woman who, marrying for love, yet try to build their
+wedded life upon a gospel of hate for each other and yet win back to a
+greater love for each other in the end.
+
+THE UPHILL ROAD
+The heroine of this story was a consort of thieves. The man was fine,
+clean, fresh from the West. It is a story of strength and passion.
+
+WINDS OF THE WORLD
+Jill, a poor little typist, marries the great Henry Sturgess and
+inherits millions, but not happiness. Then at last--but we must leave
+that to Ruby M. Ayres to tell you as only she can.
+
+THE SECOND HONEYMOON
+In this story the author has produced a book which no one who has loved
+or hopes to love can afford to miss. The story fairly leaps from climax
+to climax.
+
+THE PHANTOM LOVER
+Have you not often heard of someone being in love with love rather than
+the person they believed the object of their affections? That was
+Esther! But she passes through the crisis into a deep and profound love.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL (MRS. LUTZ)
+
+May be had whatever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+BEST MAN, THE
+CLOUDY JEWEL
+DAWN OF THE MORNING
+ENCHANTED BARN, THE
+EXIT BETTY
+FINDING OF JASPER HOLT, THE
+GIRL FROM MONTANA, THE
+LO, MICHAEL!
+MAN OF THE DESERT, THE
+MARCIA SCHUYLER
+MIRANDA
+MYSTERY OF MARY, THE
+OBSESSION OF VICTORIA GRACEN, THE
+PHOEBE DEANE
+RED SIGNAL, THE
+SEARCH, THE
+TRYST, THE
+VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS, A
+WITNESS, THE
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP,   PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY GENE STRATTON-PORTER
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE WHITE FLAG.
+How a young girl, singlehanded, fought against the power of the Morelands
+who held the town of Ashwater in their grip.
+
+HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER.
+This story is of California and tells of that charming girl, Linda Strong,
+otherwise known as "Her Father's Daughter."
+
+A DAUGHTER OF THE LAND.
+Kate Bates, the heroine of this story, is a true "Daughter of the Land,"
+and to read about her is truly inspiring.
+
+MICHAEL O'HALLORAN.
+Michael is a quick-witted little Irish newsboy, living in Northern
+Indiana. He adopts a deserted little girl, a cripple. He also aspires to
+lead the entire rural community upward and onward.
+
+LADDIE.
+This is a bright, cheery tale with the scenes laid in Indiana. The story
+is told by Little Sister, the youngest member of a large family, but it
+is concerned not so much with childish doings as with the love affairs
+of older members of the family.
+
+THE HARVESTER.
+"The Harvester," is a man of the woods and fields, and is well worth
+knowing, but when the Girl comes to his "Medicine Woods," there begins a
+romance of the rarest idyllic quality.
+
+FRECKLES.
+Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which he
+takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms; and his love-story
+with "The Angel" are full of real sentiment.
+
+A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST.
+The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, loveable type of
+the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
+toward all things; her hope is never dimmed.
+
+AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW.
+The scene of this charming love story is laid in Central Indiana. It is
+one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing love.
+
+THE SONG OF THE CARDINAL.
+The love idyl of the Cardinal and his mate, told with rare delicacy and
+humor.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP,   PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+BOOTH TARKINGTON'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+SEVENTEEN. Illustrated by Arthur William Brown.
+No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed
+the immortal young people of this story. Its humor is irresistible
+and reminiscent of the time when the reader was Seventeen.
+
+PENROD. Illustrated by Gordon Grant.
+This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, humorous,
+tragic things which are locked secrets to most older folks. It is
+a finished, exquisite work.
+
+PENROD AND SAM. Illustrated by Worth Brehm.
+Like "Penrod" and "Seventeen," this book contains
+some remarkable phases of real boyhood and some of the best
+stories of juvenile prankishness that have ever been written.
+
+THE TURMOIL. Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.
+Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who revolts
+against his father's plans for him to be a servitor of big
+business. The love of a fine girl turns Bibb's life from failure
+to success.
+
+THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA. Frontispiece.
+A story of love and politics,--more especially a picture of
+a country editor's life in Indiana, but the charm of the book
+lies in the love interest.
+
+THE FLIRT. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.
+The "Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one girl's
+engagement, drives one man to suicide, causes the murder
+of another, leads another to lose his fortune, and in the end,
+marries a stupid and unpromising suitor, leaving the really
+worthy one to marry her sister.
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. In the courtroom scene on page 237, the original "She was not disloyal
+   to Tess" has been changed to "She was not disloyal to Teola" since
+   Tess is the speaker and she's keeping Teola's confidence about the
+   child's mother.
+2. The last chapter was originally numbered XI (11) though it is actually
+   the final chapter, XLIII (43).
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***
+
+
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tess of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller White</title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+    /*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+    p                 {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;}
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tess of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller
+White, Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Tess of the Storm Country</p>
+<p>Author: Grace Miller White</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 13, 2007  [eBook #22064]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 280%; margin-top:30px;">TESS <i>of the</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 280%; ">STORM</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 280%; margin-bottom:10px;">COUNTRY</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 160%; margin-bottom:20px;">GRACE MILLER WHITE</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 130%; "><i>ILLUSTRATIONS BY</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 130%; margin-bottom:30px;">HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80px;">
+<img src="images/illus-emb.png" width="80" height="80" alt="emblem" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 130%; margin-top:20px;"><i>NEW YORK</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 130%; ">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 130%; margin-bottom:5px;"><i>PUBLISHERS</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 70%; margin-bottom:30px;">Made in the United States of America</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>Copyright, 1909, by<br />
+W. J. WATT &amp; COMPANY</p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>WITH<br />
+LOVE AND GRATITUDE<br />
+I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO<br />
+MY FATHER</p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
+<col style="width:85%;" />
+<col style="width:15%;" />
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER I</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_76">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER II</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_301">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER III</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_464">14</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_743">23</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER V</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_960">30</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_1115">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_1357">42</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_1648">51</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_1944">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER X</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_2302">71</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_2627">81</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_2868">88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_3100">95</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_3327">102</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_3639">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_4014">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_4361">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII_4708">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX_4829">146</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX_5043">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI_5259">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII_5428">167</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII_5821">179</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV_6156">189</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV_6390">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI_6811">208</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII_7110">217</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII_7367">224</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX_7661">233</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX_8215">249</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI_8452">256</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII_8765">265</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII_9017">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV_9308">282</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV_9554">290</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI_9790">297</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII_10074">306</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII_10438">317</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX_10761">325</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XL</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL_11025">332</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XLI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI_11232">339</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XLII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII_11566">349</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XLIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII_11893">359</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_1" id="page_1" title="1"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_I_76" id="CHAPTER_I_76"></a>
+<h2>TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY</h2>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>One September afternoon, not many years ago, three men sat on the banks
+of Cayuga Lake cleaning the fish they had caught in their nets the
+previous night. When they glanced up from their work, and looked beyond
+the southern borders of the lake, they could see, rising from the mantle
+of forestry, the towers and spires of Cornell University in Ithaca City.
+An observer would have noticed a sullen look of hatred pass
+unconsciously over their faces as their eyes lighted on the distant
+buildings, for the citizens of Ithaca were the enemies of these squatter
+fishermen and thought that their presence on the outskirts of the town
+besmirched its fair fame. Not only did the summer cottages of the
+townfolk that bordered the lake, look down disdainfully upon their
+neighbors, the humble shanties of the squatter fishermen, but their
+owners did all they could to drive the fishermen out of the land. None
+of the squatters were allowed to have the title of the property upon
+which their huts stood, yet they clung with death-like tenacity to their
+homes, holding them through the rights of the squatter-law, which
+conceded them the use of the land when once they raised a hut upon it.
+Sterner and sterner the authorities of Ithaca had made the game laws
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_2" id="page_2" title="2"></a>until the fishermen, to get the food upon which they lived, dared only
+draw their nets by night. In the winter whilst the summer residents were
+to be found again in the city, Nature herself made harder the lot of
+these squatters, by sealing the lake with thick ice, but they faced the
+bitter cold and frozen surroundings with stolid indifference.</p>
+
+<p>A grim silence had reigned during which the three men had worked with
+feverish haste, driven on by the vicissitudes of their unwholesome
+lives. Moving his crooked legs upon the hot sand and closing a red lid
+over one white blind eye, Ben Letts spoke viciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess air that cussed," said he, "that she keeps on saying fishes can
+feel when they gets cut. She air worse than that too."</p>
+
+<p>"And she do say," put in Jake Brewer, grasping a large pickerel and
+thrusting his blade into its quivering body after removing the scales,
+"that it hurts her insides to see the critters wriggle under the knife.
+She air that bad too."</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts scratched his head tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>"She ain't had no bringin' up," he resumed, again plying the
+sharp-bladed knife to his scaly victims, "and they do say as how when
+she air in a tantrum she'll scratch her dad's face, jumpin' on his back
+like a cat. Orn air a fool, I say."</p>
+
+<p>"So says I too," agreed Brewer; "no wonder his shoulders air humped. But
+you never hears as much as a grunt from him. He knows he ain't never
+give her no bringin's up, that's why."</p>
+
+<p>"Some folks has give their kids bringin's up," interposed Ben Letts with
+a glance at the third man, who was industriously cleaning fish and had
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_3" id="page_3" title="3"></a>not yet spoken. "And they hain't turned out no better than Tessibel
+will."</p>
+
+<p>At this the industrious one turned.</p>
+
+<p>"I spose ye be a hittin' at my poor Myry, Ben," he muttered. "I spose ye
+be, but God'll some time let me kill the man, and then ye won't be
+hittin' at her no more, 'cause there won't be nothin' to hit at. It air
+dum hard to keep a girl from the wrong way, love her all ye will."</p>
+
+<p>For an instant Ben Letts dropped his head.</p>
+
+<p>"We always wondered who he was, but more wonder has been goin' on why ye
+ain't made no offer to find the fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't had no time," said the desperate cleaner of fish; "had to get
+bread and beans, to say nothin' of bacon."</p>
+
+<p>"But why didn't ye send the brat to the workhouse?" asked Jake.</p>
+
+<p>"Satisfied" Longman, as he was called, shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I was satisfied to let it stay," was all he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"My old mammy says," offered Ben Letts, "as how yer son Ezy asked
+Tessibel Skinner to marry him and as how she slicked him in the face
+with a dirty dishrag."</p>
+
+<p>He slowly closed the scarlet lids over his crossed eyes, suspending the
+pickerel in his hand the while.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess ain't had no mother," remonstrated Longman, after a long silence,
+pausing a moment in his bloody work and allowing his eyes to rest upon
+the magnificent buildings of the University, rearing above the town,
+"and Myry says that them what has ought to be satisfied."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_4" id="page_4" title="4"></a></p><p>Just then a shadow fell upon the shore of the lake near the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>"There air Tess now," muttered Letts and his two companions eyed a
+figure clad in rags, with flying copper-colored hair and bare dirty
+feet, which dropped down beside Longman without asking whether or no.</p>
+
+<p>"Cleanin' fish?" she queried.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't ye see?" growled Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"'Course I can," she answered; "just wondered if ye knowed yerselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Where be yer dad?" queried Longman, smiling as he caught up two long
+fish, depositing one beside him where it flopped helplessly about upon
+the hot sand.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone to Ithacy," replied Tessibel, and without change of expression or
+color caught the floundering fish in her dirty fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a hittin' the little devil on the head with a stone," said she,
+and with a pointed rock she expertly tapped the fish three times behind
+the beady eyes and threw him down again motionless.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose seein' the fish wrigglin' gives Tessibel mollygrubs in her
+belly," grinned Jake Brewer, but Ben Letts broke in.</p>
+
+<p>"How be yer toad to-day, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>This he said with a malevolent smile, as he took from his pocket a huge
+hunk of tobacco and munched a generous mouthful therefrom.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well," answered Tess pertly, and measuring the blue water with
+her eye, she sent a flat stone skipping across it. Then with darkening
+face she wheeled about upon the heavy squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"But air it any of yer business how my toad air, Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_5" id="page_5" title="5"></a></p><p>"Naw," laughed Ben, nudging Jake in the ribs with his bare elbow, "only
+I thought as how he might be dead." Then he whispered to Brewer, "Wait
+till I get at him."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead&mdash;dead, who said as how he air dead? Ye in't been a rubberin' in
+his hole, have ye, Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben only laughed in reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye have, Ben Letts, ye have, damn ye," screamed the girl now glowering
+above the fishermen with eyes changing to the deep copper of her hair.
+"Take that, and that, and that."</p>
+
+<p>She had snatched the long fish from his fingers, and with swift swirls
+slapped it thrice into the fisherman's face. Turning she flashed away,
+her long shadows giving out the smaller ones of the tatters that hung
+about her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be goldarned," gasped Letts, "and I'll be goldarned twice if I
+don't get even with her some of these here days. The devil's built his
+nest in her alright, and if hell fire don't get her, it'll be 'cause she
+air burned up by her own cussed wickedness."</p>
+
+<p>He rubbed his face frantically with the soiled sleeve of his shirt,
+spitting out the scales and blood that hat lodged between his
+dark-colored teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye're always a tormentin' her, Ben," said Longman; "now if ye was only
+satisfied to let her alone, I air a thinkin' that she wouldn't bother
+ye. Tess air a good girl, for Myry says as how she can hush the brat
+when he air a howlin' like a nigger."</p>
+
+<p>"She'll cast a spell over him, that's what she will," muttered Ben
+Letts. "Her ma could take off warts afore she was knee high to a
+grasshopper, and so can Tess. Once she whispered ten off from Minister
+Graves' <a class="pagenum" name="page_6" id="page_6" title="6"></a>hand under his very eyes when he was a laughin' at the idee."</p>
+
+<p>"Wish they'd lit on his nose," broke out Jake Brewer, darkly, "he
+wouldn't be makin' it so hard for us down here. He gets his bread on
+Sunday if any man does. But they do say as how, when he sees Tess a
+comin' along, he scoots like a jack-rabbit."</p>
+
+<p>"Sposin' the Dominie don't laugh now, sposin' he don't," put in Longman
+with a chuckle, "he air lost the ten warts, ain't he? Tess ain't the
+worst in this here county."</p>
+
+<p>"She can keep the bread-risin' from comin' up," objected Brewer; "she
+did it with us one day last winter. She scooted by our hut and down
+dropped the yeast. Wouldn't as much as let her step her foot in my
+kitchen bakin' day. Air we goin' out again to-night, fellers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," answered Ben Letts. "Sposin' Orn'll go, too. He air in town but
+he'll get back, Orn will. There ain't no man on the shores of this here
+lake that can pull a net with a steady hand like Orn Skinner. Pity he
+has such a gal."</p>
+
+<p>Letts gave another wipe at the scales which still clung to his neck and
+his eyes glittered evilly as he looked in the direction the girl had
+taken. He turned when Longman touched his arm. For years it had been the
+custom of the fishermen to allow the subject of netting to remain
+undiscussed. They plied their trade, spent a term in prison if detected,
+and returned to again take up their occupation of catching and selling
+fish. Ben Letts knew he was venturing upon dangerous ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Broad daylight," he growled, catching the expression <a class="pagenum" name="page_7" id="page_7" title="7"></a>upon his
+companion's face, "and there ain't no one in sight that'll tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Better be satisfied to keep yer mouth shut, Ben Letts," cautioned
+Longman, "nettin' air bad for the man what gets caught."</p>
+
+<p>"Got any bait out there?" he finished, pointing lakeward to a bobbing
+box anchored a distance from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a damn bit," replied Jake Brewer, "don't need it now. Keep the bait
+cars a floatin' to blind the eyes of some guy that might be a rubberin'.
+They don't know a minnie from a whale, those city coves don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't that Orn's boat comin' under the shadders of the trees?" queried
+Longman, rising to his feet and wiping his long jack-knife on his
+blue-jeans breeches. "Yep, it air him," he added, getting a closer look
+at the approaching flat-bottomed boat in which sat a big
+round-shouldered individual working vigorously away at the oars. Orn
+Skinner was called the "Giant Fisherman," because even in his bare feet
+he was seven inches above every other man in the settlement. Two
+enormous humps stood side by side on his shoulders, and a grizzled head
+lifted and sank with each sweep of the oars. Glancing around to direct
+his course, Skinner saw the men waiting for him in front of Jake
+Brewer's hut. With a sharp turn he swung the boat shoreward and a few
+vigorous strokes sent it grating upon the sand. Jumping out he dragged
+the boat to a safe mooring, from where the waves could not beat it back
+into the lake.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_8" id="page_8" title="8"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_II_301" id="CHAPTER_II_301"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the beginning, it is said, God made the heavens and the earth. He
+made the seas and all that in them is, with the myriads of fish, the
+toads, the snakes and afterward man. Then to grace His handiwork, He
+created the heart of a woman&mdash;the loving, suffering, unteachable heart
+of Eve.</p>
+
+<p>The first tinge of thinking sorrow comes into a woman's heart at the age
+of fifteen, and this was the beginning of Tessibel's sorrow, as she
+lifted her feet over the hot sands and sped onward. Tessibel was what
+most people would call a careless, worthless jade. She shamefully
+neglected her father, but covered the fact to him by the wild, willful
+worship which she bestowed upon him. If he uttered a word of
+disapprobation she would fling herself, like a cat, upon his crooked
+shoulders and bend back his head until the red of her lips met his&mdash;-
+the pathos in her red-brown eyes quieting his qualms as to the dirt he
+had to go through to get into bed.</p>
+
+<p>In the mornings, either in summer or winter, he was obliged to tumble
+the ragged girl from the roped cot he had made for her (when at last she
+had reached an age too old to sleep with him), and force her, grumbling
+the while, to eat the bacon and fish he had prepared. But he seemed
+happy through it all, for the brown-eyed girl brought back to his mind
+the slip of a fishermaid who had died when Tessibel was born. True,
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_9" id="page_9" title="9"></a>there was more copper in the girl's hair and eyes than there had been
+in the mother's&mdash;more of the bright burnishing like that of a polished
+old-fashioned kettle hanging over the spigot in a tidy housewife's
+kitchen. But Tessibel's one room was never tidy nor had she a kettle. In
+one iron frying pan she cooked the fish and bacon, while a small tin
+pail held the water for the tea. These were the only cooking utensils of
+the hut.</p>
+
+<p>Tess could climb to the top of the highest pine tree in the forest
+yonder; she could squirm through the underbrush with the agility of a
+rabbit. She loved every crawling, hateful thing, such as all honest
+people despised, and she once fought with the son of an uphill farmer
+for robbing a bird's nest, making him give up the eggs and restoring
+them herself to the top of a pine tree in the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves.</p>
+
+<p>According to the ideas of all who knew her, save her father and Myra
+Longman, Tessibel was full of eccentric traits; for who but Tess would
+feel the "mollygrubs," as Ben Letts had said, at the wriggling of the
+agonized perch and pickerel, as they flopped painfully upon the sands;
+or who but Tess would mind the squeaking of the mother-bird calling for
+her own. It was something of this "mollygrub" feeling that hastened her
+dirt-caked feet, as she rounded the mud cellar near her father's hut,
+and sped back of the weeping willow tree hanging in green fringes over
+the cabin. She dropped quickly upon her knees before a large log, which
+in some former time the flood-waters had dashed to its place.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel ran her red, bare arm into the hole in the end of the log. Then
+she sat up and gazed around.</p>
+
+<p>"He air gone," she said aloud, "he air gone. Ben <a class="pagenum" name="page_10" id="page_10" title="10"></a>Letts has took him,
+damn his dirty hide. He ain't no more good than&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Something caused her to close her lips. A large high-warted toad sprang
+into her dirty lap and slipped to the ground through the rent in her
+skirt. Tenderly she took the reptile in her fingers, for she loved this
+warted monster who seemed by the turn of his head to reciprocate in some
+way the devotion the girl showered upon him. She lifted him close to her
+face, and intently searched his poppy eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I said, damn his hide, Frederick," she said in a low tone, "'cause I
+thought he took ye. And ye ain't done nothin' to him, have ye? Ye was
+just out huntin' flies, wasn't ye, Frederick? Don't never stay long or
+ye'll git hit with a spear. Ezry Longman don't like ye nuther, 'cause I
+kisses ye, and 'cause, on my birthday, I hit his mug with a dishrag when
+he was tryin' to kiss me fifteen times, and was askin' me to marry him.
+I'd rather kiss&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her sentence remained unfinished. She looked up to see a tall boy
+leaning upon a rake, a boy with pale gray eyes, and an evil face. His
+short hair looked as if it had passed through the fingers of a prison
+barber. His blue-jean breeches were held up by a rope fastened in the
+button holes with small iron nails, and the blue blouse which had been
+clean that morning was now drenched with perspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't ye got nothin' better to do than to be kissin' a toad," he
+expostulated, without waiting for the girl to greet him, although she
+had risen to her feet, holding fast to her reptile treasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't nothin' to you, air it, what I does as long as Daddy don't care?"
+she retorted, and sullenly counted <a class="pagenum" name="page_11" id="page_11" title="11"></a>one, two, three, four, five, six,
+seven, eight long weeping willow leaves which had died that day and had
+fallen to the ground. She gathered each leaf between her great bare toe
+and its next-door neighbor, deftly throwing them aside as she counted.</p>
+
+<p>"I care," stolidly said the boy coming nearer, "and ye air a goin' to
+throw that toad away, does ye see? Ma says as how ye could be made into
+a woman if ye hadn't got batty with birds and things. She says as how
+when ye sing to the brat that yer voice sounds like an angel's, and
+that's why the kid sleeps. He air a cryin' all the time to have ye sing
+to him."</p>
+
+<p>Tess hadn't expected this. She did love the tiny unwelcome child of Myra
+Longman, a child without a father, or a place in the world. Tess loved
+the babe because there was an expression in its eyes that she had once
+seen in a wounded baby bird's ... a pitiful unborn expression which
+would go with the brat to its grave.</p>
+
+<p>She stooped down and placed the toad again in his hole, shoving him deep
+down into his cavity, for the sun was going down and Frederick would
+sleep as long as there were no flies about.</p>
+
+<p>The boy spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy says as how if ye don't stop runnin' wild ye'll be worse than
+Myry with another&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the clenched fist of the girl flew up and struck the fisherman
+with a swiftness and force that took him from his feet. Tessibel was
+standing over him rigidly.</p>
+
+<p>"I hates ye, I hates ye, I'd ruther marry&mdash;yep, I'd ruther marry my toad
+or a man as ugly as him than you, Ezry Longman, does yer hear, does yer
+hear?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_12" id="page_12" title="12"></a></p><p>The lumbering body raised itself from the ground. The squint eyes were
+almost closed, only a glint of the gray ring that surrounded the pupil
+showing between the lids.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye think that ye can hide from me what ye be a doin'," burst out Ezra.
+"Why did ye name that toad after the student of Minister Graves? Just
+'cause he wears nice clothes and don't do no honest rakin' of hay, nor
+catchin' a fish only by trollin'. Ye loves that feller, that's what ye
+does."</p>
+
+<p>Bewilderment leapt alive in the girl's brown eyes. The shade deepened
+almost to black as the thought the boy had planted in the sensitive mind
+took root and grew. Then the dirty young face flooded with crimson which
+tinted the rounded neck and colored the low forehead, and Tess dropped
+down beside the log and covered her face with her hands. The fisherman
+was so surprised that he uttered not a word while the wild storm broke
+over the girl's heart, dying away in a smothered moan.</p>
+
+<p>Without a glance at the boy, she lifted herself slowly from the earth
+and walking, erect and tall, into her father's hut, closed the door with
+a bang. She slipped the leather fastening into its place and dazedly
+adjusted the iron peg in the opening to hold it. Tessibel's heart had
+manifested its hitherto unknown burden and the woman lived amid the dirt
+and squalor of the fisherman's cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's peremptory leaving and the hauteur in her face were so
+foreign to her that Ezra Longman did not dare follow. He leaned upon his
+rake looking after her, his gray eyes gathered into an incomprehensive
+squint. Had Tess again cuffed his ears, he <a class="pagenum" name="page_13" id="page_13" title="13"></a>would have been secretly
+delighted; but this manner, so unlike her, seemed to take her as far
+above him as that flock of black crows yonder, flying to the forest to
+find shelter for the night.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel," he called helplessly, under his breath, but Tessibel did not
+hear. He limped away not knowing that she had passed as effectually out
+of his life as if she had not dwelt in the rickety cabin on his right.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_14" id="page_14" title="14"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_III_464" id="CHAPTER_III_464"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ben Letts rose to his feet after cleaning his jack-knife in the water
+and took the same path around the mud cellar which Tessibel had taken.
+The cabin door was closed&mdash;Tess nowhere in sight. Ben had intended&mdash;Ben
+didn't know just what his intentions were. He stopped short when his
+eyes fell upon Frederick's log. It took a long time for a thought to be
+born in the dense brain of the fisherman, but one was there, for the
+cross eyes opened and the red tongue licked greedily at the thick chops
+like that of a wolf when he comes upon prey for which he does not have
+to fight. Letts looked sneakily at the hut window where hung the
+remnants of a ragged curtain&mdash;all was quiet. He quickly ran his long arm
+into the opening of the log and with a snap of his teeth drew out the
+high-backed toad.</p>
+
+<p>Holding the reptile in his hand, he slunk behind the willow tree and
+stood an instant in abstract hesitation. Suddenly his fiendish face
+became flooded with the exultation of a plan fully matured. He let the
+toad fall to the ground, needing both hands to draw the blade of his
+jack-knife. Frederick hopped vigorously along in the direction of his
+log, but Ben, gorged with the instincts of an inquisitor, snatched him
+up as he was about to escape. After divesting Frederick of all the
+ornaments which nature had given him, the man allowed him to hop about,
+grinning, as he watched <a class="pagenum" name="page_15" id="page_15" title="15"></a>the rapid leaps of the toad. Frederick had
+forgotten the path to his log, he could only turn around and around as
+if he had been born to radiate in a circle. Ben could have watched this
+tumbling toad all night, so great was his joy at the sight, but it was
+getting dark and soon the call would come for the fishermen to gather
+for the netting and he would be expected to go.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the toad gingerly up from the earth, he returned it to the hole
+in the log, and with but a hasty glance at the dirty curtain which hung
+limp and ugly at the cabin window, sneaked away.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>After leaving Ezra Longman, Tessibel stood in the cabin for one single
+moment with the terrible thought which the boy had planted there,
+burning in her brain. She had but a few times seen the minister's son
+who lived in the big house on the hill and not even to herself had she
+mentioned that he was her ideal of manhood&mdash;he was as far above her as
+the learned minister was above her own squatter father. Her heart seemed
+to almost stop beating as she sprang headlong into "Daddy's bed" and
+covered herself with the ragged blanket.</p>
+
+<p>Only when she heard her father pounding at the door did she lift her
+head. She jumped swiftly from the bed to let him in. No thought of
+supper for him had entered her mind. He looked his hunger as he noted
+the absence of a fire, and spoke rather mournfully, but Tess cut him
+short. The lithe young form bounded squarely upon the bible-back of the
+fisherman. She drew back his shaggy head, her bright wide eyes shining
+into Skinner's and a low voice <a class="pagenum" name="page_16" id="page_16" title="16"></a>deepened by the first arousal of womanly
+emotion which had ever come knowingly into the young life, was murmuring
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I loves ye, Daddy, I do. What does ye care for supper when I loves ye
+like this. Daddy, I could&mdash;just bite ye hard, that I could, I love ye
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"Get off my back, Tess," ordered Skinner, trying to loosen her fingers
+from his hair. "I air tired, Brat, and there be nettin' to-night. Ye air
+goin' to Mis' Longman's till we get back."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't get off till ye kisses me square on the bill, Daddy," replied the
+girl softly, "square where I does my eatin's." And square on "the bill"
+the girl got the caress&mdash;and then eagerly hastened to fry the inevitable
+fish.</p>
+
+<p>"I air coming after ye to Longman's when the nettin's over," broke in
+Orn Skinner presently, his mouth full of bread and fish, "and ye'd best
+duck yer head in the lake, Tess, afore ye go. Yer face has a week's dirt
+caked on it."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel allowed her red lips to spread wide in a loving smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air a durn good Daddy, ye air, and I loves ye, if my face be dirty."</p>
+
+<p>She rose quickly and came to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy," she began, twisting his big head so her eyes met his, "Can't I
+go nettin' to-night? I air a good helper, ain't I, Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>Orn Skinner dreaded the wheedling tone in Tessibel's voice and the
+pleading in the eyes so like her mother's. He dropped his gaze upon his
+plate and slowly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_17" id="page_17" title="17"></a></p><p>"Nope, Tess, ye air goin' to Longman's. Don't ... now there be a kiss
+... sit down and eat ... that air a good brat."</p>
+
+<p>The last ejaculation was brought forth by Tess herself. She had turned
+back to her place at the table and had complacently begun to eat the
+crisp, brown fish.</p>
+
+<p>"And ye ain't to stay on the ragged rocks, nuther, Tess," cautioned
+Skinner, rising from the table. "Ye be a good Tess. Scoot along now."</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman moved lumberingly to the water's edge, pushing his boat
+into the lake, and stepped in. Thrusting his powerful head down between
+his shoulders, he pulled lazily away at the oars until he lost sight of
+the shore on which stood the small silent figure in the fast gathering
+gloom.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Tess did not fancy netting nights. She always feared that something
+might happen to her father. But she knew, too, that they could not live,
+even meagerly, through the long winter unless the nets were used. So
+this night after she had received many kisses, "square on the bill," she
+watched her father's bent shoulders, rising and falling with the motion
+of the oars as long as she could see him, and turning, scudded through
+the underbrush which grew in profusion near the forest&mdash;up to the rugged
+rocks toward the Longmans' hut. She slid down beside a large stone as
+she heard the lapping of oars below her on the lake, and knew that
+"Satisfied" Longman and his son Ezra were going to join the others at
+Jake Brewer's shanty.</p>
+
+<p>She was alone under the heavens, alone with the eagles and sleepy
+twittering birds&mdash;she could think of what had been forced upon her that
+day. She bitterly regretted <a class="pagenum" name="page_18" id="page_18" title="18"></a>the tears shed before Ezra, and she must
+never, never again look at the student Graves. She felt that to see his
+face, even from a distance, would cause her to drop dead before him.
+Every muscle tingled and her eyes burned with unshed tears. She had
+never dared to speak even to his sister, the pretty Teola Graves, who
+fluttered about with pink ribbons among her curls and wore high heels on
+her shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Tess opened her lips and sent ringing over the lake in glorious
+tones of pathos, the hymn she loved best,</p>
+
+<p style='margin-left:5em'>
+"Rescue the perishin',<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Care for the dyin'."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel knew what it meant to almost perish from the cold. She had felt
+the cruel blasts of the winter winds upon her chilblained feet, for she
+had never known the luxury of shoes. She had also seen the dying and
+understood what it meant to turn a longing face toward heaven, with a
+burning desire to know what was beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Such a voice as Tessibel's had never been heard upon Cayuga lake. Ben
+Letts said it put him in mind of listening to the wild cry of a lost
+soul, while Myra Longman could hear only the songs of angels in the
+exquisite tones which fell, pure and sweet, from the red lips. Tess knew
+nothing of breath power, nothing of trained trilling tones, but nature
+had given her both and like the birds of the air she used them.</p>
+
+<p>The girl had not moved from beside the stone near which she had fallen.
+The night was so strange, so different from any night Tessibel had ever
+known. <a class="pagenum" name="page_19" id="page_19" title="19"></a>Her whole idea of life had been altered that day by the word of
+a fisherman, and the woman's heart grew larger and larger, until the
+squatter girl felt that it was going to burst. Something crawled over
+her bare foot and brought her to her senses. Leaning over she drew to
+her lap a long, slimy lizard, which she held caressingly in her fingers.
+She lifted him high up and looked at him through the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"Green," she said slowly, "ain't he a dandy. But I don't dare carry him
+even a little way for fear he'll lose his house. I bet he has a pile of
+green babies."</p>
+
+<p>Dropping the lizard beside the rock, she sped away.</p>
+
+<p>Just before reaching the Longman cabin, she raised her voice and sang
+again,</p>
+
+<p style='margin-left:5em'>
+"Rescue the perishin',<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Care for the dyin'."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Some one opened the door and she bounded in.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad ye come, Tessibel," said Mrs. Longman, a small wizened old woman.
+"The brat air sick to-day. He does nothin' but squall so that my head
+air a bustin' the hours through. Give him to Tessibel, Myry."</p>
+
+<p>"After she air rested a spell," replied Myra, who resembled her mother,
+but was smaller and thinner. "He seems to have a pain, Tess."</p>
+
+<p>"Mebbe he has," responded Tessibel, "give him to me."</p>
+
+<p>The wee boy stopped his tears immediately. His back grew limp and his
+fists opened out as Tessibel began to sing. This time the song was, "Did
+ye ever go into an Irishman's shanty?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_20" id="page_20" title="20"></a></p><p>The child fell asleep and Tessibel laid him gently in the box prepared
+for him. Bed room was scarce in the huts of the fishermen and the small
+members of the family slept on rope beds, let down from the ceiling. But
+Myra's child, still too tender and always sick, slept in a box which his
+grandfather, "Satisfied" Longman, had made for him as soon as he was
+born.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a seemly night for the men to fish," commented Myra when
+Tessibel had seated herself again. "I air always a hopin' that nothin'
+will happen to none of them."</p>
+
+<p>"The hull bunch air cute," assured Tessibel, "and Daddy can row faster
+than any man on this here lake."</p>
+
+<p>"But when them game men gets after 'em with the permit to shoot, that's
+what I fears," complained Mrs. Longman&mdash;and she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>The fisherwoman's life she had led had been harder than most women bore,
+for Ezra was going a crooked path, while Myra, well&mdash;the brat slept in
+the cradle. Both girls saw her glance toward it and read her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Myra's face deepened in color, Tessibel hummed a tune.</p>
+
+<p>"'Taint no use to try to bring up children anywheres decent," the woman
+broke in sharply, after a silent moment. "God! but to see one's own&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ma," Myra's voice was pleading, "it air over and ye said&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I knows I did, and so did yer Daddy. But I ain't thinkin' only of ye
+to-night, Myra, look at the mess that Ezry's a makin' of things, and
+just 'cause ye won't marry him, Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>"<a class="pagenum" name="page_21" id="page_21" title="21"></a>I ain't never goin' to marry no one," said Tess sullenly; "goin' to
+stay with Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>"Yer Daddy won't live allers," interposed Mrs. Longman, "and what's
+more, yer better off with a man what will look after ye as Ezy will. Be
+ye a thinkin' of it at all, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, 'taint no use; don't like Ezy anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Ezry ain't the worst boy in the world," defended the mother; "if the
+right woman gets him, Tess, he'll make her a good man. Ye couldn't think
+of tryin' him, could ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel shook her head again. She shuddered perceptibly, and Myra
+thought she realized the feeling in the girl's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't bother her, ma, don't bother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If ye'd a bothered a little yerself, Myra," broke in the woman
+pettishly, "we might all been better off. It ain't 'cause of the brat,
+air it, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>She shot a glance at the infant's box.</p>
+
+<p>"Why 'cause of the brat," asked Tessibel sharply, "why 'cause of the
+brat?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air a come-be-chance, ye know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That ain't no fault of his'n, air it," demanded Tessibel. "Nope,
+'tain't nothin' to do with the brat. I loves him, I does, come-be-chance
+or no. It don't make no difference to me."</p>
+
+<p>Myra pressed Tessibel's bare toe with hers in loving fellowship.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye allers was a funny gal, Tessibel," ruminated Mrs. Longman. "Now Ezy
+says that yer takin' a likin' to such things as toads, lizards and
+snakes, shows <a class="pagenum" name="page_22" id="page_22" title="22"></a>as how ye needs some one to help ye. God'll make ye a
+happy mother if ye'll keep yer nose low in the air, and not think too
+much of yer betters."</p>
+
+<p>Ezra, then, had told his mother of the student. A frown deepened on the
+girl's brow. She hated Ezra Longman with an inward fury for what he had
+said that day.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye might have a come-be-chance, yerself, Tessibel," warned Mrs. Longman
+as she went to bed, clambering up the long ladder to the loft, leaving
+the girls alone.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_23" id="page_23" title="23"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV_743" id="CHAPTER_IV_743"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Outside the Longman hut the wind had quickened its pace up the dark
+lake, but inside there was no sound save the small snore of the infant.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't hurt you and me bein' friends, does it, Myry," broke in Tessibel
+impetuously, "'cause I can't love Ezry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, I wouldn't love him nuther. Ma don't know all that's to know and
+I wouldn't a married the brat's pa if I could," and she shivered, for
+she knew that she had lied to Tess.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first time Myra had mentioned her trouble, that is, in just
+that confidential manner. Tessibel came closer. Had it not been a
+mystery since the coming of the brat, who had been responsible for his
+tiny life?</p>
+
+<p>"It air some un what ye knows, too, Tessibel," Myra said, shifting her
+eyes from her companion's face to the box where the infant lay, but Tess
+did not ask the name. Suddenly Myra leaned over and whispered something
+in the other girl's ear, and Tessibel started as if she had been stung
+by an adder.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope ... it ain't him," she cried, starting up, "he air bad but not so
+bad as that."</p>
+
+<p>"It were him," replied Myra, "and he beat me that night on the ragged
+rocks and that air what broke my arm. Ye remember?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_24" id="page_24" title="24"></a></p><p>Tessibel nodded. She had heard a secret that not even Myra's mother
+knew&mdash;she felt intuitively that Myra intended her to keep silent. She
+did not dare to speak again, fearing the woman above was not asleep. But
+Myra, with less fear, resumed,</p>
+
+<p>"'Taint no hopin' the brat will live, and if he does he'll get his
+eatin's alright. What brats don't? But, Tessibel, I telled ye this to
+keep ye away from the ragged rocks for there air no tellin' what will
+happen to ye. And yer that pretty&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel stared blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty! pretty!" she gasped, stumbling over the words, "ye say pretty.
+Me&mdash;pretty, Myra Longman?"</p>
+
+<p>"As if ye didn't know it," scoffed Myra, "but yer face air allers so dum
+dirty that ye can't see nothin' but yer eyes, and yer matty old hair&mdash;it
+air a shame to live like ye do."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel sat up. This was her first ambitious moment. Never had lips
+said such things to her, and she had always known Myra Longman. Rising
+from the chair she disappeared into the outer room, and Myra could hear
+the splashing of water and the shuffling of feet as Tessibel stood first
+on one and then the other, washing her dirty face. She mopped the long
+red hair in and out of the wash-basin, and Myra was not prepared for the
+vision which Tessibel made in her new state of cleanliness. The impetus
+of being good-looking by an effort of her own had blackened the copper
+colored eyes. The long fringed lashes dripped with pearls of water while
+the skin had reddened from the vigorous rubbing, but it was very, very
+clean.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_25" id="page_25" title="25"></a></p><p>"I wants yer comb, Myry Longman," said Tessibel slowly shaking herself
+like a big dog.</p>
+
+<p>Myra hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye got too much dirt in your hair yet," said she, "but if ye'll take
+care of yer mop, I'll be givin' ye a comb to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Tess did not deny the accusation of her filth. She took the comb and
+drew it through the wet locks. Myra was regarding her critically.
+Tessibel&mdash;was beautiful. In the last year Ezra's sister had seen the
+change coming. The complexion had whitened under the perpetual dirt and
+the long eyes had gathered an expression of knowledge, while their color
+changed from light to dark with passing emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Myra bent her brows as she examined Tessibel closer. The skin was clean
+and shone with the glossiness of much soap. The low brow was covered
+with small wet ringlets, which turned and twisted here and there in
+luxurious confusion. Over the shoulders, hidden by a soiled calico
+blouse, the copper colored mass hung in dripping flame-like waves.</p>
+
+<p>"You air pretty," said Myra slowly, "but ye air so dum dirty no one can
+ever see it. Why ain't you washed up like that every day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never knowed how before. Didn't see nothin' to keep clean in my face."</p>
+
+<p>As Tessibel spoke she stood before the glass looking at her own
+image&mdash;spying upon the prettiness which Myra said was there.</p>
+
+<p>"This hair air like red snakes," she gasped passionately. "Just like the
+snakes that eats the little birds in the spring. In the sun their backs
+air red like this&mdash;and this&mdash;and this."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_26" id="page_26" title="26"></a></p><p>She was angrily tearing at the beautiful tightly curled ringlets with
+but one thought dominating her brain. Students never liked red haired
+girls with eyes which looked like copper.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," ordered Myra, catching the rough hands as they pulled at the
+profusion of redness. "Don't, ye air tearin' it out by the roots, and it
+looks like&mdash;like the sun when it air goin' down in one ball of fire. It
+air beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful! beautiful! Tessibel caught her breath and looked at Myra with
+a yellowish glint, born of a new emotion in her eyes. Was the brat's
+mother making fun of her? All her short life had this been Tessibel's
+portion. Ben Letts had followed her along the ragged rocks over which
+her bare feet flew with the swiftness of eagle's wings and when he found
+she could not be induced to stop he would shout in defiance, "Brick top,
+red head," and such names that went deep into the sensitive little
+heart. When she reached home she would tear at the curls and cut them
+fiercely with the knife which her father used to skin his fish and large
+eels. Yet nature would send more and more of the burnished gold to adorn
+Tessibel's head, and not until to-night had she ever heard one word in
+praise of it.</p>
+
+<p>The reformation had begun. Tessibel went again to the soap and water and
+Myra looking through the crack of the door, saw Tess dragging madly at
+her hair, sopping it first in the pan and then in the deep bucket which
+Ezra used to give the pig their swill. Once Myra saw the mass of gold
+disappear into the pail, and when Tessibel came again to view she was
+sputtering, <a class="pagenum" name="page_27" id="page_27" title="27"></a>coughing, and blowing the cold water from her nose and
+mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't be much left if ye keeps on at yer hair that way," called Myra
+grimly, "but the soap air good for cleanin' it. There air other days and
+nights, too," she went on sarcastically, "and it air almost midnight.
+Yer Daddy'll be here soon. Wonder if the game warden air out to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>As if in answer to her question they heard the dipping of oars and a
+little later a boat was dragged to its moorings on the shore.
+"Satisfied" Longman entered with his son and Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy were tired and didn't come for me?" asked Tessibel.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Daddy didn't come child," replied the elder Longman, whilst Ben
+Letts stood with his squint eyes lowered. He had an exquisite feeling
+within him, longing for the sight of the girl after she had heard their
+news.</p>
+
+<p>"I air goin' home to Daddy&mdash;I ain't afeared to go home alone," she said
+stoutly and defiantly, for Ben Letts made a move to accompany her. "I
+ain't afeared of the night things, nor nothin' that crawls nor flies. Ye
+knows I ain't afeared, Myra."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye ain't goin' home to-night, Tessibel," said Long man, "for yer father
+ain't there."</p>
+
+<p>At first Tessibel didn't comprehend. She thought of the care which was
+taken to keep the fish fresh for the market. Daddy was putting the
+pickerel and numerous eels in the blind fish cars until they could be
+cleaned. She looked into "Satisfied" Longman's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Air he a carin' for the fish?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_28" id="page_28" title="28"></a></p><p>Longman shook his head in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"Where air he then?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's voice was sharp and penetrating. It awoke Mrs. Longman
+upstairs and the infant in the box beside the rope cot.</p>
+
+<p>"He air gone to prison," put in Ezra opening and shutting his eyes, and
+licking his thick lips with his red tongue. "He air where ye won't see
+him to scratch his face when ye goes into a tantrum. He air in prison."</p>
+
+<p>The bronze eyes widened and lengthened till the very fear in them
+startled her companions. The tall, slight figure with its weight of
+rags, swayed to the hut floor&mdash;the clean shining face gathered into a
+painful pucker, while the two fists which had fought many a hard battle,
+clenched until the nails entered the calloused skin under each finger.
+Not one word came from the tightened white lips. The dumb agony was
+worse than a child's frantic scream of fear. Somehow, Ben's mind went
+back to the toad, when it also had borne its misery dumbly.</p>
+
+<p>"Satisfied" Longman, stooping down, grasped the girl and stood her on
+her feet. No one had ever seen Tess like this. Ben leered, the sides of
+his fat cheeks protruding in the joyful emotion he felt at Tessibel's
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"He killed the gamekeeper," he grinned, leaning back against the wall.
+"He air where ye won't hurt him now."</p>
+
+<p>The tortured Tess could bear no more. She had striven to be brave when
+she thought of "Daddy" in the small cell which she had heard many times
+vividly described. She had thought vaguely of months, perhaps a whole
+year without him, but Ben's words made <a class="pagenum" name="page_29" id="page_29" title="29"></a>her father a murderer, and
+murderers went away sometimes never to return. Her Daddy!&mdash;and Ezra had
+said that she could never scratch his face again. She hurt Daddy? Did
+every one in the settlement think that? She sank down beside Myra's
+father and winding her arms about his legs implored him to say that it
+was only Ben's and Ezra's fun.</p>
+
+<p>"It air fun, only fun, Satisfied, ain't it," she pleaded, "for Daddy,
+poor old Daddy, never killed no man."</p>
+
+<p>"We all says as how it were a mistake," replied Longman. "Ben says the
+gun went off in yer Daddy's hands and the warden dropped, and the other
+gamekeeper took yer Daddy away at the point of his pistol. I were at the
+north reel and couldn't save him nohow."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel understood. It was all plain now. She loosened her arms and
+painfully raised herself. The shock had hurt her flesh, and made her
+sore and lame. She started dazedly toward the door, "Satisfied" trying
+to stop her flight, but the strong young body, mad with grief and newly
+found despair, slipped through the friendly fingers, and the night,
+Tessibel's night, gathered her into its arms, till she was lost in the
+long shadows of the pine forest.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_30" id="page_30" title="30"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_V_960" id="CHAPTER_V_960"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>A night owl hooted in Tessibel's ear as she ran. A bat whirled into her
+face&mdash;then took himself off. Over the shadowy rocks which cut and
+bruised her feet, Tessibel flew.</p>
+
+<p>Daddy was home in the shanty; he was in his bed tired from hauling his
+nets. She remembered Ezra had grinned at her as with one hasty look she
+had fixed his face in her mind. He had lied to her. Daddy was in the
+hut, and if he were up waiting for her&mdash;there passed through Tessibel's
+small mind the thought of how joyfully she would hop to the bowed
+shoulders, and she longed for the kisses she knew would be hers. She
+halted before the dark hut and waited. Insects whizzed about her ears as
+though they little feared her. The long branches of the weeping willow
+dragged themselves across the tin roof with a ghostly sound. This was
+Tessibel's night of heart experiences&mdash;her first day and her first
+night. Oh! to go back to yesterday, with the hidden fear of the student
+sleeping soundly in her breast and a Daddy, a dear stooping old Daddy.
+She slipped open the shanty door, lighted a candle and looked around.
+The frying pan lay bottom up on the floor where she had dropped it. The
+tea pail was on the table; a cut loaf of bread lay beside it, covered
+with a host of small red ants. All this was familiar to Tess. She kicked
+the pan from her path with her bare foot, and sat down on the three
+legged stool which her <a class="pagenum" name="page_31" id="page_31" title="31"></a>father used at his meals. Portions of fish and
+plenty of bones were spread about upon the floor, but the littered
+shanty did not distress her newly found notions of cleanliness.</p>
+
+<p>Daddy might go away to the black place where they had taken the Canadian
+Indian, who had killed his squaw. Tess remembered hearing how he had
+been carried to prison, twelve men had found him guilty of the crime and
+at last&mdash;Tessibel started up with a groan&mdash;the Canadian Indian had been
+carried to the place where the rope was.</p>
+
+<p>Daddy Skinner and the Canadian Indian. Tess dared think no longer. She
+caught a glimpse of herself in the cracked mirror which Skinner used
+when he plied the pinchers to his beard&mdash;and her wild eyed bronzeness
+caused her to give a startled ejaculation. Daddy was gone; and Frederick
+the toad, was her all. The thought of the reptile she loved brought her
+quickly to her feet. Frederick should sleep in the shanty while Daddy
+was away. Tessibel halted apprehensively in the open doorway.</p>
+
+<p>From the shore willows, hoot owls pierced the inky night with their
+sonorous cries&mdash;while in throaty discord, a million marsh frogs bellowed
+farewell to summer. The lake shores caught the unceasing waves in
+eternal laps, the rhythm soothing the ears of the squatter girl as her
+unfathomable gaze pierced the midnight gloom. But the weight of sorrow
+and longing on the strong nature, untried by emotion, strangled the
+rising fear, and Tessibel advanced a step to the pebbly path. Once
+outside in the darkness, she lifted her voice and repeated as of yore,</p>
+
+<p style='margin-left:5em'><a class="pagenum" name="page_32" id="page_32" title="32"></a>
+"Rescue the perishin'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Care for the dyin'."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Never before had the words roused her as now&mdash;Daddy Skinner needed that
+refrain.</p>
+
+<p>She darted around the corner of the mud cellar, and shoving her hand
+into the familiar hole in the log, Tessibel drew Frederick quickly out.
+She dropped him into her blouse and retraced her steps to the shanty.
+She could never be lonely and quite without hope if Frederick were with
+her. Hadn't she loved him for four long months, and daily fed him his
+portion of flies? She took him from her bosom, where many times he had
+sunk into toad dream-land, and without looking at him placed him on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a bad night for us, Frederick," she said out loud, "it air. But
+you'll not sleep in the log to-night, but in Daddy's bed. And I'll just
+pretend ye air Daddy, and when ye croak with the daylight ye can have
+all the flies lightin' on the sugar, and then we air goin' after Daddy
+and bring him home to the shanty, Frederick."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel turned her head and glanced at Frederick. Generally when she
+spoke he would give an answering grunt. She gazed at him but dared not
+venture closer. Had she lost her mind like Jake Brewer's sister, when
+they brought home the body of her drowned husband? Tessibel lighted
+another candle and then the third&mdash;the match burned low between her
+fingers as she touched it to the fourth. Once more she looked upon the
+horrid sight&mdash;terror striving and struggling for some outlet in her torn
+young soul. Frederick blinked a pair of beady eyes, filmed with
+death,&mdash;he moved a mutilated <a class="pagenum" name="page_33" id="page_33" title="33"></a>body with painful jerks, but there was
+nothing to show the girl that he felt her presence. The silent awful
+pulsating of the toad manifested its dumb suffering. A candle flickered
+as she sought to solve the problem. The night wind flapped the dirty
+curtain and Tessibel turned her head slowly toward it. A bird's cry from
+somewhere in the weeping willow, came in through the window. With silent
+intensity, she dragged her body slowly across the floor toward the
+flattened reptile&mdash;above him she squatted&mdash;the gorgeous hair sweeping
+the filth strewn floor. Tess could mark the places where the beloved
+warts had been&mdash;she knew how many there were even to the tiny ones. With
+the halting precision of the ignorant, she had counted them singly every
+day. But the severest heart wrench of all was to come to Tess. The great
+squat hind legs, which had been her pride, when Frederick jumped through
+her rounded arms&mdash;curled to make a hoop&mdash;were gone, and the movements of
+Frederick's body left a tiny trail of dark blood upon the shanty floor.
+She couldn't touch that dying thing. In her vehement desire to relieve
+him of his pain, she burst into song which went upward and outward,
+ringing over the lake, returning again, only to be sent further and
+further into the heavens.</p>
+
+<p style='margin-left:5em'>
+"Rescue the perishin'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Care for the dyin'."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This was all Tessibel knew of the hymn&mdash;over and over she sang it,
+fearfully watching the toad move grotesquely in the candlelight. Time
+after time the blinking eyes closed and flew open&mdash;again and again
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_34" id="page_34" title="34"></a>Tessibel sent her importunate prayer into the heart of the Great
+Unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick gave a great deep sob, his fat sides lifted and fell twice,
+and as the petitionate lips of the girl sent the song once more into the
+night, he flopped over on his back, straightened out the little wounded
+stumps, and died.</p>
+
+<p>Daddy Skinner, the Canadian Indian, and Frederick! Tess couldn't
+separate the three&mdash;the prayerful mood died with the toad. She opened
+her lips and uttered two great piercing shrieks, which sounded and
+resounded through the rafters of the shanty, out into the darkness and
+up to the ragged rocks. It was the cry of a wounded human thing,
+amounting to but little in the great whirling universe. The dying of the
+scream brought words from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy Skinner, Daddy Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>Then twice in equally shrill longing, resounded the name of her dead
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick, aw, aw Frederick!"</p>
+
+<p>Both cries followed the prayer, echoing their agony out through the
+window&mdash;the flapping curtain with its tatters offering no impediment for
+its outgoing.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Tessibel staggered to her feet, for back to her through the
+window, from somewhere near the mud cellar, came an answering voice,
+deep-toned and vibrant&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What? What?"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick, the student, stood in the door of the dirty shanty, looking
+upon an unkempt, copper-eyed girl, and a great squat, dead, wartless
+toad.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_35" id="page_35" title="35"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI_1115" id="CHAPTER_VI_1115"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You called me?"</p>
+
+<p>A silence.</p>
+
+<p>"You called me?"</p>
+
+<p>The student repeated the words twice, so satisfied was he that his name
+had been called out in tones of great insistence.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel was deaf to his words. His presence had filled her completely.
+Leaning against the post of Daddy's bed, she glued her eyes upon the
+student's face, the fringed lids sprung to their fullest capacity. The
+extreme fascination in her gaze held the boy spellbound&mdash;then the
+eyelids quivered and it was over.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick glanced hurriedly about the room, the untidiness of it all
+striking his sensitiveness. He noted the pungent smell of fried fish
+mixed with inferior grease, the ant-covered bread, the confusion of
+ragged bed-clothes, and lastly of all, the other Frederick. Tessibel
+gasped as the newcomer looked longest upon her dead. She thought she saw
+him shiver as he stepped back a little.</p>
+
+<p>This brought her grief vividly back to her. The pain, as acute and sharp
+as the knife which had ended the life of Frederick, entered her already
+riven soul. The instant before a mingled sensation of shame and
+embarrassment had swept over her because of the appearance of the hut,
+and her own bare legs and feet; but the helpless dead sent even that
+from her.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_36" id="page_36" title="36"></a></p><p>"He air gone," she said chokingly, coming forward with a totter.</p>
+
+<p>Disgust rested paramount upon the student's face. Surprise followed this
+as Tessibel threw herself in limp unconcern beside the other Frederick
+and gathered the stiffened toad into her arms. She rocked to and fro as
+a mother might who had suddenly discovered that the great White Mystery
+had robbed her of her child. Tessibel's maternal instinct was being
+strongly developed in her agony of the hour, and the identity of
+Frederick the student, was lost in Frederick, the toad, her one little
+friend, to whom she had told all her sorrows, and had been ruthlessly
+torn from her. Already she could feel the short front legs growing
+stiff, and the throat which had so often grunted for its supper, was
+falling into a curve. The great mutilated back which had lifted and then
+receded with every breath was still, and Frederick lay like the lump of
+clay that he was, in the arms of his foster mother. Tessibel's child by
+adoption would never again gather into his slit of a mouth the flies
+which favored the sugar. Then Tess, still clasping her dead friend,
+lifted her head. A stranger had intruded upon her grief. She gathered
+her bruised, sore feet under the short, ragged girl's skirt, and lifted
+a woman's soulful face toward the student.</p>
+
+<p>"What do ye want?" she asked sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"You called me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It were him I wanted," she said hysterically, hugging her little dead
+burden.</p>
+
+<p>"The toad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, he were all I had,&mdash;him and Daddy, and&mdash;Daddy Skinner air gone
+too."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_37" id="page_37" title="37"></a></p><p>Then Tessibel forgot the student, and the forlorn red head with its
+burden of curls lay relaxed upon the lifeless Frederick, while the
+child-woman wept in abject loneliness.</p>
+
+<p>Impetuously the second Frederick stepped forward, the movement closing
+the door with a bang, and causing the candles to lift their smothered
+flames and flicker smokily. The wind shrieked through the broken window
+and the cracks between the shanty boards. A storm played with the water,
+casting its grayness into white capped rollers which beat upon the shore
+like the restless spirits of an ocean. Still the girl wept on,&mdash;wept for
+Frederick, for Daddy, and once a shuddering thought went through her
+mind of the Canadian Indian.</p>
+
+<p>"He killed the gamekeeper, Ezy says,&mdash;Daddy Skinner," she whimpered.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she sat up, her small round face puckered into such lines of
+pain that the student turned his head away, feeling dangerously near
+tears. He had always been taught, by his father and by his mother who
+feared contagion, that of all people in the world, the squatters must be
+most avoided; they had no hearts; they killed men and broke the laws
+simply for their own gain. But here was a girl magnetically drawing him
+toward her. Dirty? Yes, and barefooted, wild-eyed and untaught, but
+suffering&mdash;and such suffering! Frederick Graves, like his father, would
+teach the Gospel of Christ, of peace and good-will to all mankind,&mdash;but
+the deep burnishing of the beautiful hair as it swept the floor in red
+curls had much to do with Frederick's sympathy, for man-like, he looked
+upon Eve in her beauty and pitied.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_38" id="page_38" title="38"></a></p><p>"Your father is Orn Skinner, who shot the gamekeeper to-night?" he
+asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>Tess nodded, still looking fearfully into his face.</p>
+
+<p>"He was disobeying the law," replied Frederick gravely.</p>
+
+<p>Again she nodded, for Tess had no spirit to thwart an argument at that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"People who disobey the law," went on the student in his youthful
+righteousness, "take their life in their hands, and other people's too.
+Don't you think that the woman left without her husband, the
+gamekeeper's wife, is weeping for him?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a new thought for Tess, but she would not harbor it. It didn't
+seem quite just to Daddy. She drew down the red lips at the corners, and
+helplessly clung closer and closer to the toad.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" asked the student. "You lived here with your
+father, but you can't stay here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"It air my home," she said distrustfully, "and I stays here and hangs to
+this here shanty till Daddy comes back. Aw, he air comin' back, ain't
+he? He won't go to that place&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>She closed her lips, fearing to utter the thought.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child," he said, with a fatherly air. "It is a dangerous
+position."</p>
+
+<p>If the case had been placed before Frederick Graves to decide, yesterday
+he would have hanged Orn Skinner for the murder of the gamekeeper. But
+to-night&mdash;well, to-night his ideas of men and ... of women, too, had
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>"But he didn't mean it," went on Tess, casting back <a class="pagenum" name="page_39" id="page_39" title="39"></a>the unruly hair
+which shrouded her face in its new state of cleanliness. "He wouldn't
+have hurt a fly, Daddy Skinner wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>A whistle from the outside, heard plainly through the beating of the
+wind, caused Frederick to fling open the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, father," he said loudly, "I'm here. I missed you on the way. Come
+in a moment if you will."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel gathered herself more closely into a small human ball than
+ever. She had feared the minister since the time she had talked off his
+warts with the wizard words she had learned from a hag living on the
+ragged rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this," demanded the Dominie, looking sternly at her, and she
+dropped her eyes in confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Orn Skinner's girl," replied his son. "Skinner is the man who shot
+Stebbins to-night. You heard Deacon Hall talking about it at the
+cottage."</p>
+
+<p>This explanation was superfluous, for the minister well knew the girl
+and her father.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a nice mess your father's got himself into," he said harshly.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel lifted her head.</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't mean to do it, sir," she replied, not daring to rise, because
+of her bare, long legs.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't, eh?" roared Graves in his wrath, placing his hand on his son's
+shoulder. "He was right glad to have the chance to use his gun, or why
+did he take it with him?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel raised her eyes to the rafters, and her face flooded with
+color. The rifle was gone&mdash;Daddy Skinner had taken it with him. She was
+too young to argue <a class="pagenum" name="page_40" id="page_40" title="40"></a>with such a man and only wiped her face with her
+sleeve and sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>"God will see that justice is done, my girl. Your father will hang, do
+you hear?" shouted Graves. "Hang by the neck till he's dead, and this
+shanty will be burned with all its filth!"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick clutched his father's arm, his face changing from red to white
+as he watched Tessibel. She had clambered to her feet, ridiculously
+tangled in the rags of her dress. The dead Frederick was forgotten,
+falling with a great thud upon the floor. Her face was so mobile, so
+glassily white that if the hand of death had smitten her, she could not
+have looked ghastlier.</p>
+
+<p>Standing before them, the tears drying over the hot blood which rushed
+in torrents afresh from her heart to her face, Tessibel learned her
+first lesson in suppressed emotion. She took two steps backward and
+wound her hands behind the post of Daddy's old-fashioned bed.</p>
+
+<p>Truly it was Tessibel's first day and first night!</p>
+
+<p>"He air to be hanged dead?" she asked, the painful shiftiness of her
+eyes settling questioningly upon the minister's face. "Aw, he air good,
+Daddy Skinner air, gooder than ye be, with ye cross and ye crown that ye
+sing about. Gooder than all ye whole church, if his gun did kill the
+gamekeeper. We has our rights to live, to eat bread and beans, like ye
+have, hain't we? If Daddy Skinner air hung, then Tessibel hangs too."</p>
+
+<p>Here the tired young face drooped a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'll hang him will ye? Well! ye won't&mdash;cause&mdash;cause&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her red head flashed back upon the uncovered shoulders&mdash;the <a class="pagenum" name="page_41" id="page_41" title="41"></a>wild eyes
+lifted a moment to the rocking rafters in the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"If ye lives in the sky, Jesus, that cares for the dyin', take Daddy
+Skinner and Tessibel&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes dropped to the pan on the floor, against which the stiff body
+of the toad lay, and she ended,&mdash;"And Frederick."</p>
+
+<p>It was a prayer,&mdash;a rough prayer, from untaught lips, but through the
+action which followed, it instantly lost its dignity. Tessibel forgot
+her lesson&mdash;forgot all save the taunting face of the minister. She gave
+her familiar leap in the air and came down with a cry upon the Dominie's
+chest.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'll kill him, will ye? Then I&mdash;I air goin' to kill ye," and deep into
+the face of the minister sunk the ten little toad-tainted fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick loosened her by extreme effort from his father's body and
+thrust the gasping preacher outside the door. The student placed his
+hand upon the panting girl's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"You're wrong," he said gravely, "Your prayer was good and God heard.
+There is in the sky a suffering Christ and His cross&mdash;and by your
+prayers you may save your father, and also save&mdash;poor little Tessibel
+Skinner." Then glancing about the filthy room he added, "and cleanliness
+is next to godliness."</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door proudly&mdash;his words had taught her a newer dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"This air my shanty," she said. "I air sorry I hitted yer Daddy's face,
+cause&mdash;cause he air yer Daddy. Scoot now!"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_42" id="page_42" title="42"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII_1357" id="CHAPTER_VII_1357"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>For one short moment after the going of Frederick, Tessibel stood,
+gapingly, looking out into the darkness. The student had gone and with
+him her horror of the minister. The steps died away and dazedly she
+closed the door. She remembered the day she had talked the warts off
+from Graves' hand&mdash;remembered how he had said to her that she was
+possessed of the devil. Just what that meant the child didn't know, but
+the darkening frown on the minister's face plainly told her that it was
+nothing pleasant&mdash;since then she had scurried away when the Dominie had
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first time she had heard the student's voice, for he had
+spent most of his summers away from home, and the fisherman's child had
+had little chance to see him. He had said that the cross and crown would
+save her daddy&mdash;had said to pray to the God of whom she knew so little,
+and his words had given birth to a great faith within her.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's fingers were stained with Frederick's blood and shudderingly
+she looked at them in the candle light. Frederick lay where she had
+dropped him, his fat white belly sunken and misshapened. The very
+stillness of him made the girl round him in a circle, watching him with
+an intentness which showed her superstitious fear of the stiffening
+dead. Then her great love for him overwhelmed her and she darted like a
+bird toward her friend.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_43" id="page_43" title="43"></a></p><p>"I were afraid of ye, Frederick," she groaned softly, "but I ain't no
+more. Ye wouldn't hurt the kid what loves ye so, would ye, if ye air
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>She turned the great body over and sobbed. Again the words of the
+student softened her grief, and through Frederick Graves, for the sake
+of her loved ones, she accepted his mysterious far-away God and His
+sacrificed Son.</p>
+
+<p>With loving hands she tumbled the toad into a soiled rag and placed him
+in the corner. There was nothing left for her to do save to rescue Daddy
+Skinner from the black cap, and she must see him before the rising of
+the sun. Mother Moll, the settlement witch, would tell her if Daddy
+Skinner were in danger.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door and stood for a moment before stepping into the
+abating storm. Her eyes fell upon a giant pine tree at the edge of the
+forest, far beyond her father's hut. It was silhouetted against a light
+streak in the southern sky, its long arms extending straight into the
+air. The branches of the tree had always made a fantastic figure in
+Tessibel's eyes. It took the form of a venerable old man and it had been
+one of her vivid imaginings, since she could remember, that some time
+the man shaped against the skies would step down in the flesh. Tess had
+grown to love him in sunshine and in rain&mdash;to watch him in silent,
+mystified longing as he bent toward her day after day. In the nodding
+head and swaying arms, Tessibel suddenly established Frederick's deity.
+As a man from the east worships his sun god through a wooden image, so
+Tessibel directed a prayer to this moving figure in the pine tree. Her
+pain-drawn lips parted slightly as she stood for a short space of time
+watching him.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_44" id="page_44" title="44"></a></p><p>"If ye be a God," she breathed, "help me see my Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>She said this with bowed head, for grief and the student's admonition
+had made a path for reverence through her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Then she closed the cabin door and started toward the shore. Pushing a
+flat boat into the lake, which was still turbulent from the storm, she
+deftly rounded the long fishing dock, rowing to the bobbing little fish
+car which held Daddy's eels. She pulled out the nail, and holding up the
+top of the car, ran her hand quickly about inside. Drawing out four huge
+eels, she threw them into the bottom of the boat, closed the trap door
+and rowed away toward the shore.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the shanty, she placed the fish upon the wooden table and stood
+for an instant regarding them. One long eel drew itself into tense half
+circles, turning over and over until as he neared the edge of the table
+Tessibel caught him. Longer the girl's eyes rested upon this one.
+Suddenly she snatched him up&mdash;slipping him, wriggling, tail-end first
+into the water pail, still holding fast to the pointed head.</p>
+
+<p>"God made ye beautiful," she crooned, "ye can stay there and let me pet
+ye. I air got to have somethin' to love."</p>
+
+<p>Turning back to the table, she contemplated the remaining fish for
+thirty seconds or so in indecision. Had her own desire ruled, she would
+have put them all back into the lake&mdash;she would not have killed them;
+but to-night&mdash;to-night it was for Daddy's sake&mdash;he was more to her than
+all of nature's creatures. With expert fingers, she sent the life from
+the twisting eels, and gathering them into a small bag, Tessibel slung
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_45" id="page_45" title="45"></a>them over her arm and broke off into the dark forest, the twigs
+cracking under her small bare feet as she went. Here and there the curls
+of red hair would catch in the branches, and the girl would tear them
+loose, leaving a blazed trail of copper threads marking her path.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the ragged rocks she went, through the gorges and brooks until she
+came in sight of a small dark hut set deeply in the opposite bank of a
+ravine, through which water was flowing. To reach the hut the child
+scaled the deep gorge and clambered up the other side.</p>
+
+<p>The shanty was dark and Tessibel stood long looking intently at it. Over
+the top, which was covered with tar paper, scraped the branches of a
+large tree&mdash;the wind was dashing a dead vine mournfully against a broken
+window. Although on friendly terms with Mother Moll, Tess had always
+stood in awe of her, but the squatter girl had infinite confidence in
+the future events foretold by the witch. To-night she must see the
+woman&mdash;must ask her news of Daddy Skinner from the fortune pot. The dead
+fish hanging upon the slender arm were to propitiate the witch's anger
+for being dragged from her bed in the night.</p>
+
+<p>Tess stepped shivering to the door and knocked. Receiving no answer, she
+sent another pealing sound through the howling wind, for she knew Mother
+Moll was there.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a voice came from within.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the devil's name do ye want here, at this time of the
+darkness?"</p>
+
+<p>"It air Tess, Ma Moll. I wants yer fortune pot."</p>
+
+<p>"Go home and come agin to-morry."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't," Tess sent back defiantly, "air goin' to see <a class="pagenum" name="page_46" id="page_46" title="46"></a>ye to-night. I air
+goin' to give ye somethin' for yer luck pot."</p>
+
+<p>A scramble, a hurrying sound from within, and the door was dragged open.
+Tess stepped into the dark room,&mdash;the whizzing of insects overhead
+coming dimly to her through the rocking of the shanty. One broad-winged
+clammy night bat whirled close to her, but was gone before she could put
+up her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a bad night that brought the brat out to me, so it air," growled
+the hag, "be it the headless man from Hayte's place what air been
+hauntin' ye, or the Indian squaw with her burnt brat?"</p>
+
+<p>She was feeling about for a match as she croaked out her words. Tess did
+not answer, but waited until Mother Moll lighted a candle and then
+dropped her load upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"They air for the luck-pot, I says, Ma Moll," said she, opening the bag,
+and displaying the eels, "I comes to know what air in it for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Air they dead eels what you found on the shore," asked the hag
+suspiciously, "Maybe them ain't fresh ones."</p>
+
+<p>"I killed them myself but a time ago," responded Tess. "It hurts them to
+lug them livin' out of the water, but they fills your pot for many a
+mess."</p>
+
+<p>It was a tempting wage for the hag. She blew the dying grate embers into
+a blaze over which she hung a small iron pot. The bats had ceased the
+infernal flapping of their grotesque wings, and were clinging trembling
+to the rafters above. Tess could mark them through the shadows, as one
+by one she slowly counted them.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_47" id="page_47" title="47"></a></p><p>Ma Moll was crooning over the kettle. She was a woman older than any
+one even dared guess. With a cackling laugh she always answered
+questions as to her age with the assertion that she was "nigh on to two
+hundred and a deal more than that," and no one could contradict her, for
+she was old when Orn Skinner was a small boy.</p>
+
+<p>Tess, taking her eyes from the hanging bats, allowed them to rest upon
+the hag. The small dwarfed figure was not so tall as her own and the
+rounded shoulders, drawn down by great age, held a head grizzled and
+shriveled. A few tufts of gray hair hung over the ragged wrapper-like
+garment which covered the thin body. Great bunches stood out on the bare
+feet, while the long fingers stirring the liquid in the pot, were
+knuckled high on each hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Air it the headless man what I spoke of," Moll asked again peering into
+the pot, "no&mdash;it ain't that ... it air somethin' worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than that," echoed Tess coming forward, and sinking down upon her
+knees beside the hag.</p>
+
+<p>"It air worse than the squaw and her burnt brat ... Aye, worse&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse&mdash;than&mdash;what?" faltered Tess, with a sob in her throat.</p>
+
+<p>"It air the shadder of a rope&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here the hag moved closer to the bubbling kettle while the red-brown
+head pushed nearer and nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"And there air a loop in the end," went on Mother Moll.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel caught her breath. It was the black place&mdash;the rope of the
+Canadian Indian. The awfulness&mdash;the <a class="pagenum" name="page_48" id="page_48" title="48"></a>loneliness of her despair made her
+whimper brokenly behind a tattered sleeve. The hag was muttering her
+incantations and did not heed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"The rope air a long 'un and a stout 'un," Ma Moll's voice had raised to
+a shrill cry as she described the instrument of death. Tessibel's head
+was now close to the hag's. Her wild terror-stricken eyes following the
+stick as it stirred the contents of the pot.</p>
+
+<p>"Air the loop around a neck, and air there humps under the head what's a
+hangin'?"</p>
+
+<p>She quivered as she spoke. The thin body of the hag crept nearer to the
+child&mdash;the gray straggling locks mingling with the copper curls, and the
+youthful shoulders of the fishermaid contrasting strongly with those of
+the bent old woman.</p>
+
+<p>The hag was searching for the humps&mdash;her wild old eyes glaring into the
+seething mess. A trembling bat loosened its hold upon the rafters above
+and blinded by the light of the candle, thrashed its zig-zag course
+about the shanty, banging first the window, then the door, and causing
+both watchers to lift their heads. They saw him as he fell fluttering to
+the floor, lifting his body pantingly up and down.</p>
+
+<p>Again they gazed into the pot, and as one thin hand held the whirling
+stick the hag's bony finger pointed mysteriously to the shadow marking
+the future.</p>
+
+<p>"Be there humps," persisted Tess, "big round humps standin' out as how
+the hills stand by the lake?"</p>
+
+<p>The hag replied in a hoarse whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"There be no humps, but there air a dead man."</p>
+
+<p>So thoroughly did Tess believe in the witch's words that she sank back
+with a cry, upon her wet red feet.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_49" id="page_49" title="49"></a></p><p>"It ain't daddy," she breathed slowly, hardly daring to utter the name.</p>
+
+<p>"There be no humps," repeated Ma Moll. "There air a storm and a dead
+man, but his face ain't a showin'. There air another dead one on the
+shore. He ain't the same kind of one, he air&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A gamekeeper," filled in Tess.</p>
+
+<p>The witch wobbled her head in assent, as Tessibel leaned over to follow
+the long finger defining the shadow.</p>
+
+<p>"There air a shanty," Mother Moll went on, "a child alone, and dead
+things layin' about and there air a&mdash;a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The two heads were now bent directly over the pot. Tess caught her
+breath in a sob. Was Daddy Skinner coming back to the shanty? The dragon
+blood sputtered, boiling higher and higher, over the heat of the fire,
+as the witch dug it upward from the bottom of the kettle.</p>
+
+<p>"A prison cell and a man," ended Moll.</p>
+
+<p>"Be there humps?" gasped Tess.</p>
+
+<p>An acquiescent nod came from the gray-grizzled head. Tessibel wound her
+fingers about the arm-bone of the hag.</p>
+
+<p>"Air there a cross with a Christ hangin' on it?"</p>
+
+<p>The witch looked deeper into the dark mixture, her eyes squinting to
+narrow slits, and Tess continued:</p>
+
+<p>"A hangin' Christ that air hurt, and be there thorns a-diggin' in Him?"</p>
+
+<p>Deeper and deeper into the sizzling pot stared the faded blue eyes of
+the hag, the dark wide-spread ones of the girl following every movement
+of Ma Moll's hand.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_50" id="page_50" title="50"></a></p><p>"Aye, there air a cross for ye, brat, to carry on yer back&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Air there no Christ a bearin' one for Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the door burst open, and the raging wind flickered out the
+candle. It had been so sudden that Tess screamed, and the witch muttered
+a curse. The rain tore its way through the small dirty room; the bats
+loosened their hold upon the wooden rafters and circled the darkness,
+first into the open, then into the room&mdash;against and away from
+Tessibel's face, until the girl broke into wild weeping.</p>
+
+<p>Ma Moll had failed to find the cross. The wind forcing the door bespoke
+evil for Daddy. Without the student's Christ how could she save him?</p>
+
+<p>"Go home, brat," ordered the hag. "Go home, there air a cross with a
+Christ hangin' to it, and there were a dead man without humps."</p>
+
+<p>Out into the rain the sound of the hag's words ringing in her ears, the
+whizzing bats for the first time filling her with a strange mysterious
+fear, Tessibel went. She turned into the dark forest of which she was
+not afraid, and crossing the gorges again, sought the upper hill which
+led to the tracks.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_51" id="page_51" title="51"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII_1648" id="CHAPTER_VIII_1648"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Elias Graves was pastor of one of the largest churches in Ithaca. His
+family consisted of his wife, his son Frederick, and his daughter Teola,
+a girl of sixteen, and little Babe, the spoiled pet of the family.
+Besides a beautiful town rectory, he owned the lake farm and held the
+title to the small piece of property upon which Orn Skinner squatted.
+That the hut and its filth injured his own magnificent cottage no one
+denied.</p>
+
+<p>It was true he only spent ten or twelve weeks of the summer in the lake
+house, but every man desired his own. For several years there had been a
+continual fight between the pastor and the fisherman&mdash;Orn Skinner
+answering the minister with the squatter law of the state which gave him
+the use of the few feet of ground upon which his shanty stood.</p>
+
+<p>Still the Dominie insisted that some day he would rid his summer home of
+the pest and the time had come.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving Tessibel he walked up the long lane leaning on the arm of
+his son, sputtering against his enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"The very idea of that malicious brat jumping upon me as she did. She
+ought to have a sound whipping."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick shivered slightly. His heart was full of sympathy for the
+primitive girl who had so devotedly loved her toad.</p>
+
+<p>"We would be rid of the whole family if we could get <a class="pagenum" name="page_52" id="page_52" title="52"></a>that girl away,"
+went on his father, "then I could file a request to take what belongs to
+me. Hall said only to-night that he would like to see all the squatters
+gone. We've decided to make a move."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick tried to make a small complaint, but the minister commanded
+him to silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Get rid of them I will, do you hear?" he shouted, "they have no moral
+right there whatever the law says. Get rid of them, I will."</p>
+
+<p>When the Dominie reiterated strongly his whole family remained silent,
+and this time Frederick dared pass no remark. He wondered if it were not
+for just such people as the Skinners that the Christ had suffered. He
+felt an incentive rising in his heart to seek guidance from the Book,
+for although Frederick Graves greatly reverenced his father he would not
+give up his own opinions without a struggle.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got this Skinner just where I want him after all these years,"
+hurled forth the minister, as they passed the pear orchard, and then
+added:</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't understand how you came to be in the hut."</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the girl crying," replied Frederick curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"I missed you when we left Hall's," explained the Dominie. "Charlie
+called me back to ask about the plans for the new church, and if I had
+not whistled just when I did, you might have been in that hut still, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick found himself wishing that his father had not whistled, his
+mind going back to the girl in the shanty, whom he had left with her
+living grief&mdash;and her dead.</p>
+
+<p>He saw his sister, Teola, standing on the broad porch <a class="pagenum" name="page_53" id="page_53" title="53"></a>waiting for them.
+The girl scented something unusual in the angry tones of her father's
+voice. She followed Frederick alone into the library which looked out
+upon Tessibel's hut.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick shrugged his shoulders impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much."</p>
+
+<p>The brother and sister had grown into a confidential friendship during
+the past two years. Teola's face dropped as she heard Frederick's
+halting answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I know better," she retorted decidedly. "You have been having words
+with father."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not words," replied the boy, "but you see father thinks that no one
+can have any ideas but himself. It sort of makes me tired, for sometimes
+I know when a thing is right or wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the matter?" insisted Teola once more.</p>
+
+<p>"The Skinners," replied Frederick slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the squatters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't they alright where they are?" hesitated Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"Skinner killed the gamekeeper to-night, and the girl is alone in the
+shanty. Father doesn't seem to realize that they have souls to be saved
+as well as the rest of the world."</p>
+
+<p>Teola thought an instant before answering.</p>
+
+<p>"They are so dirty," she said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," Frederick reflected, "but nevertheless they are human."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you in the hut?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with father."</p>
+
+<p>"Whew! What did he say?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_54" id="page_54" title="54"></a></p><p>The question was answered by loud words from the minister talking to
+his wife in the dining room.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," said his voice, ringing out so that the two listeners
+could hear, "those squatters have got to go. I'm not the only one who
+thinks that way. If they had the instincts of decency I wouldn't say a
+word, but they haven't. I say it's time to make a move."</p>
+
+<p>"You know," continued the minister, "that their hut is in direct line
+with our view. There's no buying them off ... I've tried that. Now that
+Skinner is arrested it won't be hard to frighten the girl away, for she
+can't stay there alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure," mused Mrs. Graves; "those people are not easily
+frightened."</p>
+
+<p>"She's afraid of me," shouted the Dominie, "and she will be more so
+before I get through with her and her father. If Skinner is hanged, she
+shan't stay there."</p>
+
+<p>Later there was a long discussion between the father and son upon the
+rights of squatters, which ended in Frederick's going to bed before it
+was half finished more disgusted and unhappy than he had ever been
+before. He looked out upon the lake. The wind was still rolling the
+water into white crested waves, and his eyes could scarcely outline the
+small hut under the willow tree. Into the boy's life something had
+come&mdash;a new something he could not explain, while out of it another
+something as hard to define had gone forever.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Two jack rabbits perched on the tracks above the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves lifted their long ears and listened. Human steps at this time of
+night were out of the ordinary. The dog at Kennedy's farm beyond <a class="pagenum" name="page_55" id="page_55" title="55"></a>the
+tracks heard them, too, and bayed loudly. Then as they grew more
+distinct he bounded toward the fence, capering madly about, to scent the
+intruder. It was but a forlorn little figure, but Pete, the brindle
+bull, lifting his voice in a pleased howl, crouched close to the fence
+as a small hand came through to pet him.</p>
+
+<p>"It air only Tess," said a voice in which tears had gathered. "Ye air
+glad to see Tess, ain't ye?... Tess air glad to see ye, too ...
+Frederick and Daddy air gone and I must be goin'."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel placed her face down near the big dog and he shoved out his
+long red tongue, touching her with delight. The girl hugged the large
+head with an admonishing appeal that Pete must go back to his
+kennel&mdash;and stepped again to the track&mdash;that long, black winding road
+which she must travel before reaching her destination.</p>
+
+<p>It was raining again, the water falling in steady drops upon the bare
+head. Frequently the girl wiped the water from her face with a torn
+calico skirt. Once she sat down and gathered her feet under her wet
+dress to stop their stinging pain&mdash;and here alone under the dark sky,
+Tessibel offered up her first balanced prayer, for had not Frederick
+said that God would save Daddy Skinner.</p>
+
+<p>"He do say," and she lifted her eyes upward with a simultaneous wipe at
+her face, "that there air a God who'll help my Daddy ... I wants to find
+my Daddy ... for a minute ... a little minute ... be it pleasin' to ye,
+Goddy?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel always put "dy" to Dad to make it more effective&mdash;and it was
+with the same sweet, serious voice, with which she would have pleaded
+with her own father, <a class="pagenum" name="page_56" id="page_56" title="56"></a>that she made familiar with the majesty of heaven.
+She could make no distinction between Daddy Skinner and Jehovah. Both to
+her were the reigning powers of the earth. Daddy she had always known,
+but the other&mdash;Frederick had said it was good to pray. She rose
+stumbling, and at three o'clock in the morning entered the city of
+Ithaca, walking up State street drabbled and thoroughly wet. She knew
+the streets that led to the city jail, for many a time when selling
+greens and berries had she gone steathily to the gray stone building and
+examined the barred windows.</p>
+
+<p>She crossed Dewitt park, and passed by the churches which surrounded the
+jail. Around and around the ivy-covered stone structure wandered the
+rain-soaked, barefooted girl. She could not distinguish one ray of
+light at first in any of the windows.... Suddenly she stopped and took a
+long breath. Up near the roof line a faint light flickered ... some one
+was moving to and fro. Tessibel could distinguish a rounded shadow on
+the ceiling of the cell, and tears choked her, as she saw cast upon the
+wall the shadowy outline of a large humpbacked form. It was Daddy&mdash;Daddy
+Skinner, and Tessibel backed from the building, straining her eyes to
+get a better view of him. Now the image was in sight, again it
+disappeared&mdash;Daddy was walking up and down, but he did not come near
+enough to the window for her to see his face.</p>
+
+<p>Seven times she counted Daddy's rounded shadow on the wall, and seven
+times it faded. The eighth&mdash;a grizzled head cast its outline distinctly
+across the bars.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy&mdash;aw&mdash;Daddy Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>It was only a loving name breathed by a troubled child, but it was
+caught in its upward flight by the <a class="pagenum" name="page_57" id="page_57" title="57"></a>father's ear above. Tess saw the
+pictured humps pause, and as she whispered the name again, Daddy Skinner
+came to the iron lattice. She could discern her father plainly through
+the rain and held her arms up toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"It air lonely in the shanty, in the ... shanty ... without ye, Daddy,"
+she breathed, "and Tessibel ... air sorry ... for all her badness. Come
+home, Daddy ... dear, good Daddy ... and Tess&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, for a sight strange and unusual fell upon her. Daddy
+Skinner was looking down, clinging to the bars mightily, his under lip
+shaking, his dark teeth chattering together&mdash;the grizzled head making a
+sharp picture of misery in the barred window. Emotion in her father was
+new to Tess. A little frightened cry fell from her lips and she clutched
+hurriedly at the thick creeping ivy which clung to the old gray stone
+building.</p>
+
+<p>"I air comin', Daddy Skinner," she cried. "I air comin'."</p>
+
+<p>She followed the main body of the ivy on its upward growth, slipping and
+sliding on the wet creeper as she made her perilous ascent. Daddy
+Skinner was near the roof and it took Tessibel many torturing minutes to
+reach him. He knew she was coming by the continual dragging at the ivy,
+but he dared not speak, for the guard walked outside his door in the
+hall, and the sound of a voice would bring danger to Tess. Once he
+strained his face to the bars&mdash;saw her climbing frantically, and the
+sight made him dizzy. He could only wait&mdash;wait the interminable time
+until the red-brown head appeared and the wide eyes stared into his.
+Skinner quietly drew his child to the stone sill <a class="pagenum" name="page_58" id="page_58" title="58"></a>and placed his fingers
+over her lips to enjoin silence. Tess understood and even drew softer
+breaths, holding tightly to the beloved hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I comed for kisses on the bill, Daddy," she breathed. "Tess ... air
+lonely without ye."</p>
+
+<p>The livid, shaking lips met the quivering mouth through the iron rods. A
+long, long kiss, such as Tess had wanted quieted her suffering a little.
+It was the same old Daddy whom she was going to save by praying. She had
+asked to see him only a minute, and the student's God had granted her
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>She whispered again, shivering and shaking with the cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Did ye kill the gamekeeper, Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>The gray head shook the answer, "no."</p>
+
+<p>"If ye did ye didn't mean to, did ye?"</p>
+
+<p>The two negative replies made Tessibel's heart bound. It would be easier
+for God to help him if he had not committed a crime, and for no instant
+did she doubt his word. She kissed him again passionately, clinging to
+his lips with all the young growing emotion in her body.</p>
+
+<p>The squatter clung desperately to the body of his child. He could not
+let her go, fearing she would fall to the hard stones below, but he knew
+that she stood in danger of being discovered and dared not detain her.</p>
+
+<p>"Kin ye get down again?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, Daddy Skinner, and ye ain't goin' to hang, 'cause some one what
+can, air goin' to help ye."</p>
+
+<p>"Who air he?"</p>
+
+<p>"God ... up there!" and Tessibel motioned with her hand toward the dark
+sky. "He says as how He helps folks like us ... that a cross was beared
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_59" id="page_59" title="59"></a>for us ... and I says to Him to-night, and I says every day till ye
+come back to the shanty ... that He lets ye free, Daddy.... I asks the
+sheriff to-morrow if I can come afternoons to see ye. And, Daddy, I
+holds the shanty till ye come home."</p>
+
+<p>He kissed her small pinched face again and again&mdash;and took his arms
+away. Tess slipped down the creeper and when she reached the ground
+called softly:</p>
+
+<p>"I air here, Daddy Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>She saw him pressing against the bars, his lips shaking and his eyes
+closely shut as if he were stumblingly offering a prayer for the child
+of his fisherman soul.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_60" id="page_60" title="60"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX_1944" id="CHAPTER_IX_1944"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fraternities of Cornell University gave home and social comforts to
+students, rich and popular enough to be invited to join them. Each
+fraternity had its own spacious house, with its staff of servants, where
+the members lived during the college year.</p>
+
+<p>Every first-year man had the ambition to join one, which if he attained
+assured him a luxurious home during the four years he spent in Ithaca.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, three weeks after Tessibel's secret visit to her father in
+the city jail, twenty fraternities were preparing all the practical
+jokes which boyish minds could concoct, with which to initiate their new
+candidates to full membership. Five new men were to join the "Cranium"
+fraternity. The house of this society stood high upon the eastern hill
+above the lake and overlooked the forest-mantled town. The first story
+of the building contained the smoking, dining, billiard and two drawing
+rooms. Above were sleeping chambers and private studies for the
+students, and annexed to the house proper was a small stone structure
+built purposely for the initiation of the new members.</p>
+
+<p>On this night all interest was centered upon the annex where Frederick
+Graves, Dan Jordan, Billy Dillon, Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston were to
+be taken through the "stunts."</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon the five young men had been locked <a class="pagenum" name="page_61" id="page_61" title="61"></a>in one of the
+student's rooms, and told that they would receive their dinner during
+the proceedings that evening. The gravity which had settled upon the
+upper classmen frightened the three smaller candidates, for Billy, Oscar
+and Jimmy were miniatures in size compared to Dan Jordan and Frederick
+Graves.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they are going to hurt us," asked Billy Dillon, turning to
+the two larger students. "I don't want to be hurt&mdash;I like the thought of
+being a fraternity man, but I don't want to go through any business that
+will injure me."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither do I," put in Oscar Brown. "I promised my mother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It won't be well with you fellows if those chaps downstairs hear you
+talking that way," cautioned Jordan, "besides the initiation is only
+fun, and any of us are willing to stand jokes."</p>
+
+<p>After a three-hour wait, a group of sophomores, and the freshmen's
+tormentors&mdash;appeared upon the scene and ordered the candidates to follow
+them into the dreaded annex. In this "torture chamber" the older
+members, juniors and seniors, seated on benches placed around the wall,
+were waiting gravely the arrival of their victims.</p>
+
+<p>The honors of the occasion had been given into the hands of the
+sophomores, and as they trailed in followed by the quaking applicants, a
+hush fell over the expectant members of the society.</p>
+
+<p>The five freshmen were ordered to stand in a row, and Richard Hall, the
+spokesman of the second-year class, came forward, holding up one hand in
+mock reverence.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he began, "I first christen you all in the name of the
+'Cranium' Fraternity. I give you, <a class="pagenum" name="page_62" id="page_62" title="62"></a>Dillon, the name of 'Swipes.' You,
+Brown, shall be dubbed 'Shorts'&mdash;here he hesitated an instant, perusing
+a slip of paper which lay on the table beside him&mdash;Preston, you may add
+another 'S' to make a trio&mdash;your name shall be 'Spuddy.'"</p>
+
+<p>Hall allowed his eyes to gaze reflectively upon Dan Jordan.</p>
+
+<p>"To a big fellow like you, Jordan," he resumed, "I give 'Captain.'" His
+voice dropped as if he had either overlooked or forgotten Frederick, and
+the young fellow waited expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Hall flashed him a glance, then dropped his eyes with twitching
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"'Parson' is good enough for you, Graves."</p>
+
+<p>Sweeping the five candidates with his searching gaze, he took up the
+speech again&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If at any time your fraternity brothers desire to call you by your new
+names and you refuse to answer, you shall receive the punishment which
+goes with disobedience."</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said again, dismissing the last subject with a wave of
+his hand, "it gives us great pleasure to receive you into this
+fraternity, but before we can give you full membership it is necessary
+for us to go through a few more formalities."</p>
+
+<p>Hall's eye fell in hesitation upon the ponderous form of Dan Jordan.</p>
+
+<p>"You will all no doubt soon see the value of prompt obedience," his
+voice rang out, and a smile touched each corner of his lips, but faded
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>The three little freshmen moved uneasily&mdash;Hall, with a touch of irony in
+his tones, directed the rest of his instructions to them.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_63" id="page_63" title="63"></a></p><p>"We have decided," resumed the speaker, "to initiate you fellows all at
+one time."</p>
+
+<p>Oscar Brown sighed in relief. "Misery loves company," and if the society
+had any indignities to bestow, he would not be alone.</p>
+
+<p>"We have found it necessary in times past," Hall took up again with a
+tragic tone in his voice, "to use discipline upon such occasions as
+this, and if by chance an incoming member becomes obstreperous, we
+employ a friend to help us&mdash;he holds an honored position in our
+fraternity ... Mr. Manchester, introduce 'Mazuka.'"</p>
+
+<p>The sophomore thus adjured, stepped nimbly to the corner, and lifting
+from a hook a long vicious-looking carpet beater, brought it toward
+Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Handle him with reverence," shouted the spokesman, taking it carefully
+in his hands and turning it over with a benign smile. "Many a time has
+'Mazuka' done good service for this frat! You will understand," the
+freshmen heard him say, "that an indecorous smile on any of your faces
+will immediately call for three strokes from 'Mazuka,'" and he waved the
+carpet beater threateningly, "and for disobedience you will get five. We
+will now proceed to business. 'Captain' Jordan and 'Parson' Graves,
+please step forward ... Blindfold the eyes of those two, Frank," Hall
+ended, addressing one of his classmates near him.</p>
+
+<p>He turned to a group of his companions&mdash;and after whispering with them,
+came back saying aloud&mdash;"that's a good one to begin with."</p>
+
+<p>Directing his eyes upon Jordan, he said:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_64" id="page_64" title="64"></a></p><p>"Down upon the floor and scramble like an egg, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>A titter came from Billy Dillon.</p>
+
+<p>"Duck that fresh chicken for laughing," shouted Hall, "and give him
+three strokes of the 'Mazuka.'"</p>
+
+<p>A sophomore brought a pail of cold water, and two other students,
+grasping the little fellow, immersed his curly head in it. They then
+stood him on his feet and laid the carpet beater three times across his
+back. Billy almost wished he had not chosen the fraternity life, but the
+others were suffering with him, which made it easier than if he had been
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Dan Jordan was industriously trying to imitate a cooking egg.</p>
+
+<p>"Scramble, Captain, scramble," cried a sophomore, prodding Jordan with a
+stick.</p>
+
+<p>"Cook the 'Parson,' too," shouted some one, and Frederick was ordered to
+follow the movements of his friend.</p>
+
+<p>A faint flush mounted to the broad brow of the minister's son and he
+hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring the 'Mazuka,'" commanded Hall, and the eager sophomore rushed up
+with the persuader.</p>
+
+<p>"Scramble, you," he roared, waving the carpet beater dangerously near
+Frederick's head, and down beside his strapping friend dropped the
+dignified Frederick&mdash;two more long legs, and two more heavy arms were
+wiggling over the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Those eggs are burning, give them some grease," suggested a senior from
+his seat near the wall.</p>
+
+<p>An agile, willing sophomore snatched a bucket of water and emptied its
+contents over the two floundering giants. As the icy bath submerged the
+freshmen, Dan <a class="pagenum" name="page_65" id="page_65" title="65"></a>Jordan, sputtering and gasping, bounded to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Five strokes of the 'Mazuka' for the 'Captain,'" shouted the delighted
+Manchester waving the carpet beater, "he got up without permission."</p>
+
+<p>Three students held Jordan fast and the little sophomore, dancing with
+glee, belabored the huge half "scrambled egg," each blow resounding
+through the room.</p>
+
+<p>"There! I guess that will hold him a while," chuckled the chastiser,
+putting the carpet beater under his arm, his face reflecting the
+pleasure of well-performed duty.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick, wet and looking very bored, was still flopping about the
+floor, and after passing a few more remarks about rotten eggs and
+undignified positions, the sophomores allowed him to stand up.</p>
+
+<p>"Now put the wet booby in the corner," ordered Hall, and Frederick was
+accordingly led away.</p>
+
+<p>Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston, a little pale after witnessing Dan
+Jordan's punishment, were then told to come forward. Both trembled
+perceptibly as they were blindfolded by a sophomore and commanded to lie
+upon their backs upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"You fellows are going to get that dinner we promised you now," he said,
+stooping over the frightened prostrate students, and giving the bandages
+a last tightening pull; "the first course consists of something you are
+sure to like, and we guarantee them to be absolutely fresh. Bring the
+supper in, for these kids are hungry!"</p>
+
+<p>Some one brought a dish and the two boys could plainly hear the rattle
+of the cover as it came off.</p>
+
+<p>"Open your mouths," came the next command.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_66" id="page_66" title="66"></a></p><p>Oscar Brown timidly opened his lips and waited, but Jimmy Preston,
+thinking the joke had gone far enough, obstinately refused to open his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>Bang! came the carpet beater over the side of his leg, and his mouth
+flew open like a trapdoor.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just a little reminder for you to do as you are told, Spuddy,"
+the wielder of the "Mazuka" laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the dinner, boys," cried Hall, "and I bet you can't imagine what
+we've brought you.... Do you know what that is, 'Shorts'?"</p>
+
+<p>Brown shivered, for something snake-like and cold was drawn across his
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an angle worm," continued the speaker, "and you're going to eat
+it.... Don't be afraid, 'Spuddy,' you needn't wiggle, you are going to
+have one, too," he added the last part of the sentence, seeing a shudder
+pass over the form of the other blindfolded boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your mouths wide open," shouted a senior.</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously the two boys felt the promised but undesirable dinner
+drop into their mouths. With a groan Oscar Brown rolled over on his side
+and allowed his portion to fall slowly out. But Jimmy Preston, amid
+howls of joy from the onlookers, jumped to his feet and tore the bandage
+from his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No fraternity for me," he yelled. "I've never heard of such a dirty
+trick. If you fellows&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His disgusted gaze fell upon the plate held by a sophomore convulsed
+with laughter. Jimmy rubbed his eyes, blinked, and looked again&mdash;blank
+astonishment taking the place of his anger. In the dish were only a few
+strings of cold cooked macaroni.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_67" id="page_67" title="67"></a></p><p>"Golly! What a fool I am," and Jimmy glanced about upon the grinning
+faces with a sheepish air.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what you are alright," said Manchester, trying to be serious and
+securing a better grip upon the carpet beater. "Who said you could take
+that bandage off. That will cost you five strokes of the 'Mazuka.' ...
+Here, fellows, hold him on his stomach over that chair, so that I can
+get in some of my fine strokes.... One ... two ... three ... four ...
+five ..."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy was jerked to his feet, the injured expression upon his sorrowful
+face plainly showing Manchester that his strokes had been telling ones.</p>
+
+<p>"There! We're through with you for to-night, 'Spuddy,' old boy," said
+Manchester, proudly feeling his biceps. "Go sit down ... if you can,"
+and Jimmy limped away with a muttered "thank heaven."</p>
+
+<p>During a conference in undertones, amid giggling and snickering, Richard
+unfolded a new plan. Then he said in a loud voice,</p>
+
+<p>"One of you fellows see if the surgeon is here yet. And hurry back."</p>
+
+<p>Billy Dillon who had remained in trembling silence during the
+proceedings, received his bandage without a complaint, although his face
+was ashy pale, and his knees shook beneath him as Hall approached.</p>
+
+<p>What did they want a doctor for? They surely wouldn't do&mdash;anything bad
+enough to need a surgeon. Thoughts like these went racing through his
+frightened mind, the sophomore leading him in terrifying darkness to a
+chair near by. Silence fell upon the room, and all that Billy could hear
+was his own excited breathing, made louder by the explosive beats of his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_68" id="page_68" title="68"></a></p><p>"Swipes," he heard Hall say, "we've decided that we can't stand that
+pretty face of yours around, but as we like you and don't want to send
+you away, we will change the expression on it. A gash on each of those
+rosy cheeks will alter your whole appearance, so much, that not one of
+your lady friends will ever recognize you again. In after days, when you
+grow to be a man, you will thank us for this. Frank, tell Dr. Wallace to
+come in."</p>
+
+<p>A pause ... and Billy heard the door open and close, and someone coming
+toward him, the person smelling strongly of drugs.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the unfortunate young man," asked a strange, but not altogether
+unfamiliar voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Billy heard Hall answer in heartbroken tones, "and please,
+doctor, do the best you can for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll fix him alright in just about a minute," responded the
+strange voice. "Mr. Hall, will you please hold his arms, for when
+patients are excited they sometimes forget themselves, and ... now ...
+my instruments, please."</p>
+
+<p>Billy's arms were held tightly behind him, and for a moment he heard
+nothing&mdash;then came to his ears the sound of a box being unclasped
+and&mdash;horror of horrors&mdash;the rattle of surgical instruments.</p>
+
+<p>Would they dare cut his face? Why his father would&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Billy felt the cold blade of the knife touch his flesh, and hot blood
+run down to his chin.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this he became possessed by the strength of a giant. Jerking his
+hands loose he struck out with all his might, his fist hitting something
+with the force of a kicking donkey. There was a sound of some one
+falling <a class="pagenum" name="page_69" id="page_69" title="69"></a>and a roar of laughter went up from the students as Billy was
+grasped by what seemed a thousand hands. The bandage was snatched from
+his eyes and he looked upon a sorry sight. Manchester, the expert
+wielder of the Mazuka, had failed as a surgeon. He lay a few feet away
+amid pieces of broken ice, which he had pretended was a surgical
+knife&mdash;his coat bespotted with hot milk which represented poor Billy's
+blood, and his left hand clasped tightly over a swollen eye.</p>
+
+<p>"What hit me?" gasped the fictitious Dr. Wallace.</p>
+
+<p>"What hit Manchester, fellows?" one of the seniors managed to howl out
+to the convulsed fraternity members.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that rascally freshman did it," exclaimed Manchester
+excitedly, "bring me the 'Mazuka,' and I'll put a bunch on him that
+never will come off."</p>
+
+<p>"Gee Whiz! Look at his eye," some one called out.</p>
+
+<p>This brought Manchester to a standstill.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with it," he groaned, putting his hand again to his
+face, "is it gone?"</p>
+
+<p>The lids were puffed shut, and were rapidly darkening. Richard Hall,
+laughing uproariously, held a pocket mirror for the young sophomore to
+peep into. After a moment's contemplation of his bruised face,
+Manchester came forth in a hoarse whisper,</p>
+
+<p>"That freshman's got to die&mdash;If I only ... had an ax," and his one eye
+gazed wildly around in search of a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Teddy Manchester," soothed a tall senior, "we'll arrange
+with the freshman alright. Don't work yourself into unnecessary
+excitement."</p>
+
+<p>"And he shall use all his spending money for your tobacco, Teddy, for
+the entire year," cajoled Hall, "and <a class="pagenum" name="page_70" id="page_70" title="70"></a>black your boots and brush your
+clothes, into the bargain, and besides you will get a chance to get even
+at the Freshmen's Banquet," he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he concluded, turning with a winning smile upon the
+assembled society, "we have five new members in the 'Cranium'
+Fraternity."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_71" id="page_71" title="71"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_X_2302" id="CHAPTER_X_2302"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER X</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Minister Graves' city home, the Rectory, was a magnificent house,
+covered with a thick growth of ivy; one bay window ornamenting it on the
+west, another looking on the street.</p>
+
+<p>The first evening in November, the family was seated about the table,
+the minister reading the evening paper. "Babe" was arguing with her
+mother that all little girls should be allowed to roller skate upon the
+pavement; that "there wasn't a bit of danger in it."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick was silently eating his dinner&mdash;Teola following his example.
+Suddenly the minister ejaculated:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's good."</p>
+
+<p>"What's good, father?" inquired Mrs. Graves.</p>
+
+<p>"Skinner is brought to trial to-morrow. The paper says there isn't the
+slightest hope for him to escape. And listen to this:</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the happenings in the annals of the Ithaca courts the following
+is the most extraordinary. Orn Skinner, the squatter, who is to be tried
+this week for the murder of Emery Stebbins, the game warden, is the
+father of a girl some fifteen years old. The day after his incarceration
+the girl presented herself at the office of the sheriff, asking
+permission to see her father. The sheriff thought wiser not and refused
+the request. But the night before last the girl was discovered
+ascending, like a squirrel, the thick growth of ivy that covers <a class="pagenum" name="page_72" id="page_72" title="72"></a>the
+stone structure of the jail. For nearly a month she has been tramping
+the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks after dark, reaching the jail at
+midnight, and holding converse with her father on the stone sill of his
+cell window, two stories above the ground. The girl was closely
+questioned but refused to answer, probably fearing the consequences of
+visiting a prisoner without the consent of the sheriff. Skinner has been
+removed to an inner cell, the authorities fearing some plan of escape.
+The girl is very pretty, with long red hair, and brown eyes, and those
+who have seen her say that she is like a frightened rabbit, refusing to
+talk with any, save a few of her kind."</p>
+
+<p>The Dominie grunted, as he finished reading.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think they would remove him to an inner cell," said he. "Such
+goings on! The girl ought to have a taste of the rawhide."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe she loves her father and wanted to see him," ventured Babe, who
+had no reverence for paternal opinions.</p>
+
+<p>"Love, love," retorted the Dominie, "all the love those people have in
+their lives you could put in a nutshell."</p>
+
+<p>"Her father's trial comes up to-morrow&mdash;I wonder if they will allow the
+girl to attend."</p>
+
+<p>This was from Frederick&mdash;he had not seen Tessibel since the night he had
+told her how to help her father. His face gathered a crimson shade as he
+remembered that he had promised her that he, too, would pray for her
+Daddy. The sympathy he had felt in his heart, throbbed again as he
+thought of her lonely grief&mdash;and the dead toad. He would keep his
+promise to Tess&mdash;pray <a class="pagenum" name="page_73" id="page_73" title="73"></a>that something might come into her life if
+somebody went out.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," said Teola, changing the subject abruptly, "why can't we have
+a toffy pull. I want one so badly."</p>
+
+<p>"It's such a messy thing," sighed Mrs. Graves, looking about upon the
+tidy home, "and not one of you young people can keep your sticky hands
+from the curtains and furniture. But I suppose, if you will have it,
+nothing I can say will alter it. But remember this: I won't have those
+boys and girls tramping through my house and mussing up everything."</p>
+
+<p>As they rose from the table Teola followed her brother into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick, if I arrange the toffy pull, do you suppose Mr. Jordan would
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>She dropped her eyes&mdash;the blood curling to the edge of the tiny ringlets
+that clung to her forehead. Her brother gave a low laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"He would be only too pleased, Sis, and he is a capital chap. He's a
+great favorite at the frat with all the boys. Shall I invite him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... for day after to-morrow evening. Will that suit you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see," reflected Frederick, "we are having a meeting at the
+fraternity, but we might come down afterward, unless we are kept too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let them keep you," pleaded Teola, flashing her brilliant eyes
+into Frederick's face, "you and Mr. Jordan have influence enough to get
+away, even if you are freshmen."</p>
+
+<p>The student stooped and kissed his sister fondly.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_74" id="page_74" title="74"></a></p><p>"I'll arrange it to suit you, Sister ... I want to go to the Skinner
+trial to-morrow. I suppose father will go, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody will be there," rejoined Teola. "I wonder if his daughter
+will be permitted to see him after she has been discovered breaking the
+law."</p>
+
+<p>This time it was Frederick who flushed&mdash;it suddenly dawned upon him that
+he was going to the court simply to see the squatter girl again. He
+explained his embarrassment by exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little soul! She is the loneliest child in the world. I wish we
+could do something for her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father wouldn't let us," put in Teola in dismay; "then, too, I don't
+know what we could do for a squatter."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither do I, that's the problem," finished Frederick, and after he was
+gone Teola mused long with Dan Jordan in her mind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>At the break of the first day of the Skinner trial, smoke could be seen
+curling up from the chimney of Tessibel's hut. A candle stood in the
+window, flickering its smoky flame toward the light streaks in the east.
+From the lighthouse to the ragged rocks the lake was covered with the
+ice and snow of an early winter. Beyond, the little waves curled up and
+washed over the frozen masses, adhering here and there, making an icy
+fringe along the edge. Flocks of wild ducks fluttered close to the lake
+surface, filling the morning air with discordant quacking.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel had not forgotten that her father was to be brought that day
+before his accusers,&mdash;she had made elaborate preparations for the
+reception of her dear one, <a class="pagenum" name="page_75" id="page_75" title="75"></a>when he should be free to return to her. She
+would stay in the shanty during the trial&mdash;and pray.</p>
+
+<p>Daddy was playing a part in a most agonizing drama&mdash;he and the student
+and herself were the principals&mdash;while a few others, their enemies, made
+the background.</p>
+
+<p>... When the curtain fell Tessibel would bring "Daddy" home to the
+hut&mdash;and it was for this that she was preparing.</p>
+
+<p>The bed had been dragged from the wall, and the squatter girl was
+sweeping out the dust of ages which settled again upon the coats and
+among the webby meshes of the net now dry and shrunken from disuse. One
+leg was missing from the stove, but three red bricks shoved under the
+side did the work of the broken part; the ancient frying pan with
+patches of grease upon it suspended itself from a newly driven nail in
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Tess had learned many things since her father's imprisonment&mdash;had
+learned that a girl of fifteen couldn't run barefooted in the open with
+impunity. She had found a pair of Daddy's old cast-off boots, tied rags
+about her feet, and clambered into them.</p>
+
+<p>How like a woman she felt with covered legs! True, the water gushed in
+through the holes that Daddy had cut in the soles on the rocks, but the
+tops were whole&mdash;and Tess looked upon them with pride.</p>
+
+<p>When the daylight flooded the cabin Tess blew out the candle and viewed
+her work with delight. How pleased Daddy would be&mdash;after this she would
+be a model housekeeper. He should sleep in the morning until she had
+prepared his breakfast, and her fingers would fly in the summer,
+gathering the berries and fruit <a class="pagenum" name="page_76" id="page_76" title="76"></a>to make more money so that he should
+not run risks with the netting!</p>
+
+<p>That first day of waiting seemed interminably long, but Tess spent it
+happily, for ever vividly into her mind came the words of Frederick the
+student&mdash;that God would hear, and answer.</p>
+
+<p>Day by day her faith in the efficacy of her petitions had grown upon
+her. In spite of the fact that she had been caught by Daddy's enemies in
+her nightly scrambles up the ivy at the jail, God had answered in
+letting her see her father so many times at the end of her midnight
+walks.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Three men of squatter's row staggered through the storm up the Lehigh
+Valley tracks. They passed the line of huts, making an occasional
+comment upon the inhabitants of some lighted shanty.</p>
+
+<p>It was the evening of the second of November, the first day of Orn
+Skinner's trial. The squatters had turned out in great numbers to see
+how the humped prisoner looked before his condemnation, for all believed
+that the fisherman would hang. It would be establishing a new precedent
+if Skinner were acquitted&mdash;and Ithaca never established new precedents
+with squatters.</p>
+
+<p>So mused the men as they sullenly toiled toward home, each satisfied in
+his heart that, if Skinner went the way of others from the row, it would
+be but another act of revenge upon the part of the townspeople, for had
+not one and every witness save Elias Graves testified that day to the
+good character of the accused man?</p>
+
+<p>The headlight of a locomotive sent them to the side track.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_77" id="page_77" title="77"></a></p><p>"Orn's face were yaller'n saffron, wern't it, when Minister Graves said
+as how he were a cussed pap of a cusseder gal," said Ezy Longman to Jake
+Brewer and Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>"He were that mad," agreed Letts, "that the humps on his back just riz
+up and down&mdash;he were that mad he were."</p>
+
+<p>"But it were screechin' funny when the jedge made the parson speak out
+what Tess done," laughed Jake Brewer.</p>
+
+<p>"You bet," assented Ezry Longman. "But why weren't she there to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't know," answered Jake. "She were home, I guess. She 'lows as how
+her Daddy comes home to-morry ... I 'lows as how he don't."</p>
+
+<p>"I 'lows it, too," grunted Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence for some time, the wind crooning its endless
+tune through the telegraph wires. As they passed Kennedy's, Pete, the
+brindle bulldog, howled in rage at not being able to attack the
+squatters. The dog snapped viciously at all strangers&mdash;and more than
+this would he have done if he had had an opportunity to reach Ben Letts
+and Ezra Longman. These men had spared neither stones nor sticks, in
+times past, to arouse the dog's ire; and Pete never forgot an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the lane, the candle in Skinner's window flickered them an
+invitation to stop. Tessibel answered their knock and embarrassedly
+offered each a chair as the door closed behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't ended?" she faltered with a hasty glance at the three stolid
+faces, the post of Daddy's bed supporting the supple young form.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_78" id="page_78" title="78"></a></p><p>"To-morry," replied Jake Brewer.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts moved uneasily in his chair. It was the first time he had
+ventured into the presence of Tessibel since he had put Frederick to
+death.</p>
+
+<p>"He air comin' home, then?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a question in the pleading voice as her eyes fell first upon
+one and then another.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," grinned Ezry, "he air to be took away."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel shrank back further and further, every muscle tired in its
+agony of burden-bearing. The rotten post squeaked loudly, bending
+beneath her weight, and over her in lightning rapidity swept the shadow
+of the rope, snatching her father from her&mdash;and God. The student had not
+limited the power of the cross; but Tess had discovered its limitations
+in Ezra Longman's statement&mdash;limitations that made her quiver with pain,
+as she pictured the evil thing which darkly menaced her loved one.</p>
+
+<p>"He air a damn liar," burst forth Jake Brewer, "the jedge ain't said no
+words what Ezy says he has."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel heard and understood. The splendid, buoyant youth gathered
+instantly together, faith in the eternal promise of God sweeping over
+her once more. She might have known that Daddy was safe. Every long day
+had been filled with petitions, hurled at the feet of the Almighty:
+Tess, in her ignorance, had juggled with the sacred name of Jehovah,
+expecting the fulfillment of her prayers just as a boy, filled with
+ecstatic faith, expects his ball to come back to him after he has tossed
+it into the air. So would Daddy Skinner come to her, snatched from the
+shadow of an ignominious death, through some miracle of God's goodness.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_79" id="page_79" title="79"></a></p><p>"It air over to-morry?" she stammered, holding no grudge against Ezra
+Longman for his untimely joke.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he air comin' home to-morry night?" she said almost in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts, looking at Ezra, closed one red lid, letting it fall slowly
+over the blurred blind eye. Neither he nor the boy spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Letts brought his squint gaze back to Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"He air comin' home to-morry night?" she repeated questioningly, raising
+her voice a little with an insistent glance at each fisherman. This time
+Tess read denial in their faces, but smiled radiantly. What did they
+knew about it? What did fishermen understand of the student's God ... of
+the faith that would bring Daddy home to her in spite of the twelve grim
+men, and all her father's enemies in Ithaca. Hadn't she consigned the
+beloved humpbacked father to Him who held the worlds in the hollow of
+His hand.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts still gazed steadily at Tess, the red eyelids opening wider
+and wider. She had never been so beautiful before. During the past two
+months the girl had grown into a woman, into a soulful creature whom the
+squatter Ben ardently desired for his wife. Ah, he would see to that!</p>
+
+<p>He shoved his great legs up and down before him tumbling these things
+over in his mind. The taming of such a girl would be his vicious
+delight. The first thing to do would be to ply the scissors to the red
+curls. Ben could see that the hair was clean, each curl clinging
+lovingly to its mate, yet living apart&mdash;so different from the matted
+locks of the Tess he had always known.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_80" id="page_80" title="80"></a></p><p>"Yer Daddy got good and mad to-day," remarked Jake Brewer abruptly, the
+deadly silence grating upon his nerves.</p>
+
+<p>"What about?" said Tess sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Dominie Graves were in the witness-box, and said as how yer pap were a
+wicked daddy of a wickeder gal, and the jedge made him tell as how ye
+was so cussed, and yer daddy's humps riz up like a cat's back wet with
+cold tea."</p>
+
+<p>Tess waited expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>"And the Dominie said as how ye twiggled yer fingers to yer nose at
+him," continued Jake. "Did ye?"</p>
+
+<p>The pale face went to a deep crimson&mdash;she remembered the day well. The
+Dominie had caught her stealing berries and like all the weaker ones in
+a strife Tess had used her tongue bitterly&mdash;and had twiggled her
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The squatters went away, leaving Tessibel with a new feeling of shame.
+Ben Letts went with reluctance&mdash;he dared not remain. After Skinner had
+gone the way of all squatters who incurred the penalties of the law, he,
+Ben Letts, would have the girl for weal or woe.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_81" id="page_81" title="81"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI_2627" id="CHAPTER_XI_2627"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last day of Skinner's trial found Tessibel taking her lonely way
+toward town. She was going for Daddy Skinner&mdash;to bring him home to a
+shanty which she thought was clean, although the ragged curtain still
+flapped its tatters over a dirty window and the cobwebs hung listlessly
+from Daddy Skinner's unused net. But Tess had done her best, and her
+heart sang with delightful expectancy as she neared the dangerous open
+trestle which spanned the Hoghole gorge.</p>
+
+<p>When she turned into town, her mind was at work with the thought of how
+she would bring Daddy triumphantly through the row of squatter huts,
+lead him even through the streets of Ithaca. Her vivid imagination
+played with the scene: Frederick the student would see her; he would
+know that together they had saved the dearest life ever given into the
+hands of a jury.</p>
+
+<p>Up the snow-covered street, through Dewitt park, and Into the little
+lane she tramped. Here Tessibel halted. The court-room was so crowded
+that an overflow of men stood in the street with overcoats tightly
+buttoned, stood listening for the words that would satisfy their
+demands: Orn Skinner must die. A demonstration of joy ringing from the
+court made the child shiver&mdash;then smile. Not even the wicked jeering of
+Daddy's enemies could shake her faith in the student's word. Twelve
+jurors sat in their chairs, but a useless set of men, for <a class="pagenum" name="page_82" id="page_82" title="82"></a>a unanimous
+ban of death had been pronounced upon the fisherman before any one of
+the jury had taken the oath. Some of the evidence did not reach their
+ears for they were thinking of other things&mdash;the man of two humps was as
+far away from their homes or their hopes, as the rope that would end
+him.</p>
+
+<p>During the trial the prisoner had remained silent in his chair, with a
+stolidity that aroused no sympathy for him. Not once was he seen to lift
+his eyes to the judge; and but once, when Tess was being maligned by
+Dominie Graves, did the bible-back rise and fall as if the heart beneath
+were beating wildly. Skinner had not been allowed to testify in his own
+defense, and, knowing the futility of it, he had not insisted upon
+speaking.</p>
+
+<p>His attorney made a few feeble remarks which, because of the speaker's
+indifference and his disbelief in his client, fell without effect. The
+prosecuting attorney took but ten minutes to sum up the case, telling
+the jury that they knew their duty too well for him to attempt to
+instruct them. "But," said he, "I will add one word of your own
+convictions. These people have infested our beautiful city, sapping its
+life like a great pest. The law is nothing to them&mdash;human life less.
+There is one thing, gentlemen of the jury, of which they stand in awe,
+and it is in your hands to give them one more lesson. That one thing
+they fear is&mdash;the rope."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down amid a dense silence. The judge spoke shortly and the twelve
+jurors filed out past the stooping prisoner, who seemed to care so
+little that he did not look upon them as they went.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty minutes elapsed and the court officer announced in stentorian
+tones that the verdict had been <a class="pagenum" name="page_83" id="page_83" title="83"></a>reached. Solemnly the twelve men seated
+themselves whilst an expectant flutter passed over the room.</p>
+
+<p>Then a voice droned:</p>
+
+<p>"Prisoner, rise."</p>
+
+<p>The lumbering form painfully raised its two humps.</p>
+
+<p>"Prisoner, look upon the jury; jury, look upon the prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>The grizzled head settled itself back between the two pulsing humps; the
+steady eyes under the shaggy brows looking out for the first time in two
+days upon the row of men who hated him&mdash;all popular citizens of Ithaca.</p>
+
+<p>"Foreman, of the jury, have you found the prisoner innocent or guilty?"</p>
+
+<p>A pause, a hush; then a deliberate:</p>
+
+<p>"Guilty of murder in the first degree."</p>
+
+<p>A little higher rose the bible-back of the fisherman, lower sunk the
+large head between the deformed shoulders, like the receding head of a
+turtle, hiding itself under its shell when an enemy draws near. Skinner
+still stood with hypnotized eyes fastened on the jury; one thought in
+his mind&mdash;Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Orn Skinner," began the judge, "is there any reason why the sentence of
+this court should not be pronounced upon you in accordance with the
+law?"</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman turned his piercing eyes upon the judge, but attempted not
+to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Orn Skinner&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The judge was interrupted, there was a disturbing commotion in the back
+of the court-room. He lifted his gavel for silence, his gaze falling
+upon a dripping, shivering, red-haired girl, who raised to his face a
+pair of copper-colored eyes in which shone a <a class="pagenum" name="page_84" id="page_84" title="84"></a>soul, the magnitude of
+which the judge could not fathom with all his dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Orn Skinner," he finished, turning again to the fisherman, "twelve men
+have found you guilty of murder in the first degree. The court, then,
+passes its sentence upon you: you are to hang by the neck until you
+are&mdash;dead."</p>
+
+<p>The ponderous form of the doomed man straightened as though unafraid,
+whilst the commotion increased&mdash;Tess was madly tearing her way through
+detaining hands. Once free, she started up the aisle, the most
+ridiculous little figure ever seen in Ithaca. The red hair was in curls
+to the girl's hips&mdash;the young form covered with but a calico blouse
+confined about the waist by a piece of hemp rope. Four huge thorns held
+together the edges of a rent down the center of the skirt, which came
+just above the knees, Daddy Skinner's cowhide boots lifting themselves
+under the hem.</p>
+
+<p>Every one save him whom she loved was unseen by Tess, and everything
+unheard save the terrible sentence of death.</p>
+
+<p>The pain-puckered wrinkles settled out of the wan little face; a smile
+brightened the brown eyes and dimpled the tender twitching mouth,
+altering the woful expression&mdash;for what was the mandate of an earthly
+judge compared to the majestic promise of Heaven? the student had
+said&mdash;but her smiling eyes fell for a moment on those of Frederick
+Graves. The boy partly rose but sank back again, white to the ears, a
+picture of mental suffering. Here through the silence came a shock to
+the citizens of Ithaca. Sweet as a spring bird carolling its love song
+rose Tessibel's beautiful voice:</p>
+
+<p style='margin-left:5em'><a class="pagenum" name="page_85" id="page_85" title="85"></a>
+"Rescue the perishin'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Care for the dyin'."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>On and on up the aisle toward Daddy Skinner, forgetting or not knowing
+that she was desecrating the dignity of the honorable judge upon the
+bench, Tessibel clattered. Still no hand stayed her progress. Daddy
+Skinner was standing outside the railing, close to his attorney, guarded
+by a deputy. His fierce eyes turned at the sound of her voice, and the
+sight of his beloved snapped them shut like a vise.</p>
+
+<p>The old beard, now shaggy and unkempt, trembled, whilst a parched tongue
+licked over the lips.</p>
+
+<p>The long arms of the humpback slowly rose, and Tessibel sang herself
+into the throbbing bosom of her father.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner's great horny hand descended upon the curly head and for a
+moment the fingers of the girl tried to pry the wrinkled eyelids open.
+Her singing ceased, and she spoke&mdash;no great orator ever had a more
+intense audience.</p>
+
+<p>"It air&mdash;it air Tess, Daddy Skinner, did ye think that her&mdash;had
+forgot&mdash;and Goddy?"</p>
+
+<p>Everyone in the room heard the musical voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The jedge didn't know," Tess went on, "that God promised that ye was to
+come home with Tessibel." And then, loosening herself from the trembling
+fingers, Tess leaned toward the judge, a wealth of hair falling over
+each shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Did ye, kind, good man?"</p>
+
+<p>His Honor, fascinated by the sight, bent toward her to make sure of her
+words.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_86" id="page_86" title="86"></a></p><p>"I air Daddy's brat," she urged with a smile, "and Goddy in the sky
+said as how Daddy Skinner would come home with Tessibel ... He air to go
+with me, ain't he?"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice, raised in sudden entreaty, the long eyes filled with an
+anguished anxiety, sent a pang of pity unknown before through the heart
+of the judge.</p>
+
+<p>The audience rose as one man&mdash;only a swish and another dead silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to come, Daddy Skinner," and without waiting for any further
+consent she took her father's hand and drew him slowly through the aisle
+up which she had so lately sung her way.</p>
+
+<p>A man stepped into her path from among the spectators. Tess glanced up,
+and saw before her the lowering face of Dominie Graves. From every other
+soul in that room she had been given the bible-backed prisoner, for the
+majesty of human law had been forgotten in the appeal to the higher one.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop," shouted the pastor, determined to see the sentence of the court
+carried out. He had placed himself directly in the squatter-girl's path,
+and, turning toward the jury, flashed indignant eyes upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you all gone mad?" he demanded. "Are you going to allow a murderer
+to escape from your hands?"</p>
+
+<p>For one instant the condemned giant and the man of God scanned each
+other's faces with intensity. There was dumb pleading in the one gaze,
+and hard supremacy in the other. A spasmodic tremor ran over the
+spectators&mdash;Tess had struck a note of tragedy in the affair which had
+been overlooked by the thoughtless throng.</p>
+
+<p>The judge, startled, spoke confusedly,</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_87" id="page_87" title="87"></a></p><p>"Of course, of course," said he, "such a thing as this&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would make our city the laughing-stock of the state," put in Graves,
+his interruption of the judge passing unheeded. "Skinner, you know you
+can't leave this court with that girl&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here a small boy broke in:</p>
+
+<p>"She's the girl that twiggled her fingers at the minister."</p>
+
+<p>Dominie Graves hushed the speaker with a wave of his hand, and went on:</p>
+
+<p>"You have committed a murder, Skinner, and have been condemned to die by
+hanging."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was low and vibrant.</p>
+
+<p>"And there's no escape for you, Skinner," he finished.</p>
+
+<p>As his voice died away, Ithaca received another impetus to curiosity and
+interest. A tall man in the back row rose and came forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Graves," said the stranger solemnly, "you say that this man is to
+hang for murder. I say that he shall be given another chance for his
+life, and that he shall not hang if I can prevent it."</p>
+
+<p>Deforrest Young, the noted professor of law from the University, was
+looking at Graves. A frown gathered on the broad brow of the minister,
+and every one gasped as the professor took Tessibel's hands in his.</p>
+
+<p>"My child," and he bent lower that she might hear, for her bowed head
+was the only evidence of her grief, "Your prayers have accomplished more
+than you think. Keep on praying and pray hard, and the next time you
+come here you shall take home&mdash;your Daddy Skinner."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_88" id="page_88" title="88"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII_2868" id="CHAPTER_XII_2868"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Twenty young people had gathered for the toffy pull at Minister Graves'.
+Tess was the topic of conversation; every one was eager to talk of the
+unheard-of action in the court-room that day.</p>
+
+<p>"My mother says," chimed in a pretty girl, "that when that Skinner girl
+walked up through the court room, she sounded like a horse trotting
+along."</p>
+
+<p>"She had on a pair of man's boots, that's why," said another, "but she
+has a beautiful voice, hasn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>This question was directed to Frederick Graves.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he assented, flushing to his high-forehead line.</p>
+
+<p>"And besides a beautiful voice," broke in Richard Hall, "she has a
+mighty pretty face&mdash;and such hair! If she hadn't been crying and had so
+many people around her, I should have spoken to her. She's worth
+consoling!"</p>
+
+<p>A sharp pang of jealousy shot through Frederick's heart. That another
+should make lighter the burdens of the squatter girl filled him with
+unrest. A pleading face flashed across his vision and Tessibel's voice
+rang anew in his ears. He was living over again the moments spent in the
+cabin, and his heart thrilled at the memory of the momentary glance sent
+to him over the heads of the spectators in the crowded court-room.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_89" id="page_89" title="89"></a></p><p>Teola entered the drawing-room, turning the conversation from Tess to
+the pleasure of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Will some one help me pull the toffy?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were upon Dan Jordan&mdash;he rose quickly to his feet and followed
+the girl smilingly to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted you to help me get it ready," Teola said; coloring.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you chose me," replied Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't ask you, did I?" The beautiful head hung low over the brown
+mixture in the kettle.</p>
+
+<p>"Your eyes did," laughed Dan. "Didn't you notice that none of the other
+boys got up when you spoke." His glance filled with merriment as he went
+on: "I think, too, that I should have been a little&mdash;jealous if anyone
+else had&mdash;helped you."</p>
+
+<p>"And your hands are so strong," murmured Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"You only wanted my hands," queried the boy, trying to catch a glimpse
+of her face. "I wish you had wanted me for some other&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Teola stood with the long wooden spoon twirling in her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"I did want you for yourself, Dan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And then she stopped and nothing could be heard but the click, click,
+click, of the toffy as it snapped to and fro in the huge fingers of the
+student.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm mighty glad that I chose Cornell for my college," broke in the boy
+presently. "I thought first of going to Yale.... And you're pleased,
+too, Teola, that I came to Ithaca? Aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very glad," came the low voice distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"And I've never been so ambitious in all my life as I have since I've
+been here, and known you, and I was wondering to-day if&mdash;if&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_90" id="page_90" title="90"></a></p><p>Frederick's voice broke off the words; his big form loomed in the
+doorway before Dan could finish his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you kids finished that toffy? Better let me help, too."</p>
+
+<p>There was a noticeable tremor in Teola's voice as she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"We've finished, Frederick, and you can carry the butter and those
+plates."</p>
+
+<p>"I've something important to tell you, Teola," whispered Dan.</p>
+
+<p>The girl did not answer, but the student knew that she would listen to
+him in some future time.</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room was festooned with evergreens and winter ferns, wound
+here and there with streamers of various-colored ribbons. Two large
+lamps, one in the window, and the other on a table near the dining-room
+door, sent forth their light through red shades. Glass dishes filled
+with apples and golden oranges decorated the top of the piano and
+surrounded the lamps.</p>
+
+<p>When Dan and Teola left the kitchen, both flushed with the first
+emotions of their youthful hearts, there came to them gurgles of girlish
+laughter, intermingled now and then with the loud voice of some merry,
+happy boy.</p>
+
+<p>After two hours of strenuous toffy-pulling the tired young revellers sat
+down to plates heaped with goodies.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this juncture a ring of the door-bell pealed through the house.
+A silence fell over the company and a sound of altercation came to them
+distinctly. Suddenly the drawing-room door burst violently open and a
+spectacle, in strange contrast to the cheery scene <a class="pagenum" name="page_91" id="page_91" title="91"></a>about them, flashed
+upon the eyes of the young people. A red-haired girl, unkempt and
+dripping, wild anxiety portrayed upon her face, stood in the doorway.
+There was not the slightest embarrassment in her glance as her peculiar
+eyes traveled the lines of boys and girls, sitting round the wall. When
+at last they fell on Frederick, she took an impetuous step toward him, a
+brilliant smile lighting the wan face. Stupefaction rested upon the
+student as he recognized Tessibel Skinner.</p>
+
+<p>"It air time&mdash;to pray," said she, looking straight at him, as he slowly
+rose from his chair. "Daddy Skinner air to be took away&mdash;unless yer God
+stops the rope."</p>
+
+<p>Every word was distinct&mdash;unless God would stay the rope. The words
+repeated themselves over in the boy's brain and his face deepened in
+color. It was the beautiful faith of the wild, untaught young girl with
+the hot blood rushing in her veins that called forth the flush. His
+heart sickened with his own lack of confidence in God. He was to preach
+of a crucified Saviour, but no such faith and hope as this of Tessibel
+Skinner's would aid him. He was even now ashamed of the girl in cowhide
+boots and torn, thin skirt.</p>
+
+<p>As these thoughts floated past him, he saw the young squatter wither
+under a giggle from a girl in the corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at her feet," were the words that changed Tessibel's frankness to
+embarrassment, her eager pathos to wofulness.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel shrank close to the door, for the first time realizing how out
+of place she was.</p>
+
+<p>"I were&mdash;I were&mdash;a fool to come, but&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_92" id="page_92" title="92"></a></p><p>The earnestness of the vibrant voice, the proud, appealing young face
+moved Frederick to pity and self-reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"It was right&mdash;you should have come," said he, gently taking her hands,
+"and no one dare question your privilege to ask a prayer for your
+father."</p>
+
+<p>Still retaining her fingers in his, he turned, explaining:</p>
+
+<p>"This is Miss Skinner whose father is suffering now from a stroke of the
+law. We, who have fathers and mothers whom we love, must wish her well."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel sank down, down, among her boots and rags, his words reducing
+her to tears. Teola came to her brother's side. She had never before
+been actually in the presence of a squatter, for, when they had brought
+fish and berries to the back door, her mother had always ordered the
+children to the front of the house; but now, filled with sympathy she
+stooped down and placed her hand upon Tessibel's head. The touch was so
+gentle that the fishermaid lifted her eyes to see who sorrowed with her.</p>
+
+<p>The squatter covered the white fingers with tears and kisses. Then she
+struggled to her feet, the nails in Daddy's boots scraping the polished
+floor, making long white marks. To Tessibel there were no other persons
+in the room save Frederick and his beautiful sister. She made a queer
+upward movement with her head, wiping the tears away with the tattered
+sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"I was afeared ye'd forget Daddy Skinner," she murmured. "The big man
+from the hill said like you did. And I says it air prayin' time and I
+comed."</p>
+
+<p>She had forgotten the tears of a few minutes before, forgotten that
+twenty pairs of searching youthful eyes <a class="pagenum" name="page_93" id="page_93" title="93"></a>watched her every movement and
+mentally criticized her, from the masses of long hair to the rock-torn
+boots on her feet. She only remembered the student&mdash;that he was smiling
+into her eyes, and that, his sister, too, Teola Graves, had sympathized
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>With a radiant, grateful smile, she turned to go, the door opening under
+her eager grasp. It was here that Dan Jordan spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Won't Miss Skinner have some coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel looked at him with an incredulous glance. He, too, had come
+forward and stood with his kindly gray eyes fixed upon her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, of course," hurriedly put in Teola, "pardon me&mdash;I forgot....
+You shall have my cup.... Here, Tessibel! I may call you that, mayn't I?
+Please drink some of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Teola held the cup invitingly to the shivering lips, and Tessibel
+swallowed it down in one gulp.</p>
+
+<p>"I air goin' now," she said desperately, wiping away coffee drops that
+lingered upon her face, "and ye ain't goin' to forget?"</p>
+
+<p>This last was to Frederick, and he shook his head emphatically. He would
+not forget again; he would make the girl's father a special medium to
+establish a line of faith between the God he professed to love and
+himself&mdash;the quality of which should be no less than the one that
+Tessibel had cultivated during her weary weeks of waiting.</p>
+
+<p>No thought entered anyone's mind of asking the girl if she were afraid
+of the dark night&mdash;she seemed so much a part of the darkness, of the
+falling snow and thrashing trees, that she was allowed to depart without
+a <a class="pagenum" name="page_94" id="page_94" title="94"></a>question. As he stood on the Rectory steps, the clicking of the big
+boots came to Frederick long after the slender form had disappeared from
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>After that the party broke up, for the merriment had died in Tessibel's
+grief. An impression had been made upon the thoughtless boys and girls,
+and a shadow rested on each face as they bade "good-night" to their
+young hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"She's the prettiest girl I ever saw," confided Teola to Frederick
+afterward; "her eyes are the color of a marigold."</p>
+
+<p>In her heart Teola was glad that she had gone to the squatter in
+sympathy, for, upon leaving, Dan Jordan had whispered words that had
+burned deep into her soul:</p>
+
+<p>"You are an angel, Teola <i>dear</i>, and I&mdash;love&mdash;you."</p>
+
+<p>For one instant the tall student had bent his head, laying his lips upon
+hers&mdash;and had gone without another word.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_95" id="page_95" title="95"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII_3100" id="CHAPTER_XIII_3100"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last day of the trial was so different from that of Tessibel's
+dreams! Again she must cross the dark Hoghole trestle alone on her way
+to the hut. But the singing in her heart when she left the Rectory took
+away the pain of her loneliness. Frederick Graves had said that she had
+done right in coming to him and asking prayers for "Daddy Skinner." Her
+faith in the student carried her above the material things of the earth,
+more than her absolute faith in God, for like women, Tessibel lived and
+had faith through the man of her choice.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly midnight when she passed Kennedy's wheat field in which
+capered Pete, the brindle bulldog. She called to him softly, pronouncing
+his name twice in loving resonance, which brought a low, pleased howl
+from the coarse throat of the dog. But the exhausted squatter-girl did
+not wait to touch the long, red tongue as Pete thrust his nose through
+the fence. She passed quickly down the lane to her father's hut. Turning
+the corner of the mud cellar, she saw dimly a man's form leaning against
+the shanty door. Her eyes were accustomed to marking correctly through
+the darkness, and it took Tess but a moment to ascertain that the
+lounging figure was Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant, the first real fear she had ever felt swept over her and
+she drew back into the shadows. As <a class="pagenum" name="page_96" id="page_96" title="96"></a>a child she had fled from this man
+because he tantalized her; as a woman she dreaded him more than any
+reptile that came from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The man, hearing footsteps, raised his head; the silence continuing, he
+dropped it again, thinking he had been mistaken, and resumed his former
+position of waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel wondered if she should go bravely forward&mdash;insist that the
+shanty was hers, and that he should go away. The mud cellar was between
+her and the waiting man, and as she peered closer to see if Ben were
+still there one brilliant tangle of hair fell over her shoulder. Ben
+Letts caught the movement and Tessibel knew it.</p>
+
+<p>Alert as a young deer, she turned and fled back up the lane. Daddy's
+boots impeded her speed and one after the other she kicked them off. She
+could hear the man running after her, shouting his rage into her
+tingling ears. He was gaining upon the girl and commanded her to stop.</p>
+
+<p>"If I get my claws on ye once," he growled, "it'll be bad for ye."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel heard and flew faster. There was no one to help her and her
+only salvation lay in her own two sturdy little legs and bruised feet.
+She reached the tracks but did not dare run the ties&mdash;she might trip in
+the darkness, and nothing could save her from her enemy. Her eyes,
+strained with convulsive fright, lifted one moment to the sky, and her
+glance fell directly upon the giant pine whose branches formed the image
+of her fantastic God. Her lips fell apart with a gasp&mdash;she fancied her
+Deity sent her an assurance of aid.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_97" id="page_97" title="97"></a></p><p>"Goddy&mdash;Goddy," was her petition, "for the love of yer Christ ... and
+the student."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly out upon the air rang the voice of one of Tessibel's friends.
+The brindle bulldog from Kennedy's farm had heard the unequal race. With
+short tail raised, his fat neck bristling with stubby hair, he started
+for the tracks, as Tess did for the fence when she heard his growl. As
+the girl came on and on, the dog bounded along the ground toward her.
+Tess opened her lips and spoke sharply&mdash;and a pleased bark came in
+response.</p>
+
+<p>God had heard and answered her. One wild leap in the air, and the sound
+of tearing clothes as her already tattered skirt came in contact with
+the barbed wire&mdash;and Tess was crouching down in the safe-keeping of the
+brindle bull. The dog whirled frantically around, licking her face. Fear
+weakened her tongue&mdash;she could not speak&mdash;only little spasmodic sobs
+burst from the parted lips. She caught the huge dog to her breast and
+waited.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts was on the tracks; she could hear his big chest heaving with
+fast-coming breath. He halted on the other side of the fence.</p>
+
+<p>Pete scented an enemy and straightened out his strong muscles like whip
+cords, a hoarse growl coming from between his jaws.</p>
+
+<p>Ben leaned over the fence with an oath.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'd better come away from him," he grunted threateningly. "Ye air
+thinking the brute can save ye&mdash;but I'll put a bullet through his pate."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel knew that the man had no rifle with him; and by the time he
+could get one she and the dog would <a class="pagenum" name="page_98" id="page_98" title="98"></a>be far away. Her mind worked fast
+under the pressure.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want, Ben Letts?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I just wanted to talk to yer," wheedled the man. "Come over the fence,
+will ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can talk to me here," sullenly replied Tess. "I don't want to hear
+none of yer dum gab."</p>
+
+<p>"It air somethin' nice&mdash;it air candy," feigned Ben. Then the tones
+hardened in the coarse voice, and he ended:</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can't stay always with the brute."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night I can, and in the day I ain't afeared&mdash;I don't want no candy."</p>
+
+<p>The brindle bulldog lifted his head again and sent a low snarl in the
+direction of the fisherman&mdash;Ben in his rage had come too close to the
+fence. The animal's warning sent him back. Months before, Pete had
+buried his teeth in the man's hand and Ben would bear the marks to his
+grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye go home, Ben Letts," insisted Tess. "Ye ain't no business here. Go
+home to yer mammy."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a-goin' to stay, just the same," rejoined Ben, sitting down upon
+the tracks.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel wound her arms around the dog's neck, banking the red curls
+under her cheek for a pillow. It was good to rest with her friend.
+Between the fence wires she could see the branches of the pine tree, its
+shadowy arms creating odd figures across the light streaks in the sky.
+What a wonderful being the student's God was! He had listened to the cry
+of a squatter and had saved her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yer daddy ain't a-comin' home," Ben Letts broke in upon her
+meditations.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_99" id="page_99" title="99"></a></p><p>"He air," retorted Tess. "He air the nextest time I go for him."</p>
+
+<p>"It air a lie," insisted the fisherman, "ye comes with me to the
+minister and I'll make yer an hones' woman. Ye'll have to cut that mop
+and settle down like a woman should. Do ye hear?... Tessibel, I says an
+hones' woman!"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel shifted her head from Pete's neck and sat up.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye says as how&mdash;ye and&mdash;me&mdash;will go to the minister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"And we air to be&mdash;married ... eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"How about&mdash;the&mdash;brat&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;and Satisfied's girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Myra's secret had slipped from her. Ben's silence invited her to
+proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yer brat air sick to his grave, he air," said she mournfully, a tear
+settling in her voice, making its sweetness rough, "and Myry air a-dyin'
+of a broken heart.... If yer wants to make an hones' woman, make her
+one, that air what I says, I does. And ye broke her arm on the ragged
+rocks! Ye did! And then yer comes&mdash;and talks about bein' hones'," the
+musical voice rose to a cry. "Ye can't make a woman hones' for ye ain't
+hones' yerself."</p>
+
+<p>Without a sound Ben rose from the tracks, reached for a stone and
+whirled it through the fence at Tessibel. The stone missed her, but
+struck the dog. Trembling with rage, Pete lifted his great body with a
+low, vicious growl.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel sprang from the ground, whilst another stone hurtled through
+the air, catching her curls in its flight. <a class="pagenum" name="page_100" id="page_100" title="100"></a>Then she lifted the lower
+wire of the barbed fence. Pete crouched, and wiggled his flattened body
+through. Ben hadn't expected this&mdash;he turned and ran. The skurrying legs
+of the dog carried him quickly on after the fisherman. While Ben,
+screeching like a great night owl, hooted out his fear of the maddened
+dog, and yelled for Tess to call him off.</p>
+
+<p>The girl did not speak, only waited, waited until a louder cry from the
+hunted man assured her that Pete had gripped him. Tessibel scarcely
+dared breathe; her friend, God's earthly instrument, sent to save her,
+and her mortal enemy were in deadly combat.</p>
+
+<p>Ben's cries had ceased, but the listening girl could hear the two bodies
+as they turned over and over beyond on the tracks&mdash;and rolled into the
+ditch. Her feet were nearly frozen but she gathered them under her skirt
+and dumbly waited.</p>
+
+<p>Then came no sound&mdash;there was nothing but a deathly silence in the dim
+shadows near the land.</p>
+
+<p>Would she ever see either Ben or the dog again? There was no danger that
+Pete would&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ben," she called loudly, leaning over the fence. No answer came from
+the deep trench by the railroad bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Pete, Pete, come to Tessibel, come to Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>Out of the blackness came the dog, his head hanging low, the angry
+sparkle in his eyes quenched.</p>
+
+<p>Tess raised the wire once more for Pete's body to wriggle under. The
+girl shouted anxiously for Ben but no answer came to her call.</p>
+
+<p>Crouching beside Pete, Tessibel reasoned out a way of escape: if she
+took the brindle bulldog to the hut with her, she would be safe from Ben
+were he lurking about. <a class="pagenum" name="page_101" id="page_101" title="101"></a>She propped the lower wire of the fence high
+with a stick so that Pete could reach Kennedy's barn on the hill again
+when she sent him home. Together the girl and the bristling Pete slid
+silently to the railroad tracks, Tessibel holding tightly to the dog's
+collar. Some fifty feet beyond he twisted his heavy neck, set forth his
+huge jaw, and refused to move.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the track was a long dark object&mdash;it was undeniably,
+unquestionably quiet. Tess tugged at the dog's collar and dragged him
+resisting from the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Down the lane ran the squatter and the dog with no pause save to pick up
+the cowhide boots from the side of the path, where Tess had cast them in
+the mad race. She clasped the head of Pete as she opened the hut door.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can come in, too, Pete," she whispered, lifting the ugly head, "and
+go home in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel locked the door, but did not light a candle. Slipping her wet
+clothes to the floor, she crawled into Daddy's bed, and with the
+forgetfulness of youth sank into a sleep.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_102" id="page_102" title="102"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV_3327" id="CHAPTER_XIV_3327"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next morning after her encounter with Ben Letts, Tess sat up in bed,
+wondering what had happened. Then she remembered. One slant ray of sun
+breaking through the dirty curtain showed that the day was far advanced.
+She jumped out of bed, opened the door and allowed Pete to scamper away.</p>
+
+<p>After kindling a fire and frying a fish, she sat down to eat.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a knock on the door startled her. Ben might return even after
+his lesson of the night before. Without unclasping the lock, she called
+out:</p>
+
+<p>"Who air it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It air me, Tessibel. Open the door.&mdash;It air Myry!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess flung open the door with a smile. She drew back, seeing Myra's
+seamed face, white and drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be sick, Myry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope!"</p>
+
+<p>"Air it the brat, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, it air Ben Letts. He were hurt by the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's
+Farm. Ezy and 'Satisfied' found him near dead on the tracks and took him
+home."</p>
+
+<p>Tess stood waiting, wide-eyed, without a word.</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't say nothin' about it," complained Myry; "just says that he
+air goin' to get even with some one."</p>
+
+<p>"Have ye seen him?" stammered Tess.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_103" id="page_103" title="103"></a></p><p>"Yep, this mornin' in his shanty. He were cut bad. They got the horse
+doctor to sew him up. He air sick, Ben air!"</p>
+
+<p>"And the brat," demanded Tess, changing the subject purposely.</p>
+
+<p>"Sick the hours through," replied Myra bitterly. "He hes got the
+pitifullest cry that breaks my heart all the time. But he ain't so sick
+as his pappy."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts ain't a-goin' to die, air he?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's woful expression caused Myra to shake her head emphatically,
+her thin lips twitching, then tightening under the nervous strain.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, he ain't, but he air goin' to be sick a long time. He air the
+brat's pa, and I want to do somethin' for him."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air wantin' to see ye, Tessibel. Will ye go to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," Tess burst forth spontaneously.</p>
+
+<p>Myra looked at her curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't amountin' to much," she ventured, "but he air a pappy&mdash;that
+air somethin', ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," mused Tessibel. "A daddy air more than a mammy."</p>
+
+<p>So had Tessibel and Myra been brought up to believe. The squatter women
+fawned at the feet of their brutal husbands, as a beaten dog cringes to
+its master. That Ben Letts had broken Myra's arm on the ragged rocks,
+and yet the girl wanted to aid him, showed Tess the superiority of the
+male sex, and Myra loved the squint-eyed fisherman, she evidenced it in
+every action.</p>
+
+<p>The lips of the younger squatter were sealed about the trail which she
+herself had laid in the midnight <a class="pagenum" name="page_104" id="page_104" title="104"></a>tragedy. But through the tender young
+heart flashed the hope that the experience with the dog would cause Ben
+Letts to turn his face toward the wretched, shrunken creature, who had
+suffered so much through him. She contemplated Myra an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Do ye want me to see him?" she asked, rising.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," replied Myra, the dull eyes filled with a momentary sparkle. "He
+hes somethin' to say to ye, and I did say as how ye would come."</p>
+
+<p>"Air he alone?" questioned Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, his mammy air with him&mdash;we'll go now&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Slipping on Daddy's boots was Tessibel's assent, and they started
+through the underbrush in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"The brat ain't goin' to die, air he?" asked Tess presently.</p>
+
+<p>It had been several days since she had seen Myra's little son. The
+troubles of Daddy Skinner had taken up every moment of her time.</p>
+
+<p>"Mebbe," grunted Myra unemotionally; "he howls like a sick pup from
+mornin' till night."</p>
+
+<p>"I air a goin' home with ye, Myry," assured Tessibel; "he won't yap when
+I sings to him."</p>
+
+<p>The lake had risen over the strip of beach, its waters freezing against
+the rocks. This forced the girls to take the path through the wood to
+the hill beyond. Until they came in sight of Ben Letts' cabin, they said
+no more.</p>
+
+<p>At their knock Ben's mother softly opened the door. Her shaggy gray hair
+had not been combed and her fierce old eyes glowed with agony unsoftened
+by tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben air too sick to get up," she explained awkwardly, presenting each
+girl a chair, "I said as how ye <a class="pagenum" name="page_105" id="page_105" title="105"></a>couldn't come, Tessibel, but Ben said
+Myry were to bring ye."</p>
+
+<p>From the back room came the sound of belabored breathing and a hoarse
+voice called for Tessibel. The squatter girl rose to her feet, her color
+changing from red to white. The thought of the fisherman with his
+dog-bitten face was repulsive to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be goin' in with me to see him, ain't ye, Myry?" The brown eyes
+entreated that she should not be sent to Ben Letts alone.</p>
+
+<p>Myra Longman shook her head. She knew that the brat's pa did not want to
+see her, and again she shook her head as Tessibel waited.</p>
+
+<p>"He air been askin' all the mornin' for ye, Tess," urged Mrs. Letts,
+"Ben ain't no likin' for Myry, Ben ain't!"</p>
+
+<p>A dull red flush crimsoned Myra Longman's face. She watched Tess
+enviously as the girl tiptoed through the doorway and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts was stretched out on the rope cot, his massive head and thick
+neck swathed in bandages. Two huge hands, with patches of plaster here
+and there lay outside the red Indian blanket. The swollen upper lid was
+tightly pressed over his blind eye, the squint one slowly opening at
+Tessibel's entrance.</p>
+
+<p>She looked down upon the bandaged face but for a moment; neither of them
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I see ye comes," Ben broke in at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I's here ... What do ye want?"</p>
+
+<p>A drop of salt water oozed from the weak eye; Ben moved his head as if
+in pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Sop up the tear with the rag, will ye, Tess?" he grunted. "It air
+burnin' like hell fire."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_106" id="page_106" title="106"></a></p><p>Tessibel took the soiled cloth in her fingers, and not too lightly did
+as Ben bade her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye didn't tell Myry how I comed sick, did ye?" asked Ben, settling his
+head back upon the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Tess gave a negative gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Er no one else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be a pert girl, Tessibel, and I were a cuss for trying to scare
+ye&mdash;but the brindle bull has got to die."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, he ain't got to die," frowned Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"When I gets up he eats what I gives him," assured Ben. "He has to die,
+I says, I does.... But ye be a pert gal, Tess."</p>
+
+<p>Ben moved his head to bring the girl within the vision of his one eye.</p>
+
+<p>"What be ye wantin' with me?" Tess muttered. "I wants to go home."</p>
+
+<p>She saw another tear roll down the plastered cheek, and repeated her
+operation with the rag.</p>
+
+<p>"What do ye want?" she demanded again.</p>
+
+<p>"To tell ye thet I air a goin' to make an hones' woman of ye. I's a
+goin' to marry ye. I knows I's a pappy, but the brat'll die, and he'll
+be forgot like yer daddy will!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess instantly froze into a white, tense little form. She did not follow
+the fisherman's glance as he motioned her to take up the cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"I's a tellin' yer mammy to wipe yer old eye," she said pettishly. "I
+ain't got no notion of bein' an hones' woman ... I hates yer like I
+hates Ezry Longman."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_107" id="page_107" title="107"></a></p><p>She wheeled to go out, but the man stayed her with a grunt.</p>
+
+<p>"I's to be sick for a long time," exclaimed he, "and mammy will step to
+the grave most any day ... I wants pert fingers to put the plasters on
+my cuts."</p>
+
+<p>Here he groaned and fought for the cloth, the salt tears scorching the
+rents in the skin as they rolled hot from the red eye and soaked into
+the plasters. The squatter girl mechanically wiped away the tears,
+turning again.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry air pert," she said, halting in the door. "She air more than
+that&mdash;her fingers air lovin' ones. These," and she held up her two brown
+hands, "would be hurtin' ye, cause I hates ye so."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Tessibel and Myra walked away from Ben's hut in silence, up the ragged
+rocks to the Longman shanty.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben were askin' to marry yer, Tess, weren't he?" demanded Myra as they
+approached the door.</p>
+
+<p>Tess nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Were he sayin' as how ye could take care of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Be ye goin' to?" The intense longing and misery in her voice made Tess
+gasp:</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, he air too mean a cuss to live. If he air the brat's pa, let the
+brat's ma take care of him. The brat air a good little devil."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Longman was moving about in the loft overhead when the two girls
+entered the shanty.</p>
+
+<p>Tess went to the wooden box and looked down upon the small, pinched face
+of the sleeping infant. The babe had worn out his little lungs,
+screeching in his pain, the small faded eyes rolling backward as he
+slept.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_108" id="page_108" title="108"></a></p><p>The young mother came quietly to the side of her Squatter friend.</p>
+
+<p>"If the brat dies," she began in a low, tense tone, "be ye goin' to
+marry Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, I ain't never goin' to marry nobody!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, ye will, when ye gets done bein' a baby!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess drew her eyes from the dozing infant and glanced at Myra.</p>
+
+<p>"I wants a Bible," said she deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>"What for?"</p>
+
+<p>"To read out of!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can ye read?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, not much, but I can spell out words, and write a bit. And the
+Bible says as how, if ye seeks, ye'll find what ye seeks."</p>
+
+<p>The shining eyes were sending a truthful message into the heart of the
+young mother.</p>
+
+<p>"That ain't nothin' to do with Ben Letts," muttered Myra.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, it air," insisted Tess. "It says what ye seeks ye find. Ain't ye
+seekin' Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knows where he air already," sullenly replied Myra.</p>
+
+<p>"But ye can seek his lovin's, can't ye?... I's a seekin' Daddy&mdash;and
+somethin' else."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be readin' and writin' like&mdash;like the minister's gal does. I air
+a-seekin' it every day!"</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess flushed. She could not tell Myra of the long bearded God in the
+pine tree, nor of the stumbling prayers she had repeated night after
+night. Myra understood that she could sing, so Tess said laconically:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_109" id="page_109" title="109"></a></p><p>"I sings for it sometimes, and that air a seekin'."</p>
+
+<p>Myra grunted.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't sing," and she frowned.</p>
+
+<p>The babe whined in the cradle and Tessibel took him up. The glorious
+voice hushed the child to sleep, Myra Longman bitterly scanning the
+beautiful face. There were only two years between her and Tessibel, and
+her own poor, ghastly wrinkled face looked years older. If she were only
+pretty, Ben might love her. Tess had the splendid vigor of healthy
+youth&mdash;Myra, the worn-out complexion of a bad digestion. Beans and bacon
+had made the one beautiful&mdash;and destroyed the other.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Myra leaned over with a new expression in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, I tries to seek Ben Letts and his lovin's for me and the
+brat."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel placed the small boy in the box, then she and Myra obeyed Mrs.
+Longman's fretful demand that they draw up and eat.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_110" id="page_110" title="110"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV_3639" id="CHAPTER_XV_3639"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>That evening Minister Graves came blustering in after his family were
+seated at the table. What was this ridiculous thing that he had heard?
+His home disgraced, his position ruined, his children ostracized. He
+glanced at Teola and Frederick. His wife, fastening Babe's napkin under
+the child's chin, remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, father, what's the trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was making a clerical call on Mrs. Robman to-day," fumed the Dominie,
+"and that girl of hers, and a saucy one she is, too, burst into the
+room, and, mother, what tale do you think she told&mdash;before us?"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick glanced at his sister, but Teola's eyes were upon her empty
+plate. Mrs. Graves shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"That that Skinner girl came here last night and in all her rags and
+filth drank coffee from our daughter's cup! Madame, did you ever imagine
+that such a disgrace could fall upon you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Graves looked helplessly from her husband's distorted face to her
+son and daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"She came into your home," went on the minister, "and was asked to take
+refreshments from your cups. Mrs. Robman said that she disliked to think
+that such degraded guests were allowed in your home.... Do you
+understand what that means, Mrs. Graves?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let Frederick explain, father," pleaded the trembling <a class="pagenum" name="page_111" id="page_111" title="111"></a>wife; "he was
+going to speak and you stopped him. What and how did it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"The girl came to the Rectory to ask prayers for her father," said
+Frederick, an expression darkening his eyes which his mother dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>"Prayers ... prayers!" roared the minister, "Prayers for a squatter and
+a murderer!... And drinking coffee from your cups. Such a disgrace can
+never be lifted from this house."</p>
+
+<p>"What hurt did she do?" irreverently asked Babe. Frederick was thankful
+for the child's frank question.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurt? Harm, you mean. If she should just hurt a person that could be
+mended. Harm was what she did!"</p>
+
+<p>"What harm?" persisted Babe.</p>
+
+<p>"Madam, you see your children are all growing up like heathens. There
+arn't any of the parents whose sons and daughters were here last night,
+who won't think a long time before they allow them to come again. You
+understand, don't you, that that squatter covered with germs of all
+kinds drank from your daughter's cup."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Graves started preceptibly. She was noted for a fear of germs.</p>
+
+<p>"Teola, your mouth must be scoured with peroxide ... Oh, if some one
+would only tell me how it all happened!"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick rose from his chair and impulsively laid his hand on his
+mother's shoulder. To Teola he looked so tall and strong, so capable of
+explaining, that she rose, too.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you mother," said the student. "The <a class="pagenum" name="page_112" id="page_112" title="112"></a>girl was in distress.
+In some way she had been led to believe that prayers, effective prayers,
+could bring about any desired result. She simply came to ask us to pray
+for her father."</p>
+
+<p>Teola was by his side now, reassuringly pressing his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"And where would she go," she broke in suddenly, "if not to a minister's
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>The pastor's whole family, at least the members that had been
+submissive&mdash;for Babe had always challenged her father's commands&mdash;was
+rising against him. His wife, instead of taking her willful children to
+task, was weeping; his son and daughter stood beside her refuting every
+word he said. He brought down his hand with a bang, his eyes narrowing
+into a slit.</p>
+
+<p>"You will every one do as I say," he cried. "Frederick, you are to stay
+away from classes for two days, your professors knowing that you have
+disobeyed your father. If your fellow students ask you why you are
+absent, you must tell them what I have said. And, you, Teola&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick stopped the rush of words.</p>
+
+<p>"If I stay away from college two days," he said in a low tone, so
+deliberate that every word burned into the mother's brain, "I shall
+never go back again. I am no longer a child and I won't be punished. And
+what is more, I shall leave your home forever. You may take your choice,
+father, but not until I make another statement. The girl from the lake
+asked me to pray for her. That is my intention, and I shall do more if
+possible. I shall use every bit of influence I have to aid her father to
+escape hanging.... Also, if you punish Teola, you will never see me
+again."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_113" id="page_113" title="113"></a></p><p>Mrs. Graves had risen from her chair. She walked straight to her
+son&mdash;placed her hand upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick, you wouldn't leave your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>The strong arm pressed about the wearied little form reassuringly.</p>
+
+<p>"And you can bet, papa Graves," put in Babe, "that I'll go with mamma
+any old day, that's what I will."</p>
+
+<p>Teola stood irresolutely, looking first at Frederick, then at her
+father. She went toward the minister and almost whispered,</p>
+
+<p>"Father, let me speak! The girl came without having been invited by
+anyone, and she did not stay five minutes. She was drenched through, and
+cold ... I gave her my cup of coffee, and she stated her errand and went
+away."</p>
+
+<p>The minister rose, leaving his supper untouched, put on his overcoat,
+not one remonstrating word coming from his family, and went out.</p>
+
+<p>Pastor Graves made his way up the town through the main street to Bates'
+drug-store, his hunger having died in his anger and amazement.</p>
+
+<p>He was positive that he could have brought his children to terms, had
+not their mother taken sides with them. His thoughts went back to the
+early days of his married life when nothing had disturbed their peace;
+the children obeyed, and Mrs. Graves thought her husband's word the
+essence of all law.</p>
+
+<p>He turned into the drug-store in the middle of the block. Here met,
+nearly every evening, the head ones of his flock for a little while to
+talk over religion and <a class="pagenum" name="page_114" id="page_114" title="114"></a>politics. Outsiders called it the "Amen Corner"
+of Ithaca.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," exclaimed the druggist, "you're early, Graves. Must have had your
+supper at the going down of the sun."</p>
+
+<p>Graves coughed his embarrassment and sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"Feeling sick, Elias?"</p>
+
+<p>The druggist opened the door for a child to pass out.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not ill, only disgusted with the world in general."</p>
+
+<p>"Skinner's girl coming to the court went against your notions, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"And every one else's with any sense," snapped Graves.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Young stopped in here to-day on his way up the hill," resumed
+Bates, "he had been over to the jail, talking to Skinner, and he says
+that the man will be murdered if the state hangs him."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all Young knows about it," growled the minister. "You and I know
+these people, Bates, better then Young does, and Skinner's word isn't
+worth the powder to blow it up with."</p>
+
+<p>Bates took his accustomary position on the book-keeper's stool and
+spread his long hands out on his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the professor says," he went on, "that Skinner can prove that he
+didn't use the gun."</p>
+
+<p>"How can he prove it?" asked Graves sharply, "only by the oaths of men
+with no more veracity than he has. I wouldn't believe one of those
+squatters if he used the sacred oath twenty times over."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe the next jury will think differently," argued the druggist.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_115" id="page_115" title="115"></a></p><p>"Bigger fools they then," interrupted Graves. "I don't know what the
+town is coming to if the fishermen can shoot down our officials without
+even remonstrance. I'll tell you what, Bates, there'll be a city war
+over Skinner. Let Young take up the cudgel, and I'll see what the church
+can do. There's power in the pulpit, I can tell you that."</p>
+
+<p>Bates agreed to this.</p>
+
+<p>"If the citizens of this city," continued the minister, encouraged by
+the evident acquiescence of the druggist, "should take this matter up as
+a body, ten men like Young couldn't bring about Skinner's acquittal."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure," muttered Bates.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure," insisted Graves strenuously, "very sure, for, if to a man
+every one is ready to do his duty, what kind of a jury could they have?
+Like yesterday's&mdash;conviction, swift and sure."</p>
+
+<p>"But" objected the druggist, "a juror who takes his oath in a murder
+case, must know little or nothing of it. Men would not be accepted if
+for a week or month they had listened to combative sermons against the
+prisoner. And you certainly wouldn't have a juror perjure himself, would
+you, Graves?"</p>
+
+<p>"The district attorney is no fool," replied the minister, softening his
+argument under the shocked expression of Bates; "he knows when the state
+is to be benefited by the outcome of a trial. He can leave off certain
+questions; it has been done."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," interrupted Bates. "But&mdash;it seems hardly fair."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door opened, and Silas Jones, the richest man in the town,
+took his seat with the other two "Ameners." The fascinating subject of
+the day, the <a class="pagenum" name="page_116" id="page_116" title="116"></a>unusualness of the squatter trial and the girl with the
+singing voice, continued to be the topic of conversation. Minister
+Graves' family, in standing out against him in a matter so near his
+heart, only strengthened his desire to see the end as he wished it to
+be&mdash;the sentence of yesterday executed against the fisherman without
+another trial.</p>
+
+<p>"Young lost his senses to-day, don't you think so, Silas?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," drawled Jones, "if Skinner didn't commit willful murder, I'd
+hate to see him hang. It wouldn't do any harm as I see to give him
+another chance."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll change your mind in church next Sunday," commented the parson.
+"I'm going to show every man his duty clear and plain."</p>
+
+<p>He brought down his hand upon his knee with an egotistical slap.</p>
+
+<p>"All folks don't think the same way you do, Dominie," persisted Jones.
+"Now then, Bill Hopkins of the toggery shop, he don't believe in women
+speakin' in meetin'."</p>
+
+<p>The minister distinctly remembered this. More than once had he taken the
+delinquent Bill Hopkins to task for taking his letter to another church,
+but Bill could not be induced to return, because the creed had not been
+followed by its members, nor enforced by the shepherd of the flock.</p>
+
+<p>Hopkins was the best-read man in the whole county, and his voice went
+far when he spoke, but for over a year his place among the "Ameners" had
+been vacant&mdash;also his pew in Graves' church. The Dominie needed such men
+as Bill in his congregation if he would win his fight against the
+squatters. These thoughts were prominent <a class="pagenum" name="page_117" id="page_117" title="117"></a>in his mind when the door
+admitted a great gust of wind&mdash;and the famous Bill Hopkins. The parson
+caught his breath. Bill spoke a genial good-evening, shook hands around,
+and bought a small bottle of witch-hazel, some camphor, and was about to
+leave, when Graves ejaculated:</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Bill."</p>
+
+<p>Bill sat down, took his hat from his bald head, and placed his fingers
+complacently around a smooth white wart on his cranium, and waited.</p>
+
+<p>He looked questioningly at the rich man, and the druggist with the
+wide-spread hands. The church subject had been thrashed out long
+ago&mdash;the women of the congregation gaining the day in spite of the
+august presence of some of the deacons, who openly declared that the
+female portion of the church was unbecomingly usurping the authority of
+the men. Because of this flagrant disobedience of the church's creed,
+Bill Hopkins had taken his name from the roll, and was known to have
+said that he would not be led by a shepherd who could not order his
+flock. To-night he smacked his lips for the coming argument while the
+minister, glad to have him among them again, felt his hopes rise higher.</p>
+
+<p>Bates flattened his hands with delight, noticing a smile that drew down
+the corners of Jones' lips. Long ago the pleasant religious argument of
+Ithaca's "Amen" corner had become a thing of the past, because of the
+absence of Bill Hopkins. He had been the zest of the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>The Dominie, forgetting his grievance of the supper table, straightened
+himself for the combat. He had suddenly conceived a plan whereby he
+could gain a <a class="pagenum" name="page_118" id="page_118" title="118"></a>friend to aid him in the coming squatter fight. Bill
+Hopkins still waited with a quizzical expression in his shaggy-browed
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Strange happenings in town for a few days past," said Graves.</p>
+
+<p>"The Skinner case?" asked Bill, rubbing gently the smooth white wart.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," assented the minister. "What do you think of it all, Bill?"</p>
+
+<p>"The girl's a brick," commented Hopkins&mdash;and sank into silence.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl's not being tried for murder," rebuked the minister sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"But she played her part with feelin' and power," was the drawling
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>The clergyman saw a flitting expression of triumph in the druggist's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"She'd make a capital actress," ruminated Graves.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at the rich man to see if he coincided with him, but that
+gentleman was looking into the street.</p>
+
+<p>"We all act in this world," excused Bill; "even you ministers use
+methods that you have found in elocution to bring your beliefs to bear
+upon your congregations."</p>
+
+<p>Graves did not relish being classed with the squatter's child, but he
+made no comment upon it. He changed his tactics.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill," said he, "have you altered your ideas about the church?"</p>
+
+<p>"What ideas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, about women having the privilege of speaking in meetings."</p>
+
+<p>Bill shook his head, and Graves resumed:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_119" id="page_119" title="119"></a></p><p>"Well, I'm changing my mind ... I'm going to stop this nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>The rich man sat up and the druggist, scenting a religious rumpus, drew
+his stool nearer. Bill coughed loudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Those women," continued Graves, "have had their own way too long ... I
+shall put a stop to it immediately."</p>
+
+<p>Bill Hopkins wondered what was coming. It behooved him to wait and see;
+so he settled back with his head bowed and his piercing eyes directed
+steadily upon the pastor. A dark flush mounted to the minister's face.
+He had expected that such condescension to an ex-member would be
+received with enthusiasm. As no other of the "Ameners" offered a word,
+Graves continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Next thing that we know, the women will be coming into the church with
+uncovered heads. I wonder I've stood it so long."</p>
+
+<p>Still Bill did not speak. He could remember that when the dispute had
+been at its height these had not been the sentiments of Pastor Graves.
+In fact, when a delegation had gone to the parsonage to demand obedience
+to the constitution of the church, the Dominie had replied that the
+ladies had come out victorious in the matter, and that it was an
+old-fashioned idea to forbid the women to speak or pray in public if
+they so wished; and the crest-fallen delegates had gone away from the
+rectory, and Bill Hopkins, with several others, from the church.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that not one of the respectable "Ameners" was going to help him,
+the Dominie sputtered out his wrath in another direction.</p>
+
+<p>"If Young had kept his hands off that Skinner business, <a class="pagenum" name="page_120" id="page_120" title="120"></a>there wouldn't
+have been the slightest chance of the fisherman winning out."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! here's where the shoe pinches," thought Hopkins; "the parson needs
+help to wrest Skinner's squatter rights from him."</p>
+
+<p>But he did not voice his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's right, Dominie," were his spoken words. "Skinner didn't
+have many friends in the court until that girl came in. She certainly
+did make a change in the ideas of most people in this town."</p>
+
+<p>"Fools! to let a child like that break up the dignity of a court-room."
+Graves settled back angrily in his chair. He had lost in the game he was
+about to play with Bill Hopkins&mdash;lost before the game had begun.</p>
+
+<p>"Skinner can thank his kid for his life, nevertheless," interjected
+Jones, "for another jury will never convict him.</p>
+
+<p>"Think not?" queried the druggist.</p>
+
+<p>Bates' question remained unanswered, for Dominie Graves turned the
+subject again.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill, if I come out strong in the church and give you your own way in
+the disputed question, then you must do something for me. I'll speak to
+you later about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty far along in the day," was Bill's answer, "but as you please,
+Dominie. I don't know what you want, but most of your friends will stick
+by you if the church is run on its old plan and according to the creed
+and the Bible."</p>
+
+<p>When Minister Graves walked home he felt that in spite of family
+differences he had scored a point in getting from Hopkins a tacit
+consent to come back into his congregation.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_121" id="page_121" title="121"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI_4014" id="CHAPTER_XVI_4014"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the family gathered about the table the next morning in the
+rectory, the Dominie told his wife solemnly that he wished to talk with
+her after the children had gone to school. Breakfast over, he broached
+the subject of the women talking in prayer meeting, Mrs. Graves
+listening eagerly. As the pastor's wife she had done the best in her
+power; but her power had been weak, and the stronger ones in the
+congregation had ridden over her convictions and teachings.</p>
+
+<p>There was Augusta Hall, the beautiful wife of one of the deacons who had
+demanded that she be allowed to voice her sentiments in public; and
+other women had followed her lead, although it had been absolutely
+against the tenets of the church.</p>
+
+<p>This woman was in Mrs. Graves' mind, when the Dominie brought down his
+hand upon the table, saying he had decided to stop once and for all the
+nonsense in his church, which was keeping the best of his members away.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Graves breathed Mrs. Hall's name meekly to her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"She can leave the church," growled Graves. "In my mind it's almost
+sacrilegious for women to dare to go so far that some of the best of its
+members will leave a well-regulated church. Maria, you must talk to Mrs.
+Hall and bring her to reason."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_122" id="page_122" title="122"></a></p><p>"If you can't succeed," replied Mrs. Graves, "how do you expect me to?
+You're her pastor."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go and talk to her first, then you follow close upon my heels,
+Maria, and between us both, we will get Bill Hopkins and Carey back
+among us. If they come the rest will."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon Mrs. Graves put on her bonnet, and, with a sigh,
+tied the strings under her withered chin. In the very moment when the
+congregation had at last become reconciled to the privileges extended to
+its female members, another church war was to be fought. But the little
+woman dared not refuse her husband's command, so she climbed the long
+hill toward the south and timidly rang the bell marked "Hall."</p>
+
+<p>Her husband would have been there and gone, for the afternoon was well
+toward its close.</p>
+
+<p>As the servant ushered her in, Mrs. Graves heard loud voices coming from
+the drawing-room, and instantly recognized one of them as the
+clergyman's.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all very well, Mrs. Hall," he was saying, "for the women to work
+if they can do it without showing too much authority, but, my dear lady,
+I have been studying into this matter and it is positively against the
+Scriptural injunction for women to speak in church."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you read that?" asked Mrs. Hall, handing the Dominie a Bible,
+which he did not take in his half-extended fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, and you know where it is without looking," said he sharply.
+"There is a command from Paul that all women should keep silent in the
+church in the presence of men."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_123" id="page_123" title="123"></a></p><p>"Paul was an old bachelor," irreverently answered Mrs. Hall. "What did
+he know about women and their needs?"</p>
+
+<p>"He received the commandments from God," replied the pastor gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that one, and what's more, I am going to talk all I want to, and if
+there is a man who does not want to hear, let him go away until he
+either changes his mind or desires to take things as they are.... Why!
+the women have been speaking in our church for over a year."</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, Mrs. Graves walked in, pale and weary. She dropped
+weakly into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Your husband has just informed me," snapped Mrs. Hall, her beautiful
+face flushing as she spoke, "that we are not to speak any more at the
+church meetings. Do you approve of that, Mrs. Graves? I'm sure&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like all dutiful and obedient wives," came the sharp interruption from
+the minister, without giving his sorry-looking spouse a chance to speak,
+"my wife thinks as I do. Mrs. Hall, allow me to entreat you to follow
+the dictates of your conscience, and obey your husband always."</p>
+
+<p>"My husband gives me my own way," answered Mrs. Hall with a toss of her
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is wrong, but I shall leave you to talk things over with my
+wife. On Sunday I shall make it the theme of my sermon and I hope before
+Wednesday, my dear Mrs. Hall, that you and some others will look upon
+the matter in a different light."</p>
+
+<p>The Dominie wended his way toward the business quarter of the city and
+turned into the Gas Company's <a class="pagenum" name="page_124" id="page_124" title="124"></a>office. Inquiring for Mr. Hall, he was
+ushered into a private room marked "President," and heartily greeted one
+of the deacons of his church.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything wrong?" asked Hall, noticing the expression upon his pastor's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"No, only I called about a new rule which we're going to pass Wednesday
+evening, and you can help us if you will."</p>
+
+<p>The president looked up inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"The women must no longer speak at the prayer meeting."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hall half rose from his chair as these words fell from the
+clergyman's lips, but he sank mutely back.</p>
+
+<p>"It has become necessary to enforce the laws of the church," explained
+Graves, "and I have taken up this matter with some of the members&mdash;also
+with your wife."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hall dropped his eyes upon his left hand with the fingers of which
+he was bending back those of his right.</p>
+
+<p>"And what did she say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it will be necessary for you to talk with her, Hall; surely you
+have enough influence over her to make her see that it is absolutely
+necessary that women should cease their&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought, Dominie," broke in the deacon, "that we had long outgrown
+such notions. You had better let matters go on as they are."</p>
+
+<p>The minister shook his head emphatically, and looked searchingly at his
+parishioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Fact is, Mr. Hall, you know that it is not a personal thing with me,
+but for the good of the church. Hopkins has left and Carey only comes
+when he feels <a class="pagenum" name="page_125" id="page_125" title="125"></a>like it. Several others stay away without a place to
+worship, simply because the ladies will have their way. I have no
+trouble with my wife and no man would if he were to demand obedience as
+God says that he should. I shall preach upon it Sunday."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make it too strong," ventured Hall, thinking of his beautiful
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>As far as he was concerned it made no difference whether women were
+silent or not, whether they wore hats to church or came in with bare
+heads. He was happy in his home life, and was not willing to bring about
+discord by arguments that meant nothing to him. When the church matter
+had come up before, he had acquiesced without a word, had watched the
+fight as it progressed, and when it ended had settled back to enjoy
+peace&mdash;a happy official of Ithaca's gas company.</p>
+
+<p>He looked out under his brows at the clergyman, as he fingered the
+paper-cutter on his desk. He took it up mechanically and read the
+inscription on the handle: "From me to you."</p>
+
+<p>His wife had given it to him, and Hall mentally wondered if the woman
+who could think of, and would dare to use, such a unique expression
+would be frightened by a word from him.</p>
+
+<p>Without asking Augusta, the husband knew that his wife would be the
+first woman to rise to speak next Wednesday evening. This much he
+intimated to Graves. An expression of sarcasm flitted over the
+clergyman's countenance, but it quickly vanished&mdash;Graves was trying to
+add to his strong friends that day. He only remarked that he hoped it
+would be settled amicably. The president ventured another shot:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_126" id="page_126" title="126"></a></p><p>"Dominie, there's a complete turn in the affairs of Skinner; he says
+that he did not commit the murder&mdash;that he positively did not pick up
+the gun from the shore. Simply because he owned the gun is no proof that
+he used it. Young says&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Young had better attend to his campus business," interrupted Graves.
+"He will have all he can do. There's no doubt in my mind that Skinner is
+guilty. I should have thought that his conviction was proof of that."</p>
+
+<p>"But he didn't have a chance to prove his innocence," replied Hall. "He
+has such a good reputation among his own people that Young is going to
+take up subscriptions for another trial."</p>
+
+<p>Elias turned sharply upon the gas official.</p>
+
+<p>"Few people who understand the matter will give money to save the life
+of a squatter. That's another thing I'm going to preach upon next
+Sunday. The very manner in which they live would prove what bad citizens
+they are."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't hang a man," argued Hall, "because he doesn't live in
+accordance with our stilted notions. Professor Young says that the girl
+is a genius&mdash;that she has a beautiful voice. I promised that if he took
+up&mdash;a contribution for the family that I would send him a check."</p>
+
+<p>Elias Graves rose hastily to his feet, forgetting to put out his hand as
+he went out. He now hated Tessibel Skinner with a deep religious hatred,
+and it would be war between him and her for the life of the imprisoned
+squatter.</p>
+
+<p>President Hall, with a smile upon his face, closed the door of his
+private office after his pastor had departed.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_127" id="page_127" title="127"></a></p><p>"It's evident why Graves wants the women turned down," mused he; "he
+thinks that he will draw about him again such men as Hopkins and Carey
+and that they will help him in removing Skinner from his land. I won't
+help persecute the poor devil&mdash;Gad, but that daughter of his did turn
+things upside down. I wonder what Augusta will say to me when I go
+home?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was a keen, cold and blizzardly Sunday morning when the bells of the
+different churches rang out upon the air. Ithaca was astir and her
+citizens anxious to worship. For one-half hour the streets teemed with
+well-dressed people, then became as silent as if the town were
+uninhabited. Minister Graves took his place in the pulpit and scanned
+the pews which were filled to overflowing. Not only had his members
+come, one and all, but people from other congregations were standing at
+the back of the railing, eager to hear the mighty effort which would be
+given forth from the clergyman's eloquent tongue. Elias Graves took his
+text from Genesis&mdash;"And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
+rule over thee."</p>
+
+<p>The minister leaned far over his flock, as he finished this impressive
+text.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes fell upon Deacon Hall's pew, then upon his own in which sat his
+wife with Babe near her. Frederick was between Teola and the little
+girl, and they were all earnestly watching their father&mdash;something was
+going to happen, but they did not know what. The deep voice broke out
+into a prayer, followed by a soulful anthem from the choir.</p>
+
+<p>Minister Graves rose with dignity, and began his sermon.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_128" id="page_128" title="128"></a></p><p>"It is my intention," said he, "to divide my sermon this morning
+directly in two, because my subjects are so entirely different. Before
+the expiration of it, you will see the force of my argument and will, I
+hope, profit by it."</p>
+
+<p>He continued by saying, a house divided against itself would surely
+fall, that even a stone structure built upon sand would slip into the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren, the sea of which I speak is a sea of discontent and
+disobedience. From my reading text you will see that God commanded that
+woman should be obedient, that she should obey her husband to the
+letter&mdash;to the letter, brethren."</p>
+
+<p>There was a decided rustle of silken petticoats in the church.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the disobedience of our first mother," spoke the clergyman,
+"that threw Adam into ill-repute with his Creator, and also Adam's love
+for her that drove him from the Garden of Eden. Brethren, God is good to
+mankind, ever ready to listen to his appeals. If Adam had only believed
+in the greatness as well as the goodness of God, he would have spurned
+the woman who had dared to so flagrantly disobey, instead of following
+her from the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Adam had more than one rib," went on the minister, "and how readily and
+kindly would God have disposed of the first sinning Eve and under the
+pleasant sleep of the man, Adam, extracted another rib out of which he
+would have constructed another and yet more beautiful woman. Some of us
+are finding it impossible to keep order in our families, and until we
+do, we cannot expect to live to the glory of God."</p>
+
+<p>A loud hacking cough came from Deacon Hall's pew <a class="pagenum" name="page_129" id="page_129" title="129"></a>and many heads were
+turned toward it. This disconcerted the clergyman for a moment, but he
+picked up the threads of his sermon and resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"If every man in this little city would rely upon the goodness of God to
+supply him with another Eve, when the woman joined to him in holy
+matrimony disobeys His law, it would be a simple matter to re-establish
+order in his household. Just as happiness was given to Lot after the
+turning to salt of his wife."</p>
+
+<p>The minister paused&mdash;the silence was so deathly that it appalled him. He
+allowed his eyes to fall upon the memorial window with a man's face upon
+it. The words underneath the figure passed before him dimly. Then he
+remembered that he was preaching a sermon. Was he not the chosen
+shepherd of the flock? Was he not the one man called by God to show
+these people the righteous paths in which to walk? Should his voice be
+silenced because others did not believe as he did? And was he not
+showing them the light through the Scriptures? With these thoughts in
+his mind and renewed energy in his voice he spoke again:</p>
+
+<p>"I should be the last man in the world to raise a false alarm, neither
+do I desire to enter homes and bring discord there. But I read from a
+passage under my hand, 'If thy right hand offend thee cut it off.'</p>
+
+<p>"From the words of the Scriptures I have proven to you that a household
+must be ruled by the husband and by him alone. And that it is the duty
+of every wife to obey her husband as long as she shall live.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall ask the women of this congregation not to rise next Wednesday
+evening in the prayer meeting, either to pray or testify. The privilege
+has been withdrawn as one perniciously against the tenets of the
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_130" id="page_130" title="130"></a>church. For Paul says in first Timothy, 'I suffer not a woman to teach
+nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence;' also I give
+you Paul's further command, 'Let the deacons be the husband of one wife,
+ruling their children and their own houses well.'"</p>
+
+<p>He ran over the last few words quickly for the louder rustle of silk
+could be heard. The minister changed his subject and gave them another
+text which said that the wicked people of the earth should be cut down.
+Was the minister going to sanction the killing of wives who refused to
+obey their husbands? Had he lost his mind? But his voice rang out upon
+the congregation upon a subject in which they had recently become so
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"There is on our city," said the clergyman, "a terrible blot. The wicked
+ones of Jerusalem could not equal them in wickedness.</p>
+
+<p>"The plans of God in keeping peace among his people are to be carried
+out to-day, with as much vigor as they were three thousand years ago. I
+need not give you the details of a murder committed a short time ago
+within the limits of our city. The very fact that the murderer has the
+chance of another trial after his conviction demonstrates that something
+must be done, and quickly. If the secular law is not able to wipe out
+such a blot then the church must help. It is my idea, brethren, that the
+weeds of the earth must be cut down, and by weeds I mean bad men. If a
+petition is handed you to sign asking time for Orn Skinner, I ask you
+one and all not to place your names upon it."</p>
+
+<p>The clergyman suddenly stopped, closing his Bible. "Papa would cut off
+Tessibel's father's head if he could, wouldn't he, Frederick," whispered
+Babe.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_131" id="page_131" title="131"></a></p><p>Frederick gave the child a reproving glance and the little girl sank
+back after explaining that if Skinner were hung "papa" would have the
+land which ought to be his.</p>
+
+<p>But as his father was speaking again the student turned his serious face
+toward the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," finished the pastor impressively, "before I close I would
+adjure every one of you to take the reins of his household into his own
+hands," and then looking straight at Deacon Hall, he concluded:</p>
+
+<p>"And if you have never had the reins, then I command you to take them
+this day and rule your homes as God would have you. 'Let us pray.'"</p>
+
+<p>Augusta Hall made but one remark on her way home from church.</p>
+
+<p>"Wednesday evening, I am going to show Dominie Graves that he can't rule
+every woman in Ithaca, and I want you to go with me, dearie."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_132" id="page_132" title="132"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII_4361" id="CHAPTER_XVII_4361"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Orn Skinner was to be taken to prison the Monday after the famous sermon
+preached by Dominie Graves. Professor Young had gained permission for
+Tessibel to spend fifteen minutes with Skinner before his departure.
+There was something about the fishermaid that touched his heart. Her
+ignorance, her devotion to her father, and the loveliness of the anxious
+young face haunted the professor during his working hours, and at night,
+when he could not sleep, he created plans for her future and her
+father's release. He persuaded himself continually that Tessibel was not
+the motive for clearing the fisherman of the murder charge, it was the
+love of justice&mdash;justice to the squatter and his lovely child. Often the
+lawyer had set his jaw when he thought of Minister Graves and the
+evident malice shown by the parson against the fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>That Monday afternoon he met Tessibel as she came into the jail-yard,
+much the same Tessibel he had seen in the court-room.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young took the girl's hand in his and led her into the small
+waiting room of the stone prison. He desired to be alone with her for a
+few minutes that he might satisfy himself as to her history, which since
+her dramatic entrance into the court-room had been so distorted.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no mother, I understand, my dear," he began.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_133" id="page_133" title="133"></a></p><p>"Nope," and Tessibel shifted one boot along the seam in the red carpet.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; don't remember none but Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever been to school?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel shook her head, displaying her teeth in smile which quickly
+faded.</p>
+
+<p>"Squatter's brats don't never go to school," she muttered.</p>
+
+<p>She edged away from the professor, raising her eyes pleadingly to his.
+The man read the desire the girl dared not put into words, but without
+heeding her glance he proceeded to question her.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to go to school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, all I want air Daddy home in the shanty. That air enough for me."</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly turned her face away toward the door that led to the upper
+cells.</p>
+
+<p>"But if I assure you," urged Professor Young, "that your father will
+positively get another trial, which is all that can be done at present,
+would you then like to study?"</p>
+
+<p>A definite shake of her head and another quick glance was Tessibel's
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I wants to read the Bible," she said, presently turning toward the
+professor; "it air a dum hard book to read, I hear."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young tugged at the corners of his mustache to keep down a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be easy for you to read any book if you went to school," he
+told her. "How old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Comin' sixteen."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_134" id="page_134" title="134"></a></p><p>"And cannot read&mdash;it's a pity! And wouldn't you like to learn to sing?"</p>
+
+<p>Young was desirous of touching a responsive strain in the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Dum sight rather see Daddy&mdash;that's what I came here for! Ain't ye going
+to let me see him?"</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young rose with a sigh. Like the rest of her race, she did not
+know gratitude. He had worked diligently, preparing an appeal for a new
+trial which would bring acquittal to her humpbacked father, and he was
+interested in her own welfare, but her thankless words checked his
+inquiry. The professor did not realize what love meant to Tessibel, for
+every desire within her paled into insignificance beside her passionate
+devotion to Daddy Skinner.</p>
+
+<p>Tess followed him silently up the long winding stairs, her heart
+thumping in anticipation. The deputy's search of her clothing brought a
+flush to her face, but without a word she allowed him to draw off the
+great boots and quietly watched him as he turned them upside down,
+receiving them back gravely. Her longing to see Daddy Skinner, to be in
+his arms, to hug the grizzled head, overshadowed even this indignity. So
+long had it been since Tess had nestled in the shaggy chin hair, that
+her heart was sore and wildly impatient. Faith in Frederick's God had
+been forgotten&mdash;no other thought occupied her mind save that they were
+going to take away her beloved&mdash;the only one left to her. She deigned
+not a glance at Professor Young after the deputy had gone, and measured
+the oilcloth-covered floor restlessly with the stamp, stamp, stamp of
+the big boots.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young's presence was no more to her than the small insects
+which scurried from the edge of the <a class="pagenum" name="page_135" id="page_135" title="135"></a>floor covering into the light and
+then back into their hiding places, afraid of the human giants which
+loomed up before them. What did she care for reading, writing and such
+things. She wanted to be with Daddy Skinner&mdash;wanted him home in the
+shanty, as of old.</p>
+
+<p>She kept her eyes riveted upon the open door. Suddenly she leaned
+forward, for the ominous clanging of irons came to her ears. She thought
+of the night she had been found scaling the ivy to Daddy's cell&mdash;how
+long she had waited in the darkness for only a little word about him.
+They had given her none, and her vivid imagination brought back the
+anguish of that lonely walk through the storm to the hut.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching footsteps made her alert, and in the paling of the sweet
+face Professor Young divined the tumult going on in the tender,
+uneducated heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Child," exclaimed he, "don't make your father's going away harder for
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up," muttered Tess, just as the huge shackled prisoner appeared at
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Every muscle in the strong young body stiffened. Tess had not seen her
+father since the trial. Intensity narrowed the eyes, the drooping white
+lids covering the lights in the brown iris, the small hands clutched
+convulsively. Daddy Skinner&mdash;her Daddy&mdash;was standing before her, his
+blue-gray eyes piercing her very soul from under the long shaggy brows.
+She bounded toward him, and two creatures of primeval passion met in one
+long embrace. It was the passion of an aboriginal father for his child,
+of a primitive girl watching her loved one separate from her through the
+portals of death. Tess had lifted herself deftly to the bible-back, and
+lowered her head to the grizzled face, the man's <a class="pagenum" name="page_136" id="page_136" title="136"></a>large mouth covering
+the twitching lips of the girl. The shrouding red hair hid the squatter
+faces from the professor, and he turned his eyes away. He could not look
+upon them without distressing emotion. The strange maid was an enigma to
+him and he found himself wishing that he might guide her future. When
+Young glanced again, the fisherman had seated himself and had slipped
+Tessibel from his shoulders, gathering her closely into his great
+embrace&mdash;for she was the brawn of his brawn and the bone of his bone.</p>
+
+<p>Under the squatter's huge red arm, the fisher-girl had wedged her head
+tightly, the low brows were taut with pain, the bronze eyes defiantly
+closed. Tess was as firmly fixed in her position as the iron chains that
+encased her "Daddy's" ankles. She had come to stay with Daddy Skinner,
+to go with him where he went, in spite of the great man from the hill,
+in spite of the majesty of the law&mdash;even in spite of Daddy himself.</p>
+
+<p>The deputy warden with open watch stood over the prisoner with observing
+eye. The fifteen minutes allowed the girl were gone, and he slowly
+touched the humpback on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Time's up, Skinner," said he. "Sorry, but it's the law, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Skinner tried to draw the curly head from under his arm but the muscles
+in the girl's body only tightened, the white lips grew more rigid.</p>
+
+<p>"It air time fer me to go, Tess," murmured the squatter in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"I air&mdash;I&mdash;I air a goin' with ye."</p>
+
+<p>The words were scarcely more than the flutter of a breath. The deputy
+warden stepped forward a little, then back to his place by the door; the
+professor rose <a class="pagenum" name="page_137" id="page_137" title="137"></a>but sank again to his chair; the bible-back of the
+fisherman pulsated as if a separate heart was beating in each great
+hump. Tess was as immovable as if nature had aided her to grow into her
+position. Skinner again tried to loosen the bare red arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can't go to prison with me, Tess," he said coaxingly; "set up like a
+good brat ... Daddy'll kiss ye good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"I air goin'," she insisted. "It air like a dead man's yard without ye
+in the shanty.... I can wash dishes. I can do a hull lot if ye'll take
+me with ye, Daddy Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>Not one whit less rigid was the slender body, the closed lids only
+pressed tighter together.</p>
+
+<p>The deputy grunted impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Kid," said he gruffly; "it's the law ye're tamperin' with. Do you
+hear? Let the prisoner go."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young felt his throat tighten. The pitiful sight of the girl,
+the ragged skirt, the terrible unkemptness of the small body, almost
+brought a shout from his lips. It was a new sensation to the learned
+man, a stinging, rebellious, pitying sensation, a feeling that he wanted
+to shake the girl from her father's arms, and then care tenderly for
+her. One great boot had fallen from Tessibel's many times frozen foot.
+The little toe marked and cut by frost, limply hanging independent of
+its fellows, made Young wince.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Tessibel sat up and wound her arms more tightly about the big
+humpbacked body.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go back to the shanty without ye, Daddy," she whimpered, "and
+they said&mdash;as how ye was comin'&mdash;home to stay.... And I ain't
+goin'&mdash;darned if I air."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_138" id="page_138" title="138"></a></p><p>Young turned his head again toward the window. He could not banish the
+wish that Tess would listen to him.</p>
+
+<p>The deputy placed his hand firmly upon the prisoner's arm, the fisherman
+himself trying in vain to loosen the girl's fingers from the shaggy
+beard.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;air to go with Daddy&mdash;I air&mdash;I air!"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel brought out the words snappingly, but Skinner, with the aid of
+the deputy, opened the clenched hands. Tessibel gave way; she was unable
+to stop the awful impending danger that hung over her&mdash;absolute
+separation from Daddy Skinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy, Daddy," she gasped, sitting up straight: "man&mdash;man, let me go
+... I air dyin' without my Daddy ... I air alone&mdash;all alone!"</p>
+
+<p>The official moved anxiously as she made this appeal to him. She was now
+standing on her bare feet, but she bounded forward as the bible-back
+rose and fell, and large tears dragged themselves from the lowered lids
+of the fisherman's blue-gray eyes. She pantingly caught her father's
+hand in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Kisses, Daddy Skinner, kisses on the bill for Tess&mdash;before ye go ...
+Tess air a bad brat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She could not finish the sentence for the squatter had pressed her to
+him convulsively. Then Skinner dropped the slender, relaxed body into
+the wooden arm-chair, and iron-hampered, took up his march behind the
+deputy. The professor mutely watched the storm, desperate and terrible,
+break over the squatter girl. Her wild weeping settled into sobs, the
+sound of which rent and shook the man's emotions. At last he ventured to
+speak:</p>
+
+<p>"Child, may I be your friend?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_139" id="page_139" title="139"></a></p><p>"'Taint no friends I want. It air somethin' to love&mdash;to kiss. It air
+Daddy I want."</p>
+
+<p>The voice came brokenly from the veil of red hair.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the great iron door clanged in the distance behind the
+prisoner. Tessibel sprang to the open door, straining her ears to catch
+another sound from the "black place" which had enveloped her father
+within its menacing shadows.</p>
+
+<p>"He air&mdash;gone.... Daddy&mdash;air&mdash;gone!"</p>
+
+<p>The words were spoken slowly, and hurt the watching man almost as if the
+torture were his own. A shriek rose from the rounded white throat and
+the girl threw herself bootless upon the floor, and screamed in
+passionate childish sorrow, the wealth of disheveled hair mantling the
+dirty jacket, and covering the woful face.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the professor nor Tessibel heard the hurrying footsteps upon the
+stone floor in the prison corridor, but Tess, still in the frenzy of her
+new grief, heard her name spoken through a maze:</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner!" And then again: "Tessibel Skinner!"</p>
+
+<p>The squatter raised a pale, tear-streaked face to Frederick Graves. She
+sat up with a painful flush, drawing the bare legs closely under the wet
+skirt. The student spoke again:</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner has forgotten that God rules and is just. Have your
+prayers proven nothing to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel gazed scarlet and embarrassed, into Frederick's face, her under
+lip quivering. The red head sank slowly down, and the exhausted child
+wept as only a hurt child can weep.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_140" id="page_140" title="140"></a></p><p>"I were a-goin' with him," she cried between her sobs, "I could have
+washed dishes in the prison&mdash;to be near Daddy. I air such a lonely Tess
+'out him in the hut."</p>
+
+<p>The student lifted her gently in his arms and seated her in the wooden
+chair. With the tenderness of a brother, he placed the great boots once
+more upon the girl's feet, and Tessibel was ready to start again upon
+her long tramp through the row of huts to her shanty home.</p>
+
+<p>The tears had ceased to flow, and with bowed head she was hanging upon
+every word the student uttered. Professor Young went quietly out,
+unheeded by either girl or boy.</p>
+
+<p>"No one blames you for your grief, child, at being obliged to leave your
+father," Frederick said huskily. "But are you going to take off the
+'Armor of God' and forget all that He has promised you?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel blinked ignorantly at the long words, "Armor of God," "Armor of
+God." It was something she had not heard before&mdash;perhaps it meant that
+the student's Christ would not help her now. It all came back in a flood
+of light&mdash;her utter faithlessness in the prayers of the student, in the
+pine-tree God who had waved her so many assurances. She had not dared to
+look into the noble face above her, but when they stepped from the jail
+into the street, she raised her eyes to Frederick's and murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"I air sorry cause I were so cussed ... I only wanted to go with Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>"I realize that," replied Frederick, making preparations to walk with
+her by drawing his coat collar tightly about his neck, "but it was
+impossible, and, from now until the time he comes back, study your
+Bible."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_141" id="page_141" title="141"></a></p><p>Tess halted a moment, looking up steadily into the dark eyes of the
+tall boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Does the Bible talk of Daddy Skinner?" she entreated; "does it tell as
+how he air comin' home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes," was the student's answer. "There's nothing the Bible
+doesn't contain. The Saviour was nailed to the Cross bearing his misery
+to give you a heavenly harp and crown, Tessibel. If you read Matthew,
+Mark, Luke and John, you will see it all plainly. You can be happy if
+you pray and are a good girl while your father is away." Then, desiring
+to ease the tense-drawn face, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"It will please him if you write him often and tell him about yourself....
+Come now, it's getting too dark for you to walk those tracks. Child,
+haven't you a friend in town with whom you can pass the night? It's
+frightful to tramp that distance alone."</p>
+
+<p>Tess stiffened instantly. Daddy's shanty was in her care, and of what
+night had she ever been afraid?</p>
+
+<p>"I air a goin' home," she answered almost sullenly; "ain't a dum bit
+afraid of nothin'."</p>
+
+<p>As Frederick turned to her side, Tess glanced up confusedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can't walk with me through the streets of Ithacy," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cause&mdash;well, cause ye can't, that's why!"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick understood, and, gravely lifting his hat, turned in the other
+direction with the remark that he would see her again soon.</p>
+
+<p>The girl stood for some seconds staring fixedly after him. Then, wiping
+her face with the sleeve of a ragged jacket, she started off toward the
+squatters' row.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_142" id="page_142" title="142"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII_4708" id="CHAPTER_XVIII_4708"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Many were the troubling thoughts which possessed the mind of Tess as she
+strode along. In the fulvid depths of her red-brown eyes there dwelt an
+expression of misery. As the child took her way through the streets,
+with none to care whither she went, her face lighted with a sudden
+determination. Frederick had told her to read, to study, to pray&mdash;that
+these three with faith would save Daddy Skinner from the rope of the
+Canadian Indian; but the student, like all those having plenty, forgot
+to enquire how Tess was to read without books, or study without anyone
+to teach her. True, Tess could pick out a few words which Daddy had
+taught her, could haltingly count the stars in the heavens at night, and
+the rain-drops on the shanty window. She could read the names upon the
+store signs and had often seated herself on the railroad tracks with a
+bit of newspaper to stammer forth the words she knew.</p>
+
+<p>But it was a Bible she needed&mdash;to learn about the student's God and the
+Christ. Tess was more interested in the cross than the crown, more
+interested in the nails that had opened the wounds in the Saviour's
+hands and feet, than in any royal head-covering that might come in some
+future time to her. There was too much misery in her own life, too much
+desperate desire for her loved one, to allow the glitter of a promised
+crown to affect her. She wanted to know of the suffering Christ, <a class="pagenum" name="page_143" id="page_143" title="143"></a>to
+read of how He had promised&mdash;Here Tess stopped and tossed back the red
+hair. What was it she wanted to read about? Ah, yes&mdash;not heaven and its
+glories nor hell and its terrors, but of Daddy Skinner back in the
+shanty.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible would tell her just how to bring him back,&mdash;but where should
+she get one? At the squatter mission, of course. Tessibel remembered
+that once she had been coaxed to enter the mission, but the children had
+laughed at her rags and after that she could not be induced to go again.
+Then in the bitterness of her heart she had thrown stones and clay from
+the edges of the track through the open window upon the other children,
+and had been told by the superintendent never to come near the small
+church again. But that was four long months ago, and not once
+since&mdash;since the horror of Daddy's going, had she even looked toward the
+mission.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk fell, slowly striking out the day-shadows from the railroad bed
+and she halted where the two tracks met. The mission was opposite her.
+Would she dare ask for a Bible? A rich, warm light flooded through the
+window and then the old squatter who had kept the place in order for
+many years came out and closed the door. Tessibel's eyes followed his
+form through the dim twilight until he disappeared into his shanty.</p>
+
+<p>Her hand clutched convulsively the knob of the mission door; it yielded
+to her touch, and for the second time in her life Tessibel Skinner was
+inside the mission room. The small reed organ stood open: a hymn book
+stretched back with a rubber band caught her eye. A bright bit of red
+carpet wound its way about the altar. <a class="pagenum" name="page_144" id="page_144" title="144"></a>The squatter did not pause to
+examine the pictures on the wall nor even an instant before the glowing
+fire. Her eyes were searching for a Bible&mdash;the shade deepening in them
+as she sidled toward the nearest seat.</p>
+
+<p>She read "H-y-m-n-a-l" on the back of the first book&mdash;dropping it she
+gathered up another.</p>
+
+<p>"H-o-l-y B-i-b-l-e," she spelled.</p>
+
+<p>Thrusting it into her blouse, she bounded out into the night, and raced
+up the railroad track almost to the Hoghole trestle before she stopped,
+satisfied that no one had seen her theft.</p>
+
+<p>Then, taking the book from her bosom, she kissed it reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"Them old fools ain't goin' to have every damn Bible in this here town.
+I air a right like them to this un." Again she kissed it, as she
+mumbled: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."</p>
+
+<p>That night the candle burned longer in the Skinner shanty, and an auburn
+head bent over an open book. A faltering voice spelled out the
+sufferings of the Nazarene. Once Tess smiled wanly when reading of how
+the Saviour had borne all the woes of the world&mdash;that any one believing
+could be saved. Her head nodded over the pages, and almost instantly the
+rapt face dropped upon the open Bible and Tessibel slept.</p>
+
+<p>A strange dream filled her sleep. A great light flashed suddenly into
+the sky&mdash;Tessibel's sky&mdash;and through the brightness of it she could see
+the cross with the Man upon it; could see the nail prints in the swollen
+flesh, the thorns pressing into the bowed head. Then as Tessibel dreamed
+she moved upon the open Bible and groaned with the dream-Christ upon the
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_145" id="page_145" title="145"></a>cross. Directly in front of the crucified Saviour Daddy Skinner was
+coming toward her with the student.</p>
+
+<p>She started up&mdash;a cry of disappointed anguish escaping her lips. The
+candle had burned out in the grease cup, the wind was rocking the shanty
+and making the rafters creak dismally. Tess shivered as she tossed her
+clothes upon the floor, and crept exhausted into Daddy's bed. The last
+thing she heard was the splashing of her pet eel in the water-pail.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, on a piece of yellow paper, she scratched Daddy a
+small note. Frederick's words that her father would be pleased with it
+filled her with a desire to write. For three hours she struggled with
+her first letter.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"daddy the ice air a goin out of the lake ben letts air a gettin
+well he air a cuss i air lonlie yit without ye i red my bible last
+nite i cribbed it frum the mishion it says as how god air gooder
+then i thote he wer cum home and i reads as how a brite lite was a
+shinin about the cross and as how the christ ruz up here air a
+story bout a squatter brat it air bout tess she cride and cride fer
+her dady til her eel what she luved herd her and he cride hisself
+to deth this here mornin he wer belly up in the bucket i air yer
+brat dady</p>
+
+<p>"the man on the cross ruz fer the hull world aint it nise to ruz."</p></div>
+
+<p>This delicate effusion of love to her father, Tess read over many times.
+With pardonable pride she folded it carefully and placed it in the Bible
+where she had read about the cross and dying Christ.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_146" id="page_146" title="146"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX_4829" id="CHAPTER_XIX_4829"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>On Wednesday evening Deacon Hall tucked Augusta's pretty hand under his
+arm with a happy sense of proprietorship. He was proud to stand by his
+beautiful wife in her fight for church liberty. Hall really believed, as
+he had told Dominie Graves, that the world had outgrown its foggy
+notions, and he delighted in hearing Augusta air her ideas in meetings;
+in watching the rich blood mantling and playing under the transparent
+skin; and in listening to the modulated tones of the vibrant voice.
+Augusta was his style of woman. The thought of her force of character
+made him throw back his shoulders that Wednesday evening as they neared
+the church door. Few members had gathered for the hour was early. Deacon
+Hall nodded pleasantly to Bill Hopkins, and a broad smile parted the
+latter's lips, giving his square face a softer, more genial expression.
+Bill calmly took his seat on the left side of the room; crossed his
+legs, placed his fingers about the white wart, and then sat looking
+thoughtfully out of the window into the lighted street. For the first
+time in many months Bill Hopkins was in his chair at the weekly prayer
+meeting. His one idea in being present was to witness the Dominie's
+success in keeping the women in their places. He had had conscientious
+scruples about remaining in a church, which, in spite of the fact that
+its tenets forbade its <a class="pagenum" name="page_147" id="page_147" title="147"></a>females to rise and voice either prayers or
+opinions before the males, countenanced this very abuse.</p>
+
+<p>Bill Hopkins had no objection to women in their places&mdash;in fact, he
+enjoyed the company of a pretty woman&mdash;but it was not her place to try
+and teach him. Hopkins had the overwhelming idea of the physical and
+moral superiority of men, while, as far as intellectuality was
+concerned, women were leagues and leagues behind.</p>
+
+<p>Many a warm argument had been held between Bill and the pretty Mrs.
+Hall, and as this lady came into the chapel she saw the former elder
+seated in his old chair, the familiar wart shining high and white on the
+bald pate. She tilted her pretty chin an instant before inclining her
+head, then to the amazement of those present, she parted from her
+husband in the middle aisle, marching to the right, her amiable deacon
+taking the left. Bill Hopkins smiled inwardly as the thought flashed
+over him that there must have been a secret female conclave among the
+strong-minded women as well as among the men during the past week. The
+same idea occurred to the minister's mind as he saw his members separate
+in the middle aisle.</p>
+
+<p>He drew his brow into a pucker which furrowed the flesh between his
+brows. Mrs. Graves was seated at the rear of the room to the right, her
+eyes upon an open book in her hand. She did not raise them as her
+husband took his chair behind the small pulpit table upon which lay a
+huge Bible marked by a dangling blue ribbon. The clergyman bent his head
+a few moments in secret prayer, drew the book toward him, opened it,
+found his text and placed the marker carefully between the pages. He
+coughed slightly and with an extra effort <a class="pagenum" name="page_148" id="page_148" title="148"></a>raised his eyes to his
+congregation. This is what he saw:</p>
+
+<p>The middle aisle divided almost every woman from her husband; only here
+and there had a timid wife with lowered eyes followed her lord and
+master to the left.</p>
+
+<p>Dominie Graves caught a peculiar gleam in the eye of Augusta Hall and
+followed the line of her vision which was leveled at Bill Hopkins. There
+was no enmity in the latter's mien, but Dominie Graves knew that when
+the elderly deacon toyed with the white wart his nerves were vastly
+disturbed. For an instant the thought traveled through the clergyman's
+brain, that if Tessibel Skinner could work with her magic words on the
+dull protrusion upon Hopkins's glistening head the former deacon would
+lose his favorite occupation. He looked doubtfully down upon his own
+hands and remembered the warts which Tessibel had whispered away. Then,
+trying to drive all thoughts of the fisher-girl and her squatter father
+from his mind, the minister rose to his feet. Frederick Graves had been
+watching his father intently and as he saw his effort to rise the boy
+whitened a little and settled back. Just growing into manhood and
+beginning to think for himself, the lad blushed with shame at the state
+of affairs that rose before his eyes this night. He threw a sidelong
+glance at Hopkins and met a dejected expression from the eyes of his
+mother. She looked so tired, so humiliated, that a bitter rebellious
+feeling arose in Frederick's heart against his father. Then his mind
+wandered again from the church to Tessibel Skinner in her shanty home.
+The quick look she had given him in the court-room had impressed him as
+nothing else could. He saw <a class="pagenum" name="page_149" id="page_149" title="149"></a>again the bright head thrown back in eager
+appeal and the shining eyes filled with pain. How he wished that his own
+faith in the Infinite had a touch of the strength which made that of
+Tessibel stand alone by itself! Little did Frederick realize or know
+that the intensity of the fishermaid, the wonderful faith and trust she
+had exhibited in her time of trial and trouble, had come to her from
+him. Every prayer Tessibel had uttered, every devout wish of her heart
+for Daddy Skinner, had been vaguely centered about the student. Her love
+for the Christ of whom she had heard so little was based upon the power
+of attraction that Frederick Graves held for her.</p>
+
+<p>Twice had he, unobserved, seen Tessibel through the hut window; and the
+picture of the tired little figure with its drooping prayerful attitude
+came back with a force that brought a great lump into his throat,
+invigorating his desire to raise the standard of his own love for God's
+words and promises.</p>
+
+<p>His father's eloquent voice brought him back to the present and, as his
+eyes fell upon Hopkins, he saw the nervous fingers twiddling the great
+white wart and a smile forced itself to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Then he dragged his truant mind from outside subjects and concentrated
+his attention upon the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>"In accordance with the creed of the church," the clergyman was saying,
+"and of the laws under which our beloved congregation holds together, I
+speak. It is with love for all I adjure you this night. When I say that
+the subject of my talk will be upon duty you will not be surprised, for
+you, one and all, know what I mean. I shall ask the sisters in the
+church not to rise again to speak. If they desire church work there <a class="pagenum" name="page_150" id="page_150" title="150"></a>are
+the poor, the blind, and always the needy. By needy I mean those
+desiring the faith of God and yet being unable to grasp it without help.
+To the dear sisters of the congregation I commend all these." He made no
+allusion to the division of the men and women, nor to the sermon of the
+past Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>After the hymn he sat down, bowing his handsome dark head quietly, and
+remaining mute in the dismal silence that followed. Suddenly an elderly
+woman with a meek face struggled to her feet, glancing toward Augusta
+Hall for an encouraging smile. Several trimmed hats however loomed up
+between her and the deacon's wife, so still standing she lowered her
+eyes and began to pray. Simultaneously with hers a masculine voice broke
+through the air mingling with the weak petition of the woman. Frederick
+Graves lifted his head quickly&mdash;the trend of war cutting through his
+mind like a knife. It had evidently been planned before the meeting just
+how severely the women were to be dealt with, for Frederick noted that
+his father's eyes did not raise from his reverent position at the
+unusual happening. As the man's voice grew louder, importunately seeking
+guidance in this unhappy church affair, the woman closed her lips and
+fell backward upon the seat crying weakly. The masculine voice rose
+higher and clearer and finished the petition with ringing clarity.
+Another embarrassing silence out of which came scarcely a breath.
+Augusta Hall caught a glimpse of the piercing blue eyes peering from
+under the shaggy brows of Bill Hopkins. The deacon was watching her, and
+Augusta knew that he exulted as one woman after another was driven to
+her chair by the masculine voice of her shouting opponent.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_151" id="page_151" title="151"></a></p><p>So far the men held the day. This was demonstrated to Augusta Hall and
+Bill Hopkins by the undertoned sobs that continually emerged from behind
+the numerous white handkerchiefs. So dense was the quietude of the
+painful meeting that Frederick Graves could plainly hear the thumping of
+his own heart. Suddenly Augusta with a slight cough and a rustle of her
+fine skirts rose to her feet. She started to speak reverently in a low
+tone. It was the usual petition that blessing should descend upon the
+missions, the sewing circle and the children's work&mdash;and here her voice
+wavered a little, for a man's bass voice joined in with her own. It was
+that of the deacon who carried the offering plate each Sunday morning,
+opposite her husband. On and on both man and woman shouted their words
+with strength and rapidity upon their hearers' ears. The Deacon's voice
+lifted and fell with the power of an orator. Augusta strained forth her
+tones high and clear. Minute after minute until fifteen had passed was
+the oratorical word display of each pitted against the other.</p>
+
+<p>Dominie Graves' fingers were twitching nervously beside his well-shaped
+nose. Bill Hopkins still twiddling his wart had drawn himself to a
+straighter position, and was listening with all intentness. The pallor
+of Deacon Hall's face deepened as Augusta talked on and on until all
+thought of prayer had left her mind, and her words shaped themselves
+into a discourse. She was holding the floor against the church official,
+whose brow was now running with the sweat of his embarrassment&mdash;his
+voice had become fainter and his words fewer and less well chosen.
+Augusta's voice, on the contrary, rang clearly through the room, a
+prepared speech upon the aptitude of women and their field of labor. Her
+husband <a class="pagenum" name="page_152" id="page_152" title="152"></a>was watching her intently&mdash;and thought how beautiful she looked
+as the blood mantled to her white forehead, descending and rising as her
+thoughts took turn after turn. The unfortunate deacon was mumbling forth
+a few ill-connected sentences. At last with a groan he sank to his seat
+and placed a handkerchief to his fevered brow. Presently Augusta sat
+down and there was again an awful silence. No one advanced another
+petition and Dominie Graves pronounced a halting benediction.</p>
+
+<p>The congregation rose hastily and hurried toward the doors, with no
+desire for further discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Bill Hopkins leaned back against the outer door and as Mrs. Hall passed
+him he grasped her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You had nerve," said he, "I'm not saying it's the right kind ... but
+it's nerve just the same, and, well, I do believe that you women have
+gained the day in this church."</p>
+
+<p>Augusta, leaning on her husband's arm, looked down meekly from a pair of
+wicked twinkling eyes&mdash;she could be a sweet clinging creature if she
+wished, and this was her special charm to Deacon Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she raised her gaze and looked winningly into Bill Hopkin's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you won't give me the money I asked you for, to aid Skinner,"
+she said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll send you the check to-morrow morning," and Bill Hopkins' big
+shoulders disappeared through the open door.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"It frightened me at first," exclaimed Deacon Hall to his wife
+afterward, "but, as your voice went up and up, I knew my little woman
+would win, God bless her."</p>
+
+<p>"<a class="pagenum" name="page_153" id="page_153" title="153"></a>And we'll win about poor Skinner too," rejoined Augusta. "Every man and
+woman so far has agreed to help a little, and I don't want you to try to
+drive the squatters from our lake property."</p>
+
+<p>Here her words were checked by a sudden thought which darkened her
+eyes&mdash;she burst forth with a rich low laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"That'll make two triumphs over my haughty parson."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_154" id="page_154" title="154"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX_5043" id="CHAPTER_XX_5043"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>A sense of embarrassment accompanied Dominie Graves to the breakfast
+table the next morning after the triumphant victory of Augusta Hall. He
+made no remark upon the disagreeable episode of the previous night, and
+ate silently amid the chatter of Babe and the monosyllabic answers of
+her mother. Teola to break the strain spoke of the sleigh-ride and dance
+coming off that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it will be too cold," objected Mrs. Graves, in her fretful,
+weary voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I can wrap up warmly," argued Teola. "All the girls in town are going
+and Dan will take care of me. We are going in separate sleighs to
+Slaterville. I'm going, mother, and that's all there is to it."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that you are growing rather friendly with that young
+Jordan, Teola," her father said. "He's been here every night for a week,
+hasn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola muttered sullenly that she wasn't the only girl in town who had
+callers, and looked pleadingly to Frederick for aid. The young student
+flashed her a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Teola will be perfectly safe to-night, father," he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Frederick, "but sister would be no safer if I were. I
+have implicit confidencs in Dan Jordan and the country roads are
+perfect.... By the <a class="pagenum" name="page_155" id="page_155" title="155"></a>way, Dan would like to take a class of boys in the
+Sunday School. I told him to see you about it."</p>
+
+<p>The mollified minister finished his meal without further comment.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The sleigh-ride was a thing of the past. That it had brought disaster to
+Teola Graves showed in the tired eyes as they rested on the sky, gray
+with the coming morning. She had stolen silently into the house,
+reaching her chamber without disturbing either father or mother. At the
+window she halted. Here and there a star sparkled, dying dim in the
+advancing sky. Teola's eyes rested upon the street below for several
+minutes, then dragged her gaze upward and beyond&mdash;beyond to the long
+road that led to the yard of the dead which stretched over the hillside,
+rearing its monuments among the leafless trees, like sentinels over
+sleeping soldiers. There was something alluring, something compelling to
+the pale girl, watching the birth of her first real day of living. The
+University frowned down upon the graveyard; in its turn the graveyard
+frowned menacingly upon the town. A snow-bird peeped a "good-morning" to
+its mate in the Rectory eaves. A bell pealed out twice, striking the air
+with its sonorous sound reverberating into the hills. And still the girl
+stood waiting for&mdash;she knew not what.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday girlhood offered Teola Graves happy hours of peaceful
+meditation&mdash;to-day, the new day brought the woman its ceaseless silent
+agony of regret and remorse, strong forces of which she had known
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>If Dan were only glad that she loved him, if he loved her in return.
+Suddenly tears welled into the dark eyes; <a class="pagenum" name="page_156" id="page_156" title="156"></a>Teola Graves hid her face
+from the new world of painful joy&mdash;and forgot in sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Teola's next hour with her lover was the most embarrassing one of her
+life. Dan took her hands in silence, and the seriousness of his face
+bespoke his heart pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Sweetheart, is there anything in all the world that I can say to you to
+make you love me more&mdash;precious, precious little darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"Only say that you do love me, Dan," breathed Teola, "and&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't turn your eyes away from me, sweetheart&mdash;love you, Teola? I'll
+study so hard, dearest, and when I finish college we'll get married, and
+go away and have a home of our own. Teola, forgive me and have faith in
+me! Will you, sweet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," murmured the trembling lips&mdash;and Teola buried her flushed face
+upon the broad breast of Dan Jordan and was happy.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Frederick Graves had been made president of the freshman class, a short
+time after entering the "Cranium" fraternity. He was considered by most
+of his fellow students a serious, earnest worker and had been taken many
+times into consultation with the upper classmen concerning plans for the
+development of the society.</p>
+
+<p>In past years at the end of every January, the freshmen had held a
+banquet in the opera-house of the city. This event called forth
+practical jokes of all descriptions upon the first-year men from the
+sophomores and seniors, giving many anxious and worried moments to the
+younger students over the outcome of the one <a class="pagenum" name="page_157" id="page_157" title="157"></a>important event of the
+year. It had also been the custom to try to capture the president of the
+freshman class and hold him in seclusion until after the banquet,
+thereby making his opening speech impossible. The dread that they should
+lose their leader became more and more apparent among the banquet
+holders as the days advanced, and extensive plans had been made to
+protect Frederick Graves from his class enemies. For one whole month
+previous he had not been allowed to walk alone about the town, and it
+had been ordered that he should sleep at the fraternity house instead of
+at the Rectory, in order that the young president might be guarded
+against any surprise concocted by the sophomores.</p>
+
+<p>One evening at the Cranium Society several freshmen were seated in the
+billiard-room.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great note," muttered Shorty Brown, "that we have to wait on
+those big lubbers of sophomores and seniors. I'd as soon die as to run
+down the hill after their letters."</p>
+
+<p>"You might as well go, Shorts," put in Spuddy Preston; "you'll only get
+yourself disliked if you don't, and you'll be made to go in the end. The
+blessing of it all is that they did the same thing in their turn."</p>
+
+<p>He took a slow measure of the distance between himself and the cuspidor,
+and shot a piece of gum into it.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't make it any pleasanter," put in Swipes Dillon. "Just think
+of me, I haven't had a cent to spend on myself for weeks. Manchester's
+capacity for smoke is enormous. I wish I had knocked his head clean off
+his neck."</p>
+
+<p>He looked gloomily out of the window as he muttered this, but instantly
+brightened as he finished:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_158" id="page_158" title="158"></a></p><p>"But I can stand almost anything if they don't get hold of Graves. That
+would spoil our fun altogether."</p>
+
+<p>He unbent the small round body drawn up in a woful-looking ball, sitting
+up to hear what the others had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Just let them take him!" growled Shorty Brown. "We will make it warm
+for those sophs, but they're such sneaks that we can't put a moment's
+trust in them. Why don't you say something, Captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing to say, Boy," replied Jordan musingly, "only that we must do
+all we can to shield Frederick. If they once get him we won't see him
+until after the banquet. I fear, too, they might hurt him, for he would
+be sure to put up a fight."</p>
+
+<p>"So would I," boasted Spuddy. "You bet I would."</p>
+
+<p>Swipes broke into a ringing laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd make a nice fighter, Spud," he chuckled; "you're not bigger than
+a minute with fifty seconds in it. Gosh, I wish something would happen.
+I'm tired sitting about doing nothing."</p>
+
+<p>His words came to Dan Jordan through a dim maze of tangled thoughts.
+During all his short, happy life anxiety had never been his companion
+until now. It strangled his class ardor and made conscientious study
+impossible. Teola Graves' tearful, pain-stricken face rose constantly
+before him. His own eyes darkened at the thought. Oh, to go back to the
+toffy pull&mdash;to live over again those last few weeks&mdash;how different it
+all would be, and how repentant he was. He sighed and shook his great
+shoulders and rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder where Graves is now," he exclaimed. "I met Armstrong and Howe
+coming up the hill last night, <a class="pagenum" name="page_159" id="page_159" title="159"></a>talking with their heads close together.
+I noticed that they stopped suddenly when I came upon them."</p>
+
+<p>The blood had crept accusingly into his face as he spoke Frederick's
+name. Never for one moment in the presence of Teola's brother had he
+forgotten&mdash;how could he ever forget! But he did love Teola Graves madly
+and wished with all his soul that he were through college. He had hoped
+that in the excitement of the banquet his remorse would be quieted a
+little, but his conscience lashed him so constantly with self-reproach
+that it seemed imperative for him to give up his studies, marry Teola,
+and take her away.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's all go down town," cried Swipes in a loud tone with a side wink
+at Spuddy, "and get boiling drunk. If something doesn't happen&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Lordy," groaned Spuddy, "Swipes is always wanting something to happen.
+I bet it will before long. What you wish for you'll get, old horse!
+Don't forget that."</p>
+
+<p>Spuddy went on tapping the window, staring out into the gloom.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd better go down town and look for Graves and see that he is all
+right," said Dan. "That will be enough for you kids to do now. It's your
+evening anyway to guard him."</p>
+
+<p>The four freshmen walked down the hill together. Dan separated from the
+three at the Ithaca Hotel with the injunction that they should keep
+their eyes open for the young president, guarding him while the other
+night watchers were having a play spell.</p>
+
+<p>On the next corner Dan Jordan ran into Frederick with two of his own
+classmates.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_160" id="page_160" title="160"></a></p><p>"You fellows can go now," exclaimed Dan to Frederick's companions;
+"Brown, Preston and Dillon are just up there on the next corner, to
+protect Graves while you fellows go to supper. How are things going now,
+Frederick?"</p>
+
+<p>A sinking sensation attacked his heart as he asked this question, and he
+remembered afterwards that he had expected Frederick to impart ill news
+to him. The fear had come from his over-burdened conscience.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is all right, but Teola wants to see you. Could you go down
+for a little while?"</p>
+
+<p>Dan nodded and turned with a happier heart toward the Rectory, leaving
+Frederick looking for "Spuddy," "Shorts," and "Swipes."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_161" id="page_161" title="161"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXI_5259" id="CHAPTER_XXI_5259"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Three hours afterwards the three little freshmen walked zig-zaggedly,
+arm in arm, up the long hill toward the University Campus.</p>
+
+<p>Shorts had a shaky grasp of one arm of Dillon, and Spuddy the other. On
+through the cold night they dragged him, until they reached the broad
+white carriage way that led to the fraternity house. Here Swipes
+stumbled, loosening himself from the grasp of his companions.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ju&mdash;just look at him," growled Spuddy in a disgusted tone; "he
+ought to freeze stiff. Look how his le&mdash;legs wab&mdash;wabble! They lo&mdash;look
+like four&mdash;four&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, Spud," cried Shorts. "He's only got&mdash;got two legs. What the
+mat&mdash;matter with you?... You're as drunk as he is. Don't let him drop on
+those stones!"</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't drunk," retorted Preston. "What's the mat&mdash;matter with you,
+yourself? I bet I can ge&mdash;get into&mdash;that&mdash;that fraternity without any of
+the fe&mdash;fellows seeing me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe you will," returned Shorts in a more sober manner.
+"Look there, Spud, the whole house is alight. I say&mdash;Swipes&mdash;Swipes,
+it's after midnight, and the fraternity is all lighted up."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;I don't care if it is," grunted Swipes in <a class="pagenum" name="page_162" id="page_162" title="162"></a>a low, thick voice.
+"I&mdash;I want to go to bed. Tha&mdash;that's what I want to do."</p>
+
+<p>He sank into a stupor again but the boys dragged him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want Jordan and Graves to see you like this, Swipes?" demanded
+Shorts stopping in the center of the carriage drive. "If you don't&mdash;you
+take a mighty quick sneak up the back stairs, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The sentence was never finished for the door opened and Dan Jordan's big
+form loomed up before their dazed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Shorts?" called Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been for the last three hours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Down there," mumbled Shorts in a smothered tone, desiring to hide their
+plight if possible.</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of all that's good, Shorts," groaned Spuddy, "let me get
+into the house and change my clothes.... There goes Swipes again in the
+snow. Get up, fool, here's the 'Captain.'"</p>
+
+<p>"To&mdash;to the devil with the 'Captain,'" muttered Swipes.</p>
+
+<p>But Dan's next sentence completely awoke the senses of all save Swipes.
+He only grasped it dimly through the cobwebs of his drunken brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Graves?" demanded Jordan, coming to the top step.</p>
+
+<p>The silence that followed was as grim as the falling snow. Spuddy and
+Shorts were dragging the limp Swipes up the long steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Graves?... We haven't seen him," interjected Shorty Brown, and Dan
+Jordan answered gravely:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_163" id="page_163" title="163"></a></p><p>"Then the sophomores have captured him, that's a certainty! He hasn't
+been here, and he hasn't been to the Rectory."</p>
+
+<p>Shorts, now thoroughly sober, followed the big freshman into the
+drawing-room, where a dozen or more downcast-looking boys were curled up
+on divans. Swipes was being urged up the broad oak stairs, Spuddy now
+and then giving him a severe poke in the ribs. Preston perched the
+hapless boy against his chamber door with the injunction to get to bed
+the best he could. Swipes turned helplessly to his room-mate.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Spuddy, help a fellow, will you? Just give me my pyjamas."</p>
+
+<p>"Get them yourself!" retorted Preston, shoving Dillon into his
+bed-chamber. "It's a nice mess we're in with the 'Parson' gone."</p>
+
+<p>With a disgusted kick at Swipes he left him reeling desperately once
+more. Dillon swayed forward from the center of the room toward the
+doorway. He had heard as in a dream Spuddy's parting shot about fellows
+getting drunk and forgetting how to act. Suddenly the floor rose up and
+hit him on the nose, but the polished boards, so bright that he could
+see his face in them, fell back politely, leaving Swipes standing,
+looking helplessly about him. Every piece of furniture, bed, bureau,
+table and chairs, flew around and around him in the wildest disorder.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes reeled after them, in their flight through the room. Around and
+around past the bed to the door&mdash;once Swipes thought they would fly
+through. Bracing himself to catch the flying bed, he came up with a bang
+against the beveled mirror which broke and <a class="pagenum" name="page_164" id="page_164" title="164"></a>splintered under his weight.
+He was lying in the ruins when some one came and put him to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The regret of the little freshman the next morning when the dismal news
+of the missing president came to him was intensely genuine. They told
+him that the whole town had been searched, but that Graves had
+disappeared as completely as if he were no longer on the earth.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When Dan Jordan left Frederick Graves on the corner of Ithaca's main
+street, the young president began to search for his three classmates.
+Shorts and the other two must be somewhere near for Dan had told him so.
+He turned to the left, walking toward "Jay's" resort, where with his
+knowledge of the three little freshmen's habits, he would probably find
+them. It was a nuisance to be followed about and guarded as if he were a
+criminal, yet he would go through anything rather than be absent from
+the banquet.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he felt a bag thrown over his head and he was dragged
+completely off his feet. Then with much force he was shoved into a
+carriage, a heavy hand held over his mouth. He heard a pair of horses
+whipped into rapid motion. Frederick could not imagine in which
+direction he was being driven, for the constant turning of corners made
+it seem to the smothered boy that they were tearing around in a circle.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the vehicle came to a sharp standstill. During the ride his
+ankles and wrists had been tightly corded, and no sooner had the
+carriage halted than several pairs of hands carried him swiftly up a
+flight of stairs into a house and along a carpetless hall.</p>
+
+<p>When the cloth was removed from his head, Frederick <a class="pagenum" name="page_165" id="page_165" title="165"></a>was in the presence
+of two sophomores, Mathew Armstrong and Paul Howe.</p>
+
+<p>"Hard luck," said Armstrong, looking at Frederick with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather," he replied, glancing about. "But what can't be cured must be
+endured. If I am to stay here, I hope I am to be fed."</p>
+
+<p>"Not with banquet cake, Freddy," laughed Howe; "you'll have plain
+bread&mdash;until after the banquet. Now just give us your coat and vest, old
+chap, and your collar and tie."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick's ready obedience made Armstrong exclaim jovially:</p>
+
+<p>"That's the right attitude, isn't it, Howe? No one would think to look
+at you, Graves, that you were so docile. You knew what you were saying
+when you said, 'what couldn't be cured must be endured,' and I say,
+'all's fair in love and war,' so you stay here until after that grand
+supper."</p>
+
+<p>Without answering, Frederick turned his eyes gloomily about his prison.
+The room was almost bare. In one corner was a bed, in another a cot with
+some blankets upon it. A long window ran nearly to the floor, minus a
+blind on one side while on the other a green shutter hung by one hinge,
+making a creaking noise as the wind swung it back and forth. Frederick
+reasoned that the window faced the street for he could hear crunching
+footsteps in the hard snow as pedestrians passed.</p>
+
+<p>A wagon rolled squeakingly by and all was quiet.</p>
+
+<p>In the night Frederick endeavored to plan his escape. He believed the
+house to be within the city limits, but during the long, dark drive he
+had lost all sense of direction. <a class="pagenum" name="page_166" id="page_166" title="166"></a>Through the flickering of the smoky
+lamp he saw Armstrong with a revolver in his hand, watching him
+intently. So the darkness passed and the daylight came in at the window,
+throwing long slant rays upon the dusty floor and lighting the faded
+paper on the wall.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_167" id="page_167" title="167"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXII_5428" id="CHAPTER_XXII_5428"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dominie Graves had a consultation with Dan Jordan over the disappearance
+of his son, and then climbed the University hill to Professor Young's
+office.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel sure that Frederick has not been harmed," said Graves after
+greeting the professor, but there was question in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>An expression of deep concern spread over Young's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I heartily hope not," responded he, "for I know of no finer young man
+in the University."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the boy would put up a great fight if he had a chance," resumed
+the minister, "but with a lot of fellows against him one chap can't do
+much. I hardly know what to think. There seems to be nothing to do but
+to await his return. Young Jordan said last night that they had searched
+every place where it was possible for him to be, but the boy was not to
+be found. His mother is growing anxious."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think that she would be worried," replied Young. "It's a
+beastly practise this stealing of the freshman's president, and unworthy
+of such a college as this. I shall be glad when it is abolished. There
+is nothing during the year that creates such furore as this banquet."</p>
+
+<p>A file of papers was under Professor Young's hand and as he spoke he
+toyed absent-mindedly with one of <a class="pagenum" name="page_168" id="page_168" title="168"></a>the long official envelopes. Dominie
+Graves caught a glimpse of some words that made the color rush hot into
+his face. The envelope contained an appeal for a new trial for Orn
+Skinner. He coughed slightly and opened a new topic.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you are still interested in Skinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you succeeded in getting him a new trial?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, but at any hour I expect to hear that the governor will give
+me an opportunity to defend him. I fully believe that the man is
+innocent, that he ought to have another chance for his life. As I said
+in the court-room the squatter trials are but farces. I don't approve of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"You're but a stranger in our town," interposed the Dominie. "When
+you've been here as long as I have, Professor Young, you will see that
+the strictest measures are necessary with these people. The rope is none
+too good for that man, Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid," ejaculated Young, "that I should live ever to wish away a
+man's life on any&mdash;personal motive."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's sweet upturned face, shrouded in red-brown hair rose before
+him, but it did not obscure the dark flush that swept over the handsome
+face of the minister. The professor had intimated that he thought
+personal motives were being used to persecute the squatter. This tried
+the patience of Elias Graves as he sat gathering an argument to refute
+the accusation. He had even persuaded himself that it was for the good
+of the town to remove one after another of the loathsome fishermen
+either by the rope or imprisonment. Without <a class="pagenum" name="page_169" id="page_169" title="169"></a>their men the squatter
+women also would disappear from the shores.</p>
+
+<p>He rose with a sense of coming evil stealing over him for the man seated
+opposite was a tower of strength and his own position in the town had
+been weakened in the late church conflict. The reins of affairs were
+being swept from his hands. He could not speak out more emphatically
+than he had against Skinner. On all sides, friends were rising
+mushroom-like to rescue the fisherman from the hangman's noose.</p>
+
+<p>If he himself could gain a few strong friends he would be able to sweep
+the squatter from the face of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>As he walked toward the Rectory after leaving Professor Young he set his
+teeth hard, these thoughts rushing through his mind, and inflaming his
+desire to rule in Ithaca as he always had. Even his anxiety about
+Frederick was obscured by the multitudinous plans that one after another
+were born in his brain. He closed the library door of the Rectory with
+an annoyed air and dropped into an arm-chair to think.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Professor Young sat long after the departure of Dominie Graves, looking
+at the bundle of papers in his hand. He had not dared to venture to the
+Skinner hut, although his heart called constantly for the red-haired
+girl who was holding the shanty home against her enemies. He knew that
+Tess was living as best she could, existing on the meager fare allotted
+to her kind. Young had seen Tessibel but once since her father had been
+taken to Auburn Prison and his face flushed as he thought that in a few
+days he would be able to tell her <a class="pagenum" name="page_170" id="page_170" title="170"></a>that her "Daddy" had received a stay
+upon his execution, that he honestly believed the shadowing rope would
+never seek the beloved head again.</p>
+
+<p>It was only of late that Deforest Young would allow himself to admit
+that Tessibel Skinner had a stronger hold upon him than he ever thought
+possible for any woman to obtain, much less a child of such a race. He
+knew now that his life's interest lay in making a woman of her, a woman
+such as only Tess could make, with her deep primeval nature and splendid
+soul. If the girl could but return his love in part, it would place him
+in a position to help and educate her, but his great growing love gave
+birth to a fear that he might not be able to awaken in the squatter girl
+a soul affection for himself. Nevertheless he would spare nothing to
+elevate her. He expected a hard task to prove Skinner not guilty, and
+every hour he hoped to receive a letter from the Governor of the state
+giving him the desired year to gain the necessary evidence in favor of
+the fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>He was still meditating in this strain when the Governor's letter was
+handed to him. For almost an hour he sat with his head in his hands,
+building an imaginary home, which he had never thought would be his, and
+in still sweeter imaginings he held close to his heart a fair, sweet
+girl, growing into her heritage of womanhood.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>For two whole days Frederick Graves had been held a captive in his
+unfurnished prison. He knew that forty-eight hours marked the time
+before the banquet, also that if he could not escape before then he
+would have to be absent from the class dinner. Only once had Armstrong
+spoken to him that day and an expression <a class="pagenum" name="page_171" id="page_171" title="171"></a>of fine scorn upon the
+handsome president's face had been the answer. The sophomore was
+stretched out upon the bed, the revolver still in his hand, and drumming
+with the fingers of his left hand upon the much soiled wall:</p>
+
+<p>"Graves," he began, "if you think this is any snap for me or that I like
+my job you're mistaken. I hate to be cooped up here as much as you do."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick might not have been within hearing of the words for all the
+attention he paid to the speaker. Armstrong sat up straight with a deep
+far-fetched yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Graves," implored he, "let's play cards. It's hanged dismal
+with nothing to do."</p>
+
+<p>Still Frederick kept his dignified silence. He looked down upon his
+coatless arms and pondered, then raised his eyes to the long window, but
+settled them again upon his boots. From the corner of his eye he saw his
+jailer place the revolver upon the table&mdash;it roused him suddenly for he
+was getting desperate to escape. With lightning-like rapidity he made up
+his mind to action. Lunging forward he brought his right fist in heavy
+contact with his companion's nose while the strong left hand swept the
+revolver under the opposite bed.</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously with the sound of the falling weapon came the crash of
+broken glass&mdash;Frederick Graves had swept like a young hurricane through
+the long window. The falling of the heavy body, and running footsteps
+brought Armstrong hastily to his feet. He dazedly brushed back a lock of
+hair from his brow, scrambled back under the bed after the gun then
+rushed to the broken window.</p>
+
+<p>"By gosh, that was brave," ejaculated he.</p>
+
+<p>Three times he fired the pistol into the night&mdash;the <a class="pagenum" name="page_172" id="page_172" title="172"></a>signal of trouble
+to give to his classmates&mdash;then sat down and waited disgustedly, nursing
+his bruised nose.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick landed in the street, stunned for a single instant, but the
+snow was soft and the moment critical. He gathered himself up, rubbed
+off the blood that trickled from his fingers, and broke through the
+street on a run. He found himself in the lower portion of the town not
+far from the Leigh Valley tracks. To go eastward toward home would
+attract attention for he was without hat, coat, or vest, and it would
+probably lead to his recapture. He crossed the inlet bridge, passing a
+man here and there who stared after him as if he were a shade, which had
+risen from its grave seeking some kindred soul to haunt.</p>
+
+<p>As Frederick passed the lighted squatter mission, the thought of the
+warmth within made his teeth chatter. He would have given much to have
+been able to place his cold hands over the fire which burned brightly in
+the room. Suddenly he stopped in his rapid flight for liberty for
+stepping to the tracks directly in front of him was the squatter girl.
+She had not noticed him and the student knew that she was homeward
+bound.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl stopped, electrified, and tossed up her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner!" called Frederick again.</p>
+
+<p>When the girl recognized him, she came toward him with the awkward,
+conscious gait of a maid walking before the man she loved. Her eyes took
+in the half-clothed form of the student with one hasty glance.</p>
+
+<p>"What air the matter?" she asked in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>Had the student been brought face to face with a dilemma like that of
+Daddy Skinner? With the instincts <a class="pagenum" name="page_173" id="page_173" title="173"></a>of a squatter Tess could think of
+nothing that would intimidate but the law.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just escaped," replied Frederick, shivering.</p>
+
+<p>Then he was in danger. He needed her as she had needed him, and Tess had
+no doubt but that he was on his way to her shanty to ask her aid.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air runnin' from some bloke?" she demanded slyly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But ye air cold," said she, "ye can't walk four miles without a coat."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going to take me?" Frederick scented a place of safety.</p>
+
+<p>"To my hut," replied the squatter stoically. "Wait! Ye stop here a
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>She bounded into the road from the railway tracks, leaving Frederick
+staring helplessly after her. At the door of the mission she halted with
+the slyness that had been taught her from the cradle, bending her head
+forward to ascertain if any person were witness of her action. She
+opened the door and fled like a young deer toward the organ, then,
+ripping the crimson cloth from the altar, she fled out again into the
+night, running pantingly toward the student.</p>
+
+<p>"It air for you&mdash;put it on," she ordered, proffering him the embroidered
+spread.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you&mdash;?" hesitated Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it on, I say. I'll fan it back some time if ye will. Ye can't
+freeze with that&mdash;and there air bacon, fish and bread in the hut."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was low and vibrant with untried emotions. Something uplifting
+in the criminal action of the girl <a class="pagenum" name="page_174" id="page_174" title="174"></a>so touched Frederick that the
+nearness of tears called a throb to his throat. Without expostulating he
+wrapped the brilliant covering about his head, the embroidered ends
+hanging to his waist. Frederick Graves appreciated for the first time in
+his short, shielded life the awful temptations that make these squatter
+people in their cold and misery take what did not belong to them. He
+followed Tessibel, with no spoken word; on and on, up past the lighted
+huts, to the gaping gorge under the trestle. Tessibel knew that the
+student could not traverse it without her help, and she also knew that
+to touch his hand would be the sweetest of happiness to her. At any
+other time her soul would have recoiled from such temerity, but the life
+and welfare of Daddy's deliverer were at stake. She halted abruptly. The
+night was so dark she could scarcely outline the student as he stood
+near her.</p>
+
+<p>"Take hold of my hand," she ordered. "It air the trestle. It air a long
+one and the steps be far apart."</p>
+
+<p>Without a demurring word, Frederick grasped the strong fingers she held
+out to him. A smile, obscured by the darkness, played about the girl's
+sensitive mouth. The young body was pulsing with life&mdash;with intense
+gratitude, for was not she, Tessibel Skinner, helping her friend? With
+halting steps the boy and girl commenced the most perilous part of their
+journey, Tessibel leading the way. The student stopped in the middle of
+the long trestle.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we nearly over?" he asked in a low voice. The awful magnificence of
+the dark night, the rushing water tumbling and roaring over the rocks
+beneath them, awed him into what was almost timidity.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_175" id="page_175" title="175"></a></p><p>"Nope; come on, don't stop here," urged Tess. "'Taint a good place."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the gap Tess tried to draw her hand away, but it was a
+feeble motion and she ceased as she noted that Frederick was still
+clinging to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me walk with your hand in mine," he said simply with no extra
+pressure of the fingers within his. "It is dark for us both."</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the journey a silence fell upon them. Kennedy's
+brindle bull, scenting a friend, capered madly for a word from Tess, but
+the squatter paid no heed to her dog chum.</p>
+
+<p>She took her hand from Frederick's to unfasten the door and light the
+candle. While they were walking the tracks, the woman in her had tried
+to remember in what condition she had left the hut. She looked about
+hastily. Before lighting another candle she smuggled the frying pan from
+the floor and picked up the loaf of bread that had fallen behind the
+stove from the table. While Tessibel lighted the fire, Frederick sat
+huddled in the wooden rocking-chair, still wrapped in the crimson
+altar-cloth, and watched the girl, who, as she moved clumsily to and
+fro, uttered no sound save now and then a characteristic grunt. Instinct
+told the squatter that she would choke the sensitive throat of the
+student if she raised the dust by sweeping and she refrained from using
+a broom, but Frederick wished vaguely that she would gather up the fish
+bones and crumbs of bread from her path that they might not crunch so
+audibly under her heavy boots. An open Bible placed on Daddy Skinner's
+stool attracted his attention in his survey of the room. Through the
+flickering <a class="pagenum" name="page_176" id="page_176" title="176"></a>light he could see the passages Tessibel had marked. He must
+say something or his brain would burst.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a Bible, I see?"</p>
+
+<p>His words sounded strained and his voice foreign to his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you read it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I spells at it," Tess replied in tones a little surly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get it?" asked Frederick presently.</p>
+
+<p>She waited a moment before answering, straightening up from the oven
+where she had placed the cold bacon left from her breakfast to heat.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did I get what?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"The Bible," replied Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>He had asked about the book in the first place for something to talk of,
+for the roaring of the wind through the hut's rafters distracted him. He
+desired to hear the squatter say something&mdash;it all seemed so much like a
+dream that he feared to awaken only to find himself in the empty house
+with the sophomore's revolver staring at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I cribbed it from the mission," answered the girl, pronouncing her
+words plainly. She leaned toward him and finished abruptly. "I took it
+from the place that comed from."</p>
+
+<p>She was pointing toward the warm red altar-cloth bound about Frederick's
+head. Alas, Tess had needed a Bible and had stolen it; he had needed
+warm covering and had accepted it. There was no difference between the
+minister's son and the squatter's daughter. Vicissitude had forced each
+into a like position, and somehow Frederick lost his sense of right and
+wrong, for he could not sit in judgment upon either action. Never before
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_177" id="page_177" title="177"></a>in all of his short young life had he really needed anything for
+personal comfort&mdash;but the altar-cloth. Tess saw the struggle going on in
+his mind; she bent toward him, reasoning:</p>
+
+<p>"I needed the Bible, didn't I? Didn't ye say that to save Daddy
+Skinner's life I had to have it? Ye needed that red rag what ye got
+round yer head. There air only one way in this world&mdash;" She was moving
+toward him inch by inch, the soles of the fisherman's boots dragging the
+bread crumbs and fish bones beneath them. "Ye takes what ye need to save
+yer life, or the life of yer Daddy. Folks mostly never steals what they
+ain't needin'."</p>
+
+<p>The message went straight home to Frederick. He could not combat such
+reasoning. He knew well that he would have frozen but for the timely
+stealing of the altar-cloth&mdash;also, he knew that the Bible was as
+necessary to Tess as the altar-cloth was to him. He mentally lashed
+himself into a state of unrest. Why had he not thought of a Bible and
+given Tess one? It would have been so easy for him to have supplied her
+small needs!</p>
+
+<p>He was watching the girl through the gloomy haze of the bacon smoke, but
+spoke no more until Tessibel ordered him to draw up to the table and
+eat.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a piece of bacon," said she.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick held up his plate, and Tess shoved a generous portion into it.
+She gave him a tempting brown fish, cut a slice of bread, placing it
+upon the side of his tin plate, and commenced to eat rapidly from her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>Neither boy nor girl mentioned sleeping until the hands of the small
+nickel clock on the shelf in the corner pointed out the hour of eleven.
+Then Tessibel opened the subject without hesitation or embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_178" id="page_178" title="178"></a></p><p>"It air time fer ye to turn in," said she, banking the embers in the
+stove for the night.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sit up," replied Frederick stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"There air two beds," commented Tess in simple ignorance of all law save
+necessity. "Mine air under Daddy's&mdash;see?"</p>
+
+<p>She dragged the rope cot from under the larger bed&mdash;a cloud of dust
+rising white to the shanty's rafters and settling like a soft mist upon
+the student.</p>
+
+<p>"I air goin' to sleep here," explained Tess with no mention of the
+lately exposed dirt. "I only slep' in Daddy's bed cause he wasn't
+here.... Ye go to bed while I gets the sticks fer the mornin'."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick placed his hand on her arm almost timidly. She was so
+different from any girl he had ever known!</p>
+
+<p>"Please allow me to get the wood for you."</p>
+
+<p>Two rows of white teeth bared themselves in a frank smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I's a squatter," she said, "and squatter women allers gets the wood.
+Scoot to bed."</p>
+
+<p>When Tessibel came in from the mud cellar, Frederick lay with his face
+toward the wall, Orn Skinner's soiled blankets wrapped closely about his
+shoulders. Tessibel placed the leather strap over the staple in the
+door, and barred up for the night.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_179" id="page_179" title="179"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII_5821" id="CHAPTER_XXIII_5821"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>For almost an hour Tessibel lay thinking deeply, her brain alive with
+the past rapid happening of events. That the student would ever sleep
+under her roof was more than she had dreamed. She could hear him
+breathing evenly; he was asleep with "Daddy's" blankets wrapped tightly
+about his finely shaped head. Through the dim light Tessibel could
+follow the outline of the great form stretched out on the roped bed. A
+feeling of thanksgiving swept over her&mdash;she was his protector. She had
+not thought of asking about his crime. Of course he was fleeing from the
+law, but he could have done nothing that would lessen her desire to aid
+him. If he had murdered, then it was necessary that he should; if he had
+stolen, it was the common lot of all men in need. The one thing to do
+was to keep him from the clutches of the law. She felt herself getting
+drowsy, and soon the even breathing of the squatter and the student told
+that both slept.</p>
+
+<p>Tess would never know what time it happened. Suddenly her eyes flew open
+and through the light of a lantern she saw Ben Letts leering into her
+face. The frosty air was blowing in gusts through the window which the
+squatter Ben had forced open. The horror of the situation came slowly
+over her. For the instant she forgot the student sleeping in her
+father's bed, and Ben Letts had not noticed him.</p>
+
+<p>Ben began to speak in low tones:</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_180" id="page_180" title="180"></a></p><p>"If ye wants to live, don't holler ... Get up!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess crawled out of bed, fully dressed. Frederick slept on, hearing no
+sound, for the cold room had compelled him nearly to cover his head.
+Suddenly the presence of the student came into the girl's mind; but she
+only threw a furtive glance at the sleeping youth.</p>
+
+<p>"What do ye want?" she demanded vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"First ye air to come with me to the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's&mdash;I air
+got somethin' for him.... He air dead in the mornin' by the hand of the
+girl what loves him."</p>
+
+<p>There was unlimitable sarcasm in the vile, low face as Ben hissed this
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"And after that?" asked Tess, edging toward the lower part of "Daddy's"
+bed. There she could reach for the covering over Frederick, and he would
+save her. The feeling of the night before that she was his protector
+vanished. He would&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind after that," growled Ben. "Ye had yer chance at bein' hones'
+and ye wouldn't take it."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel slipped her feet into Daddy's boots&mdash;she was strangely buoyant
+and unafraid. It was the woman in her rising to that supreme moment when
+she should call upon the man she loved, and he would answer. Ben was
+leaning against the wall, his eyes having sought for no other person in
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>With the agility of a hare, Tessibel dashed around him toward Frederick,
+and snatched the blankets from the bed. The workings of Ben's mind were
+so slow that the form of the student loomed up, before he realized that
+the minister's son was in Tessibel's cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air here to save me, Frederick," cried Tess, the <a class="pagenum" name="page_181" id="page_181" title="181"></a>light of the
+lantern sending a ray into the upturned widening eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Letts dropped his under jaw, his body relaxing in fear. He was an arrant
+coward like the most of his downtrodden race. Then something shifted
+through his thick brain, and he smiled knowingly.</p>
+
+<p>"So the high and the low air together&mdash;eh? The Dominie's son, and the
+fisherman's brat&mdash;the student&mdash;and the&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Before he had finished the sneering words, Frederick had struck him full
+in the face. Boyish dignity&mdash;his father's position&mdash;God&mdash;everything was
+forgotten save Tess. He only knew that she was being maligned, and that
+her holy mission of rescuing him from the frost of a night like this was
+being turned into evil by a squint-eyed fisherman whom he had never seen
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Into the man's fat flabby body crashed Frederick's strong fists.
+Tessibel stood looking on, her head bent forward alertly. One arm was
+clasped about her neck&mdash;excitement sparkling from the flushed face and
+panting lips. Once the throat sound that came when she was excited
+rolled forth; otherwise she was silent.</p>
+
+<p>Thrashed from side to side, his ragged coat made worse by the severe
+shaking Frederick was administering, Ben Letts groaned audibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you had enough?" demanded the student, standing over the
+fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I's a goin' home."</p>
+
+<p>Tess laughed low and wickedly. She loved to see the blood oozing from
+the mark in the ugly face. Every drop matched those dragged from the
+hearts of the brat's mother, who had suffered for Ben, and of the poor
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_182" id="page_182" title="182"></a>little miserable child himself, struggling for life in the Longman
+shanty.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better go home," ordered Frederick, "and I want to tell you
+something. If I ever hear you uttering a word about my being in this
+hut, I'll follow you to the ends of the earth, and flog the life out of
+you.... Don't try any of your tricks on me, either."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick shivered as the wind swept cold from the frozen lake to his
+damp brow. Ben had lifted his lantern and was swaying toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go hum," said he, "but I ain't done with ye&mdash;some day&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick bounded forward like a whiplash, but Tess held him back. Ben
+gave a quick jump and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"He wasn't worth a-hurtin' any more," Tess commented, lighting a candle.
+"I know he air the man what killed my other Frederick."</p>
+
+<p>The name slipped out with loving intonation.</p>
+
+<p>Then the boy and the girl turned and faced each other. The shanty rocked
+in the wind like the cradle of a child. The willow mourned its tale of
+winter over the roof, scraping the broken tin in hollow groans,
+shrieking now and then as a gust roared through it.</p>
+
+<p>For fully three minutes after the going of Ben, Tessibel stood looking
+at the student. He had saved her from Myra's fate, from a hated thing
+that made her teeth press hard together, and her eyes gather an
+expression of melting gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"It were&mdash;it were&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the halting tongue could not finish. Untutored as she was, Tess had
+read the message in the student's eyes. Love teaches in one night its
+dreadful longing and response. Its domineering power brought Frederick
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_183" id="page_183" title="183"></a>Graves nearer to Tess in her rags. It made them equal, even as all are
+equal in love&mdash;and in death. In an instant the girl in the fish-tainted
+tatters was clasped close to his heart, the bright, beautiful face
+lifted to his. Then came the kiss, the making of which blended two lives
+indissolubly together. The paleness of death settled over the boy; the
+strong muscles of his shoulders stood out beneath the whiteness of his
+shirt sleeves, while his fingers pressed the red-brown head closer to
+him, his kiss deepening the crimson richness in the squatter's face. It
+was the one supreme passionate moment of Tessibel's life. The sound of
+the whistling wind left her ears. The cold night blasts driving through
+the window were as the faint breezes of a summer's evening. The
+smoldering candle lifted its flame, blazing forth a glory that
+surrounded the student with a golden halo. Tessibel had experienced her
+first kiss. The nature in her demanded that she know the fullness of
+it&mdash;the pitying fullness which would bring to her that which it brings
+to all loving women dominated by the passion born within them. The blood
+of her race, her uneducated primeval race, rose and clamored for its
+own. In her untutored youth she could have crushed the lad in her wild
+longing for such another kiss.</p>
+
+<p>Pantingly she drew herself from Frederick. Why? Tess could never tell
+why! Myra's love for Ben Letts rushed over her overwhelmingly.... The
+"brat's" mother knew the sweetness of a kiss, and in it had forgotten
+the blasting winter winds on the ragged rocks where Ben Letts had broken
+her arm.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick, ashy-pale, struggled for control; a consciousness of the
+ignorance of the girl&mdash;and his own godly profession broke upon him; and
+he sank upon the <a class="pagenum" name="page_184" id="page_184" title="184"></a>stool with a sob. His face in his hands filled
+Tessibel's soul with remorse. Delicately, with the touch of a lady born,
+she rested her hand upon the student's dark head. The small fingers,
+used to the drudgery of a fisherwoman's life, lifted the damp hair from
+the high forehead. Her woman's sense of the fitness of things rose
+keenly to quiet the boy's grief over his indiscretion.</p>
+
+<p>"It were good of ye to remember that Daddy were gone," she whispered.
+"He gives me kisses on the bill."</p>
+
+<p>All passion had left her tones. Of course, thought the student, she was
+but a child&mdash;but a forlorn beautiful child born without&mdash;without what?
+If he could have known&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The next moment he did know. With abandon, complete and absolute, the
+hot blood coursing madly from her heart to her face, Tess threw herself
+upon the shanty floor. Frederick Graves drew her quickly to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess ... Tessibel ... Tess ... Stand up, Tess!"</p>
+
+<p>The last word came out in a shout. He had her in his arms, and she was
+clinging to him as ivy clings for life to an old church.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel made no effort to support herself. She was leaning limply
+against him with closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It air good to forget&mdash;sometimes," she stammered, "I air a forgettin'
+all but the&mdash;student."</p>
+
+<p>As on that memorable day when "Daddy" had been taken to prison in
+Auburn, and she had planted herself in his arms not to be removed, so
+Tess hung to Frederick. Ben Letts was forgotten, the suffering child in
+the Longman shanty whom she loved was forgotten; even Daddy Skinner was
+forgotten. Tessibel had found <a class="pagenum" name="page_185" id="page_185" title="185"></a>her man, and all the experiences of her
+kind could not help her in her hour of temptation.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, Tess, we can't forget, stand up." The boy's words spread
+through the dazed brain. Frederick dragged her arms from his neck,
+forcing her to the stool.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, have you forgotten&mdash;the Christ, your father and me?"</p>
+
+<p>Had she forgotten him? Only him she had remembered&mdash;only his voice rang
+through her like the sweetest music. But she was so quiet now that the
+boy seated himself beside her, drawing her hands into his.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess," he began, intensely, bending to look into the flushed face,
+"Tess&mdash;look at me!"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the brown eyes dragged their gaze upward until the boy and girl
+were staring wide-lidded directly at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, have you ever thought that, some time, we might be more to each
+other&mdash;some time in the future when you have learned and studied much?"</p>
+
+<p>Wonderingly she drew her hands from his, hiding them in the folds of the
+torn gingham skirt.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a squatter," she got out at last. "You be high&mdash;I air low, as Ben
+Letts said.... But, but," she faltered, finishing her sentence brokenly,
+"But I's yer squatter."</p>
+
+<p>For one bitter moment the Longman child with its old-man face flitted
+across her vision. She shivered, rose hastily, and went to the stove,
+scattering the lids from their openings before uttering another word.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick was watching her critically.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to go to school, Tess," he said presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I has to stay here," she replied beginning to stir <a class="pagenum" name="page_186" id="page_186" title="186"></a>the embers. "If I
+left the hut alone yer pappy could fire it, and Daddy and me wouldn't
+have a home.... Ain't nice nights like this to be without a roof to
+cover ye."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick realized this. Had he not been that very night with no place
+to lay his head, and no kindly hand save hers to give him something to
+eat? He flushed deeply at the mention of his father, and marveled that
+the squatter girl had not spoken with any hard feeling in her tone. It
+was what could be expected&mdash;so her voice implied; if she left the shanty
+alone, the rightful owner could then take back what the law would not
+allow if the squatters remained.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be a goin' to stay here to-morry?" asked Tess later by five minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"If I may."</p>
+
+<p>"Be ye goin' to tell me what ye air hidin' for?"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick threw back his head and laughed. He had forgotten to tell her.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. You see I am the freshman class president.... The boys in
+the upper classes kidnaped me, and kept me prisoner in an unused house
+at the inlet.... I escaped last night, and you brought me here."</p>
+
+<p>The story was so tame&mdash;so unlike what Tess had expected to hear that she
+drew a long, disappointed breath. There had been a vague wish within her
+heart that she were going to be of infinite benefit to him. It was such
+a little thing to lose a fine supper. His life had not been in danger as
+she had supposed.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand, Tess, that it's a disgrace to our class not to have the
+president there," Frederick burst <a class="pagenum" name="page_187" id="page_187" title="187"></a>forth, "even if he is kept away by
+force. I would rather sacrifice anything than have it happen&mdash;only, I do
+not want to harm your good name, Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>Tess stared at him blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Squatter's brats don't have no names.... Ye can't do me any harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I could," insisted Frederick. "What if that scoundrel who was
+here a little while ago should say that I were here?... It would harm us
+both."</p>
+
+<p>Tess paused in her breakfast preparations long enough to say simply,</p>
+
+<p>"Yer Christ wouldn't let him harm ye, would He?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy swept her with an incredulous glance.</p>
+
+<p>Did she so thoroughly have faith in a miraculous interference in human
+affairs by divine power? The delicate face was lighted with exquisite
+coloring which came and went in the morning light like the tints of a
+sea-shell. The bright trustful eyes were shining into his, every motion
+of the lovely head and body bespeaking the blind faith in which the
+squatter girl lived. Frederick found himself wishing impetuously with
+all his soul that he could command a faith like hers. His own seemed so
+dead, so unlike a living faith that he sighed as he turned toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel," he said honestly, "you are a better girl than I am a boy ...
+I am learning many things from you." Then, looking up with a smile after
+a moment's thought, he finished: "No, I believe with you, that it is
+impossible for him to harm one of us if we have faith in God."</p>
+
+<p>"So, I can help ye to-morry if ye ain't in Daddy's fix?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_188" id="page_188" title="188"></a></p><p>Then Frederick understood that she would have saved him, even if he had
+been in danger of his life.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied, "you can aid me.... Do you know where my fraternity
+is?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess shook her head with a troubled expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you where it is! I want you to go there and ask for Dan
+Jordan and tell him I am here. You must speak to no one else about me,
+or they will come and take me away, and I told you I would almost rather
+die than not be with my class at the banquet."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's spirits rose high. She could help him&mdash;after all.</p>
+
+<p>"How air ye goin' to get into the place where ye eats without gettin'
+took again?"</p>
+
+<p>A flashing intelligence leaped into the brown eyes during her question.</p>
+
+<p>"I knows how I can help ye." She lowered her voice and began to describe
+the escape and the final fulfillment of their plan.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick chuckled when she had finished.</p>
+
+<p>"That's capital. You tell Dan Jordan, then, to-morrow what you have told
+me. You see the banquet takes place to-morrow night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I tells him, so I will. I goes to town early to-morry and up to
+your house.... Come and eat now!"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_189" id="page_189" title="189"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV_6156" id="CHAPTER_XXIV_6156"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next morning at eight o'clock Tessibel walked eastward up the long
+hill toward the college. The "Cranium" fellows were yet asleep. The
+whole house was tired out from looking for their captured president. The
+underclassmen did not know that Graves had escaped, Frederick's enemies
+keeping them in ignorance as long as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel turned into the carriage drive toward the fraternity with a
+fish-basket upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>A man cleaning snow from the flight of steps addressed her.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to see Mr. Jordan.... He air here, ain't he? I has somethin' for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it to me," ordered the janitor, "I'll take it to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't! He said as how I wasn't to give it to no one but hisself, and I
+won't, so there!"</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't up yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care, I'll wait, then.... Tell him, will ye, that I air a
+waitin'?"</p>
+
+<p>Dan Jordan wondered as he crawled slowly out of bed what a girl could
+want of him at that early hour. He met Tess at the front door, and
+without waiting for him to speak Tessibel said in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>"I has somethin' to tell ye.... I air Tess the squatter's brat, what ye
+gived the coffee to at the parson's <a class="pagenum" name="page_190" id="page_190" title="190"></a>house. I said as how I has
+somethin' to tell ye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me now?" asked Dan kindly. "You see, I can't ask you in
+here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't a comin' in," and lowering her voice with a furtive glance she
+almost whispered, "I knows&mdash;I knows where the minister's son air."</p>
+
+<p>Dan started and looked at her sharply. She could mean no other than
+Frederick. He placed his fingers on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You have fish to sell," he asked, "I will take them all. Go around to
+the back door and leave them...." Then in a lower tone he ordered, "Meet
+me in five minutes at the bottom of the hill."</p>
+
+<p>The last of the sentence was breathed rather than spoken. Dan Jordan
+turned into State Street some minutes afterwards, and he could see the
+glistening red head of the fisher-girl as she swung her empty basket on
+her arm and jingled the money in her hand which she had received for the
+fish.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me quickly where Mr. Graves is," commanded Dan rushing toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"He air in my hut," answered Tess bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"Did the boys bring him there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, he got away.... And I took him there."</p>
+
+<p>She described the plan she and Frederick had formed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye see by that way ye can get him to the supper, can't ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Dan delightedly, "and we will never be able to thank you
+enough for what you have done. Let me assure you that we are very
+grateful to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, shut up!" Every white tooth showed in the <a class="pagenum" name="page_191" id="page_191" title="191"></a>wide smile, "I ain't
+done nothin'. He air done more than that for me."</p>
+
+<p>The sweet face lighted by the infinite love for the student hidden in
+her hut spoke its own secret to Dan Jordan and through his recently
+acquired knowledge of heart emotions, he stared vaguely at the girl.
+Would Frederick&mdash;no, no&mdash;the minister's son was a better lad than he.
+His eyes filled with tears and a lump came into his throat. He stood
+watching the figure of Tess moving away, and regarded intently the great
+boots, the ragged skirt, the beautiful ringlets and the proud young head
+set so well upon the sloping shoulders. Dan's mind reverted to another
+girl, no older than the squatter, and with a sigh mournful enough he
+turned back to the fraternity.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Tess walked down the lane, running as she neared the foot of the hill.
+She wanted to impart to the student what Dan had told her. With her
+fingers upon the hut latch she stopped short. Voices came from inside.
+She dropped her hand&mdash;Ben Letts was there or another squatter. Suddenly
+she opened the door and stood in the entrance. Frederick was seated upon
+"Daddy's" stool; Professor Young was standing in his fur coat with his
+back to the stove.</p>
+
+<p>The student's face had blanched to the hue of death; an expression such
+as Tess had never seen in human eyes rested in his. He was speaking and
+the girl's ears caught the words.</p>
+
+<p>"I would forfeit my life before I would harm her, believe me!" Two pairs
+of masculine eyes turned at the opening of the door, and both men were
+looking into <a class="pagenum" name="page_192" id="page_192" title="192"></a>the eager face of Tessibel. The Professor did not come
+forward to meet her; his manner was stiff and formal. For a moment even
+the student's last words left her mind, and Daddy Skinner rose before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be here to tell me about Daddy?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You needed me to come more for yourself than to tell you of your
+father, child!" said Young with accusing eyes upon Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>A sullen expression flitted across Tessibel's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye didn't need to come, if yer a goin' to make the student sorry," she
+answered haltingly. "Ye has yer own business to mind."</p>
+
+<p>Tess was standing between them, her glance turning first to Frederick,
+then to the Professor. She didn't fully understand his words, but she
+knew that Frederick had been hurt by something the lawyer had said.
+Young began to button his coat. He had thought the girl worth saving,
+and Frederick had ever been in his mind as the perfection of young
+manhood. His throat tightened; he looked at Tess and thought of his love
+for her. It was almost mastering him. Why should he suffer over such a
+girl, who insulted him even while he was trying to help her?</p>
+
+<p>Frederick stood up wearily. Professor Young ought to realize the
+situation, to remember that some shelter was necessary for him. Tess was
+stolidly arranging the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know how I came to be here," said Frederick briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is enough that I see you here," replied Young.</p>
+
+<p>In a temper Tess slammed the oven door loudly.</p>
+
+<p>"She found me on the tracks," explained Frederick. "I escaped from the
+sophomores and she brought <a class="pagenum" name="page_193" id="page_193" title="193"></a>me here. I should have frozen to death
+otherwise&mdash;and I did not think that it might harm her."</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't hurt me," cried Tessibel coming forward. "He air the one what
+helped me get my Daddy Skinner out of trouble. He air my friend!"</p>
+
+<p>The rage of the girl when she wheeled impetuously upon him made the
+Professor catch his breath. He had been the one who had done all the
+work, had given her father a new lease of life. He had come now to tell
+her about the letter, and to hear her say that a lad with no influence
+whatever had done that which it would have been impossible for him to
+do, to hear Tess give the credit which should be his to Frederick made
+Young pass his fingers through his hair nervously, and wonder just what
+the student had done to gain such praise. His own love for Tess, his
+great desire, pleaded with him to believe in both the boy and the girl.
+Tessibel's soulful expression went far in giving back to Deforest Young
+the hope that had made his days brighter and filled the future with
+promise.</p>
+
+<p>"May I stay with you to dinner, Miss Tessibel?" he said, shaking his
+shoulders. "I did not understand ... In fact I had forgotten about the
+banquet. I am glad you helped Mr. Graves make his class dinner.... May I
+stay?"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick stepped forward, holding out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," he said brokenly; "I shall never forget this&mdash;in you."</p>
+
+<p>The clasping of the two hands and the smile on the lips of the student
+made Tess broaden her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, jerk off yer coat, and eat," ordered she. "Air ye heard about
+Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Young hesitated a moment.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_194" id="page_194" title="194"></a></p><p>"What is it, Professor?" ejaculated Frederick. "Don't keep her in
+suspense."</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy ain't a-goin' to hang!... He can't!" Her eyes turned to
+Frederick. "'Cause ye said he couldn't."</p>
+
+<p>The boy flushed to the roots of his hair and glanced at Professor Young.
+Again she was giving the credit to Graves&mdash;credit the lad so little
+deserved. Frederick felt this, and muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't understand yet what you've done, Professor&mdash;I'm sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>"They've placed a stay upon your father's execution," explained Young,
+"that will give us a chance to prove him innocent.... I am positive that
+he didn't kill the gamekeeper. I went to the prison last week."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye seed him?" asked Tess eagerly, striding close to him. He felt the
+hot breath against his face and a feeling of longing coursed through his
+veins.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say about me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything good! You will have him very soon here with you, Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>The girl was fatigued with turbulent emotions, lonely and heartsick. The
+shadow of the rope was gone from Daddy Skinner. Like a relieved child
+she sank down upon the floor and began to whimper. Both men were
+silenced by the swaying red head. The bacon sputtered in the frying pan
+upon the stove, spitting the grease to the lids, where it burned away in
+tiny yellow flames.</p>
+
+<p>Then Tess raised her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What a bloke I air to cry when Daddy air a-comin' <a class="pagenum" name="page_195" id="page_195" title="195"></a>home.... We air
+a-goin' to eat now," she ended, wiping her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Before the meal was over Tess was on better terms with Young than she
+had ever been before. He outlined to the delighted girl his visit to the
+prison.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father says, child," he related, "that he took the gun from the
+stern of the boat, and laid it on the shore, near where he was hauling
+the net.... He heard a shot and ran forward and was arrested. He swore
+to me that he did not fire the gun and I believe him. The fatal step was
+in his taking the rifle at all, because that was disobeying the law."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air my friend, too," Tess said beamingly, leaning over and taking
+the Professor's hand in hers. Before he could stop her, she had raised
+it to her lips, kissed it several times, and dropping it again, calmly
+went on eating.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_196" id="page_196" title="196"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXV_6390" id="CHAPTER_XXV_6390"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the "Cranium" Fraternity, Dan Jordan was closeted with three little
+freshmen. Swipes looked downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to do something to help," he wailed; "I feel as if it were all
+my fault that the parson is gone. We can't have any fun without him.
+It's tedious, too, being cooped up here not being able to go anywhere
+for fear of being taken ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Dan cleared his throat preparatory to speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"If you fellows won't peach," said he in an eager undertone, "I'll tell
+you something and you can help."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have Graves if you will all do as I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Watch me," cried Swipes, turning a somersault. When he was in the most
+harrowing position, Brown gave him a swift kick.</p>
+
+<p>"Give him one for me, Shorts," whispered Spuddy, but Swipes was on his
+feet again, ready to listen.</p>
+
+<p>There was a general hurrah when Jordan in subdued tones had outlined the
+plan.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are Graves' evening clothes," demanded Dillon; "we must smuggle
+them into the opera-house some way."</p>
+
+<p>"They'll be there all right," replied Jordan; "they've gone in with the
+caterer's stuff. You'd better send your own best togs in a barrel or the
+sophomores will <a class="pagenum" name="page_197" id="page_197" title="197"></a>see to it that you won't have them when you want
+them.... Now mind, mum's the word."</p>
+
+<p>The fishermen of squatter's row did not recognize the stranger who
+slouched along by the side of Tessibel, the night of the freshman
+banquet. She was on her way to the city with her fish. One after another
+women poked frowsy heads from the hut windows at the barking of their
+dogs. But Tess went steadily on, not even heeding her companion who
+hurried his footsteps to keep close to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye sells yer fish for a shillin' a pound," said she after a few
+minutes' walk.</p>
+
+<p>The man nodded. Once only did he raise his eyes. They were passing a
+dingy-looking empty house, with a large broken window.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, Ben Letts, accompanied by Ezra Longman, met them. The red
+head of the squatter girl rose a little higher, the lines growing deeper
+about the narrowed lids. To the fisherman she deigned no good-morrow,
+nor had she a thought of them after they had passed.</p>
+
+<p>"He air a new squatter," said Ben laconically, turning to look at the
+queer pair.</p>
+
+<p>"He air her uncle," added Ezra pompously; "he air here to help her pappy
+out of his scrape."</p>
+
+<p>Ben did not answer, but stepped to the tracks with another evil backward
+look at Tess and her squatter friend.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Forty or fifty sophomores loafed about the opera-house watching the
+caterers buzz to and fro. Tables had been spread inside for several
+hundred guests, and the president's chair was decorated with roses and
+winter <a class="pagenum" name="page_198" id="page_198" title="198"></a>ferns. Three little freshmen and Dan Jordan, surrounded by many
+juniors went calmly in to inspect things.</p>
+
+<p>Several underclassmen stood disconsolately inside.</p>
+
+<p>"Be on your guard," whispered Dan, passing them.</p>
+
+<p>The fifty sophomores outside were waiting for something to happen.
+Graves would be produced&mdash;how, they could not tell. The strangeness of
+the actions of Frederick's fraternity brothers made the affair more
+unsolvable. Threatening looks were showered upon them as freshman after
+freshman, guarded by juniors, filed in. Dan Jordan slouched to the door
+of the opera-house, his eyes falling mechanically upon Tessibel Skinner
+across the street. He heard her arguing with the man from the caf&eacute; about
+her fish. Tessibel then crossed to the opera-house.</p>
+
+<p>"Does ye want any fish?" she smiled, showing her white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Jordan. "What have you?... Eels?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, nothin' but bullheads and suckers."</p>
+
+<p>Dan looked about, grinning upon the sophomores.</p>
+
+<p>"There's enough of them here already.... I want some eels&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The sophomores pretended not to hear. They were not interested in
+fishermen, but kept their eyes open for a carriage that would dash in
+from the main street with the rescued president within it.</p>
+
+<p>"Sling them eels over here," commanded Tessibel, beckoning to the
+slouching squatter across the way. The man with the basket offered the
+contents to Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take what you have, too, girl," said Jordan in a loud voice, "how
+much do they weigh?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_199" id="page_199" title="199"></a></p><p>"Don't know," replied Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Take them in and get them weighed," said Swipes, innocently coming to
+Dan's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey there, you old guy," chuckled Spuddy; "drag your fish into the
+opera-house and dump them out.... We're going to have some fun.... If we
+can't have our president, eels will have to do."</p>
+
+<p>The squatter disappeared inside the building.</p>
+
+<p>"A pile of fun they'll have without their president," grunted a
+sophomore.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel gathered her empty basket upon her arm and amid the smiling
+looks of the students who stood watching her she walked away with her
+head high in the air.</p>
+
+<p>But Dan Jordan, with a mighty yell, triumphantly taken up by his
+classmen, grasped the hat from the squatter's head. The smiling, open
+face of Frederick Graves was before them. The sophomores never quite
+puzzled out how the freshman president was in his chair at the banquet,
+and directly in front of him in the place of honor was a huge dish of
+eels.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Shaking the snow from her shoulders like a great dog in a storm, Tess
+knocked softly on the Longman shanty door. Mrs. Longman had gone to the
+city with Satisfied, and Myra, with the whining brat in her arms,
+welcomed her.</p>
+
+<p>One whole week had passed since Tess had seen the student&mdash;seven long
+interminable days since&mdash;and now she had come to ask Myra Longman some
+of the mysterious questions about the kiss that Frederick had given her.
+Myra relinquished the child to her and the <a class="pagenum" name="page_200" id="page_200" title="200"></a>little fellow sank to sleep
+under Tessibel's crooning voice. His regular breathing told her that he
+slept; she placed him in the box and sat thoughtfully down.</p>
+
+<p>"Air Ben Letts been here lately?" she asked after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>Myra shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't got no time for such as the brat and me," she replied
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Tess waited until Myra had ceased scattering the shanty chairs in her
+rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he say as how he loved ye that night in the storm on the ragged
+rocks?" she asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, he did say it, he did," answered Myra.</p>
+
+<p>"Air he&mdash;air he a-knowin'&mdash;how to kiss?"</p>
+
+<p>The very word slipping from her lips brought back with a sudden joy that
+night a week ago, and the never-to-be-forgotten kiss of the student. She
+could feel again the warm, strong lips pressed to hers&mdash;the long
+muscular arms enfolding her.</p>
+
+<p>Myra scanned her face closely.</p>
+
+<p>"To kiss&mdash;yep; but he ain't never kissed the brat."</p>
+
+<p>There was wonderful longing and passion in her tones.</p>
+
+<p>This was a new thought for Tess. The "Pappy" should kiss his brat&mdash;but
+were they one and the same kisses? She remembered the sweetness of that
+first caress "Daddy" had given her on the stone window ledge of his
+cell. It was tinged with bittersweet&mdash;bitter because Daddy was going
+away, sweet because she had desired it so fondly. But it had not been
+like the student's kiss. She was going to ask Myra Longman to solve the
+first great problem of her life.</p>
+
+<p>"Air the kisses what ye had from Ben Letts&mdash;burnin' <a class="pagenum" name="page_201" id="page_201" title="201"></a>ones? Did ye lose
+the thought of the night and the night things on the ragged rocks?...
+Did ye want 'em again and again&mdash;more and more kisses till they scorched
+yer face like the bread oven in the spring?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess had risen to her feet, had whitened to the small ears covered with
+the tawny hair. Myra had risen also. Both girls were eying each other
+with intentness. Tess started to speak again, coming forward a step
+toward the other squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"Did ye forget the storm, the wavin' trees and all 'cept&mdash;Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air been to the ragged rocks," moaned Myra, sinking down upon the
+floor in a heap.</p>
+
+<p>In a twinkling the meaning of Myra's words dawned upon Tessibel.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't been there with Ben Letts," she replied suddenly. "I ain't got
+no likin' for the brat's Pa's kisses&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But ye hev been to the ragged rocks," insisted Myra, settling back with
+a sob against the box where the child slept.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, I ain't; but I had a kiss, and Myra, it were&mdash;like the singin' in
+the heavens what the song tells about&mdash;like the feelin' in here," she
+placed her hand upon her heart, her eyes flashing golden, "when the
+world air filled with flowers and the birds air a singin'.... Were it
+like that with Ben Letts? Were it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," replied Myra sulkily, "Ben Letts ain't got no singin' kisses."</p>
+
+<p>She rose languidly, tucked the blanket closer about the sleeping child's
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel," she broke forth hoarsely, "for all women <a class="pagenum" name="page_202" id="page_202" title="202"></a>folks there air
+brats a cryin' for their Pa's to tell 'em yep or nope. And there air men
+a-walkin' on the ragged rocks with singin' kisses for yer pretty face
+and tangled hair. There air a brat sleepin' till it's dead in the box."
+The tired young mother allowed her hungry gaze to fall upon the quiet
+infant. "Tessibel, yer brat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Tessibel bounded out of the door, over the snow-covered rocks like a
+deer. She would not lose the sweetness of the kiss in Myra's warning
+words&mdash;that penetrating holy kiss she had treasured for seven long days
+and nights.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The torturing thoughts that had filled the mind of Professor Young at
+finding Frederick Graves in the cabin of the fisher-girl were new
+sensations to him. He loved Tessibel, and in her lay his future
+happiness. Her stolid indifference to his endeavors to aid her through
+her father had blasted his hopes somewhat. Then again he would
+feverishly reason that she had been born to overlook all save those whom
+she desired and for whom she fought. It was like her kind. Excuses for
+the girl in the aid she had given the student ran willingly through his
+brain. If Tess had seen the young fellow in the storm, it was but like
+the tender, loving heart to aid him. It was no proof that Frederick had
+found a place in her affections. With these thoughts in his mind he had
+worked for several days, quietly hoping that the girl might seek him.</p>
+
+<p>Tess found him waiting at the shanty door for her one afternoon after
+returning from town. She smiled a welcome as she recognized her visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"It air about Daddy ye comed," she said, lifting the padlock from the
+staple.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_203" id="page_203" title="203"></a></p><p>"Yes, child, I wanted to tell you of some new friends your father has
+made in Ithaca&mdash;strong friends to aid him."</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," echoed Tess wonderingly. "Daddy Skinner had fishermen for his
+friends&mdash;and not people of Ithacy&mdash;come in," she added. The fire
+crackled on the hearth and Tess sat down to listen with open lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't explain just how this came about," said Young, "but some of the
+people who were in the court-room the day your father was convicted have
+risen to befriend him."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young did not add that he himself had urged that money should
+be raised for a second defense.</p>
+
+<p>"So last night," he went on, "there was a meeting of several prominent
+men and money has been placed in my hands for another trial for your
+father."</p>
+
+<p>Tess tried to understand the long words, and blinked knowingly. The
+import of it was plain. Daddy was coming back&mdash;but how soon?</p>
+
+<p>"When air he comin' home, then?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"After another trial.... See if you can read this?"</p>
+
+<p>From a long envelope the lawyer took a piece of paper. Tess examined it
+carefully for some moments. Young eyeing her with a sense of happiness.
+He would fight for this child as man never before fought for woman. She
+would love him out of gratitude if for nothing else. He took the paper
+she was holding out to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't read a damn word&mdash;can't read writin' anyway. Tell me what it says
+about Daddy."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_204" id="page_204" title="204"></a></p><p>"It's a list of names," replied Young, "mostly members&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of Graves' church?" put in Tess eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Hadn't the student been praying for just this? she thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they are all desirous to see your father home again with his
+little daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Air the minister givin' money for Daddy?" was the anxious demand.</p>
+
+<p>Young shook his head. He felt a sudden swift-coming desire to tell her
+enough about the minister's family to make her hate them all. Deforest
+Young realized for the first time that he was jealous of the student, of
+a tall dark lad of whom in the past he had taken no more notice than of
+many other students.</p>
+
+<p>He drew a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly the minister," said he, flushing with shame. "Here&mdash;let me
+read the names to you. William Hopkins of the toggery shop, one hundred
+dollars. Do you know him?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess shook her head in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"Deacon Hall and his wife Augusta gave one hundred dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"I know her," Tess cried, "and I knows him a little, too. I tooked them
+berries and fish&mdash;they has a cottage below the ragged rocks."</p>
+
+<p>"And there's the druggist, Mr. Bates&mdash;he did not put down his name on
+the list, but he gave fifty dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel listened to the explanations as Young read on, making it all
+plain to her as he proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>She was leaning far over toward him, her chin resting on her open palm.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_205" id="page_205" title="205"></a></p><p>"They be dum good blokes, to give their money to a squatter, ain't
+they?"</p>
+
+<p>The professor started perceptibly. She did not understand that all had
+been done under his supervision; he had tried to impress upon her his
+great desire to help her, but no words of praise fell from her lips for
+him. He would have willingly given worlds had she said that he was "a
+dum good bloke."</p>
+
+<p>"They are all sorry for you and your father," he ended lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the student, Graves, what brought Daddy the money," she burst
+out with a vivid blush.</p>
+
+<p>"No, the student, Graves, had nothing to do with it," was the grim
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a-been prayin' since Daddy went away&mdash;that air somethin'," Tess
+said stubbornly.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young rose&mdash;then seated himself again. He had come for
+something else, something that meant work and satisfaction for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that your father is sure to be saved, will you leave this hut?" he
+asked peremptorily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope!"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's not fit for you to be here alone, Tessibel. Listen ... I'll
+save your father's squatter rights, if you will study in some good
+school until he returns."</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, cuss! Who air to pay all the money?" Tess got to her feet with
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>"I will," deliberately answered Young.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, I air goin' to stay here," snapped Tess. "I can fish and live
+likes I have been doin' till Daddy comes. I promised him I'd stay. I can
+read the Bible now," she ejaculated, promptly producing the book from
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_206" id="page_206" title="206"></a>under the blankets of the bed. "I's a-readin it every day.... If ye
+don't believes, ye can listen and see."</p>
+
+<p>She tossed back the curls from her shoulders as she ended emphatically:
+"I air a goin' to bring Daddy home through this here book&mdash;the student
+says."</p>
+
+<p>Again the terrible jealousy of the handsome student flashed alive in the
+professor. Tess had opened the Bible to a chapter she had never read
+before.</p>
+
+<p>"And straightway in the morning," she spelled, "the chief priests&mdash;Aw,
+that ain't no good! Wait till I find about Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she threw the Bible down upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"There air places what says as how Daddy air a comin' home. The student
+says it air there. I ain't found it yet but I air a-lookin' for it every
+day. 'Tain't in that place where I just read about them geezers, the
+priests."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer stood up. A pain seized him. He would save this ignorant girl
+in spite of herself, marry her in spite of Frederick Graves. It would be
+as difficult as scaling the icy mountains, but he would force her to
+love him more than the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand," he said shortly, "that these good people have given
+money toward helping your father come home. It will be some time before
+the trial will come up, but when it does&mdash;I will bring him back to you."</p>
+
+<p>The assurance in his tones brought Tess to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be a lawyer," she said abruptly, "and the squatters says as how
+lawyers air liars and tramps, but ye ain't no tramp, and ye ain't no
+liar, ye ain't&mdash;and when <a class="pagenum" name="page_207" id="page_207" title="207"></a>I sells a lot of fish I air bringin' ye the
+money for what ye air a doin' for Daddy and me. I says once and I says
+again as how ye air Daddy's friend, and I air glad that the student's
+meeting-house folks gived ye a little money to help us."</p>
+
+<p>Mist had gathered in her eyes and she slipped her fingers into Professor
+Young's. She laid her lips upon his hand, covering it with tears and
+kisses. Opening the shanty doors, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I likes ye, I likes ye, but how much a squatter's brat likes don't make
+no difference. Ye go now, for the tracks get dark about five."</p>
+
+<p>"I have my horse at the top of the hill," replied Young, confusedly.</p>
+
+<p>The sensation from the moist lips upon his flesh prompted him for one
+brief moment to take the girl to him. He was filled with a strange
+desire to force this rude shanty maid from her surroundings and place
+her in another life with him.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_208" id="page_208" title="208"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI_6811" id="CHAPTER_XXVI_6811"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>That night, as Tessibel slept and dreamed of Frederick, another girl
+waited for her lover. Teola Graves watched for the approach of Dan
+Jordan with strange emotions. When he was with her, his great strength
+and constant assurances that everything would go rightly with them gave
+the girl courage and confidence. But in the night-watches, when youthful
+sleep refused to come, she was afraid&mdash;afraid!</p>
+
+<p>She stood just outside the door, upon the veranda, shrinking from the
+raw winter wind. Relievedly she noticed Dan's tall form, when he swung
+around the corner.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not stand in the night wind, dear," Dan chided, gently
+kissing her. "There! now, I have come for a good chat. Teola, do not
+look so sad&mdash;please."</p>
+
+<p>The little drawing-room in the Rectory was partially dark when they
+seated themselves on the divan.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so unhappy Dan; so different from what I used to be. Then, life
+was sweet and I was glad to live&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't want to be dead now, sweetheart!&mdash;Think of it, Teola.
+When I shall have finished college, I shall be of age. We will go away
+from Ithaca, and no one will ever know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we shall know, Dan. If I had only been a good girl!"</p>
+
+<p>Dan was visibly moved.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_209" id="page_209" title="209"></a></p><p>"Let's make a bargain," said he suddenly. "To-night we won't talk of
+anything but the pleasantest of things. I have something funny to tell
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have something to tell you, too," breathed Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it pleasant?" demanded the boy, bending and forcing the lowered eyes
+to his.</p>
+
+<p>Teola shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will leave it until to-morrow," he exclaimed. "I'll tell you my
+news. Shorts, Spuddy and Swipes are in disgrace at the fraternity. If
+Shorts would keep away from those other two fellows, he might get
+through college. It was really their fault Frederick was stolen."</p>
+
+<p>"What have they done now?" asked Teola listlessly. She had little
+interest in the boys of the society, for, nestled close to her heart,
+was a secret she could not forget. She had a realization that something
+unusual had fallen upon her of which she was afraid.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see," explained Dan, "there is a comic opera playing here.
+This afternoon, Swipes, Shorts and Spuddy took some of the chorus girls
+to the house, when the other fellows were away. They might have known
+the officers would have found it out. Sure enough, they did! The little
+rascals were all drunk on champagne, and the girls had to be sent to
+their hotels in carriages. The kids received a great beating, let me
+tell you. They are all in bed, in the cupola prison rooms, trying to get
+over big heads."</p>
+
+<p>Teola wanted to smile, to be happy, but the smiles refused to come. Dan
+turned the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't they gathered a deal of money for Skinner?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola nodded, and presently responded,</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and father thinks it is so strange. Mrs. Hall <a class="pagenum" name="page_210" id="page_210" title="210"></a>and Professor Young
+were at the bottom of the plan. They think the Skinner girl is a great
+marvel. I, too, think she is beautiful&mdash;and so does Frederick."</p>
+
+<p>"She has a lot of courage," mused Dan, thinking of the girl who had
+rescued the class president from the hands of his enemies. Teola knew
+nothing of this episode, for Frederick had asked him to be silent upon
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father does not wish the man liberated?" The question in Dan's
+voice brought a flush to Teola's pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"No; he thinks the tribe is a menace to the town, and he is sure the man
+is guilty. They do tell dreadful things of them, and I can't help but
+believe some of the tales, although I feel sorry for the girl. But her
+coming to the toffy pull that night made a great deal of trouble for
+brother and me."</p>
+
+<p>"So I supposed. But I love you, Teola, for the manner in which you
+treated her."</p>
+
+<p>Teola straightened herself from her lover's arms, and was about to
+speak. She would tell him, then, tell him her secret&mdash;tell all the fears
+that weighed upon her heart, as if they were loaded with lead. He would
+comfort, and tell her not to worry&mdash;cheer her, until she could smile
+again and be happy.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Shorts, Swipes and Spuddy had broken the laws of the fraternity. Rather
+than suffer the disgrace of leaving it, they had elected a severe
+punishment.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather be cut to pieces, boys," Swipes hiccoughed, turning upon the
+grave seniors, "than let my mother know what a beast I've been. Go ahead
+and lick!"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_211" id="page_211" title="211"></a></p><p>Afterward, the three little freshmen slunk to the rooms in the top of
+the Society house, which were kept ready for young men whom the officers
+reprimanded. They had been ordered to bed for three days, and were
+thankful that the punishment had been no worse than it was.</p>
+
+<p>Swipes demanded a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to sleep," ordered Shorts. "It was all your fault in the beginning,
+and you're drunk."</p>
+
+<p>"No such thing! I couldn't haul a whole bunch of girls up here alone,
+could I, if I'm drunk! Could I, now? I wish there wasn't any such a
+being in the world as a woman.... They bring heaps of trouble on us poor
+men."</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, Swipes tumbled into bed, and sank into a stupor.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The cry of "Fire!" rang out upon the night air, startling Dan Jordan and
+Teola Graves. The volunteer fire companies were gathering from all parts
+of the town, and Dan stepped on to the Rectory veranda as a hose-cart
+rolled by. In an instant he was back in the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said he, with a strangling kiss upon Teola's
+pale lips, "I am sure it's our fraternity house. I must go, dear. I
+must, I must!"</p>
+
+<p>He pressed her to him again, bounded through the door and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Dan! Dan!" exclaimed Teola. "Dan, come back! I have something to tell
+you ... I'm so&mdash;afraid&mdash;so afraid!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Teola stood watching the yellow flames kiss the sky. <a class="pagenum" name="page_212" id="page_212" title="212"></a>The whole campus
+gleamed under the lurid glare of the fraternity fire; the light in the
+heavens told her that it was no ordinary conflagration.</p>
+
+<p>Until the day of her death she would not forget that night. She was
+longing to hear one word from Dan or Frederick. Her world seemed charged
+with hideous forces hitherto unfelt. Teola sickened, and waited. If Dan
+would only come back!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The very moment after he had fallen asleep, it seemed to Swipes, Shorts
+was pulling him out of bed, and the room was full of smoke. Spuddy was
+sleeping in the next chamber, and the first sound came to him in a
+haze-like dream. He thought he heard a roar of thunder, and rain
+descending upon the roof. Never mind. He was safe in bed, and had just
+escaped expulsion from his fraternity. As he rubbed his aching head, a
+dazed resolution took form in his brain. He would never get drunk
+again&mdash;never&mdash;never! Then the fumes of the wine brought visions of
+bright-colored dresses, of pretty faces and tender loving arms, such as
+his father had told him to beware of. He would toss such joys from him,
+if it brought him&mdash;Spuddy groaned, turned in bed, and tried to wake up.
+But to wake up was to realize his disgrace. He groaned again, a sharp
+pain ripping through his head. He heard the sound of voices&mdash;he was
+dreaming, of course; the wine floated fantastic visions again through
+his misty brain, relieving it of the effort of thinking. Then Shorts'
+voice rang in his ear.</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of God, Spud, get up! The house is on fire, and we're
+boxed in this cupola like rats in a trap."</p>
+
+<p>Spuddy sprang out of bed. The thunder he had <a class="pagenum" name="page_213" id="page_213" title="213"></a>dreamed of was the roar of
+the fire in the walls of the great house. The rain descending on the
+roof was the water being thrown from the long fire-hose. A strong stream
+of ice-cold water suddenly broke the window, driving Swipes against the
+wall. He whimpered drunkenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Plagued fire! 'Course the house had to burn down on a night like this!"</p>
+
+<p>Screams and cries from the crazed mob below came up to the boys through
+the broken pane. The water ceased its flow, and Shorts, the most sober
+of the three, crept to the opening. Spuddy had crawled back to bed. Far
+beneath him, Shorts could see his fraternity brothers running wildly to
+and fro, frantically waving their arms to him. He could hear orders
+given in loud tones, and recognized the voices of Frederick Graves and
+Dan Jordan. It all flashed upon Shorts in a moment how greatly he and
+his chums were to blame for the disaster, for the fire must have started
+in the dining-room. He thrust his head through the lurid gleam to
+attract attention, and saw the men and boys in the yard bringing ladders
+to rescue them. Now they were splicing them together, to make it
+possible to reach the great height. Shorts made quick resolves.... If he
+lived.... He turned with a groan, and dragged Spuddy from the bed to the
+open window.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay there, and be ready, if you don't want to die," he commanded
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p>Shorts saw the ladder rear upward, and a form dart from the shadows. Dan
+Jordan was coming, hand over hand, toward him, the long ladder creaking
+under his weight. Jordan's face appeared at the opening.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out here," he commanded Shorts.</p>
+
+<p>Shorts pushed Spuddy forward.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_214" id="page_214" title="214"></a></p><p>"Take him first, Captain," he said, with a twist in his voice. "He's
+drunk."</p>
+
+<p>Spuddy hung limp on the window-sill for an instant, and was then
+gathered into Dan's long arms. Shorts' bleared eyes saw the little chap
+handed safely to the earth, and the ladder again creaked under the
+upward steps of the big freshman. Shorts pushed Swipes toward the window
+as Dan called his name.... Now he was alone, and he leaned as far out as
+he could.</p>
+
+<p>"God! God!" he groaned. "The Captain's face is scorched brown.... God!
+dear God, bless him!"</p>
+
+<p>The crowds below were sending up cheer after cheer; myriads of sparks
+shot rocket-like high into the air, dying in the snow as they fell.
+Streams of water poured into the flaming windows. Jordan was coming up
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out, Shorts," he heard Dan say, and he clambered over the sill.</p>
+
+<p>"Slip into my arms, old man," the deep voice persuaded. "Come, now; let
+go.... There, hang limper.... You're heavier than the others."</p>
+
+<p>He felt Dan take a downward step, and his head whirled around and
+around. They passed window after window, Shorts being carefully held
+under Dan's arm. Flames licked at them greedily, touching and shriveling
+their flesh. Smoke choked their nostrils cruelly. Shorts could feel the
+trembling of Dan's body, as his burned fingers grasped each rung of the
+ladder. To his mind the figures below looked like goblins dancing in the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, midway to the ground, the ladder creaked and groaned
+hideously. Jordan halted.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_215" id="page_215" title="215"></a></p><p>"The ladder is bending, Shorts," he breathed hoarsely. He did not
+finish his sentence, but shouted,</p>
+
+<p>"Catch him!"</p>
+
+<p>Little Brown shot into the air like a rubber ball.... A crashing sound
+broke over the silent, gaping throng below. Then a giant form turned
+twice in the air, shooting downward like a stone from a sling.... The
+crowd parted, and Dan Jordan struck the frozen ground. His fraternity
+brothers lifted up the unconscious boy, and the great roof above, with a
+sickening din, sank into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The bitter frost hardened the streams of water pouring from holes in the
+burning house into ropes of ice. Toward morning, the fire died, leaving
+the huge frame, like an ice-covered palace, looming darkly against the
+college hill.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In another fraternity house, Shorts was in bed, face and hands swathed
+in bandages. Swipes and Spuddy, tear-stained and pale, stood by the
+door, waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"If only they would come and tell us something!" moaned Spuddy. "Boys,
+if the Captain goes, I'm done for."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll make it all right with him," came hopefully from Shorts. "He
+can't die, fellows! He's as strong as a horse. If he hadn't thrown me
+out into that snow pile, I would have been crushed under him. I'll never
+forget that in all my life," he finished, with a shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad, but he looked dead when they picked him up," said Swipes in
+despair. "I'm done for, too, if&mdash;if.... Here comes some one! It's
+Teddy!"</p>
+
+<p>He stepped aside, and Manchester, entering deliberately, closed the
+door. Then he sat down dazedly.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_216" id="page_216" title="216"></a></p><p>"He's gone, boys. The Captain's gone." The words came in a stammer
+through pressed lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it had been I," muttered Swipes brokenly, when they were alone
+again. "It was all my fault." He burst into a wild sobbing. "I'd give my
+very life to have heard&mdash;the Captain&mdash;say he had forgiven me."</p>
+
+<p>"I was more to blame than you were," replied Spuddy. "My mother.... God!
+look at that sun!"</p>
+
+<p>Bright rays slanted golden through the window upon the three woful
+little freshmen who had ruined the "Cranium" Society.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_217" id="page_217" title="217"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII_7110" id="CHAPTER_XXVII_7110"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>One day in the following July, Tessibel was going to Mrs. Longman's hut,
+with a list of Bible words she did not understand. She stopped at the
+edge of the forest, and listened to a curious sobbing sound she thought
+issued from beyond the gorge. Then, thinking herself mistaken, she ran
+nimbly on, avoiding the long thorns that lay in her path. The noise came
+more distinctly through the clear air, making the squatter girl lift her
+head and pause again. There was no mistake this time.</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't no pup," she said aloud, "'cause a pup don't snivel like
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Raising the red head, she tore long threads of hair loose from the
+briars, and, drawing the masses of curls about her shoulders, broke into
+the opening of the forest. Some one was crying, and any sign of
+suffering brought an immediate response from Tess. It might be Myra, or
+it might be some little lost child. Spurred on by sympathy, she bounded
+over a bed of dead chestnut burrs, waded through the water to the other
+side of the creek, and struggled up the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Teola Graves, crouched in an attitude of suffering and despair, was
+seated on the gnarled root of a huge tree. Tessibel watched her for an
+instant. Here was a holy personage to the squatter, touched with the
+finger of the mysterious God the student worshiped. And was she not the
+sister of Frederick, and had not Teola given her <a class="pagenum" name="page_218" id="page_218" title="218"></a>coffee from her own
+cup that winter night? Tessibel had not spoken to the minister's
+daughter since her father had been taken away to Auburn, and some of the
+intensity Tess had felt upon that one great day of her life came back to
+her as she stood hesitant, watching the student's sister.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the girl was weeping for some pleasure denied her&mdash;perhaps for a
+jewel to wear about her neck. She went forward impulsively, and laid her
+hand upon the rounded shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"What be ye blattin' over?" she stammered, with a tinge of awe in her
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Teola struggled to her feet, suppressing her grief. The question stopped
+the flow of tears, and the two girls, so differently situated, the one
+the daughter of an eminent minister, and the other a squatter,
+wonderingly eyed each other.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I was alone," was Teola's answer.</p>
+
+<p>"So ye was," replied Tess. "I heard ye cryin' from the lower ledge of
+the rocks. What air the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Infinite pity and tenderness in the coarse words, spoken in a sweet,
+persuasive voice, brought a fresh burst of tears from Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;I'm ill to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'll be all right to-morry.... 'T'ain't much, air it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is very much to me," whispered Teola. "I'm so lonely, and so
+afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel sat silently down beside the other girl, twining one arm about
+the twisted root of the tree. She was used to sorrow, used to watching
+the agony of human souls without hope. A bird in the top of the tree
+above them sent a plaintive note into the hot air. Another <a class="pagenum" name="page_219" id="page_219" title="219"></a>answered
+from the forest, and Tessibel raised her head and saw a scarlet bird
+take wing and disappear into the branches of the wood trees.</p>
+
+<p>She waited for Teola to speak, but at last, seeing there was no
+cessation of tears, she leaned over and touched her.</p>
+
+<p>"Be ye lonely for yer ma?" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Teola shook her head in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"Then for yer pa?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>Ah! Tess had forgotten. Had she not seen Frederick go away weeks before,
+in a boat filled with pots and kettles and food for a camping
+expedition? Had he not smiled at her brightly as she passed him on her
+way to the fish line? She could remember the tense feeling in her
+throat, and felt again the hot blood rushing madly into her face. Of
+course, the girl was weeping for her brother!</p>
+
+<p>"Then air ye blattin' for the student?"</p>
+
+<p>She could scarcely utter the last word, scarcely let Teola hear her
+voice use that beloved name.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was crying for him," replied Teola. "He is dead, you know."</p>
+
+<p>For one instant Tess thought the world had lost its sun. Her face
+creased into lines, which tightened rope-like under the tanned skin. How
+could Frederick have died, and she not have known? She rose unsteadily
+to her feet, uttering one grunt significant of her suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"Were he drowned?" she asked, in a voice so pained that Teola raised her
+head and looked at her. She did not understand the meaning of the
+whitened lips nor of the tense drawing-down of the long red-brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_220" id="page_220" title="220"></a></p><p>"No," she replied slowly, "he was killed in the fire on the hill last
+winter."</p>
+
+<p>The muscles relaxed in the squatter's face. Her legs refused to bear the
+slender body, and Tessibel dropped again at Teola's side. The kiss she
+had cherished burned hot upon her lips. Her student lived. The
+minister's daughter cried for the other one, for him who had called her
+Miss Skinner, and who afterward helped her smuggle Frederick into the
+opera-house.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! he air been dead a long time, ain't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; six months."</p>
+
+<p>"And ye air a-lovin' him yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But he air dead," philosophized Tess. "He ain't with no other girl."</p>
+
+<p>Teola shivered violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know that; I know that. But I&mdash;I need him. I want him so!"</p>
+
+<p>"But he air dead," said Tess again steadily.</p>
+
+<p>For many minutes neither spoke. For Teola's new burst of agony settled a
+solemnity upon Tess which she could not throw off. Forgetting her
+squatter position, she slipped her hand between the white fingers of the
+weeper. Teola did not care if the girl's finger-nails were filled with
+black soot, did not care if the squatter were covered with a dirty,
+ragged dress, or if her bare feet were calloused from the rocks. Tess
+was a human being who sympathized with her, and sympathy was as
+necessary to Teola's soul at that moment as breath was to her body. In
+the spasmodic whitening of the other girl's face Tess realized a
+desperate heart agony.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus-221.jpg" width="400" height="598" alt="&quot;THEN YE AIR COMIN&#39; HOME WITH ME TO THE SHANTY.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;THEN YE AIR COMIN&#39; HOME WITH ME TO THE SHANTY.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_221" id="page_221" title="221"></a></p><p>"Ye air sick," she said at last, an enlightened expression widening her
+lids. "A woman's kind of sick, ain't it? Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Teola, flushing deeply; "yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then ye air a-comin' home with me to the shanty." Tess muttered this in
+a sly voice, almost in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Teola raised her glance, and read in the eyes bent upon her that her
+whole secret was known. Tessibel Skinner, her father's foe, the daughter
+of a murderer, was helping her to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm too sick to walk," she wept, in a barely audible voice. "I tried to
+throw myself from the rocks, over there, but the water was so silent,
+blue and terrible, that I couldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be comin' with me," insisted Tess stolidly.</p>
+
+<p>She was urging her forward, holding Teola by both arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't! I can't! Leave me here&mdash;I am so ill! I am going to die!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to come," commanded Tess. "And, if ye will, I'll lug ye when ye
+can't walk. Women like ye don't die, and Mother Moll will come to the
+hut to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother Moll!" echoed Teola. "Mother Moll! Oh, you mean the witch? And
+will she&mdash;oh, will she help me so they will never know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. And now shut up. Ye air a woman, and was borned for things like
+this. If ye walks a spell, then I lugs ye across the gully."</p>
+
+<p>"And my father and mother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, I says," ordered Tess. "It ain't no time to think of fathers
+and mothers. They don't know nothin' about it, does they?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Teola. "They have been in Europe with <a class="pagenum" name="page_222" id="page_222" title="222"></a>my little sister for
+nearly four months. I've been alone all summer, with Rebecca, our maid,
+and Frederick, my brother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips closed over a moan of pain, and she did not continue her
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Through the forest, over the gullies, and down toward the Skinner hut
+the two girls went slowly, Teola whimpering in her agony of soul, and
+Tess carrying her when she could not walk. Only once did Tessibel stop.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold a minute," she said gruffly, releasing Teola. "One of the dum
+thorns went clean through my toe.... It air out now.... Come along! What
+does I care, if it does bleed!"</p>
+
+<p>Teola drew a sigh of relief when they crept under the willow tree. The
+hut was in its usual dirty condition, the Bible in the accustomed place
+on the stool. The suffering girl did not notice that the table was
+littered with the remains of the dinner, and Tess put her in Daddy's
+bed, and said, with a compelling, forceful glance:</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to stay there till I gets back.... And remember we air a woman,
+and women, when they loves men, keep their mouths shet.... Even if their
+man air dead.... Ye won't let anyone hear ye a-yelpin' while I air gone,
+will ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Go quickly, Tessibel," murmured Teola. "Go quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>This time the briars and thorns pierced the squatter's bare feet without
+avail. Tess was rushing away upon an errand of love. Was she not perhaps
+saving the sister of the student from death&mdash;keeping from him a
+knowledge that would rend his heart? Since that night when Daddy Skinner
+had been taken to prison, Tess had but <a class="pagenum" name="page_223" id="page_223" title="223"></a>once visited Mother Moll. In her
+impatience, she did not wait to reach the hut.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother Moll!" she shouted, bounding across the gully. "Come out! Tess
+air here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," commanded a cracked voice.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel entered the shanty, finding Mother Moll stretched out on the
+bed, with a corn-cob pipe between her shriveled lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up from there, Ma Moll," ordered Tess, "and come to my hut. I wants
+ye."</p>
+
+<p>"It air too hot," muttered the witch. "I ain't a-movin' from the bed
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel bent over the wrinkled face, and looked determinedly into the
+blood-shot eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I got someone what air sick," she exclaimed, grasping the hag's arm
+forcibly. "Ye air to come with me.... See? And if ye does come, I gives
+ye a mess of eels every week for a year&mdash;and more'n that. I'll pick yer
+berries from yer own patch, if ye can't pick them yerself."</p>
+
+<p>"Who air a-ailin'?" asked the old woman, crawling out of bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. Come along."</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange couple, forging the gorges and gullies, pushing aside
+the brambles to the lane almost opposite Minister Graves' home. In the
+summer's quietude, the squatter girl could mark the long chairs on the
+Dominie's front porch, and the hammock sagging from the hooks in the
+corner. No one saw the witch and Tessibel enter the hut; no one heard
+the girl slip the night lock into its fastening. Teola, frightened and
+miserable, raised her head, and looked once at Mother Moll, then dropped
+it again.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_224" id="page_224" title="224"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII_7367" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII_7367"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dusk had fallen over the lake, closing the shanty within the shadows of
+the weeping willows. Mother Moll had departed before sunset. Tessibel
+had four candles streaming their twinkling light upon the bare floor of
+the hut, and was busying herself at the stove. A voice from the bed
+faintly whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell Rebecca what I told you to? Tell me again what you said to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"I telled that ye was to stay to-night with a girl below the ragged
+rocks, and she didn't give a dum. She air only a workin' girl; she ain't
+yer own flesh and blood."</p>
+
+<p>"And the baby, Tessibel? May I see my baby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, not to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Tessibel! Please! Are his eyes grey, and has he dark hair on
+his head?"</p>
+
+<p>"If ye don't shut up, I takes the brat to Ma Moll.... Now, then, drink
+this tea, and eat this bread. To-morry ye has to go home, ye know."</p>
+
+<p>"But my baby, Tess! What shall I do about my baby?"</p>
+
+<p>The nervous whining in Teola's voice brought Tess over to her. The
+squatter forced the soiled blanket over the young shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"If ye sleeps to-night, I tells ye in the mornin' about the brat....
+Sleep, now."</p>
+
+<p>For more than an hour Tessibel sat with Teola Graves' <a class="pagenum" name="page_225" id="page_225" title="225"></a>baby clasped
+tightly in her arms, moving back and forth silently in the wooden
+rocker. A broken board squeaked now and then under the girl's weight,
+but she slipped the chair into other positions, and rocked on.</p>
+
+<p>She marveled at the child born but that afternoon. The eyes were large
+and grey. Locks of damp hair fell over a wrinkled, broad brow, giving
+the infant the expression of an old, old man. In the light Tess could
+mark every feature. She had never seen a babe so small, and so
+sickly-looking. She ran her fingers over the right cheek, tenderly,
+rubbing down a livid mark that extended from the dark hair to the upper
+part of the breast. It was the birth-mark of fire, red and gleaming
+crimson as the brightest blood, and it had been because of this mark
+that Tess had refused the young mother's request to see her child.
+Perhaps in the morning it would be gone. If not, Teola would be stronger
+and better able to bear the shock. After wrapping the infant closely in
+a warm cloth, Tess took it in her arms, and laid herself down beside
+Teola; and the trio slept as all youth sleeps, until the morning sun had
+been shining long in the window.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Be ye better now?" asked Tess, trying to stand Teola on her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am dreadfully ill yet," was the whispered answer. "But I want to see
+my baby.... And what shall I do with him? Oh, what shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air a-sleepin' now," replied the squatter. "And he stays here with
+me, ye hear? Ye can't take him to yer pa's house, and the hut air good
+enough for him to live in, if it was good enough for him to be borned
+in."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, Tessibel, that you will care for my baby, <a class="pagenum" name="page_226" id="page_226" title="226"></a>until I can
+arrange something for him?&mdash;So that my father and mother may not know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Er the student," broke in Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother! Tess, my brother Frederick! He must not know. It would kill
+him&mdash;and me. You, Tess,&mdash;you swear that you won't tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't a-tellin' him nothin'. I swears it, ye hear? I swears I won't
+tell the student nothin' about the little kid."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you won't," answered Teola weakly. "I trust you, Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>There was a deep questioning in the squatter girl's eyes as they rested
+upon the quiet bundle on the foot of the bed. How could a mother leave
+her child in the care of a stranger?&mdash;leave him in a squatter's hut,
+where the rats scurried hungrily about the floor, and the bats fluttered
+among the ceiling rafters!</p>
+
+<p>"Don't look like that, Tessibel!" Teola burst in. "You understand, don't
+you, that I can't tell them?&mdash;that I can't take him home? My brother
+loves me better than any other person in the world, and I love him as
+much as he does me."</p>
+
+<p>The blood suffused the drawn face to the hair line.</p>
+
+<p>"And I want to see my baby before I go," she pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>Tess shook her shoulders, and hesitated awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"He air to sleep.... And ye ain't no business a-wakin' him up, nuther."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a dread flashed into Teola's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, he is.... There is something the matter with him!" She was
+fully dressed, tremblingly holding the post of the bed for support.
+"There is something the matter with him!" she gasped again.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_227" id="page_227" title="227"></a></p><p>"Nothin' that air a-hurtin' him," soothed Tess. "He air marked with the
+fire what killed his pa, that air all.... See, t'ain't much."</p>
+
+<p>She lifted the babe from the bed and held him up. The covering dropped
+from the shoulder, exposing the brilliant scar.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," moaned Teola. "Not much! Poor little baby Dan!"</p>
+
+<p>The mark gleamed out on the wizened old face, the deep veins in the thin
+skin showing darkly. To Tess it looked more horrible than in the night
+before. But she had to reassure the mother&mdash;the little mother who,
+before that year, had never known one twinge of agony.</p>
+
+<p>"It sure goes away sometime," said Tess.</p>
+
+<p>Teola took the infant in her arms for a moment only. Moving the child
+caused the large grey eyes to open, the mouth widening into a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him, Tess!" mourned the mother. "Oh, I&mdash;I want to die. Dear God!
+Dear, good God! Dan!... Dan, I want to come to you!"</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of such grief Tessibel was silent.</p>
+
+<p>She covered the infant again, and for some minutes she sat by the bed,
+with her fingers tightly pressed in those of Teola. It was a tragedy
+with which Tess could not cope. So she remained there until Teola cried
+herself into a quietude that left an expression of wonder, knowledge and
+sorrow. As Tess led her up the hill to the minister's cottage, she saw
+that tears would come no more; that the mother would never know the
+emotions of a girl again. Teola resembled the squatter, Myra, with her
+pain-drawn face.</p>
+
+<p>"She falled from the rocks," glibly lied Tess, as <a class="pagenum" name="page_228" id="page_228" title="228"></a>Rebecca placed the
+pale girl in a chair. "Better put her in bed.... She has a bad ankle....
+She couldn't walk much."</p>
+
+<p>The frightened maid quickly responded to the advice of the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"She found me," pleaded Teola, "and you will let her come once in a
+while to see me?"</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother and father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not here yet, and I am so lonely and ill. Let Tessibel come
+once in a while!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have my doubts," said the maid, and she followed Tess down the long
+stairs, just to see that the fisher-girl did not steal anything. Let
+that dirty squatter come into a minister's home! No, not again, vowed
+Rebecca inwardly. It was only the girl's duty to save a human being from
+a fall over the rocks. Tess turned and faced the woman when they were
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-comin' again," she said slyly, "and I ain't one what tells that
+ye slides from the house every night to the lake with Deacon Hall's
+coachman, I ain't. I has a tongue in my head, I has, but it ain't
+a-waggin' 'bout no coachman and yerself."</p>
+
+<p>Tess saw instantly that her point was gained. That anyone had seen her
+meet the man by the light of the summer's moon had never entered
+Rebecca's head for one moment.</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't steal from the minister's house, nuther," assured Tess,
+with a smile. "I brings ye some berries to-morry, and gives them to ye.
+And ye can keep the Dominie's money for a rag of a ribbon to light the
+coachman's eyes with."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_229" id="page_229" title="229"></a></p><p>She smiled again, and left Rebecca, with wide-open mouth, gaping after
+the scurrying figure.</p>
+
+<p>In the hut Tessibel lifted the blanket from the scarred face, and
+contemplated it earnestly. She had forgotten all save the babe and the
+student. She knew that the Longman brat had sugar rags&mdash;she had arranged
+them herself many a time. Tearing a piece from the cloth that was
+wrapped about the child, she went to the shore, and washed it clean in
+the blue lake water. Filling it with bread and a liberal amount of
+sugar, Tessibel soaked it in some warm milk, and put the sop-rag into
+the small, gaping mouth. She must make a place for him to sleep during
+his stay in the shanty. Daddy would not need all the old coats hanging
+about the wall, and the blankets were longer than was necessary. From
+the back of the stove the squatter dragged a small box, and turned the
+splinters of wood into the fire. This, too, she washed in the lake,
+setting it in the sun to dry. From one of the hooks among the rafters
+she took a large-sized grape-basket, which also received its cleansing
+treatment. After a bit of blanket had been cut from those on Skinner's
+bed, Tess slipped the infant into the basket, to see if it were long
+enough. The tiny feet did mot reach the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to sleep many a day in it," she said aloud, "for yer legs ain't
+as big as a rabbit's, and yer face ain't any beautifuller than Ma
+Moll's.... But ye air a livin' and that air somethin'."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had she got the words from her lips and fitted the cover securely
+before the door opened, and Ezra Longman stepped into the hut.
+Tessibel's clear hearing could detect an unmistakable smack from the
+babe.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_230" id="page_230" title="230"></a></p><p>"What did ye come for, Ezy?" she asked. "Air Myry all right, and yer
+ma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. I come to see ye to-day. Ben Letts says as how ye air a-goin' to
+marry him some time. Did ye tell him that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did he tell yer that?" asked Tess, instead of answering the boy's
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Jake Brewer says as how Ben telled him one night that when yer
+daddy air dead ye air goin' to his shanty. Ye ain't, air ye, Tess?" The
+pale eyes of the young squatter boy darkened under the emotion that rose
+in his breast. He looked at the girl he had loved since she had taken
+her first step. Every wicked act he had committed he laid fretfully at
+the door of her refusal to marry him.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel watched Ezra, waiting for him to speak again. She feared the
+child would cry out&mdash;feared that the dark secret of the improvised
+cradle would get into the hands of her enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy ain't a-goin' to die," she said, quietly giving the grape-basket
+a touch with her foot, and deftly shoving it under the bed. Another
+smack told her that the infant was awake.</p>
+
+<p>"And, what air more, Ezy, I ain't a-goin' to marry Ben Letts, or nobody
+else, for a lot of years.... I air a-goin' to wait here for Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>"And if yer Daddy goes dead?" inquired Ezra longingly.</p>
+
+<p>"If he goes dead," she interrupted, lifting her unfathomable eyes, "if
+he air hanged, then I comes to the Longman shanty and marries yer....
+Now go, dum quick!"</p>
+
+<p>She had quieted one of her enemies with a promise <a class="pagenum" name="page_231" id="page_231" title="231"></a>which she would never
+be forced to keep. For was not the student's God going to save Daddy
+Skinner? And wasn't she going to Auburn prison to see him? That clean
+skirt in the corner, washed and dried in the sun, Tess was going to
+wear. She was going with the great man from the hill. Suddenly came the
+thought of the babe. With whom could she leave it? Her face whitened
+with grief.... Of course she could not go now.</p>
+
+<p>She turned again to Ezra, who was loitering at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye go now, Ezy, and tell Myra I ain't a-comin' this evenin', and I
+hopes her brat won't be yelping too much."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next day Tess appeared at the back of the minister's cottage, with a
+basket slung over her arm. Rebecca ushered her up the stairs to the
+pretty blue room. Teola moved her head languidly, but, recognizing her
+visitor, brightened a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you came. Tell me how he is.... I have nearly died to see
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"He air well. Have ye had a doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I have told him all about it, for I was so sick. I told him
+about you, and he ordered Rebecca to let you come and see me. He is a
+friend of my father's, and will never tell anyone."</p>
+
+<p>Tess walked to the door, and listened; then laid her finger on her lips.
+She raised the basket from the floor, slipped back the cover, and Teola
+Graves was peeping in upon a tiny sleeping face.</p>
+
+<p>"He air a-goin' with me wherever I has to go.... I ain't a-comin' here
+again with him, fearin' some one <a class="pagenum" name="page_232" id="page_232" title="232"></a>will know.... I think ye be happier,
+now that ye hes seen his bed&mdash;eh? Now I air a-goin', and when ye gets
+well ye can come to the hut to see him. He air gettin' powerful hungry.
+He can smack louder than a dog can holler.... Poor little devil!"</p>
+
+<p>That night, a small figure left the Skinner shanty bent upon an act of
+theft. Up through the lane to the tracks, with a small pail in her hand,
+Tessibel went. The brindle bull capered about her as she slid through
+the wires. Without the slightest compunction, Tessibel returned to the
+shanty with the warm milk which she had taken from one of the fine cows
+at Kennedy's; then by the light of the candle she filled the tin cup,
+and warmed it over the fire. This, too, would have to be sweetened.
+Spoonful after spoonful she emptied into the smacking lips, and, when
+the babe slept, Tess placed it under the blankets, and took up the Bible
+to read of the promises of the student's God.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_233" id="page_233" title="233"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX_7661" id="CHAPTER_XXIX_7661"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>During the illness of Teola, Tessibel had forgotten that she had
+promised Professor Young she would come some morning to his office in
+Morril Hall on the hill. Two weeks after the birth of the baby, Tess
+filled his small stomach with warm milk, shoved the sugar rag into his
+mouth, hung the child's bed over her arm, and made off toward the
+tracks. The sun was far in the heavens before she stopped at the
+building in which Deforest Young had his office. He was looking from the
+window, and saw her glance about hastily, settling the cover to her
+basket a little closer.</p>
+
+<p>"That child will be my ruination," he muttered, seating himself at the
+desk. "She affects me so strangely that I can't get her out of my mind.
+To bring her to a place of safety.... But what can I do? She won't let
+me help her!"</p>
+
+<p>The thought of Frederick Graves came over him with torture. Was it
+possible for her to love a lad who could not, and did not aid her? If he
+could but guide the girl, he would know who her companions were.
+Tessibel stood in the door, the red curls covering the burden upon her
+arm&mdash;one would have thought it was purposely done, if she had not placed
+it carefully in the corner. She awkwardly seated herself in the chair
+Young had placed for her near him.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were never coming," said he. "I have been looking for you
+for many days."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_234" id="page_234" title="234"></a></p><p>"I were a comin', but I couldn't.... And I can't go with ye to see
+Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes filled with tears, but she hastily wiped them away with her
+sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you are going," replied the professor. "I suppose you think
+you can't go in with bare feet. But I will get you a pair of shoes."</p>
+
+<p>"I could get a pair good 'nough for a squatter," Tess assured him, "but
+I can't go."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause I can't! I has somethin' to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you do it after you return? Your father will be so disappointed
+if you do not go to him when you have promised."</p>
+
+<p>He was gazing at her keenly. Her eyes dropped upon her folded hands in
+her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"I knows that," she breathed, "but I can't go, just the same."</p>
+
+<p>Young did not persist in the argument.</p>
+
+<p>"It is almost a certainty that your father will get another trial," he
+went on presently. "I shall act as his lawyer, and, little girl, when
+the snow flies again, your father will be home in the cabin with you."</p>
+
+<p>She flashed him a radiant smile through the tears which still clung to
+her lashes. He loved to watch the color coming and going swiftly, and
+the glints thrown into her eyes by the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"It air the student's God what will bring him." She bent eagerly toward
+him, with a quick motion. "Be ye one of the prayin' kind what tells God
+all ye needs? Daddy would have been a-hung by the neck till he was dead,
+only the student telled me how to pray and he air a-prayin', too."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_235" id="page_235" title="235"></a></p><p>She finished the sentence in a low tone. Young leaned back in his
+chair, grasping at the arms to hide his emotion. The girl was so close
+to him that he could feel her warm, swift-coming breath upon his face.
+How long would he have to suffer over this primitive child? But he loved
+her, and the only course left him was to snatch her from young Graves
+while there was opportunity to see her now and then. Her brown eyes were
+piercing his very soul. The childish excitement upon the upturned face
+almost tempted him to force her into his arms, to awaken the soul
+beneath the soiled jacket, to make the girl into a woman in spite of her
+environment.</p>
+
+<p>"You are still determined to live in the hut?" he said, after clearing
+his throat, and overlooking her question.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, till Daddy comes home. And then I's a-goin' to make him get offen
+that land, 'cause it ain't his'n. It air Minister Graves'."</p>
+
+<p>"But your father has his squatter's right," put in the lawyer, feeling
+that he was giving the student less chance if he said this. "No one can
+take the place from him."</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't got no right there," she insisted again, "'cause I asks the
+student, and he says as how Daddy can have the ground by the law, but
+that it air a-belongin' to his pappy."</p>
+
+<p>Her face was perfectly grave and serious, and she spoke slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Would the name of Frederick Graves always be flaunted in his face?
+Deforest Young believed that he was beginning to hate the boy. Suddenly
+he leaned over, and touched the bell. It pealed loudly through <a class="pagenum" name="page_236" id="page_236" title="236"></a>the
+building. Tess sat up. The bell disturbed her, and she cast her eye upon
+the basket, with a shifting, darting glance. The janitor appeared at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Hyram," said Young, "could you find a vessel which would hold berries
+or fish? I would like to take some home with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got no fish nor berries," said Tess, rising with a burning
+blush.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what have you in your basket?" asked the lawyer, getting up also.
+"Child, you need not feel badly over the money I give you for the food
+you sell." He was standing beside her when his eyes fell upon the
+waiting janitor. "Never mind, Hyram," he exclaimed, "Miss Tessibel says
+she hasn't anything to sell."</p>
+
+<p>Hyram closed the door before Young spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"Why won't you let me help you, poor little girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess stepped between the professor and the babe, lifting the child's bed
+in one hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got nothin' to-day," she muttered sullenly. "And when I says I
+ain't got nothin', I ain't."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did you bring that with you?" insisted Young, with a motion of
+his hand. "It is certainly heavy, or you would not have laid it down so
+carefully.... Child, if you won't let me give you anything, please allow
+me to buy the food which you work so hard to get."</p>
+
+<p>His hand fell upon the handle of the grape-basket, but Tessibel's
+remained obstinately on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>"I's a-wantin' ye to help Daddy Skinner," she whispered, with drooping
+lids. "I don't need no help."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a wail from the infant startled them both. Professor
+Young's hand dropped as if it had been struck. Tess only grasped the
+basket more firmly. <a class="pagenum" name="page_237" id="page_237" title="237"></a>Her secret was out. Without a word, she slipped the
+cover from the child's face, and pushed the sugar rag into its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can see it ain't no fish," she said stolidly.</p>
+
+<p>"A child!" murmured Young. "Where did you get that baby, Tessibel
+Skinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air a little bloke without no one to take care of him, and I has him
+in the basket&mdash;that's all."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed for a long time to the man that his brain would burn from the
+fire kindled in his heart. The sight of the marked baby horrified him,
+but he took the basket from her hands, and placed her forcibly in a
+chair. Tess allowed him to do so without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>Young set his teeth fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner, do you want to save your father&mdash;from hanging?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," she answered, her eyes roving toward the babe.</p>
+
+<p>"Then listen to me. Is that child yours?"</p>
+
+<p>Her glance sought his for a twinkling, as if she thought he had lost his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p><a name='tn01' id='tn01'></a>She was not disloyal to Teola in saying this.</p>
+
+<p>"I have offered you all the help a man can give to another human being."
+Here his voice broke a little. "All I have offered to do for you, you
+have refused. Now, if you want me to continue to help your father, you
+are to tell me whose child it is."</p>
+
+<p>Before the vivid mind of the girl rose the handsome, manly face of the
+student. Her labor for the child and its mother had been wholly for
+Frederick's sake&mdash;not for anything in the world would she have consented
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_238" id="page_238" title="238"></a>to do what she had done, if it had not been to save him pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, 'tain't mine," she drawled after a time, "and it ain't belonging
+to anyone ye know. It air only a brat what ain't nothin' but a
+grape-basket to sleep in. And now ye says that if I wants my Daddy saved
+from the rope, I must tell yer whose it air. I says it ain't mine. And I
+says as how ye knows a new little bloke when ye sees one. Here it air!
+And if ye don't know that it ain't mine, then ye air a bigger fool
+lawyer than I thinks ye air."</p>
+
+<p>She was speaking rapidly, and had again slipped the cover from the babe,
+lifting it from its bed. The fire scar was uppermost, and the loud
+smacking of the half-naked child caused the man to sink into his seat.
+The blood-red cheeks of the squatter denoted perfect health. The eyes
+were wide, confiding and entreating. Young held out his hands and took
+it from her. Then, for the second time in her life, Tess noted emotion
+in a man. Once in Daddy Skinner, in the jail&mdash;she had given way before
+it. And now in the strong friend of her father, who laid his face on the
+body of the infant, and sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant Tess was on her knees before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Air ye a-blattin' 'cause ye thinks it air my brat? Aw, ye knows it
+ain't. Ye knows I air but a-takin' care of it till its ma can. If I
+swears by the student's God, will ye believe?"</p>
+
+<p>Young rose, white and nervous, from his chair. With tender fingers he
+placed the little one in the receptacle, set the rag securely between
+its lips, and turned to Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you, child," he said wearily. "I thought <a class="pagenum" name="page_239" id="page_239" title="239"></a>at first&mdash;oh, it
+was an awful thought for me ... because I love you, Tessibel."</p>
+
+<p>Tess blinked her eyes as if she were looking into a powerful sun. The
+strong form of the lawyer was bending over her. She lifted her face to
+his, not realizing the greatness of his love. She only knew that he was
+her friend&mdash;Daddy's friend. She grasped his hands in hers, kissed them
+tearfully, and took up the basket.</p>
+
+<p>"I were a-goin' with ye on Thursday, but I can't now. Thank ye for
+believin' me, and I'll work as hard as ye says I must, and if I air a
+bad brat, then I air sorry."</p>
+
+<p>She had gone out, crying bitterly, before he could say another word; but
+a happier feeling was in his heart than had been for many weeks. She had
+promised to work, and in that promise had failed, for the first time, to
+utter the name of Frederick Graves.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Tess air a-gettin' stylish," said Mrs. Longman, rattling the newspaper
+one Sunday morning. "Her name air right here, in print."</p>
+
+<p>"What do it say, Mammy?" asked Ezra, lighting his pipe with a piece of
+burning paper.</p>
+
+<p>"As how Tessie air a-goin' to see her Daddy, with the big man on the
+hill."</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts shoved his big boots from one side to the other, plainly
+disturbed by the news.</p>
+
+<p>"Folks on the hill air a-doin' better if they minds their own business,
+I air a-sayin'," grumbled he. "There ain't no reason why Orn Skinner
+can't go dead, like other squatters has before him."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_240" id="page_240" title="240"></a></p><p>His red bandana handkerchief sought the blurred blue eye. A pair of
+pale gray ones from above the smoking pipe of Ezra Longman settled upon
+Ben Lett's face, with a tightening of the thick lids.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel air so sure that her father air innocent that I hopes they
+prove it," Myra Longman said, trundling her babe to and fro, in the huge
+wooden rocker.</p>
+
+<p>"There be some folks as knows more than they'll tell," put in Ezra,
+keeping his eyes upon the squatter Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"And there air folks what thinks they knows a dum sight more than they
+can prove," replied Ben.</p>
+
+<p>The great white eye jerked open, the crossed blue one twisting to bring
+Ezra Longman within its vision.</p>
+
+<p>An expression of deadening hate flashed for a moment across the red
+face, and the white eye closed again. Myra had seen the by-play, and sat
+up with a gasp. What was there between Ben and her brother?</p>
+
+<p>Placing the child upon her mother's lap, she stirred the stew bubbling
+in the pot on the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Scoot, and get an armful of wood, Ezy," ordered she; and no sooner had
+the tall boy disappeared than she slipped after him.</p>
+
+<p>She stood beside him at the wood pile, staring down upon the crouched
+form.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold a minute, Ezy," commanded she.</p>
+
+<p>Ezra stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"What air the matter with yer and Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin' ain't the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"There air," insisted Myra, "and it air Tess what air a-doin' it. Ben
+Letts air a-lovin' Tessibel. And ye hates him."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_241" id="page_241" title="241"></a></p><p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Tess ain't for none of ye! She ain't like other squatters. The man from
+the hill says as how Tess can read better'n most gals can, and she has
+done it all herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care," grunted Ezra, stooping again. "Ben Letts can keep his
+hands offen her, or I tells what I knows."</p>
+
+<p>This was Myra's chance. She grasped the boy's arm, and twisted him about
+so that he faced her.</p>
+
+<p>"What can ye tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somethin'."</p>
+
+<p>"About Skinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'd hang Ben Letts if ye could. But ye won't, ye see? Ye'd not hang a
+man what ought to be in yer own fambly, would ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I tells Pa Satisfied that ye said that, Myry," muttered the boy, "he
+wouldn't wait for the law to handle Ben Letts&mdash;he'd shoot his dum head
+offen him quicker than a cat can blink."</p>
+
+<p>"I knows a hull lot about you, Ezy," warned Myra, "and if ye tells on
+Ben, I tells on yer, too. I loves Ben Letts, I does!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bid him keep from Tess, then," answered Ezra sulkily, filling his arms
+with wood. Myra looked after him fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>The trouble between her child's father and her brother had come upon her
+so suddenly that she had given Ezra another hold upon the man she loved,
+by telling him her secret.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon she followed Letts a short distance <a class="pagenum" name="page_242" id="page_242" title="242"></a>along the shore
+toward his cabin. When out of sight of her own home, she ran forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben! Ben!" she called.</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman turned impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"What air ye wantin', Myry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Be you and Ezy hatin' each other?"</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't nothin' but a brat," replied Ben scornfully. "Let him keep out
+of my way, or I fixes him."</p>
+
+<p>"He air a-sayin' the same thing," cautioned Myra. "Ye air a-seekin'
+Tess? He says as how ye air to keep from her."</p>
+
+<p>She was walking beside him, her red hands rolled in her gingham apron.
+The hot sun shone on her colorless hair, which was drawn back from the
+plain face.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air a-helpin' him with Tess," Ben grunted presently. "If ye ever
+wants me to come to yer hut, keep yer mouth shet, and let me and Ezy
+fight it out. Do ye hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Then scoot home now."</p>
+
+<p>Myra turned, and then stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben," she called softly again.</p>
+
+<p>"What be ye a-wantin' now?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I keeps Ezy away from Tess, will ye&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air a-wantin' me to do somethin' for ye, Myry?" Ben answered, coming
+toward her eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"If ye'll kiss the brat when Mammy and Satisfied ain't a-lookin'&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Scoot home, I says. Scoot home," shot from Ben's lips.</p>
+
+<p>And home she went, this girl of but eighteen with an <a class="pagenum" name="page_243" id="page_243" title="243"></a>old woman's face,
+a tired young heart beating lovingly for the brat in the box and&mdash;for
+its father.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother was still spelling from the paper when she returned.
+Satisfied was stretched on the long wooden bench outside the door. Ezra,
+with his cap pulled over his nose, sat sulking in the corner. Ben was a
+powerful enemy. The boy knew that the fisherman would stop at nothing to
+gain an end. But Tess had told him that she wouldn't marry Ben, and Myra
+had as good as told him that the squatter was the cause of her trouble.
+He knew another secret that would bring a halt upon Ben's pursuance of
+Tessibel Skinner. He had told Myra to warn him. Suddenly he rose from
+his chair, set his cap far back on his head, and disappeared into the
+underbrush that lay thick back of the hut.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The cause of the hatred between Ezra Longman and Ben Letts was quietly
+eating her dinner. Teola's child lay smacking the sugar from the wet
+rag. The large, knowing gray eyes were directed toward the sunlight upon
+the wall, the blood-red scar shining more crimson in its rays.</p>
+
+<p>Tess was picking the flesh from the spine of a fish, throwing the bones
+on the floor. Youthful as she was, she was already beginning to show
+fatigue from staying awake nights, and caring for her dark secret in the
+daytime.</p>
+
+<p>With the alertness of an Indian she heard the crackling of twigs in the
+underbrush. She closed the door, slipped the lock and tucked the babe in
+the basket, and waited. Somebody was coming from the hill above,
+breaking the branches as he ran. It was Ben Letts, <a class="pagenum" name="page_244" id="page_244" title="244"></a>probably. A light
+tap came upon the door. To Ben she would not open, but, glancing at the
+window, she saw Ezra Longman's face pressed against the pane.</p>
+
+<p>Slipping back the lock, she flung open the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy, ye air allers a-comin' when I wants to read the Bible. I tells ye
+to stay away from the shanty, and ye won't!"</p>
+
+<p>Would the babe remain quiet until the pale squatter boy had departed?</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts air a-comin' to see ye to-day," Ezra returned sulkily, "and I
+comed, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he tell ye as how he was a-comin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; but I knowed."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't come in," replied Tess, crossly. "I ain't no notion for
+company, nohow.... Air the men a-nettin' to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Air Ben a-goin' with ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; Ben has a heavy hand, and nets air hard to haul."</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the words fallen from his lips before Letts appeared at the
+door. Both boy and girl saw him, and Tessibel rose up.</p>
+
+<p>"Sunday ain't a good day for ye to be comin' here, Ben," she said
+sullenly. "I air a-wishin' to be alone to-day."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the girl's flashing eyes, Ben stepped in, glared at Ezra,
+and took the stool, from which he moved the Bible with trembling hands.
+Tess had never been quite so frightened&mdash;never so fearful of her own
+squatter men-folk. Ben and Ezra had come to stay a long time, for each
+had dragged off his cap, <a class="pagenum" name="page_245" id="page_245" title="245"></a>leaving his dirty head exposed. Still the babe
+slept on, no tell-tale smack coming from it. Tess lifted the Bible,
+determined to let the men sit as she read, curled up in the wooden
+rocker, humming as she swung to and fro. A shadow dropped long upon the
+shanty floor. In the doorway stood Teola Graves, tall, thin, and
+distressingly pale. Tessibel had not seen her since the day she had
+carried the babe to the hill-house. That was three whole weeks ago. Tess
+moved awkwardly from the chair, motioned for Ezra Longman to get up, and
+stuttered out an invitation for the girl to be seated.</p>
+
+<p>Teola shook her head, and Tess noted her quick survey of the hut.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't sit down," she said weakly, although she allowed Tess to place
+her in the chair. "I have been ill for some time, but I could not forget
+how kind you were to me when you found me on the rocks, with my ankle
+sprained."</p>
+
+<p>The white eye of Ben followed the blue one in its twisting search for
+the minister's daughter. Teola Graves had lost her sparkling beauty; had
+lost the vivid coloring and the shy expression of youth that had rested
+in the dark eyes until the death of Dan Jordan. From her face Ben's one
+eye turned to the beautiful squatter, and he settled back with a firmer
+resolve that she should be his. Tess stood thinking rapidly. She made no
+attempt to introduce the strange trio.</p>
+
+<p>Then she allowed her fingers to come in contact with Teola's shoulder,
+pressing into the girl's mind some message.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be a-goin' to see the sick woman to-day, ain't ye?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_246" id="page_246" title="246"></a></p><p>Tess could scarcely utter the words. Would Teola understand what she
+wanted to impress upon her? Her fingers sought the shoulder again.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," came the low answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Might I ask ye to take her a bit of fish, what I promised her? I has
+company now, and can't go. And I thought as how if you was a-goin', ye
+might do it for me."</p>
+
+<p>She stooped and raised the grape-basket in her hand, tendering it to
+Teola. The white lips became paler&mdash;the young mother understood.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a nice day, and the sun will do ye a heap of good," explained
+Tess. "If I didn't have company, I wouldn't ask ye."</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts stared sharply. Ezra Longman stupidly shuffled his feet upon
+the floor. Teola accepted the basket, and answered Tess with meaning:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it for you, if you will wait until I return with the money.
+The fish are to be paid for, aren't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; come back when ye can. I allers need the money."</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes Tessibel stood in the door, watching the tall figure of
+the Dominie's daughter as she struggled through the brambles surrounding
+the mud-cellar creek, until she was lost to view.</p>
+
+<p>Tess took a long breath. Ben and Ezra must go before the babe returned.
+She set herself to rid the shanty of the two men. Without speaking, she
+took the Bible, and repeated slowly aloud some of the passages she knew
+best. Both fishermen stared at her in admiration. To read and not spell
+out almost every <a class="pagenum" name="page_247" id="page_247" title="247"></a>word was more than Ezra's own mother could do, and she
+was the best-educated person in the settlement.</p>
+
+<p>"'But I know ye that ye have not the love of God in ye,'" read Tess.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Letts broke in upon the girl's voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Tessie, will ye row on the lake after the goin' down of the sun? I'll
+take my fiddle.... Ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," she replied, her eyes still upon the book. "'I am come in my
+Father's name, and ye&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>Ezra interrupted the unfinished verse.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, will ye go to the meetin' at Haytes'? The man says as how the
+squatters air welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope.... 'receive me not,'" read Tess. "'If another shall come&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>Ben burst forth with an eager invitation:</p>
+
+<p>"Will ye come to Glenwood for some ice-cream, Tessie? It air gooder'n
+pie on hot nights; and ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope.... 'In His own name, ye will&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye don't like no ice-cream, do ye, Tessie?" put in Ezra Longman.</p>
+
+<p>"And ye don't like no meetin's on the hill, eh, Brat?" chuckled Ben.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the Bible flew into the corner, and the girl, with an oath,
+jumped to her feet. Neither man had ever seen her in such a temper. She
+grasped the broom.</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of here!" she screamed. "I don't want nothin' but to be let
+alone! See? Scoot! Or I'll bang hell out'n both of ye."</p>
+
+<p>She virtually swept her callers into the sun, and slammed the door in
+their faces. With remorse in her <a class="pagenum" name="page_248" id="page_248" title="248"></a>heart, she sought the place where she
+had thrown the beloved Bible. One page was quite torn, across&mdash;the back
+badly bent.</p>
+
+<p>"It do beat the devil how I could be such a bad brat as to hurt ye like
+that," she cogitated, smoothing out the crumpled pages with loving
+fingers. "That damn Ezy and Ben air worser than fleas. But I air
+a-believin' that they won't be comin' back just yet."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_249" id="page_249" title="249"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXX_8215" id="CHAPTER_XXX_8215"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tess closed the door of her shanty, looked about to see if anyone were
+watching her movements, then she, too, broke into the high weeds that
+surrounded the running brook under the mud cellar. Her little ruse in
+giving the child to its mother delighted her. She would find Teola, and
+bring her and the babe back to the shanty. Softly she parted the
+branches that hid the spot where she had first seen the Dominie's
+daughter. Through the maze of brambles she saw the girl, with the child
+clasped closely in her arms. The cloth in which Tess had wrapped it had
+fallen from the little shoulders, leaving them white, save for the
+blood-red mark of fire. Teola lifted the infant, and kissed it
+passionately, bending her head over it, praying. Tess could not enter
+upon such a holy scene. She sank down upon the turf. The basket yawned
+upon a bed of moss, its flannel rags hanging over the edge. Teola was
+making the babe ready to return to its bed, when Tess slipped under the
+branches of the short sumac trees, and entered the clearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Come back to the shanty," she said. "Ye be here too long."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't. I must go home, Tessibel.... I could hardly get away as it
+was. Oh, Tess, isn't he beautiful?... Don't you think the mark will soon
+go away? What makes him open his mouth so much? Possibly the sugar rag
+is too large."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, 'tain't that. He be tired, and that air what <a class="pagenum" name="page_250" id="page_250" title="250"></a>makes him gape like
+that. Wait until he gets some bigness. He air little yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't asked you, Tess," and Teola turned troubled eyes upon the
+squatter, "I haven't been able to ask you how you feed him. And where do
+you get the milk?... Oh, if I only had some money! When mother is home,
+I do get a little. But Rebecca won't give me a cent. Tessibel, where do
+you get the milk?"</p>
+
+<p>The babe was still clasped in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I crib it from the cows at Kennedy's. They all has too much for their
+calves, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean you steal it, Tess?" asked Teola fearfully. "Oh, Tessibel! Oh!
+Oh, Tess, Tess, how good you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't good," Tess retorted. "It ain't good to steal, air it? And
+squatters ain't never good, they ain't. But the brat's got to eat, ain't
+he? If I ain't got no milk, then I has to crib it. See?"</p>
+
+<p>Bitter tears were falling upon the head of little Dan. They were the
+mother's first tears since that day when Tess had led her up the hill to
+the summer cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"But Kennedy will shut his cows up soon," announced the squatter. "Then
+I don't know what to do. The brat air too little to eat fish, he air."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Teola conceived an idea.</p>
+
+<p>"If I should put out a little milk behind the house, in a pail, could
+you come after it, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," replied Tess eagerly. "I could crib it from your yard, if ye'll
+let me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; that's the way to do," replied Teola, with a faint smile. "If
+I can't get the milk out, you go into the kitchen. Simply take all you
+can get. Take <a class="pagenum" name="page_251" id="page_251" title="251"></a>all you want. My father and mother will be home soon.
+They know by this time I am ill. My brother also gets back from camping
+at the same time. You see how careful I shall have to be, Tessibel. And
+in September, we go back to the city, for school always takes us home
+then. If I could only have my own baby. My own precious baby!"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel grunted. Teola misunderstood her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am grateful to you, dear! I think that you are the best girl in
+all the world. So does my brother Frederick. He says&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stooped to cover the child, her voice ceasing.</p>
+
+<p>The babe had been carefully tucked in.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a been sayin' what?" The tones of the squatter were eager, her
+eyes so bright that Teola did not answer for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"He says that there is no girl as good as you, and that your faith in
+God is what he would rather have than anything else in the world.... Oh,
+Tess, if I could only believe, and be sure that soon the baby and I
+could go to&mdash;his father!"</p>
+
+<p>"If ye asks, ye can go," replied Tess solemnly. "The student says what
+ye asks with faith ye'll get. Ain't that enough to prove it?"</p>
+
+<p>This fell reverently from the lips of the girl. Faith in Frederick
+rather than faith in God had given birth to her believing soul. But
+neither girl realized it. Both were silent for some minutes. Teola was
+looking dreamily at the opposite hill, the basket with its precious
+burden already hanging on the squatter's arm. Tess had learned that such
+loud smacks as the infant was giving were indicative of hunger. So she
+made a move to go.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_252" id="page_252" title="252"></a></p><p>"I takes him back to feed him. He air hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Tess, if I could only feed him! If I could only always have him! I
+wish&mdash;I wish I were a squatter. Then I would face the world with my
+baby.... Oh, I am so unhappy and ill!"</p>
+
+<p>True, she was ill, for there came to Tessibel's ears a cough that echoed
+against the rocks with the familiar sound of death in it. It sounded
+like that of a fisherwoman she had known in a shanty below the great
+rocks, who had died and been taken to the Potter's field.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-prayin' every day," said Tess, with a lump in her throat, "that
+ye be taken with the brat to the sky&mdash;to the brat's pa what ye loves....
+Air that the prayin' ye wants?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola nodded, and Tess, smiling tenderly, hesitated, and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"The student's God can do anything He wants to. Asks Him to let ye go
+'cause ye be sick, and the brat air sick, too, and&mdash;the winter'll be
+cold for him."</p>
+
+<p>She touched the handle on her arm lightly, turned, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Teola sat for some moments dry-eyed, looking at the high hill across the
+blue water, thinking of the next few weeks, and of how she and the babe
+would be called away. If she only had the precious uplifting faith of
+Tessibel! Something must come to her and the baby. Her stern father, who
+hated Tessibel Skinner with all his heart, must never know of the little
+Dan. Her mother, weary and nervous, would go to her grave from the
+shock; and Frederick&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Teola straightened at the thought of her brother. He would help her in
+all things, even in the tragedy <a class="pagenum" name="page_253" id="page_253" title="253"></a>that now covered her life. Of that
+Teola felt sure, but the humiliation would be too great. Better die
+apart from her child. With another racking cough, she turned her face
+toward home, two hectic spots shining clear and red upon the white
+cheeks. Rebecca silently helped her to bed.</p>
+
+<p>That night, at ten o'clock, after Tess had silenced the child in her
+arms and Teola had lost her nervousness in a stupor, three boats shot
+from different points of the west shore, and quietly oared a path
+through the moonlit lake toward the netting place.</p>
+
+<p>The occupants of one boat were Satisfied Longman and his son. In another
+Jake Brewer sat, alone. In the third Ben Letts puffed upon his pipe. His
+thoughts were upon the one person he desired&mdash;Tess. Like most of
+mankind, he wanted what he could not get; wanted the girl who turned a
+mocking, beautiful face toward him and used such a bitter tongue. Tess
+was responsible for the scars upon his face, but he would feel them well
+carried if he gained the girl&mdash;and tamed her. That Tess was a devoted
+admirer of the student Graves made her none the less desirable. Ben
+dipped his oars with dexterous aptitude and shot under the shadow of the
+trees. An instant later, his boat was beside those of the other
+squatters, and he was standing with his hand upon the north reel. Out
+into the lake the net was carried by Satisfied Longman and Jake Brewer.
+Ben could see the tall, thin form of Ezra through the shadows, guiding
+the ropes as they slipped through his fingers. Here was a boy aspiring
+to the love of Tessibel Skinner. Ben heard the swish of the net far out
+in the lake as it took to the silent waters, heard the <a class="pagenum" name="page_254" id="page_254" title="254"></a>dipping of the
+oars, and saw the boats strike for the shore. Then Ezra came toward him,
+at the command of his father, Satisfied Longman.</p>
+
+<p>During that evening, Deforest Young was calling upon Deacon Hall. He
+refused the Deacon's invitation to row him to the city.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said he, "but the night is delightful. I think I shall walk. I
+shall go by the shore and skirt to the tracks at the Hoghole."</p>
+
+<p>He failed to say, however, that his reason for walking was that he
+desired to catch a glimpse of the red-haired Tess. He had not seen her
+since the discovery of the new-born babe.</p>
+
+<p>The candle was lighted in the Skinner hut, and he tapped gently. For an
+instant there was no response, He knew the girl was at home&mdash;there had
+been a sudden discontinuance of a humming when he knocked.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Skinner, it is I&mdash;Professor Young," he called. "If it is too late,
+I will come again."</p>
+
+<p>The door was promptly thrown open.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Tess with a smile. "I thought as how it were someone
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been at Deacon Hall's," explained he. "They agree with me that
+you ought to go and see your father. I did not tell them why you could
+not. Where is the little child?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess glanced at the babe.</p>
+
+<p>"I keeps him in the basket or the box in the daytime, but nights I takes
+him to bed with me. The rats be so dum thick that one of them big
+fellers would chew the little chap's ear offen him afore I could stop
+it."</p>
+
+<p>She said it so naturally, as if she were speaking of the most ordinary
+thing, that Young felt a hysterical <a class="pagenum" name="page_255" id="page_255" title="255"></a>desire to laugh. It was a dreadful
+thought, this of the rat in the box with the babe.</p>
+
+<p>"Are the men netting to-night?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, they be."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose there is no stopping it," sighed Young; "and they run such
+dreadful risks. But, if there were no laws about it, there would be no
+fish left in the lake."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's brow gathered a thick network of wrinkles. She had heard the
+subject discussed and argued from her babyhood days. The best fish in
+the waters must be kept for the gentlemen who came for sport during the
+season. But the fishermen, who needed bread for their families, were
+forced by the law to go without.</p>
+
+<p>"There oughtn't to be no laws about fishin'," she frowned, in decision.
+"It air wicked, when brats air a-wantin' bread and beans."</p>
+
+<p>Young saw danger ahead in the argument, so he switched to the
+home-coming of the minister's family. From that he again spoke of the
+infant, who was whimpering a little. Tess took him up, and warmed the
+milk.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go now, child," said Young, rising. "You are tired. You ought
+to go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I air tired, I air," answered Tess, wearily "Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Once out upon the shore, Young looked back at the hut. It was dark. He
+saw three boats flit silently by him toward the city, as if phantoms
+guided them. They crossed the moonbeams, and Young lost them in the dark
+shadows near the shore.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_256" id="page_256" title="256"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI_8452" id="CHAPTER_XXXI_8452"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Keeping to the water's edge, Professor Young walked rapidly toward
+Ithaca. He knew that further up the shore the fishermen were drawing
+their nets; he did not wish to advance upon them. Since knowing Tessibel
+Skinner, he had become more lenient toward the law-breakers.</p>
+
+<p>He turned into the forest at the side of the Hoghole, but the sound of
+voices brought him to a standstill.</p>
+
+<p>Ezra Longman was shouting out a threat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be a-tryin' to get Tess, and I tells ye to look out."</p>
+
+<p>"Shet up!" responded Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>"If ye air a-wishin' to live," came the boy's voice again, "I says for
+ye to keep away from her."</p>
+
+<p>"I lives 'cause I lives, and I ain't afraid of ye, nohow."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor barely caught the words, for they were gurgled in the deep
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>"I wants Tess for a woman," Ben broke out, "and for a woman I air
+a-goin' to have her. She'll care for Mammy and me. I gets her. See?"</p>
+
+<p>The north reel stopped turning, but the south one went on silently. Ben
+Letts and Ezra Longman were turning over and over on the sand, at grips
+with each other.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young uttered no word. Then Ezra's voice came from under Ben's
+big body.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_257" id="page_257" title="257"></a></p><p>"I tells what I knows about Skinner if ye don't get up and let me be,"
+said he. "I tells&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Red fingers closed over his throat, and Ezra Longman spoke no more. As
+the south reel kept turning around and around, the rope slackened from
+the north reel in the water; and still Ben Letts held his deadly fingers
+pressed about the neck of his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young saw Ben sit up and bend his head to the heart of the
+other fisherman. Then, with a furtive glance about, he lifted the boy in
+his arms, and came toward Young, grunting under his burden. Young drew
+back into the overhanging branches.</p>
+
+<p>The squatter stumbled up the rocks, dragging the boy after him, and with
+a mighty effort lifted him high in the air, and tumbled the body into
+the Hoghole.</p>
+
+<p>In another instant, Ben was back upon the shore at the reel, turning
+swiftly until silently it caught up with the other, just as the net
+dragged in the shallow waters, with bushels of flopping fish inside.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Professor Young lowered himself into the Hoghole. It was necessary for
+him to use the greatest caution. The lad came to the surface directly
+below him, and the Professor saw him catch at a jagged end of a rock.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you breathe?" asked Young, in a low voice. "And can you help
+yourself a little?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," came back the faint answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, when I put out my foot, take hold of it, and make no noise, for
+your enemy is but a short distance away, and he meant to kill you. Now,
+come up.... There! Don't lean too heavily upon me, for the rocks are
+slippery."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_258" id="page_258" title="258"></a></p><p>Without any more conversation, the two men, one wet and weak, with
+bleeding head, with a gash over his right brow, crossed the forest
+toward the tracks. By dint of persuasion, Young forced the boy to give
+his father's name. He had caught enough of the talk between the
+fishermen to know that Tess was the cause of their quarrel. But what
+Ezra had threatened to tell about Skinner he did not know. Two miles
+from Ithaca the boy became light-headed and feeble. His tongue was
+loosened in his delirium, and Young heard a story that made his heart
+beat faster and revived hopes he had considered almost dead. Through the
+moonbeams that slanted to the tracks he imagined he saw a little figure
+skirting the rays, with flying red hair. Not for anything in the world
+would he lose sight of the boy. He had the first clue in the case that
+so interested him. Acquittal for the father of Tessibel Skinner was
+within his grasp. It was late when he dragged Ezra, laughing and
+gibbering, into a private hospital. He installed a nurse beside the boy,
+bidding her keep a record of any delirious mutterings he might make, and
+to observe silence about them.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Ben Letts wondered what Satisfied Longman would ask about his son. He
+spoke to the father first, his thick brain trying to avoid trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air both got a lot of nerve to keep three men at the south reel,
+when I air the only one here."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Ezy?" asked Longman.</p>
+
+<p>There was no anxiety in his voice. He was tumbling the fish into the
+cars.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't no way a-knowin' where he air. He skipped <a class="pagenum" name="page_259" id="page_259" title="259"></a>away, and said how
+he wanted to speak to his pappy, and I ain't seed him since.... Ezy were
+a fool when he was born."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone home, like a sneakin' kid," put in Jake Brewer. "He ain't no
+hankerin' for nettin'. He ain't been right since Orn Skinner shot the
+gamekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"He air my brat," replied Longman, "and he air good, if he does do what
+he oughtn't to sometimes. I air satisfied with him.... Let's go home."</p>
+
+<p>And, silently, as a spectral fleet, the boats lapped their way back,
+edging the shore carefully.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Far into the night Satisfied Longman and the tired mother waited for
+their boy.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll show up to break'us," soothed the father; but the mother trembled
+with terror. It was the first evening Ezra had missed the netting, and
+he had never been from home for a whole night.</p>
+
+<p>As day after day passed, it was noised about the settlement that Ezra
+Longman had run away, some saying that he had been seen upon a line of
+canal boats going to Albany. The mother watched each hour for some word
+from him. Then, with a sorrowful expression in the faded eyes, she said
+to Myra:</p>
+
+<p>"If Ezy had had any edication, he'd 'a' writ. He'll be a-comin' home
+some of these days."</p>
+
+<p>After that, the fisherman's hut carried along its usual routine&mdash;while a
+boy in the city was wrestling with fever, and the head of the law school
+hung upon his muttered words with avidity.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"You think he is very ill, Tess?" Teola asked, early one evening in
+September, when she and Tessibel were <a class="pagenum" name="page_260" id="page_260" title="260"></a>alone in the Skinner hut. Tess
+came forward to the wooden box, holding in her hand the frying-pan
+filled with bacon fat, and gazed down upon the baby Dan, contemplating
+the wee old-man face thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"He air sick! He air a look on him what air on Myry's brat&mdash;kind of
+sickly. That air because he has so many lines in his face, and he air so
+little," she finished, wrinkling the sun-tanned cheeks and shrugging her
+shoulders almost disdainfully.</p>
+
+<p>Teola knelt down, and slipped one slender arm under the dark head. These
+two girls had been drawn together during the past few weeks by a tie
+stronger than death. It had brought Frederick nearer to the squatter,
+and little did Teola realize that, had it not been for her handsome
+brother, her secret would have been discovered long before. It was of
+him she was thinking as she bent over the fire-scarred babe on this
+stormy September night in the fisherman's hut.</p>
+
+<p>"I may not be able to come down to-morrow, Tessibel," she said, looking
+up into the serious face, "because my brother is coming home early in
+the morning."</p>
+
+<p>The frying-pan fell to the floor; the fat spattered and ran across the
+broken, tilted boards until it congealed into rounded miniature
+mountains. Teola turned a puzzled face toward the fishermaid, but there
+was nothing about the girl to tell her why the accident had happened,
+for Tessibel, grappling with a huge cloth, was wiping the floor
+furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I was saying, Tess," repeated Teola, "that I may not come down
+to-morrow.... Oh! hear how it rains, and the thunder!... Tess, since he
+died, and the baby came, thunder-storms make me shiver."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_261" id="page_261" title="261"></a></p><p>"It ain't nothin' that'll hurt ye," grunted Tess from her position on
+the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, unless one stands directly in the lightning's path. But I am
+such a coward, Tessibel! You have so much faith&mdash;that's why you're not
+afraid."</p>
+
+<p>The pathetic face turned suddenly upon Tess with a questioning look.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother, you know, thinks you are such a good girl&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;you
+are a good girl, aren't you, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Squatters ain't never good," answered Tess in a low tone, her eyes
+dropping under the steady gaze of the other girl. "But I&mdash;I love the
+student's God, I does."</p>
+
+<p>She was standing with rag hanging from her right hand, her face
+illumined by a deep flush that disappeared only when it met the red
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that you do love Him, Tess," Teola breathed. "And Frederick
+told me that if he had your faith, he could do anything in the world.
+You know, the Bible says that if we had faith as large as a mustard
+seed, we could move a mountain."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice faltered on the last words. Tess grunted significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw! a mustard seed ain't no bigger than a speck of dirt."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, Tess; I know it. But one only has to have a little faith in
+God to enable Him to answer every prayer we utter."</p>
+
+<p>She grasped the thin baby to her breast frantically, kissed the crimson
+mark up and down, until where the frenzied lips had traveled the flesh
+turned purple. Oh! <a class="pagenum" name="page_262" id="page_262" title="262"></a>to have faith to believe that she might soon have
+her child with her always&mdash;always! Of late there had crept over Teola
+the shadow of the great beyond, into which her student lover had been so
+hastily summoned. The shrieking of the wind, and the mournful fluttering
+of the tiny hands made her shiver, and she coughed slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"A mountain air bigger than that hill with the look-out on it,"
+ruminated Tess, picking up a huge knot of wood from behind the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that, too," replied Teola.</p>
+
+<p>For the space of many minutes only the smacking of the baby lips upon
+the sugar rag and the roaring of the turbulent wind were heard in the
+hut. Suddenly the vibrations of a great peal of thunder shook the shanty
+with violent effect; a streak of lightning shot zig-zaggedly through the
+room like some livid, malicious spirit. Teola screamed in terror.</p>
+
+<p>"It hit some place near here," said Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and wasn't it awful? Oh, if the storm would only cease!"</p>
+
+<p>"It air comin' nearer," answered Tess, with the keen instincts of a
+squatter. "It air got to turn sidewise through the window afore it goes
+over the hill. What air ye afraid of, if ye believes that ye can move a
+mountain if ye has the faith? God wouldn't hit the brat with lightnin',
+would He?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I haven't the faith, Tess!" moaned Teola, rocking to and fro in her
+keen agony of soul. "Long ago I stopped believing the way I did when I
+was a child. I prayed that night when Dan was killed, until my head
+ached and pounded for days. I wanted to see him once more, and God
+wouldn't let me; and then I prayed again&mdash;" Teola buried her face in the
+breast of the <a class="pagenum" name="page_263" id="page_263" title="263"></a>infant, and sobbed, "I prayed that the baby might die
+when he was born, but God didn't see fit to take him. Somehow, it
+doesn't do any good to pray any more."</p>
+
+<p>Tess paused in her work, standing with her hands on her hips, a solemn
+expression in the long eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yer faith wasn't as big as a speck of dirt, then, were it?" she
+queried. "And maybe mine ain't for Daddy. But the student air a-prayin'
+for him! It air a damn shame ye ain't got him a-prayin' for yerself and
+the kid.... Ye'd a seen yer man before now, and the brat would 'a' died,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>With a start caused by the squatter's words, Teola laid the child down,
+crouching back upon her feet. She eyed the fisher-girl critically. What
+a strange mixture of good and bad&mdash;of the holy and the unholy&mdash;lived in
+the tawny, magnificent squatter! She answered hesitatingly:</p>
+
+<p>"But if my brother should know about the baby, it would break my heart,
+Tessibel. It would kill me&mdash;and him, too! Nothing could ever make me
+tell him. You understand, don't you, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>It was as Tess had said. The storm was coming nearer, sending vivid
+shafts of lightning in splendid awfulness across the sky. Torrents of
+rain descended, thrashing the lake into uneven, towering crests of white
+foam. The weeping willow tree groaned over the shanty roof, jarring and
+tearing at the broken bits of tarred tin.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, Tess, how can you bear that awful noise, constantly through the
+night? It frightens me to death. It sounds like the spirits of people
+who are dead."</p>
+
+<p>She shivered again, the cutting rasp from the chimney place stinging her
+with fright.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_264" id="page_264" title="264"></a></p><p>"It air spirits," replied Tess softly. "There air one kind of spirits
+for the sun when it air a-shinin', and the waves just a-ripplin' over
+the lake. They air good spirits. But on nights like this there air bad
+ones&mdash;the ghosts of Indians, squaws, and sometimes of the Letts'
+family&mdash;them dead 'uns."</p>
+
+<p>She paused, her low voice trailing into silence on that one word "dead,"
+the luminous eyes burning with superstitious fear. How many times had
+the squaw and her burnt brat, now long since called to the land of their
+fathers, moaned through the winter nights, making the shanty ring with
+their piteous plaints! How many times Tessibel had imagined that she had
+seen the headless man from Haytes' Corner flit from the shadows of the
+long lane and lose himself in the overhanging willows on the shore!</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a foreign sound pierced the storm. Tessibel drew near Teola.
+Both girls were standing over the wooden box. The violence of the storm
+impelled them to grasp each other's hands. In through the broken window
+the strange sound was borne again.</p>
+
+<p>"A boat's a-beatin' agin the shore," said Tess quietly. "Some one air
+a-comin' in out of the rain."</p>
+
+<p>The words were only formed on her lips when the door opened abruptly.
+Tessibel turned her head; Teola dropped her hand and uttered a cry.
+Frederick Graves, with his fingers upon the door, was closing it against
+the fury of the storm.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_265" id="page_265" title="265"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII_8765" id="CHAPTER_XXXII_8765"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You didn't mind my running in, did you, Tessibel?" asked Frederick,
+turning toward the squatter with a broad, comrade-like smile. Then he
+noticed his sister, with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Teola! you, too, were caught in the storm? What a blessing to have
+a shelter like this! Miss Tessibel won't mind if we stay until it is
+over. I came home before I was expected. I almost wish, now, that I had
+waited until morning. But I am safe here, though.... Whew! it is a
+terrible night."</p>
+
+<p>The distance between Teola and Tessibel widened perceptibly. Neither
+girl attempted to speak, and the student smiled at the embarrassment
+upon his sister's face. He made to go toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't mind being here, dear," he said in a low tone. "I don't
+believe as Father and Mother do. I shouldn't ask for you to be in a
+better place than this hut."</p>
+
+<p>He turned his face toward the roof, letting his eyes sweep the cobwebbed
+net, the old coats upon the wall; and lastly to the stove, out of the
+top of which jutted the smoking knot.</p>
+
+<p>"There is here," he continued impressively, "a feeling of rest and
+contentment to me.... I believe, Tessibel Skinner, that your faith
+permeates every inch of it."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted the lid of the stove, and shoved the smouldering <a class="pagenum" name="page_266" id="page_266" title="266"></a>wood from
+sight. His deep voice came again to Tessibel's ears as if from afar:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could impress upon my father what it means to pray and be good
+and pure under such circumstances as surround you. I mean, you know,
+Tess"&mdash;here he turned squarely upon her&mdash;"I mean that, for one so young,
+you have purity of faith and uplifted confidence in God's goodness."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was silenced by a half-smothered cry dragging itself from the
+squatter's throat. Then he noted that something was wrong. Teola, pale
+and wretched, had gradually placed a greater distance between herself
+and the wooden box. Tess had involuntarily drawn closer to it. She dully
+comprehended that Teola was ashamed of the rabbit-like body, struggling
+for a mere existence. Expressions of consternation, of indecision and
+terror swept over her face. Her eyes dropped for an instant upon the
+silent infant. The child gave one great yawn, and whiningly dropped the
+sugar rag. Just at this juncture, lightning flashed through the cracked
+window and played above the face of the babe until the red of the fire
+mark from head to shoulder glowed crimson under the blotched skin. The
+tiny, scrawny arms were bare, the withered mouth opened and shut,
+gapingly. As the eyes of the boy fell upon it, he went so deadly white
+that Tess thought he was going to fall. Without a word, he walked to the
+box, considering the wrinkled baby face like a man in a trance. His gaze
+took in the flaming brand, the gray eyes fastened upon the candlelight,
+and the tiny, searching fingers, which constantly sought something they
+could not find. It seemed an eternity before he <a class="pagenum" name="page_267" id="page_267" title="267"></a>gathered himself
+together, forcing his eyes upward to rest first on Teola, then upon
+Tess.</p>
+
+<p>He was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Where&mdash;did&mdash;that&mdash;child&mdash;come&mdash;from?"</p>
+
+<p>There was imperious inquisition in the dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>His voice had changed, until the deepness of it was terrifying.</p>
+
+<p>Teola came nearer to him. Tessibel dropped down beside the infant.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know where&mdash;that child&mdash;came from?" commanded the boy once
+more. "Whose child is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess swung her body round upon the shanty floor, turning cloudy,
+rebuking eyes upon Teola. She, Tessibel Skinner, crouching squatter-like
+over Dan Jordan's baby, had sworn never to tell Frederick his sister's
+secret, and no thought of doing so entered her mind. The minister's
+daughter must speak the truth. The mother of the babe would answer the
+question put by the student.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly Tess turned over her great desire for the freedom of her father,
+followed by the passionate wish to retain the love and prayers of
+Frederick Graves. If she denied the child, he would turn upon his
+sister, and the shivering girl would divulge her trouble. It would be
+the same as breaking her oath. Yet Frederick must not think the child
+hers. She turned toward Teola again, and seemed about to open her lips,
+when the expression upon the other girl's face stayed her tongue. It was
+a mixture of despair, illness and fright. Tessibel imagined she had
+discovered beneath the pain-drawn face a desire to claim her own. Ah!
+Teola would gather her babe, that tiny bit of shriveled flesh, into her
+arms before the whole world. There rose in the squatter's <a class="pagenum" name="page_268" id="page_268" title="268"></a>heart a vast
+respect for Myra Longman, who had taken her child from the beginning of
+its tiny life, and defied the babbling tongues of the settlement
+gossips. Teola Graves, although of a different class, was no less a
+mother&mdash;she would do the same. Tessibel sat up, waiting for the
+confession. Why was the minister's daughter so silent?&mdash;why so deathly
+looking?</p>
+
+<p>"I will be answered," insisted the student. Then, centering his eyes
+full upon Tess, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner, <i>it</i> is&mdash;yours!"</p>
+
+<p>Teola's lips were pressed closely together. Spasms of pain drew them
+down at the corners, making the girl resemble a woman twice her years.
+With a sudden inspiration, she turned upon her brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick, Frederick," she stammered. "Don't blame her too much. She is
+only a girl."</p>
+
+<p>A cry escaped from the lips of Frederick; another followed from those of
+Tess. The minister's daughter was throwing the motherhood of the babe
+upon her. Teola had branded her squatter savior with a nameless child&mdash;a
+horror from which the student shrank! She saw unbelief rise quickly in
+his eyes, and saw him draw aside his long rain-coat as it almost touched
+the box upon the floor. Shrinking disgust of the wriggling, whimpering
+thing on the rags made Frederick involuntarily reach out his hand to his
+sister, but his eyes were bent upon Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"And you're the girl I've trusted!" he gasped, as Teola neared him
+slowly. "Yours is the faith I've envied!&mdash;your life the one standard I
+wish to gain!... God!" he groaned, "you&mdash;you&mdash;you the mother of that!"</p>
+
+<p>His bitter tones stung her to the quick, whipping her <a class="pagenum" name="page_269" id="page_269" title="269"></a>into immediate
+action. Fire gold-brown and swift as lightning swept into the flashing
+eyes. Frederick's sister had thrust the child upon her. The secret was
+dead between them. Tess remembered her oath&mdash;remembered her love for the
+boy, and Teola's cowardice. Her despair gathered as her false position
+was forced upon her.</p>
+
+<p>She stooped, and grasped the babe in her hands with a passion that tore
+the meager clothing from its body. She crushed the infant to her as if
+indeed Teola's words were true. The small dark head fell limply upon her
+bosom, the thin legs hung straight and bare over the soiled jacket. One
+little hand clutched her torn sleeve, as if there lived in the
+infant-brain a fear of harm. Tess, instinct with potent life and rage,
+wheeled like a tawny tigress furiously upon Frederick and Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"Air it any of yer damn business," she demanded hotly, "if I wants to
+have a brat?"</p>
+
+<p>She had silenced the student by the condemning words, which seared his
+soul like molten lead. A dazed terror gathered in his eyes. He smoothed
+his forehead with trembling fingers. The lightning forked about the
+squatter and the babe, illuminating the small head and the bony body of
+the child. Tess felt it shiver and mechanically she lifted her skirt,
+wrapping him close within it. Her gaze took in sneeringly the shrinking
+form of Teola, and the arm of the student encircling his sister's waist.
+For one instant she hated them both with all the strength of her
+half-savage nature. Still, no thought came of breaking her promise.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can both go to hell," she ended distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>A fierce cry from Frederick closed her lips, and the anger within her
+changed to terror. What was she doing? <a class="pagenum" name="page_270" id="page_270" title="270"></a>Blasting his love, his faith,
+his confidence with words that blackened her soul with perfidy and her
+life with dishonor. Had she not told the student that long-ago night
+that she loved him?&mdash;that she was his squatter for ever and ever? And
+was she not now at this moment keeping a secret from him for his own
+sake? Something in her small, ghastly face brought the lad in his boyish
+agony, impulsively forward.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's love&mdash;and mine, Tess&mdash;tell me, it isn't true! Tell me you are
+shielding someone else&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Teola caught her breath painfully, and Frederick ended:</p>
+
+<p>"Some other squatter girl."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got no other squatter's brat here," she cried, turning her eyes
+upon Teola. "It ain't no other squatter's brat, air it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Frederick," replied Teola, white and wan; "she has told you the
+truth&mdash;it isn't another squatter's child."</p>
+
+<p>Hope died in the boy and outraged feeling leaped into its place. He held
+Tessibel's eyes with his relentlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you expect to mix prayers for your father with filth like that?" he
+demanded, pointing to the hidden infant in the fold of her dress. "Did
+you expect God to hear you, when your life was full of&mdash;sin?... I am
+ashamed I ever loved you, ashamed that I took my life from your
+hands.... I wish I were&mdash;dead! I wish I were dead!"</p>
+
+<p>Teola gasped in her new understanding. The squatter and her handsome
+brother loved each other! Never for one moment had it dawned upon her,
+until she saw the tall boy drop beside the stool and sob out his heart
+agony upon the open Bible.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_271" id="page_271" title="271"></a></p><p>If she dared speak the truth, she could assure him of the goodness of
+the fisher-girl. But her lips sealed themselves with her soul's consent.
+She raised her face, giving Tess one look of terror. Reaching out, she
+touched her brother's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick, come home with me. This is awful&mdash;awful!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go home," sobbed the boy, in pitiful abandon. "I didn't
+know anything could be so hard to bear. And I loved her faith and her
+character&mdash;and her beautiful face.... Oh, I love her, I love her,
+Teola!"</p>
+
+<p>The squatter listened to every passionate word, listened until her face
+whitened into a despair that settled there and did not vanish. She had
+not moved from the wooden box, nor ceased pressing the half-clad infant
+to her breast. Turning, she shot a soul-cutting glance at the other
+girl, who owed her very life to her. The glance pleaded for the
+miserable boy by the stool, for the sick babe held close to her heart,
+and lastly, for herself, her squatter honor, and the powerful love she
+had for the student brother. From the depths of her eyes came a demand
+to Teola that she tell the truth. The answer was but a slight negative
+shake of the proudly-set head, followed by an embarrassment that Teola
+covered by leaning over her brother, and raising him from the floor.
+Frederick allowed his sister to lead him by the wooden box, past
+Tessibel to the door. His eyes traveled back to the open Bible upon the
+stool, where but a moment since his own dark head had rested. Then he
+laughed&mdash;laughed until the sharp sting of his tones made the fisher-girl
+grunt in her characteristic way.</p>
+
+<p>Striding forward, he snatched up the book, tore off the <a class="pagenum" name="page_272" id="page_272" title="272"></a>covers, and in
+another minute had thrust it through the smoke into the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"There goes your faith&mdash;your canting trash about your love for the
+Saviour! I might have known that one of your kind could not rise above
+the grossness in you. I hope you will be as miserable and as unhappy as
+I am.... I hope that child will...."</p>
+
+<p>Tess stopped him with a cry. She stooped down, and placed the little Dan
+in his bed without a word. Her anger was gone, and from the waters of
+bitterness that swept over her a better Tess lived. Her faith in the boy
+died instantly, and a higher, nobler and greater faith in the crucified
+Saviour lived instead.</p>
+
+<p>She would never tell Frederick that his sister was mother to the little
+being he had scorned, nor would she as much as utter the name of Dan
+Jordan. Covering the child tenderly, she faced Frederick Graves without
+a touch of the awkward girlishness that had hitherto marked her
+movements. A glorified expression lightened the white face and shone
+from her eyes. He had taught her a lesson of independence she could not
+have learned through any other person. Without one glance at the
+shivering young mother, she walked to the door, and opened it, as she
+had done that night when he had come first to the hut.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can go," she said, "both of ye. Ye burned my Book, ye did, but ye
+can't take it out of my heart. The God up their ain't all yers. He air
+mine&mdash;and Daddy's&mdash;and&mdash;the brat's."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_273" id="page_273" title="273"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII_9017" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII_9017"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The rain rushed in through the open door. The wind shook the dust in
+clouds from the overhanging nets, waving the long cobwebs that hung in
+fine threads from the ceiling into fantastic figures.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick, still supporting his sister, stepped into the glare of the
+lightning. Tess closed the door behind them, and stood with her back
+against it. The high chest lifted and lifted, the white, tightened
+throat choking down the sobs that tried to force themselves to her lips.
+"She were a damn sneak," were the first words she said, shudderingly
+covering her face with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, aw, I ain't a-goin' to have it here.... I can't have it here."</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking of the child, now twisting and turning for more sugar.
+A whine from its lips drew Tess slowly toward it. She stood looking down
+upon it for many minutes. The baby had taken away her all, for Tess
+realized now the extent of her love for Frederick. Nothing would make
+the days shorter; there was no looking forward to a kindly nod or a
+gracious word from him.</p>
+
+<p>"I hates ye," she said out loud, slowly, leaning over the infant with a
+frown on her face, "but I hates yer ma worse than I hates you. Yer ma
+air a piker, she air."</p>
+
+<p>The babe whimpered and shivered. Tessibel wrapped its bare shoulders in
+a piece of the blanket.</p>
+
+<p>"I could throw ye out in the rain, I hates ye so," she burst forth in
+sudden anger. "Ye ain't no right in this shanty."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_274" id="page_274" title="274"></a></p><p>Her eyes glittered with rage and humiliation; her head sank nearer and
+nearer the fire-marked child, her shock of red hair falling like a
+mantle of gold across its thin body. The twisting fingers entangled
+themselves in the tawny curls, drawing the squatter down until her face
+was almost in the box. With a grunt of abhorrence she spread out the
+wiry little hands, extricating lock after lock.</p>
+
+<p>Once free, she squatted back upon her feet, scrutinizing the child with
+no sign of sympathy in her eyes. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of the
+forest and the lake beyond through the window. She could see the rain
+falling in quantities into the water, and the great pine-tree, in which
+sat her God of Majesty, whitened under the zig-zag glare of lightning.
+The superstitious, imaginative girl rose unsteadily to her feet.
+Pressing her face to the smeared pane, she saw the jagged lightning
+tearing again toward the tree; then it played about the figure that Tess
+had grown to love. The old man amid the branches bent toward the
+squatter, and held out his waving arms. A cry burst from Tessibel's
+lips. She opened the door, standing in bold relief against the
+candlelight, and shot her hands far into the dark night.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Goddy, Goddy!" she breathed, catching her breath in stifling sobs.
+"The student air gone, and the Bible air burnt, and Daddy air in a
+prison cell. Might'n I asks ye&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned, with heaving bosom, without finishing. Bending over the
+child, she drew him into her arms. With the same sublime expression of
+suffering, she went back to the open door and knelt in the beating rain,
+and tendered the little child toward the God of her dreams.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_275" id="page_275" title="275"></a></p><p>"Might'n it please ye, Goddy, to bless the brat&mdash;and Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>The student was no longer the motive power of her prayer. Tess, the
+squatter, was struggling with a new faith of her own. Flash after flash
+brightened the sky, and still she knelt, offering the sick child for her
+God to bless. One long peal of thunder shook the inky waters, and
+rumbled reverberatingly into the hills. Tessibel's eyes were riveted
+upon the pine-tree. The wind dropped the shaking branches for a
+minute&mdash;the arms extended straight toward her. With fast-falling tears
+she bowed over the wailing baby, and stood up with a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Goddy, Goddy, it air hard work for ye to forgive Tessibel, I knows....
+To-day I loved the student best"&mdash;a sob tightened her throat&mdash;"to-night
+I love you best, and ... and the Man hanging on the Cross."</p>
+
+<p>She closed the hut door, and seated herself at the oven, and warmed the
+infant with tender solicitude, forcing the warm, sweetened water into
+the meager body. Then she slipped off her clothes, gathered the little
+Dan to her breast, and crept into bed.</p>
+
+<p>"I said as how I hated ye, brat," she whispered, "but I don't hate ye
+now, poor little shiverin' dum devil!"</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the storm the babe slept, but Tessibel wept out her
+loss of the only love she had ever known save Daddy Skinner's&mdash;wept
+until, from sheer exhaustion, her head dropped upon the dark one of Dan
+Jordan's babe, and she slept.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next morning, Tess rose languidly. Without a smile or a prayer, she
+arranged the sop for the babe, then sat down beside him to think. Such a
+radical <a class="pagenum" name="page_276" id="page_276" title="276"></a>change in her life brought an influx of indescribable emotions.
+Her Bible was gone&mdash;the one book out of which she was learning the
+secret of happiness and patience. She remembered how, the night before,
+the realization of her despair had brought her closer to the Cross. Out
+of the brightness of the lightning she had received a promise of a
+blessing. Still, the tender, sensitive heart was bleeding for its own.
+But Tess had the hidden God to help her&mdash;and the child. She sat watching
+him; she could see that he was growing thinner, growing more emaciated
+as the days passed. He could eat only the food Tess forced into his
+mouth. But the sugar rags kept him from whining. At this moment he was
+eying the window-pane with intelligent intentness.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air the miserablest little devil I ever seed. No pappy, and a mammy
+what air afraid to say ye air hers. I hated ye last night, but ye air
+such a wrinkled little tramp that this mornin' I promises ye to keep ye
+till ye dies."</p>
+
+<p>She was bending over the babe, watching every expression that flitted
+over the drawn mouth. In this position she did not hear the door open
+silently, as Teola stepped in.</p>
+
+<p>The minister's daughter whispered to the crouching squatter:</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, can&mdash;can you ever forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess stood up and took a long breath. Teola noted how the night had
+changed the brilliant coloring to a whiteness that startled her. An
+agony of remorse broke over her, and, dropping upon her knees, she wept
+upon the face of little Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, I've nearly died all through the night.... Oh, can you forgive
+me?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_277" id="page_277" title="277"></a></p><p>"I ain't no business to be a-forgivin' ye. It be the brat what ye air
+to asks forgiveness of."</p>
+
+<p>Teola sprang to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess!" she cried sharply. Never had the girl appeared in this light.</p>
+
+<p>"It air hard on the little kid," Tessibel said meditatively, "when its
+ma says what another woman air a-mothering it for good and all."</p>
+
+<p>This remark came forth in even tones. Teola had not thought of the harm
+she had done the child of Dan Jordan, by throwing the motherhood upon
+the squatter. She turned her troubled eyes, first upon Tess, then upon
+the child.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, I do love him, even if I disowned him. But I haven't the
+courage you have. You looked so beautiful when you said he was yours....
+And Frederick is ill to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's heart thumped loudly.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard him crying all night, Tess," went on Teola, "and, oh! so many
+times I wanted to go and tell him that you were&mdash;a good girl; but I
+didn't have the courage. But I know that sometime&mdash;Tess, will you pray
+for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't doin' no prayin' to-day," replied Tess. "To-morry, mebbe....
+Aw! I wanted the student to pray for Daddy, and to like me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Teola never forgot the scene that followed.</p>
+
+<p>The fisher-girl settled in a heap upon the floor, bowed the tired head,
+and wept.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel! Tess," called Teola, touching the girl's shoulder, "listen.
+I'll tell him!&mdash;I'll tell him! He shall come back to you to-night&mdash;if it
+kills me."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel lifted her white face.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_278" id="page_278" title="278"></a></p><p>"Ye be goin' to tell him that the brat air yers?" queried she brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go and make it all right with him. He shall come to you to-day....
+Oh, what a wicked girl I was! Kiss me, Tess."</p>
+
+<p>Elias Graves' beautiful daughter sank on the breast of the squatter, and
+there was a kiss of forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p>The baby whimpered. Teola drew away from Tessibel with a long sigh. She
+reached for the milk-can.</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't none there," Tess said, with a touch of joy in her tones.
+"It air all gone. He et all that you brought him."</p>
+
+<p>"And I can't get him any more now," moaned Teola. "Oh, Tess, I'm so ill!
+I wish I were dead!"</p>
+
+<p>A tall boy had repeated the same words the night before. Tess drew
+herself up painfully. She pitied Teola from the bottom of her heart,
+but, in spite of her pity, she could not help the thrill of happiness
+when she thought of Frederick coming, and knowing all.</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't no use to wish ye were dead," said she, "'cause ye can't
+allers die if ye wants to. When I thought Daddy was a-goin' to the rope,
+I say every day I were a-goin' to die.... Women ain't a-dyin' so easy."</p>
+
+<p>She was preparing the warm sop for the child, and taking him from his
+mother's arm, she sat down in the rocking chair. She did not speak again
+until she had drained the sweetened water from the bread-crusts, and the
+child had smacked it down eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she spoke, handing the babe to Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't ye put out a drop more milk evenin's?"</p>
+
+<p>"I took all there was last night, and the night before, <a class="pagenum" name="page_279" id="page_279" title="279"></a>too. And this
+morning Rebecca was furious&mdash;she had to go without milk in her coffee. I
+don't know that I can get any to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"The weather air so cold now," explained Tess, "Kennedy won't let his
+cows stay in the fields nights. I might crib some more if I could. Every
+time I steals up to yer house, I thinks yer woman'll see me; and yer
+Pappy and Mammy comes home to-morry."</p>
+
+<p>Teola nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"If yer Pappy catched me swipin' milk, he'd knock the head offen me. I
+steals it just the same.... I air afraid of yer Pappy, though."</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder," replied Teola, and she lapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>Her father hated the squatter girl&mdash;hated the fishermen who still plied
+their unlawful trade under the noses of the gamekeepers.</p>
+
+<p>Teola was crying softly. She felt it was only just to relieve Tess of
+the stigma she had placed upon her. But to go home and face the proud
+young brother with the story of her sin&mdash;with the lie she had told&mdash;were
+almost unbearable. Then another thought pierced her. Could Tess keep the
+baby all winter? And would she herself have the courage to live, knowing
+that he might sometimes be hungry and cold? Frederick would help her.
+She was glad she had decided to tell him.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As she walked up the long hill, she saw her brother standing on the
+porch, and noted the pallor of his face, the expression of misery in his
+eyes. At first the boy did not see her&mdash;not until she called his name
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>Teola sank upon the upper step.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_280" id="page_280" title="280"></a></p><p>"It takes away my breath to climb that hill," she panted, when she
+could speak. "It grows harder and harder every day."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be glad when we leave this old cottage," was the boy's moody
+reply. "I never knew how much I hated the lake until to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Teola did not answer to this, for she knew that she was to blame for
+that hatred. Frederick was looking at the hut under the willow wofully.</p>
+
+<p>"If anyone had told me what I saw last night," he blurted out, a moment
+later, "I believe I would have killed him.... I loved her, Teola."</p>
+
+<p>Now she would tell him&mdash;send him back to Tessibel with joy in his heart.
+She sprang up impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Frederick," she began quickly, "let me tell&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not tell me that I have to forgive her for such a thing as
+this because of ignorance.... It's too horrible!... I shall never get
+the sight of that child out of my mind.... That streak of awful, lurid
+red ... that yapping mouth ... those clawing hands.... God! the disgust
+I felt.... Teola! Teola! You are ill! Rebecca, come here! Come! Come!"</p>
+
+<p>Together they lifted her from the porch where she had fallen, like a man
+stabbed with a knife. Gurgling from her lips poured the fresh red blood
+from the diseased lungs. Teola tried to speak, tried to tell Frederick
+the truth, but the awful tugging in her chest, and her brother's order
+that she must not speak, closed her lips upon the good resolution. Added
+to his command came one from the doctor, who arrived later, that she
+must not speak one word until he came the next day. The hemorrhage <a class="pagenum" name="page_281" id="page_281" title="281"></a>had
+been brought on by Frederick's description of her child. After her
+brother had gone, she thought of the hour when she could tell him, but
+with a thankful feeling in her heart that it had been delayed a little
+time.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Until the great University bells chimed the hour of midnight, Tessibel
+waited in the hut for Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>"She hes forgot to tell him," she muttered wearily, pulling the sleepy
+babe into her arms, "and&mdash;and he ain't a-comin'."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_282" id="page_282" title="282"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV_9308" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV_9308"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tess saw the minister's family arrive in the small lake steamer, and saw
+Frederick meet them at the dock. She was watching from between the
+tatters of the ragged curtain, and noted that Teola had not come down
+the hill with her brother. This disturbed the squatter, for the baby's
+mother had looked ill when she left the day before, with the resolution
+to tell the student her secret. As Minister Graves passed, she saw
+Frederick looking fondly into his father's face, but he sent no friendly
+glance toward the hut snuggled under the willow. The watching girl saw
+that the student's face was haggard, and a thrill swept over her. It was
+because of his love; he wanted to be with her! But he thought she had
+been&mdash;Tess turned her head from the window, blinded by tears. But for
+the child in the box! There swept into her mind a text she had learned.
+"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove." Ah! if she
+could have such faith, only such a little faith, she could bring the boy
+back&mdash;bring back, through God's goodness, the student she loved.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-lovin' ye, Jesus," she trembled. "I takes care of the brat till
+he croaks. Give me back&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Emotion left the prayer unuttered in her breast.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>At eight o'clock that evening, Tess, hugging the fence, sneaked up
+through the rain. She turned into <a class="pagenum" name="page_283" id="page_283" title="283"></a>Graves' orchard, scurrying barefooted
+toward the house, casting glances at intervals behind her. Through the
+small garret window she could see Rebecca moving in her room, preparing
+to go out. The library, facing the lane, was dark. But the streak of
+light flung long upon the porch told the squatter that the Dominie's
+family was in the drawing-room. Tess ventured to the back of the house,
+drawing near the dark kitchen. Here was where Teola had placed the milk
+for several days. She scraped about in the inky darkness, but her
+fingers touched nothing. The babe's mother had forgotten to put out the
+pail! Until the coming of the Dominie and his wife, Tess had had but
+little fear, but now her breath came spasmodically. There was danger of
+detection if she crept into the kitchen to obtain the milk. If she could
+only get into Kennedy's barn! If the cows were only out to pasture! Tess
+turned the handle of the kitchen door softly, and stepped in. A light
+streak came from the drawing-room, and she located the ice-safe through
+the dim shadows. Teola had told her to take the milk from there if she
+failed to find it outside. She advanced slowly into the kitchen, holding
+her breath, but her heart thumped so loudly that she feared the family
+would hear it.</p>
+
+<p>Kneeling down at the refrigerator, she fumbled for the lock. The door
+slid open silently. A small pail of milk stood behind the butter-plate,
+and Tessibel, clutching it in her fingers, rose up. As she did so, a
+light flashed into her face, and she looked up to find Dominie Graves
+towering over her, his brows caught together with anger.</p>
+
+<p>"So Miss Skinner is the thief who takes our milk! The hymn-singing
+girl!... Ah, it is you!"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel dropped her eyes, still holding the can of milk.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_284" id="page_284" title="284"></a></p><p>"I air a-stealin' yer milk," she said presently, lifting her gaze. "Air
+ye goin' to&mdash;let me have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my lady, I am not going to let you have it," he mimicked. "But
+something else you are going to get."</p>
+
+<p>The Dominie stepped to the kitchen door leading into the yard, and
+turned the key in the lock. He placed the lamp on the table, the
+squatter waiting with fear-laden eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"For a long time," went on the Dominie, in slow, measured tones, "I have
+thought it would be a good thing to give you a sound whipping. The Bible
+says, 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child.' ... I am going to do
+something your father forgot to do, Miss Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>The sneer in his voice and his slur on her father brought a bright flush
+of anger to Tessibel's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can cowhide me if ye wants to, but don't say nothin' against my
+Daddy!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say what I wish to! Now, then, how many times have you stolen from
+this house?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess looked about for some way of escape; then pondered.</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno," she replied sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I can just about tell," answered Graves. "Rebecca says that for many
+mornings she has had no milk for her coffee. And I left the kitchen door
+unlocked to-night purposely to catch the thief. Let me see.... I think
+we've been robbed for ten days? That means ten good stripes for you,
+Tessibel Skinner.... Put down that milk!"</p>
+
+<p>"I won't do it," Tessibel whitened. She had not believed the minister
+when he had threatened to whip her. He was trying to scare her. He would
+probably take <a class="pagenum" name="page_285" id="page_285" title="285"></a>away the milk, and send her home again. But he had
+stepped to the wall, and taken a riding-whip from a nail. Tess had seen
+that whip before, once&mdash;the time she had twiggled her fingers. Graves
+had shaken it at her from his saddle-horse. Then she had not been
+afraid.... The clergyman came toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye hit me with that whip," growled Tess, "and&mdash;and&mdash;I'll kill ye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you will, eh?... Well, then, there it is!"</p>
+
+<p>A stinging blow fell across her shoulders, and another and another. The
+slender body writhed silently, turned and twisted to escape the
+descending whip. Drops of milk spattered upon the floor. Never before
+had Tess known such physical pain. The minister was counting the blows
+deliberately as they fell. At the eighth stroke, the girl opened her
+lips and uttered a long, piercing cry&mdash;an intense, vibrating cry. The
+last blow fell upon Tessibel's shivering back,&mdash;and Frederick appeared
+in the doorway. His father leaning against the wall breathlessly, the
+whip hanging limply from his hand; Tessibel Skinner, barefooted and
+weeping, with a pail of milk clasped in her fingers&mdash;was what the boy
+saw. He had no chance to speak before Teola, too, with streaming hair,
+her nightrobe clutched convulsively in one hand, opened the hall door.</p>
+
+<p>The scene whirled before her like a frightful nightmare.</p>
+
+<p>The fisher-girl turned and faced her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yer Pappy air a-beatin' me ... I hev a-been stealin' milk."</p>
+
+<p>Her words fell between little, broken gasps. They touched Frederick as
+he never had been touched before. He stepped forward hastily to speak.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_286" id="page_286" title="286"></a></p><p>"I air a-needin' the milk," she explained, bowing her head before him.
+"I has to have it!"</p>
+
+<p>The infant rushed into Frederick's mind ... the squalid cabin, that
+twisting thing, with thin, discolored veins. It had been for him that
+Tess had stolen. Teola staggered toward her father, a cough racking the
+emaciated frame. Minister Graves threw his arms about her.</p>
+
+<p>"Go back! Go back quickly, child! You should not have ventured out of
+bed. I will settle with the squatter."</p>
+
+<p>"You whipped her!" breathed Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and will again, if I catch her stealing from my kitchen. Now,
+miss, you can go home. Put down that milk; and, if I find you here in
+the future, I shall put you behind the bars, with your father."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick counted the beats of his heart through the blank silence. He
+felt impelled to reach forward to Tessibel,&mdash;to say something to relieve
+the white, tense face. His father was waiting for the squatter to take
+her departure. But Tess remained with the pail in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she lifted her streaming eyes to the minister's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I has been beaten.... And I air a-feelin' so&mdash;bad! Air I to have the
+milk? I needs it." Tess sobbed again, and continued, "I ain't a-carin'
+so awful about the lickin' as I does about havin' the milk."</p>
+
+<p>She came forward close to him, with searching sweetness in her gaze. The
+Dominie drew back, fearing the soiled dress would touch him. The girl
+was making the appeal to him alone, and a cloud of color gathered
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_287" id="page_287" title="287"></a>slowly over his face under her steady eyes. He regained himself, and
+replied,</p>
+
+<p>"No, you can't have the milk, no matter how much you may need it."</p>
+
+<p>"Some one'll die without it," she entreated again, lowering her voice,
+throwing no glance at the silent boy or shivering girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let them die," retorted the clergyman. "I do not believe
+you&mdash;anyway!"</p>
+
+<p>He was weakening a little, the attitude of his son and daughter striking
+him almost to consent. Frederick's eyes were filled with hauteur unusual
+to the boy, and Teola was clinging to his neck, weeping wildly. The
+children had never approved of his persecution of the squatters, but
+both of them could see that the girl had been caught in open-handed
+theft.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," Teola implored, "give the girl the milk. She says she needs
+it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Father," interrupted Frederick, "give it to her.... She won't
+steal again.... You won't, will you&mdash;girl?"</p>
+
+<p>This was the first word to her since that night he had lost faith in
+her. His voice seemed harsh; it fell upon her, numbing her senses. Her
+body went cold as if a frosty gust had struck it.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't steal again&mdash;ever? Will you?" demanded he.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel struggled to speak. At last there came a fluttered confession,
+which made Teola Graves shiver like an aspen leaf. If she could only
+summon courage to tell her arrogant father the truth! She could not bear
+to look upon her squatter friend, nor upon Frederick's white face.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_288" id="page_288" title="288"></a></p><p>"I has to steal," said Tess. "I has to have the milk.... I can't get it
+no way else."</p>
+
+<p>"There! There!" exclaimed the Dominie, with a derisive laugh. "If that
+isn't depravity, I don't know what is.... Now, then, miss, put down that
+pail, and go!"</p>
+
+<p>He strode forward and grasped the handle in his fingers. But Tess held
+it firmly. Her mind flashed to the child in the hut, smacking fiercely
+through the long night ... she thought of the morning, of the hungry
+gray eyes and the ceaseless baby whimper&mdash;and defied the minister.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-goin' to have it," she insisted. "Take yer hand offen that
+handle."</p>
+
+<p>Graves gasped for breath, but did not relax his hold upon the pail. With
+a motion as quick as lightning flashes, Tess lowered her head, and set
+her teeth into the Dominie's fat white hand. A cry of pain escaped him,
+and he opened his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"I said as how I got to have the milk&mdash;and&mdash;and I air got it! Open that
+door!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess shrieked out the last words, her eyes, full of hatred, bent upon
+Graves. Frederick strode forward, turned the key in the lock, and Tess
+sprang out.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Tessibel ran swiftly through the orchard, out into the lane, her rage
+dying out in her fear for the babe. She had never left him so long
+before. Her flesh still tingled from the Dominie's blows, but her
+admission before Frederick that she was compelled to steal hurt her
+worse than the blue welts rising upon her shoulders. She regretted, too,
+that she had bitten the clergyman's <a class="pagenum" name="page_289" id="page_289" title="289"></a>hand, but that had been done for
+the baby&mdash;little Dan had to live.</p>
+
+<p>She came to an alert standstill in front of the cabin. She saw the light
+from a candle flickering out through the window. Tess was sure she had
+left the hut dark&mdash;she had extinguished the light just before going out
+for the milk. Who was in the hut? Or had she made a mistake, and left
+the candle there? For the sake of the child she had to enter. She set
+down the pail, lifted her skirt, wiped away the traces of tears. Then,
+flinging wide the door, she came upon Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_290" id="page_290" title="290"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXV_9554" id="CHAPTER_XXXV_9554"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXV</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ben was standing beside the bed, with the open grape-basket in his hand,
+looking down intently upon the child. His one eye flashed past Tess in
+its blindness, while the watery one with the red veins running through
+it distorted itself into a squint, and brought its evil gaze upon her.
+The fat chin, covered with a stubby growth of hair, shook with malicious
+pleasure, the dark teeth set grimly through the brown, tobacco-stained
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a brat!" he said at last, Tess standing paralyzed. "Air its
+Pappy the&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not finish. Tess snatched the basket from his hand, and covered
+the whining babe.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be allers snoopin' yer nose in some one's else's business," she said
+darkly, her fear of him growing with each minute. "Ye can't keep from my
+hut any day, and ye ain't no right here nuther."</p>
+
+<p>"I telled ye and the student that the time'd come when I'd get even with
+ye both&mdash;and it air here!... It air here, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>"The student ain't nothin' to do with this here brat," retorted Tess.
+"Ye thinks as how ye knows a heap.... Well, ye don't.... And it air time
+for ye to be a-goin' now, Ben Letts!"</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-goin' to stay," said he, "Daddy's" stool creaking under his
+weight.</p>
+
+<p>From a tree near the forest Tess could hear the screech of a night-owl
+die away in smothered laughter. The <a class="pagenum" name="page_291" id="page_291" title="291"></a>scraping of the willow on the tin
+roof came dimly to her in the silence. If some other squatter would only
+come along! God had always saved her from Ben Letts.&mdash;Dared she pray?
+Her eyes sought the window. If she could only see the pine-tree
+God!&mdash;send Him a little petition&mdash;He would forgive and save her. Dominie
+Graves had gone completely from her mind; only a wish, a desperate wish,
+came to escape the man who had constantly thrown his menacing shadow
+across the path of her life. Suddenly her bosom heaved. A verse was
+thrown bomb-like into her mind. Tess opened her lips and muttered,
+keeping her eyes upon the fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>"If ye have faith as the grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The time between the present and that night the student had left her in
+bitter sorrow faded. In her imagination she was alone in the rain, with
+the child upon her hands, offering it up to the dark God for a blessing.
+The same uplifting faith was upon her. The Crucified Savior would
+protect her.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe! I believe!" she ejaculated. No soul-desiring thought of
+Frederick interrupted her uprising faith. She needed him no more to pray
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>"A mustard-seed air&mdash;a&mdash;a mighty little thing, ain't it, Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess stood up, looking beyond him like one in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," grunted the fisherman, staring.</p>
+
+<p>He had never understood the moods of Tess. She was as incomprehensible
+to him as the myriads of stars that strung themselves through the sky.</p>
+
+<p>But his inability to understand her made him desire the girl the more.
+He had come at an hour when he <a class="pagenum" name="page_292" id="page_292" title="292"></a>was sure Tess would be alone. He would
+force her to come to his cabin, to marry him even before her father was
+hanged. Ben's eyes settled again upon the basket. Through his heavy
+senses sifted a wave of hatred for the miserable child, whining for the
+milk Tess had stolen. Ben moved his great feet, tearing up a long
+splinter from a broken board with his worn-down heel. It startled Tess
+from her reverie. In upon her faith came the sickening thought of
+Frederick, his confidence in her blasted and gone; it choked a prayer
+that lingered upon her lips. Ben rose to his feet, an oath belching from
+his ugly mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Put down that basket. Put it down, I says!"</p>
+
+<p>Never had it entered her mind before to conciliate the dark-browed
+fisherman who had pestered her with his attentions, but her frightened
+womanhood caught at the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till I gives him somethin' to eat," she said stolidly. "If he
+yaps, someone'll hear him."</p>
+
+<p>Ben sat down and watched her narrowly. Tessibel had grown so beautiful
+in the last few months that the brute force in the man rose in his
+desire to possess her. There was one way to bring the girl on her knees
+to him, one way to bow the proud red head&mdash;the little child made no
+difference to him. And some day he would get even with the student, too.
+The small bare feet of the squatter girl noiselessly plied their way
+from the smoking stove to the sugar-bowl, thence to the basket. Tess
+held the warm, sweet milk to the infant's lips, lifting the withered
+chin that the child might drink the better. Her mind was working
+rapidly. How should she escape and rescue the babe? She went back for
+more milk, wetting the corner of the cloth <a class="pagenum" name="page_293" id="page_293" title="293"></a>and wiping little Dan's
+face. Then she gazed straight at Ben Letts, and said,</p>
+
+<p>"How air yer mammy?"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed the most natural thing that she should ask this of him.</p>
+
+<p>"She air well," answered Ben, thrown off his guard. He took out his
+pipe, and continued:</p>
+
+<p>"When ye comes to the shanty, ye can't bring that brat."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; I ain't a-goin' to bring him," Tess replied, whispering a prayer
+for aid.</p>
+
+<p>"What be ye goin' to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know yet." A muttered petition fell over the baby's face, but
+she said aloud: "I think it air a-goin' to croak."</p>
+
+<p>"I's a-thinkin' so, too," Ben said thoughtfully. "He hes the look of
+death on his mug, Tessibel.... Air it yer brat?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air mine now," she answered slowly, raising her head, "and I stays
+here with him till he dies."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; ye be a-comin' to my shanty to-morry. Mammy air expectin' ye....
+And ye'll be glad to come&mdash;afore I gets done with ye!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess shivered. She remembered Myra's broken wrist, and heard again the
+woful cry from the other squatter girl as she told of the harm done her.
+If she could get out of the shanty, she could run from him, but that
+would leave the child to his mercy. She glanced toward the door.
+Whatever came to her, she must protect the babe. Lifting him from his
+bed, she sat down at the oven, and extended the blue legs toward the
+heat.</p>
+
+<p>"He air so damn thin," she said in excuse, "that he <a class="pagenum" name="page_294" id="page_294" title="294"></a>allers yaps if he
+air cold.... Have ye seen Myry's kid lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; to-day. He air a-growin' a little more pert."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad for Myry," was Tessibel's comment.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye ain't heard nothin' from yer Daddy, have ye?" asked Ben, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. I had a letter from him. He air a-comin' to the shanty as soon as
+he air out."</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't a-goin' to get out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, he air; sure he air."</p>
+
+<p>"Air he a-knowin' of yer brat?" Ben was staring at the child.</p>
+
+<p>Tess stared back at him. She had forgotten that she had intimated that
+the baby was hers.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't tellin' Daddy nothin'.... His troubles be enough for <i>him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Her tone was low and bitter. She turned the babe with its back to the
+heat to gain time. She had almost decided to run away&mdash;she could not
+face Myra's fate.</p>
+
+<p>"This durn stove ain't got no fire in it," she said, laying Baby Dan in
+the box. "I's a-goin' for a stick of wood!"</p>
+
+<p>As Tessibel walked past him, Ben did not stop her&mdash;squatters never saved
+steps for their women. The girl flung open the door, but hesitated on
+the threshold. During the instant of her indecision, a silent panorama
+of night passed before her. Heavy rain clouds dipped almost to the dark
+water, obscuring the city and the University hill beyond. A great
+steamer attached to a number of canal boats lay as a thin black line in
+the center of the lake. An owl left the branches of the hut tree and
+circled into the safety of the shore willows, and a stealthy barn cat,
+with thread-like legs, crept from the <a class="pagenum" name="page_295" id="page_295" title="295"></a>water's edge toward the lane with
+a trailing dead fish in his jaws. He turned glistening green eyes upon
+Tess, and leapt away with his treasure.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! to be out once more in the darkness with the child&mdash;out among God's
+creatures, her creatures, there she would be safe&mdash;safe from Myra's
+terror.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing back at little Dan, she saw his large gray eyes fixed gravely
+upon the candlelight. To leave him there was like sending him into the
+jaws of death. To take him was impossible. She turned back, closed the
+door with a gasp, and faced Ben Letts.</p>
+
+<p>He was at her side in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I air got ye now," sounded in her ear like the roar of the sea. She
+felt the man crush her in his arms, felt the thick lips upon her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye think ye be such a smart kid that ye needn't never mind what a man
+says to ye. I knows that brat don't belong to yerself. I ain't seed ye
+all summer for nothin'. Tell me, whose air he?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess wrenched herself free, and sent forth scream after scream. A horny
+hand left a red mark across the fair face. It was the right of the
+fisherman to beat the woman he loved.... Tessibel Skinner was feeling
+for the first time the aggressiveness of the male.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, Ben, I tells ye the truth if ye wait a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Ben relaxed his hold a little, and the girl continued:</p>
+
+<p>"The brat ain't mine&mdash;it air a woman's on the hill. She didn't like it,
+and gave it to me, with a little money, till Daddy comes back."</p>
+
+<p>"Whose brat air it?"</p>
+
+<p>"A woman's I says, a-livin' on the hill."</p>
+
+<p>The words struggled through the fishy hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'll take it back to her to-night, ye does; then ye <a class="pagenum" name="page_296" id="page_296" title="296"></a>comes with me to
+the shanty. Yer Daddy ain't a-comin' here no more."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Tess heard footsteps crushing the pebbles near the hut. She
+could be saved, if she&mdash; She wrenched her face upward, and screamed,</p>
+
+<p>"Rescue ther perishin'!"</p>
+
+<p>The words were sent out in such a strain of agony that Ben Letts thrust
+his fingers to her throat. With an oath he closed them together.</p>
+
+<p>"I loves ye, ye hussy; that air why I chokes ye!"</p>
+
+<p>The room whirled around before Tessibel's gaze. She tried to draw her
+breath beneath the tightening grasp. The door burst open, and Frederick
+Graves received a desperate look of entreaty from the squatter-girl.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_297" id="page_297" title="297"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI_9790" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI_9790"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The babe smacked loudly. The September wind whirled its rain and dead
+willow leaves over the hut floor. A rasping sound, like the filing of a
+saw, came from the tin roof.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick Graves took in the scene with one sharp glance. He saw the
+fisherman, in ugly doggedness, towering over the small figure of the
+squatter-girl. Then he flung himself upon Ben Letts. He tore Ben's
+fingers from Tessibel's neck, leaving the skin reddened and scratched by
+the nails. Tess sank to the floor. The student's fist came down with a
+stunning blow upon the partly upturned face of the squatter Ben, and the
+fellow tumbled over.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up," said Frederick to Tessibel, lifting her gently to her feet.
+Her hand fluttered to her eyes, then to her throat. Still dizzy from the
+choking, she sank into the rocking-chair.</p>
+
+<p>"What were you two fighting over?" demanded Frederick impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>Tess gathered her senses at the sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"He were a-tryin' to make me come to his shanty with him&mdash;to be
+his'n&mdash;and I ain't a-goin'!"</p>
+
+<p>She whimpered a little, but choked back the tears, and raged:</p>
+
+<p>"A squatter-girl can't live a minute without some damn bloke wants to
+take her from her Daddy's shanty.... I ain't a-goin', I says!"</p>
+
+<p>How brave she felt, with the student near! for there <a class="pagenum" name="page_298" id="page_298" title="298"></a>was an expression
+upon his face that gave her courage. He looked so strong, so brave&mdash;and
+he had come when she had prayed. Something took from her the terror of
+the night when she had proclaimed her motherhood to him. Perhaps Teola
+had told him the truth. When he had turned from her in the agony of the
+confession, he had scorned her with his proud, dark eyes. Now he threw
+her the same protective glance that she had received before the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>The silence in the room became oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't a-goin'," she said again, to break it.</p>
+
+<p>Ben was upon the floor. He feared to rise, for Frederick stood
+threateningly over him.</p>
+
+<p>"She goes to my shanty," insisted Ben, screwing his face to peep through
+the swollen lids. "She and the brat goes to my hut.... I air its pappy!"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick staggered back against the door with a groan, Tess catching
+her breath in a sob. She could not exonerate herself because of Teola;
+she knew from Frederick's emotion at Ben's assertion that his sister had
+not told him. But he should not believe the lie that Letts had uttered.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the fine face of the student fall into his hands, and shudder
+after shudder run over the giant frame. Ben Letts leered at him with his
+twisted face, as a demon might at a soul in torment. The boy suffered
+for her&mdash;that was enough. The front portion of her skirt had been almost
+torn away in her struggle, and unconsciously she lifted it, and pinned a
+thorn more closely in its place. But for an instant she held back the
+words ready upon her tongue, and with one long step she reached
+Frederick, placing her hand upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_299" id="page_299" title="299"></a></p><p>"Don't touch me, please," he shuddered. "It's awful&mdash;awful! And I&mdash;I
+loved you so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Haw!" chuckled Ben, settling back against the child's box. "I says as
+how the gal comes to my shanty. She brings the brat to its pa."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick moodily considered the ugly face. The sneer that accompanied
+the declaration roused his rage; the brute had sealed the doom of
+Tessibel Skinner. Again the student was oblivious of his love for the
+profession he had chosen; forgot that the one book he had studied more
+than any other taught him that the God he worshiped would avenge all
+wrong. In one step he was upon the fisherman. He lifted Orn Skinner's
+stool, and brought it down with a crash upon Ben's head.</p>
+
+<p>Tess uttered a sharp, frightened cry, speeding to interrupt another
+blow.</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of the way," cried the student, pushing her from him. "I am
+going to kill him!"</p>
+
+<p>With no ungentle touch she grasped Frederick's arm, holding the stool in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to wait," she said, in low, swift tones, her gaze dominating his
+flashing eyes. "Ye'll kill him if ye hit him again.... Wait till I says
+what I's a-goin' to ... I loves my Daddy, that ye knows&mdash;better'n
+anything in the hull world&mdash;better'n God&mdash;better'n&mdash;better'n&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Better than the child?" demanded Frederick, placing his foot upon Ben.</p>
+
+<p>A grunt issued from the girl's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, a hundred times better than the brat! And I says this: that I
+hopes my daddy's neck'll be twisted <a class="pagenum" name="page_300" id="page_300" title="300"></a>by the rope, I hopes that I never
+sees him again"&mdash;her voice was raised high above the whistling wind and
+dashing rain&mdash;"I hopes," she finished, "that his soul'll shrivel in
+hell&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! stop!" muttered Frederick. "Why are you saying such things?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hopes it all," insisted Tess, bending her head nearer, "and I swears
+that I hopes it if Ben Letts ain't a liar!"</p>
+
+<p>Frederick's foot slipped from the round, fat body. He took a long
+breath, brushing a damp lock from his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you," he surrendered slowly. "Oh, God! Tessibel, I believe
+you&mdash;and I love you, in spite of that!"</p>
+
+<p>His glance swept over Ben's prostrate body to the death-like child. Letts
+sat up with an oath, rubbing the inflicted bruises. Frederick helped him
+to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"You go home," he said, piercing the fisherman with his burning eyes.
+"And let me warn you against fastening any of your lies upon this girl,
+for whatever she is, or whatever she has done, I know that you lied
+to-night.... Now go!" Frederick pointed toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>Letts, muttering threats and curses against the student and the
+squatter-girl, stumbled out into the storm. Ben's head was splitting
+with pain. A gash on his nose bled until his torn sleeve was thickened
+with blood. He staggered out of the rays of the candle, and took the
+path to the hill. The sound of footsteps caused him to sink down beside
+the way and wait. Was the student&mdash;? No, the person was coming from the
+other direction.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_301" id="page_301" title="301"></a></p><p>In the dim light he saw a man dripping with water totter toward him.
+Ben peered out upon the wobbling legs, and in another instant had fallen
+back, shivering with fright and superstitious fear. Ezra Longman, his
+face haggard and ghastly white, stood directly in front of him.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Frederick closed the door upon Ben, and Tess turned upon him sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"It were a lie he told ye," said she, "and he weren't worth killin'."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to speak of him," stammered Frederick, "I came to talk to
+you. It nearly killed me to-night, when my father whipped you, and I
+want to save you from such things in the future.... My father gives me
+an allowance&mdash;I want to buy the milk for the little child. Will you let
+me, Tess?" His face had grown scarlet, his eyes fell before hers. The
+girl seemed glued to the spot. "It will save you from stealing," resumed
+the boy. "I can't bear to have you steal."</p>
+
+<p>The tragic tone stung Tessibel. Teola had promised to tell him. She
+herself would; it was only right that he should know. She took two
+impetuous steps forward, opened her lips&mdash;but again remembered her oath.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-thankin' ye for the milk," was all she said.</p>
+
+<p>With an embarrassed air, Frederick tendered her a silver dollar.
+Tessibel stepped back, hesitant.</p>
+
+<p>"It will make me happier, if you will take it," he urged.</p>
+
+<p>Tess extended her fingers, blushing crimson, but took the coin from his
+hand. A sob choked the utterance of further gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Young says," broke in Frederick, after <a class="pagenum" name="page_302" id="page_302" title="302"></a>a painful silence,
+"that he is going to bring your father back here before the winter....
+But, Tess, I don't want you to live in this shanty. I want you to be a
+better girl, Tess. Will you? Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>His eyes rested upon the child. The darkness of the night, the ghostly
+sound of the wind, the swish of the thousands of wet leaves over the
+roof, roused the romance in the girl until she felt an impulse to tell
+him the whole painful story; to feel his kisses warm upon her face, to
+have his arms about her, to kneel with him again, and hear his earnest
+voice interceding for Daddy Skinner.... But her oath! It was Teola's
+secret, not hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye couldn't go on a-trustin' me the same as before ye knowed of him?"
+Her head inclined toward the infant in a large-eyed question.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he ejaculated; "no! Nevertheless, I would save you from&mdash;worse.
+The more I think of it, the more I believe that you were honest in your
+desire to know God and the truth. He will forgive you your sin,
+Tessibel, if you ask Him."</p>
+
+<p>"If God air forgivin'&mdash;then couldn't ye forgive, too?"</p>
+
+<p>It took a desperate effort to utter the words. Nothing but her love for
+him could have forced them from her.</p>
+
+<p>"That's different," reddened the boy. "I wanted&mdash;I wanted to marry you
+some day."</p>
+
+<p>To marry her! She drew a great, heaving breath, more strongly tempted to
+tell him than before. But, as she struggled with her desire, her face
+grew paler, and the drooping mouth gathered sad lines.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_303" id="page_303" title="303"></a></p><p>She did not reply, and the student continued,</p>
+
+<p>"You have one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, Tess. It
+is a God-given gift, and He will hold you responsible for it if you
+neglect it."</p>
+
+<p>"I air only a squatter," she moaned forlornly, shaking the red curls.
+"Daddy air a squatter, too, and if he air a-comin' home, then I stays
+with him. If he says as how we stay in the shanty, then we stays, even
+if it air yer Daddy's. I asks Daddy Skinner to give it back, but a brat
+can't boss her Pappy, can she?... Ye sees, don't ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Tess, I see," slowly replied Frederick. "But it's not because of
+my father I want you to go. You have the squatter's rights, and may
+remain if you wish.... It is for your own sake. You are sixteen ... But,
+of course, the&mdash;child&mdash;has changed your life."</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't changed my lovin' you!"</p>
+
+<p>This was the first open confession of her love. She made it
+emphatically, almost sullenly. Frederick whitened, and turned his face
+away. In the terror of the thought that she would lose him again, Tess
+sank upon her knees beside him. This time he did not thrust her aside.
+The strong young hands pressed upon his shoulders, and the sensitive
+chin trembled. Tess turned her face up to his.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" he breathed hard. "Don't, Tess!"</p>
+
+<p>But the girl heeded him not. Of a sudden, Frederick raised his eyes and
+looked directly into hers. The jealousy that had risen tiger-like in his
+breast, forcing him from her, and demanding that he should never look
+upon her face again, yielded precedence to a nobler and stronger
+thought. He would help the girl with her living secret&mdash;help her, and
+make her better. Long <a class="pagenum" name="page_304" id="page_304" title="304"></a>and fixedly he studied the beautiful face, until
+he had read to the finish the tale of passion and longing. The auburn
+head bent nearer and nearer, the panting lips imparting the sweet breath
+of youth. Then they both forgot the whistling wind and the falling rain
+... forgot even the wriggling, fire-branded babe in its bed.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick's lips closed down upon the girl's, and the dark hair of the
+student mingled with the red curls of the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never let you go again," murmured Frederick, his lips roving in
+sweet freedom over the flushed cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"And I ain't a-goin' ter let yer go, nuther," whispered Tess. "I works,
+fishes and berries the years through&mdash;but I air yer squatter."</p>
+
+<p>The child, as if in pain, cried sharply. The student's arms slipped
+limply from Tessibel, and he stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten it for a moment, Tess. The infant has changed your life
+and mine.... I have loved you dearly&mdash;I love you still. But the child is
+between us, and always will be ... I must remember it.... Ah! I have
+forgotten one thing I came for. Here!"</p>
+
+<p>He was holding a small Bible out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"In my temper I burned yours. I'm sorry. I was bringing you this when I
+heard you cry."</p>
+
+<p>Tess took the book in her hand mechanically, and the hope rekindled in
+her heart died. Frederick bent over her for one short moment, looking
+into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me if you can, Tess&mdash;and&mdash;and be a good girl!"</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door, and was gone before she could <a class="pagenum" name="page_305" id="page_305" title="305"></a>stop him. With
+chattering teeth, she flung herself upon the stool, resting her head in
+her arms on the table, heeding not the second whining command from the
+infant.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, with flashing eyes, she bounded up. She would tell him. Teola
+had promised that he should know. Why not be happy, and make him happy?
+She would call him back, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The door opened under her impulsive hand. She faced the storm&mdash;and the
+tall, gaunt, emaciated form of Ezra Longman.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_306" id="page_306" title="306"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII_10074" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII_10074"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that
+Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and
+dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from
+Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here? It air yer
+own self, ain't it, Ezy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Where air yer been?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno. I air sick unto death, I air."</p>
+
+<p>"Have ye seen yer mammy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor Satisfied?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p>"Then ye be a-goin' there now, ain't ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Was ye to Albany?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. I were sick in a house, and the big man from the hill were
+a-takin' care of me. I weren't a-goin' to stay no longer, so I runned
+away. I air a-goin' home to Mammy."</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, that air right," rejoined Tess with conviction, "for yer mammy air
+a-grievin' every day for ye, and Satisfied air a-gettin' older and
+older-lookin'. They thought as how ye might be in Albany."</p>
+
+<p>Another loud cry caused Ezy to turn his head toward the infant.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_307" id="page_307" title="307"></a></p><p>"Ye air the same as Myry," he said slowly; but before he could say
+another word, the girl interposed hastily:</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't my brat.... It belongs to a woman on the hill. I gets paid for
+it."</p>
+
+<p>To every other man save to the one she loved was Tess able to deny the
+motherhood that had been thrust upon her. To the student she stood
+condemned of a sin he could not forgive. But to Ezra, Ben, and Professor
+Young she had told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The weakness of the squatter as he sat on the floor, panting for breath,
+aroused Tessibel's sympathy, and she proffered him a cup of little Dan's
+milk.</p>
+
+<p>"Drink it," she commanded, "and then scoot to yer mammy. And&mdash;and ye
+needn't say as how I air a-carin' for another woman's brat, will ye,
+Ezy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; I ain't a-sayin' nothin' ... I goes home to my mammy."</p>
+
+<p>If Tess had never seen the hue of death upon a human face, she saw it
+now. The boy rose totteringly, and Tessibel, with a tender expression in
+her eyes, opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy, I's sorry for ye! I's sorry that I slicked the dirty dishrag in
+yer face. Ye forgives me, don't ye, Ezy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep." And Ezra stumbled away.</p>
+
+<p>Tess watched him stagger along the shore through the rain, the shadows
+of the weeping-willow trees at last swallowing him up.</p>
+
+<p>She turned back into the hut, barred the door, and fed the child with
+sweetened milk, forcing particles of bread into the yawning throat.
+Teola had sent the student from her, never to return, yet she fed the
+child <a class="pagenum" name="page_308" id="page_308" title="308"></a>tenderly, tucking it, with its sugar rag, in the warm blanket.</p>
+
+<p>She snuffed the end from the candle, that it might burn brighter, took
+the little Bible, and sat down to read.</p>
+
+<p>"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" she haltingly
+spelled.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes sought the small outline of Dan Jordan's babe in the bed. She
+hardly understood Paul's figurative words, but vaguely imagined that the
+apostle was afflicted with something like the wizened child which had
+been thrust upon herself.</p>
+
+<p>Loud, impatient noises issued from the blanket. Tess rose, settled the
+baby more comfortably, and sat down again. Her eyes sought another
+verse.</p>
+
+<p>"If ye have the faith of a grain of mustard-seed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The passage brought a vivid blush to her face. She rose silently, and
+knelt by the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Take this here body of my death," she prayed, "and give the poor brat
+to the Christ! Make its ma tell the student, and give Tessibel faith
+like a mustard-seed." Thus ended her prayer.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Ezra Longman, sick unto death, as he had said, floundered his way along
+the wet path. The long walk through the storm from Ithaca had so
+weakened him that he could hardly stand upright. He wanted to see his
+mother once more, to be with Satisfied, and to warn Myra of the coming
+evil. A conversation he had heard between the nurse and Professor Young
+had decided him to go home if he could, for Ezra knew that his sister
+loved the ugly fisherman who had tried to put him to death in the
+Hoghole.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_309" id="page_309" title="309"></a></p><p>As he neared his cabin home, he saw the candle streaming its flickering
+ray upon the path that led to the rocks. He saw his mother snuff the
+flame and Satisfied take Myra's child up from the floor, but he did not
+see his sister. As if in answer to this thought as to her whereabouts,
+Myra appeared directly in front of him, carrying a pail of water from
+the spring. She did not notice him until he pronounced her name in an
+undertone. The pail dropped from her hand, splashing its contents over
+her garments, and she uttered a little frightened cry. He whispered her
+name again and Myra timidly put out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Air it yerself, Ezy?" she implored.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I air here. I comed to see Mammy and Satisfied, and to tell ye
+that it air time for ye to be savin' Ben Letts if ye loves him. Ben
+throwed me in the Hoghole, he did, but I know that ye loved him, and I
+comed."</p>
+
+<p>The boy staggered with weakness, and his sister threw an arm around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air to come to Mammy," she urged. "Mammy loves ye, Ezy dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," whispered the boy. "Ben Letts air to be arrested."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>The cry was sharp&mdash;the words hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts air to be tooked to jail. It were him what killed the
+gamekeeper. It weren't Orn Skinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Who were a-sayin' it were Ben?" demanded Myra, her mouth hard and
+lined.</p>
+
+<p>"I says it," replied Ezy. "I seed him when he done it, and I comed to
+tell ye, and to see Mammy and Satisfied."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_310" id="page_310" title="310"></a></p><p>"Then come in, and go to bed, for ye be sick."</p>
+
+<p>A change gradually came over Myra: cunning grew in the faded eyes and
+determination straightened the thin shoulders, as she led her brother
+into the hut.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy," she called softly, opening the door, "here air Ezy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch him in," cried Satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Longman sank weakly into a chair. The sight of her son, her only
+son, white and emaciated, and the appearance of the livid scar on his
+brow drew a painful cry from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"He air sick," continued Myra, "put him to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Where air ye been all this time, Ezy?" asked Longman, assisting him
+into the small back room. But Ezra was too ill to tell the story, and
+the mother hushed him to sleep just as she had in those childhood days
+when he had been good, and always at home.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Myra, pale and thoughtful, moved about the shanty. Her mind
+was upon one subject&mdash;she must save Ben Letts from the dreaded rope. She
+did not question the verity of her brother's statement, for she realized
+that Ben was not only capable of killing the inspector, but also of
+placing the guilt upon an innocent man. It did not, however, change her
+squatter love. The more she thought of Ben's danger, the more she loved
+and wanted to save him, the more determined she grew to take him away to
+some place where the officers could not find him.</p>
+
+<p>"Goin' to bed, Myry?" asked Longman, taking the candle and climbing the
+ladder to the loft.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, but I air a-goin' to rock the brat a little while. Ye and Mammy go
+to bed. I locks the door."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_311" id="page_311" title="311"></a></p><p>She settled herself in the wooden rocking-chair, trundling the child to
+and fro, and murmuring a doleful tune. Her son was now almost two years
+old, and beginning to toddle about upon a pair of crooked, thin legs. As
+often as Ben had visited the hut he had never deigned to look at the
+child, but Myra had a dull hope that, if she saved the fisherman, he
+would show some affection for the little boy.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, the regular breathing of her father and mother told Myra
+that they both slept. Ezra, too, was sleeping, for she had bent over him
+but a little time before. The clock on the mantel pointed to midnight.
+The girl rose, and fed the baby, dropping some paregoric into his milk
+to keep him asleep, and then drew a large shawl about the little one,
+rolling him gently in the warm folds. Finally, she took a piece of paper
+and a pencil from the shelf.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy," she wrote, "I's a-goin' to save Ben Letts. Ezy tells ye about
+it, as how Ben Letts killed the gamekeeper it werent Orn Skinner. I
+takes the brat cause it air Bens I luves yer and Satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>She pinned the note to the handle of the copper kettle upon the stove,
+and, lifting the child in her arms, slipped through the door without a
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>The rain still fell steadily, the turbulent roll of the lake lost only
+in thunder's roar. Once on the ragged rocks, Myra walked swiftly, afraid
+of the shadowy objects and ghostly sounds that spectered her path. She
+threw despairing glances about her, and shrank from the imaginary
+sneaking figures haunting the dismal night. Almost running, she reached
+the Letts' shanty.</p>
+
+<p>How soon would the officers come for Ben? They <a class="pagenum" name="page_312" id="page_312" title="312"></a>might have been there
+before her. The cabin was dark, and she tapped timidly upon the kitchen
+door. Only a great snore from the sleeping Ben inside answered her.
+Trying the latch, it lifted in her fingers, and she crept stealthily
+through the narrow aperture, encircling the child with her left arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben!" she whispered. "Ben!"</p>
+
+<p>The squatter turned, muttering sleepily.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy! What be the matter, Mammy?" The fresh night air startled him.</p>
+
+<p>"Who air it?" he demanded hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry," breathed the woman again. "Get up.... They air a-comin' to take
+ye to prison for the killin' of the gamekeeper. I comed to help ye, Ben
+Letts."</p>
+
+<p>The words soaked slowly into the sluggish brain. Tired from the beating
+Frederick had given him, and lazy by temperament, Ben did not at first
+realize that Myra's message meant the hangman's rope for him. He turned
+again in bed, and sat up. Were the officers of the law waiting for him?</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy air home," resumed Myra rapidly, leaning tensely toward him. "He
+walked through the rain from Ithacy. He says as how ye air goin' to be
+tooked to prison. I has the brat here with me ... we air a-goin'
+away.... Get up, Ben. Hustle yer bones!"</p>
+
+<p>The blue-jeans breeches, streaked with the blood of many a fish, were
+drawn on in a twinkling. The great squatter boots quickly covered the
+horny feet, and trembling, Ben waited for Myra to lead him from the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Where be we a-goin'?" he asked in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"I takes ye 'cross the lake to Ludlowville, and then <a class="pagenum" name="page_313" id="page_313" title="313"></a>we goes into the
+hills. A awful storm air a-scootin' along from the north, but we can't
+wait, for ye'll be took."</p>
+
+<p>By this time they were nearing the shore. The autumn lightning shot out
+from the sky, veering to the north and unmasking the black, raging lake
+and the distant city. A heavy roll of awe-inspiring thunder followed the
+flash. The man and woman did not speak until the flat boat topped the
+breaking waves.</p>
+
+<p>"The storm air a-goin' to be worse," shouted Ben, scanning the dark
+clouds. "It air foolhardy to try it, ain't it, Myry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; but we go, all the same. I stays with ye, Ben!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not answer to this, nor did he ask a question then about the
+return of Ezra. He was satisfied that what he had supposed was the boy's
+wraith&mdash;the disembodied spirit of the lad he had thrown into the
+Hoghole&mdash;was the living Ezra Longman. On his way home from the Skinner
+hut, Ben had planned a terrible revenge upon the student and Tessibel,
+but the advent of this unforeseen discovery had placed his enemies
+beyond his reach. The thought of Tess brought a rasp from his throat.</p>
+
+<p>The creaking oars, under his experienced fingers, carried the boat far
+from the shadowy shore. Through the frequent lightning he could plainly
+see Myra in the stern, holding to the child. It was all ending
+differently from what he had hoped. That he had killed the gamekeeper he
+knew well, but, when Ezra Longman had disappeared into the Hoghole, Ben
+thought it took from the earth the only witness of his deed.</p>
+
+<p>On and on through the night sped the boat, until Myra <a class="pagenum" name="page_314" id="page_314" title="314"></a>and Ben could see
+the lights on the college hill. Here and there in the valley beyond, the
+lightning revealed a farmhouse, the inmates of which were quietly
+sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Ben spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"What hes Ezy been a-sayin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin' but that ye throwed him in the Hoghole, and tried to kill him,
+and that ye killed the gamekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Where hes he been all this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno. He air awful sick, and Ma put him to bed."</p>
+
+<p>Their voices rose high above the shrieking of the wind. Myra's last
+words were screamed out. The boat tossed like a bit of tinder, but it
+was in the hands of a fisherman: Ben knew how to keep it in and out of
+the troughs of the waves. Once the boat lurched mightily, and Myra gave
+a frightened cry, wedging the child between her knees. Higher and higher
+rolled the waves.</p>
+
+<p>"We hev got to bail the water out," yelled Ben. "Bail, Myry, while I
+rows."</p>
+
+<p>The mother grasped the sleeping child tighter between her knees, and
+began to throw the water into the lake. Suddenly a great wave half
+filled the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can't do it, Ben," Myra screamed. "Ye can't keep the boat top up,
+and we'll all die to once.... Does ye love yer brat, Ben Letts?"</p>
+
+<p>The voice, prophetic and high-pitched, struck terror to the heart of the
+fisherman. He stopped rowing, and shouted out over the waves for help.
+The lightning made day of the inky night for an instant, and the
+squatter Ben saw the woman, holding the child under one arm and clinging
+to the side of the boat with the other, creep toward him.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_315" id="page_315" title="315"></a></p><p>"Keep away!" he bellowed. "Keep the boat top up!"</p>
+
+<p>Another flash.... She was closer, her white face and her staring eyes
+frightening him. He raised one great boot to ward her off, but she was
+at his side before it touched her. A large wave lifted one oar from the
+lock and bore it away on its crest. The boat, without pilot power,
+tipped dangerously. Loosening her hand from the side of the boat, Myra
+wound one arm about the knees of the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts," she cried, shrieking the words into his ear, "kiss yer brat
+afore he dies with ye, will ye? Ye ain't so much as ever touched him."</p>
+
+<p>A dark storm-cloud broke directly over their head&mdash;one brilliant sheet
+flared the sky from the north to the south. The child, sleeping heavily
+under the drug, was close to the squatter's face. A revulsion of feeling
+overwhelmed Ben&mdash;approaching death aided the ghosts of his past bad
+deeds in their attack upon his wretched, over-wrought soul.... With a
+sob, he laid his lips upon the slumbering babe. A long kiss followed the
+first; another, and then another.</p>
+
+<p>Myra gasped, and drew the boy back to her. The boat reared high in the
+boiling, seething waves, and the next whitecap wrenched the child from
+her hands, snatching it into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts, our brat air gone!... There he be!... God!... There! There!"</p>
+
+<p>Through a sudden, resplendent flood of light, they saw the babe poised
+for one brief instant on a huge, foaming shoulder of the lake. In her
+frenzy the squatter woman was murmuring over and over strange,
+inarticulate words which Ben did not heed. Their arms were locked
+tightly <a class="pagenum" name="page_316" id="page_316" title="316"></a>about each other. Ben Letts slowly fixed his cold, shivering
+lips on those of the girl, drawing her closer and closer into his
+embrace. The majesty of death was upon them, this squatter father and
+mother. Another glare of light showed them still clinging together, but
+the one following failed to reveal either man, woman or boat.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_317" id="page_317" title="317"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII_10438" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII_10438"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Professor Young knocked at the Skinner hut. Tess smiled at him from
+between the tatters of the curtain, and unlocked the door, standing, as
+her friend took the wooden rocker.</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy air a-comin' home," she breathed timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon. Sit down, child. I have much to say to you.... We have discovered
+the murderer of the gamekeeper. We have positive proof that it was not
+your father."</p>
+
+<p>Tess squatted on the floor, crossed her legs, and waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Who were it?" she asked presently, as if afraid to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts."</p>
+
+<p>"The damn bloke!" she ejaculated, a dangerous light gathering in her
+eyes. "And he were a-lettin' Daddy be hung for his own dirty work! He
+air a wicked cuss, he air!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ezra Longman saw him when he committed the murder," Young told her,
+watching the interest gather in the eager face. "Letts used your
+father's gun. That accounts for his having been accused."</p>
+
+<p>Tess nodded her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy were here last night," she commented quietly. "He were sick."</p>
+
+<p>"He was under my care for a long time," explained Young, "and last night
+escaped and walked home through the rain.... He is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" gasped Tess. "Dead!"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_318" id="page_318" title="318"></a></p><p>Impetuously she bent toward him, and finished:</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy Longman ain't dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is," replied Young. "He died in his father's hut, last night. I
+have just left there, and I feel heartily sorry for them both."</p>
+
+<p>"Myry?... Did ye see Myry?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's gone with Ben Letts."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone where?"</p>
+
+<p>"We don't know, but the officers are looking for them. I think the boy
+heard me tell the nurse that he would be held as a witness in your
+father's next trial. He must have warned Letts upon his arrival home,
+for&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He knowed Myry loved Ben," broke in Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I thought," Young answered. "I found Longman and the mother
+mourning over the boy. They hope to hear from the girl soon."</p>
+
+<p>"If Myry and Ben was in the storm last night&mdash;" began Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"They may be dead," ended Young gravely. "Myra took her child with her.
+I found this note on the dead boy's bed, and brought it away with me. I
+would have liked to have put the boy on the witness-stand. Nevertheless,
+I hope to release your father on the evidence I have, without a trial."</p>
+
+<p>For several moments silence reigned in the hut. The sun streamed through
+the window, and a steamer sent a shrill whistle over the lake, the sound
+echoing among the rocks. Tessibel was thinking of Ezra Longman;
+Professor Young was thinking of her.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she leaned over, and took the letter from the man's hand,
+spelling out Myra's written message.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry air a-writin' so dum well," she observed, handing <a class="pagenum" name="page_319" id="page_319" title="319"></a>it back, "that
+I can't make it out. What air she a-sayin'? You read it."</p>
+
+<p>Young read the badly-spelled note.</p>
+
+<p>"I knowed the brat was Ben Letts'," she said, after the man's voice had
+died away. "He were a cute kid."'</p>
+
+<p>"We hope to find them all," interposed Young thoughtfully. "But, if we
+don't, the evidence I already have&mdash;this note, and the fact that the
+fisherman is a fugitive&mdash;will liberate your father. I shall go to Albany
+to-morrow to see the Governor. I am sure he will consider the evidence I
+have. Then we shall know."</p>
+
+<p>"You think the man at Albany will give him to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I do! I would not raise your hopes if I did not. If you
+persuade your father to leave here&mdash;" He stopped and looked at her with
+a questioning glance.</p>
+
+<p>"I tells him that the hut ain't his'n," she asserted abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do go away, I shall try to get your father steady work in the
+city. Would you like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," replied Tess, in a thick voice. "He wouldn't have to net no more.
+And he wouldn't have no more froze toes."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither would you, Tess," answered Young.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Tess saw the man staring at her arm, where several blue
+stripes, mingling with red, ran long from her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! child, what's the matter with your arm?"</p>
+
+<p>The brown eyes clouded. Tess swept her jacket over the marks, and
+muttered,</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't nothin'. I scratched it on some thorns."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Young leaned forward, and tilted the little chin upward. Still
+the eyes remained upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_320" id="page_320" title="320"></a></p><p>"Tess!" he pleaded. "Tess! Are you telling me the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; I's lyin' to ye."</p>
+
+<p>She tossed her head up angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"I had a damn good lickin'," she finished.</p>
+
+<p>Young sprang forward, and grasped her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Who dared to mark you like that?" he exclaimed, standing her on her
+feet. "Wait. I want to see it. Who did it?"</p>
+
+<p>He pushed back the sleeve, and stood analyzing the bruised shoulder and
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Who did it?" he persisted, drawing a quick, sharp breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Dominie Graves," muttered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" Two deep creases marked the fine brow.</p>
+
+<p>"He licked me," reiterated Tess, with an indifferent droop to her lids.
+"He had a right. I were a-stealin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel! Tessibel! Look at me."</p>
+
+<p>She swept him with a glance of truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you&mdash;? Tess, I demand to know it all&mdash;all! Please, tell me about
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't much to tell," she returned; "only that I were a-stealin'
+from the Dominie's kitchen, and he licked me for it."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you&mdash;steal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Milk for the brat.... He can't starve, can he?"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly Professor Young dropped her arm, gazing at her mutely.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye ain't mad at me?" she ventured, watching him narrowly.</p>
+
+<p>"No! I'm only sorry&mdash;infinitely sorry for you."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_321" id="page_321" title="321"></a></p><p>The tender tone in his voice, the mist rising in his eyes, brought Tess
+to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"I thanks ye for all ye been a-doin' for Daddy and me," she said
+brokenly. "I does thank ye.... Don't look at me like that&mdash;it air
+a-hurtin' me."</p>
+
+<p>The low voice, filled with unshed tears, rang with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden inspiration seized Young.</p>
+
+<p>"Child, if I bring your father back to you, will you&mdash;marry me?"</p>
+
+<p>The unexpected question sent Tess staggering back; a tearful smile
+spread the red lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'r' batty," she said presently, with a dissenting shake of the red
+curls. "Ye'r' gone plumb crazy.... I's a squatter, nothin' but a
+squatter. I stays here with Daddy. I marries no man. See?"</p>
+
+<p>The proud face of Frederick Graves rose before her. She turned away with
+a groan.</p>
+
+<p>Young misinterpreted her expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Circumstances have made you a squatter.... Sit down. I want to say more
+to you, Tess. Don't say you won't marry me, just yet. When your father
+comes home, we will talk to him about it.... I love you, child."</p>
+
+<p>"My Daddy air a-wantin' me with him," faltered Tess. "He said oncet as
+how he wouldn't give me to nobody. Ezy Longman wanted me to marry him,
+but I hated him.... I don't now, though, 'cause he air dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, will you let me give you some money to buy milk for the
+strange little boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody gived me some money after my lickin' last night, so I don't
+need none now."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_322" id="page_322" title="322"></a></p><p>A jealous feeling rose instantly in Young's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Who gave you money last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"The student," replied Tess. "He said as how I shouldn't steal no more
+milk for the brat. I takes the student's money, I does."</p>
+
+<p>A faint suspicion flashed over the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"You told me the truth about the child belonging to a woman on the
+hill?"</p>
+
+<p>Without answering his question, Tess stammered,</p>
+
+<p>"Ye said as how ye trusted me, and I were happy because ye did.... Ain't
+ye trustin' me now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, child; but I am so bitterly unhappy over you, and my love for you
+makes me jealous&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of the student?" queried Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ye needn't care no more about him, 'cause he don't like me no
+more. He ain't never carin'&mdash;" She cut the words off with a snap. "I
+were a-goin' to lie then," she went on slowly. "He air a-carin',
+but&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She dashed a loose curl from her eyes, and flung herself headlong upon
+the bed, with a burst of sobs that drew Young quickly to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel Skinner, you love Frederick Graves?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess straightened, and looked at him fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, I air a-lovin' him," she wailed.</p>
+
+<p>"And he doesn't love you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He be a-lovin' me, too." She was hardly able to utter the words.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you weep, if you love him and he loves you?"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's eyes settled upon the babe, yawning in the sun. Young
+followed her gaze.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_323" id="page_323" title="323"></a></p><p>"The child has separated you?" he said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause&mdash;'cause&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>All Teola's perfidy rushed over her in a twinkling. All the student's
+suffering stung her as if she had been struck in the face. She bounded
+from the bed, possessed of a dark spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"A damn bloke air a-doin' it. It were a oath I took.... Will you go
+now?&mdash;Please!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," assented Young. "But it is all a mystery to me. I cannot
+understand it."</p>
+
+<p>And Tessibel, thinking of Teola, the child, and its dead father,
+muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't understandin' it, nuther.... Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>Transfixed, Tess stood for many minutes where Young had left her. A
+shadow dropped upon the path. Teola, pale and ill, came toward her, and
+she did not move.</p>
+
+<p>"My father and brother have gone to Ithaca, and I&mdash;Tessibel! Tess, don't
+look at me that way! Don't! don't!"</p>
+
+<p>"You forgot to tell him," dropped from the squatter's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't forget. Tessibel, I've tried, and I can't tell him.... I
+haven't the courage," she ejaculated, waiting long for a reply from the
+rigid girl. Her lips trembled as she faltered:</p>
+
+<p>"My father was cruel to you, Tess!"</p>
+
+<p>"I were a-stealin'," Tess muttered. "He wouldn't a whipped me if he&mdash;had
+knowed about it, would he?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! He would have died first.... Tessibel, why didn't you tell
+him?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_324" id="page_324" title="324"></a></p><p>"Didn't ye say it would kill the student if he knowed it? And I swored,
+didn't I? when the brat was borned, that I wouldn't tell&mdash;and I ain't no
+liar&mdash;leastwise about no brats. If it air told, the brat's ma's got to
+tell it," she finished.</p>
+
+<p>Teola dropped beside her infant.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid to tell it. My father and brother have such confidence in
+me!" She shifted about, and looked at Tessibel. "We are going to move to
+the city, Saturday.... I have been thinking about the baby's milk&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I has money now," broke in Tess. "I don't have to steal no more. Daddy
+air a-comin' home soon, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it. Father heard from Professor Young all about it. I am so glad
+for you, Tess. What will you say to him about the baby?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno," grunted the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>She answered no more of Teola's questions, but for a long time remained
+moodily looking, with narrowed eyes and burning heart, at the minister's
+daughter.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_325" id="page_325" title="325"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX_10761" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX_10761"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIX</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Two days later, on Friday evening, Teola slipped quietly from her home,
+and the Skinner hut opened to her timid knock. Tess had no more fear
+when visitors came. Ben Letts had gone with Myra, and Ezra Longman was
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>The girls eyed each other for one embarrassed moment. The day for
+separation was at hand: Tess would face the lean winter, Teola the
+burden of a conscience in torment.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," muttered Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel," Teola burst out spontaneously, "we are going away to-morrow.
+I wish I were going to stay with you and the baby!"</p>
+
+<p>Gloomily Tess scrutinized the young mother, checking an ejaculation that
+rose to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand what you are going to do," said Teola. "Tess, do you
+think he is very ill? You do! I can see it in your face. Look how he
+yawns, and screws his mouth, and shuts his eyes! Oh, he is suffering,
+Tessibel!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, he air sick," replied Tess, turning her back. She had grown to
+love the hapless thing, and knew that he suffered as all human beings
+suffer when they go slowly away to the mystery of mysteries.</p>
+
+<p>Teola's next words brought her about sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Tessibel, do you&mdash;hate me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_326" id="page_326" title="326"></a></p><p>"Oh, what a coward I am! Frederick has forbidden me to come here."</p>
+
+<p>"That air 'cause he air a good bloke," snorted Tess. "But if he
+knowed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't get my breath when I think of telling him, Tess."</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't to know never, then?" bounded from Tessibel's lips, the
+passion in the tones lowering the voice almost to a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied the young mother; "I can't tell him."</p>
+
+<p>The squatter just caught the next words, "But I am going to die, too,
+Tess."</p>
+
+<p>The conviction in the statement made Tess spring back.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye ain't yet. Ye ain't goin' yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor says I am very ill here." Teola placed her hand upon her
+chest. "I've had three hemorrhages. People ill like I am never get well.
+I don't want to&mdash;either," she ended brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked so forlorn, so thin and ill that Tess went awkwardly to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I takes care of the brat if ye goes before him," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, dear," drifted from the depths of the child's box. "And
+forgive me all the sorrow I have caused you."</p>
+
+<p>"I has forgivin' ye," assured Tess, seating herself. "I were&mdash;sorry
+about the student, though."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know; and perhaps God won't forgive me, for I've been so
+wicked! I make up my mind every night, when I can't sleep, that I will
+tell; then in the daylight I am afraid."</p>
+
+<p>Tess did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall think every moment of the day about you <a class="pagenum" name="page_327" id="page_327" title="327"></a>two here. Oh, my
+precious baby! If I could only take him with me! That mark will never
+disappear," she concluded, rubbing the tiny red forehead with her
+fingers. "If he only goes when I do! God couldn't be so cruel as to let
+him live, with his face like that, and have neither father nor mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," replied Tess with decision. "He'll take the brat, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Will he die soon, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you think so? Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"He air too thin to hold out much longer. He don't eat, nuther. He don't
+do nothin' but smack all day long on them sugar rags, like a suckin'
+calf. And there ain't no makin' him eat."</p>
+
+<p>"But he doesn't cry much," argued Teola.</p>
+
+<p>"That air 'cause he air so weak. Ma Moll were here with the hoss doctor,
+and they says he air to croak dum quick."</p>
+
+<p>Teola raised her head, startled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't know you had had a doctor. I was going to speak about it
+to-night." She dropped her eyes, reddened, and then added, "But the
+horse doctor, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Squatters allers has the hoss doctor&mdash;they air cheaper."</p>
+
+<p>"But he can't die!" Teola moaned. "Not now&mdash;not yet! He has never been
+baptized. If he died now, he wouldn't go to Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aw! shut up. He air a-goin' in faster'n any of them. Don't you worry
+yer head over that. God ain't that kind of a bloke that He wouldn't take
+in a sick brat what ain't never done no harm."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_328" id="page_328" title="328"></a></p><p>Tess had risen, and was standing over the child, Teola having placed
+him back in the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't understand, Tess dear! You see, it's this way: the Bible
+says that if a child isn't baptized, he will go to a place where he must
+stay always. He won't go to Heaven. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Air the Bible a-sayin' that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't he go to a place where God'll find him, if he ain't sprinkled?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"That air strange. The poor brat air so blue, so shiverin'&mdash;he air so
+sick! Aw! Christ'll love him, 'cause he ain't got no friends."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes spread wide with infinite compassion as she contemplated the
+grave-shadowed child.</p>
+
+<p>"Did the student tell ye that the Bible were a-sayin' that?" she asked
+peremptorily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and my father has often preached upon it. I know that it is true,"
+insisted Teola. "A child must be cleansed of its original sin in the
+church.... You see? You see, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see&mdash;I don't know, nuther. But what the student says air right.
+If the little kid ain't to see God's face 'less he air slapped on the
+head with water in the church, then the brat air got to be tooked
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but, Tess, is it possible?"</p>
+
+<p>Again the squatter bent her head to gather the words.</p>
+
+<p>"He air a-goin' to die," she replied with conviction, "and he has to be
+hit with the water, if he air a-goin' to die, don't he? Air that what ye
+means?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola, dropping her face upon the babe, bowed her head in assent, and
+wept silently, until the cough that <a class="pagenum" name="page_329" id="page_329" title="329"></a>had fastened itself upon the
+slender chest since the coming of the child, dried the tears.</p>
+
+<p>Tess remained quiet until the paroxysm had passed.</p>
+
+<p>"Air yer pappy a good sprinkler of brats?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Air it likely he would sprinkle this 'un'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think my father would turn away a dying babe that needed
+cleansing of its sin by the Holy Ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"The Hully what? The student were a-talkin' 'bout him once."</p>
+
+<p>"The Holy Ghost," explained Teola. "He lives in the church, and when a
+baby is baptized He comes and stands by the font, and when the water
+falls upon it, He takes away all the sin that it is born with."</p>
+
+<p>Tess grunted disbelievingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can ye sees him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; He is a spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye mean that he air like the headless man from Haytes, and the squaw
+with her burnt brat?"</p>
+
+<p>They were both down beside the babe again, Tess eying the mother
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Tess! Those are but superstitions. This is the truth. No matter
+how little the child is, he won't go to a holy place if he isn't
+baptized."</p>
+
+<p>"Air the Huly Ghost livin' only in the church?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, He doesn't stay anywhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says it air true?"</p>
+
+<p>"God."</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother's God?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, of course, it air so. Why didn't ye say so before? Could the brat
+be sprinkled this comin' Sunday?"</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_330" id="page_330" title="330"></a></p><p>"Yes; yes, it is baptismal Sunday. Deacon Hall's new baby is to be
+baptized, and lots of others, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then yer brat air goin' to be sprinkled with 'em," decided Tessibel.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess!" gasped Teola. "How? How?... I should die if I had to take him to
+the church."</p>
+
+<p>"I takes him," replied Tess grimly. "I takes him, and I says to yer
+pappy, 'Dominie, I knows that ye don't like me nor my Daddy, but here
+air a brat what air sick to death.... He can't find God by hisself
+'cause he air too little, and God won't try and find him if he ain't
+sprinkled. Will ye do it?'"</p>
+
+<p>Teola shifted her position, and looked into the squatter's face. It was
+gleaming with heavenly resolve and uplifted faith.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, would you dare?" gasped she.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep! The little brat has to go. I takes him."</p>
+
+<p>The fisher-girl clambered to her feet, and shoved another log into the
+stove.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a chilly night," she commented, "and the ghosts air a-howling
+like mad, 'cause Ma Moll's been here. She can raise spirits any time of
+night."</p>
+
+<p>Teola evidently did not hear. Her eyes were fixed upon the face of the
+babe, her mouth twitching nervously at the corners. She wondered
+silently what her father would say when Tess presented the child for
+baptism on Sunday morning. She could imagine her own happiness after it
+was all over. She thought she would get better for a time. She
+remembered how her mother had worried over her cough, how her father had
+advised with the best doctors of the city; but they had gravely shaken
+their heads, saying that the girl might grow out of it; they hoped she
+would. But day by day she had seen herself <a class="pagenum" name="page_331" id="page_331" title="331"></a>growing more and more
+slender, more and more fragile-looking. And, as Teola knelt over the
+child in the flickering candlelight, Tess shivered superstitiously. The
+young mother was so white that the squatter could almost have imagined
+her one of Ma Moll's ghosts.</p>
+
+<p>"They be a-callin' ye from yer house," remarked Tess, after a long
+stillness.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I hear them.... It is my father. But I am so tired that it seems
+as if I could never climb the hill. I'll see you a minute to-morrow,
+Tess.... If I can't, will you bring the baby to the church Sunday, at
+eleven o'clock?... Thank you, dear; thank you.... Good-bye, precious
+little Dan.... And&mdash;and forgive me, Tessibel!"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_332" id="page_332" title="332"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XL_11025" id="CHAPTER_XL_11025"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XL</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Minister Graves watched his child painfully climb the front steps. He
+could see, even through the dim shadows, how thin she had become, how
+she panted for breath over the slight exertion of walking up the hill. A
+thought that stung him like a whip seized him, convulsing his heart and
+shaking his powerful frame as if he had been attacked by sudden ague.
+Was his daughter going to die? She could not die&mdash;God would not take her
+from him! He remembered Teola's birth, with a groan of pain: remembered
+how he had taken the dark-haired babe, so tiny and helpless, into his
+study alone, and had uttered the sincerest prayer of a father's life,
+that the blessings of Heaven would cover his new-found treasure and
+would guide the little footsteps during the whole bright future&mdash;her
+future must be bright, with his love to shield her. He could remember
+each succeeding day&mdash;his pride and ambitions for her&mdash;and now&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Teola paused on the top step, clinging to the veranda pillar. He came
+hastily to her, the darkness covering the emotions that had paled his
+face, and bent over the exhausted girl, kissing her lips tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Teola, darling! My darling, why will you persist in being out at
+night?... See, now, how you are coughing.... Child, what would become of
+me, if anything should happen to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Teola knew the heart of her father. He had sternly preached orthodox
+doctrine, had persecuted the squatters <a class="pagenum" name="page_333" id="page_333" title="333"></a>according to his beliefs; but he
+loved his children, and especially had he idolized her. The thought of
+the babe in the fisherman's hut sped through her mind, her father's
+consternation and horror if she should be compelled to tell her secret.
+But Tessibel stood in her place as mother to the little boy, and had
+taken an oath that nothing could force her to break. The squatter had
+been the scapegoat upon which had been heaped the sins of a girl no one
+had thought capable of doing wrong. Teola, resting in her father's arms,
+struggled with her conscience, trying to press down the moral weakness
+that had compelled her to keep the tragedy in the cabin quiet. The
+minister helped her to her chamber, and, after she had retired, went in
+and prayed with and for her. His voice, low and tender, with the
+exquisite tones of an orator, was strangely moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Child," he groaned, "I would give much to see you in good health
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never be better, dearest; never. I know now that I cannot&mdash;that
+I sha'n't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His hand covered her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"If you want to break my heart, Teola," he cried, unnerved, "then say
+what you were going to. I can't, and won't, bear it! You are not yet
+eighteen. You've always been well until these past few weeks.... Oh, I
+wish your mother and I had never gone abroad&mdash;or that you had gone with
+us.... But you begged so hard to stay at home!"</p>
+
+<p>Teola had coveted the chance to tell him of the little human link
+between Dan Jordan's life and hers. She raised herself on her pillow,
+the long hair mantling her shoulders and aureoling the death-like face.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," she gasped. "Father! Let me tell you <a class="pagenum" name="page_334" id="page_334" title="334"></a>something about Tessibel
+Skinner. No! Don't put your fingers over my lips! Don't! Don't! Listen."</p>
+
+<p>"Teola," interjected Graves gravely, "if you want to displease me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She's so lonely," broke in the girl, her courage ebbing away under the
+bent brows of her father. "I thought&mdash;you&mdash;might help her."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to sleep," replied the minister, "there's a good girl!...
+Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, Teola lay panting nervously. She had been so near the
+confession, so near telling her father about the little babe in the
+shanty. She slipped out of bed to the window. The wind still flung the
+dead leaves, whirling them to and fro in the orchard like willful
+spirits. The night had darkened until, to Teola, shivering and ill, it
+seemed alive with shadowy goblins which mocked at her.</p>
+
+<p>She could just make out the dark line of the hut under the willow
+branches. A candlelight flickered a moment in the window, and was gone.
+Teola moaned long, muttering loving messages to the child cuddled in
+Tessibel's arms. She loved it, but could not bring it home&mdash;yet! At last
+sleep, a deep, fatigued sleep, enveloped her. She was too tired to
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>After Tess was alone, she made ready for bed. The child whimpered
+drowsily. The squatter lifted it up with infinite tenderness, binding
+the rags more closely about the scrawny body.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye don't amount to as much as the tuft on Kennedy's mare's tail," she
+said aloud. "Eat now, I says, or I opens yer mouth and pours it full."</p>
+
+<p>The words, gathered from the vocabulary of the squatter, <a class="pagenum" name="page_335" id="page_335" title="335"></a>were harsh,
+but the emotion in the tones softened them.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye air a-dyin' 'cause ye won't eat, kid, and ye have the smell of a
+dead rat, too. Yer lips be that blue&mdash;and yer mouth air like a
+baby-bird's.... Eat, I says, damn ye.... Will ye swallow that?"</p>
+
+<p>She held the withered lips open, and filled the cavity with warm milk.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat, I says," crooned the girl; "eat, and Tess takes ye tight&mdash;like
+this&mdash;and the rats can't bite ye, or the ghosts get ye till ye air dead.
+Tess loves ye, ye poor little brat."</p>
+
+<p>The child, strangling for breath, gulped down a mouthful of milk, but
+the jaws set again, and the lips settled into a blue line. Tess prepared
+the sugar rag, putting in a large amount of sweet, and dipped it in the
+tea-pan in which she had warmed the milk. Then she allowed a little of
+the syrup to fall upon the lips. The mouth snapped upon it, and long
+after Tess had gathered the infant into her arms the smacking went on
+and on, until both slept. Neither heard the wind that rattled the hut
+boards, that rasped its endless sawing on the tin roof; neither heard
+the willow branches brushing to and fro against the rickety chimney. The
+child slept the sleep of a human creature moving silently toward death;
+and Tess the sleep of the exhausted.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next morning she stood in the doorway, grimly watching the
+cottagers' boats, loaded with household goods, one by one as they
+passed. This time of year was prophetic of the coming winter, and told
+Tess a few more weeks would see the snow piled up about the hut and <a class="pagenum" name="page_336" id="page_336" title="336"></a>the
+lake covered with ice. Deacon Hall's private launch steamed by, with
+huge piles of bedding heaped up on the bow. One after another of the
+summer residents disappeared in the inlet, and Tess was waiting for the
+hill-house people also to leave.</p>
+
+<p>She heard Frederick's voice in the lane, and closed the door, pressing
+her face to the window. She saw him climb into his father's little yacht
+to make it ready for the summer's stock from the cottage. Teola, too,
+was on the shore, and Tess saw the girl turn longing eyes toward the
+hut. Then, with a boyish tug at his belt, Frederick started up the hill.
+His face in profile showed the squatter that he had changed&mdash;he was
+thinner, paler, and looked years older. Closer pressed the sweet face to
+the dirty pane, brighter grew the brown eyes. Drawn by his own desire,
+the student turned and looked at her. First an expression of eagerness
+leaped into his face; then one of sorrow settled upon it. He went on to
+the cottage without even nodding his head. He would soon come down with
+his father, mother and sister Babe, and Tess would see him no more.</p>
+
+<p>She sank down upon the bed beside the sucking child, and did not hear
+the hut door open softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, Tess! It's Teola, dear. What is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>The squatter choked back her tears, and sat up.</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't nothin' the matter," she replied sulkily. "I can cry if I
+wants to, can't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Tessibel, I have never seen you cry like that before, never! Is it
+money? Here, dear; here is a dollar. Father gave it to me. It will buy
+some milk, until I can send more. Oh, let me see my baby again. Darling
+little man! Your mother does love you, even if she must leave you. Tess,
+he looks worse than he did <a class="pagenum" name="page_337" id="page_337" title="337"></a>when I went home last night. You&mdash;you will
+bring him to the church to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>"And, Tess, I left a lot of white cloths on the pear-tree near the barn.
+I could not bring them to you before, for Mother only sorted them out to
+throw away this morning. Oh, the baby looks so thin and ill, Tess!"</p>
+
+<p>Tears trickled down upon the infant. Teola pressed her lips again and
+again to the thin mouth. The vivid mark was offering its crimson tinge
+sharply against the dead blue of the rest of the baby face.</p>
+
+<p>"And, Tess," burst forth Teola, "how gladly I would give you a dress for
+yourself if I could, and a dress for him! You can't bring him like this
+to the church. You don't mind coming as you are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," came the bitter interruption from the squatter. "I don't need no
+clothes to have a brat sprinkled. I air a squatter, and squatters don't
+give&mdash;a hell about nothin'."</p>
+
+<p>Her looks belied the words. With the dignity of a queen, the fine young
+head had settled back upon the broad shoulders sloping bare at the arms.
+The sweet face gave the lie to the hardened speech uttered from the
+grief she had just spent upon the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak like that, Tess! Don't! don't!" gasped Teola. "Some day,
+after the babe and I are dead&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Teola had come close to the fisher-girl, her pale face thrust
+beseechingly forward. Tess hesitated; then flung out her arms and drew
+the minister's daughter into them. Her eyes were filled with awe
+indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>"I's a mean brat to make ye say that," she faltered. "I brings the kid
+to-morry to the church. And, yes, I gets him a dress, too. See? And I
+buys milk <a class="pagenum" name="page_338" id="page_338" title="338"></a>for him, and makes him eat, and he sleeps here," Tess pounded
+her own strong breast, and ended, "till his dead pappy and his ma come
+after him, poor little cuss."</p>
+
+<p>Both girls cried softly, till Frederick's voice on the hill rang out
+sharply in answer to a question from his father. Teola kissed her babe
+over and over, drawing a small shawl about her shoulders, and picked a
+path out through the fish-bones on the floor. When Frederick returned to
+the boat, she was listlessly throwing small stones into the water.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_339" id="page_339" title="339"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLI_11232" id="CHAPTER_XLI_11232"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLI</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tessibel watched Minister Graves' yacht steam by the Hoghole, across the
+head of the lake and into the inlet. With it went the hopes of
+reconciliation with the student; the Dominie and his glowering glances
+of hatred; and Teola with her illness, leaving her the helpless babe.</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly decided to share her secret with Mrs. Longman. She would
+beg a dress for little Dan to wear to the church for his baptism. She
+had stubbornly kept the presence of the child in her hut from her
+squatter friend, although Myra had usually had a way of worming into her
+innermost confidence. But Tess had given her oath and loyalty to Teola,
+and feared to tell the other girl the parentage of the child, lest Myra,
+who loved Ben Letts, should blab the truth to him.</p>
+
+<p>During the weeks the babe had been with her, Tess had sent endless
+excuses about her absence to the Longman hut. She had to read the Bible;
+was waiting for someone to bring her a message from Daddy; fishing;
+getting ready for the winter; anything to keep Myra in ignorance of the
+tragedy being enacted in Skinner's hut. But now Myra was gone with Ben;
+Ezra was dead; and Mrs. Longman would not be curious about the little
+child.</p>
+
+<p>She prepared the basket with the clean clothes that Teola had left on
+the tree, and, with the easy grace of a barefooted squatter, set out for
+the ragged rocks with bounding steps.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 340px;">
+<img src="images/illus-340.jpg" width="340" height="616" alt="SHE TOSSED HER FACE UP TO THE SUN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SHE TOSSED HER FACE UP TO THE SUN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_340" id="page_340" title="340"></a></p><p>Across the lake the patches of forest, shaded with the scarlet and
+green of dying leaves, relieved the bareness of the harvested
+wheat-fields. Tessibel had a passion for the tumbling waves, they seemed
+to speak an unknown language to her, but to-day the lake was smooth like
+polished, clear, blue glass, and the birds were racing in flocks over it
+from the north toward the south. Their flight was so rapid that the
+squatter paused and followed them with her eyes. One flock after another
+disappeared behind the college hill so quickly that Tess could scarcely
+bid them farewell. They were her summer friends, had filled the day with
+brilliant song, and the night with love-twitterings.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel's forest solitude and rambles, her communion with night things
+had passed, gone with the coming of Teola, gone with the care of the
+babe. A longing for her old free life came back to her. She stooped down
+and placed the basket upon the rocks, and, with her arms flung over her
+head, tossed her face up to the sun. Her soul was dreaming, and the
+dream changed the half-closed eyes from brown to black.</p>
+
+<p>She stood silently, her gaze roving after the fleet-winged birds. They
+were leaving her to the winter&mdash;and the sick child.</p>
+
+<p>But Daddy, dear old Daddy, was coming back home! She caught her breath.
+At that moment her father was the panac&aelig;a for all that she had suffered
+during the last few weeks. Tears welled into her eyes. Just then another
+great flock of black birds, huddling together, skimmed by through the
+clear air. Tess threw out her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, good-bye!" she shouted, with conflicting <a class="pagenum" name="page_341" id="page_341" title="341"></a>emotions. "Come
+back again soon. It air lonely in the winter without ye."</p>
+
+<p>As if the birds understood the longing in a kindred soul, the flock
+halted an instant, seemingly loath to go, circled their mass of black
+toward the sky, swept to the water's edge, poised for the fraction of a
+second, then shot towards the University hill, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>With the light-heartedness of youth, Tess reached the Longman cabin. A
+silence reigned within which at first astonished her. The door was
+closed, and Satisfied was nowhere in sight. She paused before rapping,
+and looked to the shore for the boat. Disappointment shot through her:
+Satisfied and Mrs. Longman had gone to the city. Nevertheless, Tess
+tapped lightly, and then again. But no voice ordered her in. She lifted
+the latch, felt the door yield to her touch, and stepped inside. Four
+lean rats scurried cornerward, sinking from sight into dark holes;
+numbers of lizards tailed silently backward from the sunbeam slanting
+across the shanty door. But the sight was so usual to Tess that she
+merely turned her head slightly, and smiled as if to departing friends,
+and closed the door behind her. A long object stretched out upon a board
+arrested her steps. It was covered with a sheet, and the breathless
+gloom of the shanty caused Tess almost to drop the basket as she set it
+down. The silent, white thing on the board brought an exclamation of
+fear from her. With horror settling deep in her eyes she backed against
+the door. Did the sheet cover death? No; for Ezra had been carried to
+his grave the day before. The thought freed her from a terror that had
+gripped her senses at first. She took two steps forward, bent <a class="pagenum" name="page_342" id="page_342" title="342"></a>down and
+looked under the board. Little streams of water had made dark tracks
+across the hut floor. The corners of the sheet were drenched through.
+This sent Tess back once more to the door. Would she dare lift the
+sheet? Controlling her fear by an effort, Tess gathered her courage
+together and crept again to the long board. With shaking fingers, she
+lifted the cloth, and drew it back gently. Then a horrified cry fell
+sharply from her lips, and she dropped it. Ben Letts and Myra Longman,
+hugged in each other's arms, lay dead before her.</p>
+
+<p>Fascinated and trembling, she stood considering the livid squatters, no
+sound, after the first cry, issuing from her pale lips. The dead faces
+were so close to each other that a human hand could not pass between
+them. Upon the plain face of Myra rested a peaceful expression, as if
+she possessed a quietude she had never known before. Her eyes were
+closed, and one arm was tightly clasped about Ben's neck&mdash;the other
+about his waist. The storm had loosened the meager hair, had flung it in
+disorder over the fisher-girl's shoulders. Ben's brown teeth gleamed
+dark; the drawn lips were stretched wide, as if a pain, dreadful and
+torturing, had opened them never to be closed again. His two huge arms,
+twisted about the frail frame of the girl, were locked together by the
+horny fingers. To Tessibel it seemed that Myra smiled faintly in the
+possession of her longed-for happiness. She had Ben Letts at last, and
+forever&mdash;he was her gift of the storm, the eternal gift of a wild night.
+Myra had sought, and had found him.</p>
+
+<p>The shanty door pushed open. Like one in a dream, Tess was still looking
+down upon the dead. Lifting <a class="pagenum" name="page_343" id="page_343" title="343"></a>her gaze, she saw Satisfied watching her,
+his eyes glowing with subdued pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry air dead," he said, in a low voice, coming forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Letts, too," added the squatter girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And the brat," finished Longman.</p>
+
+<p>Tess, startled, lifted up her head.</p>
+
+<p>"The brat! I had forgot him," she muttered. "He air dead, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. He air here."</p>
+
+<p>Longman drew down the sheet still further, exposing the lifeless baby.
+The thin little body lay between the father and mother.</p>
+
+<p>For many minutes they surveyed the dead trio in rapt attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Where air Myry's ma?" asked Tessibel presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Back there, in Ezy's bed. She air sick, and so air Mammy Letts."</p>
+
+<p>"Ezy were buried yesterday," ruminated Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, and Myry be a-goin' to the same place. Ma and me air&mdash;alone."</p>
+
+<p>There was something strangely pathetic in the quiet words, in the
+stolid, ugly face with its hard lines, in the mouth twitching at the
+corners as he spoke. Tess sprang toward him, and wound her strong young
+arms about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry air happy," she burst forth; "happier than when she were livin'
+with you. She air with Ben Letts."</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied, towering over her, blinked confusedly at her words. Puzzling,
+he drew his heavy brows down darkly.</p>
+
+<p>"Myry were a-seekin' Ben," Tess went on hurriedly, <a class="pagenum" name="page_344" id="page_344" title="344"></a>"and the brat
+couldn't stay without its pa and ma. I says as how Myry air happy,
+Satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>"She were a-lovin' Ben Letts?" The pain in his clouded blue eyes stung
+Tess to the heart. The grief of this lonely old man, bereft of his all,
+seemed the most tragic spectacle she had ever faced.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," she replied, trying to smile through her tears; "she were
+a-lovin' him, and were a-seekin' his lovin's all the time. It were only
+in the storm&mdash;she found what she were a-seekin'."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head sharply toward the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye can see she air a-smilin', Satisfied, can't ye? And Ben air
+a-huggin' her up to him. That air somethin' Myry wanted. And ye air
+a-goin' to leave them like that, ain't ye? Don't tear Ben's arms loose,
+'cause Myry won't be happy if ye does. Can't ye put 'em in a box, just
+like they air?"</p>
+
+<p>Longman made a protesting motion. Some fishermen had picked the two dead
+ones up, locked in each other's arms. And he himself had covered them
+with a sheet, without making an effort to part them. He had not thought
+of putting them in the squatters' cemetery together.</p>
+
+<p>"And let the brat stay with 'em, too," Tess broke in on his reverie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," he replied; "I lets 'em all stay together. What Myry seeked for
+and found, she can have for all of me."</p>
+
+<p>The listening girl knew there was hatred in the father's tones for Ben
+Letts. Well, she had hated Ben too, but he was all Myra's now, and there
+was no more hatred for the ugly squatter in the heart of Tessibel.</p>
+
+<p>"She air a-smilin', Satisfied," Tess said again.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_345" id="page_345" title="345"></a></p><p>Longman loosened Tessibel's arms, and, walking slowly forward, looked
+down upon his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I hain't seed before that she were a-smilin'," he said, taking a long
+breath. "Ye says as how she air happy, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; she air with Ben Letts."</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-goin' in to tell her ma that Myry air happy," asserted Longman,
+with relief in his voice. "I thank ye, Tess, for tellin' me that she
+were. I weren't thinkin' of nothin' but the storm, the water, and the
+time that ma and me were a-sleepin' when Myry were a-dyin'. She air
+happy, ye air sure, Tess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, for she were a-seekin' Ben Letts. She told me as how&mdash;" Tessibel
+choked back the words.</p>
+
+<p>"She told ye what?"</p>
+
+<p>Tess was going to tell him of the night on the ragged rocks and of
+Myra's broken wrist, but, with a flashing glance at the dead woman,
+changed her mind. In her vivid imagination she thought that Myra was
+silently entreating her not to speak ill of the dead man in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"She told me that Ben were the brat's pa, and that&mdash;" her eyes gladdened
+as she finished&mdash;"she were a-lovin' him; and, Satisfied, when we air
+a-lovin', and lovin' damn hard, then ain't we happy when we air with
+them what we loves?"</p>
+
+<p>She had come close to him, standing near the dead man and woman. The
+girl slipped her hand into Longman's reassuringly, as she asked the last
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," replied Satisfied, disappearing into the back room.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel had forgotten the child in the basket. She turned her eyes
+toward it, and a movement of the cover <a class="pagenum" name="page_346" id="page_346" title="346"></a>told her that the little Dan was
+awake. She was bending over it when Longman appeared at her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy says as how ye air to come in, Tess," he said, his eyes falling
+upon the child. "Whose brat air it?" he asked, with no shadowing
+suspicion in his glance. "Where did ye get it, Tessibel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-carin' for it for a while. I comed, Satisfied&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Could she ask these people in sore grief for a dress that the dead child
+on the board had worn?</p>
+
+<p>"Ye comed for what?" asked the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I air a-wantin' to take him to the church, and I ain't got no dress for
+him. Would Mammy Longman let me take one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. Go in, and tell her. She air in bed."</p>
+
+<p>Tess covered the babe's face, and placed the basket on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't leave him in the hut," she explained; "the rats air too thick."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was all Longman said, and he fell to thinking deeply.</p>
+
+<p>Tess crept away to the back room.</p>
+
+<p>"I comed to see ye, Mammy Longman, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down on the bed," interrupted the tired voice. "Myry and Ezy air
+both gone. Satisfied says as how Myry air a-smilin' and as how ye said
+she were happy. Satisfied and me feels better, we does."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel choked back the welling tears.</p>
+
+<p>The gray head resting upon a soiled pillow, the pale face turned toward
+the wall, which had not turned to her, struck Tess deeper than
+Satisfied's stolid grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be sure Myry air happy?" came the tired voice again.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_347" id="page_347" title="347"></a></p><p>"Yep."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Longman threw her eyes on Tessibel.</p>
+
+<p>"If she air happy, what air ye cryin' for?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause it air lonely for ye and Satisfied without her and the brat. I
+knows, 'cause I ain't had Daddy in such a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"We was lookin' for Myry back, but not like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tess broke in upon her words.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy Longman, I air a-carin' for a little chap what ain't goin' to
+live, and I wants a dress to take him to the church. Will ye let me have
+one?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Longman sat up, a new interest dawning in her faded eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"To a church? Why to a church? He ain't dead yet, air he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; but his ma wants him took to the church where the Huly Ghost air,
+to have the water put on him.... Can I take the dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, Tess; take one from Myry's box. They ain't good, but our little
+brat wored them."</p>
+
+<p>Aimlessly, she lay down again and ceased speaking, but whimpered until
+Tess left the room. The girl made her choice from the small stock of
+dresses that had been worn by the Longman family, and had at last
+descended to the little dead boy.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On her way home to the hut once more, Tess paused on the rocks. The
+spectacle at Longman's had filled her eyes with the shadow of longing.
+She had seen Myra clasped in the arms of the man she loved. Tessibel's
+thoughts flew to the student. She could imagine her own happiness if she
+had been in the storm, and <a class="pagenum" name="page_348" id="page_348" title="348"></a>Frederick had taken her in his arms, and
+they should have&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish almost I was Myry," she moaned, "and the student was Ben
+Letts.... No, no! not that! not that!"</p>
+
+<p>She sank under the burden of a new thought. Myra had sought, and had
+found&mdash;had searched for Ben in the storm, and had found him. Myra had
+had more faith than she had.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith the size of a mustard-seed," flashed into her mind. Her own past
+unbelief pressed upon her, and the color fled from her cheeks, leaving
+them pale.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the basket, and put her wistful face close to the sleeping
+child, her mental tension gone in her uprising faith.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought as how ye were a-keepin' the student from me, but ye ain't.
+God ain't ready to let me have him. But he air a-goin' to let me have
+him some time. I air glad I got ye, and I hopes that ye live, too. Myry
+air got Ben Letts, and I air a-goin' to have&mdash;Frederick." She walked
+home in a reverie deep and sweet.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_349" id="page_349" title="349"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLII_11566" id="CHAPTER_XLII_11566"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sunday morning, Tessibel was out upon the tracks, walking swiftly toward
+the city. She could hear the church bell at Haytes Corner ringing out a
+welcome to the country folk; she could hear the tolling of the chapel
+bell from the University hill. Clothed in the clean skirt she had washed
+at the time she had thought of going to Auburn prison, and a worn but
+clean jacket, Tess felt fit to face the best-dressed in Ithaca. Of
+course she was barefooted, for Daddy's boots were too big to wear into
+the house of the student's God. Earlier in the morning Tessibel had sat
+for a long time upon the small fishing dock, swinging her feet in the
+clear water. They, too, like the skirt and jacket, were clean.</p>
+
+<p>In the basket, snuggling in the nest of white clothes, lay little Dan.
+He was robed, in the much-worn garment of the Longman child, and
+Tessibel had looked at him with pride as she settled him in his bed
+preparatory to her trip.</p>
+
+<p>She passed swiftly through the city, and crossed Dewitt Park. How
+vividly she remembered the many midnights she had taken the same way,
+turning toward the jail to visit "Daddy"!</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel paused before Minister Graves' church, and heard him read in
+deep tones from the Scriptures: "Suffer little children to come unto me,
+for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." The harmonious voice floated
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_350" id="page_350" title="350"></a>through the window to the fisher-girl, now crouched in the sun. Every
+word fell distinctly upon her ear.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted the basket cover, and peeped in upon the babe. He looked
+bluer and thinner than Tess had ever seen him; his lips rested upon the
+rag with no indrawing movement. Unblinkingly stared the wide gray eyes
+when the sunbeams flashed upon his face. The vivid birth-mark grew
+fainter in the yellow light. Tess drew him into the shade, and waited.</p>
+
+<p>The tones rolled out like thunder when Dominie Graves bade the members
+of his flock bring their children to the Holy Font, that they might
+receive the blessing of God, and everlasting life. Tess heard him say
+that the Father in Heaven demanded that all children should be baptized
+in the name of the crucified Saviour&mdash;that to put off such a duty might
+prove dangerous to their eternal welfare. Many of the long words the
+squatter did not understand, but she gathered enough to know how
+necessary it was to obey the minister's commands. She glanced again at
+the babe, with a worried pucker between her eyes. There was the same
+stare, the same unmoving lips. But he was quiet, and Tessibel let him
+lie.</p>
+
+<p>"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden&mdash;" rang forth the
+powerful voice. It fell upon the red-haired girl and soothed her.</p>
+
+<p>Tess knew that Teola would be expecting her, and that Frederick would
+turn his face away when she presented the child for baptism, but no
+cloud gathered into the downcast eyes, for Tessibel's faith had grown
+since she knew that Myra's prayers had been answered. Had she not seen
+the girl clasped in the arms of the fisherman, who had once said that he
+hated her? Had <a class="pagenum" name="page_351" id="page_351" title="351"></a>she not seen the smile upon the dead lips which dripped
+with lake water? Tessibel had never before been so confident in prayer,
+and upon this beautiful Sunday morning, in the white light of day,
+kneeling under the church window, she believed that God would give her
+back the student&mdash;some time. She thought of the pain that would rest in
+the proud dark eyes of the boy when he saw her; but she smiled, because
+she knew that God lived, heard and answered the prayers of the
+heavy-laden.</p>
+
+<p>An anthem rolled up from the church choir, chanting out the love of
+Christ, chanting His crucifixion and death for a dying world.</p>
+
+<p>"Come unto me, come unto me," it sang, and "Come unto me," rose from the
+lips of the squatter waiting to take the little human thing, with its
+burden of sickness and death, to Dominie Graves, that he might petition
+the Holy Ghost to take away its sin.</p>
+
+<p>"Come unto me," again sang the choir. Then silence. Tess leaned nearer
+the window. Dominie Graves read out the names of the babies to be
+baptized that day.</p>
+
+<p>A carriage rolled rapidly to the church door, and Deacon Hall,
+accompanied by his wife, stepped to the pavement. The Deacon held a
+bundle with long white draperies hanging from it. It was their new baby,
+with lace upon its frock, going in to receive a blessing at the altar of
+God. Tess peered down upon the little Dan, and pulled the coarse dress
+closer about his chin. A violent wish born of the love she had for him
+came into her heart. Oh, that she had one bit of lace, to make his skin
+look less blue and the mouth less drawn! The wide eyes were still fixed
+upon her, immovable and unblinking. <a class="pagenum" name="page_352" id="page_352" title="352"></a>Once only had she seen the lids
+fall slowly downward, to rise again over the unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"He knows he air a-goin' to church," she muttered lovingly. "I wonder if
+that air why he air so good.... Mebbe the spirit of his pappy air here."</p>
+
+<p>She heard the names fall from the lips of the clergyman, as he took the
+infants, one by one, and placed his hand upon them with the water.</p>
+
+<p>"I baptize thee, John Richard," Graves said slowly, "in the name of the
+Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Holy Ghost...." He was the Spirit of God Who stood by the
+children, to take away the sin with which they had been born. Teola had
+told Tess so. The Holy Ghost would take away the sin of little Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"I baptize thee," broke the silence, time after time, amid the tiny
+splashes of falling water. The last must have gone up to the altar, for
+Tess heard the minister telling the fathers and mothers the duty they
+owed their children.</p>
+
+<p>"I finish my service to-day," said he, "by praying God to bless you all,
+and calling down the good-will of Heaven upon your children just
+baptized in His name."</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel did not wait to hear the rest. She raised the child from the
+basket, shielding him from the sun with her body, stretched him out
+reverently upon her hands, and tiptoed up the long flight of steps into
+the church. A sea of heads rose before her startled vision. Transfixed,
+she paused in the door, waiting for Graves to cease speaking. Her eye
+caught the pew of the minister. Teola sat next to Frederick on the end,
+Mrs. Graves between her and her younger daughter. Tess <a class="pagenum" name="page_353" id="page_353" title="353"></a>noticed the
+tense expression upon the sharp profile of the babe's mother. How glad
+Teola would be when the baby was baptized! How happy in the new-found
+Heaven for her child!</p>
+
+<p>The minister's voice had fallen into a prayer. And still Tess waited
+with the dying infant, staring wide-eyed upward at the great church
+dome. Every head was bowed: no one saw the strange girl, with hair flung
+wide about her shoulders, nor the tiny human being resting upon her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>Silence fell upon the congregation, and Tessibel commenced her walk down
+through the sea of faces to the pulpit. She gave no glance toward Teola
+as she passed, but kept her eyes fixed upon Dominie Graves, who, without
+noticing her, had turned to the little flight of steps that led to his
+pulpit. When he reached the Bible stand, and opened his lips to speak,
+his gaze dropped upon the squatter. At first he thought he was dreaming.
+He looked again&mdash;looked at her&mdash;at the child&mdash;and paled to his ears.
+Tessibel was holding the infant up toward him, with a beseeching
+expression in her eyes that staggered him.</p>
+
+<p>Teola had seen Tess pass, and had caught a glimpse of the thin child
+upon her hands. The pursed baby lips, from which hung the useless sugar
+rag, made her lower her head to the prayer cushion, shuddering
+violently. Frederick had also seen the squatter&mdash;everyone in the church
+had seen her, and the silence grew wider and wider, until even breathing
+was hushed to catch her words.</p>
+
+<p>Her low, sweet voice began to speak; it thrilled through the
+congregation like the song of angels.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-354.jpg" width="400" height="642" alt="&quot;BE YE GOIN&#39; TO LET HIM GO A PLACE WHERE GOD CAN&#39;T FIND
+HIM?&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;BE YE GOIN&#39; TO LET HIM GO A PLACE WHERE GOD CAN&#39;T FIND
+HIM?&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_354" id="page_354" title="354"></a></p><p>"I has brought ye a dyin' brat, Dominie Graves," began Tess with
+shaking voice, "who has got to be sprinkled, or he can't go to Heaven."</p>
+
+<p>The vast silence of the edifice echoed her petition.</p>
+
+<p>The gaping minister never once took his eyes from her face, and made no
+move to answer her.</p>
+
+<p>"It air a-dyin', I say," she went on, "and I wants ye to put the water
+on it."</p>
+
+<p>So deadly in earnest was the girl that a sob broke out in the back of
+the church. The lithe, barefooted squatter, and the feeble, dying child
+offered a living picture of pathos, which with its tragedy slowly dawned
+upon the more sensitive minds, silently telling its tale of human
+suffering. Minister Graves refused to answer her. He wore the same
+expression of scorn Tess had seen in the student when she had
+acknowledged the child as hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Be ye goin' to sprinkle him?" she demanded steadfastly, her voice
+growing stronger with her emotions. "Be ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not." Graves' voice fell like the sound of a deep-toned bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Be ye goin' to let him go to a place where God can't find him? Be ye?"
+Tess entreated.</p>
+
+<p>Anger and revolt glinted through the golden-brown of her eyes; she
+swayed back a little from the font, still holding out the babe.</p>
+
+<p>"He air so little," she pleaded with a choke, "and so awful sick. Mebbe
+he won't live till mornin'. He can't hurt the others, now they air done
+with the water, can he?"</p>
+
+<p>She peeped into the marble basin, and lifted her eyes to his face.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_355" id="page_355" title="355"></a></p><p>"There air lots of water left. Be there other babies wantin' it worse
+than this one?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned half-way round, and faced the wall of white faces, sending
+the question out in high-pitched tones.</p>
+
+<p>Then Graves spoke with austerity and strength, riding down his anger
+with a mighty effort.</p>
+
+<p>"You will please take the child from the church. You have your own
+squatter mission for such as that."</p>
+
+<p>He had forgotten his members&mdash;forgotten that he was a man of God. As he
+bent toward her, he remembered only that she was the girl who had
+thwarted him, who had won in the squatter fight against his own
+influence. Tessibel heard the words "squatter" and "mission." It had not
+occurred to her to take the child there. She looked down upon the little
+fire-marked face. Would baby Dan live until she could get him there? He
+might be dead before she could carry him to the inlet and cross the
+tracks to the young rector's house. Teola had said that the baby would
+never be with his father without baptism, that even she, his mother,
+could not see him when she, too, went away. Little Dan, uncleansed,
+would live far from the bright angels. Her anger rose in a twinkling.
+She took another backward step, threw the red curls into a mass over her
+shoulder, and spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"Air I to take him from the church without the water?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be damned if I's a-goin' to take him away," she flung back,
+panting. "He air so near dead, he air blind&mdash;look at his eyes! I says,
+he air to be <a class="pagenum" name="page_356" id="page_356" title="356"></a>sprinkled, he air! If ye won't give the Huly Ghost a
+chance at him&mdash;" Here she stepped forward to the font, flashed a look of
+hatred at Graves, and suddenly dipped her hand into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"I sprinkles him myself," she ended.</p>
+
+<p>The drops fell upon the livid baby face, dripping down upon the bare
+feet of the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>"I baptize&mdash;" Tess wavered for lack of words. She had thought she could
+not forget the benediction.</p>
+
+<p>A voice from the back of the church broke in abruptly upon her
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"I baptize thee, child," it rang, "in the name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost."</p>
+
+<p>Bill Hopkins was in the middle aisle, coming toward her. Tess snatched
+one glimpse of his face, still holding her wet hand upon the dark-haired
+babe.</p>
+
+<p>"Say it, girl," Hopkins commanded. "Say it, quick. The child is dying."</p>
+
+<p>"I baptize thee, child, in the name&mdash;" gasped Tess.</p>
+
+<p>She stepped back again, throwing an entreating, silent appeal to the
+huge, bald-headed man.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Father, and of the Son," repeated Bill.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Father, and of the Son," echoed Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"And of the Holy Ghost," ended Hopkins.</p>
+
+<p>"And of the Huly Ghost," whispered Tess.</p>
+
+<p>"Amen" rolled from a hundred tear-choked throats, like the distant
+murmuring of the sea. Hopkins sat down, saying no more.</p>
+
+<p>Minister Graves had sunk into his chair, and on the girl's last words
+the congregation drew a long, gasping breath. The eyes of the babe gazed
+steadily on into the shadows of eternal silence; the water seemingly
+unfelt upon its head. The small boy was slipping away <a class="pagenum" name="page_357" id="page_357" title="357"></a>to that place of
+mystery where his father, Myra and Ben Letts had gone. The long days of
+suffering with the child in the hut rushed over Tess. She dropped on her
+knees, facing the pulpit, and hugged him to her breast, and whispered,</p>
+
+<p>"Suffer little children to come unto me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then another voice, shrill, sobbing and terrible, hushed her prayer. The
+squatter instinctively shifted her position toward the Dominie's pew.
+Teola Graves was standing up, tall and pale, and was looking directly at
+the minister.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," she cried, "Father, if you don't take the baby and baptize him
+in the name of the Saviour, you will consign to everlasting darkness&mdash;"
+She lost her breath, caught it again, and finished, "your own flesh and
+blood. God! dear God, take us both to Dan!... Tessibel, Tessibel, give
+me my baby!"</p>
+
+<p>She wrenched herself loose from Frederick's detaining fingers, and was
+in the aisle before her brother realized what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"He's my baby," she cried, between the spasmodic pressures upon her
+chest. "Tess! Tess, is he dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, he air dead," fell from Tessibel; for she had seen the large,
+glazed eyes draw in at the corners and the little face blanch. The tiny
+spirit fled as the frantic girl-mother clasped her babe to her breast.</p>
+
+<p>"But he air gone to his pappy," consoled the squatter.</p>
+
+<p>For one awful moment, Dominie Graves looked into the accusing eyes of
+his congregation. Bill Hopkins was seated, with his face in his hands,
+but Augusta Hall, with her new baby folded tightly in her arms, was
+looking at him in dark-eyed disdain.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_358" id="page_358" title="358"></a></p><p>Graves swayed dizzily, ... caught at the pulpit table for support.</p>
+
+<p>"Jesus," he appealed dizzily, "Christ Jesus."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick pressed his way to his sister's side. The squatter threw up
+her head before him: for the first time since that last dreadful night,
+she looked directly into his eyes, her dishonor slipping from her like a
+loosened garment. Frederick's soul shone forth in the glance he sent
+her. God in His own time had given her back the student.</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel turned, and passed up through the mute gathering. Bill Hopkins
+put out his hand, and touched her.</p>
+
+<p>"Child," he said brokenly, "you are the one bright spirit in this
+generation."</p>
+
+<p>But Tessibel did not understand. She went down the long flight of steps,
+and into the sun-lit street, with but a backward glance at the
+rag-draped basket she had left under the church window.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" name="page_359" id="page_359" title="359"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLIII_11893" id="CHAPTER_XLIII_11893"></a>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLIII</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tessibel was a child again, a happy, free-hearted child. The body of her
+death had fallen away as Christian's burden had slipped from his
+shoulders at the foot of the cross. The babe had gone to its father with
+the blessing of the Holy Ghost!</p>
+
+<p>Then Tess thought of Teola, and stopped on the tracks, the Dominie's
+last words rushing into her mind. She had understood the import of them.
+It had been carried to her by the awful expression upon Graves' face. He
+was sorry, this minister who had persecuted her father and
+herself&mdash;sorry for Teola, sorry for the brat!</p>
+
+<p>"The Dominie ain't likin' Daddy and me, though," she murmured. "But the
+student air a-likin' me!"</p>
+
+<p>For the next two miles she sang lustily, childishly, with the complete
+abandon of a girl without a burden. Daddy Skinner was coming home, and
+God had given her back the student. The remembrance of his eyes thrilled
+her from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>Tess passed down the lane, glad for Myra, glad for Teola and her
+child&mdash;glad for everyone. She was still singing when she crossed the
+wide plank that spanned the mud-cellar creek. She saw Professor Young
+leaning against the shanty door, and the memory of their last
+conversation, when he had asked her to marry him, made her pause
+awkwardly, the color flying in rich waves from the red forehead ringlets
+to the shapely neck.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_360" id="page_360" title="360"></a></p><p>Young took her hand, looking searchingly into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the child?" he demanded in low tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I took it back to its ma&mdash;she wanted it," was all Tess replied. "Air ye
+comin' in and tell me about Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your father will&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tessibel halted, with her hand on the door, waiting for him to finish.</p>
+
+<p>"Go in, child. I will tell you&mdash;in there."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke slowly, deliberately.... Tess gazed at him, trying to read his
+thoughts. Nevertheless she obeyed him, pressing open the door with an
+impatient movement of her head. She had waited so long for just this
+moment. To know when the big, humpbacked father was coming home seemed
+more precious to Tessibel than all the uplifting joy she had experienced
+that day. Her eyes swept the hut; then they rested in a frightened
+glance upon Daddy Skinner seated on his own stool. He was smiling at her
+with misty, shaggy-browed eyes, his lips showing his dark teeth with
+each incoming breath.</p>
+
+<p>Deforest Young saw the girl bound forward, and the red curls shroud the
+huge fisherman's face. Tears blurred his sight. He turned into the day
+to regain his control.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye be here to stay!" gasped Tess, sitting up presently, and holding the
+thick neck with her curved arm. "Ye ain't never goin' back to Auburn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope; I's here to stay with my pretty brat.... Air ye glad to see yer
+Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Glad! glad! Daddy, daddy! I air a-goin' to be your brat till we dies!"
+She had nestled, as in the old <a class="pagenum" name="page_361" id="page_361" title="361"></a>days, completely under his chin hair,
+crying silently, deeply, with low-caught sobs.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time they sat thus, until the man outside entered and spoke
+to them.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Tess jubilantly cooked the fish for dinner, spattering the bacon fat
+upon the floor. She smiled alternately at her father and Professor
+Young; she caroled like a spring bird with bursts of happy song. Then
+they three sat down to the table to eat the homely squatter fare.</p>
+
+<p>A sickening longing swept over Deforest Young. To have the love of this
+girl he would be willing to live in the shanty&mdash;to eat just such food
+for the rest of his life. But during the few days past, he had fully
+realized that he could not make Tess love him. He would never speak of
+love to her again.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it pleased him to remain with them through the long afternoon, with
+Tess near him to watch the sun sink behind the western hill.</p>
+
+<p>He had drawn on his coat preparatory to leaving, and stood with
+Tessibel's hand in his. A sharp, quick knock on the door stayed his
+farewell. Orn Skinner lifted the latch, and Frederick Graves entered at
+the fisherman's bidding. His face was drawn and pale, his eyes red from
+weeping. Tessibel's heart bounded in sympathy, but she remained backed
+against the shanty wall until his eyes searched hers for a welcome. He
+spoke first.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister is dead," he said slowly, his voice breaking as the tears
+came into the dark eyes; "and my father sent you this."</p>
+
+<p>Daddy Skinner was seated blinkingly on his stool; <a class="pagenum" name="page_362" id="page_362" title="362"></a>Professor Young, hat
+in hand, waited for the girl to take the extended paper. But for several
+seconds she stood staring at Frederick, with wide-eyed wonderment. He
+had said that his beautiful sister was dead, that she had gone with the
+thin babe to her loved one, even as Myra Longman had gone with Ben
+Letts. To Tess it was but another answered prayer, showered from Heaven.
+She felt no thrill of grief; she was only glad that the pale, sick
+mother had had her wish.</p>
+
+<p>She took the paper awkwardly, and scanned it with painful embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't read the writin'," she said, handing it back. "Will ye tell me
+what it says?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can't, I can't, Tessibel! I am so ashamed, so miserable!"</p>
+
+<p>Tess silently handed the paper to Professor Young; then she slipped
+forward and stood close to Frederick, rapidly considering his face with
+forgiving eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Young turned to the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>An acquiescent nod gave him permission to lift the note and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Child</span>:</p>
+
+<p>My daughter is dead. Frederick will tell you. If you can forgive me
+for all I have done against you and your father, will you come here
+to us, and tell Mrs. Graves and myself of the past few weeks.
+Frederick has told me that he loves you, and of your sacrifice for
+Teola. I can only say at present that we thank you.</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:right'>
+Yours in grief and gratitude,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Elias Graves</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_363" id="page_363" title="363"></a></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>P. S.&mdash;When your father comes back, I shall ask you to give
+him the title of the ground upon which your house stands."</p></div>
+
+<p>Professor Young read it slowly, word by word; each breath taken by the
+four people could be plainly heard in the silence that followed.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick broke it.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess, will you come to our home, and tell Father and Mother
+about&mdash;Teola?"</p>
+
+<p>The name slipped into a whisper from his lips, and, leaning against the
+hut door, he burst into boyish, bitter tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, please," he murmured; "but it was so awful! And what she
+must have suffered!... And I didn't know&mdash;we none of us knew." He lifted
+his face, swept them with a heartrending glance, and finished. "She died
+in the church to-day with the baby."</p>
+
+<p>"She air happy to be with the man what she loves, ain't she?" said Tess,
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick grasped her hands, her brilliant smile easing the pain that
+like a knife stabbed his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"You think she was happy to die, Tess?... Tell me all she said.... Did
+she know she was going away?"</p>
+
+<p>For an instant the rapid rush of questions daunted Tessibel. But she
+sorted them out, commencing from the first one to answer them.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, she air happy," she said positively; "awful happy. She wanted to
+go to her man in the sky.... He were a-waitin' for her every day, and
+she knowed she were a-goin' to die, 'cause&mdash;'cause she prayed every
+night that God'd take her and the brat."</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_364" id="page_364" title="364"></a></p><p>"Prayed? She prayed to die, when we all loved her so?" stammered
+Frederick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. She were a-lovin' the burnt student better'n anything else. And,
+when women air a-lovin' like that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She ceased abruptly, and her own love for him attacked her as lightning
+attacks an oak in the autumn. Teola Graves had gone willingly to the
+burnt student, and Myra Longman had loved the ugly fisherman with a love
+that hurt like hers.</p>
+
+<p>No one asked the short-skirted, barefooted girl to finish her sentence.
+The three men understood that her last passionate statement rang from
+the depths of her woman's heart. Frederick lifted his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Tess&mdash;Tessibel, I can only say with my father that we all love you for
+what you have done for her."</p>
+
+<p>His voice broke.</p>
+
+<p>"And for myself, I say again, as I have said many times, that I&mdash;I love
+you&mdash;with my whole soul!"</p>
+
+<p>His fingers closed over hers in an intense, desperate clasp. How long
+she had waited for him to tell her this once more! And he had confessed
+his great love in the presence of Daddy Skinner and the big man from the
+hill.</p>
+
+<p>Her father watched her, this child whom but a year before he had left
+almost a baby. She was a woman now, with a woman's voice and a woman's
+love. The fisherman passed his hand over his face with a forlorn
+gesture. Had he found his darling again but to lose her?</p>
+
+<p>Impetuously Tess turned toward him, and met his misty gaze with her
+tear-dimmed eyes. The student was still clinging to her hand.</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_365" id="page_365" title="365"></a></p><p>"I air Daddy's brat," she whispered. "But I says," and she flashed
+Frederick a lightning-like glance through the red lashes before she
+dropped her eyes, and murmured, "but I says, as how I said before, that
+I air yer squatter."</p>
+
+<hr class='full' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>"<i>The Books You Like to Read<br />at the Price You Like to Pay</i>"</p>
+
+<p><i>There Are Two Sides to Everything&mdash;</i></p>
+
+<p>&mdash;including the wrapper which covers every Grosset &amp; Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &amp;
+Dunlap book wrapper.</p>
+
+<p>You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from&mdash;books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocketbook.</p>
+
+<p><i>Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog.</i></p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><i>There is a Grosset &amp; Dunlap Book<br />for every mood and for every taste</i></p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>EMERSON HOUGH'S NOVELS</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list</p>
+
+<div style='margin-left:5%;'>
+<p>THE COVERED WAGON</p>
+<p>NORTH OF 36</p>
+<p>THE WAY OF A MAN</p>
+<p>THE STORY OF THE OUTLAW</p>
+<p>THE SAGEBRUSHER</p>
+<p>THE GIRL AT THE HALFWAY HOUSE</p>
+<p>THE WAY OUT</p>
+<p>THE MAN NEXT DOOR</p>
+<p>THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE</p>
+<p>THE BROKEN GATE</p>
+<p>THE STORY OF THE COWBOY</p>
+<p>THE WAY TO THE WEST</p>
+<p>54-40 OR FIGHT</p>
+<p>HEART'S DESIRE</p>
+<p>THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE</p>
+<p>THE PURCHASE PRICE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, NEW YORK</p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>GEORGE W. OGDEN'S WESTERN NOVELS</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE BARON OF DIAMOND TAIL</span><br />
+The Elk Mountain Cattle Co. had not paid a dividend in years; so Edgar
+Barrett, fresh from the navy, was sent West to see what was wrong at the
+ranch. The tale of this tenderfoot outwitting the buckaroos at their own
+play will sweep you into the action of this salient western novel.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE BONDBOY</span><br />
+Joe Newbolt, bound out by force of family conditions to work for a
+number of years, is accused of murder and circumstances are against him.
+His mouth is sealed; he cannot, as a gentleman, utter the words that
+would clear him. A dramatic, romantic tale of intense interest.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>CLAIM NUMBER ONE</span><br />
+Dr. Warren Slavens drew claim number one, which entitled him to first
+choice of rich lands on an Indian reservation in Wyoming. It meant a
+fortune; but before he established his ownership he had a hard battle
+with crooks and politicians.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE DUKE OF CHIMNEY BUTTE</span><br />
+When Jerry Lambert, "the Duke," attempts to safeguard the cattle ranch
+of Vesta Philbrook from thieving neighbors, his work is appallingly
+handicapped because of Grace Kerr, one of the chief agitators, and a
+deadly enemy of Vesta's. A stirring tale of brave deeds, gun-play and a
+love that shines above all.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE FLOCKMASTER OF POISON CREEK</span><br />
+John Mackenzie trod the trail from Jasper to the great sheep country
+where fortunes were being made by the flock-masters. Shepherding was not
+a peaceful pursuit in those bygone days. Adventure met him at every
+turn&mdash;there is a girl of course&mdash;men fight their best fights for a
+woman&mdash;it is an epic of the sheeplands.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE LAND OF LAST CHANCE</span><br />
+Jim Timberlake and Capt. David Scott waited with restless thousands on
+the Oklahoma line for the signal to dash across the border. How the city
+of Victory arose overnight on the plains, how people savagely defended
+their claims against the "sooners;" how good men and bad played
+politics, makes a strong story of growth and American initiative.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>TRAIL'S END</span><br />
+Ascalon was the end of the trail for thirsty cowboys who gave vent to
+their pent-up feelings without restraint. Calvin Morgan was not
+concerned with its wickedness until Seth Craddock's malevolence directed
+itself against him. He did not emerge from the maelstrom until he had
+obliterated every vestige of lawlessness, and assured himself of the
+safety of a certain dark-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><i>Ask for Complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</i></p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, NEW YORK</p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART</span><br />
+Why was Barbara held captive in a deserted hermit's hut for days by a
+"man without a heart" and in the end how was it that she held the
+winning cards.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE ROMANCE OF A ROGUE</span><br />
+Twenty-four hours after his release from prison Bruce Lawn finds himself
+playing a most surprising role in a drama of human relationships that
+sweeps on to a wonderfully emotional climax.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE MATHERSON MARRIAGE</span><br />
+She married for money. With her own hands she had locked the door on
+happiness and thrown away the key. But, read the story which is very
+interesting and well told.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>RICHARD CHATTERTON</span><br />
+A fascinating story in which love and jealousy play strange tricks with
+women's souls.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>A BACHELOR HUSBAND</span><br />
+Can a woman love two men at the same time?</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>In its solving of this particular variety of triangle "A Ba</span>chelor
+Husband" will particularly interest, and strangely enough, without one
+shock to the most conventional minded.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE SCAR</span><br />
+With fine comprehension and insight the author shows a terrific contrast
+between the woman whose love was of the flesh and one whose love was of
+the spirit.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE MARRIAGE OF BARRY WICKLOW</span><br />
+Here is a man and woman who, marrying for love, yet try to build their
+wedded life upon a gospel of hate for each other and yet win back to a
+greater love for each other in the end.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE UPHILL ROAD</span><br />
+The heroine of this story was a consort of thieves. The man was fine,
+clean, fresh from the West. It is a story of strength and passion.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>WINDS OF THE WORLD</span><br />
+Jill, a poor little typist, marries the great Henry Sturgess and
+inherits millions, but not happiness. Then at last&mdash;but we must leave
+that to Ruby M. Ayres to tell you as only she can.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE SECOND HONEYMOON</span><br />
+In this story the author has produced a book which no one who has loved
+or hopes to love can afford to miss. The story fairly leaps from climax
+to climax.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE PHANTOM LOVER</span><br />
+Have you not often heard of someone being in love with love rather than
+the person they believed the object of their affections? That was
+Esther! But she passes through the crisis into a deep and profound love.</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><span class="smcap">Grosset &amp; Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>
+THE NOVELS OF<br />
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL<br />
+(MRS. LUTZ)</p>
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had whatever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<div style='margin-left:5%;'>
+<p>BEST MAN, THE<br />
+CLOUDY JEWEL<br />
+DAWN OF THE MORNING<br />
+ENCHANTED BARN, THE<br />
+EXIT BETTY<br />
+FINDING OF JASPER HOLT, THE<br />
+GIRL FROM MONTANA, THE<br />
+LO, MICHAEL!<br />
+MAN OF THE DESERT, THE<br />
+MARCIA SCHUYLER<br />
+MIRANDA<br />
+MYSTERY OF MARY, THE<br />
+OBSESSION OF VICTORIA GRACEN, THE<br />
+PHOEBE DEANE<br />
+RED SIGNAL, THE<br />
+SEARCH, THE<br />
+TRYST, THE<br />
+VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS, A<br />
+WITNESS, THE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><i>Ask for Complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</i></p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><span class="smcap">Grosset &amp; Dunlap,   Publishers, New York.</span></p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>
+STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY<br />
+GENE STRATTON-PORTER</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<p><span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE WHITE FLAG.</span><br />
+How a young girl, singlehanded, fought against the power of the Morelands
+who held the town of Ashwater in their grip.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER.</span><br />
+This story is of California and tells of that charming girl, Linda Strong,
+otherwise known as "Her Father's Daughter."<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>A DAUGHTER OF THE LAND.</span><br />
+Kate Bates, the heroine of this story, is a true "Daughter of the Land,"
+and to read about her is truly inspiring.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>MICHAEL O'HALLORAN.</span><br />
+Michael is a quick-witted little Irish newsboy, living in Northern
+Indiana. He adopts a deserted little girl, a cripple. He also aspires to
+lead the entire rural community upward and onward.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>LADDIE.</span><br />
+This is a bright, cheery tale with the scenes laid in Indiana. The story
+is told by Little Sister, the youngest member of a large family, but it
+is concerned not so much with childish doings as with the love affairs
+of older members of the family.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE HARVESTER.</span><br />
+"The Harvester," is a man of the woods and fields, and is well worth
+knowing, but when the Girl comes to his "Medicine Woods," there begins a
+romance of the rarest idyllic quality.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>FRECKLES.</span><br />
+Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which he
+takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms; and his love-story
+with "The Angel" are full of real sentiment.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST.</span><br />
+The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, loveable type of
+the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
+toward all things; her hope is never dimmed.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW.</span><br />
+The scene of this charming love story is laid in Central Indiana. It is
+one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing love.<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE SONG OF THE CARDINAL.</span><br />
+The love idyl of the Cardinal and his mate, told with rare delicacy and
+humor.</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><span class="smcap">Grosset &amp; Dunlap,   Publishers, New York</span></p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:larger;'>
+BOOTH TARKINGTON'S<br />
+NOVELS</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>SEVENTEEN.</span> Illustrated by Arthur William Brown.<br />
+No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed
+the immortal young people of this story. Its humor is irresistible
+and reminiscent of the time when the reader was Seventeen.
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>PENROD.</span> Illustrated by Gordon Grant.<br />
+This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, humorous,
+tragic things which are locked secrets to most older folks. It is
+a finished, exquisite work.
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>PENROD AND SAM.</span> Illustrated by Worth Brehm.<br />
+Like "Penrod" and "Seventeen," this book contains
+some remarkable phases of real boyhood and some of the best
+stories of juvenile prankishness that have ever been written.
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE TURMOIL.</span> Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.<br />
+Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who revolts
+against his father's plans for him to be a servitor of big
+business. The love of a fine girl turns Bibb's life from failure
+to success.
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA.</span> Frontispiece.<br />
+A story of love and politics,&mdash;more especially a picture of
+a country editor's life in Indiana, but the charm of the book
+lies in the love interest.
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style='text-decoration:underline'>THE FLIRT.</span> Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.<br />
+The "Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one girl's
+engagement, drives one man to suicide, causes the murder
+of another, leads another to lose his fortune, and in the end,
+marries a stupid and unpromising suitor, leaving the really
+worthy one to marry her sister.</p>
+<p style='text-align:center'><i>Ask for Complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</i></p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center'><span class="smcap">Grosset &amp; Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></p>
+
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<table summary='notes' style='padding: 2px 4px 2px 4px; border: 1px dashed; background-color:#ffffcc; margin-top:10px; width:80%;'>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span style='text-decoration:underline'>Transcriber's Notes</span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+    <tr>
+    <td align="left">
+      <ol>
+        <li>In the <a href="#tn01">courtroom scene</a> on page 237, the original "She was not disloyal to Tess"
+            has been changed to "She was not disloyal to Teola" since Tess is the speaker
+            and she's keeping Teola's confidence about the child's mother.</li>
+        <li>The last chapter was originally numbered XI (11) though it is actually the final
+            chapter, XLIII (43).</li>
+        <li>The Table of Contents was not present in the original text.</li>
+      </ol>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tess of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller
+White, Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Tess of the Storm Country
+
+
+Author: Grace Miller White
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 13, 2007  [eBook #22064]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 22064-h.htm or 22064-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/6/22064/22064-h/22064-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/6/22064/22064-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+by
+
+GRACE MILLER WHITE
+
+Illustrations by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1909, by
+W. J. WATT & COMPANY
+
+
+
+WITH
+LOVE AND GRATITUDE
+I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO
+MY FATHER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+One September afternoon, not many years ago, three men sat on the banks
+of Cayuga Lake cleaning the fish they had caught in their nets the
+previous night. When they glanced up from their work, and looked beyond
+the southern borders of the lake, they could see, rising from the mantle
+of forestry, the towers and spires of Cornell University in Ithaca City.
+An observer would have noticed a sullen look of hatred pass
+unconsciously over their faces as their eyes lighted on the distant
+buildings, for the citizens of Ithaca were the enemies of these squatter
+fishermen and thought that their presence on the outskirts of the town
+besmirched its fair fame. Not only did the summer cottages of the
+townfolk that bordered the lake, look down disdainfully upon their
+neighbors, the humble shanties of the squatter fishermen, but their
+owners did all they could to drive the fishermen out of the land. None
+of the squatters were allowed to have the title of the property upon
+which their huts stood, yet they clung with death-like tenacity to their
+homes, holding them through the rights of the squatter-law, which
+conceded them the use of the land when once they raised a hut upon it.
+Sterner and sterner the authorities of Ithaca had made the game laws
+until the fishermen, to get the food upon which they lived, dared only
+draw their nets by night. In the winter whilst the summer residents were
+to be found again in the city, Nature herself made harder the lot of
+these squatters, by sealing the lake with thick ice, but they faced the
+bitter cold and frozen surroundings with stolid indifference.
+
+A grim silence had reigned during which the three men had worked with
+feverish haste, driven on by the vicissitudes of their unwholesome
+lives. Moving his crooked legs upon the hot sand and closing a red lid
+over one white blind eye, Ben Letts spoke viciously.
+
+"Tess air that cussed," said he, "that she keeps on saying fishes can
+feel when they gets cut. She air worse than that too."
+
+"And she do say," put in Jake Brewer, grasping a large pickerel and
+thrusting his blade into its quivering body after removing the scales,
+"that it hurts her insides to see the critters wriggle under the knife.
+She air that bad too."
+
+Ben Letts scratched his head tentatively.
+
+"She ain't had no bringin' up," he resumed, again plying the
+sharp-bladed knife to his scaly victims, "and they do say as how when
+she air in a tantrum she'll scratch her dad's face, jumpin' on his back
+like a cat. Orn air a fool, I say."
+
+"So says I too," agreed Brewer; "no wonder his shoulders air humped. But
+you never hears as much as a grunt from him. He knows he ain't never
+give her no bringin's up, that's why."
+
+"Some folks has give their kids bringin's up," interposed Ben Letts with
+a glance at the third man, who was industriously cleaning fish and had
+not yet spoken. "And they hain't turned out no better than Tessibel
+will."
+
+At this the industrious one turned.
+
+"I spose ye be a hittin' at my poor Myry, Ben," he muttered. "I spose ye
+be, but God'll some time let me kill the man, and then ye won't be
+hittin' at her no more, 'cause there won't be nothin' to hit at. It air
+dum hard to keep a girl from the wrong way, love her all ye will."
+
+For an instant Ben Letts dropped his head.
+
+"We always wondered who he was, but more wonder has been goin' on why ye
+ain't made no offer to find the fellow."
+
+"Ain't had no time," said the desperate cleaner of fish; "had to get
+bread and beans, to say nothin' of bacon."
+
+"But why didn't ye send the brat to the workhouse?" asked Jake.
+
+"Satisfied" Longman, as he was called, shook his head.
+
+"I was satisfied to let it stay," was all he answered.
+
+"My old mammy says," offered Ben Letts, "as how yer son Ezy asked
+Tessibel Skinner to marry him and as how she slicked him in the face
+with a dirty dishrag."
+
+He slowly closed the scarlet lids over his crossed eyes, suspending the
+pickerel in his hand the while.
+
+"Tess ain't had no mother," remonstrated Longman, after a long silence,
+pausing a moment in his bloody work and allowing his eyes to rest upon
+the magnificent buildings of the University, rearing above the town,
+"and Myry says that them what has ought to be satisfied."
+
+Just then a shadow fell upon the shore of the lake near the fishermen.
+
+"There air Tess now," muttered Letts and his two companions eyed a
+figure clad in rags, with flying copper-colored hair and bare dirty
+feet, which dropped down beside Longman without asking whether or no.
+
+"Cleanin' fish?" she queried.
+
+"Can't ye see?" growled Ben.
+
+"'Course I can," she answered; "just wondered if ye knowed yerselves."
+
+"Where be yer dad?" queried Longman, smiling as he caught up two long
+fish, depositing one beside him where it flopped helplessly about upon
+the hot sand.
+
+"Gone to Ithacy," replied Tessibel, and without change of expression or
+color caught the floundering fish in her dirty fingers.
+
+"I air a hittin' the little devil on the head with a stone," said she,
+and with a pointed rock she expertly tapped the fish three times behind
+the beady eyes and threw him down again motionless.
+
+"Suppose seein' the fish wrigglin' gives Tessibel mollygrubs in her
+belly," grinned Jake Brewer, but Ben Letts broke in.
+
+"How be yer toad to-day, Tessibel?"
+
+This he said with a malevolent smile, as he took from his pocket a huge
+hunk of tobacco and munched a generous mouthful therefrom.
+
+"Pretty well," answered Tess pertly, and measuring the blue water with
+her eye, she sent a flat stone skipping across it. Then with darkening
+face she wheeled about upon the heavy squatter.
+
+"But air it any of yer business how my toad air, Ben Letts?"
+
+"Naw," laughed Ben, nudging Jake in the ribs with his bare elbow, "only
+I thought as how he might be dead." Then he whispered to Brewer, "Wait
+till I get at him."
+
+"Dead--dead, who said as how he air dead? Ye in't been a rubberin' in
+his hole, have ye, Ben Letts?"
+
+Ben only laughed in reply.
+
+"Ye have, Ben Letts, ye have, damn ye," screamed the girl now glowering
+above the fishermen with eyes changing to the deep copper of her hair.
+"Take that, and that, and that."
+
+She had snatched the long fish from his fingers, and with swift swirls
+slapped it thrice into the fisherman's face. Turning she flashed away,
+her long shadows giving out the smaller ones of the tatters that hung
+about her.
+
+"I'll be goldarned," gasped Letts, "and I'll be goldarned twice if I
+don't get even with her some of these here days. The devil's built his
+nest in her alright, and if hell fire don't get her, it'll be 'cause she
+air burned up by her own cussed wickedness."
+
+He rubbed his face frantically with the soiled sleeve of his shirt,
+spitting out the scales and blood that hat lodged between his
+dark-colored teeth.
+
+"Ye're always a tormentin' her, Ben," said Longman; "now if ye was only
+satisfied to let her alone, I air a thinkin' that she wouldn't bother
+ye. Tess air a good girl, for Myry says as how she can hush the brat
+when he air a howlin' like a nigger."
+
+"She'll cast a spell over him, that's what she will," muttered Ben
+Letts. "Her ma could take off warts afore she was knee high to a
+grasshopper, and so can Tess. Once she whispered ten off from Minister
+Graves' hand under his very eyes when he was a laughin' at the idee."
+
+"Wish they'd lit on his nose," broke out Jake Brewer, darkly, "he
+wouldn't be makin' it so hard for us down here. He gets his bread on
+Sunday if any man does. But they do say as how, when he sees Tess a
+comin' along, he scoots like a jack-rabbit."
+
+"Sposin' the Dominie don't laugh now, sposin' he don't," put in Longman
+with a chuckle, "he air lost the ten warts, ain't he? Tess ain't the
+worst in this here county."
+
+"She can keep the bread-risin' from comin' up," objected Brewer; "she
+did it with us one day last winter. She scooted by our hut and down
+dropped the yeast. Wouldn't as much as let her step her foot in my
+kitchen bakin' day. Air we goin' out again to-night, fellers?"
+
+"Yep," answered Ben Letts. "Sposin' Orn'll go, too. He air in town but
+he'll get back, Orn will. There ain't no man on the shores of this here
+lake that can pull a net with a steady hand like Orn Skinner. Pity he
+has such a gal."
+
+Letts gave another wipe at the scales which still clung to his neck and
+his eyes glittered evilly as he looked in the direction the girl had
+taken. He turned when Longman touched his arm. For years it had been the
+custom of the fishermen to allow the subject of netting to remain
+undiscussed. They plied their trade, spent a term in prison if detected,
+and returned to again take up their occupation of catching and selling
+fish. Ben Letts knew he was venturing upon dangerous ground.
+
+"Broad daylight," he growled, catching the expression upon his
+companion's face, "and there ain't no one in sight that'll tell."
+
+"Better be satisfied to keep yer mouth shut, Ben Letts," cautioned
+Longman, "nettin' air bad for the man what gets caught."
+
+"Got any bait out there?" he finished, pointing lakeward to a bobbing
+box anchored a distance from the shore.
+
+"Not a damn bit," replied Jake Brewer, "don't need it now. Keep the bait
+cars a floatin' to blind the eyes of some guy that might be a rubberin'.
+They don't know a minnie from a whale, those city coves don't."
+
+"Ain't that Orn's boat comin' under the shadders of the trees?" queried
+Longman, rising to his feet and wiping his long jack-knife on his
+blue-jeans breeches. "Yep, it air him," he added, getting a closer look
+at the approaching flat-bottomed boat in which sat a big
+round-shouldered individual working vigorously away at the oars. Orn
+Skinner was called the "Giant Fisherman," because even in his bare feet
+he was seven inches above every other man in the settlement. Two
+enormous humps stood side by side on his shoulders, and a grizzled head
+lifted and sank with each sweep of the oars. Glancing around to direct
+his course, Skinner saw the men waiting for him in front of Jake
+Brewer's hut. With a sharp turn he swung the boat shoreward and a few
+vigorous strokes sent it grating upon the sand. Jumping out he dragged
+the boat to a safe mooring, from where the waves could not beat it back
+into the lake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+In the beginning, it is said, God made the heavens and the earth. He
+made the seas and all that in them is, with the myriads of fish, the
+toads, the snakes and afterward man. Then to grace His handiwork, He
+created the heart of a woman--the loving, suffering, unteachable heart
+of Eve.
+
+The first tinge of thinking sorrow comes into a woman's heart at the age
+of fifteen, and this was the beginning of Tessibel's sorrow, as she
+lifted her feet over the hot sands and sped onward. Tessibel was what
+most people would call a careless, worthless jade. She shamefully
+neglected her father, but covered the fact to him by the wild, willful
+worship which she bestowed upon him. If he uttered a word of
+disapprobation she would fling herself, like a cat, upon his crooked
+shoulders and bend back his head until the red of her lips met his---
+the pathos in her red-brown eyes quieting his qualms as to the dirt he
+had to go through to get into bed.
+
+In the mornings, either in summer or winter, he was obliged to tumble
+the ragged girl from the roped cot he had made for her (when at last she
+had reached an age too old to sleep with him), and force her, grumbling
+the while, to eat the bacon and fish he had prepared. But he seemed
+happy through it all, for the brown-eyed girl brought back to his mind
+the slip of a fishermaid who had died when Tessibel was born. True,
+there was more copper in the girl's hair and eyes than there had been
+in the mother's--more of the bright burnishing like that of a polished
+old-fashioned kettle hanging over the spigot in a tidy housewife's
+kitchen. But Tessibel's one room was never tidy nor had she a kettle. In
+one iron frying pan she cooked the fish and bacon, while a small tin
+pail held the water for the tea. These were the only cooking utensils of
+the hut.
+
+Tess could climb to the top of the highest pine tree in the forest
+yonder; she could squirm through the underbrush with the agility of a
+rabbit. She loved every crawling, hateful thing, such as all honest
+people despised, and she once fought with the son of an uphill farmer
+for robbing a bird's nest, making him give up the eggs and restoring
+them herself to the top of a pine tree in the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves.
+
+According to the ideas of all who knew her, save her father and Myra
+Longman, Tessibel was full of eccentric traits; for who but Tess would
+feel the "mollygrubs," as Ben Letts had said, at the wriggling of the
+agonized perch and pickerel, as they flopped painfully upon the sands;
+or who but Tess would mind the squeaking of the mother-bird calling for
+her own. It was something of this "mollygrub" feeling that hastened her
+dirt-caked feet, as she rounded the mud cellar near her father's hut,
+and sped back of the weeping willow tree hanging in green fringes over
+the cabin. She dropped quickly upon her knees before a large log, which
+in some former time the flood-waters had dashed to its place.
+
+Tessibel ran her red, bare arm into the hole in the end of the log. Then
+she sat up and gazed around.
+
+"He air gone," she said aloud, "he air gone. Ben Letts has took him,
+damn his dirty hide. He ain't no more good than--"
+
+Something caused her to close her lips. A large high-warted toad sprang
+into her dirty lap and slipped to the ground through the rent in her
+skirt. Tenderly she took the reptile in her fingers, for she loved this
+warted monster who seemed by the turn of his head to reciprocate in some
+way the devotion the girl showered upon him. She lifted him close to her
+face, and intently searched his poppy eyes.
+
+"I said, damn his hide, Frederick," she said in a low tone, "'cause I
+thought he took ye. And ye ain't done nothin' to him, have ye? Ye was
+just out huntin' flies, wasn't ye, Frederick? Don't never stay long or
+ye'll git hit with a spear. Ezry Longman don't like ye nuther, 'cause I
+kisses ye, and 'cause, on my birthday, I hit his mug with a dishrag when
+he was tryin' to kiss me fifteen times, and was askin' me to marry him.
+I'd rather kiss--"
+
+Her sentence remained unfinished. She looked up to see a tall boy
+leaning upon a rake, a boy with pale gray eyes, and an evil face. His
+short hair looked as if it had passed through the fingers of a prison
+barber. His blue-jean breeches were held up by a rope fastened in the
+button holes with small iron nails, and the blue blouse which had been
+clean that morning was now drenched with perspiration.
+
+"Ain't ye got nothin' better to do than to be kissin' a toad," he
+expostulated, without waiting for the girl to greet him, although she
+had risen to her feet, holding fast to her reptile treasure.
+
+"Ain't nothin' to you, air it, what I does as long as Daddy don't care?"
+she retorted, and sullenly counted one, two, three, four, five, six,
+seven, eight long weeping willow leaves which had died that day and had
+fallen to the ground. She gathered each leaf between her great bare toe
+and its next-door neighbor, deftly throwing them aside as she counted.
+
+"I care," stolidly said the boy coming nearer, "and ye air a goin' to
+throw that toad away, does ye see? Ma says as how ye could be made into
+a woman if ye hadn't got batty with birds and things. She says as how
+when ye sing to the brat that yer voice sounds like an angel's, and
+that's why the kid sleeps. He air a cryin' all the time to have ye sing
+to him."
+
+Tess hadn't expected this. She did love the tiny unwelcome child of Myra
+Longman, a child without a father, or a place in the world. Tess loved
+the babe because there was an expression in its eyes that she had once
+seen in a wounded baby bird's ... a pitiful unborn expression which
+would go with the brat to its grave.
+
+She stooped down and placed the toad again in his hole, shoving him deep
+down into his cavity, for the sun was going down and Frederick would
+sleep as long as there were no flies about.
+
+The boy spoke again.
+
+"Mammy says as how if ye don't stop runnin' wild ye'll be worse than
+Myry with another--"
+
+Suddenly the clenched fist of the girl flew up and struck the fisherman
+with a swiftness and force that took him from his feet. Tessibel was
+standing over him rigidly.
+
+"I hates ye, I hates ye, I'd ruther marry--yep, I'd ruther marry my toad
+or a man as ugly as him than you, Ezry Longman, does yer hear, does yer
+hear?"
+
+The lumbering body raised itself from the ground. The squint eyes were
+almost closed, only a glint of the gray ring that surrounded the pupil
+showing between the lids.
+
+"Ye think that ye can hide from me what ye be a doin'," burst out Ezra.
+"Why did ye name that toad after the student of Minister Graves? Just
+'cause he wears nice clothes and don't do no honest rakin' of hay, nor
+catchin' a fish only by trollin'. Ye loves that feller, that's what ye
+does."
+
+Bewilderment leapt alive in the girl's brown eyes. The shade deepened
+almost to black as the thought the boy had planted in the sensitive mind
+took root and grew. Then the dirty young face flooded with crimson which
+tinted the rounded neck and colored the low forehead, and Tess dropped
+down beside the log and covered her face with her hands. The fisherman
+was so surprised that he uttered not a word while the wild storm broke
+over the girl's heart, dying away in a smothered moan.
+
+Without a glance at the boy, she lifted herself slowly from the earth
+and walking, erect and tall, into her father's hut, closed the door with
+a bang. She slipped the leather fastening into its place and dazedly
+adjusted the iron peg in the opening to hold it. Tessibel's heart had
+manifested its hitherto unknown burden and the woman lived amid the dirt
+and squalor of the fisherman's cabin.
+
+Tessibel's peremptory leaving and the hauteur in her face were so
+foreign to her that Ezra Longman did not dare follow. He leaned upon his
+rake looking after her, his gray eyes gathered into an incomprehensive
+squint. Had Tess again cuffed his ears, he would have been secretly
+delighted; but this manner, so unlike her, seemed to take her as far
+above him as that flock of black crows yonder, flying to the forest to
+find shelter for the night.
+
+"Tessibel," he called helplessly, under his breath, but Tessibel did not
+hear. He limped away not knowing that she had passed as effectually out
+of his life as if she had not dwelt in the rickety cabin on his right.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Ben Letts rose to his feet after cleaning his jack-knife in the water
+and took the same path around the mud cellar which Tessibel had taken.
+The cabin door was closed--Tess nowhere in sight. Ben had intended--Ben
+didn't know just what his intentions were. He stopped short when his
+eyes fell upon Frederick's log. It took a long time for a thought to be
+born in the dense brain of the fisherman, but one was there, for the
+cross eyes opened and the red tongue licked greedily at the thick chops
+like that of a wolf when he comes upon prey for which he does not have
+to fight. Letts looked sneakily at the hut window where hung the
+remnants of a ragged curtain--all was quiet. He quickly ran his long arm
+into the opening of the log and with a snap of his teeth drew out the
+high-backed toad.
+
+Holding the reptile in his hand, he slunk behind the willow tree and
+stood an instant in abstract hesitation. Suddenly his fiendish face
+became flooded with the exultation of a plan fully matured. He let the
+toad fall to the ground, needing both hands to draw the blade of his
+jack-knife. Frederick hopped vigorously along in the direction of his
+log, but Ben, gorged with the instincts of an inquisitor, snatched him
+up as he was about to escape. After divesting Frederick of all the
+ornaments which nature had given him, the man allowed him to hop about,
+grinning, as he watched the rapid leaps of the toad. Frederick had
+forgotten the path to his log, he could only turn around and around as
+if he had been born to radiate in a circle. Ben could have watched this
+tumbling toad all night, so great was his joy at the sight, but it was
+getting dark and soon the call would come for the fishermen to gather
+for the netting and he would be expected to go.
+
+Taking the toad gingerly up from the earth, he returned it to the hole
+in the log, and with but a hasty glance at the dirty curtain which hung
+limp and ugly at the cabin window, sneaked away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After leaving Ezra Longman, Tessibel stood in the cabin for one single
+moment with the terrible thought which the boy had planted there,
+burning in her brain. She had but a few times seen the minister's son
+who lived in the big house on the hill and not even to herself had she
+mentioned that he was her ideal of manhood--he was as far above her as
+the learned minister was above her own squatter father. Her heart seemed
+to almost stop beating as she sprang headlong into "Daddy's bed" and
+covered herself with the ragged blanket.
+
+Only when she heard her father pounding at the door did she lift her
+head. She jumped swiftly from the bed to let him in. No thought of
+supper for him had entered her mind. He looked his hunger as he noted
+the absence of a fire, and spoke rather mournfully, but Tess cut him
+short. The lithe young form bounded squarely upon the bible-back of the
+fisherman. She drew back his shaggy head, her bright wide eyes shining
+into Skinner's and a low voice deepened by the first arousal of womanly
+emotion which had ever come knowingly into the young life, was murmuring
+to him.
+
+"I loves ye, Daddy, I do. What does ye care for supper when I loves ye
+like this. Daddy, I could--just bite ye hard, that I could, I love ye
+so."
+
+"Get off my back, Tess," ordered Skinner, trying to loosen her fingers
+from his hair. "I air tired, Brat, and there be nettin' to-night. Ye air
+goin' to Mis' Longman's till we get back."
+
+"Won't get off till ye kisses me square on the bill, Daddy," replied the
+girl softly, "square where I does my eatin's." And square on "the bill"
+the girl got the caress--and then eagerly hastened to fry the inevitable
+fish.
+
+"I air coming after ye to Longman's when the nettin's over," broke in
+Orn Skinner presently, his mouth full of bread and fish, "and ye'd best
+duck yer head in the lake, Tess, afore ye go. Yer face has a week's dirt
+caked on it."
+
+Tessibel allowed her red lips to spread wide in a loving smile.
+
+"Ye air a durn good Daddy, ye air, and I loves ye, if my face be dirty."
+
+She rose quickly and came to his side.
+
+"Daddy," she began, twisting his big head so her eyes met his, "Can't I
+go nettin' to-night? I air a good helper, ain't I, Daddy?"
+
+Orn Skinner dreaded the wheedling tone in Tessibel's voice and the
+pleading in the eyes so like her mother's. He dropped his gaze upon his
+plate and slowly shook his head.
+
+"Nope, Tess, ye air goin' to Longman's. Don't ... now there be a kiss
+... sit down and eat ... that air a good brat."
+
+The last ejaculation was brought forth by Tess herself. She had turned
+back to her place at the table and had complacently begun to eat the
+crisp, brown fish.
+
+"And ye ain't to stay on the ragged rocks, nuther, Tess," cautioned
+Skinner, rising from the table. "Ye be a good Tess. Scoot along now."
+
+The fisherman moved lumberingly to the water's edge, pushing his boat
+into the lake, and stepped in. Thrusting his powerful head down between
+his shoulders, he pulled lazily away at the oars until he lost sight of
+the shore on which stood the small silent figure in the fast gathering
+gloom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess did not fancy netting nights. She always feared that something
+might happen to her father. But she knew, too, that they could not live,
+even meagerly, through the long winter unless the nets were used. So
+this night after she had received many kisses, "square on the bill," she
+watched her father's bent shoulders, rising and falling with the motion
+of the oars as long as she could see him, and turning, scudded through
+the underbrush which grew in profusion near the forest--up to the rugged
+rocks toward the Longmans' hut. She slid down beside a large stone as
+she heard the lapping of oars below her on the lake, and knew that
+"Satisfied" Longman and his son Ezra were going to join the others at
+Jake Brewer's shanty.
+
+She was alone under the heavens, alone with the eagles and sleepy
+twittering birds--she could think of what had been forced upon her that
+day. She bitterly regretted the tears shed before Ezra, and she must
+never, never again look at the student Graves. She felt that to see his
+face, even from a distance, would cause her to drop dead before him.
+Every muscle tingled and her eyes burned with unshed tears. She had
+never dared to speak even to his sister, the pretty Teola Graves, who
+fluttered about with pink ribbons among her curls and wore high heels on
+her shoes.
+
+Suddenly Tess opened her lips and sent ringing over the lake in glorious
+tones of pathos, the hymn she loved best,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin',
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel knew what it meant to almost perish from the cold. She had felt
+the cruel blasts of the winter winds upon her chilblained feet, for she
+had never known the luxury of shoes. She had also seen the dying and
+understood what it meant to turn a longing face toward heaven, with a
+burning desire to know what was beyond.
+
+Such a voice as Tessibel's had never been heard upon Cayuga lake. Ben
+Letts said it put him in mind of listening to the wild cry of a lost
+soul, while Myra Longman could hear only the songs of angels in the
+exquisite tones which fell, pure and sweet, from the red lips. Tess knew
+nothing of breath power, nothing of trained trilling tones, but nature
+had given her both and like the birds of the air she used them.
+
+The girl had not moved from beside the stone near which she had fallen.
+The night was so strange, so different from any night Tessibel had ever
+known. Her whole idea of life had been altered that day by the word of
+a fisherman, and the woman's heart grew larger and larger, until the
+squatter girl felt that it was going to burst. Something crawled over
+her bare foot and brought her to her senses. Leaning over she drew to
+her lap a long, slimy lizard, which she held caressingly in her fingers.
+She lifted him high up and looked at him through the moonlight.
+
+"Green," she said slowly, "ain't he a dandy. But I don't dare carry him
+even a little way for fear he'll lose his house. I bet he has a pile of
+green babies."
+
+Dropping the lizard beside the rock, she sped away.
+
+Just before reaching the Longman cabin, she raised her voice and sang
+again,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin',
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+Some one opened the door and she bounded in.
+
+"Glad ye come, Tessibel," said Mrs. Longman, a small wizened old woman.
+"The brat air sick to-day. He does nothin' but squall so that my head
+air a bustin' the hours through. Give him to Tessibel, Myry."
+
+"After she air rested a spell," replied Myra, who resembled her mother,
+but was smaller and thinner. "He seems to have a pain, Tess."
+
+"Mebbe he has," responded Tessibel, "give him to me."
+
+The wee boy stopped his tears immediately. His back grew limp and his
+fists opened out as Tessibel began to sing. This time the song was, "Did
+ye ever go into an Irishman's shanty?"
+
+The child fell asleep and Tessibel laid him gently in the box prepared
+for him. Bed room was scarce in the huts of the fishermen and the small
+members of the family slept on rope beds, let down from the ceiling. But
+Myra's child, still too tender and always sick, slept in a box which his
+grandfather, "Satisfied" Longman, had made for him as soon as he was
+born.
+
+"It air a seemly night for the men to fish," commented Myra when
+Tessibel had seated herself again. "I air always a hopin' that nothin'
+will happen to none of them."
+
+"The hull bunch air cute," assured Tessibel, "and Daddy can row faster
+than any man on this here lake."
+
+"But when them game men gets after 'em with the permit to shoot, that's
+what I fears," complained Mrs. Longman--and she sighed.
+
+The fisherwoman's life she had led had been harder than most women bore,
+for Ezra was going a crooked path, while Myra, well--the brat slept in
+the cradle. Both girls saw her glance toward it and read her thoughts.
+
+Myra's face deepened in color, Tessibel hummed a tune.
+
+"'Taint no use to try to bring up children anywheres decent," the woman
+broke in sharply, after a silent moment. "God! but to see one's own--"
+
+"Ma," Myra's voice was pleading, "it air over and ye said--"
+
+"I knows I did, and so did yer Daddy. But I ain't thinkin' only of ye
+to-night, Myra, look at the mess that Ezry's a makin' of things, and
+just 'cause ye won't marry him, Tessibel."
+
+"I ain't never goin' to marry no one," said Tess sullenly; "goin' to
+stay with Daddy."
+
+"Yer Daddy won't live allers," interposed Mrs. Longman, "and what's
+more, yer better off with a man what will look after ye as Ezy will. Be
+ye a thinkin' of it at all, Tessibel?"
+
+The girl shook her head.
+
+"Nope, 'taint no use; don't like Ezy anyway."
+
+"Ezry ain't the worst boy in the world," defended the mother; "if the
+right woman gets him, Tess, he'll make her a good man. Ye couldn't think
+of tryin' him, could ye?"
+
+Tessibel shook her head again. She shuddered perceptibly, and Myra
+thought she realized the feeling in the girl's heart.
+
+"Don't bother her, ma, don't bother--"
+
+"If ye'd a bothered a little yerself, Myra," broke in the woman
+pettishly, "we might all been better off. It ain't 'cause of the brat,
+air it, Tessibel?"
+
+She shot a glance at the infant's box.
+
+"Why 'cause of the brat," asked Tessibel sharply, "why 'cause of the
+brat?"
+
+"He air a come-be-chance, ye know--"
+
+"That ain't no fault of his'n, air it," demanded Tessibel. "Nope,
+'tain't nothin' to do with the brat. I loves him, I does, come-be-chance
+or no. It don't make no difference to me."
+
+Myra pressed Tessibel's bare toe with hers in loving fellowship.
+
+"Ye allers was a funny gal, Tessibel," ruminated Mrs. Longman. "Now Ezy
+says that yer takin' a likin' to such things as toads, lizards and
+snakes, shows as how ye needs some one to help ye. God'll make ye a
+happy mother if ye'll keep yer nose low in the air, and not think too
+much of yer betters."
+
+Ezra, then, had told his mother of the student. A frown deepened on the
+girl's brow. She hated Ezra Longman with an inward fury for what he had
+said that day.
+
+"Ye might have a come-be-chance, yerself, Tessibel," warned Mrs. Longman
+as she went to bed, clambering up the long ladder to the loft, leaving
+the girls alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Outside the Longman hut the wind had quickened its pace up the dark
+lake, but inside there was no sound save the small snore of the infant.
+
+"Don't hurt you and me bein' friends, does it, Myry," broke in Tessibel
+impetuously, "'cause I can't love Ezry?"
+
+"Nope, I wouldn't love him nuther. Ma don't know all that's to know and
+I wouldn't a married the brat's pa if I could," and she shivered, for
+she knew that she had lied to Tess.
+
+This was the first time Myra had mentioned her trouble, that is, in just
+that confidential manner. Tessibel came closer. Had it not been a
+mystery since the coming of the brat, who had been responsible for his
+tiny life?
+
+"It air some un what ye knows, too, Tessibel," Myra said, shifting her
+eyes from her companion's face to the box where the infant lay, but Tess
+did not ask the name. Suddenly Myra leaned over and whispered something
+in the other girl's ear, and Tessibel started as if she had been stung
+by an adder.
+
+"Nope ... it ain't him," she cried, starting up, "he air bad but not so
+bad as that."
+
+"It were him," replied Myra, "and he beat me that night on the ragged
+rocks and that air what broke my arm. Ye remember?"
+
+Tessibel nodded. She had heard a secret that not even Myra's mother
+knew--she felt intuitively that Myra intended her to keep silent. She
+did not dare to speak again, fearing the woman above was not asleep. But
+Myra, with less fear, resumed,
+
+"'Taint no hopin' the brat will live, and if he does he'll get his
+eatin's alright. What brats don't? But, Tessibel, I telled ye this to
+keep ye away from the ragged rocks for there air no tellin' what will
+happen to ye. And yer that pretty--"
+
+Tessibel stared blankly.
+
+"Pretty! pretty!" she gasped, stumbling over the words, "ye say pretty.
+Me--pretty, Myra Longman?"
+
+"As if ye didn't know it," scoffed Myra, "but yer face air allers so dum
+dirty that ye can't see nothin' but yer eyes, and yer matty old hair--it
+air a shame to live like ye do."
+
+Tessibel sat up. This was her first ambitious moment. Never had lips
+said such things to her, and she had always known Myra Longman. Rising
+from the chair she disappeared into the outer room, and Myra could hear
+the splashing of water and the shuffling of feet as Tessibel stood first
+on one and then the other, washing her dirty face. She mopped the long
+red hair in and out of the wash-basin, and Myra was not prepared for the
+vision which Tessibel made in her new state of cleanliness. The impetus
+of being good-looking by an effort of her own had blackened the copper
+colored eyes. The long fringed lashes dripped with pearls of water while
+the skin had reddened from the vigorous rubbing, but it was very, very
+clean.
+
+"I wants yer comb, Myry Longman," said Tessibel slowly shaking herself
+like a big dog.
+
+Myra hesitated.
+
+"Ye got too much dirt in your hair yet," said she, "but if ye'll take
+care of yer mop, I'll be givin' ye a comb to yourself."
+
+Tess did not deny the accusation of her filth. She took the comb and
+drew it through the wet locks. Myra was regarding her critically.
+Tessibel--was beautiful. In the last year Ezra's sister had seen the
+change coming. The complexion had whitened under the perpetual dirt and
+the long eyes had gathered an expression of knowledge, while their color
+changed from light to dark with passing emotions.
+
+Myra bent her brows as she examined Tessibel closer. The skin was clean
+and shone with the glossiness of much soap. The low brow was covered
+with small wet ringlets, which turned and twisted here and there in
+luxurious confusion. Over the shoulders, hidden by a soiled calico
+blouse, the copper colored mass hung in dripping flame-like waves.
+
+"You air pretty," said Myra slowly, "but ye air so dum dirty no one can
+ever see it. Why ain't you washed up like that every day?"
+
+"Never knowed how before. Didn't see nothin' to keep clean in my face."
+
+As Tessibel spoke she stood before the glass looking at her own
+image--spying upon the prettiness which Myra said was there.
+
+"This hair air like red snakes," she gasped passionately. "Just like the
+snakes that eats the little birds in the spring. In the sun their backs
+air red like this--and this--and this."
+
+She was angrily tearing at the beautiful tightly curled ringlets with
+but one thought dominating her brain. Students never liked red haired
+girls with eyes which looked like copper.
+
+"Don't," ordered Myra, catching the rough hands as they pulled at the
+profusion of redness. "Don't, ye air tearin' it out by the roots, and it
+looks like--like the sun when it air goin' down in one ball of fire. It
+air beautiful."
+
+Beautiful! beautiful! Tessibel caught her breath and looked at Myra with
+a yellowish glint, born of a new emotion in her eyes. Was the brat's
+mother making fun of her? All her short life had this been Tessibel's
+portion. Ben Letts had followed her along the ragged rocks over which
+her bare feet flew with the swiftness of eagle's wings and when he found
+she could not be induced to stop he would shout in defiance, "Brick top,
+red head," and such names that went deep into the sensitive little
+heart. When she reached home she would tear at the curls and cut them
+fiercely with the knife which her father used to skin his fish and large
+eels. Yet nature would send more and more of the burnished gold to adorn
+Tessibel's head, and not until to-night had she ever heard one word in
+praise of it.
+
+The reformation had begun. Tessibel went again to the soap and water and
+Myra looking through the crack of the door, saw Tess dragging madly at
+her hair, sopping it first in the pan and then in the deep bucket which
+Ezra used to give the pig their swill. Once Myra saw the mass of gold
+disappear into the pail, and when Tessibel came again to view she was
+sputtering, coughing, and blowing the cold water from her nose and
+mouth.
+
+"Won't be much left if ye keeps on at yer hair that way," called Myra
+grimly, "but the soap air good for cleanin' it. There air other days and
+nights, too," she went on sarcastically, "and it air almost midnight.
+Yer Daddy'll be here soon. Wonder if the game warden air out to-night?"
+
+As if in answer to her question they heard the dipping of oars and a
+little later a boat was dragged to its moorings on the shore.
+"Satisfied" Longman entered with his son and Ben Letts.
+
+"Daddy were tired and didn't come for me?" asked Tessibel.
+
+"Your Daddy didn't come child," replied the elder Longman, whilst Ben
+Letts stood with his squint eyes lowered. He had an exquisite feeling
+within him, longing for the sight of the girl after she had heard their
+news.
+
+"I air goin' home to Daddy--I ain't afeared to go home alone," she said
+stoutly and defiantly, for Ben Letts made a move to accompany her. "I
+ain't afeared of the night things, nor nothin' that crawls nor flies. Ye
+knows I ain't afeared, Myra."
+
+"Ye ain't goin' home to-night, Tessibel," said Long man, "for yer father
+ain't there."
+
+At first Tessibel didn't comprehend. She thought of the care which was
+taken to keep the fish fresh for the market. Daddy was putting the
+pickerel and numerous eels in the blind fish cars until they could be
+cleaned. She looked into "Satisfied" Longman's face.
+
+"Air he a carin' for the fish?"
+
+Longman shook his head in the negative.
+
+"Where air he then?"
+
+Tessibel's voice was sharp and penetrating. It awoke Mrs. Longman
+upstairs and the infant in the box beside the rope cot.
+
+"He air gone to prison," put in Ezra opening and shutting his eyes, and
+licking his thick lips with his red tongue. "He air where ye won't see
+him to scratch his face when ye goes into a tantrum. He air in prison."
+
+The bronze eyes widened and lengthened till the very fear in them
+startled her companions. The tall, slight figure with its weight of
+rags, swayed to the hut floor--the clean shining face gathered into a
+painful pucker, while the two fists which had fought many a hard battle,
+clenched until the nails entered the calloused skin under each finger.
+Not one word came from the tightened white lips. The dumb agony was
+worse than a child's frantic scream of fear. Somehow, Ben's mind went
+back to the toad, when it also had borne its misery dumbly.
+
+"Satisfied" Longman, stooping down, grasped the girl and stood her on
+her feet. No one had ever seen Tess like this. Ben leered, the sides of
+his fat cheeks protruding in the joyful emotion he felt at Tessibel's
+suffering.
+
+"He killed the gamekeeper," he grinned, leaning back against the wall.
+"He air where ye won't hurt him now."
+
+The tortured Tess could bear no more. She had striven to be brave when
+she thought of "Daddy" in the small cell which she had heard many times
+vividly described. She had thought vaguely of months, perhaps a whole
+year without him, but Ben's words made her father a murderer, and
+murderers went away sometimes never to return. Her Daddy!--and Ezra had
+said that she could never scratch his face again. She hurt Daddy? Did
+every one in the settlement think that? She sank down beside Myra's
+father and winding her arms about his legs implored him to say that it
+was only Ben's and Ezra's fun.
+
+"It air fun, only fun, Satisfied, ain't it," she pleaded, "for Daddy,
+poor old Daddy, never killed no man."
+
+"We all says as how it were a mistake," replied Longman. "Ben says the
+gun went off in yer Daddy's hands and the warden dropped, and the other
+gamekeeper took yer Daddy away at the point of his pistol. I were at the
+north reel and couldn't save him nohow."
+
+Tessibel understood. It was all plain now. She loosened her arms and
+painfully raised herself. The shock had hurt her flesh, and made her
+sore and lame. She started dazedly toward the door, "Satisfied" trying
+to stop her flight, but the strong young body, mad with grief and newly
+found despair, slipped through the friendly fingers, and the night,
+Tessibel's night, gathered her into its arms, till she was lost in the
+long shadows of the pine forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A night owl hooted in Tessibel's ear as she ran. A bat whirled into her
+face--then took himself off. Over the shadowy rocks which cut and
+bruised her feet, Tessibel flew.
+
+Daddy was home in the shanty; he was in his bed tired from hauling his
+nets. She remembered Ezra had grinned at her as with one hasty look she
+had fixed his face in her mind. He had lied to her. Daddy was in the
+hut, and if he were up waiting for her--there passed through Tessibel's
+small mind the thought of how joyfully she would hop to the bowed
+shoulders, and she longed for the kisses she knew would be hers. She
+halted before the dark hut and waited. Insects whizzed about her ears as
+though they little feared her. The long branches of the weeping willow
+dragged themselves across the tin roof with a ghostly sound. This was
+Tessibel's night of heart experiences--her first day and her first
+night. Oh! to go back to yesterday, with the hidden fear of the student
+sleeping soundly in her breast and a Daddy, a dear stooping old Daddy.
+She slipped open the shanty door, lighted a candle and looked around.
+The frying pan lay bottom up on the floor where she had dropped it. The
+tea pail was on the table; a cut loaf of bread lay beside it, covered
+with a host of small red ants. All this was familiar to Tess. She kicked
+the pan from her path with her bare foot, and sat down on the three
+legged stool which her father used at his meals. Portions of fish and
+plenty of bones were spread about upon the floor, but the littered
+shanty did not distress her newly found notions of cleanliness.
+
+Daddy might go away to the black place where they had taken the Canadian
+Indian, who had killed his squaw. Tess remembered hearing how he had
+been carried to prison, twelve men had found him guilty of the crime and
+at last--Tessibel started up with a groan--the Canadian Indian had been
+carried to the place where the rope was.
+
+Daddy Skinner and the Canadian Indian. Tess dared think no longer. She
+caught a glimpse of herself in the cracked mirror which Skinner used
+when he plied the pinchers to his beard--and her wild eyed bronzeness
+caused her to give a startled ejaculation. Daddy was gone; and Frederick
+the toad, was her all. The thought of the reptile she loved brought her
+quickly to her feet. Frederick should sleep in the shanty while Daddy
+was away. Tessibel halted apprehensively in the open doorway.
+
+From the shore willows, hoot owls pierced the inky night with their
+sonorous cries--while in throaty discord, a million marsh frogs bellowed
+farewell to summer. The lake shores caught the unceasing waves in
+eternal laps, the rhythm soothing the ears of the squatter girl as her
+unfathomable gaze pierced the midnight gloom. But the weight of sorrow
+and longing on the strong nature, untried by emotion, strangled the
+rising fear, and Tessibel advanced a step to the pebbly path. Once
+outside in the darkness, she lifted her voice and repeated as of yore,
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+Never before had the words roused her as now--Daddy Skinner needed that
+refrain.
+
+She darted around the corner of the mud cellar, and shoving her hand
+into the familiar hole in the log, Tessibel drew Frederick quickly out.
+She dropped him into her blouse and retraced her steps to the shanty.
+She could never be lonely and quite without hope if Frederick were with
+her. Hadn't she loved him for four long months, and daily fed him his
+portion of flies? She took him from her bosom, where many times he had
+sunk into toad dream-land, and without looking at him placed him on the
+floor.
+
+"It air a bad night for us, Frederick," she said out loud, "it air. But
+you'll not sleep in the log to-night, but in Daddy's bed. And I'll just
+pretend ye air Daddy, and when ye croak with the daylight ye can have
+all the flies lightin' on the sugar, and then we air goin' after Daddy
+and bring him home to the shanty, Frederick."
+
+Tessibel turned her head and glanced at Frederick. Generally when she
+spoke he would give an answering grunt. She gazed at him but dared not
+venture closer. Had she lost her mind like Jake Brewer's sister, when
+they brought home the body of her drowned husband? Tessibel lighted
+another candle and then the third--the match burned low between her
+fingers as she touched it to the fourth. Once more she looked upon the
+horrid sight--terror striving and struggling for some outlet in her torn
+young soul. Frederick blinked a pair of beady eyes, filmed with
+death,--he moved a mutilated body with painful jerks, but there was
+nothing to show the girl that he felt her presence. The silent awful
+pulsating of the toad manifested its dumb suffering. A candle flickered
+as she sought to solve the problem. The night wind flapped the dirty
+curtain and Tessibel turned her head slowly toward it. A bird's cry from
+somewhere in the weeping willow, came in through the window. With silent
+intensity, she dragged her body slowly across the floor toward the
+flattened reptile--above him she squatted--the gorgeous hair sweeping
+the filth strewn floor. Tess could mark the places where the beloved
+warts had been--she knew how many there were even to the tiny ones. With
+the halting precision of the ignorant, she had counted them singly every
+day. But the severest heart wrench of all was to come to Tess. The great
+squat hind legs, which had been her pride, when Frederick jumped through
+her rounded arms--curled to make a hoop--were gone, and the movements of
+Frederick's body left a tiny trail of dark blood upon the shanty floor.
+She couldn't touch that dying thing. In her vehement desire to relieve
+him of his pain, she burst into song which went upward and outward,
+ringing over the lake, returning again, only to be sent further and
+further into the heavens.
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+This was all Tessibel knew of the hymn--over and over she sang it,
+fearfully watching the toad move grotesquely in the candlelight. Time
+after time the blinking eyes closed and flew open--again and again
+Tessibel sent her importunate prayer into the heart of the Great
+Unknown.
+
+Frederick gave a great deep sob, his fat sides lifted and fell twice,
+and as the petitionate lips of the girl sent the song once more into the
+night, he flopped over on his back, straightened out the little wounded
+stumps, and died.
+
+Daddy Skinner, the Canadian Indian, and Frederick! Tess couldn't
+separate the three--the prayerful mood died with the toad. She opened
+her lips and uttered two great piercing shrieks, which sounded and
+resounded through the rafters of the shanty, out into the darkness and
+up to the ragged rocks. It was the cry of a wounded human thing,
+amounting to but little in the great whirling universe. The dying of the
+scream brought words from her lips.
+
+"Daddy Skinner, Daddy Skinner."
+
+Then twice in equally shrill longing, resounded the name of her dead
+friend.
+
+"Frederick, aw, aw Frederick!"
+
+Both cries followed the prayer, echoing their agony out through the
+window--the flapping curtain with its tatters offering no impediment for
+its outgoing.
+
+Suddenly Tessibel staggered to her feet, for back to her through the
+window, from somewhere near the mud cellar, came an answering voice,
+deep-toned and vibrant--
+
+"What? What?"
+
+Frederick, the student, stood in the door of the dirty shanty, looking
+upon an unkempt, copper-eyed girl, and a great squat, dead, wartless
+toad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"You called me?"
+
+A silence.
+
+"You called me?"
+
+The student repeated the words twice, so satisfied was he that his name
+had been called out in tones of great insistence.
+
+Tessibel was deaf to his words. His presence had filled her completely.
+Leaning against the post of Daddy's bed, she glued her eyes upon the
+student's face, the fringed lids sprung to their fullest capacity. The
+extreme fascination in her gaze held the boy spellbound--then the
+eyelids quivered and it was over.
+
+Frederick glanced hurriedly about the room, the untidiness of it all
+striking his sensitiveness. He noted the pungent smell of fried fish
+mixed with inferior grease, the ant-covered bread, the confusion of
+ragged bed-clothes, and lastly of all, the other Frederick. Tessibel
+gasped as the newcomer looked longest upon her dead. She thought she saw
+him shiver as he stepped back a little.
+
+This brought her grief vividly back to her. The pain, as acute and sharp
+as the knife which had ended the life of Frederick, entered her already
+riven soul. The instant before a mingled sensation of shame and
+embarrassment had swept over her because of the appearance of the hut,
+and her own bare legs and feet; but the helpless dead sent even that
+from her.
+
+"He air gone," she said chokingly, coming forward with a totter.
+
+Disgust rested paramount upon the student's face. Surprise followed this
+as Tessibel threw herself in limp unconcern beside the other Frederick
+and gathered the stiffened toad into her arms. She rocked to and fro as
+a mother might who had suddenly discovered that the great White Mystery
+had robbed her of her child. Tessibel's maternal instinct was being
+strongly developed in her agony of the hour, and the identity of
+Frederick the student, was lost in Frederick, the toad, her one little
+friend, to whom she had told all her sorrows, and had been ruthlessly
+torn from her. Already she could feel the short front legs growing
+stiff, and the throat which had so often grunted for its supper, was
+falling into a curve. The great mutilated back which had lifted and then
+receded with every breath was still, and Frederick lay like the lump of
+clay that he was, in the arms of his foster mother. Tessibel's child by
+adoption would never again gather into his slit of a mouth the flies
+which favored the sugar. Then Tess, still clasping her dead friend,
+lifted her head. A stranger had intruded upon her grief. She gathered
+her bruised, sore feet under the short, ragged girl's skirt, and lifted
+a woman's soulful face toward the student.
+
+"What do ye want?" she asked sullenly.
+
+"You called me?"
+
+"It were him I wanted," she said hysterically, hugging her little dead
+burden.
+
+"The toad?"
+
+"Yep, he were all I had,--him and Daddy, and--Daddy Skinner air gone
+too."
+
+Then Tessibel forgot the student, and the forlorn red head with its
+burden of curls lay relaxed upon the lifeless Frederick, while the
+child-woman wept in abject loneliness.
+
+Impetuously the second Frederick stepped forward, the movement closing
+the door with a bang, and causing the candles to lift their smothered
+flames and flicker smokily. The wind shrieked through the broken window
+and the cracks between the shanty boards. A storm played with the water,
+casting its grayness into white capped rollers which beat upon the shore
+like the restless spirits of an ocean. Still the girl wept on,--wept for
+Frederick, for Daddy, and once a shuddering thought went through her
+mind of the Canadian Indian.
+
+"He killed the gamekeeper, Ezy says,--Daddy Skinner," she whimpered.
+
+Suddenly she sat up, her small round face puckered into such lines of
+pain that the student turned his head away, feeling dangerously near
+tears. He had always been taught, by his father and by his mother who
+feared contagion, that of all people in the world, the squatters must be
+most avoided; they had no hearts; they killed men and broke the laws
+simply for their own gain. But here was a girl magnetically drawing him
+toward her. Dirty? Yes, and barefooted, wild-eyed and untaught, but
+suffering--and such suffering! Frederick Graves, like his father, would
+teach the Gospel of Christ, of peace and good-will to all mankind,--but
+the deep burnishing of the beautiful hair as it swept the floor in red
+curls had much to do with Frederick's sympathy, for man-like, he looked
+upon Eve in her beauty and pitied.
+
+"Your father is Orn Skinner, who shot the gamekeeper to-night?" he
+asked presently.
+
+Tess nodded, still looking fearfully into his face.
+
+"He was disobeying the law," replied Frederick gravely.
+
+Again she nodded, for Tess had no spirit to thwart an argument at that
+moment.
+
+"People who disobey the law," went on the student in his youthful
+righteousness, "take their life in their hands, and other people's too.
+Don't you think that the woman left without her husband, the
+gamekeeper's wife, is weeping for him?"
+
+It was a new thought for Tess, but she would not harbor it. It didn't
+seem quite just to Daddy. She drew down the red lips at the corners, and
+helplessly clung closer and closer to the toad.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked the student. "You lived here with your
+father, but you can't stay here alone."
+
+"It air my home," she said distrustfully, "and I stays here and hangs to
+this here shanty till Daddy comes back. Aw, he air comin' back, ain't
+he? He won't go to that place--?"
+
+She closed her lips, fearing to utter the thought.
+
+Frederick shook his head.
+
+"Poor child," he said, with a fatherly air. "It is a dangerous
+position."
+
+If the case had been placed before Frederick Graves to decide, yesterday
+he would have hanged Orn Skinner for the murder of the gamekeeper. But
+to-night--well, to-night his ideas of men and ... of women, too, had
+changed.
+
+"But he didn't mean it," went on Tess, casting back the unruly hair
+which shrouded her face in its new state of cleanliness. "He wouldn't
+have hurt a fly, Daddy Skinner wouldn't."
+
+A whistle from the outside, heard plainly through the beating of the
+wind, caused Frederick to fling open the door.
+
+"Yes, father," he said loudly, "I'm here. I missed you on the way. Come
+in a moment if you will."
+
+Tessibel gathered herself more closely into a small human ball than
+ever. She had feared the minister since the time she had talked off his
+warts with the wizard words she had learned from a hag living on the
+ragged rocks.
+
+"What's this," demanded the Dominie, looking sternly at her, and she
+dropped her eyes in confusion.
+
+"It's Orn Skinner's girl," replied his son. "Skinner is the man who shot
+Stebbins to-night. You heard Deacon Hall talking about it at the
+cottage."
+
+This explanation was superfluous, for the minister well knew the girl
+and her father.
+
+"It's a nice mess your father's got himself into," he said harshly.
+
+Tessibel lifted her head.
+
+"He didn't mean to do it, sir," she replied, not daring to rise, because
+of her bare, long legs.
+
+"Didn't, eh?" roared Graves in his wrath, placing his hand on his son's
+shoulder. "He was right glad to have the chance to use his gun, or why
+did he take it with him?"
+
+Tessibel raised her eyes to the rafters, and her face flooded with
+color. The rifle was gone--Daddy Skinner had taken it with him. She was
+too young to argue with such a man and only wiped her face with her
+sleeve and sobbed.
+
+"God will see that justice is done, my girl. Your father will hang, do
+you hear?" shouted Graves. "Hang by the neck till he's dead, and this
+shanty will be burned with all its filth!"
+
+Frederick clutched his father's arm, his face changing from red to white
+as he watched Tessibel. She had clambered to her feet, ridiculously
+tangled in the rags of her dress. The dead Frederick was forgotten,
+falling with a great thud upon the floor. Her face was so mobile, so
+glassily white that if the hand of death had smitten her, she could not
+have looked ghastlier.
+
+Standing before them, the tears drying over the hot blood which rushed
+in torrents afresh from her heart to her face, Tessibel learned her
+first lesson in suppressed emotion. She took two steps backward and
+wound her hands behind the post of Daddy's old-fashioned bed.
+
+Truly it was Tessibel's first day and first night!
+
+"He air to be hanged dead?" she asked, the painful shiftiness of her
+eyes settling questioningly upon the minister's face. "Aw, he air good,
+Daddy Skinner air, gooder than ye be, with ye cross and ye crown that ye
+sing about. Gooder than all ye whole church, if his gun did kill the
+gamekeeper. We has our rights to live, to eat bread and beans, like ye
+have, hain't we? If Daddy Skinner air hung, then Tessibel hangs too."
+
+Here the tired young face drooped a little.
+
+"Ye'll hang him will ye? Well! ye won't--cause--cause--"
+
+Her red head flashed back upon the uncovered shoulders--the wild eyes
+lifted a moment to the rocking rafters in the roof.
+
+"If ye lives in the sky, Jesus, that cares for the dyin', take Daddy
+Skinner and Tessibel--"
+
+Her eyes dropped to the pan on the floor, against which the stiff body
+of the toad lay, and she ended,--"And Frederick."
+
+It was a prayer,--a rough prayer, from untaught lips, but through the
+action which followed, it instantly lost its dignity. Tessibel forgot
+her lesson--forgot all save the taunting face of the minister. She gave
+her familiar leap in the air and came down with a cry upon the Dominie's
+chest.
+
+"Ye'll kill him, will ye? Then I--I air goin' to kill ye," and deep into
+the face of the minister sunk the ten little toad-tainted fingers.
+
+Frederick loosened her by extreme effort from his father's body and
+thrust the gasping preacher outside the door. The student placed his
+hand upon the panting girl's shoulder.
+
+"You're wrong," he said gravely, "Your prayer was good and God heard.
+There is in the sky a suffering Christ and His cross--and by your
+prayers you may save your father, and also save--poor little Tessibel
+Skinner." Then glancing about the filthy room he added, "and cleanliness
+is next to godliness."
+
+She opened the door proudly--his words had taught her a newer dignity.
+
+"This air my shanty," she said. "I air sorry I hitted yer Daddy's face,
+cause--cause he air yer Daddy. Scoot now!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+For one short moment after the going of Frederick, Tessibel stood,
+gapingly, looking out into the darkness. The student had gone and with
+him her horror of the minister. The steps died away and dazedly she
+closed the door. She remembered the day she had talked the warts off
+from Graves' hand--remembered how he had said to her that she was
+possessed of the devil. Just what that meant the child didn't know, but
+the darkening frown on the minister's face plainly told her that it was
+nothing pleasant--since then she had scurried away when the Dominie had
+appeared.
+
+This was the first time she had heard the student's voice, for he had
+spent most of his summers away from home, and the fisherman's child had
+had little chance to see him. He had said that the cross and crown would
+save her daddy--had said to pray to the God of whom she knew so little,
+and his words had given birth to a great faith within her.
+
+Tessibel's fingers were stained with Frederick's blood and shudderingly
+she looked at them in the candle light. Frederick lay where she had
+dropped him, his fat white belly sunken and misshapened. The very
+stillness of him made the girl round him in a circle, watching him with
+an intentness which showed her superstitious fear of the stiffening
+dead. Then her great love for him overwhelmed her and she darted like a
+bird toward her friend.
+
+"I were afraid of ye, Frederick," she groaned softly, "but I ain't no
+more. Ye wouldn't hurt the kid what loves ye so, would ye, if ye air
+dead."
+
+She turned the great body over and sobbed. Again the words of the
+student softened her grief, and through Frederick Graves, for the sake
+of her loved ones, she accepted his mysterious far-away God and His
+sacrificed Son.
+
+With loving hands she tumbled the toad into a soiled rag and placed him
+in the corner. There was nothing left for her to do save to rescue Daddy
+Skinner from the black cap, and she must see him before the rising of
+the sun. Mother Moll, the settlement witch, would tell her if Daddy
+Skinner were in danger.
+
+She opened the door and stood for a moment before stepping into the
+abating storm. Her eyes fell upon a giant pine tree at the edge of the
+forest, far beyond her father's hut. It was silhouetted against a light
+streak in the southern sky, its long arms extending straight into the
+air. The branches of the tree had always made a fantastic figure in
+Tessibel's eyes. It took the form of a venerable old man and it had been
+one of her vivid imaginings, since she could remember, that some time
+the man shaped against the skies would step down in the flesh. Tess had
+grown to love him in sunshine and in rain--to watch him in silent,
+mystified longing as he bent toward her day after day. In the nodding
+head and swaying arms, Tessibel suddenly established Frederick's deity.
+As a man from the east worships his sun god through a wooden image, so
+Tessibel directed a prayer to this moving figure in the pine tree. Her
+pain-drawn lips parted slightly as she stood for a short space of time
+watching him.
+
+"If ye be a God," she breathed, "help me see my Daddy."
+
+She said this with bowed head, for grief and the student's admonition
+had made a path for reverence through her soul.
+
+Then she closed the cabin door and started toward the shore. Pushing a
+flat boat into the lake, which was still turbulent from the storm, she
+deftly rounded the long fishing dock, rowing to the bobbing little fish
+car which held Daddy's eels. She pulled out the nail, and holding up the
+top of the car, ran her hand quickly about inside. Drawing out four huge
+eels, she threw them into the bottom of the boat, closed the trap door
+and rowed away toward the shore.
+
+Inside the shanty, she placed the fish upon the wooden table and stood
+for an instant regarding them. One long eel drew itself into tense half
+circles, turning over and over until as he neared the edge of the table
+Tessibel caught him. Longer the girl's eyes rested upon this one.
+Suddenly she snatched him up--slipping him, wriggling, tail-end first
+into the water pail, still holding fast to the pointed head.
+
+"God made ye beautiful," she crooned, "ye can stay there and let me pet
+ye. I air got to have somethin' to love."
+
+Turning back to the table, she contemplated the remaining fish for
+thirty seconds or so in indecision. Had her own desire ruled, she would
+have put them all back into the lake--she would not have killed them;
+but to-night--to-night it was for Daddy's sake--he was more to her than
+all of nature's creatures. With expert fingers, she sent the life from
+the twisting eels, and gathering them into a small bag, Tessibel slung
+them over her arm and broke off into the dark forest, the twigs
+cracking under her small bare feet as she went. Here and there the curls
+of red hair would catch in the branches, and the girl would tear them
+loose, leaving a blazed trail of copper threads marking her path.
+
+Up to the ragged rocks she went, through the gorges and brooks until she
+came in sight of a small dark hut set deeply in the opposite bank of a
+ravine, through which water was flowing. To reach the hut the child
+scaled the deep gorge and clambered up the other side.
+
+The shanty was dark and Tessibel stood long looking intently at it. Over
+the top, which was covered with tar paper, scraped the branches of a
+large tree--the wind was dashing a dead vine mournfully against a broken
+window. Although on friendly terms with Mother Moll, Tess had always
+stood in awe of her, but the squatter girl had infinite confidence in
+the future events foretold by the witch. To-night she must see the
+woman--must ask her news of Daddy Skinner from the fortune pot. The dead
+fish hanging upon the slender arm were to propitiate the witch's anger
+for being dragged from her bed in the night.
+
+Tess stepped shivering to the door and knocked. Receiving no answer, she
+sent another pealing sound through the howling wind, for she knew Mother
+Moll was there.
+
+Suddenly a voice came from within.
+
+"What in the devil's name do ye want here, at this time of the
+darkness?"
+
+"It air Tess, Ma Moll. I wants yer fortune pot."
+
+"Go home and come agin to-morry."
+
+"Won't," Tess sent back defiantly, "air goin' to see ye to-night. I air
+goin' to give ye somethin' for yer luck pot."
+
+A scramble, a hurrying sound from within, and the door was dragged open.
+Tess stepped into the dark room,--the whizzing of insects overhead
+coming dimly to her through the rocking of the shanty. One broad-winged
+clammy night bat whirled close to her, but was gone before she could put
+up her hand.
+
+"It air a bad night that brought the brat out to me, so it air," growled
+the hag, "be it the headless man from Hayte's place what air been
+hauntin' ye, or the Indian squaw with her burnt brat?"
+
+She was feeling about for a match as she croaked out her words. Tess did
+not answer, but waited until Mother Moll lighted a candle and then
+dropped her load upon the floor.
+
+"They air for the luck-pot, I says, Ma Moll," said she, opening the bag,
+and displaying the eels, "I comes to know what air in it for me."
+
+"Air they dead eels what you found on the shore," asked the hag
+suspiciously, "Maybe them ain't fresh ones."
+
+"I killed them myself but a time ago," responded Tess. "It hurts them to
+lug them livin' out of the water, but they fills your pot for many a
+mess."
+
+It was a tempting wage for the hag. She blew the dying grate embers into
+a blaze over which she hung a small iron pot. The bats had ceased the
+infernal flapping of their grotesque wings, and were clinging trembling
+to the rafters above. Tess could mark them through the shadows, as one
+by one she slowly counted them.
+
+Ma Moll was crooning over the kettle. She was a woman older than any
+one even dared guess. With a cackling laugh she always answered
+questions as to her age with the assertion that she was "nigh on to two
+hundred and a deal more than that," and no one could contradict her, for
+she was old when Orn Skinner was a small boy.
+
+Tess, taking her eyes from the hanging bats, allowed them to rest upon
+the hag. The small dwarfed figure was not so tall as her own and the
+rounded shoulders, drawn down by great age, held a head grizzled and
+shriveled. A few tufts of gray hair hung over the ragged wrapper-like
+garment which covered the thin body. Great bunches stood out on the bare
+feet, while the long fingers stirring the liquid in the pot, were
+knuckled high on each hand.
+
+"Air it the headless man what I spoke of," Moll asked again peering into
+the pot, "no--it ain't that ... it air somethin' worse than that."
+
+"Worse than that," echoed Tess coming forward, and sinking down upon her
+knees beside the hag.
+
+"It air worse than the squaw and her burnt brat ... Aye, worse--"
+
+"Worse--than--what?" faltered Tess, with a sob in her throat.
+
+"It air the shadder of a rope--"
+
+Here the hag moved closer to the bubbling kettle while the red-brown
+head pushed nearer and nearer.
+
+"And there air a loop in the end," went on Mother Moll.
+
+Tessibel caught her breath. It was the black place--the rope of the
+Canadian Indian. The awfulness--the loneliness of her despair made her
+whimper brokenly behind a tattered sleeve. The hag was muttering her
+incantations and did not heed the girl.
+
+"The rope air a long 'un and a stout 'un," Ma Moll's voice had raised to
+a shrill cry as she described the instrument of death. Tessibel's head
+was now close to the hag's. Her wild terror-stricken eyes following the
+stick as it stirred the contents of the pot.
+
+"Air the loop around a neck, and air there humps under the head what's a
+hangin'?"
+
+She quivered as she spoke. The thin body of the hag crept nearer to the
+child--the gray straggling locks mingling with the copper curls, and the
+youthful shoulders of the fishermaid contrasting strongly with those of
+the bent old woman.
+
+The hag was searching for the humps--her wild old eyes glaring into the
+seething mess. A trembling bat loosened its hold upon the rafters above
+and blinded by the light of the candle, thrashed its zig-zag course
+about the shanty, banging first the window, then the door, and causing
+both watchers to lift their heads. They saw him as he fell fluttering to
+the floor, lifting his body pantingly up and down.
+
+Again they gazed into the pot, and as one thin hand held the whirling
+stick the hag's bony finger pointed mysteriously to the shadow marking
+the future.
+
+"Be there humps," persisted Tess, "big round humps standin' out as how
+the hills stand by the lake?"
+
+The hag replied in a hoarse whisper:
+
+"There be no humps, but there air a dead man."
+
+So thoroughly did Tess believe in the witch's words that she sank back
+with a cry, upon her wet red feet.
+
+"It ain't daddy," she breathed slowly, hardly daring to utter the name.
+
+"There be no humps," repeated Ma Moll. "There air a storm and a dead
+man, but his face ain't a showin'. There air another dead one on the
+shore. He ain't the same kind of one, he air--"
+
+"A gamekeeper," filled in Tess.
+
+The witch wobbled her head in assent, as Tessibel leaned over to follow
+the long finger defining the shadow.
+
+"There air a shanty," Mother Moll went on, "a child alone, and dead
+things layin' about and there air a--a--"
+
+The two heads were now bent directly over the pot. Tess caught her
+breath in a sob. Was Daddy Skinner coming back to the shanty? The dragon
+blood sputtered, boiling higher and higher, over the heat of the fire,
+as the witch dug it upward from the bottom of the kettle.
+
+"A prison cell and a man," ended Moll.
+
+"Be there humps?" gasped Tess.
+
+An acquiescent nod came from the gray-grizzled head. Tessibel wound her
+fingers about the arm-bone of the hag.
+
+"Air there a cross with a Christ hangin' on it?"
+
+The witch looked deeper into the dark mixture, her eyes squinting to
+narrow slits, and Tess continued:
+
+"A hangin' Christ that air hurt, and be there thorns a-diggin' in Him?"
+
+Deeper and deeper into the sizzling pot stared the faded blue eyes of
+the hag, the dark wide-spread ones of the girl following every movement
+of Ma Moll's hand.
+
+"Aye, there air a cross for ye, brat, to carry on yer back--"
+
+"Air there no Christ a bearin' one for Daddy?"
+
+Suddenly the door burst open, and the raging wind flickered out the
+candle. It had been so sudden that Tess screamed, and the witch muttered
+a curse. The rain tore its way through the small dirty room; the bats
+loosened their hold upon the wooden rafters and circled the darkness,
+first into the open, then into the room--against and away from
+Tessibel's face, until the girl broke into wild weeping.
+
+Ma Moll had failed to find the cross. The wind forcing the door bespoke
+evil for Daddy. Without the student's Christ how could she save him?
+
+"Go home, brat," ordered the hag. "Go home, there air a cross with a
+Christ hangin' to it, and there were a dead man without humps."
+
+Out into the rain the sound of the hag's words ringing in her ears, the
+whizzing bats for the first time filling her with a strange mysterious
+fear, Tessibel went. She turned into the dark forest of which she was
+not afraid, and crossing the gorges again, sought the upper hill which
+led to the tracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Elias Graves was pastor of one of the largest churches in Ithaca. His
+family consisted of his wife, his son Frederick, and his daughter Teola,
+a girl of sixteen, and little Babe, the spoiled pet of the family.
+Besides a beautiful town rectory, he owned the lake farm and held the
+title to the small piece of property upon which Orn Skinner squatted.
+That the hut and its filth injured his own magnificent cottage no one
+denied.
+
+It was true he only spent ten or twelve weeks of the summer in the lake
+house, but every man desired his own. For several years there had been a
+continual fight between the pastor and the fisherman--Orn Skinner
+answering the minister with the squatter law of the state which gave him
+the use of the few feet of ground upon which his shanty stood.
+
+Still the Dominie insisted that some day he would rid his summer home of
+the pest and the time had come.
+
+After leaving Tessibel he walked up the long lane leaning on the arm of
+his son, sputtering against his enemies.
+
+"The very idea of that malicious brat jumping upon me as she did. She
+ought to have a sound whipping."
+
+Frederick shivered slightly. His heart was full of sympathy for the
+primitive girl who had so devotedly loved her toad.
+
+"We would be rid of the whole family if we could get that girl away,"
+went on his father, "then I could file a request to take what belongs to
+me. Hall said only to-night that he would like to see all the squatters
+gone. We've decided to make a move."
+
+Frederick tried to make a small complaint, but the minister commanded
+him to silence.
+
+"Get rid of them I will, do you hear?" he shouted, "they have no moral
+right there whatever the law says. Get rid of them, I will."
+
+When the Dominie reiterated strongly his whole family remained silent,
+and this time Frederick dared pass no remark. He wondered if it were not
+for just such people as the Skinners that the Christ had suffered. He
+felt an incentive rising in his heart to seek guidance from the Book,
+for although Frederick Graves greatly reverenced his father he would not
+give up his own opinions without a struggle.
+
+"I've got this Skinner just where I want him after all these years,"
+hurled forth the minister, as they passed the pear orchard, and then
+added:
+
+"But I don't understand how you came to be in the hut."
+
+"I heard the girl crying," replied Frederick curtly.
+
+"I missed you when we left Hall's," explained the Dominie. "Charlie
+called me back to ask about the plans for the new church, and if I had
+not whistled just when I did, you might have been in that hut still, I
+suppose."
+
+Frederick found himself wishing that his father had not whistled, his
+mind going back to the girl in the shanty, whom he had left with her
+living grief--and her dead.
+
+He saw his sister, Teola, standing on the broad porch waiting for them.
+The girl scented something unusual in the angry tones of her father's
+voice. She followed Frederick alone into the library which looked out
+upon Tessibel's hut.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Frederick shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
+
+"Nothing much."
+
+The brother and sister had grown into a confidential friendship during
+the past two years. Teola's face dropped as she heard Frederick's
+halting answer.
+
+"I know better," she retorted decidedly. "You have been having words
+with father."
+
+"No, not words," replied the boy, "but you see father thinks that no one
+can have any ideas but himself. It sort of makes me tired, for sometimes
+I know when a thing is right or wrong."
+
+"What was the matter?" insisted Teola once more.
+
+"The Skinners," replied Frederick slowly.
+
+"You mean the squatters?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Aren't they alright where they are?" hesitated Teola.
+
+"Skinner killed the gamekeeper to-night, and the girl is alone in the
+shanty. Father doesn't seem to realize that they have souls to be saved
+as well as the rest of the world."
+
+Teola thought an instant before answering.
+
+"They are so dirty," she said at last.
+
+"That's true," Frederick reflected, "but nevertheless they are human."
+
+"Were you in the hut?"
+
+"Yes, with father."
+
+"Whew! What did he say?"
+
+The question was answered by loud words from the minister talking to
+his wife in the dining room.
+
+"I tell you," said his voice, ringing out so that the two listeners
+could hear, "those squatters have got to go. I'm not the only one who
+thinks that way. If they had the instincts of decency I wouldn't say a
+word, but they haven't. I say it's time to make a move."
+
+"You know," continued the minister, "that their hut is in direct line
+with our view. There's no buying them off ... I've tried that. Now that
+Skinner is arrested it won't be hard to frighten the girl away, for she
+can't stay there alone."
+
+"I'm not so sure," mused Mrs. Graves; "those people are not easily
+frightened."
+
+"She's afraid of me," shouted the Dominie, "and she will be more so
+before I get through with her and her father. If Skinner is hanged, she
+shan't stay there."
+
+Later there was a long discussion between the father and son upon the
+rights of squatters, which ended in Frederick's going to bed before it
+was half finished more disgusted and unhappy than he had ever been
+before. He looked out upon the lake. The wind was still rolling the
+water into white crested waves, and his eyes could scarcely outline the
+small hut under the willow tree. Into the boy's life something had
+come--a new something he could not explain, while out of it another
+something as hard to define had gone forever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two jack rabbits perched on the tracks above the fodder lot of Minister
+Graves lifted their long ears and listened. Human steps at this time of
+night were out of the ordinary. The dog at Kennedy's farm beyond the
+tracks heard them, too, and bayed loudly. Then as they grew more
+distinct he bounded toward the fence, capering madly about, to scent the
+intruder. It was but a forlorn little figure, but Pete, the brindle
+bull, lifting his voice in a pleased howl, crouched close to the fence
+as a small hand came through to pet him.
+
+"It air only Tess," said a voice in which tears had gathered. "Ye air
+glad to see Tess, ain't ye?... Tess air glad to see ye, too ...
+Frederick and Daddy air gone and I must be goin'."
+
+Tessibel placed her face down near the big dog and he shoved out his
+long red tongue, touching her with delight. The girl hugged the large
+head with an admonishing appeal that Pete must go back to his
+kennel--and stepped again to the track--that long, black winding road
+which she must travel before reaching her destination.
+
+It was raining again, the water falling in steady drops upon the bare
+head. Frequently the girl wiped the water from her face with a torn
+calico skirt. Once she sat down and gathered her feet under her wet
+dress to stop their stinging pain--and here alone under the dark sky,
+Tessibel offered up her first balanced prayer, for had not Frederick
+said that God would save Daddy Skinner.
+
+"He do say," and she lifted her eyes upward with a simultaneous wipe at
+her face, "that there air a God who'll help my Daddy ... I wants to find
+my Daddy ... for a minute ... a little minute ... be it pleasin' to ye,
+Goddy?"
+
+Tessibel always put "dy" to Dad to make it more effective--and it was
+with the same sweet, serious voice, with which she would have pleaded
+with her own father, that she made familiar with the majesty of heaven.
+She could make no distinction between Daddy Skinner and Jehovah. Both to
+her were the reigning powers of the earth. Daddy she had always known,
+but the other--Frederick had said it was good to pray. She rose
+stumbling, and at three o'clock in the morning entered the city of
+Ithaca, walking up State street drabbled and thoroughly wet. She knew
+the streets that led to the city jail, for many a time when selling
+greens and berries had she gone steathily to the gray stone building and
+examined the barred windows.
+
+She crossed Dewitt park, and passed by the churches which surrounded the
+jail. Around and around the ivy-covered stone structure wandered the
+rain-soaked, barefooted girl. She could not distinguish one ray of
+light at first in any of the windows.... Suddenly she stopped and took a
+long breath. Up near the roof line a faint light flickered ... some one
+was moving to and fro. Tessibel could distinguish a rounded shadow on
+the ceiling of the cell, and tears choked her, as she saw cast upon the
+wall the shadowy outline of a large humpbacked form. It was Daddy--Daddy
+Skinner, and Tessibel backed from the building, straining her eyes to
+get a better view of him. Now the image was in sight, again it
+disappeared--Daddy was walking up and down, but he did not come near
+enough to the window for her to see his face.
+
+Seven times she counted Daddy's rounded shadow on the wall, and seven
+times it faded. The eighth--a grizzled head cast its outline distinctly
+across the bars.
+
+"Daddy--aw--Daddy Skinner."
+
+It was only a loving name breathed by a troubled child, but it was
+caught in its upward flight by the father's ear above. Tess saw the
+pictured humps pause, and as she whispered the name again, Daddy Skinner
+came to the iron lattice. She could discern her father plainly through
+the rain and held her arms up toward him.
+
+"It air lonely in the shanty, in the ... shanty ... without ye, Daddy,"
+she breathed, "and Tessibel ... air sorry ... for all her badness. Come
+home, Daddy ... dear, good Daddy ... and Tess--"
+
+She stopped, for a sight strange and unusual fell upon her. Daddy
+Skinner was looking down, clinging to the bars mightily, his under lip
+shaking, his dark teeth chattering together--the grizzled head making a
+sharp picture of misery in the barred window. Emotion in her father was
+new to Tess. A little frightened cry fell from her lips and she clutched
+hurriedly at the thick creeping ivy which clung to the old gray stone
+building.
+
+"I air comin', Daddy Skinner," she cried. "I air comin'."
+
+She followed the main body of the ivy on its upward growth, slipping and
+sliding on the wet creeper as she made her perilous ascent. Daddy
+Skinner was near the roof and it took Tessibel many torturing minutes to
+reach him. He knew she was coming by the continual dragging at the ivy,
+but he dared not speak, for the guard walked outside his door in the
+hall, and the sound of a voice would bring danger to Tess. Once he
+strained his face to the bars--saw her climbing frantically, and the
+sight made him dizzy. He could only wait--wait the interminable time
+until the red-brown head appeared and the wide eyes stared into his.
+Skinner quietly drew his child to the stone sill and placed his fingers
+over her lips to enjoin silence. Tess understood and even drew softer
+breaths, holding tightly to the beloved hands.
+
+"I comed for kisses on the bill, Daddy," she breathed. "Tess ... air
+lonely without ye."
+
+The livid, shaking lips met the quivering mouth through the iron rods. A
+long, long kiss, such as Tess had wanted quieted her suffering a little.
+It was the same old Daddy whom she was going to save by praying. She had
+asked to see him only a minute, and the student's God had granted her
+prayer.
+
+She whispered again, shivering and shaking with the cold.
+
+"Did ye kill the gamekeeper, Daddy?"
+
+The gray head shook the answer, "no."
+
+"If ye did ye didn't mean to, did ye?"
+
+The two negative replies made Tessibel's heart bound. It would be easier
+for God to help him if he had not committed a crime, and for no instant
+did she doubt his word. She kissed him again passionately, clinging to
+his lips with all the young growing emotion in her body.
+
+The squatter clung desperately to the body of his child. He could not
+let her go, fearing she would fall to the hard stones below, but he knew
+that she stood in danger of being discovered and dared not detain her.
+
+"Kin ye get down again?" he whispered.
+
+"Yep, Daddy Skinner, and ye ain't goin' to hang, 'cause some one what
+can, air goin' to help ye."
+
+"Who air he?"
+
+"God ... up there!" and Tessibel motioned with her hand toward the dark
+sky. "He says as how He helps folks like us ... that a cross was beared
+for us ... and I says to Him to-night, and I says every day till ye
+come back to the shanty ... that He lets ye free, Daddy.... I asks the
+sheriff to-morrow if I can come afternoons to see ye. And, Daddy, I
+holds the shanty till ye come home."
+
+He kissed her small pinched face again and again--and took his arms
+away. Tess slipped down the creeper and when she reached the ground
+called softly:
+
+"I air here, Daddy Skinner."
+
+She saw him pressing against the bars, his lips shaking and his eyes
+closely shut as if he were stumblingly offering a prayer for the child
+of his fisherman soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The fraternities of Cornell University gave home and social comforts to
+students, rich and popular enough to be invited to join them. Each
+fraternity had its own spacious house, with its staff of servants, where
+the members lived during the college year.
+
+Every first-year man had the ambition to join one, which if he attained
+assured him a luxurious home during the four years he spent in Ithaca.
+
+One evening, three weeks after Tessibel's secret visit to her father in
+the city jail, twenty fraternities were preparing all the practical
+jokes which boyish minds could concoct, with which to initiate their new
+candidates to full membership. Five new men were to join the "Cranium"
+fraternity. The house of this society stood high upon the eastern hill
+above the lake and overlooked the forest-mantled town. The first story
+of the building contained the smoking, dining, billiard and two drawing
+rooms. Above were sleeping chambers and private studies for the
+students, and annexed to the house proper was a small stone structure
+built purposely for the initiation of the new members.
+
+On this night all interest was centered upon the annex where Frederick
+Graves, Dan Jordan, Billy Dillon, Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston were to
+be taken through the "stunts."
+
+In the afternoon the five young men had been locked in one of the
+student's rooms, and told that they would receive their dinner during
+the proceedings that evening. The gravity which had settled upon the
+upper classmen frightened the three smaller candidates, for Billy, Oscar
+and Jimmy were miniatures in size compared to Dan Jordan and Frederick
+Graves.
+
+"Do you think they are going to hurt us," asked Billy Dillon, turning to
+the two larger students. "I don't want to be hurt--I like the thought of
+being a fraternity man, but I don't want to go through any business that
+will injure me."
+
+"Neither do I," put in Oscar Brown. "I promised my mother--"
+
+"It won't be well with you fellows if those chaps downstairs hear you
+talking that way," cautioned Jordan, "besides the initiation is only
+fun, and any of us are willing to stand jokes."
+
+After a three-hour wait, a group of sophomores, and the freshmen's
+tormentors--appeared upon the scene and ordered the candidates to follow
+them into the dreaded annex. In this "torture chamber" the older
+members, juniors and seniors, seated on benches placed around the wall,
+were waiting gravely the arrival of their victims.
+
+The honors of the occasion had been given into the hands of the
+sophomores, and as they trailed in followed by the quaking applicants, a
+hush fell over the expectant members of the society.
+
+The five freshmen were ordered to stand in a row, and Richard Hall, the
+spokesman of the second-year class, came forward, holding up one hand in
+mock reverence.
+
+"Gentlemen," he began, "I first christen you all in the name of the
+'Cranium' Fraternity. I give you, Dillon, the name of 'Swipes.' You,
+Brown, shall be dubbed 'Shorts'--here he hesitated an instant, perusing
+a slip of paper which lay on the table beside him--Preston, you may add
+another 'S' to make a trio--your name shall be 'Spuddy.'"
+
+Hall allowed his eyes to gaze reflectively upon Dan Jordan.
+
+"To a big fellow like you, Jordan," he resumed, "I give 'Captain.'" His
+voice dropped as if he had either overlooked or forgotten Frederick, and
+the young fellow waited expectantly.
+
+Suddenly Hall flashed him a glance, then dropped his eyes with twitching
+lips.
+
+"'Parson' is good enough for you, Graves."
+
+Sweeping the five candidates with his searching gaze, he took up the
+speech again--
+
+"If at any time your fraternity brothers desire to call you by your new
+names and you refuse to answer, you shall receive the punishment which
+goes with disobedience."
+
+"Gentlemen," he said again, dismissing the last subject with a wave of
+his hand, "it gives us great pleasure to receive you into this
+fraternity, but before we can give you full membership it is necessary
+for us to go through a few more formalities."
+
+Hall's eye fell in hesitation upon the ponderous form of Dan Jordan.
+
+"You will all no doubt soon see the value of prompt obedience," his
+voice rang out, and a smile touched each corner of his lips, but faded
+instantly.
+
+The three little freshmen moved uneasily--Hall, with a touch of irony in
+his tones, directed the rest of his instructions to them.
+
+"We have decided," resumed the speaker, "to initiate you fellows all at
+one time."
+
+Oscar Brown sighed in relief. "Misery loves company," and if the society
+had any indignities to bestow, he would not be alone.
+
+"We have found it necessary in times past," Hall took up again with a
+tragic tone in his voice, "to use discipline upon such occasions as
+this, and if by chance an incoming member becomes obstreperous, we
+employ a friend to help us--he holds an honored position in our
+fraternity ... Mr. Manchester, introduce 'Mazuka.'"
+
+The sophomore thus adjured, stepped nimbly to the corner, and lifting
+from a hook a long vicious-looking carpet beater, brought it toward
+Hall.
+
+"Handle him with reverence," shouted the spokesman, taking it carefully
+in his hands and turning it over with a benign smile. "Many a time has
+'Mazuka' done good service for this frat! You will understand," the
+freshmen heard him say, "that an indecorous smile on any of your faces
+will immediately call for three strokes from 'Mazuka,'" and he waved the
+carpet beater threateningly, "and for disobedience you will get five. We
+will now proceed to business. 'Captain' Jordan and 'Parson' Graves,
+please step forward ... Blindfold the eyes of those two, Frank," Hall
+ended, addressing one of his classmates near him.
+
+He turned to a group of his companions--and after whispering with them,
+came back saying aloud--"that's a good one to begin with."
+
+Directing his eyes upon Jordan, he said:
+
+"Down upon the floor and scramble like an egg, Captain."
+
+A titter came from Billy Dillon.
+
+"Duck that fresh chicken for laughing," shouted Hall, "and give him
+three strokes of the 'Mazuka.'"
+
+A sophomore brought a pail of cold water, and two other students,
+grasping the little fellow, immersed his curly head in it. They then
+stood him on his feet and laid the carpet beater three times across his
+back. Billy almost wished he had not chosen the fraternity life, but the
+others were suffering with him, which made it easier than if he had been
+alone.
+
+Meanwhile Dan Jordan was industriously trying to imitate a cooking egg.
+
+"Scramble, Captain, scramble," cried a sophomore, prodding Jordan with a
+stick.
+
+"Cook the 'Parson,' too," shouted some one, and Frederick was ordered to
+follow the movements of his friend.
+
+A faint flush mounted to the broad brow of the minister's son and he
+hesitated.
+
+"Bring the 'Mazuka,'" commanded Hall, and the eager sophomore rushed up
+with the persuader.
+
+"Scramble, you," he roared, waving the carpet beater dangerously near
+Frederick's head, and down beside his strapping friend dropped the
+dignified Frederick--two more long legs, and two more heavy arms were
+wiggling over the floor.
+
+"Those eggs are burning, give them some grease," suggested a senior from
+his seat near the wall.
+
+An agile, willing sophomore snatched a bucket of water and emptied its
+contents over the two floundering giants. As the icy bath submerged the
+freshmen, Dan Jordan, sputtering and gasping, bounded to his feet.
+
+"Five strokes of the 'Mazuka' for the 'Captain,'" shouted the delighted
+Manchester waving the carpet beater, "he got up without permission."
+
+Three students held Jordan fast and the little sophomore, dancing with
+glee, belabored the huge half "scrambled egg," each blow resounding
+through the room.
+
+"There! I guess that will hold him a while," chuckled the chastiser,
+putting the carpet beater under his arm, his face reflecting the
+pleasure of well-performed duty.
+
+Frederick, wet and looking very bored, was still flopping about the
+floor, and after passing a few more remarks about rotten eggs and
+undignified positions, the sophomores allowed him to stand up.
+
+"Now put the wet booby in the corner," ordered Hall, and Frederick was
+accordingly led away.
+
+Oscar Brown and Jimmy Preston, a little pale after witnessing Dan
+Jordan's punishment, were then told to come forward. Both trembled
+perceptibly as they were blindfolded by a sophomore and commanded to lie
+upon their backs upon the floor.
+
+"You fellows are going to get that dinner we promised you now," he said,
+stooping over the frightened prostrate students, and giving the bandages
+a last tightening pull; "the first course consists of something you are
+sure to like, and we guarantee them to be absolutely fresh. Bring the
+supper in, for these kids are hungry!"
+
+Some one brought a dish and the two boys could plainly hear the rattle
+of the cover as it came off.
+
+"Open your mouths," came the next command.
+
+Oscar Brown timidly opened his lips and waited, but Jimmy Preston,
+thinking the joke had gone far enough, obstinately refused to open his
+lips.
+
+Bang! came the carpet beater over the side of his leg, and his mouth
+flew open like a trapdoor.
+
+"That's just a little reminder for you to do as you are told, Spuddy,"
+the wielder of the "Mazuka" laughed.
+
+"Here's the dinner, boys," cried Hall, "and I bet you can't imagine what
+we've brought you.... Do you know what that is, 'Shorts'?"
+
+Brown shivered, for something snake-like and cold was drawn across his
+cheek.
+
+"It's an angle worm," continued the speaker, "and you're going to eat
+it.... Don't be afraid, 'Spuddy,' you needn't wiggle, you are going to
+have one, too," he added the last part of the sentence, seeing a shudder
+pass over the form of the other blindfolded boy.
+
+"Keep your mouths wide open," shouted a senior.
+
+Simultaneously the two boys felt the promised but undesirable dinner
+drop into their mouths. With a groan Oscar Brown rolled over on his side
+and allowed his portion to fall slowly out. But Jimmy Preston, amid
+howls of joy from the onlookers, jumped to his feet and tore the bandage
+from his eyes.
+
+"No fraternity for me," he yelled. "I've never heard of such a dirty
+trick. If you fellows--"
+
+His disgusted gaze fell upon the plate held by a sophomore convulsed
+with laughter. Jimmy rubbed his eyes, blinked, and looked again--blank
+astonishment taking the place of his anger. In the dish were only a few
+strings of cold cooked macaroni.
+
+"Golly! What a fool I am," and Jimmy glanced about upon the grinning
+faces with a sheepish air.
+
+"That's what you are alright," said Manchester, trying to be serious and
+securing a better grip upon the carpet beater. "Who said you could take
+that bandage off. That will cost you five strokes of the 'Mazuka.' ...
+Here, fellows, hold him on his stomach over that chair, so that I can
+get in some of my fine strokes.... One ... two ... three ... four ...
+five ..."
+
+Jimmy was jerked to his feet, the injured expression upon his sorrowful
+face plainly showing Manchester that his strokes had been telling ones.
+
+"There! We're through with you for to-night, 'Spuddy,' old boy," said
+Manchester, proudly feeling his biceps. "Go sit down ... if you can,"
+and Jimmy limped away with a muttered "thank heaven."
+
+During a conference in undertones, amid giggling and snickering, Richard
+unfolded a new plan. Then he said in a loud voice,
+
+"One of you fellows see if the surgeon is here yet. And hurry back."
+
+Billy Dillon who had remained in trembling silence during the
+proceedings, received his bandage without a complaint, although his face
+was ashy pale, and his knees shook beneath him as Hall approached.
+
+What did they want a doctor for? They surely wouldn't do--anything bad
+enough to need a surgeon. Thoughts like these went racing through his
+frightened mind, the sophomore leading him in terrifying darkness to a
+chair near by. Silence fell upon the room, and all that Billy could hear
+was his own excited breathing, made louder by the explosive beats of his
+heart.
+
+"Swipes," he heard Hall say, "we've decided that we can't stand that
+pretty face of yours around, but as we like you and don't want to send
+you away, we will change the expression on it. A gash on each of those
+rosy cheeks will alter your whole appearance, so much, that not one of
+your lady friends will ever recognize you again. In after days, when you
+grow to be a man, you will thank us for this. Frank, tell Dr. Wallace to
+come in."
+
+A pause ... and Billy heard the door open and close, and someone coming
+toward him, the person smelling strongly of drugs.
+
+"Is this the unfortunate young man," asked a strange, but not altogether
+unfamiliar voice.
+
+"Yes," Billy heard Hall answer in heartbroken tones, "and please,
+doctor, do the best you can for him."
+
+"Oh, we'll fix him alright in just about a minute," responded the
+strange voice. "Mr. Hall, will you please hold his arms, for when
+patients are excited they sometimes forget themselves, and ... now ...
+my instruments, please."
+
+Billy's arms were held tightly behind him, and for a moment he heard
+nothing--then came to his ears the sound of a box being unclasped
+and--horror of horrors--the rattle of surgical instruments.
+
+Would they dare cut his face? Why his father would--
+
+Billy felt the cold blade of the knife touch his flesh, and hot blood
+run down to his chin.
+
+Upon this he became possessed by the strength of a giant. Jerking his
+hands loose he struck out with all his might, his fist hitting something
+with the force of a kicking donkey. There was a sound of some one
+falling and a roar of laughter went up from the students as Billy was
+grasped by what seemed a thousand hands. The bandage was snatched from
+his eyes and he looked upon a sorry sight. Manchester, the expert
+wielder of the Mazuka, had failed as a surgeon. He lay a few feet away
+amid pieces of broken ice, which he had pretended was a surgical
+knife--his coat bespotted with hot milk which represented poor Billy's
+blood, and his left hand clasped tightly over a swollen eye.
+
+"What hit me?" gasped the fictitious Dr. Wallace.
+
+"What hit Manchester, fellows?" one of the seniors managed to howl out
+to the convulsed fraternity members.
+
+"I believe that rascally freshman did it," exclaimed Manchester
+excitedly, "bring me the 'Mazuka,' and I'll put a bunch on him that
+never will come off."
+
+"Gee Whiz! Look at his eye," some one called out.
+
+This brought Manchester to a standstill.
+
+"What's the matter with it," he groaned, putting his hand again to his
+face, "is it gone?"
+
+The lids were puffed shut, and were rapidly darkening. Richard Hall,
+laughing uproariously, held a pocket mirror for the young sophomore to
+peep into. After a moment's contemplation of his bruised face,
+Manchester came forth in a hoarse whisper,
+
+"That freshman's got to die--If I only ... had an ax," and his one eye
+gazed wildly around in search of a weapon.
+
+"Come, come, Teddy Manchester," soothed a tall senior, "we'll arrange
+with the freshman alright. Don't work yourself into unnecessary
+excitement."
+
+"And he shall use all his spending money for your tobacco, Teddy, for
+the entire year," cajoled Hall, "and black your boots and brush your
+clothes, into the bargain, and besides you will get a chance to get even
+at the Freshmen's Banquet," he whispered.
+
+"Gentlemen," he concluded, turning with a winning smile upon the
+assembled society, "we have five new members in the 'Cranium'
+Fraternity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Minister Graves' city home, the Rectory, was a magnificent house,
+covered with a thick growth of ivy; one bay window ornamenting it on the
+west, another looking on the street.
+
+The first evening in November, the family was seated about the table,
+the minister reading the evening paper. "Babe" was arguing with her
+mother that all little girls should be allowed to roller skate upon the
+pavement; that "there wasn't a bit of danger in it."
+
+Frederick was silently eating his dinner--Teola following his example.
+Suddenly the minister ejaculated:
+
+"Ah, that's good."
+
+"What's good, father?" inquired Mrs. Graves.
+
+"Skinner is brought to trial to-morrow. The paper says there isn't the
+slightest hope for him to escape. And listen to this:
+
+"Of all the happenings in the annals of the Ithaca courts the following
+is the most extraordinary. Orn Skinner, the squatter, who is to be tried
+this week for the murder of Emery Stebbins, the game warden, is the
+father of a girl some fifteen years old. The day after his incarceration
+the girl presented herself at the office of the sheriff, asking
+permission to see her father. The sheriff thought wiser not and refused
+the request. But the night before last the girl was discovered
+ascending, like a squirrel, the thick growth of ivy that covers the
+stone structure of the jail. For nearly a month she has been tramping
+the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks after dark, reaching the jail at
+midnight, and holding converse with her father on the stone sill of his
+cell window, two stories above the ground. The girl was closely
+questioned but refused to answer, probably fearing the consequences of
+visiting a prisoner without the consent of the sheriff. Skinner has been
+removed to an inner cell, the authorities fearing some plan of escape.
+The girl is very pretty, with long red hair, and brown eyes, and those
+who have seen her say that she is like a frightened rabbit, refusing to
+talk with any, save a few of her kind."
+
+The Dominie grunted, as he finished reading.
+
+"I should think they would remove him to an inner cell," said he. "Such
+goings on! The girl ought to have a taste of the rawhide."
+
+"Maybe she loves her father and wanted to see him," ventured Babe, who
+had no reverence for paternal opinions.
+
+"Love, love," retorted the Dominie, "all the love those people have in
+their lives you could put in a nutshell."
+
+"Her father's trial comes up to-morrow--I wonder if they will allow the
+girl to attend."
+
+This was from Frederick--he had not seen Tessibel since the night he had
+told her how to help her father. His face gathered a crimson shade as he
+remembered that he had promised her that he, too, would pray for her
+Daddy. The sympathy he had felt in his heart, throbbed again as he
+thought of her lonely grief--and the dead toad. He would keep his
+promise to Tess--pray that something might come into her life if
+somebody went out.
+
+"Mother," said Teola, changing the subject abruptly, "why can't we have
+a toffy pull. I want one so badly."
+
+"It's such a messy thing," sighed Mrs. Graves, looking about upon the
+tidy home, "and not one of you young people can keep your sticky hands
+from the curtains and furniture. But I suppose, if you will have it,
+nothing I can say will alter it. But remember this: I won't have those
+boys and girls tramping through my house and mussing up everything."
+
+As they rose from the table Teola followed her brother into the hall.
+
+"Frederick, if I arrange the toffy pull, do you suppose Mr. Jordan would
+come?"
+
+She dropped her eyes--the blood curling to the edge of the tiny ringlets
+that clung to her forehead. Her brother gave a low laugh.
+
+"He would be only too pleased, Sis, and he is a capital chap. He's a
+great favorite at the frat with all the boys. Shall I invite him?"
+
+"Yes ... for day after to-morrow evening. Will that suit you?"
+
+"Let me see," reflected Frederick, "we are having a meeting at the
+fraternity, but we might come down afterward, unless we are kept too
+late."
+
+"Don't let them keep you," pleaded Teola, flashing her brilliant eyes
+into Frederick's face, "you and Mr. Jordan have influence enough to get
+away, even if you are freshmen."
+
+The student stooped and kissed his sister fondly.
+
+"I'll arrange it to suit you, Sister ... I want to go to the Skinner
+trial to-morrow. I suppose father will go, too?"
+
+"Everybody will be there," rejoined Teola. "I wonder if his daughter
+will be permitted to see him after she has been discovered breaking the
+law."
+
+This time it was Frederick who flushed--it suddenly dawned upon him that
+he was going to the court simply to see the squatter girl again. He
+explained his embarrassment by exclaiming:
+
+"Poor little soul! She is the loneliest child in the world. I wish we
+could do something for her!"
+
+"Father wouldn't let us," put in Teola in dismay; "then, too, I don't
+know what we could do for a squatter."
+
+"Neither do I, that's the problem," finished Frederick, and after he was
+gone Teola mused long with Dan Jordan in her mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the break of the first day of the Skinner trial, smoke could be seen
+curling up from the chimney of Tessibel's hut. A candle stood in the
+window, flickering its smoky flame toward the light streaks in the east.
+From the lighthouse to the ragged rocks the lake was covered with the
+ice and snow of an early winter. Beyond, the little waves curled up and
+washed over the frozen masses, adhering here and there, making an icy
+fringe along the edge. Flocks of wild ducks fluttered close to the lake
+surface, filling the morning air with discordant quacking.
+
+Tessibel had not forgotten that her father was to be brought that day
+before his accusers,--she had made elaborate preparations for the
+reception of her dear one, when he should be free to return to her. She
+would stay in the shanty during the trial--and pray.
+
+Daddy was playing a part in a most agonizing drama--he and the student
+and herself were the principals--while a few others, their enemies, made
+the background.
+
+... When the curtain fell Tessibel would bring "Daddy" home to the
+hut--and it was for this that she was preparing.
+
+The bed had been dragged from the wall, and the squatter girl was
+sweeping out the dust of ages which settled again upon the coats and
+among the webby meshes of the net now dry and shrunken from disuse. One
+leg was missing from the stove, but three red bricks shoved under the
+side did the work of the broken part; the ancient frying pan with
+patches of grease upon it suspended itself from a newly driven nail in
+the wall.
+
+Tess had learned many things since her father's imprisonment--had
+learned that a girl of fifteen couldn't run barefooted in the open with
+impunity. She had found a pair of Daddy's old cast-off boots, tied rags
+about her feet, and clambered into them.
+
+How like a woman she felt with covered legs! True, the water gushed in
+through the holes that Daddy had cut in the soles on the rocks, but the
+tops were whole--and Tess looked upon them with pride.
+
+When the daylight flooded the cabin Tess blew out the candle and viewed
+her work with delight. How pleased Daddy would be--after this she would
+be a model housekeeper. He should sleep in the morning until she had
+prepared his breakfast, and her fingers would fly in the summer,
+gathering the berries and fruit to make more money so that he should
+not run risks with the netting!
+
+That first day of waiting seemed interminably long, but Tess spent it
+happily, for ever vividly into her mind came the words of Frederick the
+student--that God would hear, and answer.
+
+Day by day her faith in the efficacy of her petitions had grown upon
+her. In spite of the fact that she had been caught by Daddy's enemies in
+her nightly scrambles up the ivy at the jail, God had answered in
+letting her see her father so many times at the end of her midnight
+walks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three men of squatter's row staggered through the storm up the Lehigh
+Valley tracks. They passed the line of huts, making an occasional
+comment upon the inhabitants of some lighted shanty.
+
+It was the evening of the second of November, the first day of Orn
+Skinner's trial. The squatters had turned out in great numbers to see
+how the humped prisoner looked before his condemnation, for all believed
+that the fisherman would hang. It would be establishing a new precedent
+if Skinner were acquitted--and Ithaca never established new precedents
+with squatters.
+
+So mused the men as they sullenly toiled toward home, each satisfied in
+his heart that, if Skinner went the way of others from the row, it would
+be but another act of revenge upon the part of the townspeople, for had
+not one and every witness save Elias Graves testified that day to the
+good character of the accused man?
+
+The headlight of a locomotive sent them to the side track.
+
+"Orn's face were yaller'n saffron, wern't it, when Minister Graves said
+as how he were a cussed pap of a cusseder gal," said Ezy Longman to Jake
+Brewer and Ben Letts.
+
+"He were that mad," agreed Letts, "that the humps on his back just riz
+up and down--he were that mad he were."
+
+"But it were screechin' funny when the jedge made the parson speak out
+what Tess done," laughed Jake Brewer.
+
+"You bet," assented Ezry Longman. "But why weren't she there to-day?"
+
+"Don't know," answered Jake. "She were home, I guess. She 'lows as how
+her Daddy comes home to-morry ... I 'lows as how he don't."
+
+"I 'lows it, too," grunted Ben Letts.
+
+They walked on in silence for some time, the wind crooning its endless
+tune through the telegraph wires. As they passed Kennedy's, Pete, the
+brindle bulldog, howled in rage at not being able to attack the
+squatters. The dog snapped viciously at all strangers--and more than
+this would he have done if he had had an opportunity to reach Ben Letts
+and Ezra Longman. These men had spared neither stones nor sticks, in
+times past, to arouse the dog's ire; and Pete never forgot an enemy.
+
+At the end of the lane, the candle in Skinner's window flickered them an
+invitation to stop. Tessibel answered their knock and embarrassedly
+offered each a chair as the door closed behind them.
+
+"It ain't ended?" she faltered with a hasty glance at the three stolid
+faces, the post of Daddy's bed supporting the supple young form.
+
+"To-morry," replied Jake Brewer.
+
+Ben Letts moved uneasily in his chair. It was the first time he had
+ventured into the presence of Tessibel since he had put Frederick to
+death.
+
+"He air comin' home, then?"
+
+There was a question in the pleading voice as her eyes fell first upon
+one and then another.
+
+"Nope," grinned Ezry, "he air to be took away."
+
+Tessibel shrank back further and further, every muscle tired in its
+agony of burden-bearing. The rotten post squeaked loudly, bending
+beneath her weight, and over her in lightning rapidity swept the shadow
+of the rope, snatching her father from her--and God. The student had not
+limited the power of the cross; but Tess had discovered its limitations
+in Ezra Longman's statement--limitations that made her quiver with pain,
+as she pictured the evil thing which darkly menaced her loved one.
+
+"He air a damn liar," burst forth Jake Brewer, "the jedge ain't said no
+words what Ezy says he has."
+
+Tessibel heard and understood. The splendid, buoyant youth gathered
+instantly together, faith in the eternal promise of God sweeping over
+her once more. She might have known that Daddy was safe. Every long day
+had been filled with petitions, hurled at the feet of the Almighty:
+Tess, in her ignorance, had juggled with the sacred name of Jehovah,
+expecting the fulfillment of her prayers just as a boy, filled with
+ecstatic faith, expects his ball to come back to him after he has tossed
+it into the air. So would Daddy Skinner come to her, snatched from the
+shadow of an ignominious death, through some miracle of God's goodness.
+
+"It air over to-morry?" she stammered, holding no grudge against Ezra
+Longman for his untimely joke.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Then he air comin' home to-morry night?" she said almost in a whisper.
+
+Ben Letts, looking at Ezra, closed one red lid, letting it fall slowly
+over the blurred blind eye. Neither he nor the boy spoke.
+
+Letts brought his squint gaze back to Tess.
+
+"He air comin' home to-morry night?" she repeated questioningly, raising
+her voice a little with an insistent glance at each fisherman. This time
+Tess read denial in their faces, but smiled radiantly. What did they
+knew about it? What did fishermen understand of the student's God ... of
+the faith that would bring Daddy home to her in spite of the twelve grim
+men, and all her father's enemies in Ithaca. Hadn't she consigned the
+beloved humpbacked father to Him who held the worlds in the hollow of
+His hand.
+
+Ben Letts still gazed steadily at Tess, the red eyelids opening wider
+and wider. She had never been so beautiful before. During the past two
+months the girl had grown into a woman, into a soulful creature whom the
+squatter Ben ardently desired for his wife. Ah, he would see to that!
+
+He shoved his great legs up and down before him tumbling these things
+over in his mind. The taming of such a girl would be his vicious
+delight. The first thing to do would be to ply the scissors to the red
+curls. Ben could see that the hair was clean, each curl clinging
+lovingly to its mate, yet living apart--so different from the matted
+locks of the Tess he had always known.
+
+"Yer Daddy got good and mad to-day," remarked Jake Brewer abruptly, the
+deadly silence grating upon his nerves.
+
+"What about?" said Tess sharply.
+
+"Dominie Graves were in the witness-box, and said as how yer pap were a
+wicked daddy of a wickeder gal, and the jedge made him tell as how ye
+was so cussed, and yer daddy's humps riz up like a cat's back wet with
+cold tea."
+
+Tess waited expectantly.
+
+"And the Dominie said as how ye twiggled yer fingers to yer nose at
+him," continued Jake. "Did ye?"
+
+The pale face went to a deep crimson--she remembered the day well. The
+Dominie had caught her stealing berries and like all the weaker ones in
+a strife Tess had used her tongue bitterly--and had twiggled her
+fingers.
+
+The squatters went away, leaving Tessibel with a new feeling of shame.
+Ben Letts went with reluctance--he dared not remain. After Skinner had
+gone the way of all squatters who incurred the penalties of the law, he,
+Ben Letts, would have the girl for weal or woe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The last day of Skinner's trial found Tessibel taking her lonely way
+toward town. She was going for Daddy Skinner--to bring him home to a
+shanty which she thought was clean, although the ragged curtain still
+flapped its tatters over a dirty window and the cobwebs hung listlessly
+from Daddy Skinner's unused net. But Tess had done her best, and her
+heart sang with delightful expectancy as she neared the dangerous open
+trestle which spanned the Hoghole gorge.
+
+When she turned into town, her mind was at work with the thought of how
+she would bring Daddy triumphantly through the row of squatter huts,
+lead him even through the streets of Ithaca. Her vivid imagination
+played with the scene: Frederick the student would see her; he would
+know that together they had saved the dearest life ever given into the
+hands of a jury.
+
+Up the snow-covered street, through Dewitt park, and Into the little
+lane she tramped. Here Tessibel halted. The court-room was so crowded
+that an overflow of men stood in the street with overcoats tightly
+buttoned, stood listening for the words that would satisfy their
+demands: Orn Skinner must die. A demonstration of joy ringing from the
+court made the child shiver--then smile. Not even the wicked jeering of
+Daddy's enemies could shake her faith in the student's word. Twelve
+jurors sat in their chairs, but a useless set of men, for a unanimous
+ban of death had been pronounced upon the fisherman before any one of
+the jury had taken the oath. Some of the evidence did not reach their
+ears for they were thinking of other things--the man of two humps was as
+far away from their homes or their hopes, as the rope that would end
+him.
+
+During the trial the prisoner had remained silent in his chair, with a
+stolidity that aroused no sympathy for him. Not once was he seen to lift
+his eyes to the judge; and but once, when Tess was being maligned by
+Dominie Graves, did the bible-back rise and fall as if the heart beneath
+were beating wildly. Skinner had not been allowed to testify in his own
+defense, and, knowing the futility of it, he had not insisted upon
+speaking.
+
+His attorney made a few feeble remarks which, because of the speaker's
+indifference and his disbelief in his client, fell without effect. The
+prosecuting attorney took but ten minutes to sum up the case, telling
+the jury that they knew their duty too well for him to attempt to
+instruct them. "But," said he, "I will add one word of your own
+convictions. These people have infested our beautiful city, sapping its
+life like a great pest. The law is nothing to them--human life less.
+There is one thing, gentlemen of the jury, of which they stand in awe,
+and it is in your hands to give them one more lesson. That one thing
+they fear is--the rope."
+
+He sat down amid a dense silence. The judge spoke shortly and the twelve
+jurors filed out past the stooping prisoner, who seemed to care so
+little that he did not look upon them as they went.
+
+Twenty minutes elapsed and the court officer announced in stentorian
+tones that the verdict had been reached. Solemnly the twelve men seated
+themselves whilst an expectant flutter passed over the room.
+
+Then a voice droned:
+
+"Prisoner, rise."
+
+The lumbering form painfully raised its two humps.
+
+"Prisoner, look upon the jury; jury, look upon the prisoner."
+
+The grizzled head settled itself back between the two pulsing humps; the
+steady eyes under the shaggy brows looking out for the first time in two
+days upon the row of men who hated him--all popular citizens of Ithaca.
+
+"Foreman, of the jury, have you found the prisoner innocent or guilty?"
+
+A pause, a hush; then a deliberate:
+
+"Guilty of murder in the first degree."
+
+A little higher rose the bible-back of the fisherman, lower sunk the
+large head between the deformed shoulders, like the receding head of a
+turtle, hiding itself under its shell when an enemy draws near. Skinner
+still stood with hypnotized eyes fastened on the jury; one thought in
+his mind--Tess.
+
+"Orn Skinner," began the judge, "is there any reason why the sentence of
+this court should not be pronounced upon you in accordance with the
+law?"
+
+The fisherman turned his piercing eyes upon the judge, but attempted not
+to speak.
+
+"Orn Skinner--"
+
+The judge was interrupted, there was a disturbing commotion in the back
+of the court-room. He lifted his gavel for silence, his gaze falling
+upon a dripping, shivering, red-haired girl, who raised to his face a
+pair of copper-colored eyes in which shone a soul, the magnitude of
+which the judge could not fathom with all his dignity.
+
+"Orn Skinner," he finished, turning again to the fisherman, "twelve men
+have found you guilty of murder in the first degree. The court, then,
+passes its sentence upon you: you are to hang by the neck until you
+are--dead."
+
+The ponderous form of the doomed man straightened as though unafraid,
+whilst the commotion increased--Tess was madly tearing her way through
+detaining hands. Once free, she started up the aisle, the most
+ridiculous little figure ever seen in Ithaca. The red hair was in curls
+to the girl's hips--the young form covered with but a calico blouse
+confined about the waist by a piece of hemp rope. Four huge thorns held
+together the edges of a rent down the center of the skirt, which came
+just above the knees, Daddy Skinner's cowhide boots lifting themselves
+under the hem.
+
+Every one save him whom she loved was unseen by Tess, and everything
+unheard save the terrible sentence of death.
+
+The pain-puckered wrinkles settled out of the wan little face; a smile
+brightened the brown eyes and dimpled the tender twitching mouth,
+altering the woful expression--for what was the mandate of an earthly
+judge compared to the majestic promise of Heaven? the student had
+said--but her smiling eyes fell for a moment on those of Frederick
+Graves. The boy partly rose but sank back again, white to the ears, a
+picture of mental suffering. Here through the silence came a shock to
+the citizens of Ithaca. Sweet as a spring bird carolling its love song
+rose Tessibel's beautiful voice:
+
+        "Rescue the perishin'
+         Care for the dyin'."
+
+On and on up the aisle toward Daddy Skinner, forgetting or not knowing
+that she was desecrating the dignity of the honorable judge upon the
+bench, Tessibel clattered. Still no hand stayed her progress. Daddy
+Skinner was standing outside the railing, close to his attorney, guarded
+by a deputy. His fierce eyes turned at the sound of her voice, and the
+sight of his beloved snapped them shut like a vise.
+
+The old beard, now shaggy and unkempt, trembled, whilst a parched tongue
+licked over the lips.
+
+The long arms of the humpback slowly rose, and Tessibel sang herself
+into the throbbing bosom of her father.
+
+The prisoner's great horny hand descended upon the curly head and for a
+moment the fingers of the girl tried to pry the wrinkled eyelids open.
+Her singing ceased, and she spoke--no great orator ever had a more
+intense audience.
+
+"It air--it air Tess, Daddy Skinner, did ye think that her--had
+forgot--and Goddy?"
+
+Everyone in the room heard the musical voice.
+
+"The jedge didn't know," Tess went on, "that God promised that ye was to
+come home with Tessibel." And then, loosening herself from the trembling
+fingers, Tess leaned toward the judge, a wealth of hair falling over
+each shoulder.
+
+"Did ye, kind, good man?"
+
+His Honor, fascinated by the sight, bent toward her to make sure of her
+words.
+
+"I air Daddy's brat," she urged with a smile, "and Goddy in the sky
+said as how Daddy Skinner would come home with Tessibel ... He air to go
+with me, ain't he?"
+
+Her voice, raised in sudden entreaty, the long eyes filled with an
+anguished anxiety, sent a pang of pity unknown before through the heart
+of the judge.
+
+The audience rose as one man--only a swish and another dead silence.
+
+"Ye air to come, Daddy Skinner," and without waiting for any further
+consent she took her father's hand and drew him slowly through the aisle
+up which she had so lately sung her way.
+
+A man stepped into her path from among the spectators. Tess glanced up,
+and saw before her the lowering face of Dominie Graves. From every other
+soul in that room she had been given the bible-backed prisoner, for the
+majesty of human law had been forgotten in the appeal to the higher one.
+
+"Stop," shouted the pastor, determined to see the sentence of the court
+carried out. He had placed himself directly in the squatter-girl's path,
+and, turning toward the jury, flashed indignant eyes upon them.
+
+"Have you all gone mad?" he demanded. "Are you going to allow a murderer
+to escape from your hands?"
+
+For one instant the condemned giant and the man of God scanned each
+other's faces with intensity. There was dumb pleading in the one gaze,
+and hard supremacy in the other. A spasmodic tremor ran over the
+spectators--Tess had struck a note of tragedy in the affair which had
+been overlooked by the thoughtless throng.
+
+The judge, startled, spoke confusedly,
+
+"Of course, of course," said he, "such a thing as this--"
+
+"Would make our city the laughing-stock of the state," put in Graves,
+his interruption of the judge passing unheeded. "Skinner, you know you
+can't leave this court with that girl--"
+
+Here a small boy broke in:
+
+"She's the girl that twiggled her fingers at the minister."
+
+Dominie Graves hushed the speaker with a wave of his hand, and went on:
+
+"You have committed a murder, Skinner, and have been condemned to die by
+hanging."
+
+His voice was low and vibrant.
+
+"And there's no escape for you, Skinner," he finished.
+
+As his voice died away, Ithaca received another impetus to curiosity and
+interest. A tall man in the back row rose and came forward.
+
+"Mr. Graves," said the stranger solemnly, "you say that this man is to
+hang for murder. I say that he shall be given another chance for his
+life, and that he shall not hang if I can prevent it."
+
+Deforrest Young, the noted professor of law from the University, was
+looking at Graves. A frown gathered on the broad brow of the minister,
+and every one gasped as the professor took Tessibel's hands in his.
+
+"My child," and he bent lower that she might hear, for her bowed head
+was the only evidence of her grief, "Your prayers have accomplished more
+than you think. Keep on praying and pray hard, and the next time you
+come here you shall take home--your Daddy Skinner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Twenty young people had gathered for the toffy pull at Minister Graves'.
+Tess was the topic of conversation; every one was eager to talk of the
+unheard-of action in the court-room that day.
+
+"My mother says," chimed in a pretty girl, "that when that Skinner girl
+walked up through the court room, she sounded like a horse trotting
+along."
+
+"She had on a pair of man's boots, that's why," said another, "but she
+has a beautiful voice, hasn't she?"
+
+This question was directed to Frederick Graves.
+
+"Yes," he assented, flushing to his high-forehead line.
+
+"And besides a beautiful voice," broke in Richard Hall, "she has a
+mighty pretty face--and such hair! If she hadn't been crying and had so
+many people around her, I should have spoken to her. She's worth
+consoling!"
+
+A sharp pang of jealousy shot through Frederick's heart. That another
+should make lighter the burdens of the squatter girl filled him with
+unrest. A pleading face flashed across his vision and Tessibel's voice
+rang anew in his ears. He was living over again the moments spent in the
+cabin, and his heart thrilled at the memory of the momentary glance sent
+to him over the heads of the spectators in the crowded court-room.
+
+Teola entered the drawing-room, turning the conversation from Tess to
+the pleasure of the evening.
+
+"Will some one help me pull the toffy?" said she.
+
+Her eyes were upon Dan Jordan--he rose quickly to his feet and followed
+the girl smilingly to the kitchen.
+
+"I wanted you to help me get it ready," Teola said; coloring.
+
+"I'm glad you chose me," replied Dan.
+
+"I didn't ask you, did I?" The beautiful head hung low over the brown
+mixture in the kettle.
+
+"Your eyes did," laughed Dan. "Didn't you notice that none of the other
+boys got up when you spoke." His glance filled with merriment as he went
+on: "I think, too, that I should have been a little--jealous if anyone
+else had--helped you."
+
+"And your hands are so strong," murmured Teola.
+
+"You only wanted my hands," queried the boy, trying to catch a glimpse
+of her face. "I wish you had wanted me for some other--"
+
+Teola stood with the long wooden spoon twirling in her fingers.
+
+"I did want you for yourself, Dan--"
+
+And then she stopped and nothing could be heard but the click, click,
+click, of the toffy as it snapped to and fro in the huge fingers of the
+student.
+
+"I'm mighty glad that I chose Cornell for my college," broke in the boy
+presently. "I thought first of going to Yale.... And you're pleased,
+too, Teola, that I came to Ithaca? Aren't you?"
+
+"Very glad," came the low voice distinctly.
+
+"And I've never been so ambitious in all my life as I have since I've
+been here, and known you, and I was wondering to-day if--if--"
+
+Frederick's voice broke off the words; his big form loomed in the
+doorway before Dan could finish his sentence.
+
+"Haven't you kids finished that toffy? Better let me help, too."
+
+There was a noticeable tremor in Teola's voice as she replied:
+
+"We've finished, Frederick, and you can carry the butter and those
+plates."
+
+"I've something important to tell you, Teola," whispered Dan.
+
+The girl did not answer, but the student knew that she would listen to
+him in some future time.
+
+The drawing-room was festooned with evergreens and winter ferns, wound
+here and there with streamers of various-colored ribbons. Two large
+lamps, one in the window, and the other on a table near the dining-room
+door, sent forth their light through red shades. Glass dishes filled
+with apples and golden oranges decorated the top of the piano and
+surrounded the lamps.
+
+When Dan and Teola left the kitchen, both flushed with the first
+emotions of their youthful hearts, there came to them gurgles of girlish
+laughter, intermingled now and then with the loud voice of some merry,
+happy boy.
+
+After two hours of strenuous toffy-pulling the tired young revellers sat
+down to plates heaped with goodies.
+
+Just at this juncture a ring of the door-bell pealed through the house.
+A silence fell over the company and a sound of altercation came to them
+distinctly. Suddenly the drawing-room door burst violently open and a
+spectacle, in strange contrast to the cheery scene about them, flashed
+upon the eyes of the young people. A red-haired girl, unkempt and
+dripping, wild anxiety portrayed upon her face, stood in the doorway.
+There was not the slightest embarrassment in her glance as her peculiar
+eyes traveled the lines of boys and girls, sitting round the wall. When
+at last they fell on Frederick, she took an impetuous step toward him, a
+brilliant smile lighting the wan face. Stupefaction rested upon the
+student as he recognized Tessibel Skinner.
+
+"It air time--to pray," said she, looking straight at him, as he slowly
+rose from his chair. "Daddy Skinner air to be took away--unless yer God
+stops the rope."
+
+Every word was distinct--unless God would stay the rope. The words
+repeated themselves over in the boy's brain and his face deepened in
+color. It was the beautiful faith of the wild, untaught young girl with
+the hot blood rushing in her veins that called forth the flush. His
+heart sickened with his own lack of confidence in God. He was to preach
+of a crucified Saviour, but no such faith and hope as this of Tessibel
+Skinner's would aid him. He was even now ashamed of the girl in cowhide
+boots and torn, thin skirt.
+
+As these thoughts floated past him, he saw the young squatter wither
+under a giggle from a girl in the corner.
+
+"Look at her feet," were the words that changed Tessibel's frankness to
+embarrassment, her eager pathos to wofulness.
+
+Tessibel shrank close to the door, for the first time realizing how out
+of place she was.
+
+"I were--I were--a fool to come, but--but--"
+
+The earnestness of the vibrant voice, the proud, appealing young face
+moved Frederick to pity and self-reproach.
+
+"It was right--you should have come," said he, gently taking her hands,
+"and no one dare question your privilege to ask a prayer for your
+father."
+
+Still retaining her fingers in his, he turned, explaining:
+
+"This is Miss Skinner whose father is suffering now from a stroke of the
+law. We, who have fathers and mothers whom we love, must wish her well."
+
+Tessibel sank down, down, among her boots and rags, his words reducing
+her to tears. Teola came to her brother's side. She had never before
+been actually in the presence of a squatter, for, when they had brought
+fish and berries to the back door, her mother had always ordered the
+children to the front of the house; but now, filled with sympathy she
+stooped down and placed her hand upon Tessibel's head. The touch was so
+gentle that the fishermaid lifted her eyes to see who sorrowed with her.
+
+The squatter covered the white fingers with tears and kisses. Then she
+struggled to her feet, the nails in Daddy's boots scraping the polished
+floor, making long white marks. To Tessibel there were no other persons
+in the room save Frederick and his beautiful sister. She made a queer
+upward movement with her head, wiping the tears away with the tattered
+sleeve.
+
+"I was afeared ye'd forget Daddy Skinner," she murmured. "The big man
+from the hill said like you did. And I says it air prayin' time and I
+comed."
+
+She had forgotten the tears of a few minutes before, forgotten that
+twenty pairs of searching youthful eyes watched her every movement and
+mentally criticized her, from the masses of long hair to the rock-torn
+boots on her feet. She only remembered the student--that he was smiling
+into her eyes, and that, his sister, too, Teola Graves, had sympathized
+with her.
+
+With a radiant, grateful smile, she turned to go, the door opening under
+her eager grasp. It was here that Dan Jordan spoke:
+
+"Won't Miss Skinner have some coffee?"
+
+Tessibel looked at him with an incredulous glance. He, too, had come
+forward and stood with his kindly gray eyes fixed upon her face.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," hurriedly put in Teola, "pardon me--I forgot....
+You shall have my cup.... Here, Tessibel! I may call you that, mayn't I?
+Please drink some of mine."
+
+Teola held the cup invitingly to the shivering lips, and Tessibel
+swallowed it down in one gulp.
+
+"I air goin' now," she said desperately, wiping away coffee drops that
+lingered upon her face, "and ye ain't goin' to forget?"
+
+This last was to Frederick, and he shook his head emphatically. He would
+not forget again; he would make the girl's father a special medium to
+establish a line of faith between the God he professed to love and
+himself--the quality of which should be no less than the one that
+Tessibel had cultivated during her weary weeks of waiting.
+
+No thought entered anyone's mind of asking the girl if she were afraid
+of the dark night--she seemed so much a part of the darkness, of the
+falling snow and thrashing trees, that she was allowed to depart without
+a question. As he stood on the Rectory steps, the clicking of the big
+boots came to Frederick long after the slender form had disappeared from
+sight.
+
+After that the party broke up, for the merriment had died in Tessibel's
+grief. An impression had been made upon the thoughtless boys and girls,
+and a shadow rested on each face as they bade "good-night" to their
+young hostess.
+
+"She's the prettiest girl I ever saw," confided Teola to Frederick
+afterward; "her eyes are the color of a marigold."
+
+In her heart Teola was glad that she had gone to the squatter in
+sympathy, for, upon leaving, Dan Jordan had whispered words that had
+burned deep into her soul:
+
+"You are an angel, Teola _dear_, and I--love--you."
+
+For one instant the tall student had bent his head, laying his lips upon
+hers--and had gone without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The last day of the trial was so different from that of Tessibel's
+dreams! Again she must cross the dark Hoghole trestle alone on her way
+to the hut. But the singing in her heart when she left the Rectory took
+away the pain of her loneliness. Frederick Graves had said that she had
+done right in coming to him and asking prayers for "Daddy Skinner." Her
+faith in the student carried her above the material things of the earth,
+more than her absolute faith in God, for like women, Tessibel lived and
+had faith through the man of her choice.
+
+It was nearly midnight when she passed Kennedy's wheat field in which
+capered Pete, the brindle bulldog. She called to him softly, pronouncing
+his name twice in loving resonance, which brought a low, pleased howl
+from the coarse throat of the dog. But the exhausted squatter-girl did
+not wait to touch the long, red tongue as Pete thrust his nose through
+the fence. She passed quickly down the lane to her father's hut. Turning
+the corner of the mud cellar, she saw dimly a man's form leaning against
+the shanty door. Her eyes were accustomed to marking correctly through
+the darkness, and it took Tess but a moment to ascertain that the
+lounging figure was Ben Letts.
+
+In an instant, the first real fear she had ever felt swept over her and
+she drew back into the shadows. As a child she had fled from this man
+because he tantalized her; as a woman she dreaded him more than any
+reptile that came from the earth.
+
+The man, hearing footsteps, raised his head; the silence continuing, he
+dropped it again, thinking he had been mistaken, and resumed his former
+position of waiting.
+
+Tessibel wondered if she should go bravely forward--insist that the
+shanty was hers, and that he should go away. The mud cellar was between
+her and the waiting man, and as she peered closer to see if Ben were
+still there one brilliant tangle of hair fell over her shoulder. Ben
+Letts caught the movement and Tessibel knew it.
+
+Alert as a young deer, she turned and fled back up the lane. Daddy's
+boots impeded her speed and one after the other she kicked them off. She
+could hear the man running after her, shouting his rage into her
+tingling ears. He was gaining upon the girl and commanded her to stop.
+
+"If I get my claws on ye once," he growled, "it'll be bad for ye."
+
+Tessibel heard and flew faster. There was no one to help her and her
+only salvation lay in her own two sturdy little legs and bruised feet.
+She reached the tracks but did not dare run the ties--she might trip in
+the darkness, and nothing could save her from her enemy. Her eyes,
+strained with convulsive fright, lifted one moment to the sky, and her
+glance fell directly upon the giant pine whose branches formed the image
+of her fantastic God. Her lips fell apart with a gasp--she fancied her
+Deity sent her an assurance of aid.
+
+"Goddy--Goddy," was her petition, "for the love of yer Christ ... and
+the student."
+
+Suddenly out upon the air rang the voice of one of Tessibel's friends.
+The brindle bulldog from Kennedy's farm had heard the unequal race. With
+short tail raised, his fat neck bristling with stubby hair, he started
+for the tracks, as Tess did for the fence when she heard his growl. As
+the girl came on and on, the dog bounded along the ground toward her.
+Tess opened her lips and spoke sharply--and a pleased bark came in
+response.
+
+God had heard and answered her. One wild leap in the air, and the sound
+of tearing clothes as her already tattered skirt came in contact with
+the barbed wire--and Tess was crouching down in the safe-keeping of the
+brindle bull. The dog whirled frantically around, licking her face. Fear
+weakened her tongue--she could not speak--only little spasmodic sobs
+burst from the parted lips. She caught the huge dog to her breast and
+waited.
+
+Ben Letts was on the tracks; she could hear his big chest heaving with
+fast-coming breath. He halted on the other side of the fence.
+
+Pete scented an enemy and straightened out his strong muscles like whip
+cords, a hoarse growl coming from between his jaws.
+
+Ben leaned over the fence with an oath.
+
+"Ye'd better come away from him," he grunted threateningly. "Ye air
+thinking the brute can save ye--but I'll put a bullet through his pate."
+
+Tessibel knew that the man had no rifle with him; and by the time he
+could get one she and the dog would be far away. Her mind worked fast
+under the pressure.
+
+"What do you want, Ben Letts?" she demanded.
+
+"I just wanted to talk to yer," wheedled the man. "Come over the fence,
+will ye?"
+
+"Ye can talk to me here," sullenly replied Tess. "I don't want to hear
+none of yer dum gab."
+
+"It air somethin' nice--it air candy," feigned Ben. Then the tones
+hardened in the coarse voice, and he ended:
+
+"Ye can't stay always with the brute."
+
+"To-night I can, and in the day I ain't afeared--I don't want no candy."
+
+The brindle bulldog lifted his head again and sent a low snarl in the
+direction of the fisherman--Ben in his rage had come too close to the
+fence. The animal's warning sent him back. Months before, Pete had
+buried his teeth in the man's hand and Ben would bear the marks to his
+grave.
+
+"Ye go home, Ben Letts," insisted Tess. "Ye ain't no business here. Go
+home to yer mammy."
+
+"I'm a-goin' to stay, just the same," rejoined Ben, sitting down upon
+the tracks.
+
+Tessibel wound her arms around the dog's neck, banking the red curls
+under her cheek for a pillow. It was good to rest with her friend.
+Between the fence wires she could see the branches of the pine tree, its
+shadowy arms creating odd figures across the light streaks in the sky.
+What a wonderful being the student's God was! He had listened to the cry
+of a squatter and had saved her.
+
+"Yer daddy ain't a-comin' home," Ben Letts broke in upon her
+meditations.
+
+"He air," retorted Tess. "He air the nextest time I go for him."
+
+"It air a lie," insisted the fisherman, "ye comes with me to the
+minister and I'll make yer an hones' woman. Ye'll have to cut that mop
+and settle down like a woman should. Do ye hear?... Tessibel, I says an
+hones' woman!"
+
+Tessibel shifted her head from Pete's neck and sat up.
+
+"Ye says as how--ye and--me--will go to the minister?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"And we air to be--married ... eh?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"How about--the--brat--and--and--and Satisfied's girl?"
+
+Myra's secret had slipped from her. Ben's silence invited her to
+proceed.
+
+"Yer brat air sick to his grave, he air," said she mournfully, a tear
+settling in her voice, making its sweetness rough, "and Myry air a-dyin'
+of a broken heart.... If yer wants to make an hones' woman, make her
+one, that air what I says, I does. And ye broke her arm on the ragged
+rocks! Ye did! And then yer comes--and talks about bein' hones'," the
+musical voice rose to a cry. "Ye can't make a woman hones' for ye ain't
+hones' yerself."
+
+Without a sound Ben rose from the tracks, reached for a stone and
+whirled it through the fence at Tessibel. The stone missed her, but
+struck the dog. Trembling with rage, Pete lifted his great body with a
+low, vicious growl.
+
+Tessibel sprang from the ground, whilst another stone hurtled through
+the air, catching her curls in its flight. Then she lifted the lower
+wire of the barbed fence. Pete crouched, and wiggled his flattened body
+through. Ben hadn't expected this--he turned and ran. The skurrying legs
+of the dog carried him quickly on after the fisherman. While Ben,
+screeching like a great night owl, hooted out his fear of the maddened
+dog, and yelled for Tess to call him off.
+
+The girl did not speak, only waited, waited until a louder cry from the
+hunted man assured her that Pete had gripped him. Tessibel scarcely
+dared breathe; her friend, God's earthly instrument, sent to save her,
+and her mortal enemy were in deadly combat.
+
+Ben's cries had ceased, but the listening girl could hear the two bodies
+as they turned over and over beyond on the tracks--and rolled into the
+ditch. Her feet were nearly frozen but she gathered them under her skirt
+and dumbly waited.
+
+Then came no sound--there was nothing but a deathly silence in the dim
+shadows near the land.
+
+Would she ever see either Ben or the dog again? There was no danger that
+Pete would--
+
+"Ben," she called loudly, leaning over the fence. No answer came from
+the deep trench by the railroad bed.
+
+"Pete, Pete, come to Tessibel, come to Tessibel."
+
+Out of the blackness came the dog, his head hanging low, the angry
+sparkle in his eyes quenched.
+
+Tess raised the wire once more for Pete's body to wriggle under. The
+girl shouted anxiously for Ben but no answer came to her call.
+
+Crouching beside Pete, Tessibel reasoned out a way of escape: if she
+took the brindle bulldog to the hut with her, she would be safe from Ben
+were he lurking about. She propped the lower wire of the fence high
+with a stick so that Pete could reach Kennedy's barn on the hill again
+when she sent him home. Together the girl and the bristling Pete slid
+silently to the railroad tracks, Tessibel holding tightly to the dog's
+collar. Some fifty feet beyond he twisted his heavy neck, set forth his
+huge jaw, and refused to move.
+
+Beside the track was a long dark object--it was undeniably,
+unquestionably quiet. Tess tugged at the dog's collar and dragged him
+resisting from the spot.
+
+Down the lane ran the squatter and the dog with no pause save to pick up
+the cowhide boots from the side of the path, where Tess had cast them in
+the mad race. She clasped the head of Pete as she opened the hut door.
+
+"Ye can come in, too, Pete," she whispered, lifting the ugly head, "and
+go home in the morning."
+
+Tessibel locked the door, but did not light a candle. Slipping her wet
+clothes to the floor, she crawled into Daddy's bed, and with the
+forgetfulness of youth sank into a sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next morning after her encounter with Ben Letts, Tess sat up in bed,
+wondering what had happened. Then she remembered. One slant ray of sun
+breaking through the dirty curtain showed that the day was far advanced.
+She jumped out of bed, opened the door and allowed Pete to scamper away.
+
+After kindling a fire and frying a fish, she sat down to eat.
+
+Suddenly a knock on the door startled her. Ben might return even after
+his lesson of the night before. Without unclasping the lock, she called
+out:
+
+"Who air it?"
+
+"It air me, Tessibel. Open the door.--It air Myry!"
+
+Tess flung open the door with a smile. She drew back, seeing Myra's
+seamed face, white and drawn.
+
+"Ye be sick, Myry?"
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"Air it the brat, then?"
+
+"Nope, it air Ben Letts. He were hurt by the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's
+Farm. Ezy and 'Satisfied' found him near dead on the tracks and took him
+home."
+
+Tess stood waiting, wide-eyed, without a word.
+
+"He wouldn't say nothin' about it," complained Myry; "just says that he
+air goin' to get even with some one."
+
+"Have ye seen him?" stammered Tess.
+
+"Yep, this mornin' in his shanty. He were cut bad. They got the horse
+doctor to sew him up. He air sick, Ben air!"
+
+"And the brat," demanded Tess, changing the subject purposely.
+
+"Sick the hours through," replied Myra bitterly. "He hes got the
+pitifullest cry that breaks my heart all the time. But he ain't so sick
+as his pappy."
+
+"Ben Letts ain't a-goin' to die, air he?"
+
+Tessibel's woful expression caused Myra to shake her head emphatically,
+her thin lips twitching, then tightening under the nervous strain.
+
+"Nope, he ain't, but he air goin' to be sick a long time. He air the
+brat's pa, and I want to do somethin' for him."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He air wantin' to see ye, Tessibel. Will ye go to him?"
+
+"Nope," Tess burst forth spontaneously.
+
+Myra looked at her curiously.
+
+"He ain't amountin' to much," she ventured, "but he air a pappy--that
+air somethin', ain't it?"
+
+"Yep," mused Tessibel. "A daddy air more than a mammy."
+
+So had Tessibel and Myra been brought up to believe. The squatter women
+fawned at the feet of their brutal husbands, as a beaten dog cringes to
+its master. That Ben Letts had broken Myra's arm on the ragged rocks,
+and yet the girl wanted to aid him, showed Tess the superiority of the
+male sex, and Myra loved the squint-eyed fisherman, she evidenced it in
+every action.
+
+The lips of the younger squatter were sealed about the trail which she
+herself had laid in the midnight tragedy. But through the tender young
+heart flashed the hope that the experience with the dog would cause Ben
+Letts to turn his face toward the wretched, shrunken creature, who had
+suffered so much through him. She contemplated Myra an instant.
+
+"Do ye want me to see him?" she asked, rising.
+
+"Yep," replied Myra, the dull eyes filled with a momentary sparkle. "He
+hes somethin' to say to ye, and I did say as how ye would come."
+
+"Air he alone?" questioned Tess.
+
+"Nope, his mammy air with him--we'll go now--eh?"
+
+Slipping on Daddy's boots was Tessibel's assent, and they started
+through the underbrush in silence.
+
+"The brat ain't goin' to die, air he?" asked Tess presently.
+
+It had been several days since she had seen Myra's little son. The
+troubles of Daddy Skinner had taken up every moment of her time.
+
+"Mebbe," grunted Myra unemotionally; "he howls like a sick pup from
+mornin' till night."
+
+"I air a goin' home with ye, Myry," assured Tessibel; "he won't yap when
+I sings to him."
+
+The lake had risen over the strip of beach, its waters freezing against
+the rocks. This forced the girls to take the path through the wood to
+the hill beyond. Until they came in sight of Ben Letts' cabin, they said
+no more.
+
+At their knock Ben's mother softly opened the door. Her shaggy gray hair
+had not been combed and her fierce old eyes glowed with agony unsoftened
+by tears.
+
+"Ben air too sick to get up," she explained awkwardly, presenting each
+girl a chair, "I said as how ye couldn't come, Tessibel, but Ben said
+Myry were to bring ye."
+
+From the back room came the sound of belabored breathing and a hoarse
+voice called for Tessibel. The squatter girl rose to her feet, her color
+changing from red to white. The thought of the fisherman with his
+dog-bitten face was repulsive to her.
+
+"Ye be goin' in with me to see him, ain't ye, Myry?" The brown eyes
+entreated that she should not be sent to Ben Letts alone.
+
+Myra Longman shook her head. She knew that the brat's pa did not want to
+see her, and again she shook her head as Tessibel waited.
+
+"He air been askin' all the mornin' for ye, Tess," urged Mrs. Letts,
+"Ben ain't no likin' for Myry, Ben ain't!"
+
+A dull red flush crimsoned Myra Longman's face. She watched Tess
+enviously as the girl tiptoed through the doorway and disappeared.
+
+Ben Letts was stretched out on the rope cot, his massive head and thick
+neck swathed in bandages. Two huge hands, with patches of plaster here
+and there lay outside the red Indian blanket. The swollen upper lid was
+tightly pressed over his blind eye, the squint one slowly opening at
+Tessibel's entrance.
+
+She looked down upon the bandaged face but for a moment; neither of them
+spoke.
+
+"I see ye comes," Ben broke in at last.
+
+"Yep, I's here ... What do ye want?"
+
+A drop of salt water oozed from the weak eye; Ben moved his head as if
+in pain.
+
+"Sop up the tear with the rag, will ye, Tess?" he grunted. "It air
+burnin' like hell fire."
+
+Tessibel took the soiled cloth in her fingers, and not too lightly did
+as Ben bade her.
+
+"Ye didn't tell Myry how I comed sick, did ye?" asked Ben, settling his
+head back upon the pillow.
+
+Tess gave a negative gesture.
+
+"Er no one else?"
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"Ye be a pert girl, Tessibel, and I were a cuss for trying to scare
+ye--but the brindle bull has got to die."
+
+"Nope, he ain't got to die," frowned Tess.
+
+"When I gets up he eats what I gives him," assured Ben. "He has to die,
+I says, I does.... But ye be a pert gal, Tess."
+
+Ben moved his head to bring the girl within the vision of his one eye.
+
+"What be ye wantin' with me?" Tess muttered. "I wants to go home."
+
+She saw another tear roll down the plastered cheek, and repeated her
+operation with the rag.
+
+"What do ye want?" she demanded again.
+
+"To tell ye thet I air a goin' to make an hones' woman of ye. I's a
+goin' to marry ye. I knows I's a pappy, but the brat'll die, and he'll
+be forgot like yer daddy will!"
+
+Tess instantly froze into a white, tense little form. She did not follow
+the fisherman's glance as he motioned her to take up the cloth.
+
+"I's a tellin' yer mammy to wipe yer old eye," she said pettishly. "I
+ain't got no notion of bein' an hones' woman ... I hates yer like I
+hates Ezry Longman."
+
+She wheeled to go out, but the man stayed her with a grunt.
+
+"I's to be sick for a long time," exclaimed he, "and mammy will step to
+the grave most any day ... I wants pert fingers to put the plasters on
+my cuts."
+
+Here he groaned and fought for the cloth, the salt tears scorching the
+rents in the skin as they rolled hot from the red eye and soaked into
+the plasters. The squatter girl mechanically wiped away the tears,
+turning again.
+
+"Myry air pert," she said, halting in the door. "She air more than
+that--her fingers air lovin' ones. These," and she held up her two brown
+hands, "would be hurtin' ye, cause I hates ye so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel and Myra walked away from Ben's hut in silence, up the ragged
+rocks to the Longman shanty.
+
+"Ben were askin' to marry yer, Tess, weren't he?" demanded Myra as they
+approached the door.
+
+Tess nodded.
+
+"Were he sayin' as how ye could take care of him?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Be ye goin' to?" The intense longing and misery in her voice made Tess
+gasp:
+
+"Nope, he air too mean a cuss to live. If he air the brat's pa, let the
+brat's ma take care of him. The brat air a good little devil."
+
+Mrs. Longman was moving about in the loft overhead when the two girls
+entered the shanty.
+
+Tess went to the wooden box and looked down upon the small, pinched face
+of the sleeping infant. The babe had worn out his little lungs,
+screeching in his pain, the small faded eyes rolling backward as he
+slept.
+
+The young mother came quietly to the side of her Squatter friend.
+
+"If the brat dies," she began in a low, tense tone, "be ye goin' to
+marry Ben Letts?"
+
+"Nope, I ain't never goin' to marry nobody!"
+
+"Yep, ye will, when ye gets done bein' a baby!"
+
+Tess drew her eyes from the dozing infant and glanced at Myra.
+
+"I wants a Bible," said she deliberately.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To read out of!"
+
+"Can ye read?"
+
+"Nope, not much, but I can spell out words, and write a bit. And the
+Bible says as how, if ye seeks, ye'll find what ye seeks."
+
+The shining eyes were sending a truthful message into the heart of the
+young mother.
+
+"That ain't nothin' to do with Ben Letts," muttered Myra.
+
+"Yep, it air," insisted Tess. "It says what ye seeks ye find. Ain't ye
+seekin' Ben Letts?"
+
+"I knows where he air already," sullenly replied Myra.
+
+"But ye can seek his lovin's, can't ye?... I's a seekin' Daddy--and
+somethin' else."
+
+"What?"
+
+"To be readin' and writin' like--like the minister's gal does. I air
+a-seekin' it every day!"
+
+"How?"
+
+Tess flushed. She could not tell Myra of the long bearded God in the
+pine tree, nor of the stumbling prayers she had repeated night after
+night. Myra understood that she could sing, so Tess said laconically:
+
+"I sings for it sometimes, and that air a seekin'."
+
+Myra grunted.
+
+"I can't sing," and she frowned.
+
+The babe whined in the cradle and Tessibel took him up. The glorious
+voice hushed the child to sleep, Myra Longman bitterly scanning the
+beautiful face. There were only two years between her and Tessibel, and
+her own poor, ghastly wrinkled face looked years older. If she were only
+pretty, Ben might love her. Tess had the splendid vigor of healthy
+youth--Myra, the worn-out complexion of a bad digestion. Beans and bacon
+had made the one beautiful--and destroyed the other.
+
+Suddenly Myra leaned over with a new expression in her eyes.
+
+"Tessibel, I tries to seek Ben Letts and his lovin's for me and the
+brat."
+
+Tessibel placed the small boy in the box, then she and Myra obeyed Mrs.
+Longman's fretful demand that they draw up and eat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+That evening Minister Graves came blustering in after his family were
+seated at the table. What was this ridiculous thing that he had heard?
+His home disgraced, his position ruined, his children ostracized. He
+glanced at Teola and Frederick. His wife, fastening Babe's napkin under
+the child's chin, remonstrated.
+
+"Why, father, what's the trouble?"
+
+"I was making a clerical call on Mrs. Robman to-day," fumed the Dominie,
+"and that girl of hers, and a saucy one she is, too, burst into the
+room, and, mother, what tale do you think she told--before us?"
+
+Frederick glanced at his sister, but Teola's eyes were upon her empty
+plate. Mrs. Graves shook her head.
+
+"That that Skinner girl came here last night and in all her rags and
+filth drank coffee from our daughter's cup! Madame, did you ever imagine
+that such a disgrace could fall upon you?"
+
+Mrs. Graves looked helplessly from her husband's distorted face to her
+son and daughter.
+
+"She came into your home," went on the minister, "and was asked to take
+refreshments from your cups. Mrs. Robman said that she disliked to think
+that such degraded guests were allowed in your home.... Do you
+understand what that means, Mrs. Graves?"
+
+"Let Frederick explain, father," pleaded the trembling wife; "he was
+going to speak and you stopped him. What and how did it happen?"
+
+"The girl came to the Rectory to ask prayers for her father," said
+Frederick, an expression darkening his eyes which his mother dreaded.
+
+"Prayers ... prayers!" roared the minister, "Prayers for a squatter and
+a murderer!... And drinking coffee from your cups. Such a disgrace can
+never be lifted from this house."
+
+"What hurt did she do?" irreverently asked Babe. Frederick was thankful
+for the child's frank question.
+
+"Hurt? Harm, you mean. If she should just hurt a person that could be
+mended. Harm was what she did!"
+
+"What harm?" persisted Babe.
+
+"Madam, you see your children are all growing up like heathens. There
+arn't any of the parents whose sons and daughters were here last night,
+who won't think a long time before they allow them to come again. You
+understand, don't you, that that squatter covered with germs of all
+kinds drank from your daughter's cup."
+
+Mrs. Graves started preceptibly. She was noted for a fear of germs.
+
+"Teola, your mouth must be scoured with peroxide ... Oh, if some one
+would only tell me how it all happened!"
+
+Frederick rose from his chair and impulsively laid his hand on his
+mother's shoulder. To Teola he looked so tall and strong, so capable of
+explaining, that she rose, too.
+
+"I will tell you mother," said the student. "The girl was in distress.
+In some way she had been led to believe that prayers, effective prayers,
+could bring about any desired result. She simply came to ask us to pray
+for her father."
+
+Teola was by his side now, reassuringly pressing his arm.
+
+"And where would she go," she broke in suddenly, "if not to a minister's
+home?"
+
+The pastor's whole family, at least the members that had been
+submissive--for Babe had always challenged her father's commands--was
+rising against him. His wife, instead of taking her willful children to
+task, was weeping; his son and daughter stood beside her refuting every
+word he said. He brought down his hand with a bang, his eyes narrowing
+into a slit.
+
+"You will every one do as I say," he cried. "Frederick, you are to stay
+away from classes for two days, your professors knowing that you have
+disobeyed your father. If your fellow students ask you why you are
+absent, you must tell them what I have said. And, you, Teola--"
+
+Frederick stopped the rush of words.
+
+"If I stay away from college two days," he said in a low tone, so
+deliberate that every word burned into the mother's brain, "I shall
+never go back again. I am no longer a child and I won't be punished. And
+what is more, I shall leave your home forever. You may take your choice,
+father, but not until I make another statement. The girl from the lake
+asked me to pray for her. That is my intention, and I shall do more if
+possible. I shall use every bit of influence I have to aid her father to
+escape hanging.... Also, if you punish Teola, you will never see me
+again."
+
+Mrs. Graves had risen from her chair. She walked straight to her
+son--placed her hand upon him.
+
+"Frederick, you wouldn't leave your mother?"
+
+The strong arm pressed about the wearied little form reassuringly.
+
+"And you can bet, papa Graves," put in Babe, "that I'll go with mamma
+any old day, that's what I will."
+
+Teola stood irresolutely, looking first at Frederick, then at her
+father. She went toward the minister and almost whispered,
+
+"Father, let me speak! The girl came without having been invited by
+anyone, and she did not stay five minutes. She was drenched through, and
+cold ... I gave her my cup of coffee, and she stated her errand and went
+away."
+
+The minister rose, leaving his supper untouched, put on his overcoat,
+not one remonstrating word coming from his family, and went out.
+
+Pastor Graves made his way up the town through the main street to Bates'
+drug-store, his hunger having died in his anger and amazement.
+
+He was positive that he could have brought his children to terms, had
+not their mother taken sides with them. His thoughts went back to the
+early days of his married life when nothing had disturbed their peace;
+the children obeyed, and Mrs. Graves thought her husband's word the
+essence of all law.
+
+He turned into the drug-store in the middle of the block. Here met,
+nearly every evening, the head ones of his flock for a little while to
+talk over religion and politics. Outsiders called it the "Amen Corner"
+of Ithaca.
+
+"Ah," exclaimed the druggist, "you're early, Graves. Must have had your
+supper at the going down of the sun."
+
+Graves coughed his embarrassment and sat down.
+
+"Feeling sick, Elias?"
+
+The druggist opened the door for a child to pass out.
+
+"No, not ill, only disgusted with the world in general."
+
+"Skinner's girl coming to the court went against your notions, eh?"
+
+"And every one else's with any sense," snapped Graves.
+
+"Professor Young stopped in here to-day on his way up the hill," resumed
+Bates, "he had been over to the jail, talking to Skinner, and he says
+that the man will be murdered if the state hangs him."
+
+"That's all Young knows about it," growled the minister. "You and I know
+these people, Bates, better then Young does, and Skinner's word isn't
+worth the powder to blow it up with."
+
+Bates took his accustomary position on the book-keeper's stool and
+spread his long hands out on his knees.
+
+"Well, the professor says," he went on, "that Skinner can prove that he
+didn't use the gun."
+
+"How can he prove it?" asked Graves sharply, "only by the oaths of men
+with no more veracity than he has. I wouldn't believe one of those
+squatters if he used the sacred oath twenty times over."
+
+"Maybe the next jury will think differently," argued the druggist.
+
+"Bigger fools they then," interrupted Graves. "I don't know what the
+town is coming to if the fishermen can shoot down our officials without
+even remonstrance. I'll tell you what, Bates, there'll be a city war
+over Skinner. Let Young take up the cudgel, and I'll see what the church
+can do. There's power in the pulpit, I can tell you that."
+
+Bates agreed to this.
+
+"If the citizens of this city," continued the minister, encouraged by
+the evident acquiescence of the druggist, "should take this matter up as
+a body, ten men like Young couldn't bring about Skinner's acquittal."
+
+"I'm not so sure," muttered Bates.
+
+"I'm sure," insisted Graves strenuously, "very sure, for, if to a man
+every one is ready to do his duty, what kind of a jury could they have?
+Like yesterday's--conviction, swift and sure."
+
+"But" objected the druggist, "a juror who takes his oath in a murder
+case, must know little or nothing of it. Men would not be accepted if
+for a week or month they had listened to combative sermons against the
+prisoner. And you certainly wouldn't have a juror perjure himself, would
+you, Graves?"
+
+"The district attorney is no fool," replied the minister, softening his
+argument under the shocked expression of Bates; "he knows when the state
+is to be benefited by the outcome of a trial. He can leave off certain
+questions; it has been done."
+
+"I know it," interrupted Bates. "But--it seems hardly fair."
+
+Just then the door opened, and Silas Jones, the richest man in the town,
+took his seat with the other two "Ameners." The fascinating subject of
+the day, the unusualness of the squatter trial and the girl with the
+singing voice, continued to be the topic of conversation. Minister
+Graves' family, in standing out against him in a matter so near his
+heart, only strengthened his desire to see the end as he wished it to
+be--the sentence of yesterday executed against the fisherman without
+another trial.
+
+"Young lost his senses to-day, don't you think so, Silas?" he asked.
+
+"Well," drawled Jones, "if Skinner didn't commit willful murder, I'd
+hate to see him hang. It wouldn't do any harm as I see to give him
+another chance."
+
+"You'll change your mind in church next Sunday," commented the parson.
+"I'm going to show every man his duty clear and plain."
+
+He brought down his hand upon his knee with an egotistical slap.
+
+"All folks don't think the same way you do, Dominie," persisted Jones.
+"Now then, Bill Hopkins of the toggery shop, he don't believe in women
+speakin' in meetin'."
+
+The minister distinctly remembered this. More than once had he taken the
+delinquent Bill Hopkins to task for taking his letter to another church,
+but Bill could not be induced to return, because the creed had not been
+followed by its members, nor enforced by the shepherd of the flock.
+
+Hopkins was the best-read man in the whole county, and his voice went
+far when he spoke, but for over a year his place among the "Ameners" had
+been vacant--also his pew in Graves' church. The Dominie needed such men
+as Bill in his congregation if he would win his fight against the
+squatters. These thoughts were prominent in his mind when the door
+admitted a great gust of wind--and the famous Bill Hopkins. The parson
+caught his breath. Bill spoke a genial good-evening, shook hands around,
+and bought a small bottle of witch-hazel, some camphor, and was about to
+leave, when Graves ejaculated:
+
+"Sit down, Bill."
+
+Bill sat down, took his hat from his bald head, and placed his fingers
+complacently around a smooth white wart on his cranium, and waited.
+
+He looked questioningly at the rich man, and the druggist with the
+wide-spread hands. The church subject had been thrashed out long
+ago--the women of the congregation gaining the day in spite of the
+august presence of some of the deacons, who openly declared that the
+female portion of the church was unbecomingly usurping the authority of
+the men. Because of this flagrant disobedience of the church's creed,
+Bill Hopkins had taken his name from the roll, and was known to have
+said that he would not be led by a shepherd who could not order his
+flock. To-night he smacked his lips for the coming argument while the
+minister, glad to have him among them again, felt his hopes rise higher.
+
+Bates flattened his hands with delight, noticing a smile that drew down
+the corners of Jones' lips. Long ago the pleasant religious argument of
+Ithaca's "Amen" corner had become a thing of the past, because of the
+absence of Bill Hopkins. He had been the zest of the crowd.
+
+The Dominie, forgetting his grievance of the supper table, straightened
+himself for the combat. He had suddenly conceived a plan whereby he
+could gain a friend to aid him in the coming squatter fight. Bill
+Hopkins still waited with a quizzical expression in his shaggy-browed
+eyes.
+
+"Strange happenings in town for a few days past," said Graves.
+
+"The Skinner case?" asked Bill, rubbing gently the smooth white wart.
+
+"Yes," assented the minister. "What do you think of it all, Bill?"
+
+"The girl's a brick," commented Hopkins--and sank into silence.
+
+"The girl's not being tried for murder," rebuked the minister sharply.
+
+"But she played her part with feelin' and power," was the drawling
+reply.
+
+The clergyman saw a flitting expression of triumph in the druggist's
+face.
+
+"She'd make a capital actress," ruminated Graves.
+
+He glanced at the rich man to see if he coincided with him, but that
+gentleman was looking into the street.
+
+"We all act in this world," excused Bill; "even you ministers use
+methods that you have found in elocution to bring your beliefs to bear
+upon your congregations."
+
+Graves did not relish being classed with the squatter's child, but he
+made no comment upon it. He changed his tactics.
+
+"Bill," said he, "have you altered your ideas about the church?"
+
+"What ideas?"
+
+"Well, about women having the privilege of speaking in meetings."
+
+Bill shook his head, and Graves resumed:
+
+"Well, I'm changing my mind ... I'm going to stop this nonsense."
+
+The rich man sat up and the druggist, scenting a religious rumpus, drew
+his stool nearer. Bill coughed loudly.
+
+"Those women," continued Graves, "have had their own way too long ... I
+shall put a stop to it immediately."
+
+Bill Hopkins wondered what was coming. It behooved him to wait and see;
+so he settled back with his head bowed and his piercing eyes directed
+steadily upon the pastor. A dark flush mounted to the minister's face.
+He had expected that such condescension to an ex-member would be
+received with enthusiasm. As no other of the "Ameners" offered a word,
+Graves continued:
+
+"Next thing that we know, the women will be coming into the church with
+uncovered heads. I wonder I've stood it so long."
+
+Still Bill did not speak. He could remember that when the dispute had
+been at its height these had not been the sentiments of Pastor Graves.
+In fact, when a delegation had gone to the parsonage to demand obedience
+to the constitution of the church, the Dominie had replied that the
+ladies had come out victorious in the matter, and that it was an
+old-fashioned idea to forbid the women to speak or pray in public if
+they so wished; and the crest-fallen delegates had gone away from the
+rectory, and Bill Hopkins, with several others, from the church.
+
+Seeing that not one of the respectable "Ameners" was going to help him,
+the Dominie sputtered out his wrath in another direction.
+
+"If Young had kept his hands off that Skinner business, there wouldn't
+have been the slightest chance of the fisherman winning out."
+
+"Ah! here's where the shoe pinches," thought Hopkins; "the parson needs
+help to wrest Skinner's squatter rights from him."
+
+But he did not voice his thoughts.
+
+"I guess that's right, Dominie," were his spoken words. "Skinner didn't
+have many friends in the court until that girl came in. She certainly
+did make a change in the ideas of most people in this town."
+
+"Fools! to let a child like that break up the dignity of a court-room."
+Graves settled back angrily in his chair. He had lost in the game he was
+about to play with Bill Hopkins--lost before the game had begun.
+
+"Skinner can thank his kid for his life, nevertheless," interjected
+Jones, "for another jury will never convict him.
+
+"Think not?" queried the druggist.
+
+Bates' question remained unanswered, for Dominie Graves turned the
+subject again.
+
+"Bill, if I come out strong in the church and give you your own way in
+the disputed question, then you must do something for me. I'll speak to
+you later about it."
+
+"Pretty far along in the day," was Bill's answer, "but as you please,
+Dominie. I don't know what you want, but most of your friends will stick
+by you if the church is run on its old plan and according to the creed
+and the Bible."
+
+When Minister Graves walked home he felt that in spite of family
+differences he had scored a point in getting from Hopkins a tacit
+consent to come back into his congregation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+When the family gathered about the table the next morning in the
+rectory, the Dominie told his wife solemnly that he wished to talk with
+her after the children had gone to school. Breakfast over, he broached
+the subject of the women talking in prayer meeting, Mrs. Graves
+listening eagerly. As the pastor's wife she had done the best in her
+power; but her power had been weak, and the stronger ones in the
+congregation had ridden over her convictions and teachings.
+
+There was Augusta Hall, the beautiful wife of one of the deacons who had
+demanded that she be allowed to voice her sentiments in public; and
+other women had followed her lead, although it had been absolutely
+against the tenets of the church.
+
+This woman was in Mrs. Graves' mind, when the Dominie brought down his
+hand upon the table, saying he had decided to stop once and for all the
+nonsense in his church, which was keeping the best of his members away.
+
+Mrs. Graves breathed Mrs. Hall's name meekly to her husband.
+
+"She can leave the church," growled Graves. "In my mind it's almost
+sacrilegious for women to dare to go so far that some of the best of its
+members will leave a well-regulated church. Maria, you must talk to Mrs.
+Hall and bring her to reason."
+
+"If you can't succeed," replied Mrs. Graves, "how do you expect me to?
+You're her pastor."
+
+"I will go and talk to her first, then you follow close upon my heels,
+Maria, and between us both, we will get Bill Hopkins and Carey back
+among us. If they come the rest will."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late in the afternoon Mrs. Graves put on her bonnet, and, with a sigh,
+tied the strings under her withered chin. In the very moment when the
+congregation had at last become reconciled to the privileges extended to
+its female members, another church war was to be fought. But the little
+woman dared not refuse her husband's command, so she climbed the long
+hill toward the south and timidly rang the bell marked "Hall."
+
+Her husband would have been there and gone, for the afternoon was well
+toward its close.
+
+As the servant ushered her in, Mrs. Graves heard loud voices coming from
+the drawing-room, and instantly recognized one of them as the
+clergyman's.
+
+"It's all very well, Mrs. Hall," he was saying, "for the women to work
+if they can do it without showing too much authority, but, my dear lady,
+I have been studying into this matter and it is positively against the
+Scriptural injunction for women to speak in church."
+
+"Where did you read that?" asked Mrs. Hall, handing the Dominie a Bible,
+which he did not take in his half-extended fingers.
+
+"I know, and you know where it is without looking," said he sharply.
+"There is a command from Paul that all women should keep silent in the
+church in the presence of men."
+
+"Paul was an old bachelor," irreverently answered Mrs. Hall. "What did
+he know about women and their needs?"
+
+"He received the commandments from God," replied the pastor gravely.
+
+"Not that one, and what's more, I am going to talk all I want to, and if
+there is a man who does not want to hear, let him go away until he
+either changes his mind or desires to take things as they are.... Why!
+the women have been speaking in our church for over a year."
+
+At this juncture, Mrs. Graves walked in, pale and weary. She dropped
+weakly into a chair.
+
+"Your husband has just informed me," snapped Mrs. Hall, her beautiful
+face flushing as she spoke, "that we are not to speak any more at the
+church meetings. Do you approve of that, Mrs. Graves? I'm sure--"
+
+"Like all dutiful and obedient wives," came the sharp interruption from
+the minister, without giving his sorry-looking spouse a chance to speak,
+"my wife thinks as I do. Mrs. Hall, allow me to entreat you to follow
+the dictates of your conscience, and obey your husband always."
+
+"My husband gives me my own way," answered Mrs. Hall with a toss of her
+head.
+
+"There he is wrong, but I shall leave you to talk things over with my
+wife. On Sunday I shall make it the theme of my sermon and I hope before
+Wednesday, my dear Mrs. Hall, that you and some others will look upon
+the matter in a different light."
+
+The Dominie wended his way toward the business quarter of the city and
+turned into the Gas Company's office. Inquiring for Mr. Hall, he was
+ushered into a private room marked "President," and heartily greeted one
+of the deacons of his church.
+
+"Anything wrong?" asked Hall, noticing the expression upon his pastor's
+face.
+
+"No, only I called about a new rule which we're going to pass Wednesday
+evening, and you can help us if you will."
+
+The president looked up inquiringly.
+
+"The women must no longer speak at the prayer meeting."
+
+Mr. Hall half rose from his chair as these words fell from the
+clergyman's lips, but he sank mutely back.
+
+"It has become necessary to enforce the laws of the church," explained
+Graves, "and I have taken up this matter with some of the members--also
+with your wife."
+
+Mr. Hall dropped his eyes upon his left hand with the fingers of which
+he was bending back those of his right.
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+"I think it will be necessary for you to talk with her, Hall; surely you
+have enough influence over her to make her see that it is absolutely
+necessary that women should cease their--"
+
+"I thought, Dominie," broke in the deacon, "that we had long outgrown
+such notions. You had better let matters go on as they are."
+
+The minister shook his head emphatically, and looked searchingly at his
+parishioner.
+
+"Fact is, Mr. Hall, you know that it is not a personal thing with me,
+but for the good of the church. Hopkins has left and Carey only comes
+when he feels like it. Several others stay away without a place to
+worship, simply because the ladies will have their way. I have no
+trouble with my wife and no man would if he were to demand obedience as
+God says that he should. I shall preach upon it Sunday."
+
+"Don't make it too strong," ventured Hall, thinking of his beautiful
+wife.
+
+As far as he was concerned it made no difference whether women were
+silent or not, whether they wore hats to church or came in with bare
+heads. He was happy in his home life, and was not willing to bring about
+discord by arguments that meant nothing to him. When the church matter
+had come up before, he had acquiesced without a word, had watched the
+fight as it progressed, and when it ended had settled back to enjoy
+peace--a happy official of Ithaca's gas company.
+
+He looked out under his brows at the clergyman, as he fingered the
+paper-cutter on his desk. He took it up mechanically and read the
+inscription on the handle: "From me to you."
+
+His wife had given it to him, and Hall mentally wondered if the woman
+who could think of, and would dare to use, such a unique expression
+would be frightened by a word from him.
+
+Without asking Augusta, the husband knew that his wife would be the
+first woman to rise to speak next Wednesday evening. This much he
+intimated to Graves. An expression of sarcasm flitted over the
+clergyman's countenance, but it quickly vanished--Graves was trying to
+add to his strong friends that day. He only remarked that he hoped it
+would be settled amicably. The president ventured another shot:
+
+"Dominie, there's a complete turn in the affairs of Skinner; he says
+that he did not commit the murder--that he positively did not pick up
+the gun from the shore. Simply because he owned the gun is no proof that
+he used it. Young says--"
+
+"Young had better attend to his campus business," interrupted Graves.
+"He will have all he can do. There's no doubt in my mind that Skinner is
+guilty. I should have thought that his conviction was proof of that."
+
+"But he didn't have a chance to prove his innocence," replied Hall. "He
+has such a good reputation among his own people that Young is going to
+take up subscriptions for another trial."
+
+Elias turned sharply upon the gas official.
+
+"Few people who understand the matter will give money to save the life
+of a squatter. That's another thing I'm going to preach upon next
+Sunday. The very manner in which they live would prove what bad citizens
+they are."
+
+"We can't hang a man," argued Hall, "because he doesn't live in
+accordance with our stilted notions. Professor Young says that the girl
+is a genius--that she has a beautiful voice. I promised that if he took
+up--a contribution for the family that I would send him a check."
+
+Elias Graves rose hastily to his feet, forgetting to put out his hand as
+he went out. He now hated Tessibel Skinner with a deep religious hatred,
+and it would be war between him and her for the life of the imprisoned
+squatter.
+
+President Hall, with a smile upon his face, closed the door of his
+private office after his pastor had departed.
+
+"It's evident why Graves wants the women turned down," mused he; "he
+thinks that he will draw about him again such men as Hopkins and Carey
+and that they will help him in removing Skinner from his land. I won't
+help persecute the poor devil--Gad, but that daughter of his did turn
+things upside down. I wonder what Augusta will say to me when I go
+home?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a keen, cold and blizzardly Sunday morning when the bells of the
+different churches rang out upon the air. Ithaca was astir and her
+citizens anxious to worship. For one-half hour the streets teemed with
+well-dressed people, then became as silent as if the town were
+uninhabited. Minister Graves took his place in the pulpit and scanned
+the pews which were filled to overflowing. Not only had his members
+come, one and all, but people from other congregations were standing at
+the back of the railing, eager to hear the mighty effort which would be
+given forth from the clergyman's eloquent tongue. Elias Graves took his
+text from Genesis--"And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
+rule over thee."
+
+The minister leaned far over his flock, as he finished this impressive
+text.
+
+His eyes fell upon Deacon Hall's pew, then upon his own in which sat his
+wife with Babe near her. Frederick was between Teola and the little
+girl, and they were all earnestly watching their father--something was
+going to happen, but they did not know what. The deep voice broke out
+into a prayer, followed by a soulful anthem from the choir.
+
+Minister Graves rose with dignity, and began his sermon.
+
+"It is my intention," said he, "to divide my sermon this morning
+directly in two, because my subjects are so entirely different. Before
+the expiration of it, you will see the force of my argument and will, I
+hope, profit by it."
+
+He continued by saying, a house divided against itself would surely
+fall, that even a stone structure built upon sand would slip into the
+sea.
+
+"Brethren, the sea of which I speak is a sea of discontent and
+disobedience. From my reading text you will see that God commanded that
+woman should be obedient, that she should obey her husband to the
+letter--to the letter, brethren."
+
+There was a decided rustle of silken petticoats in the church.
+
+"It was the disobedience of our first mother," spoke the clergyman,
+"that threw Adam into ill-repute with his Creator, and also Adam's love
+for her that drove him from the Garden of Eden. Brethren, God is good to
+mankind, ever ready to listen to his appeals. If Adam had only believed
+in the greatness as well as the goodness of God, he would have spurned
+the woman who had dared to so flagrantly disobey, instead of following
+her from the garden.
+
+"Adam had more than one rib," went on the minister, "and how readily and
+kindly would God have disposed of the first sinning Eve and under the
+pleasant sleep of the man, Adam, extracted another rib out of which he
+would have constructed another and yet more beautiful woman. Some of us
+are finding it impossible to keep order in our families, and until we
+do, we cannot expect to live to the glory of God."
+
+A loud hacking cough came from Deacon Hall's pew and many heads were
+turned toward it. This disconcerted the clergyman for a moment, but he
+picked up the threads of his sermon and resumed:
+
+"If every man in this little city would rely upon the goodness of God to
+supply him with another Eve, when the woman joined to him in holy
+matrimony disobeys His law, it would be a simple matter to re-establish
+order in his household. Just as happiness was given to Lot after the
+turning to salt of his wife."
+
+The minister paused--the silence was so deathly that it appalled him. He
+allowed his eyes to fall upon the memorial window with a man's face upon
+it. The words underneath the figure passed before him dimly. Then he
+remembered that he was preaching a sermon. Was he not the chosen
+shepherd of the flock? Was he not the one man called by God to show
+these people the righteous paths in which to walk? Should his voice be
+silenced because others did not believe as he did? And was he not
+showing them the light through the Scriptures? With these thoughts in
+his mind and renewed energy in his voice he spoke again:
+
+"I should be the last man in the world to raise a false alarm, neither
+do I desire to enter homes and bring discord there. But I read from a
+passage under my hand, 'If thy right hand offend thee cut it off.'
+
+"From the words of the Scriptures I have proven to you that a household
+must be ruled by the husband and by him alone. And that it is the duty
+of every wife to obey her husband as long as she shall live.
+
+"I shall ask the women of this congregation not to rise next Wednesday
+evening in the prayer meeting, either to pray or testify. The privilege
+has been withdrawn as one perniciously against the tenets of the
+church. For Paul says in first Timothy, 'I suffer not a woman to teach
+nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence;' also I give
+you Paul's further command, 'Let the deacons be the husband of one wife,
+ruling their children and their own houses well.'"
+
+He ran over the last few words quickly for the louder rustle of silk
+could be heard. The minister changed his subject and gave them another
+text which said that the wicked people of the earth should be cut down.
+Was the minister going to sanction the killing of wives who refused to
+obey their husbands? Had he lost his mind? But his voice rang out upon
+the congregation upon a subject in which they had recently become so
+interested.
+
+"There is on our city," said the clergyman, "a terrible blot. The wicked
+ones of Jerusalem could not equal them in wickedness.
+
+"The plans of God in keeping peace among his people are to be carried
+out to-day, with as much vigor as they were three thousand years ago. I
+need not give you the details of a murder committed a short time ago
+within the limits of our city. The very fact that the murderer has the
+chance of another trial after his conviction demonstrates that something
+must be done, and quickly. If the secular law is not able to wipe out
+such a blot then the church must help. It is my idea, brethren, that the
+weeds of the earth must be cut down, and by weeds I mean bad men. If a
+petition is handed you to sign asking time for Orn Skinner, I ask you
+one and all not to place your names upon it."
+
+The clergyman suddenly stopped, closing his Bible. "Papa would cut off
+Tessibel's father's head if he could, wouldn't he, Frederick," whispered
+Babe.
+
+Frederick gave the child a reproving glance and the little girl sank
+back after explaining that if Skinner were hung "papa" would have the
+land which ought to be his.
+
+But as his father was speaking again the student turned his serious face
+toward the pulpit.
+
+"Brethren," finished the pastor impressively, "before I close I would
+adjure every one of you to take the reins of his household into his own
+hands," and then looking straight at Deacon Hall, he concluded:
+
+"And if you have never had the reins, then I command you to take them
+this day and rule your homes as God would have you. 'Let us pray.'"
+
+Augusta Hall made but one remark on her way home from church.
+
+"Wednesday evening, I am going to show Dominie Graves that he can't rule
+every woman in Ithaca, and I want you to go with me, dearie."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Orn Skinner was to be taken to prison the Monday after the famous sermon
+preached by Dominie Graves. Professor Young had gained permission for
+Tessibel to spend fifteen minutes with Skinner before his departure.
+There was something about the fishermaid that touched his heart. Her
+ignorance, her devotion to her father, and the loveliness of the anxious
+young face haunted the professor during his working hours, and at night,
+when he could not sleep, he created plans for her future and her
+father's release. He persuaded himself continually that Tessibel was not
+the motive for clearing the fisherman of the murder charge, it was the
+love of justice--justice to the squatter and his lovely child. Often the
+lawyer had set his jaw when he thought of Minister Graves and the
+evident malice shown by the parson against the fisherman.
+
+That Monday afternoon he met Tessibel as she came into the jail-yard,
+much the same Tessibel he had seen in the court-room.
+
+Professor Young took the girl's hand in his and led her into the small
+waiting room of the stone prison. He desired to be alone with her for a
+few minutes that he might satisfy himself as to her history, which since
+her dramatic entrance into the court-room had been so distorted.
+
+"You have no mother, I understand, my dear," he began.
+
+"Nope," and Tessibel shifted one boot along the seam in the red carpet.
+
+"Do you remember her?"
+
+"Nope; don't remember none but Daddy."
+
+"Have you ever been to school?"
+
+Tessibel shook her head, displaying her teeth in smile which quickly
+faded.
+
+"Squatter's brats don't never go to school," she muttered.
+
+She edged away from the professor, raising her eyes pleadingly to his.
+The man read the desire the girl dared not put into words, but without
+heeding her glance he proceeded to question her.
+
+"Would you like to go to school?"
+
+"Nope, all I want air Daddy home in the shanty. That air enough for me."
+
+She suddenly turned her face away toward the door that led to the upper
+cells.
+
+"But if I assure you," urged Professor Young, "that your father will
+positively get another trial, which is all that can be done at present,
+would you then like to study?"
+
+A definite shake of her head and another quick glance was Tessibel's
+answer.
+
+"I wants to read the Bible," she said, presently turning toward the
+professor; "it air a dum hard book to read, I hear."
+
+Professor Young tugged at the corners of his mustache to keep down a
+smile.
+
+"It would be easy for you to read any book if you went to school," he
+told her. "How old are you?"
+
+"Comin' sixteen."
+
+"And cannot read--it's a pity! And wouldn't you like to learn to sing?"
+
+Young was desirous of touching a responsive strain in the girl.
+
+"Dum sight rather see Daddy--that's what I came here for! Ain't ye going
+to let me see him?"
+
+Professor Young rose with a sigh. Like the rest of her race, she did not
+know gratitude. He had worked diligently, preparing an appeal for a new
+trial which would bring acquittal to her humpbacked father, and he was
+interested in her own welfare, but her thankless words checked his
+inquiry. The professor did not realize what love meant to Tessibel, for
+every desire within her paled into insignificance beside her passionate
+devotion to Daddy Skinner.
+
+Tess followed him silently up the long winding stairs, her heart
+thumping in anticipation. The deputy's search of her clothing brought a
+flush to her face, but without a word she allowed him to draw off the
+great boots and quietly watched him as he turned them upside down,
+receiving them back gravely. Her longing to see Daddy Skinner, to be in
+his arms, to hug the grizzled head, overshadowed even this indignity. So
+long had it been since Tess had nestled in the shaggy chin hair, that
+her heart was sore and wildly impatient. Faith in Frederick's God had
+been forgotten--no other thought occupied her mind save that they were
+going to take away her beloved--the only one left to her. She deigned
+not a glance at Professor Young after the deputy had gone, and measured
+the oilcloth-covered floor restlessly with the stamp, stamp, stamp of
+the big boots.
+
+Professor Young's presence was no more to her than the small insects
+which scurried from the edge of the floor covering into the light and
+then back into their hiding places, afraid of the human giants which
+loomed up before them. What did she care for reading, writing and such
+things. She wanted to be with Daddy Skinner--wanted him home in the
+shanty, as of old.
+
+She kept her eyes riveted upon the open door. Suddenly she leaned
+forward, for the ominous clanging of irons came to her ears. She thought
+of the night she had been found scaling the ivy to Daddy's cell--how
+long she had waited in the darkness for only a little word about him.
+They had given her none, and her vivid imagination brought back the
+anguish of that lonely walk through the storm to the hut.
+
+Approaching footsteps made her alert, and in the paling of the sweet
+face Professor Young divined the tumult going on in the tender,
+uneducated heart.
+
+"Child," exclaimed he, "don't make your father's going away harder for
+him!"
+
+"Shut up," muttered Tess, just as the huge shackled prisoner appeared at
+the door.
+
+Every muscle in the strong young body stiffened. Tess had not seen her
+father since the trial. Intensity narrowed the eyes, the drooping white
+lids covering the lights in the brown iris, the small hands clutched
+convulsively. Daddy Skinner--her Daddy--was standing before her, his
+blue-gray eyes piercing her very soul from under the long shaggy brows.
+She bounded toward him, and two creatures of primeval passion met in one
+long embrace. It was the passion of an aboriginal father for his child,
+of a primitive girl watching her loved one separate from her through the
+portals of death. Tess had lifted herself deftly to the bible-back, and
+lowered her head to the grizzled face, the man's large mouth covering
+the twitching lips of the girl. The shrouding red hair hid the squatter
+faces from the professor, and he turned his eyes away. He could not look
+upon them without distressing emotion. The strange maid was an enigma to
+him and he found himself wishing that he might guide her future. When
+Young glanced again, the fisherman had seated himself and had slipped
+Tessibel from his shoulders, gathering her closely into his great
+embrace--for she was the brawn of his brawn and the bone of his bone.
+
+Under the squatter's huge red arm, the fisher-girl had wedged her head
+tightly, the low brows were taut with pain, the bronze eyes defiantly
+closed. Tess was as firmly fixed in her position as the iron chains that
+encased her "Daddy's" ankles. She had come to stay with Daddy Skinner,
+to go with him where he went, in spite of the great man from the hill,
+in spite of the majesty of the law--even in spite of Daddy himself.
+
+The deputy warden with open watch stood over the prisoner with observing
+eye. The fifteen minutes allowed the girl were gone, and he slowly
+touched the humpback on the shoulder.
+
+"Time's up, Skinner," said he. "Sorry, but it's the law, you know."
+
+Skinner tried to draw the curly head from under his arm but the muscles
+in the girl's body only tightened, the white lips grew more rigid.
+
+"It air time fer me to go, Tess," murmured the squatter in her ear.
+
+"I air--I--I air a goin' with ye."
+
+The words were scarcely more than the flutter of a breath. The deputy
+warden stepped forward a little, then back to his place by the door; the
+professor rose but sank again to his chair; the bible-back of the
+fisherman pulsated as if a separate heart was beating in each great
+hump. Tess was as immovable as if nature had aided her to grow into her
+position. Skinner again tried to loosen the bare red arms.
+
+"Ye can't go to prison with me, Tess," he said coaxingly; "set up like a
+good brat ... Daddy'll kiss ye good-bye."
+
+"I air goin'," she insisted. "It air like a dead man's yard without ye
+in the shanty.... I can wash dishes. I can do a hull lot if ye'll take
+me with ye, Daddy Skinner."
+
+Not one whit less rigid was the slender body, the closed lids only
+pressed tighter together.
+
+The deputy grunted impatiently.
+
+"Come, Kid," said he gruffly; "it's the law ye're tamperin' with. Do you
+hear? Let the prisoner go."
+
+Professor Young felt his throat tighten. The pitiful sight of the girl,
+the ragged skirt, the terrible unkemptness of the small body, almost
+brought a shout from his lips. It was a new sensation to the learned
+man, a stinging, rebellious, pitying sensation, a feeling that he wanted
+to shake the girl from her father's arms, and then care tenderly for
+her. One great boot had fallen from Tessibel's many times frozen foot.
+The little toe marked and cut by frost, limply hanging independent of
+its fellows, made Young wince.
+
+Suddenly Tessibel sat up and wound her arms more tightly about the big
+humpbacked body.
+
+"I can't go back to the shanty without ye, Daddy," she whimpered, "and
+they said--as how ye was comin'--home to stay.... And I ain't
+goin'--darned if I air."
+
+Young turned his head again toward the window. He could not banish the
+wish that Tess would listen to him.
+
+The deputy placed his hand firmly upon the prisoner's arm, the fisherman
+himself trying in vain to loosen the girl's fingers from the shaggy
+beard.
+
+"I--I--air to go with Daddy--I air--I air!"
+
+Tessibel brought out the words snappingly, but Skinner, with the aid of
+the deputy, opened the clenched hands. Tessibel gave way; she was unable
+to stop the awful impending danger that hung over her--absolute
+separation from Daddy Skinner.
+
+"Daddy, Daddy," she gasped, sitting up straight: "man--man, let me go
+... I air dyin' without my Daddy ... I air alone--all alone!"
+
+The official moved anxiously as she made this appeal to him. She was now
+standing on her bare feet, but she bounded forward as the bible-back
+rose and fell, and large tears dragged themselves from the lowered lids
+of the fisherman's blue-gray eyes. She pantingly caught her father's
+hand in hers.
+
+"Kisses, Daddy Skinner, kisses on the bill for Tess--before ye go ...
+Tess air a bad brat--"
+
+She could not finish the sentence for the squatter had pressed her to
+him convulsively. Then Skinner dropped the slender, relaxed body into
+the wooden arm-chair, and iron-hampered, took up his march behind the
+deputy. The professor mutely watched the storm, desperate and terrible,
+break over the squatter girl. Her wild weeping settled into sobs, the
+sound of which rent and shook the man's emotions. At last he ventured to
+speak:
+
+"Child, may I be your friend?"
+
+"'Taint no friends I want. It air somethin' to love--to kiss. It air
+Daddy I want."
+
+The voice came brokenly from the veil of red hair.
+
+Just then the great iron door clanged in the distance behind the
+prisoner. Tessibel sprang to the open door, straining her ears to catch
+another sound from the "black place" which had enveloped her father
+within its menacing shadows.
+
+"He air--gone.... Daddy--air--gone!"
+
+The words were spoken slowly, and hurt the watching man almost as if the
+torture were his own. A shriek rose from the rounded white throat and
+the girl threw herself bootless upon the floor, and screamed in
+passionate childish sorrow, the wealth of disheveled hair mantling the
+dirty jacket, and covering the woful face.
+
+Neither the professor nor Tessibel heard the hurrying footsteps upon the
+stone floor in the prison corridor, but Tess, still in the frenzy of her
+new grief, heard her name spoken through a maze:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!" And then again: "Tessibel Skinner!"
+
+The squatter raised a pale, tear-streaked face to Frederick Graves. She
+sat up with a painful flush, drawing the bare legs closely under the wet
+skirt. The student spoke again:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner has forgotten that God rules and is just. Have your
+prayers proven nothing to you?"
+
+Tessibel gazed scarlet and embarrassed, into Frederick's face, her under
+lip quivering. The red head sank slowly down, and the exhausted child
+wept as only a hurt child can weep.
+
+"I were a-goin' with him," she cried between her sobs, "I could have
+washed dishes in the prison--to be near Daddy. I air such a lonely Tess
+'out him in the hut."
+
+The student lifted her gently in his arms and seated her in the wooden
+chair. With the tenderness of a brother, he placed the great boots once
+more upon the girl's feet, and Tessibel was ready to start again upon
+her long tramp through the row of huts to her shanty home.
+
+The tears had ceased to flow, and with bowed head she was hanging upon
+every word the student uttered. Professor Young went quietly out,
+unheeded by either girl or boy.
+
+"No one blames you for your grief, child, at being obliged to leave your
+father," Frederick said huskily. "But are you going to take off the
+'Armor of God' and forget all that He has promised you?"
+
+Tessibel blinked ignorantly at the long words, "Armor of God," "Armor of
+God." It was something she had not heard before--perhaps it meant that
+the student's Christ would not help her now. It all came back in a flood
+of light--her utter faithlessness in the prayers of the student, in the
+pine-tree God who had waved her so many assurances. She had not dared to
+look into the noble face above her, but when they stepped from the jail
+into the street, she raised her eyes to Frederick's and murmured:
+
+"I air sorry cause I were so cussed ... I only wanted to go with Daddy."
+
+"I realize that," replied Frederick, making preparations to walk with
+her by drawing his coat collar tightly about his neck, "but it was
+impossible, and, from now until the time he comes back, study your
+Bible."
+
+Tess halted a moment, looking up steadily into the dark eyes of the
+tall boy.
+
+"Does the Bible talk of Daddy Skinner?" she entreated; "does it tell as
+how he air comin' home?"
+
+"Indeed, yes," was the student's answer. "There's nothing the Bible
+doesn't contain. The Saviour was nailed to the Cross bearing his misery
+to give you a heavenly harp and crown, Tessibel. If you read Matthew,
+Mark, Luke and John, you will see it all plainly. You can be happy if
+you pray and are a good girl while your father is away." Then, desiring
+to ease the tense-drawn face, he added:
+
+"It will please him if you write him often and tell him about yourself....
+Come now, it's getting too dark for you to walk those tracks. Child,
+haven't you a friend in town with whom you can pass the night? It's
+frightful to tramp that distance alone."
+
+Tess stiffened instantly. Daddy's shanty was in her care, and of what
+night had she ever been afraid?
+
+"I air a goin' home," she answered almost sullenly; "ain't a dum bit
+afraid of nothin'."
+
+As Frederick turned to her side, Tess glanced up confusedly.
+
+"Ye can't walk with me through the streets of Ithacy," said she.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Cause--well, cause ye can't, that's why!"
+
+Frederick understood, and, gravely lifting his hat, turned in the other
+direction with the remark that he would see her again soon.
+
+The girl stood for some seconds staring fixedly after him. Then, wiping
+her face with the sleeve of a ragged jacket, she started off toward the
+squatters' row.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Many were the troubling thoughts which possessed the mind of Tess as she
+strode along. In the fulvid depths of her red-brown eyes there dwelt an
+expression of misery. As the child took her way through the streets,
+with none to care whither she went, her face lighted with a sudden
+determination. Frederick had told her to read, to study, to pray--that
+these three with faith would save Daddy Skinner from the rope of the
+Canadian Indian; but the student, like all those having plenty, forgot
+to enquire how Tess was to read without books, or study without anyone
+to teach her. True, Tess could pick out a few words which Daddy had
+taught her, could haltingly count the stars in the heavens at night, and
+the rain-drops on the shanty window. She could read the names upon the
+store signs and had often seated herself on the railroad tracks with a
+bit of newspaper to stammer forth the words she knew.
+
+But it was a Bible she needed--to learn about the student's God and the
+Christ. Tess was more interested in the cross than the crown, more
+interested in the nails that had opened the wounds in the Saviour's
+hands and feet, than in any royal head-covering that might come in some
+future time to her. There was too much misery in her own life, too much
+desperate desire for her loved one, to allow the glitter of a promised
+crown to affect her. She wanted to know of the suffering Christ, to
+read of how He had promised--Here Tess stopped and tossed back the red
+hair. What was it she wanted to read about? Ah, yes--not heaven and its
+glories nor hell and its terrors, but of Daddy Skinner back in the
+shanty.
+
+The Bible would tell her just how to bring him back,--but where should
+she get one? At the squatter mission, of course. Tessibel remembered
+that once she had been coaxed to enter the mission, but the children had
+laughed at her rags and after that she could not be induced to go again.
+Then in the bitterness of her heart she had thrown stones and clay from
+the edges of the track through the open window upon the other children,
+and had been told by the superintendent never to come near the small
+church again. But that was four long months ago, and not once
+since--since the horror of Daddy's going, had she even looked toward the
+mission.
+
+The dusk fell, slowly striking out the day-shadows from the railroad bed
+and she halted where the two tracks met. The mission was opposite her.
+Would she dare ask for a Bible? A rich, warm light flooded through the
+window and then the old squatter who had kept the place in order for
+many years came out and closed the door. Tessibel's eyes followed his
+form through the dim twilight until he disappeared into his shanty.
+
+Her hand clutched convulsively the knob of the mission door; it yielded
+to her touch, and for the second time in her life Tessibel Skinner was
+inside the mission room. The small reed organ stood open: a hymn book
+stretched back with a rubber band caught her eye. A bright bit of red
+carpet wound its way about the altar. The squatter did not pause to
+examine the pictures on the wall nor even an instant before the glowing
+fire. Her eyes were searching for a Bible--the shade deepening in them
+as she sidled toward the nearest seat.
+
+She read "H-y-m-n-a-l" on the back of the first book--dropping it she
+gathered up another.
+
+"H-o-l-y B-i-b-l-e," she spelled.
+
+Thrusting it into her blouse, she bounded out into the night, and raced
+up the railroad track almost to the Hoghole trestle before she stopped,
+satisfied that no one had seen her theft.
+
+Then, taking the book from her bosom, she kissed it reverently.
+
+"Them old fools ain't goin' to have every damn Bible in this here town.
+I air a right like them to this un." Again she kissed it, as she
+mumbled: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
+
+That night the candle burned longer in the Skinner shanty, and an auburn
+head bent over an open book. A faltering voice spelled out the
+sufferings of the Nazarene. Once Tess smiled wanly when reading of how
+the Saviour had borne all the woes of the world--that any one believing
+could be saved. Her head nodded over the pages, and almost instantly the
+rapt face dropped upon the open Bible and Tessibel slept.
+
+A strange dream filled her sleep. A great light flashed suddenly into
+the sky--Tessibel's sky--and through the brightness of it she could see
+the cross with the Man upon it; could see the nail prints in the swollen
+flesh, the thorns pressing into the bowed head. Then as Tessibel dreamed
+she moved upon the open Bible and groaned with the dream-Christ upon the
+cross. Directly in front of the crucified Saviour Daddy Skinner was
+coming toward her with the student.
+
+She started up--a cry of disappointed anguish escaping her lips. The
+candle had burned out in the grease cup, the wind was rocking the shanty
+and making the rafters creak dismally. Tess shivered as she tossed her
+clothes upon the floor, and crept exhausted into Daddy's bed. The last
+thing she heard was the splashing of her pet eel in the water-pail.
+
+The next morning, on a piece of yellow paper, she scratched Daddy a
+small note. Frederick's words that her father would be pleased with it
+filled her with a desire to write. For three hours she struggled with
+her first letter.
+
+     "daddy the ice air a goin out of the lake ben letts air a gettin
+     well he air a cuss i air lonlie yit without ye i red my bible last
+     nite i cribbed it frum the mishion it says as how god air gooder
+     then i thote he wer cum home and i reads as how a brite lite was a
+     shinin about the cross and as how the christ ruz up here air a
+     story bout a squatter brat it air bout tess she cride and cride fer
+     her dady til her eel what she luved herd her and he cride hisself
+     to deth this here mornin he wer belly up in the bucket i air yer
+     brat dady
+
+     "the man on the cross ruz fer the hull world aint it nise to ruz."
+
+This delicate effusion of love to her father, Tess read over many times.
+With pardonable pride she folded it carefully and placed it in the Bible
+where she had read about the cross and dying Christ.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+On Wednesday evening Deacon Hall tucked Augusta's pretty hand under his
+arm with a happy sense of proprietorship. He was proud to stand by his
+beautiful wife in her fight for church liberty. Hall really believed, as
+he had told Dominie Graves, that the world had outgrown its foggy
+notions, and he delighted in hearing Augusta air her ideas in meetings;
+in watching the rich blood mantling and playing under the transparent
+skin; and in listening to the modulated tones of the vibrant voice.
+Augusta was his style of woman. The thought of her force of character
+made him throw back his shoulders that Wednesday evening as they neared
+the church door. Few members had gathered for the hour was early. Deacon
+Hall nodded pleasantly to Bill Hopkins, and a broad smile parted the
+latter's lips, giving his square face a softer, more genial expression.
+Bill calmly took his seat on the left side of the room; crossed his
+legs, placed his fingers about the white wart, and then sat looking
+thoughtfully out of the window into the lighted street. For the first
+time in many months Bill Hopkins was in his chair at the weekly prayer
+meeting. His one idea in being present was to witness the Dominie's
+success in keeping the women in their places. He had had conscientious
+scruples about remaining in a church, which, in spite of the fact that
+its tenets forbade its females to rise and voice either prayers or
+opinions before the males, countenanced this very abuse.
+
+Bill Hopkins had no objection to women in their places--in fact, he
+enjoyed the company of a pretty woman--but it was not her place to try
+and teach him. Hopkins had the overwhelming idea of the physical and
+moral superiority of men, while, as far as intellectuality was
+concerned, women were leagues and leagues behind.
+
+Many a warm argument had been held between Bill and the pretty Mrs.
+Hall, and as this lady came into the chapel she saw the former elder
+seated in his old chair, the familiar wart shining high and white on the
+bald pate. She tilted her pretty chin an instant before inclining her
+head, then to the amazement of those present, she parted from her
+husband in the middle aisle, marching to the right, her amiable deacon
+taking the left. Bill Hopkins smiled inwardly as the thought flashed
+over him that there must have been a secret female conclave among the
+strong-minded women as well as among the men during the past week. The
+same idea occurred to the minister's mind as he saw his members separate
+in the middle aisle.
+
+He drew his brow into a pucker which furrowed the flesh between his
+brows. Mrs. Graves was seated at the rear of the room to the right, her
+eyes upon an open book in her hand. She did not raise them as her
+husband took his chair behind the small pulpit table upon which lay a
+huge Bible marked by a dangling blue ribbon. The clergyman bent his head
+a few moments in secret prayer, drew the book toward him, opened it,
+found his text and placed the marker carefully between the pages. He
+coughed slightly and with an extra effort raised his eyes to his
+congregation. This is what he saw:
+
+The middle aisle divided almost every woman from her husband; only here
+and there had a timid wife with lowered eyes followed her lord and
+master to the left.
+
+Dominie Graves caught a peculiar gleam in the eye of Augusta Hall and
+followed the line of her vision which was leveled at Bill Hopkins. There
+was no enmity in the latter's mien, but Dominie Graves knew that when
+the elderly deacon toyed with the white wart his nerves were vastly
+disturbed. For an instant the thought traveled through the clergyman's
+brain, that if Tessibel Skinner could work with her magic words on the
+dull protrusion upon Hopkins's glistening head the former deacon would
+lose his favorite occupation. He looked doubtfully down upon his own
+hands and remembered the warts which Tessibel had whispered away. Then,
+trying to drive all thoughts of the fisher-girl and her squatter father
+from his mind, the minister rose to his feet. Frederick Graves had been
+watching his father intently and as he saw his effort to rise the boy
+whitened a little and settled back. Just growing into manhood and
+beginning to think for himself, the lad blushed with shame at the state
+of affairs that rose before his eyes this night. He threw a sidelong
+glance at Hopkins and met a dejected expression from the eyes of his
+mother. She looked so tired, so humiliated, that a bitter rebellious
+feeling arose in Frederick's heart against his father. Then his mind
+wandered again from the church to Tessibel Skinner in her shanty home.
+The quick look she had given him in the court-room had impressed him as
+nothing else could. He saw again the bright head thrown back in eager
+appeal and the shining eyes filled with pain. How he wished that his own
+faith in the Infinite had a touch of the strength which made that of
+Tessibel stand alone by itself! Little did Frederick realize or know
+that the intensity of the fishermaid, the wonderful faith and trust she
+had exhibited in her time of trial and trouble, had come to her from
+him. Every prayer Tessibel had uttered, every devout wish of her heart
+for Daddy Skinner, had been vaguely centered about the student. Her love
+for the Christ of whom she had heard so little was based upon the power
+of attraction that Frederick Graves held for her.
+
+Twice had he, unobserved, seen Tessibel through the hut window; and the
+picture of the tired little figure with its drooping prayerful attitude
+came back with a force that brought a great lump into his throat,
+invigorating his desire to raise the standard of his own love for God's
+words and promises.
+
+His father's eloquent voice brought him back to the present and, as his
+eyes fell upon Hopkins, he saw the nervous fingers twiddling the great
+white wart and a smile forced itself to his lips.
+
+Then he dragged his truant mind from outside subjects and concentrated
+his attention upon the pulpit.
+
+"In accordance with the creed of the church," the clergyman was saying,
+"and of the laws under which our beloved congregation holds together, I
+speak. It is with love for all I adjure you this night. When I say that
+the subject of my talk will be upon duty you will not be surprised, for
+you, one and all, know what I mean. I shall ask the sisters in the
+church not to rise again to speak. If they desire church work there are
+the poor, the blind, and always the needy. By needy I mean those
+desiring the faith of God and yet being unable to grasp it without help.
+To the dear sisters of the congregation I commend all these." He made no
+allusion to the division of the men and women, nor to the sermon of the
+past Sunday.
+
+After the hymn he sat down, bowing his handsome dark head quietly, and
+remaining mute in the dismal silence that followed. Suddenly an elderly
+woman with a meek face struggled to her feet, glancing toward Augusta
+Hall for an encouraging smile. Several trimmed hats however loomed up
+between her and the deacon's wife, so still standing she lowered her
+eyes and began to pray. Simultaneously with hers a masculine voice broke
+through the air mingling with the weak petition of the woman. Frederick
+Graves lifted his head quickly--the trend of war cutting through his
+mind like a knife. It had evidently been planned before the meeting just
+how severely the women were to be dealt with, for Frederick noted that
+his father's eyes did not raise from his reverent position at the
+unusual happening. As the man's voice grew louder, importunately seeking
+guidance in this unhappy church affair, the woman closed her lips and
+fell backward upon the seat crying weakly. The masculine voice rose
+higher and clearer and finished the petition with ringing clarity.
+Another embarrassing silence out of which came scarcely a breath.
+Augusta Hall caught a glimpse of the piercing blue eyes peering from
+under the shaggy brows of Bill Hopkins. The deacon was watching her, and
+Augusta knew that he exulted as one woman after another was driven to
+her chair by the masculine voice of her shouting opponent.
+
+So far the men held the day. This was demonstrated to Augusta Hall and
+Bill Hopkins by the undertoned sobs that continually emerged from behind
+the numerous white handkerchiefs. So dense was the quietude of the
+painful meeting that Frederick Graves could plainly hear the thumping of
+his own heart. Suddenly Augusta with a slight cough and a rustle of her
+fine skirts rose to her feet. She started to speak reverently in a low
+tone. It was the usual petition that blessing should descend upon the
+missions, the sewing circle and the children's work--and here her voice
+wavered a little, for a man's bass voice joined in with her own. It was
+that of the deacon who carried the offering plate each Sunday morning,
+opposite her husband. On and on both man and woman shouted their words
+with strength and rapidity upon their hearers' ears. The Deacon's voice
+lifted and fell with the power of an orator. Augusta strained forth her
+tones high and clear. Minute after minute until fifteen had passed was
+the oratorical word display of each pitted against the other.
+
+Dominie Graves' fingers were twitching nervously beside his well-shaped
+nose. Bill Hopkins still twiddling his wart had drawn himself to a
+straighter position, and was listening with all intentness. The pallor
+of Deacon Hall's face deepened as Augusta talked on and on until all
+thought of prayer had left her mind, and her words shaped themselves
+into a discourse. She was holding the floor against the church official,
+whose brow was now running with the sweat of his embarrassment--his
+voice had become fainter and his words fewer and less well chosen.
+Augusta's voice, on the contrary, rang clearly through the room, a
+prepared speech upon the aptitude of women and their field of labor. Her
+husband was watching her intently--and thought how beautiful she looked
+as the blood mantled to her white forehead, descending and rising as her
+thoughts took turn after turn. The unfortunate deacon was mumbling forth
+a few ill-connected sentences. At last with a groan he sank to his seat
+and placed a handkerchief to his fevered brow. Presently Augusta sat
+down and there was again an awful silence. No one advanced another
+petition and Dominie Graves pronounced a halting benediction.
+
+The congregation rose hastily and hurried toward the doors, with no
+desire for further discussion.
+
+Bill Hopkins leaned back against the outer door and as Mrs. Hall passed
+him he grasped her hand.
+
+"You had nerve," said he, "I'm not saying it's the right kind ... but
+it's nerve just the same, and, well, I do believe that you women have
+gained the day in this church."
+
+Augusta, leaning on her husband's arm, looked down meekly from a pair of
+wicked twinkling eyes--she could be a sweet clinging creature if she
+wished, and this was her special charm to Deacon Hall.
+
+Suddenly she raised her gaze and looked winningly into Bill Hopkin's
+face.
+
+"I suppose you won't give me the money I asked you for, to aid Skinner,"
+she said slowly.
+
+"I'll send you the check to-morrow morning," and Bill Hopkins' big
+shoulders disappeared through the open door.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It frightened me at first," exclaimed Deacon Hall to his wife
+afterward, "but, as your voice went up and up, I knew my little woman
+would win, God bless her."
+
+"And we'll win about poor Skinner too," rejoined Augusta. "Every man and
+woman so far has agreed to help a little, and I don't want you to try to
+drive the squatters from our lake property."
+
+Here her words were checked by a sudden thought which darkened her
+eyes--she burst forth with a rich low laugh:
+
+"That'll make two triumphs over my haughty parson."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+A sense of embarrassment accompanied Dominie Graves to the breakfast
+table the next morning after the triumphant victory of Augusta Hall. He
+made no remark upon the disagreeable episode of the previous night, and
+ate silently amid the chatter of Babe and the monosyllabic answers of
+her mother. Teola to break the strain spoke of the sleigh-ride and dance
+coming off that evening.
+
+"I fear it will be too cold," objected Mrs. Graves, in her fretful,
+weary voice.
+
+"I can wrap up warmly," argued Teola. "All the girls in town are going
+and Dan will take care of me. We are going in separate sleighs to
+Slaterville. I'm going, mother, and that's all there is to it."
+
+"It seems to me that you are growing rather friendly with that young
+Jordan, Teola," her father said. "He's been here every night for a week,
+hasn't he?"
+
+Teola muttered sullenly that she wasn't the only girl in town who had
+callers, and looked pleadingly to Frederick for aid. The young student
+flashed her a smile.
+
+"Teola will be perfectly safe to-night, father," he exclaimed.
+
+"Are you going?"
+
+"No," answered Frederick, "but sister would be no safer if I were. I
+have implicit confidencs in Dan Jordan and the country roads are
+perfect.... By the way, Dan would like to take a class of boys in the
+Sunday School. I told him to see you about it."
+
+The mollified minister finished his meal without further comment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sleigh-ride was a thing of the past. That it had brought disaster to
+Teola Graves showed in the tired eyes as they rested on the sky, gray
+with the coming morning. She had stolen silently into the house,
+reaching her chamber without disturbing either father or mother. At the
+window she halted. Here and there a star sparkled, dying dim in the
+advancing sky. Teola's eyes rested upon the street below for several
+minutes, then dragged her gaze upward and beyond--beyond to the long
+road that led to the yard of the dead which stretched over the hillside,
+rearing its monuments among the leafless trees, like sentinels over
+sleeping soldiers. There was something alluring, something compelling to
+the pale girl, watching the birth of her first real day of living. The
+University frowned down upon the graveyard; in its turn the graveyard
+frowned menacingly upon the town. A snow-bird peeped a "good-morning" to
+its mate in the Rectory eaves. A bell pealed out twice, striking the air
+with its sonorous sound reverberating into the hills. And still the girl
+stood waiting for--she knew not what.
+
+Yesterday girlhood offered Teola Graves happy hours of peaceful
+meditation--to-day, the new day brought the woman its ceaseless silent
+agony of regret and remorse, strong forces of which she had known
+nothing.
+
+If Dan were only glad that she loved him, if he loved her in return.
+Suddenly tears welled into the dark eyes; Teola Graves hid her face
+from the new world of painful joy--and forgot in sleep.
+
+Teola's next hour with her lover was the most embarrassing one of her
+life. Dan took her hands in silence, and the seriousness of his face
+bespoke his heart pain.
+
+"Sweetheart, is there anything in all the world that I can say to you to
+make you love me more--precious, precious little darling!"
+
+"Only say that you do love me, Dan," breathed Teola, "and--and--"
+
+"Don't turn your eyes away from me, sweetheart--love you, Teola? I'll
+study so hard, dearest, and when I finish college we'll get married, and
+go away and have a home of our own. Teola, forgive me and have faith in
+me! Will you, sweet?"
+
+"Yes," murmured the trembling lips--and Teola buried her flushed face
+upon the broad breast of Dan Jordan and was happy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Frederick Graves had been made president of the freshman class, a short
+time after entering the "Cranium" fraternity. He was considered by most
+of his fellow students a serious, earnest worker and had been taken many
+times into consultation with the upper classmen concerning plans for the
+development of the society.
+
+In past years at the end of every January, the freshmen had held a
+banquet in the opera-house of the city. This event called forth
+practical jokes of all descriptions upon the first-year men from the
+sophomores and seniors, giving many anxious and worried moments to the
+younger students over the outcome of the one important event of the
+year. It had also been the custom to try to capture the president of the
+freshman class and hold him in seclusion until after the banquet,
+thereby making his opening speech impossible. The dread that they should
+lose their leader became more and more apparent among the banquet
+holders as the days advanced, and extensive plans had been made to
+protect Frederick Graves from his class enemies. For one whole month
+previous he had not been allowed to walk alone about the town, and it
+had been ordered that he should sleep at the fraternity house instead of
+at the Rectory, in order that the young president might be guarded
+against any surprise concocted by the sophomores.
+
+One evening at the Cranium Society several freshmen were seated in the
+billiard-room.
+
+"It's a great note," muttered Shorty Brown, "that we have to wait on
+those big lubbers of sophomores and seniors. I'd as soon die as to run
+down the hill after their letters."
+
+"You might as well go, Shorts," put in Spuddy Preston; "you'll only get
+yourself disliked if you don't, and you'll be made to go in the end. The
+blessing of it all is that they did the same thing in their turn."
+
+He took a slow measure of the distance between himself and the cuspidor,
+and shot a piece of gum into it.
+
+"It doesn't make it any pleasanter," put in Swipes Dillon. "Just think
+of me, I haven't had a cent to spend on myself for weeks. Manchester's
+capacity for smoke is enormous. I wish I had knocked his head clean off
+his neck."
+
+He looked gloomily out of the window as he muttered this, but instantly
+brightened as he finished:
+
+"But I can stand almost anything if they don't get hold of Graves. That
+would spoil our fun altogether."
+
+He unbent the small round body drawn up in a woful-looking ball, sitting
+up to hear what the others had to say.
+
+"Just let them take him!" growled Shorty Brown. "We will make it warm
+for those sophs, but they're such sneaks that we can't put a moment's
+trust in them. Why don't you say something, Captain?"
+
+"Nothing to say, Boy," replied Jordan musingly, "only that we must do
+all we can to shield Frederick. If they once get him we won't see him
+until after the banquet. I fear, too, they might hurt him, for he would
+be sure to put up a fight."
+
+"So would I," boasted Spuddy. "You bet I would."
+
+Swipes broke into a ringing laugh.
+
+"You'd make a nice fighter, Spud," he chuckled; "you're not bigger than
+a minute with fifty seconds in it. Gosh, I wish something would happen.
+I'm tired sitting about doing nothing."
+
+His words came to Dan Jordan through a dim maze of tangled thoughts.
+During all his short, happy life anxiety had never been his companion
+until now. It strangled his class ardor and made conscientious study
+impossible. Teola Graves' tearful, pain-stricken face rose constantly
+before him. His own eyes darkened at the thought. Oh, to go back to the
+toffy pull--to live over again those last few weeks--how different it
+all would be, and how repentant he was. He sighed and shook his great
+shoulders and rose to his feet.
+
+"I wonder where Graves is now," he exclaimed. "I met Armstrong and Howe
+coming up the hill last night, talking with their heads close together.
+I noticed that they stopped suddenly when I came upon them."
+
+The blood had crept accusingly into his face as he spoke Frederick's
+name. Never for one moment in the presence of Teola's brother had he
+forgotten--how could he ever forget! But he did love Teola Graves madly
+and wished with all his soul that he were through college. He had hoped
+that in the excitement of the banquet his remorse would be quieted a
+little, but his conscience lashed him so constantly with self-reproach
+that it seemed imperative for him to give up his studies, marry Teola,
+and take her away.
+
+"Let's all go down town," cried Swipes in a loud tone with a side wink
+at Spuddy, "and get boiling drunk. If something doesn't happen--"
+
+"Lordy," groaned Spuddy, "Swipes is always wanting something to happen.
+I bet it will before long. What you wish for you'll get, old horse!
+Don't forget that."
+
+Spuddy went on tapping the window, staring out into the gloom.
+
+"We'd better go down town and look for Graves and see that he is all
+right," said Dan. "That will be enough for you kids to do now. It's your
+evening anyway to guard him."
+
+The four freshmen walked down the hill together. Dan separated from the
+three at the Ithaca Hotel with the injunction that they should keep
+their eyes open for the young president, guarding him while the other
+night watchers were having a play spell.
+
+On the next corner Dan Jordan ran into Frederick with two of his own
+classmates.
+
+"You fellows can go now," exclaimed Dan to Frederick's companions;
+"Brown, Preston and Dillon are just up there on the next corner, to
+protect Graves while you fellows go to supper. How are things going now,
+Frederick?"
+
+A sinking sensation attacked his heart as he asked this question, and he
+remembered afterwards that he had expected Frederick to impart ill news
+to him. The fear had come from his over-burdened conscience.
+
+"Everything is all right, but Teola wants to see you. Could you go down
+for a little while?"
+
+Dan nodded and turned with a happier heart toward the Rectory, leaving
+Frederick looking for "Spuddy," "Shorts," and "Swipes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Three hours afterwards the three little freshmen walked zig-zaggedly,
+arm in arm, up the long hill toward the University Campus.
+
+Shorts had a shaky grasp of one arm of Dillon, and Spuddy the other. On
+through the cold night they dragged him, until they reached the broad
+white carriage way that led to the fraternity house. Here Swipes
+stumbled, loosening himself from the grasp of his companions.
+
+"Well, ju--just look at him," growled Spuddy in a disgusted tone; "he
+ought to freeze stiff. Look how his le--legs wab--wabble! They lo--look
+like four--four--"
+
+"Shut up, Spud," cried Shorts. "He's only got--got two legs. What the
+mat--matter with you?... You're as drunk as he is. Don't let him drop on
+those stones!"
+
+"I ain't drunk," retorted Preston. "What's the mat--matter with you,
+yourself? I bet I can ge--get into--that--that fraternity without any of
+the fe--fellows seeing me!"
+
+"I don't believe you will," returned Shorts in a more sober manner.
+"Look there, Spud, the whole house is alight. I say--Swipes--Swipes,
+it's after midnight, and the fraternity is all lighted up."
+
+"I--I--I don't care if it is," grunted Swipes in a low, thick voice.
+"I--I want to go to bed. Tha--that's what I want to do."
+
+He sank into a stupor again but the boys dragged him to his feet.
+
+"Do you want Jordan and Graves to see you like this, Swipes?" demanded
+Shorts stopping in the center of the carriage drive. "If you don't--you
+take a mighty quick sneak up the back stairs, and--"
+
+The sentence was never finished for the door opened and Dan Jordan's big
+form loomed up before their dazed eyes.
+
+"Is that you, Shorts?" called Dan.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where have you been for the last three hours?"
+
+"Down there," mumbled Shorts in a smothered tone, desiring to hide their
+plight if possible.
+
+"For the love of all that's good, Shorts," groaned Spuddy, "let me get
+into the house and change my clothes.... There goes Swipes again in the
+snow. Get up, fool, here's the 'Captain.'"
+
+"To--to the devil with the 'Captain,'" muttered Swipes.
+
+But Dan's next sentence completely awoke the senses of all save Swipes.
+He only grasped it dimly through the cobwebs of his drunken brain.
+
+"Where's Graves?" demanded Jordan, coming to the top step.
+
+The silence that followed was as grim as the falling snow. Spuddy and
+Shorts were dragging the limp Swipes up the long steps.
+
+"Graves?... We haven't seen him," interjected Shorty Brown, and Dan
+Jordan answered gravely:
+
+"Then the sophomores have captured him, that's a certainty! He hasn't
+been here, and he hasn't been to the Rectory."
+
+Shorts, now thoroughly sober, followed the big freshman into the
+drawing-room, where a dozen or more downcast-looking boys were curled up
+on divans. Swipes was being urged up the broad oak stairs, Spuddy now
+and then giving him a severe poke in the ribs. Preston perched the
+hapless boy against his chamber door with the injunction to get to bed
+the best he could. Swipes turned helplessly to his room-mate.
+
+"Look here, Spuddy, help a fellow, will you? Just give me my pyjamas."
+
+"Get them yourself!" retorted Preston, shoving Dillon into his
+bed-chamber. "It's a nice mess we're in with the 'Parson' gone."
+
+With a disgusted kick at Swipes he left him reeling desperately once
+more. Dillon swayed forward from the center of the room toward the
+doorway. He had heard as in a dream Spuddy's parting shot about fellows
+getting drunk and forgetting how to act. Suddenly the floor rose up and
+hit him on the nose, but the polished boards, so bright that he could
+see his face in them, fell back politely, leaving Swipes standing,
+looking helplessly about him. Every piece of furniture, bed, bureau,
+table and chairs, flew around and around him in the wildest disorder.
+
+His eyes reeled after them, in their flight through the room. Around and
+around past the bed to the door--once Swipes thought they would fly
+through. Bracing himself to catch the flying bed, he came up with a bang
+against the beveled mirror which broke and splintered under his weight.
+He was lying in the ruins when some one came and put him to bed.
+
+The regret of the little freshman the next morning when the dismal news
+of the missing president came to him was intensely genuine. They told
+him that the whole town had been searched, but that Graves had
+disappeared as completely as if he were no longer on the earth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Dan Jordan left Frederick Graves on the corner of Ithaca's main
+street, the young president began to search for his three classmates.
+Shorts and the other two must be somewhere near for Dan had told him so.
+He turned to the left, walking toward "Jay's" resort, where with his
+knowledge of the three little freshmen's habits, he would probably find
+them. It was a nuisance to be followed about and guarded as if he were a
+criminal, yet he would go through anything rather than be absent from
+the banquet.
+
+Suddenly he felt a bag thrown over his head and he was dragged
+completely off his feet. Then with much force he was shoved into a
+carriage, a heavy hand held over his mouth. He heard a pair of horses
+whipped into rapid motion. Frederick could not imagine in which
+direction he was being driven, for the constant turning of corners made
+it seem to the smothered boy that they were tearing around in a circle.
+
+Suddenly the vehicle came to a sharp standstill. During the ride his
+ankles and wrists had been tightly corded, and no sooner had the
+carriage halted than several pairs of hands carried him swiftly up a
+flight of stairs into a house and along a carpetless hall.
+
+When the cloth was removed from his head, Frederick was in the presence
+of two sophomores, Mathew Armstrong and Paul Howe.
+
+"Hard luck," said Armstrong, looking at Frederick with a grin.
+
+"Rather," he replied, glancing about. "But what can't be cured must be
+endured. If I am to stay here, I hope I am to be fed."
+
+"Not with banquet cake, Freddy," laughed Howe; "you'll have plain
+bread--until after the banquet. Now just give us your coat and vest, old
+chap, and your collar and tie."
+
+Frederick's ready obedience made Armstrong exclaim jovially:
+
+"That's the right attitude, isn't it, Howe? No one would think to look
+at you, Graves, that you were so docile. You knew what you were saying
+when you said, 'what couldn't be cured must be endured,' and I say,
+'all's fair in love and war,' so you stay here until after that grand
+supper."
+
+Without answering, Frederick turned his eyes gloomily about his prison.
+The room was almost bare. In one corner was a bed, in another a cot with
+some blankets upon it. A long window ran nearly to the floor, minus a
+blind on one side while on the other a green shutter hung by one hinge,
+making a creaking noise as the wind swung it back and forth. Frederick
+reasoned that the window faced the street for he could hear crunching
+footsteps in the hard snow as pedestrians passed.
+
+A wagon rolled squeakingly by and all was quiet.
+
+In the night Frederick endeavored to plan his escape. He believed the
+house to be within the city limits, but during the long, dark drive he
+had lost all sense of direction. Through the flickering of the smoky
+lamp he saw Armstrong with a revolver in his hand, watching him
+intently. So the darkness passed and the daylight came in at the window,
+throwing long slant rays upon the dusty floor and lighting the faded
+paper on the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Dominie Graves had a consultation with Dan Jordan over the disappearance
+of his son, and then climbed the University hill to Professor Young's
+office.
+
+"I feel sure that Frederick has not been harmed," said Graves after
+greeting the professor, but there was question in his voice.
+
+An expression of deep concern spread over Young's face.
+
+"I heartily hope not," responded he, "for I know of no finer young man
+in the University."
+
+"I think the boy would put up a great fight if he had a chance," resumed
+the minister, "but with a lot of fellows against him one chap can't do
+much. I hardly know what to think. There seems to be nothing to do but
+to await his return. Young Jordan said last night that they had searched
+every place where it was possible for him to be, but the boy was not to
+be found. His mother is growing anxious."
+
+"I should think that she would be worried," replied Young. "It's a
+beastly practise this stealing of the freshman's president, and unworthy
+of such a college as this. I shall be glad when it is abolished. There
+is nothing during the year that creates such furore as this banquet."
+
+A file of papers was under Professor Young's hand and as he spoke he
+toyed absent-mindedly with one of the long official envelopes. Dominie
+Graves caught a glimpse of some words that made the color rush hot into
+his face. The envelope contained an appeal for a new trial for Orn
+Skinner. He coughed slightly and opened a new topic.
+
+"I see you are still interested in Skinner?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Have you succeeded in getting him a new trial?"
+
+"Not yet, but at any hour I expect to hear that the governor will give
+me an opportunity to defend him. I fully believe that the man is
+innocent, that he ought to have another chance for his life. As I said
+in the court-room the squatter trials are but farces. I don't approve of
+them."
+
+"You're but a stranger in our town," interposed the Dominie. "When
+you've been here as long as I have, Professor Young, you will see that
+the strictest measures are necessary with these people. The rope is none
+too good for that man, Skinner."
+
+"God forbid," ejaculated Young, "that I should live ever to wish away a
+man's life on any--personal motive."
+
+Tessibel's sweet upturned face, shrouded in red-brown hair rose before
+him, but it did not obscure the dark flush that swept over the handsome
+face of the minister. The professor had intimated that he thought
+personal motives were being used to persecute the squatter. This tried
+the patience of Elias Graves as he sat gathering an argument to refute
+the accusation. He had even persuaded himself that it was for the good
+of the town to remove one after another of the loathsome fishermen
+either by the rope or imprisonment. Without their men the squatter
+women also would disappear from the shores.
+
+He rose with a sense of coming evil stealing over him for the man seated
+opposite was a tower of strength and his own position in the town had
+been weakened in the late church conflict. The reins of affairs were
+being swept from his hands. He could not speak out more emphatically
+than he had against Skinner. On all sides, friends were rising
+mushroom-like to rescue the fisherman from the hangman's noose.
+
+If he himself could gain a few strong friends he would be able to sweep
+the squatter from the face of the earth.
+
+As he walked toward the Rectory after leaving Professor Young he set his
+teeth hard, these thoughts rushing through his mind, and inflaming his
+desire to rule in Ithaca as he always had. Even his anxiety about
+Frederick was obscured by the multitudinous plans that one after another
+were born in his brain. He closed the library door of the Rectory with
+an annoyed air and dropped into an arm-chair to think.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor Young sat long after the departure of Dominie Graves, looking
+at the bundle of papers in his hand. He had not dared to venture to the
+Skinner hut, although his heart called constantly for the red-haired
+girl who was holding the shanty home against her enemies. He knew that
+Tess was living as best she could, existing on the meager fare allotted
+to her kind. Young had seen Tessibel but once since her father had been
+taken to Auburn Prison and his face flushed as he thought that in a few
+days he would be able to tell her that her "Daddy" had received a stay
+upon his execution, that he honestly believed the shadowing rope would
+never seek the beloved head again.
+
+It was only of late that Deforest Young would allow himself to admit
+that Tessibel Skinner had a stronger hold upon him than he ever thought
+possible for any woman to obtain, much less a child of such a race. He
+knew now that his life's interest lay in making a woman of her, a woman
+such as only Tess could make, with her deep primeval nature and splendid
+soul. If the girl could but return his love in part, it would place him
+in a position to help and educate her, but his great growing love gave
+birth to a fear that he might not be able to awaken in the squatter girl
+a soul affection for himself. Nevertheless he would spare nothing to
+elevate her. He expected a hard task to prove Skinner not guilty, and
+every hour he hoped to receive a letter from the Governor of the state
+giving him the desired year to gain the necessary evidence in favor of
+the fisherman.
+
+He was still meditating in this strain when the Governor's letter was
+handed to him. For almost an hour he sat with his head in his hands,
+building an imaginary home, which he had never thought would be his, and
+in still sweeter imaginings he held close to his heart a fair, sweet
+girl, growing into her heritage of womanhood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For two whole days Frederick Graves had been held a captive in his
+unfurnished prison. He knew that forty-eight hours marked the time
+before the banquet, also that if he could not escape before then he
+would have to be absent from the class dinner. Only once had Armstrong
+spoken to him that day and an expression of fine scorn upon the
+handsome president's face had been the answer. The sophomore was
+stretched out upon the bed, the revolver still in his hand, and drumming
+with the fingers of his left hand upon the much soiled wall:
+
+"Graves," he began, "if you think this is any snap for me or that I like
+my job you're mistaken. I hate to be cooped up here as much as you do."
+
+Frederick might not have been within hearing of the words for all the
+attention he paid to the speaker. Armstrong sat up straight with a deep
+far-fetched yawn.
+
+"Come on, Graves," implored he, "let's play cards. It's hanged dismal
+with nothing to do."
+
+Still Frederick kept his dignified silence. He looked down upon his
+coatless arms and pondered, then raised his eyes to the long window, but
+settled them again upon his boots. From the corner of his eye he saw his
+jailer place the revolver upon the table--it roused him suddenly for he
+was getting desperate to escape. With lightning-like rapidity he made up
+his mind to action. Lunging forward he brought his right fist in heavy
+contact with his companion's nose while the strong left hand swept the
+revolver under the opposite bed.
+
+Simultaneously with the sound of the falling weapon came the crash of
+broken glass--Frederick Graves had swept like a young hurricane through
+the long window. The falling of the heavy body, and running footsteps
+brought Armstrong hastily to his feet. He dazedly brushed back a lock of
+hair from his brow, scrambled back under the bed after the gun then
+rushed to the broken window.
+
+"By gosh, that was brave," ejaculated he.
+
+Three times he fired the pistol into the night--the signal of trouble
+to give to his classmates--then sat down and waited disgustedly, nursing
+his bruised nose.
+
+Frederick landed in the street, stunned for a single instant, but the
+snow was soft and the moment critical. He gathered himself up, rubbed
+off the blood that trickled from his fingers, and broke through the
+street on a run. He found himself in the lower portion of the town not
+far from the Leigh Valley tracks. To go eastward toward home would
+attract attention for he was without hat, coat, or vest, and it would
+probably lead to his recapture. He crossed the inlet bridge, passing a
+man here and there who stared after him as if he were a shade, which had
+risen from its grave seeking some kindred soul to haunt.
+
+As Frederick passed the lighted squatter mission, the thought of the
+warmth within made his teeth chatter. He would have given much to have
+been able to place his cold hands over the fire which burned brightly in
+the room. Suddenly he stopped in his rapid flight for liberty for
+stepping to the tracks directly in front of him was the squatter girl.
+She had not noticed him and the student knew that she was homeward
+bound.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!"
+
+The girl stopped, electrified, and tossed up her head.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner!" called Frederick again.
+
+When the girl recognized him, she came toward him with the awkward,
+conscious gait of a maid walking before the man she loved. Her eyes took
+in the half-clothed form of the student with one hasty glance.
+
+"What air the matter?" she asked in an undertone.
+
+Had the student been brought face to face with a dilemma like that of
+Daddy Skinner? With the instincts of a squatter Tess could think of
+nothing that would intimidate but the law.
+
+"I have just escaped," replied Frederick, shivering.
+
+Then he was in danger. He needed her as she had needed him, and Tess had
+no doubt but that he was on his way to her shanty to ask her aid.
+
+"Ye air runnin' from some bloke?" she demanded slyly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But ye air cold," said she, "ye can't walk four miles without a coat."
+
+"Where are you going to take me?" Frederick scented a place of safety.
+
+"To my hut," replied the squatter stoically. "Wait! Ye stop here a
+minute."
+
+She bounded into the road from the railway tracks, leaving Frederick
+staring helplessly after her. At the door of the mission she halted with
+the slyness that had been taught her from the cradle, bending her head
+forward to ascertain if any person were witness of her action. She
+opened the door and fled like a young deer toward the organ, then,
+ripping the crimson cloth from the altar, she fled out again into the
+night, running pantingly toward the student.
+
+"It air for you--put it on," she ordered, proffering him the embroidered
+spread.
+
+"Where did you--?" hesitated Frederick.
+
+"Put it on, I say. I'll fan it back some time if ye will. Ye can't
+freeze with that--and there air bacon, fish and bread in the hut."
+
+Her voice was low and vibrant with untried emotions. Something uplifting
+in the criminal action of the girl so touched Frederick that the
+nearness of tears called a throb to his throat. Without expostulating he
+wrapped the brilliant covering about his head, the embroidered ends
+hanging to his waist. Frederick Graves appreciated for the first time in
+his short, shielded life the awful temptations that make these squatter
+people in their cold and misery take what did not belong to them. He
+followed Tessibel, with no spoken word; on and on, up past the lighted
+huts, to the gaping gorge under the trestle. Tessibel knew that the
+student could not traverse it without her help, and she also knew that
+to touch his hand would be the sweetest of happiness to her. At any
+other time her soul would have recoiled from such temerity, but the life
+and welfare of Daddy's deliverer were at stake. She halted abruptly. The
+night was so dark she could scarcely outline the student as he stood
+near her.
+
+"Take hold of my hand," she ordered. "It air the trestle. It air a long
+one and the steps be far apart."
+
+Without a demurring word, Frederick grasped the strong fingers she held
+out to him. A smile, obscured by the darkness, played about the girl's
+sensitive mouth. The young body was pulsing with life--with intense
+gratitude, for was not she, Tessibel Skinner, helping her friend? With
+halting steps the boy and girl commenced the most perilous part of their
+journey, Tessibel leading the way. The student stopped in the middle of
+the long trestle.
+
+"Are we nearly over?" he asked in a low voice. The awful magnificence of
+the dark night, the rushing water tumbling and roaring over the rocks
+beneath them, awed him into what was almost timidity.
+
+"Nope; come on, don't stop here," urged Tess. "'Taint a good place."
+
+At the end of the gap Tess tried to draw her hand away, but it was a
+feeble motion and she ceased as she noted that Frederick was still
+clinging to it.
+
+"Let me walk with your hand in mine," he said simply with no extra
+pressure of the fingers within his. "It is dark for us both."
+
+During the rest of the journey a silence fell upon them. Kennedy's
+brindle bull, scenting a friend, capered madly for a word from Tess, but
+the squatter paid no heed to her dog chum.
+
+She took her hand from Frederick's to unfasten the door and light the
+candle. While they were walking the tracks, the woman in her had tried
+to remember in what condition she had left the hut. She looked about
+hastily. Before lighting another candle she smuggled the frying pan from
+the floor and picked up the loaf of bread that had fallen behind the
+stove from the table. While Tessibel lighted the fire, Frederick sat
+huddled in the wooden rocking-chair, still wrapped in the crimson
+altar-cloth, and watched the girl, who, as she moved clumsily to and
+fro, uttered no sound save now and then a characteristic grunt. Instinct
+told the squatter that she would choke the sensitive throat of the
+student if she raised the dust by sweeping and she refrained from using
+a broom, but Frederick wished vaguely that she would gather up the fish
+bones and crumbs of bread from her path that they might not crunch so
+audibly under her heavy boots. An open Bible placed on Daddy Skinner's
+stool attracted his attention in his survey of the room. Through the
+flickering light he could see the passages Tessibel had marked. He must
+say something or his brain would burst.
+
+"You have a Bible, I see?"
+
+His words sounded strained and his voice foreign to his own.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Can you read it?"
+
+"I spells at it," Tess replied in tones a little surly.
+
+"Where did you get it?" asked Frederick presently.
+
+She waited a moment before answering, straightening up from the oven
+where she had placed the cold bacon left from her breakfast to heat.
+
+"Where did I get what?" she demanded.
+
+"The Bible," replied Frederick.
+
+He had asked about the book in the first place for something to talk of,
+for the roaring of the wind through the hut's rafters distracted him. He
+desired to hear the squatter say something--it all seemed so much like a
+dream that he feared to awaken only to find himself in the empty house
+with the sophomore's revolver staring at him.
+
+"I cribbed it from the mission," answered the girl, pronouncing her
+words plainly. She leaned toward him and finished abruptly. "I took it
+from the place that comed from."
+
+She was pointing toward the warm red altar-cloth bound about Frederick's
+head. Alas, Tess had needed a Bible and had stolen it; he had needed
+warm covering and had accepted it. There was no difference between the
+minister's son and the squatter's daughter. Vicissitude had forced each
+into a like position, and somehow Frederick lost his sense of right and
+wrong, for he could not sit in judgment upon either action. Never before
+in all of his short young life had he really needed anything for
+personal comfort--but the altar-cloth. Tess saw the struggle going on in
+his mind; she bent toward him, reasoning:
+
+"I needed the Bible, didn't I? Didn't ye say that to save Daddy
+Skinner's life I had to have it? Ye needed that red rag what ye got
+round yer head. There air only one way in this world--" She was moving
+toward him inch by inch, the soles of the fisherman's boots dragging the
+bread crumbs and fish bones beneath them. "Ye takes what ye need to save
+yer life, or the life of yer Daddy. Folks mostly never steals what they
+ain't needin'."
+
+The message went straight home to Frederick. He could not combat such
+reasoning. He knew well that he would have frozen but for the timely
+stealing of the altar-cloth--also, he knew that the Bible was as
+necessary to Tess as the altar-cloth was to him. He mentally lashed
+himself into a state of unrest. Why had he not thought of a Bible and
+given Tess one? It would have been so easy for him to have supplied her
+small needs!
+
+He was watching the girl through the gloomy haze of the bacon smoke, but
+spoke no more until Tessibel ordered him to draw up to the table and
+eat.
+
+"Have a piece of bacon," said she.
+
+Frederick held up his plate, and Tess shoved a generous portion into it.
+She gave him a tempting brown fish, cut a slice of bread, placing it
+upon the side of his tin plate, and commenced to eat rapidly from her
+own.
+
+Neither boy nor girl mentioned sleeping until the hands of the small
+nickel clock on the shelf in the corner pointed out the hour of eleven.
+Then Tessibel opened the subject without hesitation or embarrassment.
+
+"It air time fer ye to turn in," said she, banking the embers in the
+stove for the night.
+
+"I shall sit up," replied Frederick stiffly.
+
+"There air two beds," commented Tess in simple ignorance of all law save
+necessity. "Mine air under Daddy's--see?"
+
+She dragged the rope cot from under the larger bed--a cloud of dust
+rising white to the shanty's rafters and settling like a soft mist upon
+the student.
+
+"I air goin' to sleep here," explained Tess with no mention of the
+lately exposed dirt. "I only slep' in Daddy's bed cause he wasn't
+here.... Ye go to bed while I gets the sticks fer the mornin'."
+
+Frederick placed his hand on her arm almost timidly. She was so
+different from any girl he had ever known!
+
+"Please allow me to get the wood for you."
+
+Two rows of white teeth bared themselves in a frank smile.
+
+"I's a squatter," she said, "and squatter women allers gets the wood.
+Scoot to bed."
+
+When Tessibel came in from the mud cellar, Frederick lay with his face
+toward the wall, Orn Skinner's soiled blankets wrapped closely about his
+shoulders. Tessibel placed the leather strap over the staple in the
+door, and barred up for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+For almost an hour Tessibel lay thinking deeply, her brain alive with
+the past rapid happening of events. That the student would ever sleep
+under her roof was more than she had dreamed. She could hear him
+breathing evenly; he was asleep with "Daddy's" blankets wrapped tightly
+about his finely shaped head. Through the dim light Tessibel could
+follow the outline of the great form stretched out on the roped bed. A
+feeling of thanksgiving swept over her--she was his protector. She had
+not thought of asking about his crime. Of course he was fleeing from the
+law, but he could have done nothing that would lessen her desire to aid
+him. If he had murdered, then it was necessary that he should; if he had
+stolen, it was the common lot of all men in need. The one thing to do
+was to keep him from the clutches of the law. She felt herself getting
+drowsy, and soon the even breathing of the squatter and the student told
+that both slept.
+
+Tess would never know what time it happened. Suddenly her eyes flew open
+and through the light of a lantern she saw Ben Letts leering into her
+face. The frosty air was blowing in gusts through the window which the
+squatter Ben had forced open. The horror of the situation came slowly
+over her. For the instant she forgot the student sleeping in her
+father's bed, and Ben Letts had not noticed him.
+
+Ben began to speak in low tones:
+
+"If ye wants to live, don't holler ... Get up!"
+
+Tess crawled out of bed, fully dressed. Frederick slept on, hearing no
+sound, for the cold room had compelled him nearly to cover his head.
+Suddenly the presence of the student came into the girl's mind; but she
+only threw a furtive glance at the sleeping youth.
+
+"What do ye want?" she demanded vaguely.
+
+"First ye air to come with me to the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's--I air
+got somethin' for him.... He air dead in the mornin' by the hand of the
+girl what loves him."
+
+There was unlimitable sarcasm in the vile, low face as Ben hissed this
+out.
+
+"And after that?" asked Tess, edging toward the lower part of "Daddy's"
+bed. There she could reach for the covering over Frederick, and he would
+save her. The feeling of the night before that she was his protector
+vanished. He would--
+
+"Never mind after that," growled Ben. "Ye had yer chance at bein' hones'
+and ye wouldn't take it."
+
+Tessibel slipped her feet into Daddy's boots--she was strangely buoyant
+and unafraid. It was the woman in her rising to that supreme moment when
+she should call upon the man she loved, and he would answer. Ben was
+leaning against the wall, his eyes having sought for no other person in
+the room.
+
+With the agility of a hare, Tessibel dashed around him toward Frederick,
+and snatched the blankets from the bed. The workings of Ben's mind were
+so slow that the form of the student loomed up, before he realized that
+the minister's son was in Tessibel's cabin.
+
+"Ye air here to save me, Frederick," cried Tess, the light of the
+lantern sending a ray into the upturned widening eyes.
+
+Letts dropped his under jaw, his body relaxing in fear. He was an arrant
+coward like the most of his downtrodden race. Then something shifted
+through his thick brain, and he smiled knowingly.
+
+"So the high and the low air together--eh? The Dominie's son, and the
+fisherman's brat--the student--and the--"
+
+Before he had finished the sneering words, Frederick had struck him full
+in the face. Boyish dignity--his father's position--God--everything was
+forgotten save Tess. He only knew that she was being maligned, and that
+her holy mission of rescuing him from the frost of a night like this was
+being turned into evil by a squint-eyed fisherman whom he had never seen
+before.
+
+Into the man's fat flabby body crashed Frederick's strong fists.
+Tessibel stood looking on, her head bent forward alertly. One arm was
+clasped about her neck--excitement sparkling from the flushed face and
+panting lips. Once the throat sound that came when she was excited
+rolled forth; otherwise she was silent.
+
+Thrashed from side to side, his ragged coat made worse by the severe
+shaking Frederick was administering, Ben Letts groaned audibly.
+
+"Have you had enough?" demanded the student, standing over the
+fisherman.
+
+"Yep, I's a goin' home."
+
+Tess laughed low and wickedly. She loved to see the blood oozing from
+the mark in the ugly face. Every drop matched those dragged from the
+hearts of the brat's mother, who had suffered for Ben, and of the poor
+little miserable child himself, struggling for life in the Longman
+shanty.
+
+"You'd better go home," ordered Frederick, "and I want to tell you
+something. If I ever hear you uttering a word about my being in this
+hut, I'll follow you to the ends of the earth, and flog the life out of
+you.... Don't try any of your tricks on me, either."
+
+Frederick shivered as the wind swept cold from the frozen lake to his
+damp brow. Ben had lifted his lantern and was swaying toward the door.
+
+"I'll go hum," said he, "but I ain't done with ye--some day--"
+
+Frederick bounded forward like a whiplash, but Tess held him back. Ben
+gave a quick jump and was gone.
+
+"He wasn't worth a-hurtin' any more," Tess commented, lighting a candle.
+"I know he air the man what killed my other Frederick."
+
+The name slipped out with loving intonation.
+
+Then the boy and the girl turned and faced each other. The shanty rocked
+in the wind like the cradle of a child. The willow mourned its tale of
+winter over the roof, scraping the broken tin in hollow groans,
+shrieking now and then as a gust roared through it.
+
+For fully three minutes after the going of Ben, Tessibel stood looking
+at the student. He had saved her from Myra's fate, from a hated thing
+that made her teeth press hard together, and her eyes gather an
+expression of melting gratitude.
+
+"It were--it were--"
+
+But the halting tongue could not finish. Untutored as she was, Tess had
+read the message in the student's eyes. Love teaches in one night its
+dreadful longing and response. Its domineering power brought Frederick
+Graves nearer to Tess in her rags. It made them equal, even as all are
+equal in love--and in death. In an instant the girl in the fish-tainted
+tatters was clasped close to his heart, the bright, beautiful face
+lifted to his. Then came the kiss, the making of which blended two lives
+indissolubly together. The paleness of death settled over the boy; the
+strong muscles of his shoulders stood out beneath the whiteness of his
+shirt sleeves, while his fingers pressed the red-brown head closer to
+him, his kiss deepening the crimson richness in the squatter's face. It
+was the one supreme passionate moment of Tessibel's life. The sound of
+the whistling wind left her ears. The cold night blasts driving through
+the window were as the faint breezes of a summer's evening. The
+smoldering candle lifted its flame, blazing forth a glory that
+surrounded the student with a golden halo. Tessibel had experienced her
+first kiss. The nature in her demanded that she know the fullness of
+it--the pitying fullness which would bring to her that which it brings
+to all loving women dominated by the passion born within them. The blood
+of her race, her uneducated primeval race, rose and clamored for its
+own. In her untutored youth she could have crushed the lad in her wild
+longing for such another kiss.
+
+Pantingly she drew herself from Frederick. Why? Tess could never tell
+why! Myra's love for Ben Letts rushed over her overwhelmingly.... The
+"brat's" mother knew the sweetness of a kiss, and in it had forgotten
+the blasting winter winds on the ragged rocks where Ben Letts had broken
+her arm.
+
+Frederick, ashy-pale, struggled for control; a consciousness of the
+ignorance of the girl--and his own godly profession broke upon him; and
+he sank upon the stool with a sob. His face in his hands filled
+Tessibel's soul with remorse. Delicately, with the touch of a lady born,
+she rested her hand upon the student's dark head. The small fingers,
+used to the drudgery of a fisherwoman's life, lifted the damp hair from
+the high forehead. Her woman's sense of the fitness of things rose
+keenly to quiet the boy's grief over his indiscretion.
+
+"It were good of ye to remember that Daddy were gone," she whispered.
+"He gives me kisses on the bill."
+
+All passion had left her tones. Of course, thought the student, she was
+but a child--but a forlorn beautiful child born without--without what?
+If he could have known--
+
+The next moment he did know. With abandon, complete and absolute, the
+hot blood coursing madly from her heart to her face, Tess threw herself
+upon the shanty floor. Frederick Graves drew her quickly to her feet.
+
+"Tess ... Tessibel ... Tess ... Stand up, Tess!"
+
+The last word came out in a shout. He had her in his arms, and she was
+clinging to him as ivy clings for life to an old church.
+
+Tessibel made no effort to support herself. She was leaning limply
+against him with closed eyes.
+
+"It air good to forget--sometimes," she stammered, "I air a forgettin'
+all but the--student."
+
+As on that memorable day when "Daddy" had been taken to prison in
+Auburn, and she had planted herself in his arms not to be removed, so
+Tess hung to Frederick. Ben Letts was forgotten, the suffering child in
+the Longman shanty whom she loved was forgotten; even Daddy Skinner was
+forgotten. Tessibel had found her man, and all the experiences of her
+kind could not help her in her hour of temptation.
+
+"Tessibel, Tess, we can't forget, stand up." The boy's words spread
+through the dazed brain. Frederick dragged her arms from his neck,
+forcing her to the stool.
+
+"Tessibel, have you forgotten--the Christ, your father and me?"
+
+Had she forgotten him? Only him she had remembered--only his voice rang
+through her like the sweetest music. But she was so quiet now that the
+boy seated himself beside her, drawing her hands into his.
+
+"Tess," he began, intensely, bending to look into the flushed face,
+"Tess--look at me!"
+
+Slowly the brown eyes dragged their gaze upward until the boy and girl
+were staring wide-lidded directly at each other.
+
+"Tess, have you ever thought that, some time, we might be more to each
+other--some time in the future when you have learned and studied much?"
+
+Wonderingly she drew her hands from his, hiding them in the folds of the
+torn gingham skirt.
+
+"I air a squatter," she got out at last. "You be high--I air low, as Ben
+Letts said.... But, but," she faltered, finishing her sentence brokenly,
+"But I's yer squatter."
+
+For one bitter moment the Longman child with its old-man face flitted
+across her vision. She shivered, rose hastily, and went to the stove,
+scattering the lids from their openings before uttering another word.
+
+Frederick was watching her critically.
+
+"You ought to go to school, Tess," he said presently.
+
+"I has to stay here," she replied beginning to stir the embers. "If I
+left the hut alone yer pappy could fire it, and Daddy and me wouldn't
+have a home.... Ain't nice nights like this to be without a roof to
+cover ye."
+
+Frederick realized this. Had he not been that very night with no place
+to lay his head, and no kindly hand save hers to give him something to
+eat? He flushed deeply at the mention of his father, and marveled that
+the squatter girl had not spoken with any hard feeling in her tone. It
+was what could be expected--so her voice implied; if she left the shanty
+alone, the rightful owner could then take back what the law would not
+allow if the squatters remained.
+
+"Ye be a goin' to stay here to-morry?" asked Tess later by five minutes.
+
+"If I may."
+
+"Be ye goin' to tell me what ye air hidin' for?"
+
+Frederick threw back his head and laughed. He had forgotten to tell her.
+
+"Of course. You see I am the freshman class president.... The boys in
+the upper classes kidnaped me, and kept me prisoner in an unused house
+at the inlet.... I escaped last night, and you brought me here."
+
+The story was so tame--so unlike what Tess had expected to hear that she
+drew a long, disappointed breath. There had been a vague wish within her
+heart that she were going to be of infinite benefit to him. It was such
+a little thing to lose a fine supper. His life had not been in danger as
+she had supposed.
+
+"You understand, Tess, that it's a disgrace to our class not to have the
+president there," Frederick burst forth, "even if he is kept away by
+force. I would rather sacrifice anything than have it happen--only, I do
+not want to harm your good name, Tessibel."
+
+Tess stared at him blankly.
+
+"Squatter's brats don't have no names.... Ye can't do me any harm."
+
+"Oh, yes, I could," insisted Frederick. "What if that scoundrel who was
+here a little while ago should say that I were here?... It would harm us
+both."
+
+Tess paused in her breakfast preparations long enough to say simply,
+
+"Yer Christ wouldn't let him harm ye, would He?"
+
+The boy swept her with an incredulous glance.
+
+Did she so thoroughly have faith in a miraculous interference in human
+affairs by divine power? The delicate face was lighted with exquisite
+coloring which came and went in the morning light like the tints of a
+sea-shell. The bright trustful eyes were shining into his, every motion
+of the lovely head and body bespeaking the blind faith in which the
+squatter girl lived. Frederick found himself wishing impetuously with
+all his soul that he could command a faith like hers. His own seemed so
+dead, so unlike a living faith that he sighed as he turned toward her.
+
+"Tessibel," he said honestly, "you are a better girl than I am a boy ...
+I am learning many things from you." Then, looking up with a smile after
+a moment's thought, he finished: "No, I believe with you, that it is
+impossible for him to harm one of us if we have faith in God."
+
+"So, I can help ye to-morry if ye ain't in Daddy's fix?"
+
+Then Frederick understood that she would have saved him, even if he had
+been in danger of his life.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "you can aid me.... Do you know where my fraternity
+is?"
+
+Tess shook her head with a troubled expression.
+
+"I can tell you where it is! I want you to go there and ask for Dan
+Jordan and tell him I am here. You must speak to no one else about me,
+or they will come and take me away, and I told you I would almost rather
+die than not be with my class at the banquet."
+
+Tessibel's spirits rose high. She could help him--after all.
+
+"How air ye goin' to get into the place where ye eats without gettin'
+took again?"
+
+A flashing intelligence leaped into the brown eyes during her question.
+
+"I knows how I can help ye." She lowered her voice and began to describe
+the escape and the final fulfillment of their plan.
+
+Frederick chuckled when she had finished.
+
+"That's capital. You tell Dan Jordan, then, to-morrow what you have told
+me. You see the banquet takes place to-morrow night."
+
+"Yep, I tells him, so I will. I goes to town early to-morry and up to
+your house.... Come and eat now!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+The next morning at eight o'clock Tessibel walked eastward up the long
+hill toward the college. The "Cranium" fellows were yet asleep. The
+whole house was tired out from looking for their captured president. The
+underclassmen did not know that Graves had escaped, Frederick's enemies
+keeping them in ignorance as long as possible.
+
+Tessibel turned into the carriage drive toward the fraternity with a
+fish-basket upon her arm.
+
+A man cleaning snow from the flight of steps addressed her.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"I want to see Mr. Jordan.... He air here, ain't he? I has somethin' for
+him."
+
+"Give it to me," ordered the janitor, "I'll take it to him."
+
+"Can't! He said as how I wasn't to give it to no one but hisself, and I
+won't, so there!"
+
+"He ain't up yet."
+
+"Don't care, I'll wait, then.... Tell him, will ye, that I air a
+waitin'?"
+
+Dan Jordan wondered as he crawled slowly out of bed what a girl could
+want of him at that early hour. He met Tess at the front door, and
+without waiting for him to speak Tessibel said in an undertone.
+
+"I has somethin' to tell ye.... I air Tess the squatter's brat, what ye
+gived the coffee to at the parson's house. I said as how I has
+somethin' to tell ye!"
+
+"Will you tell me now?" asked Dan kindly. "You see, I can't ask you in
+here--"
+
+"I ain't a comin' in," and lowering her voice with a furtive glance she
+almost whispered, "I knows--I knows where the minister's son air."
+
+Dan started and looked at her sharply. She could mean no other than
+Frederick. He placed his fingers on his lips.
+
+"You have fish to sell," he asked, "I will take them all. Go around to
+the back door and leave them...." Then in a lower tone he ordered, "Meet
+me in five minutes at the bottom of the hill."
+
+The last of the sentence was breathed rather than spoken. Dan Jordan
+turned into State Street some minutes afterwards, and he could see the
+glistening red head of the fisher-girl as she swung her empty basket on
+her arm and jingled the money in her hand which she had received for the
+fish.
+
+"Tell me quickly where Mr. Graves is," commanded Dan rushing toward her.
+
+"He air in my hut," answered Tess bluntly.
+
+"Did the boys bring him there?"
+
+"Nope, he got away.... And I took him there."
+
+She described the plan she and Frederick had formed.
+
+"Ye see by that way ye can get him to the supper, can't ye?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dan delightedly, "and we will never be able to thank you
+enough for what you have done. Let me assure you that we are very
+grateful to you."
+
+"Aw, shut up!" Every white tooth showed in the wide smile, "I ain't
+done nothin'. He air done more than that for me."
+
+The sweet face lighted by the infinite love for the student hidden in
+her hut spoke its own secret to Dan Jordan and through his recently
+acquired knowledge of heart emotions, he stared vaguely at the girl.
+Would Frederick--no, no--the minister's son was a better lad than he.
+His eyes filled with tears and a lump came into his throat. He stood
+watching the figure of Tess moving away, and regarded intently the great
+boots, the ragged skirt, the beautiful ringlets and the proud young head
+set so well upon the sloping shoulders. Dan's mind reverted to another
+girl, no older than the squatter, and with a sigh mournful enough he
+turned back to the fraternity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess walked down the lane, running as she neared the foot of the hill.
+She wanted to impart to the student what Dan had told her. With her
+fingers upon the hut latch she stopped short. Voices came from inside.
+She dropped her hand--Ben Letts was there or another squatter. Suddenly
+she opened the door and stood in the entrance. Frederick was seated upon
+"Daddy's" stool; Professor Young was standing in his fur coat with his
+back to the stove.
+
+The student's face had blanched to the hue of death; an expression such
+as Tess had never seen in human eyes rested in his. He was speaking and
+the girl's ears caught the words.
+
+"I would forfeit my life before I would harm her, believe me!" Two pairs
+of masculine eyes turned at the opening of the door, and both men were
+looking into the eager face of Tessibel. The Professor did not come
+forward to meet her; his manner was stiff and formal. For a moment even
+the student's last words left her mind, and Daddy Skinner rose before
+her.
+
+"Ye be here to tell me about Daddy?" she asked.
+
+"You needed me to come more for yourself than to tell you of your
+father, child!" said Young with accusing eyes upon Frederick.
+
+A sullen expression flitted across Tessibel's lips.
+
+"Ye didn't need to come, if yer a goin' to make the student sorry," she
+answered haltingly. "Ye has yer own business to mind."
+
+Tess was standing between them, her glance turning first to Frederick,
+then to the Professor. She didn't fully understand his words, but she
+knew that Frederick had been hurt by something the lawyer had said.
+Young began to button his coat. He had thought the girl worth saving,
+and Frederick had ever been in his mind as the perfection of young
+manhood. His throat tightened; he looked at Tess and thought of his love
+for her. It was almost mastering him. Why should he suffer over such a
+girl, who insulted him even while he was trying to help her?
+
+Frederick stood up wearily. Professor Young ought to realize the
+situation, to remember that some shelter was necessary for him. Tess was
+stolidly arranging the table.
+
+"You do not know how I came to be here," said Frederick briefly.
+
+"It is enough that I see you here," replied Young.
+
+In a temper Tess slammed the oven door loudly.
+
+"She found me on the tracks," explained Frederick. "I escaped from the
+sophomores and she brought me here. I should have frozen to death
+otherwise--and I did not think that it might harm her."
+
+"It ain't hurt me," cried Tessibel coming forward. "He air the one what
+helped me get my Daddy Skinner out of trouble. He air my friend!"
+
+The rage of the girl when she wheeled impetuously upon him made the
+Professor catch his breath. He had been the one who had done all the
+work, had given her father a new lease of life. He had come now to tell
+her about the letter, and to hear her say that a lad with no influence
+whatever had done that which it would have been impossible for him to
+do, to hear Tess give the credit which should be his to Frederick made
+Young pass his fingers through his hair nervously, and wonder just what
+the student had done to gain such praise. His own love for Tess, his
+great desire, pleaded with him to believe in both the boy and the girl.
+Tessibel's soulful expression went far in giving back to Deforest Young
+the hope that had made his days brighter and filled the future with
+promise.
+
+"May I stay with you to dinner, Miss Tessibel?" he said, shaking his
+shoulders. "I did not understand ... In fact I had forgotten about the
+banquet. I am glad you helped Mr. Graves make his class dinner.... May I
+stay?"
+
+Frederick stepped forward, holding out his hand.
+
+"Thanks," he said brokenly; "I shall never forget this--in you."
+
+The clasping of the two hands and the smile on the lips of the student
+made Tess broaden her own.
+
+"Yep, jerk off yer coat, and eat," ordered she. "Air ye heard about
+Daddy?"
+
+"Yes." Young hesitated a moment.
+
+"What is it, Professor?" ejaculated Frederick. "Don't keep her in
+suspense."
+
+"Daddy ain't a-goin' to hang!... He can't!" Her eyes turned to
+Frederick. "'Cause ye said he couldn't."
+
+The boy flushed to the roots of his hair and glanced at Professor Young.
+Again she was giving the credit to Graves--credit the lad so little
+deserved. Frederick felt this, and muttered:
+
+"She doesn't understand yet what you've done, Professor--I'm sorry!"
+
+"They've placed a stay upon your father's execution," explained Young,
+"that will give us a chance to prove him innocent.... I am positive that
+he didn't kill the gamekeeper. I went to the prison last week."
+
+"Ye seed him?" asked Tess eagerly, striding close to him. He felt the
+hot breath against his face and a feeling of longing coursed through his
+veins.
+
+"Yes," was all he said.
+
+"What did he say about me?"
+
+"Everything good! You will have him very soon here with you, Tessibel."
+
+The girl was fatigued with turbulent emotions, lonely and heartsick. The
+shadow of the rope was gone from Daddy Skinner. Like a relieved child
+she sank down upon the floor and began to whimper. Both men were
+silenced by the swaying red head. The bacon sputtered in the frying pan
+upon the stove, spitting the grease to the lids, where it burned away in
+tiny yellow flames.
+
+Then Tess raised her head.
+
+"What a bloke I air to cry when Daddy air a-comin' home.... We air
+a-goin' to eat now," she ended, wiping her eyes.
+
+Before the meal was over Tess was on better terms with Young than she
+had ever been before. He outlined to the delighted girl his visit to the
+prison.
+
+"Your father says, child," he related, "that he took the gun from the
+stern of the boat, and laid it on the shore, near where he was hauling
+the net.... He heard a shot and ran forward and was arrested. He swore
+to me that he did not fire the gun and I believe him. The fatal step was
+in his taking the rifle at all, because that was disobeying the law."
+
+"Ye air my friend, too," Tess said beamingly, leaning over and taking
+the Professor's hand in hers. Before he could stop her, she had raised
+it to her lips, kissed it several times, and dropping it again, calmly
+went on eating.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+At the "Cranium" Fraternity, Dan Jordan was closeted with three little
+freshmen. Swipes looked downcast.
+
+"I want to do something to help," he wailed; "I feel as if it were all
+my fault that the parson is gone. We can't have any fun without him.
+It's tedious, too, being cooped up here not being able to go anywhere
+for fear of being taken ourselves."
+
+Dan cleared his throat preparatory to speaking.
+
+"If you fellows won't peach," said he in an eager undertone, "I'll tell
+you something and you can help."
+
+"What?"
+
+"We'll have Graves if you will all do as I tell you."
+
+"Watch me," cried Swipes, turning a somersault. When he was in the most
+harrowing position, Brown gave him a swift kick.
+
+"Give him one for me, Shorts," whispered Spuddy, but Swipes was on his
+feet again, ready to listen.
+
+There was a general hurrah when Jordan in subdued tones had outlined the
+plan.
+
+"Where are Graves' evening clothes," demanded Dillon; "we must smuggle
+them into the opera-house some way."
+
+"They'll be there all right," replied Jordan; "they've gone in with the
+caterer's stuff. You'd better send your own best togs in a barrel or the
+sophomores will see to it that you won't have them when you want
+them.... Now mind, mum's the word."
+
+The fishermen of squatter's row did not recognize the stranger who
+slouched along by the side of Tessibel, the night of the freshman
+banquet. She was on her way to the city with her fish. One after another
+women poked frowsy heads from the hut windows at the barking of their
+dogs. But Tess went steadily on, not even heeding her companion who
+hurried his footsteps to keep close to her.
+
+"Ye sells yer fish for a shillin' a pound," said she after a few
+minutes' walk.
+
+The man nodded. Once only did he raise his eyes. They were passing a
+dingy-looking empty house, with a large broken window.
+
+Just then, Ben Letts, accompanied by Ezra Longman, met them. The red
+head of the squatter girl rose a little higher, the lines growing deeper
+about the narrowed lids. To the fisherman she deigned no good-morrow,
+nor had she a thought of them after they had passed.
+
+"He air a new squatter," said Ben laconically, turning to look at the
+queer pair.
+
+"He air her uncle," added Ezra pompously; "he air here to help her pappy
+out of his scrape."
+
+Ben did not answer, but stepped to the tracks with another evil backward
+look at Tess and her squatter friend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Forty or fifty sophomores loafed about the opera-house watching the
+caterers buzz to and fro. Tables had been spread inside for several
+hundred guests, and the president's chair was decorated with roses and
+winter ferns. Three little freshmen and Dan Jordan, surrounded by many
+juniors went calmly in to inspect things.
+
+Several underclassmen stood disconsolately inside.
+
+"Be on your guard," whispered Dan, passing them.
+
+The fifty sophomores outside were waiting for something to happen.
+Graves would be produced--how, they could not tell. The strangeness of
+the actions of Frederick's fraternity brothers made the affair more
+unsolvable. Threatening looks were showered upon them as freshman after
+freshman, guarded by juniors, filed in. Dan Jordan slouched to the door
+of the opera-house, his eyes falling mechanically upon Tessibel Skinner
+across the street. He heard her arguing with the man from the cafe about
+her fish. Tessibel then crossed to the opera-house.
+
+"Does ye want any fish?" she smiled, showing her white teeth.
+
+"No," replied Jordan. "What have you?... Eels?"
+
+"No, nothin' but bullheads and suckers."
+
+Dan looked about, grinning upon the sophomores.
+
+"There's enough of them here already.... I want some eels--"
+
+The sophomores pretended not to hear. They were not interested in
+fishermen, but kept their eyes open for a carriage that would dash in
+from the main street with the rescued president within it.
+
+"Sling them eels over here," commanded Tessibel, beckoning to the
+slouching squatter across the way. The man with the basket offered the
+contents to Dan.
+
+"I'll take what you have, too, girl," said Jordan in a loud voice, "how
+much do they weigh?"
+
+"Don't know," replied Tess.
+
+"Take them in and get them weighed," said Swipes, innocently coming to
+Dan's side.
+
+"Hey there, you old guy," chuckled Spuddy; "drag your fish into the
+opera-house and dump them out.... We're going to have some fun.... If we
+can't have our president, eels will have to do."
+
+The squatter disappeared inside the building.
+
+"A pile of fun they'll have without their president," grunted a
+sophomore.
+
+Tessibel gathered her empty basket upon her arm and amid the smiling
+looks of the students who stood watching her she walked away with her
+head high in the air.
+
+But Dan Jordan, with a mighty yell, triumphantly taken up by his
+classmen, grasped the hat from the squatter's head. The smiling, open
+face of Frederick Graves was before them. The sophomores never quite
+puzzled out how the freshman president was in his chair at the banquet,
+and directly in front of him in the place of honor was a huge dish of
+eels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shaking the snow from her shoulders like a great dog in a storm, Tess
+knocked softly on the Longman shanty door. Mrs. Longman had gone to the
+city with Satisfied, and Myra, with the whining brat in her arms,
+welcomed her.
+
+One whole week had passed since Tess had seen the student--seven long
+interminable days since--and now she had come to ask Myra Longman some
+of the mysterious questions about the kiss that Frederick had given her.
+Myra relinquished the child to her and the little fellow sank to sleep
+under Tessibel's crooning voice. His regular breathing told her that he
+slept; she placed him in the box and sat thoughtfully down.
+
+"Air Ben Letts been here lately?" she asked after a pause.
+
+Myra shook her head.
+
+"He ain't got no time for such as the brat and me," she replied
+bitterly.
+
+Tess waited until Myra had ceased scattering the shanty chairs in her
+rage.
+
+"Did he say as how he loved ye that night in the storm on the ragged
+rocks?" she asked presently.
+
+"Yep, he did say it, he did," answered Myra.
+
+"Air he--air he a-knowin'--how to kiss?"
+
+The very word slipping from her lips brought back with a sudden joy that
+night a week ago, and the never-to-be-forgotten kiss of the student. She
+could feel again the warm, strong lips pressed to hers--the long
+muscular arms enfolding her.
+
+Myra scanned her face closely.
+
+"To kiss--yep; but he ain't never kissed the brat."
+
+There was wonderful longing and passion in her tones.
+
+This was a new thought for Tess. The "Pappy" should kiss his brat--but
+were they one and the same kisses? She remembered the sweetness of that
+first caress "Daddy" had given her on the stone window ledge of his
+cell. It was tinged with bittersweet--bitter because Daddy was going
+away, sweet because she had desired it so fondly. But it had not been
+like the student's kiss. She was going to ask Myra Longman to solve the
+first great problem of her life.
+
+"Air the kisses what ye had from Ben Letts--burnin' ones? Did ye lose
+the thought of the night and the night things on the ragged rocks?...
+Did ye want 'em again and again--more and more kisses till they scorched
+yer face like the bread oven in the spring?"
+
+Tess had risen to her feet, had whitened to the small ears covered with
+the tawny hair. Myra had risen also. Both girls were eying each other
+with intentness. Tess started to speak again, coming forward a step
+toward the other squatter.
+
+"Did ye forget the storm, the wavin' trees and all 'cept--Ben Letts?"
+
+"Ye air been to the ragged rocks," moaned Myra, sinking down upon the
+floor in a heap.
+
+In a twinkling the meaning of Myra's words dawned upon Tessibel.
+
+"I ain't been there with Ben Letts," she replied suddenly. "I ain't got
+no likin' for the brat's Pa's kisses--"
+
+"But ye hev been to the ragged rocks," insisted Myra, settling back with
+a sob against the box where the child slept.
+
+"Nope, I ain't; but I had a kiss, and Myra, it were--like the singin' in
+the heavens what the song tells about--like the feelin' in here," she
+placed her hand upon her heart, her eyes flashing golden, "when the
+world air filled with flowers and the birds air a singin'.... Were it
+like that with Ben Letts? Were it?"
+
+"Nope," replied Myra sulkily, "Ben Letts ain't got no singin' kisses."
+
+She rose languidly, tucked the blanket closer about the sleeping child's
+head.
+
+"Tessibel," she broke forth hoarsely, "for all women folks there air
+brats a cryin' for their Pa's to tell 'em yep or nope. And there air men
+a-walkin' on the ragged rocks with singin' kisses for yer pretty face
+and tangled hair. There air a brat sleepin' till it's dead in the box."
+The tired young mother allowed her hungry gaze to fall upon the quiet
+infant. "Tessibel, yer brat--"
+
+But Tessibel bounded out of the door, over the snow-covered rocks like a
+deer. She would not lose the sweetness of the kiss in Myra's warning
+words--that penetrating holy kiss she had treasured for seven long days
+and nights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The torturing thoughts that had filled the mind of Professor Young at
+finding Frederick Graves in the cabin of the fisher-girl were new
+sensations to him. He loved Tessibel, and in her lay his future
+happiness. Her stolid indifference to his endeavors to aid her through
+her father had blasted his hopes somewhat. Then again he would
+feverishly reason that she had been born to overlook all save those whom
+she desired and for whom she fought. It was like her kind. Excuses for
+the girl in the aid she had given the student ran willingly through his
+brain. If Tess had seen the young fellow in the storm, it was but like
+the tender, loving heart to aid him. It was no proof that Frederick had
+found a place in her affections. With these thoughts in his mind he had
+worked for several days, quietly hoping that the girl might seek him.
+
+Tess found him waiting at the shanty door for her one afternoon after
+returning from town. She smiled a welcome as she recognized her visitor.
+
+"It air about Daddy ye comed," she said, lifting the padlock from the
+staple.
+
+"Yes, child, I wanted to tell you of some new friends your father has
+made in Ithaca--strong friends to aid him."
+
+"Friends," echoed Tess wonderingly. "Daddy Skinner had fishermen for his
+friends--and not people of Ithacy--come in," she added. The fire
+crackled on the hearth and Tess sat down to listen with open lips.
+
+"I can't explain just how this came about," said Young, "but some of the
+people who were in the court-room the day your father was convicted have
+risen to befriend him."
+
+Professor Young did not add that he himself had urged that money should
+be raised for a second defense.
+
+"So last night," he went on, "there was a meeting of several prominent
+men and money has been placed in my hands for another trial for your
+father."
+
+Tess tried to understand the long words, and blinked knowingly. The
+import of it was plain. Daddy was coming back--but how soon?
+
+"When air he comin' home, then?" she demanded.
+
+"After another trial.... See if you can read this?"
+
+From a long envelope the lawyer took a piece of paper. Tess examined it
+carefully for some moments. Young eyeing her with a sense of happiness.
+He would fight for this child as man never before fought for woman. She
+would love him out of gratitude if for nothing else. He took the paper
+she was holding out to him.
+
+"Can't read a damn word--can't read writin' anyway. Tell me what it says
+about Daddy."
+
+"It's a list of names," replied Young, "mostly members--"
+
+"Of Graves' church?" put in Tess eagerly.
+
+Hadn't the student been praying for just this? she thought.
+
+"Yes; they are all desirous to see your father home again with his
+little daughter."
+
+"Air the minister givin' money for Daddy?" was the anxious demand.
+
+Young shook his head. He felt a sudden swift-coming desire to tell her
+enough about the minister's family to make her hate them all. Deforest
+Young realized for the first time that he was jealous of the student, of
+a tall dark lad of whom in the past he had taken no more notice than of
+many other students.
+
+He drew a long breath.
+
+"Not exactly the minister," said he, flushing with shame. "Here--let me
+read the names to you. William Hopkins of the toggery shop, one hundred
+dollars. Do you know him?"
+
+Tess shook her head in the negative.
+
+"Deacon Hall and his wife Augusta gave one hundred dollars."
+
+"I know her," Tess cried, "and I knows him a little, too. I tooked them
+berries and fish--they has a cottage below the ragged rocks."
+
+"And there's the druggist, Mr. Bates--he did not put down his name on
+the list, but he gave fifty dollars."
+
+Tessibel listened to the explanations as Young read on, making it all
+plain to her as he proceeded.
+
+She was leaning far over toward him, her chin resting on her open palm.
+
+"They be dum good blokes, to give their money to a squatter, ain't
+they?"
+
+The professor started perceptibly. She did not understand that all had
+been done under his supervision; he had tried to impress upon her his
+great desire to help her, but no words of praise fell from her lips for
+him. He would have willingly given worlds had she said that he was "a
+dum good bloke."
+
+"They are all sorry for you and your father," he ended lamely.
+
+"It was the student, Graves, what brought Daddy the money," she burst
+out with a vivid blush.
+
+"No, the student, Graves, had nothing to do with it," was the grim
+reply.
+
+"He's a-been prayin' since Daddy went away--that air somethin'," Tess
+said stubbornly.
+
+Professor Young rose--then seated himself again. He had come for
+something else, something that meant work and satisfaction for him.
+
+"Now that your father is sure to be saved, will you leave this hut?" he
+asked peremptorily.
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"But it's not fit for you to be here alone, Tessibel. Listen ... I'll
+save your father's squatter rights, if you will study in some good
+school until he returns."
+
+"Aw, cuss! Who air to pay all the money?" Tess got to her feet with
+effort.
+
+"I will," deliberately answered Young.
+
+"Nope, I air goin' to stay here," snapped Tess. "I can fish and live
+likes I have been doin' till Daddy comes. I promised him I'd stay. I can
+read the Bible now," she ejaculated, promptly producing the book from
+under the blankets of the bed. "I's a-readin it every day.... If ye
+don't believes, ye can listen and see."
+
+She tossed back the curls from her shoulders as she ended emphatically:
+"I air a goin' to bring Daddy home through this here book--the student
+says."
+
+Again the terrible jealousy of the handsome student flashed alive in the
+professor. Tess had opened the Bible to a chapter she had never read
+before.
+
+"And straightway in the morning," she spelled, "the chief priests--Aw,
+that ain't no good! Wait till I find about Daddy."
+
+Then suddenly she threw the Bible down upon the floor.
+
+"There air places what says as how Daddy air a comin' home. The student
+says it air there. I ain't found it yet but I air a-lookin' for it every
+day. 'Tain't in that place where I just read about them geezers, the
+priests."
+
+The lawyer stood up. A pain seized him. He would save this ignorant girl
+in spite of herself, marry her in spite of Frederick Graves. It would be
+as difficult as scaling the icy mountains, but he would force her to
+love him more than the whole world.
+
+"You understand," he said shortly, "that these good people have given
+money toward helping your father come home. It will be some time before
+the trial will come up, but when it does--I will bring him back to you."
+
+The assurance in his tones brought Tess to his side.
+
+"Ye be a lawyer," she said abruptly, "and the squatters says as how
+lawyers air liars and tramps, but ye ain't no tramp, and ye ain't no
+liar, ye ain't--and when I sells a lot of fish I air bringin' ye the
+money for what ye air a doin' for Daddy and me. I says once and I says
+again as how ye air Daddy's friend, and I air glad that the student's
+meeting-house folks gived ye a little money to help us."
+
+Mist had gathered in her eyes and she slipped her fingers into Professor
+Young's. She laid her lips upon his hand, covering it with tears and
+kisses. Opening the shanty doors, she said:
+
+"I likes ye, I likes ye, but how much a squatter's brat likes don't make
+no difference. Ye go now, for the tracks get dark about five."
+
+"I have my horse at the top of the hill," replied Young, confusedly.
+
+The sensation from the moist lips upon his flesh prompted him for one
+brief moment to take the girl to him. He was filled with a strange
+desire to force this rude shanty maid from her surroundings and place
+her in another life with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+That night, as Tessibel slept and dreamed of Frederick, another girl
+waited for her lover. Teola Graves watched for the approach of Dan
+Jordan with strange emotions. When he was with her, his great strength
+and constant assurances that everything would go rightly with them gave
+the girl courage and confidence. But in the night-watches, when youthful
+sleep refused to come, she was afraid--afraid!
+
+She stood just outside the door, upon the veranda, shrinking from the
+raw winter wind. Relievedly she noticed Dan's tall form, when he swung
+around the corner.
+
+"You should not stand in the night wind, dear," Dan chided, gently
+kissing her. "There! now, I have come for a good chat. Teola, do not
+look so sad--please."
+
+The little drawing-room in the Rectory was partially dark when they
+seated themselves on the divan.
+
+"I am so unhappy Dan; so different from what I used to be. Then, life
+was sweet and I was glad to live--"
+
+"But you don't want to be dead now, sweetheart!--Think of it, Teola.
+When I shall have finished college, I shall be of age. We will go away
+from Ithaca, and no one will ever know--"
+
+"But we shall know, Dan. If I had only been a good girl!"
+
+Dan was visibly moved.
+
+"Let's make a bargain," said he suddenly. "To-night we won't talk of
+anything but the pleasantest of things. I have something funny to tell
+you."
+
+"I have something to tell you, too," breathed Teola.
+
+"Is it pleasant?" demanded the boy, bending and forcing the lowered eyes
+to his.
+
+Teola shook her head.
+
+"Then we will leave it until to-morrow," he exclaimed. "I'll tell you my
+news. Shorts, Spuddy and Swipes are in disgrace at the fraternity. If
+Shorts would keep away from those other two fellows, he might get
+through college. It was really their fault Frederick was stolen."
+
+"What have they done now?" asked Teola listlessly. She had little
+interest in the boys of the society, for, nestled close to her heart,
+was a secret she could not forget. She had a realization that something
+unusual had fallen upon her of which she was afraid.
+
+"Well, you see," explained Dan, "there is a comic opera playing here.
+This afternoon, Swipes, Shorts and Spuddy took some of the chorus girls
+to the house, when the other fellows were away. They might have known
+the officers would have found it out. Sure enough, they did! The little
+rascals were all drunk on champagne, and the girls had to be sent to
+their hotels in carriages. The kids received a great beating, let me
+tell you. They are all in bed, in the cupola prison rooms, trying to get
+over big heads."
+
+Teola wanted to smile, to be happy, but the smiles refused to come. Dan
+turned the subject.
+
+"Haven't they gathered a deal of money for Skinner?"
+
+Teola nodded, and presently responded,
+
+"Yes, and father thinks it is so strange. Mrs. Hall and Professor Young
+were at the bottom of the plan. They think the Skinner girl is a great
+marvel. I, too, think she is beautiful--and so does Frederick."
+
+"She has a lot of courage," mused Dan, thinking of the girl who had
+rescued the class president from the hands of his enemies. Teola knew
+nothing of this episode, for Frederick had asked him to be silent upon
+it.
+
+"Your father does not wish the man liberated?" The question in Dan's
+voice brought a flush to Teola's pale face.
+
+"No; he thinks the tribe is a menace to the town, and he is sure the man
+is guilty. They do tell dreadful things of them, and I can't help but
+believe some of the tales, although I feel sorry for the girl. But her
+coming to the toffy pull that night made a great deal of trouble for
+brother and me."
+
+"So I supposed. But I love you, Teola, for the manner in which you
+treated her."
+
+Teola straightened herself from her lover's arms, and was about to
+speak. She would tell him, then, tell him her secret--tell all the fears
+that weighed upon her heart, as if they were loaded with lead. He would
+comfort, and tell her not to worry--cheer her, until she could smile
+again and be happy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shorts, Swipes and Spuddy had broken the laws of the fraternity. Rather
+than suffer the disgrace of leaving it, they had elected a severe
+punishment.
+
+"I'd rather be cut to pieces, boys," Swipes hiccoughed, turning upon the
+grave seniors, "than let my mother know what a beast I've been. Go ahead
+and lick!"
+
+Afterward, the three little freshmen slunk to the rooms in the top of
+the Society house, which were kept ready for young men whom the officers
+reprimanded. They had been ordered to bed for three days, and were
+thankful that the punishment had been no worse than it was.
+
+Swipes demanded a cigarette.
+
+"Go to sleep," ordered Shorts. "It was all your fault in the beginning,
+and you're drunk."
+
+"No such thing! I couldn't haul a whole bunch of girls up here alone,
+could I, if I'm drunk! Could I, now? I wish there wasn't any such a
+being in the world as a woman.... They bring heaps of trouble on us poor
+men."
+
+Saying this, Swipes tumbled into bed, and sank into a stupor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cry of "Fire!" rang out upon the night air, startling Dan Jordan and
+Teola Graves. The volunteer fire companies were gathering from all parts
+of the town, and Dan stepped on to the Rectory veranda as a hose-cart
+rolled by. In an instant he was back in the drawing-room.
+
+"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said he, with a strangling kiss upon Teola's
+pale lips, "I am sure it's our fraternity house. I must go, dear. I
+must, I must!"
+
+He pressed her to him again, bounded through the door and was gone.
+
+"Dan! Dan!" exclaimed Teola. "Dan, come back! I have something to tell
+you ... I'm so--afraid--so afraid!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Teola stood watching the yellow flames kiss the sky. The whole campus
+gleamed under the lurid glare of the fraternity fire; the light in the
+heavens told her that it was no ordinary conflagration.
+
+Until the day of her death she would not forget that night. She was
+longing to hear one word from Dan or Frederick. Her world seemed charged
+with hideous forces hitherto unfelt. Teola sickened, and waited. If Dan
+would only come back!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The very moment after he had fallen asleep, it seemed to Swipes, Shorts
+was pulling him out of bed, and the room was full of smoke. Spuddy was
+sleeping in the next chamber, and the first sound came to him in a
+haze-like dream. He thought he heard a roar of thunder, and rain
+descending upon the roof. Never mind. He was safe in bed, and had just
+escaped expulsion from his fraternity. As he rubbed his aching head, a
+dazed resolution took form in his brain. He would never get drunk
+again--never--never! Then the fumes of the wine brought visions of
+bright-colored dresses, of pretty faces and tender loving arms, such as
+his father had told him to beware of. He would toss such joys from him,
+if it brought him--Spuddy groaned, turned in bed, and tried to wake up.
+But to wake up was to realize his disgrace. He groaned again, a sharp
+pain ripping through his head. He heard the sound of voices--he was
+dreaming, of course; the wine floated fantastic visions again through
+his misty brain, relieving it of the effort of thinking. Then Shorts'
+voice rang in his ear.
+
+"For the love of God, Spud, get up! The house is on fire, and we're
+boxed in this cupola like rats in a trap."
+
+Spuddy sprang out of bed. The thunder he had dreamed of was the roar of
+the fire in the walls of the great house. The rain descending on the
+roof was the water being thrown from the long fire-hose. A strong stream
+of ice-cold water suddenly broke the window, driving Swipes against the
+wall. He whimpered drunkenly.
+
+"Plagued fire! 'Course the house had to burn down on a night like this!"
+
+Screams and cries from the crazed mob below came up to the boys through
+the broken pane. The water ceased its flow, and Shorts, the most sober
+of the three, crept to the opening. Spuddy had crawled back to bed. Far
+beneath him, Shorts could see his fraternity brothers running wildly to
+and fro, frantically waving their arms to him. He could hear orders
+given in loud tones, and recognized the voices of Frederick Graves and
+Dan Jordan. It all flashed upon Shorts in a moment how greatly he and
+his chums were to blame for the disaster, for the fire must have started
+in the dining-room. He thrust his head through the lurid gleam to
+attract attention, and saw the men and boys in the yard bringing ladders
+to rescue them. Now they were splicing them together, to make it
+possible to reach the great height. Shorts made quick resolves.... If he
+lived.... He turned with a groan, and dragged Spuddy from the bed to the
+open window.
+
+"Stay there, and be ready, if you don't want to die," he commanded
+curtly.
+
+Shorts saw the ladder rear upward, and a form dart from the shadows. Dan
+Jordan was coming, hand over hand, toward him, the long ladder creaking
+under his weight. Jordan's face appeared at the opening.
+
+"Come out here," he commanded Shorts.
+
+Shorts pushed Spuddy forward.
+
+"Take him first, Captain," he said, with a twist in his voice. "He's
+drunk."
+
+Spuddy hung limp on the window-sill for an instant, and was then
+gathered into Dan's long arms. Shorts' bleared eyes saw the little chap
+handed safely to the earth, and the ladder again creaked under the
+upward steps of the big freshman. Shorts pushed Swipes toward the window
+as Dan called his name.... Now he was alone, and he leaned as far out as
+he could.
+
+"God! God!" he groaned. "The Captain's face is scorched brown.... God!
+dear God, bless him!"
+
+The crowds below were sending up cheer after cheer; myriads of sparks
+shot rocket-like high into the air, dying in the snow as they fell.
+Streams of water poured into the flaming windows. Jordan was coming up
+again.
+
+"Come out, Shorts," he heard Dan say, and he clambered over the sill.
+
+"Slip into my arms, old man," the deep voice persuaded. "Come, now; let
+go.... There, hang limper.... You're heavier than the others."
+
+He felt Dan take a downward step, and his head whirled around and
+around. They passed window after window, Shorts being carefully held
+under Dan's arm. Flames licked at them greedily, touching and shriveling
+their flesh. Smoke choked their nostrils cruelly. Shorts could feel the
+trembling of Dan's body, as his burned fingers grasped each rung of the
+ladder. To his mind the figures below looked like goblins dancing in the
+light.
+
+Suddenly, midway to the ground, the ladder creaked and groaned
+hideously. Jordan halted.
+
+"The ladder is bending, Shorts," he breathed hoarsely. He did not
+finish his sentence, but shouted,
+
+"Catch him!"
+
+Little Brown shot into the air like a rubber ball.... A crashing sound
+broke over the silent, gaping throng below. Then a giant form turned
+twice in the air, shooting downward like a stone from a sling.... The
+crowd parted, and Dan Jordan struck the frozen ground. His fraternity
+brothers lifted up the unconscious boy, and the great roof above, with a
+sickening din, sank into the fire.
+
+The bitter frost hardened the streams of water pouring from holes in the
+burning house into ropes of ice. Toward morning, the fire died, leaving
+the huge frame, like an ice-covered palace, looming darkly against the
+college hill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In another fraternity house, Shorts was in bed, face and hands swathed
+in bandages. Swipes and Spuddy, tear-stained and pale, stood by the
+door, waiting.
+
+"If only they would come and tell us something!" moaned Spuddy. "Boys,
+if the Captain goes, I'm done for."
+
+"We'll make it all right with him," came hopefully from Shorts. "He
+can't die, fellows! He's as strong as a horse. If he hadn't thrown me
+out into that snow pile, I would have been crushed under him. I'll never
+forget that in all my life," he finished, with a shudder.
+
+"Gad, but he looked dead when they picked him up," said Swipes in
+despair. "I'm done for, too, if--if.... Here comes some one! It's
+Teddy!"
+
+He stepped aside, and Manchester, entering deliberately, closed the
+door. Then he sat down dazedly.
+
+"He's gone, boys. The Captain's gone." The words came in a stammer
+through pressed lips.
+
+"I wish it had been I," muttered Swipes brokenly, when they were alone
+again. "It was all my fault." He burst into a wild sobbing. "I'd give my
+very life to have heard--the Captain--say he had forgiven me."
+
+"I was more to blame than you were," replied Spuddy. "My mother.... God!
+look at that sun!"
+
+Bright rays slanted golden through the window upon the three woful
+little freshmen who had ruined the "Cranium" Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+One day in the following July, Tessibel was going to Mrs. Longman's hut,
+with a list of Bible words she did not understand. She stopped at the
+edge of the forest, and listened to a curious sobbing sound she thought
+issued from beyond the gorge. Then, thinking herself mistaken, she ran
+nimbly on, avoiding the long thorns that lay in her path. The noise came
+more distinctly through the clear air, making the squatter girl lift her
+head and pause again. There was no mistake this time.
+
+"It ain't no pup," she said aloud, "'cause a pup don't snivel like
+that."
+
+Raising the red head, she tore long threads of hair loose from the
+briars, and, drawing the masses of curls about her shoulders, broke into
+the opening of the forest. Some one was crying, and any sign of
+suffering brought an immediate response from Tess. It might be Myra, or
+it might be some little lost child. Spurred on by sympathy, she bounded
+over a bed of dead chestnut burrs, waded through the water to the other
+side of the creek, and struggled up the rocks.
+
+Teola Graves, crouched in an attitude of suffering and despair, was
+seated on the gnarled root of a huge tree. Tessibel watched her for an
+instant. Here was a holy personage to the squatter, touched with the
+finger of the mysterious God the student worshiped. And was she not the
+sister of Frederick, and had not Teola given her coffee from her own
+cup that winter night? Tessibel had not spoken to the minister's
+daughter since her father had been taken away to Auburn, and some of the
+intensity Tess had felt upon that one great day of her life came back to
+her as she stood hesitant, watching the student's sister.
+
+Perhaps the girl was weeping for some pleasure denied her--perhaps for a
+jewel to wear about her neck. She went forward impulsively, and laid her
+hand upon the rounded shoulder.
+
+"What be ye blattin' over?" she stammered, with a tinge of awe in her
+voice.
+
+Teola struggled to her feet, suppressing her grief. The question stopped
+the flow of tears, and the two girls, so differently situated, the one
+the daughter of an eminent minister, and the other a squatter,
+wonderingly eyed each other.
+
+"I thought I was alone," was Teola's answer.
+
+"So ye was," replied Tess. "I heard ye cryin' from the lower ledge of
+the rocks. What air the matter?"
+
+Infinite pity and tenderness in the coarse words, spoken in a sweet,
+persuasive voice, brought a fresh burst of tears from Teola.
+
+"I'm--I'm ill to-day."
+
+"Ye'll be all right to-morry.... 'T'ain't much, air it?"
+
+"It is very much to me," whispered Teola. "I'm so lonely, and so
+afraid!"
+
+Tessibel sat silently down beside the other girl, twining one arm about
+the twisted root of the tree. She was used to sorrow, used to watching
+the agony of human souls without hope. A bird in the top of the tree
+above them sent a plaintive note into the hot air. Another answered
+from the forest, and Tessibel raised her head and saw a scarlet bird
+take wing and disappear into the branches of the wood trees.
+
+She waited for Teola to speak, but at last, seeing there was no
+cessation of tears, she leaned over and touched her.
+
+"Be ye lonely for yer ma?" she murmured.
+
+Teola shook her head in the negative.
+
+"Then for yer pa?"
+
+"No!"
+
+Ah! Tess had forgotten. Had she not seen Frederick go away weeks before,
+in a boat filled with pots and kettles and food for a camping
+expedition? Had he not smiled at her brightly as she passed him on her
+way to the fish line? She could remember the tense feeling in her
+throat, and felt again the hot blood rushing madly into her face. Of
+course, the girl was weeping for her brother!
+
+"Then air ye blattin' for the student?"
+
+She could scarcely utter the last word, scarcely let Teola hear her
+voice use that beloved name.
+
+"Yes, I was crying for him," replied Teola. "He is dead, you know."
+
+For one instant Tess thought the world had lost its sun. Her face
+creased into lines, which tightened rope-like under the tanned skin. How
+could Frederick have died, and she not have known? She rose unsteadily
+to her feet, uttering one grunt significant of her suffering.
+
+"Were he drowned?" she asked, in a voice so pained that Teola raised her
+head and looked at her. She did not understand the meaning of the
+whitened lips nor of the tense drawing-down of the long red-brown eyes.
+
+"No," she replied slowly, "he was killed in the fire on the hill last
+winter."
+
+The muscles relaxed in the squatter's face. Her legs refused to bear the
+slender body, and Tessibel dropped again at Teola's side. The kiss she
+had cherished burned hot upon her lips. Her student lived. The
+minister's daughter cried for the other one, for him who had called her
+Miss Skinner, and who afterward helped her smuggle Frederick into the
+opera-house.
+
+"Why! he air been dead a long time, ain't he?"
+
+"Yes; six months."
+
+"And ye air a-lovin' him yet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But he air dead," philosophized Tess. "He ain't with no other girl."
+
+Teola shivered violently.
+
+"Oh, I know that; I know that. But I--I need him. I want him so!"
+
+"But he air dead," said Tess again steadily.
+
+For many minutes neither spoke. For Teola's new burst of agony settled a
+solemnity upon Tess which she could not throw off. Forgetting her
+squatter position, she slipped her hand between the white fingers of the
+weeper. Teola did not care if the girl's finger-nails were filled with
+black soot, did not care if the squatter were covered with a dirty,
+ragged dress, or if her bare feet were calloused from the rocks. Tess
+was a human being who sympathized with her, and sympathy was as
+necessary to Teola's soul at that moment as breath was to her body. In
+the spasmodic whitening of the other girl's face Tess realized a
+desperate heart agony.
+
+[Illustration: "THEN YE AIR COMIN' HOME WITH ME TO THE SHANTY."]
+
+"Ye air sick," she said at last, an enlightened expression widening her
+lids. "A woman's kind of sick, ain't it? Eh?"
+
+"Yes," answered Teola, flushing deeply; "yes."
+
+"Then ye air a-comin' home with me to the shanty." Tess muttered this in
+a sly voice, almost in a whisper.
+
+Teola raised her glance, and read in the eyes bent upon her that her
+whole secret was known. Tessibel Skinner, her father's foe, the daughter
+of a murderer, was helping her to her feet.
+
+"I'm too sick to walk," she wept, in a barely audible voice. "I tried to
+throw myself from the rocks, over there, but the water was so silent,
+blue and terrible, that I couldn't."
+
+"Ye be comin' with me," insisted Tess stolidly.
+
+She was urging her forward, holding Teola by both arms.
+
+"I can't! I can't! Leave me here--I am so ill! I am going to die!"
+
+"Ye air to come," commanded Tess. "And, if ye will, I'll lug ye when ye
+can't walk. Women like ye don't die, and Mother Moll will come to the
+hut to-day."
+
+"Mother Moll!" echoed Teola. "Mother Moll! Oh, you mean the witch? And
+will she--oh, will she help me so they will never know?"
+
+"Yep. And now shut up. Ye air a woman, and was borned for things like
+this. If ye walks a spell, then I lugs ye across the gully."
+
+"And my father and mother--"
+
+"Shut up, I says," ordered Tess. "It ain't no time to think of fathers
+and mothers. They don't know nothin' about it, does they?"
+
+"No," said Teola. "They have been in Europe with my little sister for
+nearly four months. I've been alone all summer, with Rebecca, our maid,
+and Frederick, my brother--"
+
+Her lips closed over a moan of pain, and she did not continue her
+sentence.
+
+Through the forest, over the gullies, and down toward the Skinner hut
+the two girls went slowly, Teola whimpering in her agony of soul, and
+Tess carrying her when she could not walk. Only once did Tessibel stop.
+
+"Hold a minute," she said gruffly, releasing Teola. "One of the dum
+thorns went clean through my toe.... It air out now.... Come along! What
+does I care, if it does bleed!"
+
+Teola drew a sigh of relief when they crept under the willow tree. The
+hut was in its usual dirty condition, the Bible in the accustomed place
+on the stool. The suffering girl did not notice that the table was
+littered with the remains of the dinner, and Tess put her in Daddy's
+bed, and said, with a compelling, forceful glance:
+
+"Ye air to stay there till I gets back.... And remember we air a woman,
+and women, when they loves men, keep their mouths shet.... Even if their
+man air dead.... Ye won't let anyone hear ye a-yelpin' while I air gone,
+will ye?"
+
+"No, no! Go quickly, Tessibel," murmured Teola. "Go quickly!"
+
+This time the briars and thorns pierced the squatter's bare feet without
+avail. Tess was rushing away upon an errand of love. Was she not perhaps
+saving the sister of the student from death--keeping from him a
+knowledge that would rend his heart? Since that night when Daddy Skinner
+had been taken to prison, Tess had but once visited Mother Moll. In her
+impatience, she did not wait to reach the hut.
+
+"Mother Moll!" she shouted, bounding across the gully. "Come out! Tess
+air here!"
+
+"Come in," commanded a cracked voice.
+
+Tessibel entered the shanty, finding Mother Moll stretched out on the
+bed, with a corn-cob pipe between her shriveled lips.
+
+"Get up from there, Ma Moll," ordered Tess, "and come to my hut. I wants
+ye."
+
+"It air too hot," muttered the witch. "I ain't a-movin' from the bed
+to-day."
+
+Tessibel bent over the wrinkled face, and looked determinedly into the
+blood-shot eyes.
+
+"I got someone what air sick," she exclaimed, grasping the hag's arm
+forcibly. "Ye air to come with me.... See? And if ye does come, I gives
+ye a mess of eels every week for a year--and more'n that. I'll pick yer
+berries from yer own patch, if ye can't pick them yerself."
+
+"Who air a-ailin'?" asked the old woman, crawling out of bed.
+
+"Never mind. Come along."
+
+It was a strange couple, forging the gorges and gullies, pushing aside
+the brambles to the lane almost opposite Minister Graves' home. In the
+summer's quietude, the squatter girl could mark the long chairs on the
+Dominie's front porch, and the hammock sagging from the hooks in the
+corner. No one saw the witch and Tessibel enter the hut; no one heard
+the girl slip the night lock into its fastening. Teola, frightened and
+miserable, raised her head, and looked once at Mother Moll, then dropped
+it again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Dusk had fallen over the lake, closing the shanty within the shadows of
+the weeping willows. Mother Moll had departed before sunset. Tessibel
+had four candles streaming their twinkling light upon the bare floor of
+the hut, and was busying herself at the stove. A voice from the bed
+faintly whispered:
+
+"Did you tell Rebecca what I told you to? Tell me again what you said to
+her."
+
+"I telled that ye was to stay to-night with a girl below the ragged
+rocks, and she didn't give a dum. She air only a workin' girl; she ain't
+yer own flesh and blood."
+
+"And the baby, Tessibel? May I see my baby?"
+
+"Nope, not to-night."
+
+"Please, Tessibel! Please! Are his eyes grey, and has he dark hair on
+his head?"
+
+"If ye don't shut up, I takes the brat to Ma Moll.... Now, then, drink
+this tea, and eat this bread. To-morry ye has to go home, ye know."
+
+"But my baby, Tess! What shall I do about my baby?"
+
+The nervous whining in Teola's voice brought Tess over to her. The
+squatter forced the soiled blanket over the young shoulders.
+
+"If ye sleeps to-night, I tells ye in the mornin' about the brat....
+Sleep, now."
+
+For more than an hour Tessibel sat with Teola Graves' baby clasped
+tightly in her arms, moving back and forth silently in the wooden
+rocker. A broken board squeaked now and then under the girl's weight,
+but she slipped the chair into other positions, and rocked on.
+
+She marveled at the child born but that afternoon. The eyes were large
+and grey. Locks of damp hair fell over a wrinkled, broad brow, giving
+the infant the expression of an old, old man. In the light Tess could
+mark every feature. She had never seen a babe so small, and so
+sickly-looking. She ran her fingers over the right cheek, tenderly,
+rubbing down a livid mark that extended from the dark hair to the upper
+part of the breast. It was the birth-mark of fire, red and gleaming
+crimson as the brightest blood, and it had been because of this mark
+that Tess had refused the young mother's request to see her child.
+Perhaps in the morning it would be gone. If not, Teola would be stronger
+and better able to bear the shock. After wrapping the infant closely in
+a warm cloth, Tess took it in her arms, and laid herself down beside
+Teola; and the trio slept as all youth sleeps, until the morning sun had
+been shining long in the window.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Be ye better now?" asked Tess, trying to stand Teola on her feet.
+
+"I am dreadfully ill yet," was the whispered answer. "But I want to see
+my baby.... And what shall I do with him? Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"He air a-sleepin' now," replied the squatter. "And he stays here with
+me, ye hear? Ye can't take him to yer pa's house, and the hut air good
+enough for him to live in, if it was good enough for him to be borned
+in."
+
+"You mean, Tessibel, that you will care for my baby, until I can
+arrange something for him?--So that my father and mother may not know--"
+
+"Er the student," broke in Tess.
+
+"My brother! Tess, my brother Frederick! He must not know. It would kill
+him--and me. You, Tess,--you swear that you won't tell him?"
+
+"I ain't a-tellin' him nothin'. I swears it, ye hear? I swears I won't
+tell the student nothin' about the little kid."
+
+"Of course you won't," answered Teola weakly. "I trust you, Tessibel."
+
+There was a deep questioning in the squatter girl's eyes as they rested
+upon the quiet bundle on the foot of the bed. How could a mother leave
+her child in the care of a stranger?--leave him in a squatter's hut,
+where the rats scurried hungrily about the floor, and the bats fluttered
+among the ceiling rafters!
+
+"Don't look like that, Tessibel!" Teola burst in. "You understand, don't
+you, that I can't tell them?--that I can't take him home? My brother
+loves me better than any other person in the world, and I love him as
+much as he does me."
+
+The blood suffused the drawn face to the hair line.
+
+"And I want to see my baby before I go," she pleaded.
+
+Tess shook her shoulders, and hesitated awkwardly.
+
+"He air to sleep.... And ye ain't no business a-wakin' him up, nuther."
+
+Suddenly a dread flashed into Teola's mind.
+
+"Tessibel, he is.... There is something the matter with him!" She was
+fully dressed, tremblingly holding the post of the bed for support.
+"There is something the matter with him!" she gasped again.
+
+"Nothin' that air a-hurtin' him," soothed Tess. "He air marked with the
+fire what killed his pa, that air all.... See, t'ain't much."
+
+She lifted the babe from the bed and held him up. The covering dropped
+from the shoulder, exposing the brilliant scar.
+
+"Not much," moaned Teola. "Not much! Poor little baby Dan!"
+
+The mark gleamed out on the wizened old face, the deep veins in the thin
+skin showing darkly. To Tess it looked more horrible than in the night
+before. But she had to reassure the mother--the little mother who,
+before that year, had never known one twinge of agony.
+
+"It sure goes away sometime," said Tess.
+
+Teola took the infant in her arms for a moment only. Moving the child
+caused the large grey eyes to open, the mouth widening into a yawn.
+
+"Take him, Tess!" mourned the mother. "Oh, I--I want to die. Dear God!
+Dear, good God! Dan!... Dan, I want to come to you!"
+
+In the presence of such grief Tessibel was silent.
+
+She covered the infant again, and for some minutes she sat by the bed,
+with her fingers tightly pressed in those of Teola. It was a tragedy
+with which Tess could not cope. So she remained there until Teola cried
+herself into a quietude that left an expression of wonder, knowledge and
+sorrow. As Tess led her up the hill to the minister's cottage, she saw
+that tears would come no more; that the mother would never know the
+emotions of a girl again. Teola resembled the squatter, Myra, with her
+pain-drawn face.
+
+"She falled from the rocks," glibly lied Tess, as Rebecca placed the
+pale girl in a chair. "Better put her in bed.... She has a bad ankle....
+She couldn't walk much."
+
+The frightened maid quickly responded to the advice of the squatter.
+
+"She found me," pleaded Teola, "and you will let her come once in a
+while to see me?"
+
+Rebecca hesitated.
+
+"Your mother and father--"
+
+"They are not here yet, and I am so lonely and ill. Let Tessibel come
+once in a while!"
+
+"I have my doubts," said the maid, and she followed Tess down the long
+stairs, just to see that the fisher-girl did not steal anything. Let
+that dirty squatter come into a minister's home! No, not again, vowed
+Rebecca inwardly. It was only the girl's duty to save a human being from
+a fall over the rocks. Tess turned and faced the woman when they were
+alone.
+
+"I air a-comin' again," she said slyly, "and I ain't one what tells that
+ye slides from the house every night to the lake with Deacon Hall's
+coachman, I ain't. I has a tongue in my head, I has, but it ain't
+a-waggin' 'bout no coachman and yerself."
+
+Tess saw instantly that her point was gained. That anyone had seen her
+meet the man by the light of the summer's moon had never entered
+Rebecca's head for one moment.
+
+"And I don't steal from the minister's house, nuther," assured Tess,
+with a smile. "I brings ye some berries to-morry, and gives them to ye.
+And ye can keep the Dominie's money for a rag of a ribbon to light the
+coachman's eyes with."
+
+She smiled again, and left Rebecca, with wide-open mouth, gaping after
+the scurrying figure.
+
+In the hut Tessibel lifted the blanket from the scarred face, and
+contemplated it earnestly. She had forgotten all save the babe and the
+student. She knew that the Longman brat had sugar rags--she had arranged
+them herself many a time. Tearing a piece from the cloth that was
+wrapped about the child, she went to the shore, and washed it clean in
+the blue lake water. Filling it with bread and a liberal amount of
+sugar, Tessibel soaked it in some warm milk, and put the sop-rag into
+the small, gaping mouth. She must make a place for him to sleep during
+his stay in the shanty. Daddy would not need all the old coats hanging
+about the wall, and the blankets were longer than was necessary. From
+the back of the stove the squatter dragged a small box, and turned the
+splinters of wood into the fire. This, too, she washed in the lake,
+setting it in the sun to dry. From one of the hooks among the rafters
+she took a large-sized grape-basket, which also received its cleansing
+treatment. After a bit of blanket had been cut from those on Skinner's
+bed, Tess slipped the infant into the basket, to see if it were long
+enough. The tiny feet did mot reach the bottom.
+
+"Ye air to sleep many a day in it," she said aloud, "for yer legs ain't
+as big as a rabbit's, and yer face ain't any beautifuller than Ma
+Moll's.... But ye air a livin' and that air somethin'."
+
+Hardly had she got the words from her lips and fitted the cover securely
+before the door opened, and Ezra Longman stepped into the hut.
+Tessibel's clear hearing could detect an unmistakable smack from the
+babe.
+
+"What did ye come for, Ezy?" she asked. "Air Myry all right, and yer
+ma?"
+
+"Yep. I come to see ye to-day. Ben Letts says as how ye air a-goin' to
+marry him some time. Did ye tell him that?"
+
+"Did he tell yer that?" asked Tess, instead of answering the boy's
+question.
+
+"Nope. Jake Brewer says as how Ben telled him one night that when yer
+daddy air dead ye air goin' to his shanty. Ye ain't, air ye, Tess?" The
+pale eyes of the young squatter boy darkened under the emotion that rose
+in his breast. He looked at the girl he had loved since she had taken
+her first step. Every wicked act he had committed he laid fretfully at
+the door of her refusal to marry him.
+
+Tessibel watched Ezra, waiting for him to speak again. She feared the
+child would cry out--feared that the dark secret of the improvised
+cradle would get into the hands of her enemies.
+
+"Daddy ain't a-goin' to die," she said, quietly giving the grape-basket
+a touch with her foot, and deftly shoving it under the bed. Another
+smack told her that the infant was awake.
+
+"And, what air more, Ezy, I ain't a-goin' to marry Ben Letts, or nobody
+else, for a lot of years.... I air a-goin' to wait here for Daddy."
+
+"And if yer Daddy goes dead?" inquired Ezra longingly.
+
+"If he goes dead," she interrupted, lifting her unfathomable eyes, "if
+he air hanged, then I comes to the Longman shanty and marries yer....
+Now go, dum quick!"
+
+She had quieted one of her enemies with a promise which she would never
+be forced to keep. For was not the student's God going to save Daddy
+Skinner? And wasn't she going to Auburn prison to see him? That clean
+skirt in the corner, washed and dried in the sun, Tess was going to
+wear. She was going with the great man from the hill. Suddenly came the
+thought of the babe. With whom could she leave it? Her face whitened
+with grief.... Of course she could not go now.
+
+She turned again to Ezra, who was loitering at the door.
+
+"Ye go now, Ezy, and tell Myra I ain't a-comin' this evenin', and I
+hopes her brat won't be yelping too much."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day Tess appeared at the back of the minister's cottage, with a
+basket slung over her arm. Rebecca ushered her up the stairs to the
+pretty blue room. Teola moved her head languidly, but, recognizing her
+visitor, brightened a little.
+
+"I am so glad you came. Tell me how he is.... I have nearly died to see
+him."
+
+"He air well. Have ye had a doctor?"
+
+"Yes, and I have told him all about it, for I was so sick. I told him
+about you, and he ordered Rebecca to let you come and see me. He is a
+friend of my father's, and will never tell anyone."
+
+Tess walked to the door, and listened; then laid her finger on her lips.
+She raised the basket from the floor, slipped back the cover, and Teola
+Graves was peeping in upon a tiny sleeping face.
+
+"He air a-goin' with me wherever I has to go.... I ain't a-comin' here
+again with him, fearin' some one will know.... I think ye be happier,
+now that ye hes seen his bed--eh? Now I air a-goin', and when ye gets
+well ye can come to the hut to see him. He air gettin' powerful hungry.
+He can smack louder than a dog can holler.... Poor little devil!"
+
+That night, a small figure left the Skinner shanty bent upon an act of
+theft. Up through the lane to the tracks, with a small pail in her hand,
+Tessibel went. The brindle bull capered about her as she slid through
+the wires. Without the slightest compunction, Tessibel returned to the
+shanty with the warm milk which she had taken from one of the fine cows
+at Kennedy's; then by the light of the candle she filled the tin cup,
+and warmed it over the fire. This, too, would have to be sweetened.
+Spoonful after spoonful she emptied into the smacking lips, and, when
+the babe slept, Tess placed it under the blankets, and took up the Bible
+to read of the promises of the student's God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+During the illness of Teola, Tessibel had forgotten that she had
+promised Professor Young she would come some morning to his office in
+Morril Hall on the hill. Two weeks after the birth of the baby, Tess
+filled his small stomach with warm milk, shoved the sugar rag into his
+mouth, hung the child's bed over her arm, and made off toward the
+tracks. The sun was far in the heavens before she stopped at the
+building in which Deforest Young had his office. He was looking from the
+window, and saw her glance about hastily, settling the cover to her
+basket a little closer.
+
+"That child will be my ruination," he muttered, seating himself at the
+desk. "She affects me so strangely that I can't get her out of my mind.
+To bring her to a place of safety.... But what can I do? She won't let
+me help her!"
+
+The thought of Frederick Graves came over him with torture. Was it
+possible for her to love a lad who could not, and did not aid her? If he
+could but guide the girl, he would know who her companions were.
+Tessibel stood in the door, the red curls covering the burden upon her
+arm--one would have thought it was purposely done, if she had not placed
+it carefully in the corner. She awkwardly seated herself in the chair
+Young had placed for her near him.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said he. "I have been looking for you
+for many days."
+
+"I were a comin', but I couldn't.... And I can't go with ye to see
+Daddy."
+
+Her eyes filled with tears, but she hastily wiped them away with her
+sleeve.
+
+"Of course you are going," replied the professor. "I suppose you think
+you can't go in with bare feet. But I will get you a pair of shoes."
+
+"I could get a pair good 'nough for a squatter," Tess assured him, "but
+I can't go."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I can't! I has somethin' to do."
+
+"Can't you do it after you return? Your father will be so disappointed
+if you do not go to him when you have promised."
+
+He was gazing at her keenly. Her eyes dropped upon her folded hands in
+her lap.
+
+"I knows that," she breathed, "but I can't go, just the same."
+
+Young did not persist in the argument.
+
+"It is almost a certainty that your father will get another trial," he
+went on presently. "I shall act as his lawyer, and, little girl, when
+the snow flies again, your father will be home in the cabin with you."
+
+She flashed him a radiant smile through the tears which still clung to
+her lashes. He loved to watch the color coming and going swiftly, and
+the glints thrown into her eyes by the sun.
+
+"It air the student's God what will bring him." She bent eagerly toward
+him, with a quick motion. "Be ye one of the prayin' kind what tells God
+all ye needs? Daddy would have been a-hung by the neck till he was dead,
+only the student telled me how to pray and he air a-prayin', too."
+
+She finished the sentence in a low tone. Young leaned back in his
+chair, grasping at the arms to hide his emotion. The girl was so close
+to him that he could feel her warm, swift-coming breath upon his face.
+How long would he have to suffer over this primitive child? But he loved
+her, and the only course left him was to snatch her from young Graves
+while there was opportunity to see her now and then. Her brown eyes were
+piercing his very soul. The childish excitement upon the upturned face
+almost tempted him to force her into his arms, to awaken the soul
+beneath the soiled jacket, to make the girl into a woman in spite of her
+environment.
+
+"You are still determined to live in the hut?" he said, after clearing
+his throat, and overlooking her question.
+
+"Yep, till Daddy comes home. And then I's a-goin' to make him get offen
+that land, 'cause it ain't his'n. It air Minister Graves'."
+
+"But your father has his squatter's right," put in the lawyer, feeling
+that he was giving the student less chance if he said this. "No one can
+take the place from him."
+
+"He ain't got no right there," she insisted again, "'cause I asks the
+student, and he says as how Daddy can have the ground by the law, but
+that it air a-belongin' to his pappy."
+
+Her face was perfectly grave and serious, and she spoke slowly.
+
+Would the name of Frederick Graves always be flaunted in his face?
+Deforest Young believed that he was beginning to hate the boy. Suddenly
+he leaned over, and touched the bell. It pealed loudly through the
+building. Tess sat up. The bell disturbed her, and she cast her eye upon
+the basket, with a shifting, darting glance. The janitor appeared at the
+door.
+
+"Hyram," said Young, "could you find a vessel which would hold berries
+or fish? I would like to take some home with me."
+
+"I ain't got no fish nor berries," said Tess, rising with a burning
+blush.
+
+"Then what have you in your basket?" asked the lawyer, getting up also.
+"Child, you need not feel badly over the money I give you for the food
+you sell." He was standing beside her when his eyes fell upon the
+waiting janitor. "Never mind, Hyram," he exclaimed, "Miss Tessibel says
+she hasn't anything to sell."
+
+Hyram closed the door before Young spoke again.
+
+"Why won't you let me help you, poor little girl?"
+
+Tess stepped between the professor and the babe, lifting the child's bed
+in one hand.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to-day," she muttered sullenly. "And when I says I
+ain't got nothin', I ain't."
+
+"Then why did you bring that with you?" insisted Young, with a motion of
+his hand. "It is certainly heavy, or you would not have laid it down so
+carefully.... Child, if you won't let me give you anything, please allow
+me to buy the food which you work so hard to get."
+
+His hand fell upon the handle of the grape-basket, but Tessibel's
+remained obstinately on the other side.
+
+"I's a-wantin' ye to help Daddy Skinner," she whispered, with drooping
+lids. "I don't need no help."
+
+At that moment a wail from the infant startled them both. Professor
+Young's hand dropped as if it had been struck. Tess only grasped the
+basket more firmly. Her secret was out. Without a word, she slipped the
+cover from the child's face, and pushed the sugar rag into its mouth.
+
+"Ye can see it ain't no fish," she said stolidly.
+
+"A child!" murmured Young. "Where did you get that baby, Tessibel
+Skinner?"
+
+"He air a little bloke without no one to take care of him, and I has him
+in the basket--that's all."
+
+It seemed for a long time to the man that his brain would burn from the
+fire kindled in his heart. The sight of the marked baby horrified him,
+but he took the basket from her hands, and placed her forcibly in a
+chair. Tess allowed him to do so without speaking.
+
+Young set his teeth fiercely.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, do you want to save your father--from hanging?"
+
+"Yep," she answered, her eyes roving toward the babe.
+
+"Then listen to me. Is that child yours?"
+
+Her glance sought his for a twinkling, as if she thought he had lost his
+mind.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Nope."
+
+She was not disloyal to Teola in saying this.
+
+"I have offered you all the help a man can give to another human being."
+Here his voice broke a little. "All I have offered to do for you, you
+have refused. Now, if you want me to continue to help your father, you
+are to tell me whose child it is."
+
+Before the vivid mind of the girl rose the handsome, manly face of the
+student. Her labor for the child and its mother had been wholly for
+Frederick's sake--not for anything in the world would she have consented
+to do what she had done, if it had not been to save him pain.
+
+"Well, 'tain't mine," she drawled after a time, "and it ain't belonging
+to anyone ye know. It air only a brat what ain't nothin' but a
+grape-basket to sleep in. And now ye says that if I wants my Daddy saved
+from the rope, I must tell yer whose it air. I says it ain't mine. And I
+says as how ye knows a new little bloke when ye sees one. Here it air!
+And if ye don't know that it ain't mine, then ye air a bigger fool
+lawyer than I thinks ye air."
+
+She was speaking rapidly, and had again slipped the cover from the babe,
+lifting it from its bed. The fire scar was uppermost, and the loud
+smacking of the half-naked child caused the man to sink into his seat.
+The blood-red cheeks of the squatter denoted perfect health. The eyes
+were wide, confiding and entreating. Young held out his hands and took
+it from her. Then, for the second time in her life, Tess noted emotion
+in a man. Once in Daddy Skinner, in the jail--she had given way before
+it. And now in the strong friend of her father, who laid his face on the
+body of the infant, and sobbed.
+
+In an instant Tess was on her knees before him.
+
+"Air ye a-blattin' 'cause ye thinks it air my brat? Aw, ye knows it
+ain't. Ye knows I air but a-takin' care of it till its ma can. If I
+swears by the student's God, will ye believe?"
+
+Young rose, white and nervous, from his chair. With tender fingers he
+placed the little one in the receptacle, set the rag securely between
+its lips, and turned to Tess.
+
+"I believe you, child," he said wearily. "I thought at first--oh, it
+was an awful thought for me ... because I love you, Tessibel."
+
+Tess blinked her eyes as if she were looking into a powerful sun. The
+strong form of the lawyer was bending over her. She lifted her face to
+his, not realizing the greatness of his love. She only knew that he was
+her friend--Daddy's friend. She grasped his hands in hers, kissed them
+tearfully, and took up the basket.
+
+"I were a-goin' with ye on Thursday, but I can't now. Thank ye for
+believin' me, and I'll work as hard as ye says I must, and if I air a
+bad brat, then I air sorry."
+
+She had gone out, crying bitterly, before he could say another word; but
+a happier feeling was in his heart than had been for many weeks. She had
+promised to work, and in that promise had failed, for the first time, to
+utter the name of Frederick Graves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Tess air a-gettin' stylish," said Mrs. Longman, rattling the newspaper
+one Sunday morning. "Her name air right here, in print."
+
+"What do it say, Mammy?" asked Ezra, lighting his pipe with a piece of
+burning paper.
+
+"As how Tessie air a-goin' to see her Daddy, with the big man on the
+hill."
+
+Ben Letts shoved his big boots from one side to the other, plainly
+disturbed by the news.
+
+"Folks on the hill air a-doin' better if they minds their own business,
+I air a-sayin'," grumbled he. "There ain't no reason why Orn Skinner
+can't go dead, like other squatters has before him."
+
+His red bandana handkerchief sought the blurred blue eye. A pair of
+pale gray ones from above the smoking pipe of Ezra Longman settled upon
+Ben Lett's face, with a tightening of the thick lids.
+
+"Tessibel air so sure that her father air innocent that I hopes they
+prove it," Myra Longman said, trundling her babe to and fro, in the huge
+wooden rocker.
+
+"There be some folks as knows more than they'll tell," put in Ezra,
+keeping his eyes upon the squatter Ben.
+
+"And there air folks what thinks they knows a dum sight more than they
+can prove," replied Ben.
+
+The great white eye jerked open, the crossed blue one twisting to bring
+Ezra Longman within its vision.
+
+An expression of deadening hate flashed for a moment across the red
+face, and the white eye closed again. Myra had seen the by-play, and sat
+up with a gasp. What was there between Ben and her brother?
+
+Placing the child upon her mother's lap, she stirred the stew bubbling
+in the pot on the stove.
+
+"Scoot, and get an armful of wood, Ezy," ordered she; and no sooner had
+the tall boy disappeared than she slipped after him.
+
+She stood beside him at the wood pile, staring down upon the crouched
+form.
+
+"Hold a minute, Ezy," commanded she.
+
+Ezra stood up.
+
+"What air the matter with yer and Ben Letts?"
+
+"Nothin' ain't the matter."
+
+"There air," insisted Myra, "and it air Tess what air a-doin' it. Ben
+Letts air a-lovin' Tessibel. And ye hates him."
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Tess ain't for none of ye! She ain't like other squatters. The man from
+the hill says as how Tess can read better'n most gals can, and she has
+done it all herself."
+
+"Don't care," grunted Ezra, stooping again. "Ben Letts can keep his
+hands offen her, or I tells what I knows."
+
+This was Myra's chance. She grasped the boy's arm, and twisted him about
+so that he faced her.
+
+"What can ye tell?"
+
+"Somethin'."
+
+"About Skinner?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Ye'd hang Ben Letts if ye could. But ye won't, ye see? Ye'd not hang a
+man what ought to be in yer own fambly, would ye?"
+
+"If I tells Pa Satisfied that ye said that, Myry," muttered the boy, "he
+wouldn't wait for the law to handle Ben Letts--he'd shoot his dum head
+offen him quicker than a cat can blink."
+
+"I knows a hull lot about you, Ezy," warned Myra, "and if ye tells on
+Ben, I tells on yer, too. I loves Ben Letts, I does!"
+
+"Bid him keep from Tess, then," answered Ezra sulkily, filling his arms
+with wood. Myra looked after him fearfully.
+
+The trouble between her child's father and her brother had come upon her
+so suddenly that she had given Ezra another hold upon the man she loved,
+by telling him her secret.
+
+That afternoon she followed Letts a short distance along the shore
+toward his cabin. When out of sight of her own home, she ran forward.
+
+"Ben! Ben!" she called.
+
+The fisherman turned impatiently.
+
+"What air ye wantin', Myry?"
+
+"Be you and Ezy hatin' each other?"
+
+"He ain't nothin' but a brat," replied Ben scornfully. "Let him keep out
+of my way, or I fixes him."
+
+"He air a-sayin' the same thing," cautioned Myra. "Ye air a-seekin'
+Tess? He says as how ye air to keep from her."
+
+She was walking beside him, her red hands rolled in her gingham apron.
+The hot sun shone on her colorless hair, which was drawn back from the
+plain face.
+
+"Ye air a-helpin' him with Tess," Ben grunted presently. "If ye ever
+wants me to come to yer hut, keep yer mouth shet, and let me and Ezy
+fight it out. Do ye hear?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Then scoot home now."
+
+Myra turned, and then stopped.
+
+"Ben," she called softly again.
+
+"What be ye a-wantin' now?"
+
+"If I keeps Ezy away from Tess, will ye--?"
+
+"Ye air a-wantin' me to do somethin' for ye, Myry?" Ben answered, coming
+toward her eagerly.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"What?"
+
+"If ye'll kiss the brat when Mammy and Satisfied ain't a-lookin'--"
+
+"Scoot home, I says. Scoot home," shot from Ben's lips.
+
+And home she went, this girl of but eighteen with an old woman's face,
+a tired young heart beating lovingly for the brat in the box and--for
+its father.
+
+Her mother was still spelling from the paper when she returned.
+Satisfied was stretched on the long wooden bench outside the door. Ezra,
+with his cap pulled over his nose, sat sulking in the corner. Ben was a
+powerful enemy. The boy knew that the fisherman would stop at nothing to
+gain an end. But Tess had told him that she wouldn't marry Ben, and Myra
+had as good as told him that the squatter was the cause of her trouble.
+He knew another secret that would bring a halt upon Ben's pursuance of
+Tessibel Skinner. He had told Myra to warn him. Suddenly he rose from
+his chair, set his cap far back on his head, and disappeared into the
+underbrush that lay thick back of the hut.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cause of the hatred between Ezra Longman and Ben Letts was quietly
+eating her dinner. Teola's child lay smacking the sugar from the wet
+rag. The large, knowing gray eyes were directed toward the sunlight upon
+the wall, the blood-red scar shining more crimson in its rays.
+
+Tess was picking the flesh from the spine of a fish, throwing the bones
+on the floor. Youthful as she was, she was already beginning to show
+fatigue from staying awake nights, and caring for her dark secret in the
+daytime.
+
+With the alertness of an Indian she heard the crackling of twigs in the
+underbrush. She closed the door, slipped the lock and tucked the babe in
+the basket, and waited. Somebody was coming from the hill above,
+breaking the branches as he ran. It was Ben Letts, probably. A light
+tap came upon the door. To Ben she would not open, but, glancing at the
+window, she saw Ezra Longman's face pressed against the pane.
+
+Slipping back the lock, she flung open the door.
+
+"Ezy, ye air allers a-comin' when I wants to read the Bible. I tells ye
+to stay away from the shanty, and ye won't!"
+
+Would the babe remain quiet until the pale squatter boy had departed?
+
+"Ben Letts air a-comin' to see ye to-day," Ezra returned sulkily, "and I
+comed, too."
+
+"Did he tell ye as how he was a-comin'?"
+
+"Nope; but I knowed."
+
+"He can't come in," replied Tess, crossly. "I ain't no notion for
+company, nohow.... Air the men a-nettin' to-night?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Air Ben a-goin' with ye?"
+
+"Yep; Ben has a heavy hand, and nets air hard to haul."
+
+Scarcely had the words fallen from his lips before Letts appeared at the
+door. Both boy and girl saw him, and Tessibel rose up.
+
+"Sunday ain't a good day for ye to be comin' here, Ben," she said
+sullenly. "I air a-wishin' to be alone to-day."
+
+In spite of the girl's flashing eyes, Ben stepped in, glared at Ezra,
+and took the stool, from which he moved the Bible with trembling hands.
+Tess had never been quite so frightened--never so fearful of her own
+squatter men-folk. Ben and Ezra had come to stay a long time, for each
+had dragged off his cap, leaving his dirty head exposed. Still the babe
+slept on, no tell-tale smack coming from it. Tess lifted the Bible,
+determined to let the men sit as she read, curled up in the wooden
+rocker, humming as she swung to and fro. A shadow dropped long upon the
+shanty floor. In the doorway stood Teola Graves, tall, thin, and
+distressingly pale. Tessibel had not seen her since the day she had
+carried the babe to the hill-house. That was three whole weeks ago. Tess
+moved awkwardly from the chair, motioned for Ezra Longman to get up, and
+stuttered out an invitation for the girl to be seated.
+
+Teola shook her head, and Tess noted her quick survey of the hut.
+
+"I can't sit down," she said weakly, although she allowed Tess to place
+her in the chair. "I have been ill for some time, but I could not forget
+how kind you were to me when you found me on the rocks, with my ankle
+sprained."
+
+The white eye of Ben followed the blue one in its twisting search for
+the minister's daughter. Teola Graves had lost her sparkling beauty; had
+lost the vivid coloring and the shy expression of youth that had rested
+in the dark eyes until the death of Dan Jordan. From her face Ben's one
+eye turned to the beautiful squatter, and he settled back with a firmer
+resolve that she should be his. Tess stood thinking rapidly. She made no
+attempt to introduce the strange trio.
+
+Then she allowed her fingers to come in contact with Teola's shoulder,
+pressing into the girl's mind some message.
+
+"Ye be a-goin' to see the sick woman to-day, ain't ye?"
+
+Tess could scarcely utter the words. Would Teola understand what she
+wanted to impress upon her? Her fingers sought the shoulder again.
+
+"Yes," came the low answer.
+
+"Might I ask ye to take her a bit of fish, what I promised her? I has
+company now, and can't go. And I thought as how if you was a-goin', ye
+might do it for me."
+
+She stooped and raised the grape-basket in her hand, tendering it to
+Teola. The white lips became paler--the young mother understood.
+
+"It air a nice day, and the sun will do ye a heap of good," explained
+Tess. "If I didn't have company, I wouldn't ask ye."
+
+Ben Letts stared sharply. Ezra Longman stupidly shuffled his feet upon
+the floor. Teola accepted the basket, and answered Tess with meaning:
+
+"I'll take it for you, if you will wait until I return with the money.
+The fish are to be paid for, aren't they?"
+
+"Yep; come back when ye can. I allers need the money."
+
+For some minutes Tessibel stood in the door, watching the tall figure of
+the Dominie's daughter as she struggled through the brambles surrounding
+the mud-cellar creek, until she was lost to view.
+
+Tess took a long breath. Ben and Ezra must go before the babe returned.
+She set herself to rid the shanty of the two men. Without speaking, she
+took the Bible, and repeated slowly aloud some of the passages she knew
+best. Both fishermen stared at her in admiration. To read and not spell
+out almost every word was more than Ezra's own mother could do, and she
+was the best-educated person in the settlement.
+
+"'But I know ye that ye have not the love of God in ye,'" read Tess.
+
+Ben Letts broke in upon the girl's voice:
+
+"Tessie, will ye row on the lake after the goin' down of the sun? I'll
+take my fiddle.... Ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"
+
+"Nope," she replied, her eyes still upon the book. "'I am come in my
+Father's name, and ye--'"
+
+Ezra interrupted the unfinished verse.
+
+"Tessibel, will ye go to the meetin' at Haytes'? The man says as how the
+squatters air welcome."
+
+"Nope.... 'receive me not,'" read Tess. "'If another shall come--'"
+
+Ben burst forth with an eager invitation:
+
+"Will ye come to Glenwood for some ice-cream, Tessie? It air gooder'n
+pie on hot nights; and ye like my fiddlin', don't ye, Tess?"
+
+"Nope.... 'In His own name, ye will--'"
+
+"Ye don't like no ice-cream, do ye, Tessie?" put in Ezra Longman.
+
+"And ye don't like no meetin's on the hill, eh, Brat?" chuckled Ben.
+
+Suddenly the Bible flew into the corner, and the girl, with an oath,
+jumped to her feet. Neither man had ever seen her in such a temper. She
+grasped the broom.
+
+"Get out of here!" she screamed. "I don't want nothin' but to be let
+alone! See? Scoot! Or I'll bang hell out'n both of ye."
+
+She virtually swept her callers into the sun, and slammed the door in
+their faces. With remorse in her heart, she sought the place where she
+had thrown the beloved Bible. One page was quite torn, across--the back
+badly bent.
+
+"It do beat the devil how I could be such a bad brat as to hurt ye like
+that," she cogitated, smoothing out the crumpled pages with loving
+fingers. "That damn Ezy and Ben air worser than fleas. But I air
+a-believin' that they won't be comin' back just yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Tess closed the door of her shanty, looked about to see if anyone were
+watching her movements, then she, too, broke into the high weeds that
+surrounded the running brook under the mud cellar. Her little ruse in
+giving the child to its mother delighted her. She would find Teola, and
+bring her and the babe back to the shanty. Softly she parted the
+branches that hid the spot where she had first seen the Dominie's
+daughter. Through the maze of brambles she saw the girl, with the child
+clasped closely in her arms. The cloth in which Tess had wrapped it had
+fallen from the little shoulders, leaving them white, save for the
+blood-red mark of fire. Teola lifted the infant, and kissed it
+passionately, bending her head over it, praying. Tess could not enter
+upon such a holy scene. She sank down upon the turf. The basket yawned
+upon a bed of moss, its flannel rags hanging over the edge. Teola was
+making the babe ready to return to its bed, when Tess slipped under the
+branches of the short sumac trees, and entered the clearing.
+
+"Come back to the shanty," she said. "Ye be here too long."
+
+"I can't. I must go home, Tessibel.... I could hardly get away as it
+was. Oh, Tess, isn't he beautiful?... Don't you think the mark will soon
+go away? What makes him open his mouth so much? Possibly the sugar rag
+is too large."
+
+"Nope, 'tain't that. He be tired, and that air what makes him gape like
+that. Wait until he gets some bigness. He air little yet."
+
+"I haven't asked you, Tess," and Teola turned troubled eyes upon the
+squatter, "I haven't been able to ask you how you feed him. And where do
+you get the milk?... Oh, if I only had some money! When mother is home,
+I do get a little. But Rebecca won't give me a cent. Tessibel, where do
+you get the milk?"
+
+The babe was still clasped in her arms.
+
+"I crib it from the cows at Kennedy's. They all has too much for their
+calves, anyhow."
+
+"You mean you steal it, Tess?" asked Teola fearfully. "Oh, Tessibel! Oh!
+Oh, Tess, Tess, how good you are!"
+
+"I ain't good," Tess retorted. "It ain't good to steal, air it? And
+squatters ain't never good, they ain't. But the brat's got to eat, ain't
+he? If I ain't got no milk, then I has to crib it. See?"
+
+Bitter tears were falling upon the head of little Dan. They were the
+mother's first tears since that day when Tess had led her up the hill to
+the summer cottage.
+
+"But Kennedy will shut his cows up soon," announced the squatter. "Then
+I don't know what to do. The brat air too little to eat fish, he air."
+
+Suddenly Teola conceived an idea.
+
+"If I should put out a little milk behind the house, in a pail, could
+you come after it, Tessibel?"
+
+"Yep," replied Tess eagerly. "I could crib it from your yard, if ye'll
+let me."
+
+"Yes, yes; that's the way to do," replied Teola, with a faint smile. "If
+I can't get the milk out, you go into the kitchen. Simply take all you
+can get. Take all you want. My father and mother will be home soon.
+They know by this time I am ill. My brother also gets back from camping
+at the same time. You see how careful I shall have to be, Tessibel. And
+in September, we go back to the city, for school always takes us home
+then. If I could only have my own baby. My own precious baby!"
+
+Tessibel grunted. Teola misunderstood her.
+
+"Oh, I am grateful to you, dear! I think that you are the best girl in
+all the world. So does my brother Frederick. He says--"
+
+She stooped to cover the child, her voice ceasing.
+
+The babe had been carefully tucked in.
+
+"He's a been sayin' what?" The tones of the squatter were eager, her
+eyes so bright that Teola did not answer for a moment.
+
+"He says that there is no girl as good as you, and that your faith in
+God is what he would rather have than anything else in the world.... Oh,
+Tess, if I could only believe, and be sure that soon the baby and I
+could go to--his father!"
+
+"If ye asks, ye can go," replied Tess solemnly. "The student says what
+ye asks with faith ye'll get. Ain't that enough to prove it?"
+
+This fell reverently from the lips of the girl. Faith in Frederick
+rather than faith in God had given birth to her believing soul. But
+neither girl realized it. Both were silent for some minutes. Teola was
+looking dreamily at the opposite hill, the basket with its precious
+burden already hanging on the squatter's arm. Tess had learned that such
+loud smacks as the infant was giving were indicative of hunger. So she
+made a move to go.
+
+"I takes him back to feed him. He air hungry."
+
+"Oh, Tess, if I could only feed him! If I could only always have him! I
+wish--I wish I were a squatter. Then I would face the world with my
+baby.... Oh, I am so unhappy and ill!"
+
+True, she was ill, for there came to Tessibel's ears a cough that echoed
+against the rocks with the familiar sound of death in it. It sounded
+like that of a fisherwoman she had known in a shanty below the great
+rocks, who had died and been taken to the Potter's field.
+
+"I air a-prayin' every day," said Tess, with a lump in her throat, "that
+ye be taken with the brat to the sky--to the brat's pa what ye loves....
+Air that the prayin' ye wants?"
+
+Teola nodded, and Tess, smiling tenderly, hesitated, and whispered:
+
+"The student's God can do anything He wants to. Asks Him to let ye go
+'cause ye be sick, and the brat air sick, too, and--the winter'll be
+cold for him."
+
+She touched the handle on her arm lightly, turned, and disappeared.
+
+Teola sat for some moments dry-eyed, looking at the high hill across the
+blue water, thinking of the next few weeks, and of how she and the babe
+would be called away. If she only had the precious uplifting faith of
+Tessibel! Something must come to her and the baby. Her stern father, who
+hated Tessibel Skinner with all his heart, must never know of the little
+Dan. Her mother, weary and nervous, would go to her grave from the
+shock; and Frederick--
+
+Teola straightened at the thought of her brother. He would help her in
+all things, even in the tragedy that now covered her life. Of that
+Teola felt sure, but the humiliation would be too great. Better die
+apart from her child. With another racking cough, she turned her face
+toward home, two hectic spots shining clear and red upon the white
+cheeks. Rebecca silently helped her to bed.
+
+That night, at ten o'clock, after Tess had silenced the child in her
+arms and Teola had lost her nervousness in a stupor, three boats shot
+from different points of the west shore, and quietly oared a path
+through the moonlit lake toward the netting place.
+
+The occupants of one boat were Satisfied Longman and his son. In another
+Jake Brewer sat, alone. In the third Ben Letts puffed upon his pipe. His
+thoughts were upon the one person he desired--Tess. Like most of
+mankind, he wanted what he could not get; wanted the girl who turned a
+mocking, beautiful face toward him and used such a bitter tongue. Tess
+was responsible for the scars upon his face, but he would feel them well
+carried if he gained the girl--and tamed her. That Tess was a devoted
+admirer of the student Graves made her none the less desirable. Ben
+dipped his oars with dexterous aptitude and shot under the shadow of the
+trees. An instant later, his boat was beside those of the other
+squatters, and he was standing with his hand upon the north reel. Out
+into the lake the net was carried by Satisfied Longman and Jake Brewer.
+Ben could see the tall, thin form of Ezra through the shadows, guiding
+the ropes as they slipped through his fingers. Here was a boy aspiring
+to the love of Tessibel Skinner. Ben heard the swish of the net far out
+in the lake as it took to the silent waters, heard the dipping of the
+oars, and saw the boats strike for the shore. Then Ezra came toward him,
+at the command of his father, Satisfied Longman.
+
+During that evening, Deforest Young was calling upon Deacon Hall. He
+refused the Deacon's invitation to row him to the city.
+
+"Thanks," said he, "but the night is delightful. I think I shall walk. I
+shall go by the shore and skirt to the tracks at the Hoghole."
+
+He failed to say, however, that his reason for walking was that he
+desired to catch a glimpse of the red-haired Tess. He had not seen her
+since the discovery of the new-born babe.
+
+The candle was lighted in the Skinner hut, and he tapped gently. For an
+instant there was no response, He knew the girl was at home--there had
+been a sudden discontinuance of a humming when he knocked.
+
+"Miss Skinner, it is I--Professor Young," he called. "If it is too late,
+I will come again."
+
+The door was promptly thrown open.
+
+"Come in," said Tess with a smile. "I thought as how it were someone
+else."
+
+"I have been at Deacon Hall's," explained he. "They agree with me that
+you ought to go and see your father. I did not tell them why you could
+not. Where is the little child?"
+
+Tess glanced at the babe.
+
+"I keeps him in the basket or the box in the daytime, but nights I takes
+him to bed with me. The rats be so dum thick that one of them big
+fellers would chew the little chap's ear offen him afore I could stop
+it."
+
+She said it so naturally, as if she were speaking of the most ordinary
+thing, that Young felt a hysterical desire to laugh. It was a dreadful
+thought, this of the rat in the box with the babe.
+
+"Are the men netting to-night?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.
+
+"Yep, they be."
+
+"I suppose there is no stopping it," sighed Young; "and they run such
+dreadful risks. But, if there were no laws about it, there would be no
+fish left in the lake."
+
+Tessibel's brow gathered a thick network of wrinkles. She had heard the
+subject discussed and argued from her babyhood days. The best fish in
+the waters must be kept for the gentlemen who came for sport during the
+season. But the fishermen, who needed bread for their families, were
+forced by the law to go without.
+
+"There oughtn't to be no laws about fishin'," she frowned, in decision.
+"It air wicked, when brats air a-wantin' bread and beans."
+
+Young saw danger ahead in the argument, so he switched to the
+home-coming of the minister's family. From that he again spoke of the
+infant, who was whimpering a little. Tess took him up, and warmed the
+milk.
+
+"I shall go now, child," said Young, rising. "You are tired. You ought
+to go to bed."
+
+"Yep, I air tired, I air," answered Tess, wearily "Good-night."
+
+Once out upon the shore, Young looked back at the hut. It was dark. He
+saw three boats flit silently by him toward the city, as if phantoms
+guided them. They crossed the moonbeams, and Young lost them in the dark
+shadows near the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+Keeping to the water's edge, Professor Young walked rapidly toward
+Ithaca. He knew that further up the shore the fishermen were drawing
+their nets; he did not wish to advance upon them. Since knowing Tessibel
+Skinner, he had become more lenient toward the law-breakers.
+
+He turned into the forest at the side of the Hoghole, but the sound of
+voices brought him to a standstill.
+
+Ezra Longman was shouting out a threat.
+
+"Ye be a-tryin' to get Tess, and I tells ye to look out."
+
+"Shet up!" responded Ben Letts.
+
+"If ye air a-wishin' to live," came the boy's voice again, "I says for
+ye to keep away from her."
+
+"I lives 'cause I lives, and I ain't afraid of ye, nohow."
+
+The Professor barely caught the words, for they were gurgled in the deep
+throat.
+
+"I wants Tess for a woman," Ben broke out, "and for a woman I air
+a-goin' to have her. She'll care for Mammy and me. I gets her. See?"
+
+The north reel stopped turning, but the south one went on silently. Ben
+Letts and Ezra Longman were turning over and over on the sand, at grips
+with each other.
+
+Professor Young uttered no word. Then Ezra's voice came from under Ben's
+big body.
+
+"I tells what I knows about Skinner if ye don't get up and let me be,"
+said he. "I tells--"
+
+Red fingers closed over his throat, and Ezra Longman spoke no more. As
+the south reel kept turning around and around, the rope slackened from
+the north reel in the water; and still Ben Letts held his deadly fingers
+pressed about the neck of his enemy.
+
+Professor Young saw Ben sit up and bend his head to the heart of the
+other fisherman. Then, with a furtive glance about, he lifted the boy in
+his arms, and came toward Young, grunting under his burden. Young drew
+back into the overhanging branches.
+
+The squatter stumbled up the rocks, dragging the boy after him, and with
+a mighty effort lifted him high in the air, and tumbled the body into
+the Hoghole.
+
+In another instant, Ben was back upon the shore at the reel, turning
+swiftly until silently it caught up with the other, just as the net
+dragged in the shallow waters, with bushels of flopping fish inside.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Professor Young lowered himself into the Hoghole. It was necessary for
+him to use the greatest caution. The lad came to the surface directly
+below him, and the Professor saw him catch at a jagged end of a rock.
+
+"Can you breathe?" asked Young, in a low voice. "And can you help
+yourself a little?"
+
+"Yep," came back the faint answer.
+
+"Then, when I put out my foot, take hold of it, and make no noise, for
+your enemy is but a short distance away, and he meant to kill you. Now,
+come up.... There! Don't lean too heavily upon me, for the rocks are
+slippery."
+
+Without any more conversation, the two men, one wet and weak, with
+bleeding head, with a gash over his right brow, crossed the forest
+toward the tracks. By dint of persuasion, Young forced the boy to give
+his father's name. He had caught enough of the talk between the
+fishermen to know that Tess was the cause of their quarrel. But what
+Ezra had threatened to tell about Skinner he did not know. Two miles
+from Ithaca the boy became light-headed and feeble. His tongue was
+loosened in his delirium, and Young heard a story that made his heart
+beat faster and revived hopes he had considered almost dead. Through the
+moonbeams that slanted to the tracks he imagined he saw a little figure
+skirting the rays, with flying red hair. Not for anything in the world
+would he lose sight of the boy. He had the first clue in the case that
+so interested him. Acquittal for the father of Tessibel Skinner was
+within his grasp. It was late when he dragged Ezra, laughing and
+gibbering, into a private hospital. He installed a nurse beside the boy,
+bidding her keep a record of any delirious mutterings he might make, and
+to observe silence about them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ben Letts wondered what Satisfied Longman would ask about his son. He
+spoke to the father first, his thick brain trying to avoid trouble.
+
+"Ye air both got a lot of nerve to keep three men at the south reel,
+when I air the only one here."
+
+"Where's Ezy?" asked Longman.
+
+There was no anxiety in his voice. He was tumbling the fish into the
+cars.
+
+"I ain't no way a-knowin' where he air. He skipped away, and said how
+he wanted to speak to his pappy, and I ain't seed him since.... Ezy were
+a fool when he was born."
+
+"Gone home, like a sneakin' kid," put in Jake Brewer. "He ain't no
+hankerin' for nettin'. He ain't been right since Orn Skinner shot the
+gamekeeper."
+
+"He air my brat," replied Longman, "and he air good, if he does do what
+he oughtn't to sometimes. I air satisfied with him.... Let's go home."
+
+And, silently, as a spectral fleet, the boats lapped their way back,
+edging the shore carefully.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Far into the night Satisfied Longman and the tired mother waited for
+their boy.
+
+"He'll show up to break'us," soothed the father; but the mother trembled
+with terror. It was the first evening Ezra had missed the netting, and
+he had never been from home for a whole night.
+
+As day after day passed, it was noised about the settlement that Ezra
+Longman had run away, some saying that he had been seen upon a line of
+canal boats going to Albany. The mother watched each hour for some word
+from him. Then, with a sorrowful expression in the faded eyes, she said
+to Myra:
+
+"If Ezy had had any edication, he'd 'a' writ. He'll be a-comin' home
+some of these days."
+
+After that, the fisherman's hut carried along its usual routine--while a
+boy in the city was wrestling with fever, and the head of the law school
+hung upon his muttered words with avidity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You think he is very ill, Tess?" Teola asked, early one evening in
+September, when she and Tessibel were alone in the Skinner hut. Tess
+came forward to the wooden box, holding in her hand the frying-pan
+filled with bacon fat, and gazed down upon the baby Dan, contemplating
+the wee old-man face thoughtfully.
+
+"He air sick! He air a look on him what air on Myry's brat--kind of
+sickly. That air because he has so many lines in his face, and he air so
+little," she finished, wrinkling the sun-tanned cheeks and shrugging her
+shoulders almost disdainfully.
+
+Teola knelt down, and slipped one slender arm under the dark head. These
+two girls had been drawn together during the past few weeks by a tie
+stronger than death. It had brought Frederick nearer to the squatter,
+and little did Teola realize that, had it not been for her handsome
+brother, her secret would have been discovered long before. It was of
+him she was thinking as she bent over the fire-scarred babe on this
+stormy September night in the fisherman's hut.
+
+"I may not be able to come down to-morrow, Tessibel," she said, looking
+up into the serious face, "because my brother is coming home early in
+the morning."
+
+The frying-pan fell to the floor; the fat spattered and ran across the
+broken, tilted boards until it congealed into rounded miniature
+mountains. Teola turned a puzzled face toward the fishermaid, but there
+was nothing about the girl to tell her why the accident had happened,
+for Tessibel, grappling with a huge cloth, was wiping the floor
+furiously.
+
+"I was saying, Tess," repeated Teola, "that I may not come down
+to-morrow.... Oh! hear how it rains, and the thunder!... Tess, since he
+died, and the baby came, thunder-storms make me shiver."
+
+"It ain't nothin' that'll hurt ye," grunted Tess from her position on
+the floor.
+
+"I know it, unless one stands directly in the lightning's path. But I am
+such a coward, Tessibel! You have so much faith--that's why you're not
+afraid."
+
+The pathetic face turned suddenly upon Tess with a questioning look.
+
+"My brother, you know, thinks you are such a good girl--and--and--you
+are a good girl, aren't you, Tess?"
+
+"Squatters ain't never good," answered Tess in a low tone, her eyes
+dropping under the steady gaze of the other girl. "But I--I love the
+student's God, I does."
+
+She was standing with rag hanging from her right hand, her face
+illumined by a deep flush that disappeared only when it met the red
+hair.
+
+"I believe that you do love Him, Tess," Teola breathed. "And Frederick
+told me that if he had your faith, he could do anything in the world.
+You know, the Bible says that if we had faith as large as a mustard
+seed, we could move a mountain."
+
+Her voice faltered on the last words. Tess grunted significantly.
+
+"Aw! a mustard seed ain't no bigger than a speck of dirt."
+
+"I know it, Tess; I know it. But one only has to have a little faith in
+God to enable Him to answer every prayer we utter."
+
+She grasped the thin baby to her breast frantically, kissed the crimson
+mark up and down, until where the frenzied lips had traveled the flesh
+turned purple. Oh! to have faith to believe that she might soon have
+her child with her always--always! Of late there had crept over Teola
+the shadow of the great beyond, into which her student lover had been so
+hastily summoned. The shrieking of the wind, and the mournful fluttering
+of the tiny hands made her shiver, and she coughed slightly.
+
+"A mountain air bigger than that hill with the look-out on it,"
+ruminated Tess, picking up a huge knot of wood from behind the stove.
+
+"I know that, too," replied Teola.
+
+For the space of many minutes only the smacking of the baby lips upon
+the sugar rag and the roaring of the turbulent wind were heard in the
+hut. Suddenly the vibrations of a great peal of thunder shook the shanty
+with violent effect; a streak of lightning shot zig-zaggedly through the
+room like some livid, malicious spirit. Teola screamed in terror.
+
+"It hit some place near here," said Tess.
+
+"Yes, and wasn't it awful? Oh, if the storm would only cease!"
+
+"It air comin' nearer," answered Tess, with the keen instincts of a
+squatter. "It air got to turn sidewise through the window afore it goes
+over the hill. What air ye afraid of, if ye believes that ye can move a
+mountain if ye has the faith? God wouldn't hit the brat with lightnin',
+would He?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't the faith, Tess!" moaned Teola, rocking to and fro in her
+keen agony of soul. "Long ago I stopped believing the way I did when I
+was a child. I prayed that night when Dan was killed, until my head
+ached and pounded for days. I wanted to see him once more, and God
+wouldn't let me; and then I prayed again--" Teola buried her face in the
+breast of the infant, and sobbed, "I prayed that the baby might die
+when he was born, but God didn't see fit to take him. Somehow, it
+doesn't do any good to pray any more."
+
+Tess paused in her work, standing with her hands on her hips, a solemn
+expression in the long eyes.
+
+"Yer faith wasn't as big as a speck of dirt, then, were it?" she
+queried. "And maybe mine ain't for Daddy. But the student air a-prayin'
+for him! It air a damn shame ye ain't got him a-prayin' for yerself and
+the kid.... Ye'd a seen yer man before now, and the brat would 'a' died,
+too."
+
+With a start caused by the squatter's words, Teola laid the child down,
+crouching back upon her feet. She eyed the fisher-girl critically. What
+a strange mixture of good and bad--of the holy and the unholy--lived in
+the tawny, magnificent squatter! She answered hesitatingly:
+
+"But if my brother should know about the baby, it would break my heart,
+Tessibel. It would kill me--and him, too! Nothing could ever make me
+tell him. You understand, don't you, Tess?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+It was as Tess had said. The storm was coming nearer, sending vivid
+shafts of lightning in splendid awfulness across the sky. Torrents of
+rain descended, thrashing the lake into uneven, towering crests of white
+foam. The weeping willow tree groaned over the shanty roof, jarring and
+tearing at the broken bits of tarred tin.
+
+"Tess, Tess, how can you bear that awful noise, constantly through the
+night? It frightens me to death. It sounds like the spirits of people
+who are dead."
+
+She shivered again, the cutting rasp from the chimney place stinging her
+with fright.
+
+"It air spirits," replied Tess softly. "There air one kind of spirits
+for the sun when it air a-shinin', and the waves just a-ripplin' over
+the lake. They air good spirits. But on nights like this there air bad
+ones--the ghosts of Indians, squaws, and sometimes of the Letts'
+family--them dead 'uns."
+
+She paused, her low voice trailing into silence on that one word "dead,"
+the luminous eyes burning with superstitious fear. How many times had
+the squaw and her burnt brat, now long since called to the land of their
+fathers, moaned through the winter nights, making the shanty ring with
+their piteous plaints! How many times Tessibel had imagined that she had
+seen the headless man from Haytes' Corner flit from the shadows of the
+long lane and lose himself in the overhanging willows on the shore!
+
+Suddenly a foreign sound pierced the storm. Tessibel drew near Teola.
+Both girls were standing over the wooden box. The violence of the storm
+impelled them to grasp each other's hands. In through the broken window
+the strange sound was borne again.
+
+"A boat's a-beatin' agin the shore," said Tess quietly. "Some one air
+a-comin' in out of the rain."
+
+The words were only formed on her lips when the door opened abruptly.
+Tessibel turned her head; Teola dropped her hand and uttered a cry.
+Frederick Graves, with his fingers upon the door, was closing it against
+the fury of the storm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+"You didn't mind my running in, did you, Tessibel?" asked Frederick,
+turning toward the squatter with a broad, comrade-like smile. Then he
+noticed his sister, with surprise.
+
+"Ah, Teola! you, too, were caught in the storm? What a blessing to have
+a shelter like this! Miss Tessibel won't mind if we stay until it is
+over. I came home before I was expected. I almost wish, now, that I had
+waited until morning. But I am safe here, though.... Whew! it is a
+terrible night."
+
+The distance between Teola and Tessibel widened perceptibly. Neither
+girl attempted to speak, and the student smiled at the embarrassment
+upon his sister's face. He made to go toward her.
+
+"You needn't mind being here, dear," he said in a low tone. "I don't
+believe as Father and Mother do. I shouldn't ask for you to be in a
+better place than this hut."
+
+He turned his face toward the roof, letting his eyes sweep the cobwebbed
+net, the old coats upon the wall; and lastly to the stove, out of the
+top of which jutted the smoking knot.
+
+"There is here," he continued impressively, "a feeling of rest and
+contentment to me.... I believe, Tessibel Skinner, that your faith
+permeates every inch of it."
+
+He lifted the lid of the stove, and shoved the smouldering wood from
+sight. His deep voice came again to Tessibel's ears as if from afar:
+
+"I wish I could impress upon my father what it means to pray and be good
+and pure under such circumstances as surround you. I mean, you know,
+Tess"--here he turned squarely upon her--"I mean that, for one so young,
+you have purity of faith and uplifted confidence in God's goodness."
+
+His voice was silenced by a half-smothered cry dragging itself from the
+squatter's throat. Then he noted that something was wrong. Teola, pale
+and wretched, had gradually placed a greater distance between herself
+and the wooden box. Tess had involuntarily drawn closer to it. She dully
+comprehended that Teola was ashamed of the rabbit-like body, struggling
+for a mere existence. Expressions of consternation, of indecision and
+terror swept over her face. Her eyes dropped for an instant upon the
+silent infant. The child gave one great yawn, and whiningly dropped the
+sugar rag. Just at this juncture, lightning flashed through the cracked
+window and played above the face of the babe until the red of the fire
+mark from head to shoulder glowed crimson under the blotched skin. The
+tiny, scrawny arms were bare, the withered mouth opened and shut,
+gapingly. As the eyes of the boy fell upon it, he went so deadly white
+that Tess thought he was going to fall. Without a word, he walked to the
+box, considering the wrinkled baby face like a man in a trance. His gaze
+took in the flaming brand, the gray eyes fastened upon the candlelight,
+and the tiny, searching fingers, which constantly sought something they
+could not find. It seemed an eternity before he gathered himself
+together, forcing his eyes upward to rest first on Teola, then upon
+Tess.
+
+He was the first to speak.
+
+"Where--did--that--child--come--from?"
+
+There was imperious inquisition in the dark eyes.
+
+His voice had changed, until the deepness of it was terrifying.
+
+Teola came nearer to him. Tessibel dropped down beside the infant.
+
+"I want to know where--that child--came from?" commanded the boy once
+more. "Whose child is it?"
+
+Tess swung her body round upon the shanty floor, turning cloudy,
+rebuking eyes upon Teola. She, Tessibel Skinner, crouching squatter-like
+over Dan Jordan's baby, had sworn never to tell Frederick his sister's
+secret, and no thought of doing so entered her mind. The minister's
+daughter must speak the truth. The mother of the babe would answer the
+question put by the student.
+
+Quickly Tess turned over her great desire for the freedom of her father,
+followed by the passionate wish to retain the love and prayers of
+Frederick Graves. If she denied the child, he would turn upon his
+sister, and the shivering girl would divulge her trouble. It would be
+the same as breaking her oath. Yet Frederick must not think the child
+hers. She turned toward Teola again, and seemed about to open her lips,
+when the expression upon the other girl's face stayed her tongue. It was
+a mixture of despair, illness and fright. Tessibel imagined she had
+discovered beneath the pain-drawn face a desire to claim her own. Ah!
+Teola would gather her babe, that tiny bit of shriveled flesh, into her
+arms before the whole world. There rose in the squatter's heart a vast
+respect for Myra Longman, who had taken her child from the beginning of
+its tiny life, and defied the babbling tongues of the settlement
+gossips. Teola Graves, although of a different class, was no less a
+mother--she would do the same. Tessibel sat up, waiting for the
+confession. Why was the minister's daughter so silent?--why so deathly
+looking?
+
+"I will be answered," insisted the student. Then, centering his eyes
+full upon Tess, he added:
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, _it_ is--yours!"
+
+Teola's lips were pressed closely together. Spasms of pain drew them
+down at the corners, making the girl resemble a woman twice her years.
+With a sudden inspiration, she turned upon her brother.
+
+"Frederick, Frederick," she stammered. "Don't blame her too much. She is
+only a girl."
+
+A cry escaped from the lips of Frederick; another followed from those of
+Tess. The minister's daughter was throwing the motherhood of the babe
+upon her. Teola had branded her squatter savior with a nameless child--a
+horror from which the student shrank! She saw unbelief rise quickly in
+his eyes, and saw him draw aside his long rain-coat as it almost touched
+the box upon the floor. Shrinking disgust of the wriggling, whimpering
+thing on the rags made Frederick involuntarily reach out his hand to his
+sister, but his eyes were bent upon Tess.
+
+"And you're the girl I've trusted!" he gasped, as Teola neared him
+slowly. "Yours is the faith I've envied!--your life the one standard I
+wish to gain!... God!" he groaned, "you--you--you the mother of that!"
+
+His bitter tones stung her to the quick, whipping her into immediate
+action. Fire gold-brown and swift as lightning swept into the flashing
+eyes. Frederick's sister had thrust the child upon her. The secret was
+dead between them. Tess remembered her oath--remembered her love for the
+boy, and Teola's cowardice. Her despair gathered as her false position
+was forced upon her.
+
+She stooped, and grasped the babe in her hands with a passion that tore
+the meager clothing from its body. She crushed the infant to her as if
+indeed Teola's words were true. The small dark head fell limply upon her
+bosom, the thin legs hung straight and bare over the soiled jacket. One
+little hand clutched her torn sleeve, as if there lived in the
+infant-brain a fear of harm. Tess, instinct with potent life and rage,
+wheeled like a tawny tigress furiously upon Frederick and Teola.
+
+"Air it any of yer damn business," she demanded hotly, "if I wants to
+have a brat?"
+
+She had silenced the student by the condemning words, which seared his
+soul like molten lead. A dazed terror gathered in his eyes. He smoothed
+his forehead with trembling fingers. The lightning forked about the
+squatter and the babe, illuminating the small head and the bony body of
+the child. Tess felt it shiver and mechanically she lifted her skirt,
+wrapping him close within it. Her gaze took in sneeringly the shrinking
+form of Teola, and the arm of the student encircling his sister's waist.
+For one instant she hated them both with all the strength of her
+half-savage nature. Still, no thought came of breaking her promise.
+
+"Ye can both go to hell," she ended distinctly.
+
+A fierce cry from Frederick closed her lips, and the anger within her
+changed to terror. What was she doing? Blasting his love, his faith,
+his confidence with words that blackened her soul with perfidy and her
+life with dishonor. Had she not told the student that long-ago night
+that she loved him?--that she was his squatter for ever and ever? And
+was she not now at this moment keeping a secret from him for his own
+sake? Something in her small, ghastly face brought the lad in his boyish
+agony, impulsively forward.
+
+"For God's love--and mine, Tess--tell me, it isn't true! Tell me you are
+shielding someone else--"
+
+Teola caught her breath painfully, and Frederick ended:
+
+"Some other squatter girl."
+
+"I ain't got no other squatter's brat here," she cried, turning her eyes
+upon Teola. "It ain't no other squatter's brat, air it?"
+
+"No, no, Frederick," replied Teola, white and wan; "she has told you the
+truth--it isn't another squatter's child."
+
+Hope died in the boy and outraged feeling leaped into its place. He held
+Tessibel's eyes with his relentlessly.
+
+"Did you expect to mix prayers for your father with filth like that?" he
+demanded, pointing to the hidden infant in the fold of her dress. "Did
+you expect God to hear you, when your life was full of--sin?... I am
+ashamed I ever loved you, ashamed that I took my life from your
+hands.... I wish I were--dead! I wish I were dead!"
+
+Teola gasped in her new understanding. The squatter and her handsome
+brother loved each other! Never for one moment had it dawned upon her,
+until she saw the tall boy drop beside the stool and sob out his heart
+agony upon the open Bible.
+
+If she dared speak the truth, she could assure him of the goodness of
+the fisher-girl. But her lips sealed themselves with her soul's consent.
+She raised her face, giving Tess one look of terror. Reaching out, she
+touched her brother's arm.
+
+"Frederick, come home with me. This is awful--awful!"
+
+"I don't want to go home," sobbed the boy, in pitiful abandon. "I didn't
+know anything could be so hard to bear. And I loved her faith and her
+character--and her beautiful face.... Oh, I love her, I love her,
+Teola!"
+
+The squatter listened to every passionate word, listened until her face
+whitened into a despair that settled there and did not vanish. She had
+not moved from the wooden box, nor ceased pressing the half-clad infant
+to her breast. Turning, she shot a soul-cutting glance at the other
+girl, who owed her very life to her. The glance pleaded for the
+miserable boy by the stool, for the sick babe held close to her heart,
+and lastly, for herself, her squatter honor, and the powerful love she
+had for the student brother. From the depths of her eyes came a demand
+to Teola that she tell the truth. The answer was but a slight negative
+shake of the proudly-set head, followed by an embarrassment that Teola
+covered by leaning over her brother, and raising him from the floor.
+Frederick allowed his sister to lead him by the wooden box, past
+Tessibel to the door. His eyes traveled back to the open Bible upon the
+stool, where but a moment since his own dark head had rested. Then he
+laughed--laughed until the sharp sting of his tones made the fisher-girl
+grunt in her characteristic way.
+
+Striding forward, he snatched up the book, tore off the covers, and in
+another minute had thrust it through the smoke into the stove.
+
+"There goes your faith--your canting trash about your love for the
+Saviour! I might have known that one of your kind could not rise above
+the grossness in you. I hope you will be as miserable and as unhappy as
+I am.... I hope that child will...."
+
+Tess stopped him with a cry. She stooped down, and placed the little Dan
+in his bed without a word. Her anger was gone, and from the waters of
+bitterness that swept over her a better Tess lived. Her faith in the boy
+died instantly, and a higher, nobler and greater faith in the crucified
+Saviour lived instead.
+
+She would never tell Frederick that his sister was mother to the little
+being he had scorned, nor would she as much as utter the name of Dan
+Jordan. Covering the child tenderly, she faced Frederick Graves without
+a touch of the awkward girlishness that had hitherto marked her
+movements. A glorified expression lightened the white face and shone
+from her eyes. He had taught her a lesson of independence she could not
+have learned through any other person. Without one glance at the
+shivering young mother, she walked to the door, and opened it, as she
+had done that night when he had come first to the hut.
+
+"Ye can go," she said, "both of ye. Ye burned my Book, ye did, but ye
+can't take it out of my heart. The God up their ain't all yers. He air
+mine--and Daddy's--and--the brat's."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+The rain rushed in through the open door. The wind shook the dust in
+clouds from the overhanging nets, waving the long cobwebs that hung in
+fine threads from the ceiling into fantastic figures.
+
+Frederick, still supporting his sister, stepped into the glare of the
+lightning. Tess closed the door behind them, and stood with her back
+against it. The high chest lifted and lifted, the white, tightened
+throat choking down the sobs that tried to force themselves to her lips.
+"She were a damn sneak," were the first words she said, shudderingly
+covering her face with her hands.
+
+"Aw, aw, I ain't a-goin' to have it here.... I can't have it here."
+
+She was thinking of the child, now twisting and turning for more sugar.
+A whine from its lips drew Tess slowly toward it. She stood looking down
+upon it for many minutes. The baby had taken away her all, for Tess
+realized now the extent of her love for Frederick. Nothing would make
+the days shorter; there was no looking forward to a kindly nod or a
+gracious word from him.
+
+"I hates ye," she said out loud, slowly, leaning over the infant with a
+frown on her face, "but I hates yer ma worse than I hates you. Yer ma
+air a piker, she air."
+
+The babe whimpered and shivered. Tessibel wrapped its bare shoulders in
+a piece of the blanket.
+
+"I could throw ye out in the rain, I hates ye so," she burst forth in
+sudden anger. "Ye ain't no right in this shanty."
+
+Her eyes glittered with rage and humiliation; her head sank nearer and
+nearer the fire-marked child, her shock of red hair falling like a
+mantle of gold across its thin body. The twisting fingers entangled
+themselves in the tawny curls, drawing the squatter down until her face
+was almost in the box. With a grunt of abhorrence she spread out the
+wiry little hands, extricating lock after lock.
+
+Once free, she squatted back upon her feet, scrutinizing the child with
+no sign of sympathy in her eyes. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of the
+forest and the lake beyond through the window. She could see the rain
+falling in quantities into the water, and the great pine-tree, in which
+sat her God of Majesty, whitened under the zig-zag glare of lightning.
+The superstitious, imaginative girl rose unsteadily to her feet.
+Pressing her face to the smeared pane, she saw the jagged lightning
+tearing again toward the tree; then it played about the figure that Tess
+had grown to love. The old man amid the branches bent toward the
+squatter, and held out his waving arms. A cry burst from Tessibel's
+lips. She opened the door, standing in bold relief against the
+candlelight, and shot her hands far into the dark night.
+
+"Oh, Goddy, Goddy!" she breathed, catching her breath in stifling sobs.
+"The student air gone, and the Bible air burnt, and Daddy air in a
+prison cell. Might'n I asks ye--?"
+
+She turned, with heaving bosom, without finishing. Bending over the
+child, she drew him into her arms. With the same sublime expression of
+suffering, she went back to the open door and knelt in the beating rain,
+and tendered the little child toward the God of her dreams.
+
+"Might'n it please ye, Goddy, to bless the brat--and Tess?"
+
+The student was no longer the motive power of her prayer. Tess, the
+squatter, was struggling with a new faith of her own. Flash after flash
+brightened the sky, and still she knelt, offering the sick child for her
+God to bless. One long peal of thunder shook the inky waters, and
+rumbled reverberatingly into the hills. Tessibel's eyes were riveted
+upon the pine-tree. The wind dropped the shaking branches for a
+minute--the arms extended straight toward her. With fast-falling tears
+she bowed over the wailing baby, and stood up with a long breath.
+
+"Goddy, Goddy, it air hard work for ye to forgive Tessibel, I knows....
+To-day I loved the student best"--a sob tightened her throat--"to-night
+I love you best, and ... and the Man hanging on the Cross."
+
+She closed the hut door, and seated herself at the oven, and warmed the
+infant with tender solicitude, forcing the warm, sweetened water into
+the meager body. Then she slipped off her clothes, gathered the little
+Dan to her breast, and crept into bed.
+
+"I said as how I hated ye, brat," she whispered, "but I don't hate ye
+now, poor little shiverin' dum devil!"
+
+During the rest of the storm the babe slept, but Tessibel wept out her
+loss of the only love she had ever known save Daddy Skinner's--wept
+until, from sheer exhaustion, her head dropped upon the dark one of Dan
+Jordan's babe, and she slept.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning, Tess rose languidly. Without a smile or a prayer, she
+arranged the sop for the babe, then sat down beside him to think. Such a
+radical change in her life brought an influx of indescribable emotions.
+Her Bible was gone--the one book out of which she was learning the
+secret of happiness and patience. She remembered how, the night before,
+the realization of her despair had brought her closer to the Cross. Out
+of the brightness of the lightning she had received a promise of a
+blessing. Still, the tender, sensitive heart was bleeding for its own.
+But Tess had the hidden God to help her--and the child. She sat watching
+him; she could see that he was growing thinner, growing more emaciated
+as the days passed. He could eat only the food Tess forced into his
+mouth. But the sugar rags kept him from whining. At this moment he was
+eying the window-pane with intelligent intentness.
+
+"Ye air the miserablest little devil I ever seed. No pappy, and a mammy
+what air afraid to say ye air hers. I hated ye last night, but ye air
+such a wrinkled little tramp that this mornin' I promises ye to keep ye
+till ye dies."
+
+She was bending over the babe, watching every expression that flitted
+over the drawn mouth. In this position she did not hear the door open
+silently, as Teola stepped in.
+
+The minister's daughter whispered to the crouching squatter:
+
+"Tessibel, can--can you ever forgive me?"
+
+Tess stood up and took a long breath. Teola noted how the night had
+changed the brilliant coloring to a whiteness that startled her. An
+agony of remorse broke over her, and, dropping upon her knees, she wept
+upon the face of little Dan.
+
+"Tess, I've nearly died all through the night.... Oh, can you forgive
+me?"
+
+"I ain't no business to be a-forgivin' ye. It be the brat what ye air
+to asks forgiveness of."
+
+Teola sprang to her feet.
+
+"Tess!" she cried sharply. Never had the girl appeared in this light.
+
+"It air hard on the little kid," Tessibel said meditatively, "when its
+ma says what another woman air a-mothering it for good and all."
+
+This remark came forth in even tones. Teola had not thought of the harm
+she had done the child of Dan Jordan, by throwing the motherhood upon
+the squatter. She turned her troubled eyes, first upon Tess, then upon
+the child.
+
+"Tessibel, I do love him, even if I disowned him. But I haven't the
+courage you have. You looked so beautiful when you said he was yours....
+And Frederick is ill to-day."
+
+Tessibel's heart thumped loudly.
+
+"I heard him crying all night, Tess," went on Teola, "and, oh! so many
+times I wanted to go and tell him that you were--a good girl; but I
+didn't have the courage. But I know that sometime--Tess, will you pray
+for me?"
+
+"I ain't doin' no prayin' to-day," replied Tess. "To-morry, mebbe....
+Aw! I wanted the student to pray for Daddy, and to like me--"
+
+Teola never forgot the scene that followed.
+
+The fisher-girl settled in a heap upon the floor, bowed the tired head,
+and wept.
+
+"Tessibel! Tess," called Teola, touching the girl's shoulder, "listen.
+I'll tell him!--I'll tell him! He shall come back to you to-night--if it
+kills me."
+
+Tessibel lifted her white face.
+
+"Ye be goin' to tell him that the brat air yers?" queried she brokenly.
+
+"I'll go and make it all right with him. He shall come to you to-day....
+Oh, what a wicked girl I was! Kiss me, Tess."
+
+Elias Graves' beautiful daughter sank on the breast of the squatter, and
+there was a kiss of forgiveness.
+
+The baby whimpered. Teola drew away from Tessibel with a long sigh. She
+reached for the milk-can.
+
+"There ain't none there," Tess said, with a touch of joy in her tones.
+"It air all gone. He et all that you brought him."
+
+"And I can't get him any more now," moaned Teola. "Oh, Tess, I'm so ill!
+I wish I were dead!"
+
+A tall boy had repeated the same words the night before. Tess drew
+herself up painfully. She pitied Teola from the bottom of her heart,
+but, in spite of her pity, she could not help the thrill of happiness
+when she thought of Frederick coming, and knowing all.
+
+"It ain't no use to wish ye were dead," said she, "'cause ye can't
+allers die if ye wants to. When I thought Daddy was a-goin' to the rope,
+I say every day I were a-goin' to die.... Women ain't a-dyin' so easy."
+
+She was preparing the warm sop for the child, and taking him from his
+mother's arm, she sat down in the rocking chair. She did not speak again
+until she had drained the sweetened water from the bread-crusts, and the
+child had smacked it down eagerly.
+
+Suddenly she spoke, handing the babe to Teola.
+
+"Can't ye put out a drop more milk evenin's?"
+
+"I took all there was last night, and the night before, too. And this
+morning Rebecca was furious--she had to go without milk in her coffee. I
+don't know that I can get any to-night."
+
+"The weather air so cold now," explained Tess, "Kennedy won't let his
+cows stay in the fields nights. I might crib some more if I could. Every
+time I steals up to yer house, I thinks yer woman'll see me; and yer
+Pappy and Mammy comes home to-morry."
+
+Teola nodded.
+
+"If yer Pappy catched me swipin' milk, he'd knock the head offen me. I
+steals it just the same.... I air afraid of yer Pappy, though."
+
+"No wonder," replied Teola, and she lapsed into silence.
+
+Her father hated the squatter girl--hated the fishermen who still plied
+their unlawful trade under the noses of the gamekeepers.
+
+Teola was crying softly. She felt it was only just to relieve Tess of
+the stigma she had placed upon her. But to go home and face the proud
+young brother with the story of her sin--with the lie she had told--were
+almost unbearable. Then another thought pierced her. Could Tess keep the
+baby all winter? And would she herself have the courage to live, knowing
+that he might sometimes be hungry and cold? Frederick would help her.
+She was glad she had decided to tell him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As she walked up the long hill, she saw her brother standing on the
+porch, and noted the pallor of his face, the expression of misery in his
+eyes. At first the boy did not see her--not until she called his name
+softly.
+
+Teola sank upon the upper step.
+
+"It takes away my breath to climb that hill," she panted, when she
+could speak. "It grows harder and harder every day."
+
+"I shall be glad when we leave this old cottage," was the boy's moody
+reply. "I never knew how much I hated the lake until to-day."
+
+Teola did not answer to this, for she knew that she was to blame for
+that hatred. Frederick was looking at the hut under the willow wofully.
+
+"If anyone had told me what I saw last night," he blurted out, a moment
+later, "I believe I would have killed him.... I loved her, Teola."
+
+Now she would tell him--send him back to Tessibel with joy in his heart.
+She sprang up impetuously.
+
+"Frederick," she began quickly, "let me tell--"
+
+But he interrupted her.
+
+"You need not tell me that I have to forgive her for such a thing as
+this because of ignorance.... It's too horrible!... I shall never get
+the sight of that child out of my mind.... That streak of awful, lurid
+red ... that yapping mouth ... those clawing hands.... God! the disgust
+I felt.... Teola! Teola! You are ill! Rebecca, come here! Come! Come!"
+
+Together they lifted her from the porch where she had fallen, like a man
+stabbed with a knife. Gurgling from her lips poured the fresh red blood
+from the diseased lungs. Teola tried to speak, tried to tell Frederick
+the truth, but the awful tugging in her chest, and her brother's order
+that she must not speak, closed her lips upon the good resolution. Added
+to his command came one from the doctor, who arrived later, that she
+must not speak one word until he came the next day. The hemorrhage had
+been brought on by Frederick's description of her child. After her
+brother had gone, she thought of the hour when she could tell him, but
+with a thankful feeling in her heart that it had been delayed a little
+time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Until the great University bells chimed the hour of midnight, Tessibel
+waited in the hut for Frederick.
+
+"She hes forgot to tell him," she muttered wearily, pulling the sleepy
+babe into her arms, "and--and he ain't a-comin'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+Tess saw the minister's family arrive in the small lake steamer, and saw
+Frederick meet them at the dock. She was watching from between the
+tatters of the ragged curtain, and noted that Teola had not come down
+the hill with her brother. This disturbed the squatter, for the baby's
+mother had looked ill when she left the day before, with the resolution
+to tell the student her secret. As Minister Graves passed, she saw
+Frederick looking fondly into his father's face, but he sent no friendly
+glance toward the hut snuggled under the willow. The watching girl saw
+that the student's face was haggard, and a thrill swept over her. It was
+because of his love; he wanted to be with her! But he thought she had
+been--Tess turned her head from the window, blinded by tears. But for
+the child in the box! There swept into her mind a text she had learned.
+"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove." Ah! if she
+could have such faith, only such a little faith, she could bring the boy
+back--bring back, through God's goodness, the student she loved.
+
+"I air a-lovin' ye, Jesus," she trembled. "I takes care of the brat till
+he croaks. Give me back--"
+
+Emotion left the prayer unuttered in her breast.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At eight o'clock that evening, Tess, hugging the fence, sneaked up
+through the rain. She turned into Graves' orchard, scurrying barefooted
+toward the house, casting glances at intervals behind her. Through the
+small garret window she could see Rebecca moving in her room, preparing
+to go out. The library, facing the lane, was dark. But the streak of
+light flung long upon the porch told the squatter that the Dominie's
+family was in the drawing-room. Tess ventured to the back of the house,
+drawing near the dark kitchen. Here was where Teola had placed the milk
+for several days. She scraped about in the inky darkness, but her
+fingers touched nothing. The babe's mother had forgotten to put out the
+pail! Until the coming of the Dominie and his wife, Tess had had but
+little fear, but now her breath came spasmodically. There was danger of
+detection if she crept into the kitchen to obtain the milk. If she could
+only get into Kennedy's barn! If the cows were only out to pasture! Tess
+turned the handle of the kitchen door softly, and stepped in. A light
+streak came from the drawing-room, and she located the ice-safe through
+the dim shadows. Teola had told her to take the milk from there if she
+failed to find it outside. She advanced slowly into the kitchen, holding
+her breath, but her heart thumped so loudly that she feared the family
+would hear it.
+
+Kneeling down at the refrigerator, she fumbled for the lock. The door
+slid open silently. A small pail of milk stood behind the butter-plate,
+and Tessibel, clutching it in her fingers, rose up. As she did so, a
+light flashed into her face, and she looked up to find Dominie Graves
+towering over her, his brows caught together with anger.
+
+"So Miss Skinner is the thief who takes our milk! The hymn-singing
+girl!... Ah, it is you!"
+
+Tessibel dropped her eyes, still holding the can of milk.
+
+"I air a-stealin' yer milk," she said presently, lifting her gaze. "Air
+ye goin' to--let me have it?"
+
+"No, my lady, I am not going to let you have it," he mimicked. "But
+something else you are going to get."
+
+The Dominie stepped to the kitchen door leading into the yard, and
+turned the key in the lock. He placed the lamp on the table, the
+squatter waiting with fear-laden eyes.
+
+"For a long time," went on the Dominie, in slow, measured tones, "I have
+thought it would be a good thing to give you a sound whipping. The Bible
+says, 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child.' ... I am going to do
+something your father forgot to do, Miss Skinner."
+
+The sneer in his voice and his slur on her father brought a bright flush
+of anger to Tessibel's face.
+
+"Ye can cowhide me if ye wants to, but don't say nothin' against my
+Daddy!"
+
+"I'll say what I wish to! Now, then, how many times have you stolen from
+this house?"
+
+Tess looked about for some way of escape; then pondered.
+
+"I dunno," she replied sullenly.
+
+"I can just about tell," answered Graves. "Rebecca says that for many
+mornings she has had no milk for her coffee. And I left the kitchen door
+unlocked to-night purposely to catch the thief. Let me see.... I think
+we've been robbed for ten days? That means ten good stripes for you,
+Tessibel Skinner.... Put down that milk!"
+
+"I won't do it," Tessibel whitened. She had not believed the minister
+when he had threatened to whip her. He was trying to scare her. He would
+probably take away the milk, and send her home again. But he had
+stepped to the wall, and taken a riding-whip from a nail. Tess had seen
+that whip before, once--the time she had twiggled her fingers. Graves
+had shaken it at her from his saddle-horse. Then she had not been
+afraid.... The clergyman came toward her.
+
+"Ye hit me with that whip," growled Tess, "and--and--I'll kill ye!"
+
+"Oh! you will, eh?... Well, then, there it is!"
+
+A stinging blow fell across her shoulders, and another and another. The
+slender body writhed silently, turned and twisted to escape the
+descending whip. Drops of milk spattered upon the floor. Never before
+had Tess known such physical pain. The minister was counting the blows
+deliberately as they fell. At the eighth stroke, the girl opened her
+lips and uttered a long, piercing cry--an intense, vibrating cry. The
+last blow fell upon Tessibel's shivering back,--and Frederick appeared
+in the doorway. His father leaning against the wall breathlessly, the
+whip hanging limply from his hand; Tessibel Skinner, barefooted and
+weeping, with a pail of milk clasped in her fingers--was what the boy
+saw. He had no chance to speak before Teola, too, with streaming hair,
+her nightrobe clutched convulsively in one hand, opened the hall door.
+
+The scene whirled before her like a frightful nightmare.
+
+The fisher-girl turned and faced her.
+
+"Yer Pappy air a-beatin' me ... I hev a-been stealin' milk."
+
+Her words fell between little, broken gasps. They touched Frederick as
+he never had been touched before. He stepped forward hastily to speak.
+
+"I air a-needin' the milk," she explained, bowing her head before him.
+"I has to have it!"
+
+The infant rushed into Frederick's mind ... the squalid cabin, that
+twisting thing, with thin, discolored veins. It had been for him that
+Tess had stolen. Teola staggered toward her father, a cough racking the
+emaciated frame. Minister Graves threw his arms about her.
+
+"Go back! Go back quickly, child! You should not have ventured out of
+bed. I will settle with the squatter."
+
+"You whipped her!" breathed Teola.
+
+"Yes, and will again, if I catch her stealing from my kitchen. Now,
+miss, you can go home. Put down that milk; and, if I find you here in
+the future, I shall put you behind the bars, with your father."
+
+Frederick counted the beats of his heart through the blank silence. He
+felt impelled to reach forward to Tessibel,--to say something to relieve
+the white, tense face. His father was waiting for the squatter to take
+her departure. But Tess remained with the pail in her hand.
+
+Suddenly she lifted her streaming eyes to the minister's face.
+
+"I has been beaten.... And I air a-feelin' so--bad! Air I to have the
+milk? I needs it." Tess sobbed again, and continued, "I ain't a-carin'
+so awful about the lickin' as I does about havin' the milk."
+
+She came forward close to him, with searching sweetness in her gaze. The
+Dominie drew back, fearing the soiled dress would touch him. The girl
+was making the appeal to him alone, and a cloud of color gathered
+slowly over his face under her steady eyes. He regained himself, and
+replied,
+
+"No, you can't have the milk, no matter how much you may need it."
+
+"Some one'll die without it," she entreated again, lowering her voice,
+throwing no glance at the silent boy or shivering girl.
+
+"Then let them die," retorted the clergyman. "I do not believe
+you--anyway!"
+
+He was weakening a little, the attitude of his son and daughter striking
+him almost to consent. Frederick's eyes were filled with hauteur unusual
+to the boy, and Teola was clinging to his neck, weeping wildly. The
+children had never approved of his persecution of the squatters, but
+both of them could see that the girl had been caught in open-handed
+theft.
+
+"Father," Teola implored, "give the girl the milk. She says she needs
+it--"
+
+"Yes, Father," interrupted Frederick, "give it to her.... She won't
+steal again.... You won't, will you--girl?"
+
+This was the first word to her since that night he had lost faith in
+her. His voice seemed harsh; it fell upon her, numbing her senses. Her
+body went cold as if a frosty gust had struck it.
+
+"You won't steal again--ever? Will you?" demanded he.
+
+Tessibel struggled to speak. At last there came a fluttered confession,
+which made Teola Graves shiver like an aspen leaf. If she could only
+summon courage to tell her arrogant father the truth! She could not bear
+to look upon her squatter friend, nor upon Frederick's white face.
+
+"I has to steal," said Tess. "I has to have the milk.... I can't get it
+no way else."
+
+"There! There!" exclaimed the Dominie, with a derisive laugh. "If that
+isn't depravity, I don't know what is.... Now, then, miss, put down that
+pail, and go!"
+
+He strode forward and grasped the handle in his fingers. But Tess held
+it firmly. Her mind flashed to the child in the hut, smacking fiercely
+through the long night ... she thought of the morning, of the hungry
+gray eyes and the ceaseless baby whimper--and defied the minister.
+
+"I air a-goin' to have it," she insisted. "Take yer hand offen that
+handle."
+
+Graves gasped for breath, but did not relax his hold upon the pail. With
+a motion as quick as lightning flashes, Tess lowered her head, and set
+her teeth into the Dominie's fat white hand. A cry of pain escaped him,
+and he opened his fingers.
+
+"I said as how I got to have the milk--and--and I air got it! Open that
+door!"
+
+Tess shrieked out the last words, her eyes, full of hatred, bent upon
+Graves. Frederick strode forward, turned the key in the lock, and Tess
+sprang out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tessibel ran swiftly through the orchard, out into the lane, her rage
+dying out in her fear for the babe. She had never left him so long
+before. Her flesh still tingled from the Dominie's blows, but her
+admission before Frederick that she was compelled to steal hurt her
+worse than the blue welts rising upon her shoulders. She regretted, too,
+that she had bitten the clergyman's hand, but that had been done for
+the baby--little Dan had to live.
+
+She came to an alert standstill in front of the cabin. She saw the light
+from a candle flickering out through the window. Tess was sure she had
+left the hut dark--she had extinguished the light just before going out
+for the milk. Who was in the hut? Or had she made a mistake, and left
+the candle there? For the sake of the child she had to enter. She set
+down the pail, lifted her skirt, wiped away the traces of tears. Then,
+flinging wide the door, she came upon Ben Letts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+
+Ben was standing beside the bed, with the open grape-basket in his hand,
+looking down intently upon the child. His one eye flashed past Tess in
+its blindness, while the watery one with the red veins running through
+it distorted itself into a squint, and brought its evil gaze upon her.
+The fat chin, covered with a stubby growth of hair, shook with malicious
+pleasure, the dark teeth set grimly through the brown, tobacco-stained
+lips.
+
+"It air a brat!" he said at last, Tess standing paralyzed. "Air its
+Pappy the--"
+
+He did not finish. Tess snatched the basket from his hand, and covered
+the whining babe.
+
+"Ye be allers snoopin' yer nose in some one's else's business," she said
+darkly, her fear of him growing with each minute. "Ye can't keep from my
+hut any day, and ye ain't no right here nuther."
+
+"I telled ye and the student that the time'd come when I'd get even with
+ye both--and it air here!... It air here, I say!"
+
+"The student ain't nothin' to do with this here brat," retorted Tess.
+"Ye thinks as how ye knows a heap.... Well, ye don't.... And it air time
+for ye to be a-goin' now, Ben Letts!"
+
+"I air a-goin' to stay," said he, "Daddy's" stool creaking under his
+weight.
+
+From a tree near the forest Tess could hear the screech of a night-owl
+die away in smothered laughter. The scraping of the willow on the tin
+roof came dimly to her in the silence. If some other squatter would only
+come along! God had always saved her from Ben Letts.--Dared she pray?
+Her eyes sought the window. If she could only see the pine-tree
+God!--send Him a little petition--He would forgive and save her. Dominie
+Graves had gone completely from her mind; only a wish, a desperate wish,
+came to escape the man who had constantly thrown his menacing shadow
+across the path of her life. Suddenly her bosom heaved. A verse was
+thrown bomb-like into her mind. Tess opened her lips and muttered,
+keeping her eyes upon the fisherman.
+
+"If ye have faith as the grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this
+mountain--"
+
+The time between the present and that night the student had left her in
+bitter sorrow faded. In her imagination she was alone in the rain, with
+the child upon her hands, offering it up to the dark God for a blessing.
+The same uplifting faith was upon her. The Crucified Savior would
+protect her.
+
+"I believe! I believe!" she ejaculated. No soul-desiring thought of
+Frederick interrupted her uprising faith. She needed him no more to pray
+for her.
+
+"A mustard-seed air--a--a mighty little thing, ain't it, Ben Letts?"
+
+Tess stood up, looking beyond him like one in a dream.
+
+"Yep," grunted the fisherman, staring.
+
+He had never understood the moods of Tess. She was as incomprehensible
+to him as the myriads of stars that strung themselves through the sky.
+
+But his inability to understand her made him desire the girl the more.
+He had come at an hour when he was sure Tess would be alone. He would
+force her to come to his cabin, to marry him even before her father was
+hanged. Ben's eyes settled again upon the basket. Through his heavy
+senses sifted a wave of hatred for the miserable child, whining for the
+milk Tess had stolen. Ben moved his great feet, tearing up a long
+splinter from a broken board with his worn-down heel. It startled Tess
+from her reverie. In upon her faith came the sickening thought of
+Frederick, his confidence in her blasted and gone; it choked a prayer
+that lingered upon her lips. Ben rose to his feet, an oath belching from
+his ugly mouth.
+
+"Put down that basket. Put it down, I says!"
+
+Never had it entered her mind before to conciliate the dark-browed
+fisherman who had pestered her with his attentions, but her frightened
+womanhood caught at the idea.
+
+"Wait till I gives him somethin' to eat," she said stolidly. "If he
+yaps, someone'll hear him."
+
+Ben sat down and watched her narrowly. Tessibel had grown so beautiful
+in the last few months that the brute force in the man rose in his
+desire to possess her. There was one way to bring the girl on her knees
+to him, one way to bow the proud red head--the little child made no
+difference to him. And some day he would get even with the student, too.
+The small bare feet of the squatter girl noiselessly plied their way
+from the smoking stove to the sugar-bowl, thence to the basket. Tess
+held the warm, sweet milk to the infant's lips, lifting the withered
+chin that the child might drink the better. Her mind was working
+rapidly. How should she escape and rescue the babe? She went back for
+more milk, wetting the corner of the cloth and wiping little Dan's
+face. Then she gazed straight at Ben Letts, and said,
+
+"How air yer mammy?"
+
+It seemed the most natural thing that she should ask this of him.
+
+"She air well," answered Ben, thrown off his guard. He took out his
+pipe, and continued:
+
+"When ye comes to the shanty, ye can't bring that brat."
+
+"Nope; I ain't a-goin' to bring him," Tess replied, whispering a prayer
+for aid.
+
+"What be ye goin' to do with it?"
+
+"I don't know yet." A muttered petition fell over the baby's face, but
+she said aloud: "I think it air a-goin' to croak."
+
+"I's a-thinkin' so, too," Ben said thoughtfully. "He hes the look of
+death on his mug, Tessibel.... Air it yer brat?"
+
+"He air mine now," she answered slowly, raising her head, "and I stays
+here with him till he dies."
+
+"Nope; ye be a-comin' to my shanty to-morry. Mammy air expectin' ye....
+And ye'll be glad to come--afore I gets done with ye!"
+
+Tess shivered. She remembered Myra's broken wrist, and heard again the
+woful cry from the other squatter girl as she told of the harm done her.
+If she could get out of the shanty, she could run from him, but that
+would leave the child to his mercy. She glanced toward the door.
+Whatever came to her, she must protect the babe. Lifting him from his
+bed, she sat down at the oven, and extended the blue legs toward the
+heat.
+
+"He air so damn thin," she said in excuse, "that he allers yaps if he
+air cold.... Have ye seen Myry's kid lately?"
+
+"Yep; to-day. He air a-growin' a little more pert."
+
+"Glad for Myry," was Tessibel's comment.
+
+"Ye ain't heard nothin' from yer Daddy, have ye?" asked Ben, presently.
+
+"Yep. I had a letter from him. He air a-comin' to the shanty as soon as
+he air out."
+
+"He ain't a-goin' to get out!"
+
+"Yep, he air; sure he air."
+
+"Air he a-knowin' of yer brat?" Ben was staring at the child.
+
+Tess stared back at him. She had forgotten that she had intimated that
+the baby was hers.
+
+"I ain't tellin' Daddy nothin'.... His troubles be enough for _him_."
+
+Her tone was low and bitter. She turned the babe with its back to the
+heat to gain time. She had almost decided to run away--she could not
+face Myra's fate.
+
+"This durn stove ain't got no fire in it," she said, laying Baby Dan in
+the box. "I's a-goin' for a stick of wood!"
+
+As Tessibel walked past him, Ben did not stop her--squatters never saved
+steps for their women. The girl flung open the door, but hesitated on
+the threshold. During the instant of her indecision, a silent panorama
+of night passed before her. Heavy rain clouds dipped almost to the dark
+water, obscuring the city and the University hill beyond. A great
+steamer attached to a number of canal boats lay as a thin black line in
+the center of the lake. An owl left the branches of the hut tree and
+circled into the safety of the shore willows, and a stealthy barn cat,
+with thread-like legs, crept from the water's edge toward the lane with
+a trailing dead fish in his jaws. He turned glistening green eyes upon
+Tess, and leapt away with his treasure.
+
+Oh! to be out once more in the darkness with the child--out among God's
+creatures, her creatures, there she would be safe--safe from Myra's
+terror.
+
+Glancing back at little Dan, she saw his large gray eyes fixed gravely
+upon the candlelight. To leave him there was like sending him into the
+jaws of death. To take him was impossible. She turned back, closed the
+door with a gasp, and faced Ben Letts.
+
+He was at her side in a moment.
+
+"I air got ye now," sounded in her ear like the roar of the sea. She
+felt the man crush her in his arms, felt the thick lips upon her face.
+
+"Ye think ye be such a smart kid that ye needn't never mind what a man
+says to ye. I knows that brat don't belong to yerself. I ain't seed ye
+all summer for nothin'. Tell me, whose air he?"
+
+Tess wrenched herself free, and sent forth scream after scream. A horny
+hand left a red mark across the fair face. It was the right of the
+fisherman to beat the woman he loved.... Tessibel Skinner was feeling
+for the first time the aggressiveness of the male.
+
+"Ben, Ben, I tells ye the truth if ye wait a minute."
+
+Ben relaxed his hold a little, and the girl continued:
+
+"The brat ain't mine--it air a woman's on the hill. She didn't like it,
+and gave it to me, with a little money, till Daddy comes back."
+
+"Whose brat air it?"
+
+"A woman's I says, a-livin' on the hill."
+
+The words struggled through the fishy hand.
+
+"Ye'll take it back to her to-night, ye does; then ye comes with me to
+the shanty. Yer Daddy ain't a-comin' here no more."
+
+Suddenly Tess heard footsteps crushing the pebbles near the hut. She
+could be saved, if she-- She wrenched her face upward, and screamed,
+
+"Rescue ther perishin'!"
+
+The words were sent out in such a strain of agony that Ben Letts thrust
+his fingers to her throat. With an oath he closed them together.
+
+"I loves ye, ye hussy; that air why I chokes ye!"
+
+The room whirled around before Tessibel's gaze. She tried to draw her
+breath beneath the tightening grasp. The door burst open, and Frederick
+Graves received a desperate look of entreaty from the squatter-girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+
+The babe smacked loudly. The September wind whirled its rain and dead
+willow leaves over the hut floor. A rasping sound, like the filing of a
+saw, came from the tin roof.
+
+Frederick Graves took in the scene with one sharp glance. He saw the
+fisherman, in ugly doggedness, towering over the small figure of the
+squatter-girl. Then he flung himself upon Ben Letts. He tore Ben's
+fingers from Tessibel's neck, leaving the skin reddened and scratched by
+the nails. Tess sank to the floor. The student's fist came down with a
+stunning blow upon the partly upturned face of the squatter Ben, and the
+fellow tumbled over.
+
+"Stand up," said Frederick to Tessibel, lifting her gently to her feet.
+Her hand fluttered to her eyes, then to her throat. Still dizzy from the
+choking, she sank into the rocking-chair.
+
+"What were you two fighting over?" demanded Frederick impetuously.
+
+Tess gathered her senses at the sound of his voice.
+
+"He were a-tryin' to make me come to his shanty with him--to be
+his'n--and I ain't a-goin'!"
+
+She whimpered a little, but choked back the tears, and raged:
+
+"A squatter-girl can't live a minute without some damn bloke wants to
+take her from her Daddy's shanty.... I ain't a-goin', I says!"
+
+How brave she felt, with the student near! for there was an expression
+upon his face that gave her courage. He looked so strong, so brave--and
+he had come when she had prayed. Something took from her the terror of
+the night when she had proclaimed her motherhood to him. Perhaps Teola
+had told him the truth. When he had turned from her in the agony of the
+confession, he had scorned her with his proud, dark eyes. Now he threw
+her the same protective glance that she had received before the tragedy.
+
+The silence in the room became oppressive.
+
+"I ain't a-goin'," she said again, to break it.
+
+Ben was upon the floor. He feared to rise, for Frederick stood
+threateningly over him.
+
+"She goes to my shanty," insisted Ben, screwing his face to peep through
+the swollen lids. "She and the brat goes to my hut.... I air its pappy!"
+
+Frederick staggered back against the door with a groan, Tess catching
+her breath in a sob. She could not exonerate herself because of Teola;
+she knew from Frederick's emotion at Ben's assertion that his sister had
+not told him. But he should not believe the lie that Letts had uttered.
+
+She saw the fine face of the student fall into his hands, and shudder
+after shudder run over the giant frame. Ben Letts leered at him with his
+twisted face, as a demon might at a soul in torment. The boy suffered
+for her--that was enough. The front portion of her skirt had been almost
+torn away in her struggle, and unconsciously she lifted it, and pinned a
+thorn more closely in its place. But for an instant she held back the
+words ready upon her tongue, and with one long step she reached
+Frederick, placing her hand upon his arm.
+
+"Don't touch me, please," he shuddered. "It's awful--awful! And I--I
+loved you so!"
+
+"Haw!" chuckled Ben, settling back against the child's box. "I says as
+how the gal comes to my shanty. She brings the brat to its pa."
+
+Frederick moodily considered the ugly face. The sneer that accompanied
+the declaration roused his rage; the brute had sealed the doom of
+Tessibel Skinner. Again the student was oblivious of his love for the
+profession he had chosen; forgot that the one book he had studied more
+than any other taught him that the God he worshiped would avenge all
+wrong. In one step he was upon the fisherman. He lifted Orn Skinner's
+stool, and brought it down with a crash upon Ben's head.
+
+Tess uttered a sharp, frightened cry, speeding to interrupt another
+blow.
+
+"Get out of the way," cried the student, pushing her from him. "I am
+going to kill him!"
+
+With no ungentle touch she grasped Frederick's arm, holding the stool in
+the air.
+
+"Ye air to wait," she said, in low, swift tones, her gaze dominating his
+flashing eyes. "Ye'll kill him if ye hit him again.... Wait till I says
+what I's a-goin' to ... I loves my Daddy, that ye knows--better'n
+anything in the hull world--better'n God--better'n--better'n--"
+
+"Better than the child?" demanded Frederick, placing his foot upon Ben.
+
+A grunt issued from the girl's lips.
+
+"Yep, a hundred times better than the brat! And I says this: that I
+hopes my daddy's neck'll be twisted by the rope, I hopes that I never
+sees him again"--her voice was raised high above the whistling wind and
+dashing rain--"I hopes," she finished, "that his soul'll shrivel in
+hell--"
+
+"Stop! stop!" muttered Frederick. "Why are you saying such things?"
+
+"I hopes it all," insisted Tess, bending her head nearer, "and I swears
+that I hopes it if Ben Letts ain't a liar!"
+
+Frederick's foot slipped from the round, fat body. He took a long
+breath, brushing a damp lock from his brow.
+
+"I believe you," he surrendered slowly. "Oh, God! Tessibel, I believe
+you--and I love you, in spite of that!"
+
+His glance swept over Ben's prostrate body to the death-like child. Letts
+sat up with an oath, rubbing the inflicted bruises. Frederick helped him
+to his feet.
+
+"You go home," he said, piercing the fisherman with his burning eyes.
+"And let me warn you against fastening any of your lies upon this girl,
+for whatever she is, or whatever she has done, I know that you lied
+to-night.... Now go!" Frederick pointed toward the door.
+
+Letts, muttering threats and curses against the student and the
+squatter-girl, stumbled out into the storm. Ben's head was splitting
+with pain. A gash on his nose bled until his torn sleeve was thickened
+with blood. He staggered out of the rays of the candle, and took the
+path to the hill. The sound of footsteps caused him to sink down beside
+the way and wait. Was the student--? No, the person was coming from the
+other direction.
+
+In the dim light he saw a man dripping with water totter toward him.
+Ben peered out upon the wobbling legs, and in another instant had fallen
+back, shivering with fright and superstitious fear. Ezra Longman, his
+face haggard and ghastly white, stood directly in front of him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Frederick closed the door upon Ben, and Tess turned upon him sharply.
+
+"It were a lie he told ye," said she, "and he weren't worth killin'."
+
+"I don't want to speak of him," stammered Frederick, "I came to talk to
+you. It nearly killed me to-night, when my father whipped you, and I
+want to save you from such things in the future.... My father gives me
+an allowance--I want to buy the milk for the little child. Will you let
+me, Tess?" His face had grown scarlet, his eyes fell before hers. The
+girl seemed glued to the spot. "It will save you from stealing," resumed
+the boy. "I can't bear to have you steal."
+
+The tragic tone stung Tessibel. Teola had promised to tell him. She
+herself would; it was only right that he should know. She took two
+impetuous steps forward, opened her lips--but again remembered her oath.
+
+"I air a-thankin' ye for the milk," was all she said.
+
+With an embarrassed air, Frederick tendered her a silver dollar.
+Tessibel stepped back, hesitant.
+
+"It will make me happier, if you will take it," he urged.
+
+Tess extended her fingers, blushing crimson, but took the coin from his
+hand. A sob choked the utterance of further gratitude.
+
+"Professor Young says," broke in Frederick, after a painful silence,
+"that he is going to bring your father back here before the winter....
+But, Tess, I don't want you to live in this shanty. I want you to be a
+better girl, Tess. Will you? Will you?"
+
+His eyes rested upon the child. The darkness of the night, the ghostly
+sound of the wind, the swish of the thousands of wet leaves over the
+roof, roused the romance in the girl until she felt an impulse to tell
+him the whole painful story; to feel his kisses warm upon her face, to
+have his arms about her, to kneel with him again, and hear his earnest
+voice interceding for Daddy Skinner.... But her oath! It was Teola's
+secret, not hers.
+
+"Ye couldn't go on a-trustin' me the same as before ye knowed of him?"
+Her head inclined toward the infant in a large-eyed question.
+
+Frederick shook his head.
+
+"No," he ejaculated; "no! Nevertheless, I would save you from--worse.
+The more I think of it, the more I believe that you were honest in your
+desire to know God and the truth. He will forgive you your sin,
+Tessibel, if you ask Him."
+
+"If God air forgivin'--then couldn't ye forgive, too?"
+
+It took a desperate effort to utter the words. Nothing but her love for
+him could have forced them from her.
+
+"That's different," reddened the boy. "I wanted--I wanted to marry you
+some day."
+
+To marry her! She drew a great, heaving breath, more strongly tempted to
+tell him than before. But, as she struggled with her desire, her face
+grew paler, and the drooping mouth gathered sad lines.
+
+She did not reply, and the student continued,
+
+"You have one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, Tess. It
+is a God-given gift, and He will hold you responsible for it if you
+neglect it."
+
+"I air only a squatter," she moaned forlornly, shaking the red curls.
+"Daddy air a squatter, too, and if he air a-comin' home, then I stays
+with him. If he says as how we stay in the shanty, then we stays, even
+if it air yer Daddy's. I asks Daddy Skinner to give it back, but a brat
+can't boss her Pappy, can she?... Ye sees, don't ye?"
+
+"Yes, Tess, I see," slowly replied Frederick. "But it's not because of
+my father I want you to go. You have the squatter's rights, and may
+remain if you wish.... It is for your own sake. You are sixteen ... But,
+of course, the--child--has changed your life."
+
+"It ain't changed my lovin' you!"
+
+This was the first open confession of her love. She made it
+emphatically, almost sullenly. Frederick whitened, and turned his face
+away. In the terror of the thought that she would lose him again, Tess
+sank upon her knees beside him. This time he did not thrust her aside.
+The strong young hands pressed upon his shoulders, and the sensitive
+chin trembled. Tess turned her face up to his.
+
+"Don't!" he breathed hard. "Don't, Tess!"
+
+But the girl heeded him not. Of a sudden, Frederick raised his eyes and
+looked directly into hers. The jealousy that had risen tiger-like in his
+breast, forcing him from her, and demanding that he should never look
+upon her face again, yielded precedence to a nobler and stronger
+thought. He would help the girl with her living secret--help her, and
+make her better. Long and fixedly he studied the beautiful face, until
+he had read to the finish the tale of passion and longing. The auburn
+head bent nearer and nearer, the panting lips imparting the sweet breath
+of youth. Then they both forgot the whistling wind and the falling rain
+... forgot even the wriggling, fire-branded babe in its bed.
+
+Frederick's lips closed down upon the girl's, and the dark hair of the
+student mingled with the red curls of the squatter.
+
+"I shall never let you go again," murmured Frederick, his lips roving in
+sweet freedom over the flushed cheeks.
+
+"And I ain't a-goin' ter let yer go, nuther," whispered Tess. "I works,
+fishes and berries the years through--but I air yer squatter."
+
+The child, as if in pain, cried sharply. The student's arms slipped
+limply from Tessibel, and he stood up.
+
+"I had forgotten it for a moment, Tess. The infant has changed your life
+and mine.... I have loved you dearly--I love you still. But the child is
+between us, and always will be ... I must remember it.... Ah! I have
+forgotten one thing I came for. Here!"
+
+He was holding a small Bible out to her.
+
+"In my temper I burned yours. I'm sorry. I was bringing you this when I
+heard you cry."
+
+Tess took the book in her hand mechanically, and the hope rekindled in
+her heart died. Frederick bent over her for one short moment, looking
+into her eyes.
+
+"Forgive me if you can, Tess--and--and be a good girl!"
+
+He opened the door, and was gone before she could stop him. With
+chattering teeth, she flung herself upon the stool, resting her head in
+her arms on the table, heeding not the second whining command from the
+infant.
+
+Suddenly, with flashing eyes, she bounded up. She would tell him. Teola
+had promised that he should know. Why not be happy, and make him happy?
+She would call him back, and--
+
+The door opened under her impulsive hand. She faced the storm--and the
+tall, gaunt, emaciated form of Ezra Longman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+
+Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that
+Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and
+dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from
+Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy.
+
+"Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here? It air yer
+own self, ain't it, Ezy?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Where air yer been?"
+
+"I dunno. I air sick unto death, I air."
+
+"Have ye seen yer mammy?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Nor Satisfied?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Then ye be a-goin' there now, ain't ye?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Was ye to Albany?"
+
+"Nope. I were sick in a house, and the big man from the hill were
+a-takin' care of me. I weren't a-goin' to stay no longer, so I runned
+away. I air a-goin' home to Mammy."
+
+"Yep, that air right," rejoined Tess with conviction, "for yer mammy air
+a-grievin' every day for ye, and Satisfied air a-gettin' older and
+older-lookin'. They thought as how ye might be in Albany."
+
+Another loud cry caused Ezy to turn his head toward the infant.
+
+"Ye air the same as Myry," he said slowly; but before he could say
+another word, the girl interposed hastily:
+
+"It ain't my brat.... It belongs to a woman on the hill. I gets paid for
+it."
+
+To every other man save to the one she loved was Tess able to deny the
+motherhood that had been thrust upon her. To the student she stood
+condemned of a sin he could not forgive. But to Ezra, Ben, and Professor
+Young she had told the truth.
+
+The weakness of the squatter as he sat on the floor, panting for breath,
+aroused Tessibel's sympathy, and she proffered him a cup of little Dan's
+milk.
+
+"Drink it," she commanded, "and then scoot to yer mammy. And--and ye
+needn't say as how I air a-carin' for another woman's brat, will ye,
+Ezy?"
+
+"Nope; I ain't a-sayin' nothin' ... I goes home to my mammy."
+
+If Tess had never seen the hue of death upon a human face, she saw it
+now. The boy rose totteringly, and Tessibel, with a tender expression in
+her eyes, opened the door.
+
+"Ezy, I's sorry for ye! I's sorry that I slicked the dirty dishrag in
+yer face. Ye forgives me, don't ye, Ezy?"
+
+"Yep." And Ezra stumbled away.
+
+Tess watched him stagger along the shore through the rain, the shadows
+of the weeping-willow trees at last swallowing him up.
+
+She turned back into the hut, barred the door, and fed the child with
+sweetened milk, forcing particles of bread into the yawning throat.
+Teola had sent the student from her, never to return, yet she fed the
+child tenderly, tucking it, with its sugar rag, in the warm blanket.
+
+She snuffed the end from the candle, that it might burn brighter, took
+the little Bible, and sat down to read.
+
+"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" she haltingly
+spelled.
+
+Her eyes sought the small outline of Dan Jordan's babe in the bed. She
+hardly understood Paul's figurative words, but vaguely imagined that the
+apostle was afflicted with something like the wizened child which had
+been thrust upon herself.
+
+Loud, impatient noises issued from the blanket. Tess rose, settled the
+baby more comfortably, and sat down again. Her eyes sought another
+verse.
+
+"If ye have the faith of a grain of mustard-seed--"
+
+The passage brought a vivid blush to her face. She rose silently, and
+knelt by the window.
+
+"Take this here body of my death," she prayed, "and give the poor brat
+to the Christ! Make its ma tell the student, and give Tessibel faith
+like a mustard-seed." Thus ended her prayer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ezra Longman, sick unto death, as he had said, floundered his way along
+the wet path. The long walk through the storm from Ithaca had so
+weakened him that he could hardly stand upright. He wanted to see his
+mother once more, to be with Satisfied, and to warn Myra of the coming
+evil. A conversation he had heard between the nurse and Professor Young
+had decided him to go home if he could, for Ezra knew that his sister
+loved the ugly fisherman who had tried to put him to death in the
+Hoghole.
+
+As he neared his cabin home, he saw the candle streaming its flickering
+ray upon the path that led to the rocks. He saw his mother snuff the
+flame and Satisfied take Myra's child up from the floor, but he did not
+see his sister. As if in answer to this thought as to her whereabouts,
+Myra appeared directly in front of him, carrying a pail of water from
+the spring. She did not notice him until he pronounced her name in an
+undertone. The pail dropped from her hand, splashing its contents over
+her garments, and she uttered a little frightened cry. He whispered her
+name again and Myra timidly put out her hand.
+
+"Air it yerself, Ezy?" she implored.
+
+"Yep, I air here. I comed to see Mammy and Satisfied, and to tell ye
+that it air time for ye to be savin' Ben Letts if ye loves him. Ben
+throwed me in the Hoghole, he did, but I know that ye loved him, and I
+comed."
+
+The boy staggered with weakness, and his sister threw an arm around him.
+
+"Ye air to come to Mammy," she urged. "Mammy loves ye, Ezy dear."
+
+"Wait," whispered the boy. "Ben Letts air to be arrested."
+
+"What?"
+
+The cry was sharp--the words hurt.
+
+"Ben Letts air to be tooked to jail. It were him what killed the
+gamekeeper. It weren't Orn Skinner."
+
+"Who were a-sayin' it were Ben?" demanded Myra, her mouth hard and
+lined.
+
+"I says it," replied Ezy. "I seed him when he done it, and I comed to
+tell ye, and to see Mammy and Satisfied."
+
+"Then come in, and go to bed, for ye be sick."
+
+A change gradually came over Myra: cunning grew in the faded eyes and
+determination straightened the thin shoulders, as she led her brother
+into the hut.
+
+"Mammy," she called softly, opening the door, "here air Ezy!"
+
+"Fetch him in," cried Satisfied.
+
+Mrs. Longman sank weakly into a chair. The sight of her son, her only
+son, white and emaciated, and the appearance of the livid scar on his
+brow drew a painful cry from her lips.
+
+"He air sick," continued Myra, "put him to bed."
+
+"Where air ye been all this time, Ezy?" asked Longman, assisting him
+into the small back room. But Ezra was too ill to tell the story, and
+the mother hushed him to sleep just as she had in those childhood days
+when he had been good, and always at home.
+
+Meantime, Myra, pale and thoughtful, moved about the shanty. Her mind
+was upon one subject--she must save Ben Letts from the dreaded rope. She
+did not question the verity of her brother's statement, for she realized
+that Ben was not only capable of killing the inspector, but also of
+placing the guilt upon an innocent man. It did not, however, change her
+squatter love. The more she thought of Ben's danger, the more she loved
+and wanted to save him, the more determined she grew to take him away to
+some place where the officers could not find him.
+
+"Goin' to bed, Myry?" asked Longman, taking the candle and climbing the
+ladder to the loft.
+
+"Yep, but I air a-goin' to rock the brat a little while. Ye and Mammy go
+to bed. I locks the door."
+
+She settled herself in the wooden rocking-chair, trundling the child to
+and fro, and murmuring a doleful tune. Her son was now almost two years
+old, and beginning to toddle about upon a pair of crooked, thin legs. As
+often as Ben had visited the hut he had never deigned to look at the
+child, but Myra had a dull hope that, if she saved the fisherman, he
+would show some affection for the little boy.
+
+An hour later, the regular breathing of her father and mother told Myra
+that they both slept. Ezra, too, was sleeping, for she had bent over him
+but a little time before. The clock on the mantel pointed to midnight.
+The girl rose, and fed the baby, dropping some paregoric into his milk
+to keep him asleep, and then drew a large shawl about the little one,
+rolling him gently in the warm folds. Finally, she took a piece of paper
+and a pencil from the shelf.
+
+"Mammy," she wrote, "I's a-goin' to save Ben Letts. Ezy tells ye about
+it, as how Ben Letts killed the gamekeeper it werent Orn Skinner. I
+takes the brat cause it air Bens I luves yer and Satisfied."
+
+She pinned the note to the handle of the copper kettle upon the stove,
+and, lifting the child in her arms, slipped through the door without a
+sound.
+
+The rain still fell steadily, the turbulent roll of the lake lost only
+in thunder's roar. Once on the ragged rocks, Myra walked swiftly, afraid
+of the shadowy objects and ghostly sounds that spectered her path. She
+threw despairing glances about her, and shrank from the imaginary
+sneaking figures haunting the dismal night. Almost running, she reached
+the Letts' shanty.
+
+How soon would the officers come for Ben? They might have been there
+before her. The cabin was dark, and she tapped timidly upon the kitchen
+door. Only a great snore from the sleeping Ben inside answered her.
+Trying the latch, it lifted in her fingers, and she crept stealthily
+through the narrow aperture, encircling the child with her left arm.
+
+"Ben!" she whispered. "Ben!"
+
+The squatter turned, muttering sleepily.
+
+"Mammy! What be the matter, Mammy?" The fresh night air startled him.
+
+"Who air it?" he demanded hoarsely.
+
+"Myry," breathed the woman again. "Get up.... They air a-comin' to take
+ye to prison for the killin' of the gamekeeper. I comed to help ye, Ben
+Letts."
+
+The words soaked slowly into the sluggish brain. Tired from the beating
+Frederick had given him, and lazy by temperament, Ben did not at first
+realize that Myra's message meant the hangman's rope for him. He turned
+again in bed, and sat up. Were the officers of the law waiting for him?
+
+"Ezy air home," resumed Myra rapidly, leaning tensely toward him. "He
+walked through the rain from Ithacy. He says as how ye air goin' to be
+tooked to prison. I has the brat here with me ... we air a-goin'
+away.... Get up, Ben. Hustle yer bones!"
+
+The blue-jeans breeches, streaked with the blood of many a fish, were
+drawn on in a twinkling. The great squatter boots quickly covered the
+horny feet, and trembling, Ben waited for Myra to lead him from the
+cabin.
+
+"Where be we a-goin'?" he asked in a whisper.
+
+"I takes ye 'cross the lake to Ludlowville, and then we goes into the
+hills. A awful storm air a-scootin' along from the north, but we can't
+wait, for ye'll be took."
+
+By this time they were nearing the shore. The autumn lightning shot out
+from the sky, veering to the north and unmasking the black, raging lake
+and the distant city. A heavy roll of awe-inspiring thunder followed the
+flash. The man and woman did not speak until the flat boat topped the
+breaking waves.
+
+"The storm air a-goin' to be worse," shouted Ben, scanning the dark
+clouds. "It air foolhardy to try it, ain't it, Myry?"
+
+"Yep; but we go, all the same. I stays with ye, Ben!"
+
+He did not answer to this, nor did he ask a question then about the
+return of Ezra. He was satisfied that what he had supposed was the boy's
+wraith--the disembodied spirit of the lad he had thrown into the
+Hoghole--was the living Ezra Longman. On his way home from the Skinner
+hut, Ben had planned a terrible revenge upon the student and Tessibel,
+but the advent of this unforeseen discovery had placed his enemies
+beyond his reach. The thought of Tess brought a rasp from his throat.
+
+The creaking oars, under his experienced fingers, carried the boat far
+from the shadowy shore. Through the frequent lightning he could plainly
+see Myra in the stern, holding to the child. It was all ending
+differently from what he had hoped. That he had killed the gamekeeper he
+knew well, but, when Ezra Longman had disappeared into the Hoghole, Ben
+thought it took from the earth the only witness of his deed.
+
+On and on through the night sped the boat, until Myra and Ben could see
+the lights on the college hill. Here and there in the valley beyond, the
+lightning revealed a farmhouse, the inmates of which were quietly
+sleeping.
+
+Presently Ben spoke:
+
+"What hes Ezy been a-sayin'?"
+
+"Nothin' but that ye throwed him in the Hoghole, and tried to kill him,
+and that ye killed the gamekeeper."
+
+"Where hes he been all this time?"
+
+"I dunno. He air awful sick, and Ma put him to bed."
+
+Their voices rose high above the shrieking of the wind. Myra's last
+words were screamed out. The boat tossed like a bit of tinder, but it
+was in the hands of a fisherman: Ben knew how to keep it in and out of
+the troughs of the waves. Once the boat lurched mightily, and Myra gave
+a frightened cry, wedging the child between her knees. Higher and higher
+rolled the waves.
+
+"We hev got to bail the water out," yelled Ben. "Bail, Myry, while I
+rows."
+
+The mother grasped the sleeping child tighter between her knees, and
+began to throw the water into the lake. Suddenly a great wave half
+filled the boat.
+
+"Ye can't do it, Ben," Myra screamed. "Ye can't keep the boat top up,
+and we'll all die to once.... Does ye love yer brat, Ben Letts?"
+
+The voice, prophetic and high-pitched, struck terror to the heart of the
+fisherman. He stopped rowing, and shouted out over the waves for help.
+The lightning made day of the inky night for an instant, and the
+squatter Ben saw the woman, holding the child under one arm and clinging
+to the side of the boat with the other, creep toward him.
+
+"Keep away!" he bellowed. "Keep the boat top up!"
+
+Another flash.... She was closer, her white face and her staring eyes
+frightening him. He raised one great boot to ward her off, but she was
+at his side before it touched her. A large wave lifted one oar from the
+lock and bore it away on its crest. The boat, without pilot power,
+tipped dangerously. Loosening her hand from the side of the boat, Myra
+wound one arm about the knees of the squatter.
+
+"Ben Letts," she cried, shrieking the words into his ear, "kiss yer brat
+afore he dies with ye, will ye? Ye ain't so much as ever touched him."
+
+A dark storm-cloud broke directly over their head--one brilliant sheet
+flared the sky from the north to the south. The child, sleeping heavily
+under the drug, was close to the squatter's face. A revulsion of feeling
+overwhelmed Ben--approaching death aided the ghosts of his past bad
+deeds in their attack upon his wretched, over-wrought soul.... With a
+sob, he laid his lips upon the slumbering babe. A long kiss followed the
+first; another, and then another.
+
+Myra gasped, and drew the boy back to her. The boat reared high in the
+boiling, seething waves, and the next whitecap wrenched the child from
+her hands, snatching it into the water.
+
+"Ben Letts, our brat air gone!... There he be!... God!... There! There!"
+
+Through a sudden, resplendent flood of light, they saw the babe poised
+for one brief instant on a huge, foaming shoulder of the lake. In her
+frenzy the squatter woman was murmuring over and over strange,
+inarticulate words which Ben did not heed. Their arms were locked
+tightly about each other. Ben Letts slowly fixed his cold, shivering
+lips on those of the girl, drawing her closer and closer into his
+embrace. The majesty of death was upon them, this squatter father and
+mother. Another glare of light showed them still clinging together, but
+the one following failed to reveal either man, woman or boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+
+Professor Young knocked at the Skinner hut. Tess smiled at him from
+between the tatters of the curtain, and unlocked the door, standing, as
+her friend took the wooden rocker.
+
+"Daddy air a-comin' home," she breathed timidly.
+
+"Soon. Sit down, child. I have much to say to you.... We have discovered
+the murderer of the gamekeeper. We have positive proof that it was not
+your father."
+
+Tess squatted on the floor, crossed her legs, and waited.
+
+"Who were it?" she asked presently, as if afraid to speak.
+
+"Ben Letts."
+
+"The damn bloke!" she ejaculated, a dangerous light gathering in her
+eyes. "And he were a-lettin' Daddy be hung for his own dirty work! He
+air a wicked cuss, he air!"
+
+"Ezra Longman saw him when he committed the murder," Young told her,
+watching the interest gather in the eager face. "Letts used your
+father's gun. That accounts for his having been accused."
+
+Tess nodded her head.
+
+"Ezy were here last night," she commented quietly. "He were sick."
+
+"He was under my care for a long time," explained Young, "and last night
+escaped and walked home through the rain.... He is dead."
+
+"Dead!" gasped Tess. "Dead!"
+
+Impetuously she bent toward him, and finished:
+
+"Ezy Longman ain't dead!"
+
+"Yes, he is," replied Young. "He died in his father's hut, last night. I
+have just left there, and I feel heartily sorry for them both."
+
+"Myry?... Did ye see Myry?"
+
+"She's gone with Ben Letts."
+
+"Gone where?"
+
+"We don't know, but the officers are looking for them. I think the boy
+heard me tell the nurse that he would be held as a witness in your
+father's next trial. He must have warned Letts upon his arrival home,
+for--"
+
+"He knowed Myry loved Ben," broke in Tess.
+
+"That's what I thought," Young answered. "I found Longman and the mother
+mourning over the boy. They hope to hear from the girl soon."
+
+"If Myry and Ben was in the storm last night--" began Tess.
+
+"They may be dead," ended Young gravely. "Myra took her child with her.
+I found this note on the dead boy's bed, and brought it away with me. I
+would have liked to have put the boy on the witness-stand. Nevertheless,
+I hope to release your father on the evidence I have, without a trial."
+
+For several moments silence reigned in the hut. The sun streamed through
+the window, and a steamer sent a shrill whistle over the lake, the sound
+echoing among the rocks. Tessibel was thinking of Ezra Longman;
+Professor Young was thinking of her.
+
+Presently she leaned over, and took the letter from the man's hand,
+spelling out Myra's written message.
+
+"Myry air a-writin' so dum well," she observed, handing it back, "that
+I can't make it out. What air she a-sayin'? You read it."
+
+Young read the badly-spelled note.
+
+"I knowed the brat was Ben Letts'," she said, after the man's voice had
+died away. "He were a cute kid."
+
+"We hope to find them all," interposed Young thoughtfully. "But, if we
+don't, the evidence I already have--this note, and the fact that the
+fisherman is a fugitive--will liberate your father. I shall go to Albany
+to-morrow to see the Governor. I am sure he will consider the evidence I
+have. Then we shall know."
+
+"You think the man at Albany will give him to me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I do! I would not raise your hopes if I did not. If you
+persuade your father to leave here--" He stopped and looked at her with
+a questioning glance.
+
+"I tells him that the hut ain't his'n," she asserted abruptly.
+
+"If you do go away, I shall try to get your father steady work in the
+city. Would you like that?"
+
+"Yep," replied Tess, in a thick voice. "He wouldn't have to net no more.
+And he wouldn't have no more froze toes."
+
+"Neither would you, Tess," answered Young.
+
+Suddenly Tess saw the man staring at her arm, where several blue
+stripes, mingling with red, ran long from her shoulder.
+
+"Heavens! child, what's the matter with your arm?"
+
+The brown eyes clouded. Tess swept her jacket over the marks, and
+muttered,
+
+"It ain't nothin'. I scratched it on some thorns."
+
+Professor Young leaned forward, and tilted the little chin upward. Still
+the eyes remained upon the floor.
+
+"Tess!" he pleaded. "Tess! Are you telling me the truth?"
+
+"Nope; I's lyin' to ye."
+
+She tossed her head up angrily.
+
+"I had a damn good lickin'," she finished.
+
+Young sprang forward, and grasped her arm.
+
+"Who dared to mark you like that?" he exclaimed, standing her on her
+feet. "Wait. I want to see it. Who did it?"
+
+He pushed back the sleeve, and stood analyzing the bruised shoulder and
+arm.
+
+"Who did it?" he persisted, drawing a quick, sharp breath.
+
+"Dominie Graves," muttered the girl.
+
+"What!" Two deep creases marked the fine brow.
+
+"He licked me," reiterated Tess, with an indifferent droop to her lids.
+"He had a right. I were a-stealin'."
+
+"Tessibel! Tessibel! Look at me."
+
+She swept him with a glance of truth.
+
+"Are you--? Tess, I demand to know it all--all! Please, tell me about
+it!"
+
+"There ain't much to tell," she returned; "only that I were a-stealin'
+from the Dominie's kitchen, and he licked me for it."
+
+"What did you--steal?"
+
+"Milk for the brat.... He can't starve, can he?"
+
+Slowly Professor Young dropped her arm, gazing at her mutely.
+
+"Ye ain't mad at me?" she ventured, watching him narrowly.
+
+"No! I'm only sorry--infinitely sorry for you."
+
+The tender tone in his voice, the mist rising in his eyes, brought Tess
+to his side.
+
+"I thanks ye for all ye been a-doin' for Daddy and me," she said
+brokenly. "I does thank ye.... Don't look at me like that--it air
+a-hurtin' me."
+
+The low voice, filled with unshed tears, rang with emotion.
+
+A sudden inspiration seized Young.
+
+"Child, if I bring your father back to you, will you--marry me?"
+
+The unexpected question sent Tess staggering back; a tearful smile
+spread the red lips.
+
+"Ye'r' batty," she said presently, with a dissenting shake of the red
+curls. "Ye'r' gone plumb crazy.... I's a squatter, nothin' but a
+squatter. I stays here with Daddy. I marries no man. See?"
+
+The proud face of Frederick Graves rose before her. She turned away with
+a groan.
+
+Young misinterpreted her expression.
+
+"Circumstances have made you a squatter.... Sit down. I want to say more
+to you, Tess. Don't say you won't marry me, just yet. When your father
+comes home, we will talk to him about it.... I love you, child."
+
+"My Daddy air a-wantin' me with him," faltered Tess. "He said oncet as
+how he wouldn't give me to nobody. Ezy Longman wanted me to marry him,
+but I hated him.... I don't now, though, 'cause he air dead."
+
+"Tessibel, will you let me give you some money to buy milk for the
+strange little boy?"
+
+"Somebody gived me some money after my lickin' last night, so I don't
+need none now."
+
+A jealous feeling rose instantly in Young's heart.
+
+"Who gave you money last night?"
+
+"The student," replied Tess. "He said as how I shouldn't steal no more
+milk for the brat. I takes the student's money, I does."
+
+A faint suspicion flashed over the lawyer.
+
+"You told me the truth about the child belonging to a woman on the
+hill?"
+
+Without answering his question, Tess stammered,
+
+"Ye said as how ye trusted me, and I were happy because ye did.... Ain't
+ye trustin' me now?"
+
+"Yes, child; but I am so bitterly unhappy over you, and my love for you
+makes me jealous--"
+
+"Of the student?" queried Tess.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, ye needn't care no more about him, 'cause he don't like me no
+more. He ain't never carin'--" She cut the words off with a snap. "I
+were a-goin' to lie then," she went on slowly. "He air a-carin',
+but--but--"
+
+She dashed a loose curl from her eyes, and flung herself headlong upon
+the bed, with a burst of sobs that drew Young quickly to her.
+
+"Tessibel Skinner, you love Frederick Graves?"
+
+Tess straightened, and looked at him fearfully.
+
+"Yep, I air a-lovin' him," she wailed.
+
+"And he doesn't love you?"
+
+"He be a-lovin' me, too." She was hardly able to utter the words.
+
+"Then why do you weep, if you love him and he loves you?"
+
+Tessibel's eyes settled upon the babe, yawning in the sun. Young
+followed her gaze.
+
+"The child has separated you?" he said slowly.
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause--'cause--"
+
+All Teola's perfidy rushed over her in a twinkling. All the student's
+suffering stung her as if she had been struck in the face. She bounded
+from the bed, possessed of a dark spirit.
+
+"A damn bloke air a-doin' it. It were a oath I took.... Will you go
+now?--Please!"
+
+"Yes," assented Young. "But it is all a mystery to me. I cannot
+understand it."
+
+And Tessibel, thinking of Teola, the child, and its dead father,
+muttered:
+
+"I ain't understandin' it, nuther.... Good-bye."
+
+Transfixed, Tess stood for many minutes where Young had left her. A
+shadow dropped upon the path. Teola, pale and ill, came toward her, and
+she did not move.
+
+"My father and brother have gone to Ithaca, and I--Tessibel! Tess, don't
+look at me that way! Don't! don't!"
+
+"You forgot to tell him," dropped from the squatter's lips.
+
+"No, I didn't forget. Tessibel, I've tried, and I can't tell him.... I
+haven't the courage," she ejaculated, waiting long for a reply from the
+rigid girl. Her lips trembled as she faltered:
+
+"My father was cruel to you, Tess!"
+
+"I were a-stealin'," Tess muttered. "He wouldn't a whipped me if he--had
+knowed about it, would he?"
+
+"No, no! He would have died first.... Tessibel, why didn't you tell
+him?"
+
+"Didn't ye say it would kill the student if he knowed it? And I swored,
+didn't I? when the brat was borned, that I wouldn't tell--and I ain't no
+liar--leastwise about no brats. If it air told, the brat's ma's got to
+tell it," she finished.
+
+Teola dropped beside her infant.
+
+"I'm afraid to tell it. My father and brother have such confidence in
+me!" She shifted about, and looked at Tessibel. "We are going to move to
+the city, Saturday.... I have been thinking about the baby's milk--"
+
+"I has money now," broke in Tess. "I don't have to steal no more. Daddy
+air a-comin' home soon, too."
+
+"I know it. Father heard from Professor Young all about it. I am so glad
+for you, Tess. What will you say to him about the baby?"
+
+"I dunno," grunted the squatter.
+
+She answered no more of Teola's questions, but for a long time remained
+moodily looking, with narrowed eyes and burning heart, at the minister's
+daughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+
+Two days later, on Friday evening, Teola slipped quietly from her home,
+and the Skinner hut opened to her timid knock. Tess had no more fear
+when visitors came. Ben Letts had gone with Myra, and Ezra Longman was
+dead.
+
+The girls eyed each other for one embarrassed moment. The day for
+separation was at hand: Tess would face the lean winter, Teola the
+burden of a conscience in torment.
+
+"Come in," muttered Tess.
+
+"Tessibel," Teola burst out spontaneously, "we are going away to-morrow.
+I wish I were going to stay with you and the baby!"
+
+Gloomily Tess scrutinized the young mother, checking an ejaculation that
+rose to her lips.
+
+"I don't understand what you are going to do," said Teola. "Tess, do you
+think he is very ill? You do! I can see it in your face. Look how he
+yawns, and screws his mouth, and shuts his eyes! Oh, he is suffering,
+Tessibel!"
+
+"Yep, he air sick," replied Tess, turning her back. She had grown to
+love the hapless thing, and knew that he suffered as all human beings
+suffer when they go slowly away to the mystery of mysteries.
+
+Teola's next words brought her about sharply.
+
+"Tessibel, do you--hate me?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Oh, what a coward I am! Frederick has forbidden me to come here."
+
+"That air 'cause he air a good bloke," snorted Tess. "But if he
+knowed--"
+
+"I can't get my breath when I think of telling him, Tess."
+
+"He ain't to know never, then?" bounded from Tessibel's lips, the
+passion in the tones lowering the voice almost to a whisper.
+
+"No," replied the young mother; "I can't tell him."
+
+The squatter just caught the next words, "But I am going to die, too,
+Tess."
+
+The conviction in the statement made Tess spring back.
+
+"Ye ain't yet. Ye ain't goin' yet!"
+
+"The doctor says I am very ill here." Teola placed her hand upon her
+chest. "I've had three hemorrhages. People ill like I am never get well.
+I don't want to--either," she ended brokenly.
+
+She looked so forlorn, so thin and ill that Tess went awkwardly to her.
+
+"I takes care of the brat if ye goes before him," said she.
+
+"Thank you, dear," drifted from the depths of the child's box. "And
+forgive me all the sorrow I have caused you."
+
+"I has forgivin' ye," assured Tess, seating herself. "I were--sorry
+about the student, though."
+
+"I know, I know; and perhaps God won't forgive me, for I've been so
+wicked! I make up my mind every night, when I can't sleep, that I will
+tell; then in the daylight I am afraid."
+
+Tess did not answer.
+
+"I shall think every moment of the day about you two here. Oh, my
+precious baby! If I could only take him with me! That mark will never
+disappear," she concluded, rubbing the tiny red forehead with her
+fingers. "If he only goes when I do! God couldn't be so cruel as to let
+him live, with his face like that, and have neither father nor mother."
+
+"Nope," replied Tess with decision. "He'll take the brat, too."
+
+"Will he die soon, Tess?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Why do you think so? Why?"
+
+"He air too thin to hold out much longer. He don't eat, nuther. He don't
+do nothin' but smack all day long on them sugar rags, like a suckin'
+calf. And there ain't no makin' him eat."
+
+"But he doesn't cry much," argued Teola.
+
+"That air 'cause he air so weak. Ma Moll were here with the hoss doctor,
+and they says he air to croak dum quick."
+
+Teola raised her head, startled.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know you had had a doctor. I was going to speak about it
+to-night." She dropped her eyes, reddened, and then added, "But the
+horse doctor, Tessibel?"
+
+"Squatters allers has the hoss doctor--they air cheaper."
+
+"But he can't die!" Teola moaned. "Not now--not yet! He has never been
+baptized. If he died now, he wouldn't go to Heaven!"
+
+"Aw! shut up. He air a-goin' in faster'n any of them. Don't you worry
+yer head over that. God ain't that kind of a bloke that He wouldn't take
+in a sick brat what ain't never done no harm."
+
+Tess had risen, and was standing over the child, Teola having placed
+him back in the bed.
+
+"But you don't understand, Tess dear! You see, it's this way: the Bible
+says that if a child isn't baptized, he will go to a place where he must
+stay always. He won't go to Heaven. You understand?"
+
+"Air the Bible a-sayin' that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Won't he go to a place where God'll find him, if he ain't sprinkled?"
+
+"No."
+
+"That air strange. The poor brat air so blue, so shiverin'--he air so
+sick! Aw! Christ'll love him, 'cause he ain't got no friends."
+
+Her eyes spread wide with infinite compassion as she contemplated the
+grave-shadowed child.
+
+"Did the student tell ye that the Bible were a-sayin' that?" she asked
+peremptorily.
+
+"Yes; and my father has often preached upon it. I know that it is true,"
+insisted Teola. "A child must be cleansed of its original sin in the
+church.... You see? You see, Tess?"
+
+"I don't see--I don't know, nuther. But what the student says air right.
+If the little kid ain't to see God's face 'less he air slapped on the
+head with water in the church, then the brat air got to be tooked
+there."
+
+"But--but, Tess, is it possible?"
+
+Again the squatter bent her head to gather the words.
+
+"He air a-goin' to die," she replied with conviction, "and he has to be
+hit with the water, if he air a-goin' to die, don't he? Air that what ye
+means?"
+
+Teola, dropping her face upon the babe, bowed her head in assent, and
+wept silently, until the cough that had fastened itself upon the
+slender chest since the coming of the child, dried the tears.
+
+Tess remained quiet until the paroxysm had passed.
+
+"Air yer pappy a good sprinkler of brats?"
+
+Teola nodded.
+
+"Air it likely he would sprinkle this 'un'?"
+
+"I don't think my father would turn away a dying babe that needed
+cleansing of its sin by the Holy Ghost."
+
+"The Huly what? The student were a-talkin' 'bout him once."
+
+"The Holy Ghost," explained Teola. "He lives in the church, and when a
+baby is baptized He comes and stands by the font, and when the water
+falls upon it, He takes away all the sin that it is born with."
+
+Tess grunted disbelievingly.
+
+"Can ye sees him?"
+
+"No; He is a spirit."
+
+"Ye mean that he air like the headless man from Haytes, and the squaw
+with her burnt brat?"
+
+They were both down beside the babe again, Tess eying the mother
+eagerly.
+
+"Oh, no, Tess! Those are but superstitions. This is the truth. No matter
+how little the child is, he won't go to a holy place if he isn't
+baptized."
+
+"Air the Huly Ghost livin' only in the church?"
+
+"Yes, He doesn't stay anywhere else."
+
+"Who says it air true?"
+
+"God."
+
+"Your brother's God?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, of course, it air so. Why didn't ye say so before? Could the brat
+be sprinkled this comin' Sunday?"
+
+"Yes; yes, it is baptismal Sunday. Deacon Hall's new baby is to be
+baptized, and lots of others, too!"
+
+"Then yer brat air goin' to be sprinkled with 'em," decided Tessibel.
+
+"Tess!" gasped Teola. "How? How?... I should die if I had to take him to
+the church."
+
+"I takes him," replied Tess grimly. "I takes him, and I says to yer
+pappy, 'Dominie, I knows that ye don't like me nor my Daddy, but here
+air a brat what air sick to death.... He can't find God by hisself
+'cause he air too little, and God won't try and find him if he ain't
+sprinkled. Will ye do it?'"
+
+Teola shifted her position, and looked into the squatter's face. It was
+gleaming with heavenly resolve and uplifted faith.
+
+"Tess, would you dare?" gasped she.
+
+"Yep! The little brat has to go. I takes him."
+
+The fisher-girl clambered to her feet, and shoved another log into the
+stove.
+
+"It air a chilly night," she commented, "and the ghosts air a-howling
+like mad, 'cause Ma Moll's been here. She can raise spirits any time of
+night."
+
+Teola evidently did not hear. Her eyes were fixed upon the face of the
+babe, her mouth twitching nervously at the corners. She wondered
+silently what her father would say when Tess presented the child for
+baptism on Sunday morning. She could imagine her own happiness after it
+was all over. She thought she would get better for a time. She
+remembered how her mother had worried over her cough, how her father had
+advised with the best doctors of the city; but they had gravely shaken
+their heads, saying that the girl might grow out of it; they hoped she
+would. But day by day she had seen herself growing more and more
+slender, more and more fragile-looking. And, as Teola knelt over the
+child in the flickering candlelight, Tess shivered superstitiously. The
+young mother was so white that the squatter could almost have imagined
+her one of Ma Moll's ghosts.
+
+"They be a-callin' ye from yer house," remarked Tess, after a long
+stillness.
+
+"Yes, I hear them.... It is my father. But I am so tired that it seems
+as if I could never climb the hill. I'll see you a minute to-morrow,
+Tess.... If I can't, will you bring the baby to the church Sunday, at
+eleven o'clock?... Thank you, dear; thank you.... Good-bye, precious
+little Dan.... And--and forgive me, Tessibel!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+
+Minister Graves watched his child painfully climb the front steps. He
+could see, even through the dim shadows, how thin she had become, how
+she panted for breath over the slight exertion of walking up the hill. A
+thought that stung him like a whip seized him, convulsing his heart and
+shaking his powerful frame as if he had been attacked by sudden ague.
+Was his daughter going to die? She could not die--God would not take her
+from him! He remembered Teola's birth, with a groan of pain: remembered
+how he had taken the dark-haired babe, so tiny and helpless, into his
+study alone, and had uttered the sincerest prayer of a father's life,
+that the blessings of Heaven would cover his new-found treasure and
+would guide the little footsteps during the whole bright future--her
+future must be bright, with his love to shield her. He could remember
+each succeeding day--his pride and ambitions for her--and now--
+
+Teola paused on the top step, clinging to the veranda pillar. He came
+hastily to her, the darkness covering the emotions that had paled his
+face, and bent over the exhausted girl, kissing her lips tenderly.
+
+"Teola, darling! My darling, why will you persist in being out at
+night?... See, now, how you are coughing.... Child, what would become of
+me, if anything should happen to you?"
+
+Teola knew the heart of her father. He had sternly preached orthodox
+doctrine, had persecuted the squatters according to his beliefs; but he
+loved his children, and especially had he idolized her. The thought of
+the babe in the fisherman's hut sped through her mind, her father's
+consternation and horror if she should be compelled to tell her secret.
+But Tessibel stood in her place as mother to the little boy, and had
+taken an oath that nothing could force her to break. The squatter had
+been the scapegoat upon which had been heaped the sins of a girl no one
+had thought capable of doing wrong. Teola, resting in her father's arms,
+struggled with her conscience, trying to press down the moral weakness
+that had compelled her to keep the tragedy in the cabin quiet. The
+minister helped her to her chamber, and, after she had retired, went in
+and prayed with and for her. His voice, low and tender, with the
+exquisite tones of an orator, was strangely moved.
+
+"Child," he groaned, "I would give much to see you in good health
+again."
+
+"I shall never be better, dearest; never. I know now that I cannot--that
+I sha'n't--"
+
+His hand covered her lips.
+
+"If you want to break my heart, Teola," he cried, unnerved, "then say
+what you were going to. I can't, and won't, bear it! You are not yet
+eighteen. You've always been well until these past few weeks.... Oh, I
+wish your mother and I had never gone abroad--or that you had gone with
+us.... But you begged so hard to stay at home!"
+
+Teola had coveted the chance to tell him of the little human link
+between Dan Jordan's life and hers. She raised herself on her pillow,
+the long hair mantling her shoulders and aureoling the death-like face.
+
+"Father," she gasped. "Father! Let me tell you something about Tessibel
+Skinner. No! Don't put your fingers over my lips! Don't! Don't! Listen."
+
+"Teola," interjected Graves gravely, "if you want to displease me--"
+
+"She's so lonely," broke in the girl, her courage ebbing away under the
+bent brows of her father. "I thought--you--might help her."
+
+"Go to sleep," replied the minister, "there's a good girl!...
+Good-night."
+
+For a moment, Teola lay panting nervously. She had been so near the
+confession, so near telling her father about the little babe in the
+shanty. She slipped out of bed to the window. The wind still flung the
+dead leaves, whirling them to and fro in the orchard like willful
+spirits. The night had darkened until, to Teola, shivering and ill, it
+seemed alive with shadowy goblins which mocked at her.
+
+She could just make out the dark line of the hut under the willow
+branches. A candlelight flickered a moment in the window, and was gone.
+Teola moaned long, muttering loving messages to the child cuddled in
+Tessibel's arms. She loved it, but could not bring it home--yet! At last
+sleep, a deep, fatigued sleep, enveloped her. She was too tired to
+dream.
+
+After Tess was alone, she made ready for bed. The child whimpered
+drowsily. The squatter lifted it up with infinite tenderness, binding
+the rags more closely about the scrawny body.
+
+"Ye don't amount to as much as the tuft on Kennedy's mare's tail," she
+said aloud. "Eat now, I says, or I opens yer mouth and pours it full."
+
+The words, gathered from the vocabulary of the squatter, were harsh,
+but the emotion in the tones softened them.
+
+"Ye air a-dyin' 'cause ye won't eat, kid, and ye have the smell of a
+dead rat, too. Yer lips be that blue--and yer mouth air like a
+baby-bird's.... Eat, I says, damn ye.... Will ye swallow that?"
+
+She held the withered lips open, and filled the cavity with warm milk.
+
+"Eat, I says," crooned the girl; "eat, and Tess takes ye tight--like
+this--and the rats can't bite ye, or the ghosts get ye till ye air dead.
+Tess loves ye, ye poor little brat."
+
+The child, strangling for breath, gulped down a mouthful of milk, but
+the jaws set again, and the lips settled into a blue line. Tess prepared
+the sugar rag, putting in a large amount of sweet, and dipped it in the
+tea-pan in which she had warmed the milk. Then she allowed a little of
+the syrup to fall upon the lips. The mouth snapped upon it, and long
+after Tess had gathered the infant into her arms the smacking went on
+and on, until both slept. Neither heard the wind that rattled the hut
+boards, that rasped its endless sawing on the tin roof; neither heard
+the willow branches brushing to and fro against the rickety chimney. The
+child slept the sleep of a human creature moving silently toward death;
+and Tess the sleep of the exhausted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning she stood in the doorway, grimly watching the
+cottagers' boats, loaded with household goods, one by one as they
+passed. This time of year was prophetic of the coming winter, and told
+Tess a few more weeks would see the snow piled up about the hut and the
+lake covered with ice. Deacon Hall's private launch steamed by, with
+huge piles of bedding heaped up on the bow. One after another of the
+summer residents disappeared in the inlet, and Tess was waiting for the
+hill-house people also to leave.
+
+She heard Frederick's voice in the lane, and closed the door, pressing
+her face to the window. She saw him climb into his father's little yacht
+to make it ready for the summer's stock from the cottage. Teola, too,
+was on the shore, and Tess saw the girl turn longing eyes toward the
+hut. Then, with a boyish tug at his belt, Frederick started up the hill.
+His face in profile showed the squatter that he had changed--he was
+thinner, paler, and looked years older. Closer pressed the sweet face to
+the dirty pane, brighter grew the brown eyes. Drawn by his own desire,
+the student turned and looked at her. First an expression of eagerness
+leaped into his face; then one of sorrow settled upon it. He went on to
+the cottage without even nodding his head. He would soon come down with
+his father, mother and sister Babe, and Tess would see him no more.
+
+She sank down upon the bed beside the sucking child, and did not hear
+the hut door open softly.
+
+"Tess, Tess! It's Teola, dear. What is the matter?"
+
+The squatter choked back her tears, and sat up.
+
+"There ain't nothin' the matter," she replied sulkily. "I can cry if I
+wants to, can't I?"
+
+"But, Tessibel, I have never seen you cry like that before, never! Is it
+money? Here, dear; here is a dollar. Father gave it to me. It will buy
+some milk, until I can send more. Oh, let me see my baby again. Darling
+little man! Your mother does love you, even if she must leave you. Tess,
+he looks worse than he did when I went home last night. You--you will
+bring him to the church to-morrow?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"And, Tess, I left a lot of white cloths on the pear-tree near the barn.
+I could not bring them to you before, for Mother only sorted them out to
+throw away this morning. Oh, the baby looks so thin and ill, Tess!"
+
+Tears trickled down upon the infant. Teola pressed her lips again and
+again to the thin mouth. The vivid mark was offering its crimson tinge
+sharply against the dead blue of the rest of the baby face.
+
+"And, Tess," burst forth Teola, "how gladly I would give you a dress for
+yourself if I could, and a dress for him! You can't bring him like this
+to the church. You don't mind coming as you are?"
+
+"Nope," came the bitter interruption from the squatter. "I don't need no
+clothes to have a brat sprinkled. I air a squatter, and squatters don't
+give--a hell about nothin'."
+
+Her looks belied the words. With the dignity of a queen, the fine young
+head had settled back upon the broad shoulders sloping bare at the arms.
+The sweet face gave the lie to the hardened speech uttered from the
+grief she had just spent upon the bed.
+
+"Don't speak like that, Tess! Don't! don't!" gasped Teola. "Some day,
+after the babe and I are dead--"
+
+Teola had come close to the fisher-girl, her pale face thrust
+beseechingly forward. Tess hesitated; then flung out her arms and drew
+the minister's daughter into them. Her eyes were filled with awe
+indescribable.
+
+"I's a mean brat to make ye say that," she faltered. "I brings the kid
+to-morry to the church. And, yes, I gets him a dress, too. See? And I
+buys milk for him, and makes him eat, and he sleeps here," Tess pounded
+her own strong breast, and ended, "till his dead pappy and his ma come
+after him, poor little cuss."
+
+Both girls cried softly, till Frederick's voice on the hill rang out
+sharply in answer to a question from his father. Teola kissed her babe
+over and over, drawing a small shawl about her shoulders, and picked a
+path out through the fish-bones on the floor. When Frederick returned to
+the boat, she was listlessly throwing small stones into the water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+
+Tessibel watched Minister Graves' yacht steam by the Hoghole, across the
+head of the lake and into the inlet. With it went the hopes of
+reconciliation with the student; the Dominie and his glowering glances
+of hatred; and Teola with her illness, leaving her the helpless babe.
+
+She suddenly decided to share her secret with Mrs. Longman. She would
+beg a dress for little Dan to wear to the church for his baptism. She
+had stubbornly kept the presence of the child in her hut from her
+squatter friend, although Myra had usually had a way of worming into her
+innermost confidence. But Tess had given her oath and loyalty to Teola,
+and feared to tell the other girl the parentage of the child, lest Myra,
+who loved Ben Letts, should blab the truth to him.
+
+During the weeks the babe had been with her, Tess had sent endless
+excuses about her absence to the Longman hut. She had to read the Bible;
+was waiting for someone to bring her a message from Daddy; fishing;
+getting ready for the winter; anything to keep Myra in ignorance of the
+tragedy being enacted in Skinner's hut. But now Myra was gone with Ben;
+Ezra was dead; and Mrs. Longman would not be curious about the little
+child.
+
+She prepared the basket with the clean clothes that Teola had left on
+the tree, and, with the easy grace of a barefooted squatter, set out for
+the ragged rocks with bounding steps.
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOSSED HER FACE UP TO THE SUN.]
+
+Across the lake the patches of forest, shaded with the scarlet and
+green of dying leaves, relieved the bareness of the harvested
+wheat-fields. Tessibel had a passion for the tumbling waves, they seemed
+to speak an unknown language to her, but to-day the lake was smooth like
+polished, clear, blue glass, and the birds were racing in flocks over it
+from the north toward the south. Their flight was so rapid that the
+squatter paused and followed them with her eyes. One flock after another
+disappeared behind the college hill so quickly that Tess could scarcely
+bid them farewell. They were her summer friends, had filled the day with
+brilliant song, and the night with love-twitterings.
+
+Tessibel's forest solitude and rambles, her communion with night things
+had passed, gone with the coming of Teola, gone with the care of the
+babe. A longing for her old free life came back to her. She stooped down
+and placed the basket upon the rocks, and, with her arms flung over her
+head, tossed her face up to the sun. Her soul was dreaming, and the
+dream changed the half-closed eyes from brown to black.
+
+She stood silently, her gaze roving after the fleet-winged birds. They
+were leaving her to the winter--and the sick child.
+
+But Daddy, dear old Daddy, was coming back home! She caught her breath.
+At that moment her father was the panacaea for all that she had suffered
+during the last few weeks. Tears welled into her eyes. Just then another
+great flock of black birds, huddling together, skimmed by through the
+clear air. Tess threw out her hands.
+
+"Good-bye, good-bye!" she shouted, with conflicting emotions. "Come
+back again soon. It air lonely in the winter without ye."
+
+As if the birds understood the longing in a kindred soul, the flock
+halted an instant, seemingly loath to go, circled their mass of black
+toward the sky, swept to the water's edge, poised for the fraction of a
+second, then shot towards the University hill, and disappeared.
+
+With the light-heartedness of youth, Tess reached the Longman cabin. A
+silence reigned within which at first astonished her. The door was
+closed, and Satisfied was nowhere in sight. She paused before rapping,
+and looked to the shore for the boat. Disappointment shot through her:
+Satisfied and Mrs. Longman had gone to the city. Nevertheless, Tess
+tapped lightly, and then again. But no voice ordered her in. She lifted
+the latch, felt the door yield to her touch, and stepped inside. Four
+lean rats scurried cornerward, sinking from sight into dark holes;
+numbers of lizards tailed silently backward from the sunbeam slanting
+across the shanty door. But the sight was so usual to Tess that she
+merely turned her head slightly, and smiled as if to departing friends,
+and closed the door behind her. A long object stretched out upon a board
+arrested her steps. It was covered with a sheet, and the breathless
+gloom of the shanty caused Tess almost to drop the basket as she set it
+down. The silent, white thing on the board brought an exclamation of
+fear from her. With horror settling deep in her eyes she backed against
+the door. Did the sheet cover death? No; for Ezra had been carried to
+his grave the day before. The thought freed her from a terror that had
+gripped her senses at first. She took two steps forward, bent down and
+looked under the board. Little streams of water had made dark tracks
+across the hut floor. The corners of the sheet were drenched through.
+This sent Tess back once more to the door. Would she dare lift the
+sheet? Controlling her fear by an effort, Tess gathered her courage
+together and crept again to the long board. With shaking fingers, she
+lifted the cloth, and drew it back gently. Then a horrified cry fell
+sharply from her lips, and she dropped it. Ben Letts and Myra Longman,
+hugged in each other's arms, lay dead before her.
+
+Fascinated and trembling, she stood considering the livid squatters, no
+sound, after the first cry, issuing from her pale lips. The dead faces
+were so close to each other that a human hand could not pass between
+them. Upon the plain face of Myra rested a peaceful expression, as if
+she possessed a quietude she had never known before. Her eyes were
+closed, and one arm was tightly clasped about Ben's neck--the other
+about his waist. The storm had loosened the meager hair, had flung it in
+disorder over the fisher-girl's shoulders. Ben's brown teeth gleamed
+dark; the drawn lips were stretched wide, as if a pain, dreadful and
+torturing, had opened them never to be closed again. His two huge arms,
+twisted about the frail frame of the girl, were locked together by the
+horny fingers. To Tessibel it seemed that Myra smiled faintly in the
+possession of her longed-for happiness. She had Ben Letts at last, and
+forever--he was her gift of the storm, the eternal gift of a wild night.
+Myra had sought, and had found him.
+
+The shanty door pushed open. Like one in a dream, Tess was still looking
+down upon the dead. Lifting her gaze, she saw Satisfied watching her,
+his eyes glowing with subdued pain.
+
+"Myry air dead," he said, in a low voice, coming forward.
+
+"Ben Letts, too," added the squatter girl.
+
+"And the brat," finished Longman.
+
+Tess, startled, lifted up her head.
+
+"The brat! I had forgot him," she muttered. "He air dead, too?"
+
+"Yep. He air here."
+
+Longman drew down the sheet still further, exposing the lifeless baby.
+The thin little body lay between the father and mother.
+
+For many minutes they surveyed the dead trio in rapt attention.
+
+"Where air Myry's ma?" asked Tessibel presently.
+
+"Back there, in Ezy's bed. She air sick, and so air Mammy Letts."
+
+"Ezy were buried yesterday," ruminated Tess.
+
+"Yep, and Myry be a-goin' to the same place. Ma and me air--alone."
+
+There was something strangely pathetic in the quiet words, in the
+stolid, ugly face with its hard lines, in the mouth twitching at the
+corners as he spoke. Tess sprang toward him, and wound her strong young
+arms about him.
+
+"Myry air happy," she burst forth; "happier than when she were livin'
+with you. She air with Ben Letts."
+
+Satisfied, towering over her, blinked confusedly at her words. Puzzling,
+he drew his heavy brows down darkly.
+
+"Myry were a-seekin' Ben," Tess went on hurriedly, "and the brat
+couldn't stay without its pa and ma. I says as how Myry air happy,
+Satisfied."
+
+"She were a-lovin' Ben Letts?" The pain in his clouded blue eyes stung
+Tess to the heart. The grief of this lonely old man, bereft of his all,
+seemed the most tragic spectacle she had ever faced.
+
+"Yep," she replied, trying to smile through her tears; "she were
+a-lovin' him, and were a-seekin' his lovin's all the time. It were only
+in the storm--she found what she were a-seekin'."
+
+She turned her head sharply toward the dead.
+
+"Ye can see she air a-smilin', Satisfied, can't ye? And Ben air
+a-huggin' her up to him. That air somethin' Myry wanted. And ye air
+a-goin' to leave them like that, ain't ye? Don't tear Ben's arms loose,
+'cause Myry won't be happy if ye does. Can't ye put 'em in a box, just
+like they air?"
+
+Longman made a protesting motion. Some fishermen had picked the two dead
+ones up, locked in each other's arms. And he himself had covered them
+with a sheet, without making an effort to part them. He had not thought
+of putting them in the squatters' cemetery together.
+
+"And let the brat stay with 'em, too," Tess broke in on his reverie.
+
+"Yep," he replied; "I lets 'em all stay together. What Myry seeked for
+and found, she can have for all of me."
+
+The listening girl knew there was hatred in the father's tones for Ben
+Letts. Well, she had hated Ben too, but he was all Myra's now, and there
+was no more hatred for the ugly squatter in the heart of Tessibel.
+
+"She air a-smilin', Satisfied," Tess said again.
+
+Longman loosened Tessibel's arms, and, walking slowly forward, looked
+down upon his daughter.
+
+"I hain't seed before that she were a-smilin'," he said, taking a long
+breath. "Ye says as how she air happy, Tess?"
+
+"Yep; she air with Ben Letts."
+
+"I air a-goin' in to tell her ma that Myry air happy," asserted Longman,
+with relief in his voice. "I thank ye, Tess, for tellin' me that she
+were. I weren't thinkin' of nothin' but the storm, the water, and the
+time that ma and me were a-sleepin' when Myry were a-dyin'. She air
+happy, ye air sure, Tess?"
+
+"Yep, for she were a-seekin' Ben Letts. She told me as how--" Tessibel
+choked back the words.
+
+"She told ye what?"
+
+Tess was going to tell him of the night on the ragged rocks and of
+Myra's broken wrist, but, with a flashing glance at the dead woman,
+changed her mind. In her vivid imagination she thought that Myra was
+silently entreating her not to speak ill of the dead man in her arms.
+
+"She told me that Ben were the brat's pa, and that--" her eyes gladdened
+as she finished--"she were a-lovin' him; and, Satisfied, when we air
+a-lovin', and lovin' damn hard, then ain't we happy when we air with
+them what we loves?"
+
+She had come close to him, standing near the dead man and woman. The
+girl slipped her hand into Longman's reassuringly, as she asked the last
+question.
+
+"Yep," replied Satisfied, disappearing into the back room.
+
+Tessibel had forgotten the child in the basket. She turned her eyes
+toward it, and a movement of the cover told her that the little Dan was
+awake. She was bending over it when Longman appeared at her side.
+
+"Mammy says as how ye air to come in, Tess," he said, his eyes falling
+upon the child. "Whose brat air it?" he asked, with no shadowing
+suspicion in his glance. "Where did ye get it, Tessibel?"
+
+"I air a-carin' for it for a while. I comed, Satisfied----"
+
+Could she ask these people in sore grief for a dress that the dead child
+on the board had worn?
+
+"Ye comed for what?" asked the man.
+
+"I air a-wantin' to take him to the church, and I ain't got no dress for
+him. Would Mammy Longman let me take one?"
+
+"Yep. Go in, and tell her. She air in bed."
+
+Tess covered the babe's face, and placed the basket on the table.
+
+"I can't leave him in the hut," she explained; "the rats air too thick."
+
+"Yes," was all Longman said, and he fell to thinking deeply.
+
+Tess crept away to the back room.
+
+"I comed to see ye, Mammy Longman, and----"
+
+"Sit down on the bed," interrupted the tired voice. "Myry and Ezy air
+both gone. Satisfied says as how Myry air a-smilin' and as how ye said
+she were happy. Satisfied and me feels better, we does."
+
+Tessibel choked back the welling tears.
+
+The gray head resting upon a soiled pillow, the pale face turned toward
+the wall, which had not turned to her, struck Tess deeper than
+Satisfied's stolid grief.
+
+"Ye be sure Myry air happy?" came the tired voice again.
+
+"Yep."
+
+Mrs. Longman threw her eyes on Tessibel.
+
+"If she air happy, what air ye cryin' for?"
+
+"'Cause it air lonely for ye and Satisfied without her and the brat. I
+knows, 'cause I ain't had Daddy in such a long time."
+
+"We was lookin' for Myry back, but not like--"
+
+Tess broke in upon her words.
+
+"Mammy Longman, I air a-carin' for a little chap what ain't goin' to
+live, and I wants a dress to take him to the church. Will ye let me have
+one?"
+
+Mrs. Longman sat up, a new interest dawning in her faded eyes.
+
+"To a church? Why to a church? He ain't dead yet, air he?"
+
+"Nope; but his ma wants him took to the church where the Huly Ghost air,
+to have the water put on him.... Can I take the dress?"
+
+"Yep, Tess; take one from Myry's box. They ain't good, but our little
+brat wored them."
+
+Aimlessly, she lay down again and ceased speaking, but whimpered until
+Tess left the room. The girl made her choice from the small stock of
+dresses that had been worn by the Longman family, and had at last
+descended to the little dead boy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On her way home to the hut once more, Tess paused on the rocks. The
+spectacle at Longman's had filled her eyes with the shadow of longing.
+She had seen Myra clasped in the arms of the man she loved. Tessibel's
+thoughts flew to the student. She could imagine her own happiness if she
+had been in the storm, and Frederick had taken her in his arms, and
+they should have--
+
+"I wish almost I was Myry," she moaned, "and the student was Ben
+Letts.... No, no! not that! not that!"
+
+She sank under the burden of a new thought. Myra had sought, and had
+found--had searched for Ben in the storm, and had found him. Myra had
+had more faith than she had.
+
+"Faith the size of a mustard-seed," flashed into her mind. Her own past
+unbelief pressed upon her, and the color fled from her cheeks, leaving
+them pale.
+
+She opened the basket, and put her wistful face close to the sleeping
+child, her mental tension gone in her uprising faith.
+
+"I thought as how ye were a-keepin' the student from me, but ye ain't.
+God ain't ready to let me have him. But he air a-goin' to let me have
+him some time. I air glad I got ye, and I hopes that ye live, too. Myry
+air got Ben Letts, and I air a-goin' to have--Frederick." She walked
+home in a reverie deep and sweet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+
+Sunday morning, Tessibel was out upon the tracks, walking swiftly toward
+the city. She could hear the church bell at Haytes Corner ringing out a
+welcome to the country folk; she could hear the tolling of the chapel
+bell from the University hill. Clothed in the clean skirt she had washed
+at the time she had thought of going to Auburn prison, and a worn but
+clean jacket, Tess felt fit to face the best-dressed in Ithaca. Of
+course she was barefooted, for Daddy's boots were too big to wear into
+the house of the student's God. Earlier in the morning Tessibel had sat
+for a long time upon the small fishing dock, swinging her feet in the
+clear water. They, too, like the skirt and jacket, were clean.
+
+In the basket, snuggling in the nest of white clothes, lay little Dan.
+He was robed, in the much-worn garment of the Longman child, and
+Tessibel had looked at him with pride as she settled him in his bed
+preparatory to her trip.
+
+She passed swiftly through the city, and crossed Dewitt Park. How
+vividly she remembered the many midnights she had taken the same way,
+turning toward the jail to visit "Daddy"!
+
+Tessibel paused before Minister Graves' church, and heard him read in
+deep tones from the Scriptures: "Suffer little children to come unto me,
+for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." The harmonious voice floated
+through the window to the fisher-girl, now crouched in the sun. Every
+word fell distinctly upon her ear.
+
+She lifted the basket cover, and peeped in upon the babe. He looked
+bluer and thinner than Tess had ever seen him; his lips rested upon the
+rag with no indrawing movement. Unblinkingly stared the wide gray eyes
+when the sunbeams flashed upon his face. The vivid birth-mark grew
+fainter in the yellow light. Tess drew him into the shade, and waited.
+
+The tones rolled out like thunder when Dominie Graves bade the members
+of his flock bring their children to the Holy Font, that they might
+receive the blessing of God, and everlasting life. Tess heard him say
+that the Father in Heaven demanded that all children should be baptized
+in the name of the crucified Saviour--that to put off such a duty might
+prove dangerous to their eternal welfare. Many of the long words the
+squatter did not understand, but she gathered enough to know how
+necessary it was to obey the minister's commands. She glanced again at
+the babe, with a worried pucker between her eyes. There was the same
+stare, the same unmoving lips. But he was quiet, and Tessibel let him
+lie.
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden--" rang forth the
+powerful voice. It fell upon the red-haired girl and soothed her.
+
+Tess knew that Teola would be expecting her, and that Frederick would
+turn his face away when she presented the child for baptism, but no
+cloud gathered into the downcast eyes, for Tessibel's faith had grown
+since she knew that Myra's prayers had been answered. Had she not seen
+the girl clasped in the arms of the fisherman, who had once said that he
+hated her? Had she not seen the smile upon the dead lips which dripped
+with lake water? Tessibel had never before been so confident in prayer,
+and upon this beautiful Sunday morning, in the white light of day,
+kneeling under the church window, she believed that God would give her
+back the student--some time. She thought of the pain that would rest in
+the proud dark eyes of the boy when he saw her; but she smiled, because
+she knew that God lived, heard and answered the prayers of the
+heavy-laden.
+
+An anthem rolled up from the church choir, chanting out the love of
+Christ, chanting His crucifixion and death for a dying world.
+
+"Come unto me, come unto me," it sang, and "Come unto me," rose from the
+lips of the squatter waiting to take the little human thing, with its
+burden of sickness and death, to Dominie Graves, that he might petition
+the Holy Ghost to take away its sin.
+
+"Come unto me," again sang the choir. Then silence. Tess leaned nearer
+the window. Dominie Graves read out the names of the babies to be
+baptized that day.
+
+A carriage rolled rapidly to the church door, and Deacon Hall,
+accompanied by his wife, stepped to the pavement. The Deacon held a
+bundle with long white draperies hanging from it. It was their new baby,
+with lace upon its frock, going in to receive a blessing at the altar of
+God. Tess peered down upon the little Dan, and pulled the coarse dress
+closer about his chin. A violent wish born of the love she had for him
+came into her heart. Oh, that she had one bit of lace, to make his skin
+look less blue and the mouth less drawn! The wide eyes were still fixed
+upon her, immovable and unblinking. Once only had she seen the lids
+fall slowly downward, to rise again over the unseeing eyes.
+
+"He knows he air a-goin' to church," she muttered lovingly. "I wonder if
+that air why he air so good.... Mebbe the spirit of his pappy air here."
+
+She heard the names fall from the lips of the clergyman, as he took the
+infants, one by one, and placed his hand upon them with the water.
+
+"I baptize thee, John Richard," Graves said slowly, "in the name of the
+Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+"Of the Holy Ghost...." He was the Spirit of God Who stood by the
+children, to take away the sin with which they had been born. Teola had
+told Tess so. The Holy Ghost would take away the sin of little Dan.
+
+"I baptize thee," broke the silence, time after time, amid the tiny
+splashes of falling water. The last must have gone up to the altar, for
+Tess heard the minister telling the fathers and mothers the duty they
+owed their children.
+
+"I finish my service to-day," said he, "by praying God to bless you all,
+and calling down the good-will of Heaven upon your children just
+baptized in His name."
+
+Tessibel did not wait to hear the rest. She raised the child from the
+basket, shielding him from the sun with her body, stretched him out
+reverently upon her hands, and tiptoed up the long flight of steps into
+the church. A sea of heads rose before her startled vision. Transfixed,
+she paused in the door, waiting for Graves to cease speaking. Her eye
+caught the pew of the minister. Teola sat next to Frederick on the end,
+Mrs. Graves between her and her younger daughter. Tess noticed the
+tense expression upon the sharp profile of the babe's mother. How glad
+Teola would be when the baby was baptized! How happy in the new-found
+Heaven for her child!
+
+The minister's voice had fallen into a prayer. And still Tess waited
+with the dying infant, staring wide-eyed upward at the great church
+dome. Every head was bowed: no one saw the strange girl, with hair flung
+wide about her shoulders, nor the tiny human being resting upon her
+hands.
+
+Silence fell upon the congregation, and Tessibel commenced her walk down
+through the sea of faces to the pulpit. She gave no glance toward Teola
+as she passed, but kept her eyes fixed upon Dominie Graves, who, without
+noticing her, had turned to the little flight of steps that led to his
+pulpit. When he reached the Bible stand, and opened his lips to speak,
+his gaze dropped upon the squatter. At first he thought he was dreaming.
+He looked again--looked at her--at the child--and paled to his ears.
+Tessibel was holding the infant up toward him, with a beseeching
+expression in her eyes that staggered him.
+
+Teola had seen Tess pass, and had caught a glimpse of the thin child
+upon her hands. The pursed baby lips, from which hung the useless sugar
+rag, made her lower her head to the prayer cushion, shuddering
+violently. Frederick had also seen the squatter--everyone in the church
+had seen her, and the silence grew wider and wider, until even breathing
+was hushed to catch her words.
+
+Her low, sweet voice began to speak; it thrilled through the
+congregation like the song of angels.
+
+[Illustration: "BE YE GOIN' TO LET HIM GO A PLACE WHERE GOD CAN'T FIND
+HIM?"]
+
+"I has brought ye a dyin' brat, Dominie Graves," began Tess with
+shaking voice, "who has got to be sprinkled, or he can't go to Heaven."
+
+The vast silence of the edifice echoed her petition.
+
+The gaping minister never once took his eyes from her face, and made no
+move to answer her.
+
+"It air a-dyin', I say," she went on, "and I wants ye to put the water
+on it."
+
+So deadly in earnest was the girl that a sob broke out in the back of
+the church. The lithe, barefooted squatter, and the feeble, dying child
+offered a living picture of pathos, which with its tragedy slowly dawned
+upon the more sensitive minds, silently telling its tale of human
+suffering. Minister Graves refused to answer her. He wore the same
+expression of scorn Tess had seen in the student when she had
+acknowledged the child as hers.
+
+"Be ye goin' to sprinkle him?" she demanded steadfastly, her voice
+growing stronger with her emotions. "Be ye?"
+
+"No, I'm not." Graves' voice fell like the sound of a deep-toned bell.
+
+"Be ye goin' to let him go to a place where God can't find him? Be ye?"
+Tess entreated.
+
+Anger and revolt glinted through the golden-brown of her eyes; she
+swayed back a little from the font, still holding out the babe.
+
+"He air so little," she pleaded with a choke, "and so awful sick. Mebbe
+he won't live till mornin'. He can't hurt the others, now they air done
+with the water, can he?"
+
+She peeped into the marble basin, and lifted her eyes to his face.
+
+"There air lots of water left. Be there other babies wantin' it worse
+than this one?"
+
+She turned half-way round, and faced the wall of white faces, sending
+the question out in high-pitched tones.
+
+Then Graves spoke with austerity and strength, riding down his anger
+with a mighty effort.
+
+"You will please take the child from the church. You have your own
+squatter mission for such as that."
+
+He had forgotten his members--forgotten that he was a man of God. As he
+bent toward her, he remembered only that she was the girl who had
+thwarted him, who had won in the squatter fight against his own
+influence. Tessibel heard the words "squatter" and "mission." It had not
+occurred to her to take the child there. She looked down upon the little
+fire-marked face. Would baby Dan live until she could get him there? He
+might be dead before she could carry him to the inlet and cross the
+tracks to the young rector's house. Teola had said that the baby would
+never be with his father without baptism, that even she, his mother,
+could not see him when she, too, went away. Little Dan, uncleansed,
+would live far from the bright angels. Her anger rose in a twinkling.
+She took another backward step, threw the red curls into a mass over her
+shoulder, and spoke again.
+
+"Air I to take him from the church without the water?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll be damned if I's a-goin' to take him away," she flung back,
+panting. "He air so near dead, he air blind--look at his eyes! I says,
+he air to be sprinkled, he air! If ye won't give the Huly Ghost a
+chance at him--" Here she stepped forward to the font, flashed a look of
+hatred at Graves, and suddenly dipped her hand into the water.
+
+"I sprinkles him myself," she ended.
+
+The drops fell upon the livid baby face, dripping down upon the bare
+feet of the squatter.
+
+"I baptize--" Tess wavered for lack of words. She had thought she could
+not forget the benediction.
+
+A voice from the back of the church broke in abruptly upon her
+hesitation.
+
+"I baptize thee, child," it rang, "in the name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+Bill Hopkins was in the middle aisle, coming toward her. Tess snatched
+one glimpse of his face, still holding her wet hand upon the dark-haired
+babe.
+
+"Say it, girl," Hopkins commanded. "Say it, quick. The child is dying."
+
+"I baptize thee, child, in the name--" gasped Tess.
+
+She stepped back again, throwing an entreating, silent appeal to the
+huge, bald-headed man.
+
+"Of the Father, and of the Son," repeated Bill.
+
+"Of the Father, and of the Son," echoed Tess.
+
+"And of the Holy Ghost," ended Hopkins.
+
+"And of the Huly Ghost," whispered Tess.
+
+"Amen" rolled from a hundred tear-choked throats, like the distant
+murmuring of the sea. Hopkins sat down, saying no more.
+
+Minister Graves had sunk into his chair, and on the girl's last words
+the congregation drew a long, gasping breath. The eyes of the babe gazed
+steadily on into the shadows of eternal silence; the water seemingly
+unfelt upon its head. The small boy was slipping away to that place of
+mystery where his father, Myra and Ben Letts had gone. The long days of
+suffering with the child in the hut rushed over Tess. She dropped on her
+knees, facing the pulpit, and hugged him to her breast, and whispered,
+
+"Suffer little children to come unto me--"
+
+Then another voice, shrill, sobbing and terrible, hushed her prayer. The
+squatter instinctively shifted her position toward the Dominie's pew.
+Teola Graves was standing up, tall and pale, and was looking directly at
+the minister.
+
+"Father," she cried, "Father, if you don't take the baby and baptize him
+in the name of the Saviour, you will consign to everlasting darkness--"
+She lost her breath, caught it again, and finished, "your own flesh and
+blood. God! dear God, take us both to Dan!... Tessibel, Tessibel, give
+me my baby!"
+
+She wrenched herself loose from Frederick's detaining fingers, and was
+in the aisle before her brother realized what had happened.
+
+"He's my baby," she cried, between the spasmodic pressures upon her
+chest. "Tess! Tess, is he dead?"
+
+"Yep, he air dead," fell from Tessibel; for she had seen the large,
+glazed eyes draw in at the corners and the little face blanch. The tiny
+spirit fled as the frantic girl-mother clasped her babe to her breast.
+
+"But he air gone to his pappy," consoled the squatter.
+
+For one awful moment, Dominie Graves looked into the accusing eyes of
+his congregation. Bill Hopkins was seated, with his face in his hands,
+but Augusta Hall, with her new baby folded tightly in her arms, was
+looking at him in dark-eyed disdain.
+
+Graves swayed dizzily, ... caught at the pulpit table for support.
+
+"Jesus," he appealed dizzily, "Christ Jesus."
+
+Frederick pressed his way to his sister's side. The squatter threw up
+her head before him: for the first time since that last dreadful night,
+she looked directly into his eyes, her dishonor slipping from her like a
+loosened garment. Frederick's soul shone forth in the glance he sent
+her. God in His own time had given her back the student.
+
+Tessibel turned, and passed up through the mute gathering. Bill Hopkins
+put out his hand, and touched her.
+
+"Child," he said brokenly, "you are the one bright spirit in this
+generation."
+
+But Tessibel did not understand. She went down the long flight of steps,
+and into the sun-lit street, with but a backward glance at the
+rag-draped basket she had left under the church window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+
+Tessibel was a child again, a happy, free-hearted child. The body of her
+death had fallen away as Christian's burden had slipped from his
+shoulders at the foot of the cross. The babe had gone to its father with
+the blessing of the Holy Ghost!
+
+Then Tess thought of Teola, and stopped on the tracks, the Dominie's
+last words rushing into her mind. She had understood the import of them.
+It had been carried to her by the awful expression upon Graves' face. He
+was sorry, this minister who had persecuted her father and
+herself--sorry for Teola, sorry for the brat!
+
+"The Dominie ain't likin' Daddy and me, though," she murmured. "But the
+student air a-likin' me!"
+
+For the next two miles she sang lustily, childishly, with the complete
+abandon of a girl without a burden. Daddy Skinner was coming home, and
+God had given her back the student. The remembrance of his eyes thrilled
+her from head to foot.
+
+Tess passed down the lane, glad for Myra, glad for Teola and her
+child--glad for everyone. She was still singing when she crossed the
+wide plank that spanned the mud-cellar creek. She saw Professor Young
+leaning against the shanty door, and the memory of their last
+conversation, when he had asked her to marry him, made her pause
+awkwardly, the color flying in rich waves from the red forehead ringlets
+to the shapely neck.
+
+Young took her hand, looking searchingly into her face.
+
+"Where is the child?" he demanded in low tones.
+
+"I took it back to its ma--she wanted it," was all Tess replied. "Air ye
+comin' in and tell me about Daddy?"
+
+"Your father will--"
+
+Tessibel halted, with her hand on the door, waiting for him to finish.
+
+"Go in, child. I will tell you--in there."
+
+He spoke slowly, deliberately.... Tess gazed at him, trying to read his
+thoughts. Nevertheless she obeyed him, pressing open the door with an
+impatient movement of her head. She had waited so long for just this
+moment. To know when the big, humpbacked father was coming home seemed
+more precious to Tessibel than all the uplifting joy she had experienced
+that day. Her eyes swept the hut; then they rested in a frightened
+glance upon Daddy Skinner seated on his own stool. He was smiling at her
+with misty, shaggy-browed eyes, his lips showing his dark teeth with
+each incoming breath.
+
+Deforest Young saw the girl bound forward, and the red curls shroud the
+huge fisherman's face. Tears blurred his sight. He turned into the day
+to regain his control.
+
+"Ye be here to stay!" gasped Tess, sitting up presently, and holding the
+thick neck with her curved arm. "Ye ain't never goin' back to Auburn?"
+
+"Nope; I's here to stay with my pretty brat.... Air ye glad to see yer
+Daddy?"
+
+"Glad! glad! Daddy, daddy! I air a-goin' to be your brat till we dies!"
+She had nestled, as in the old days, completely under his chin hair,
+crying silently, deeply, with low-caught sobs.
+
+For a long time they sat thus, until the man outside entered and spoke
+to them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tess jubilantly cooked the fish for dinner, spattering the bacon fat
+upon the floor. She smiled alternately at her father and Professor
+Young; she caroled like a spring bird with bursts of happy song. Then
+they three sat down to the table to eat the homely squatter fare.
+
+A sickening longing swept over Deforest Young. To have the love of this
+girl he would be willing to live in the shanty--to eat just such food
+for the rest of his life. But during the few days past, he had fully
+realized that he could not make Tess love him. He would never speak of
+love to her again.
+
+Yet it pleased him to remain with them through the long afternoon, with
+Tess near him to watch the sun sink behind the western hill.
+
+He had drawn on his coat preparatory to leaving, and stood with
+Tessibel's hand in his. A sharp, quick knock on the door stayed his
+farewell. Orn Skinner lifted the latch, and Frederick Graves entered at
+the fisherman's bidding. His face was drawn and pale, his eyes red from
+weeping. Tessibel's heart bounded in sympathy, but she remained backed
+against the shanty wall until his eyes searched hers for a welcome. He
+spoke first.
+
+"My sister is dead," he said slowly, his voice breaking as the tears
+came into the dark eyes; "and my father sent you this."
+
+Daddy Skinner was seated blinkingly on his stool; Professor Young, hat
+in hand, waited for the girl to take the extended paper. But for several
+seconds she stood staring at Frederick, with wide-eyed wonderment. He
+had said that his beautiful sister was dead, that she had gone with the
+thin babe to her loved one, even as Myra Longman had gone with Ben
+Letts. To Tess it was but another answered prayer, showered from Heaven.
+She felt no thrill of grief; she was only glad that the pale, sick
+mother had had her wish.
+
+She took the paper awkwardly, and scanned it with painful embarrassment.
+
+"I can't read the writin'," she said, handing it back. "Will ye tell me
+what it says?"
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't, Tessibel! I am so ashamed, so miserable!"
+
+Tess silently handed the paper to Professor Young; then she slipped
+forward and stood close to Frederick, rapidly considering his face with
+forgiving eyes.
+
+Young turned to the student.
+
+"Shall I?"
+
+An acquiescent nod gave him permission to lift the note and read:
+
+
+     "Dear Child:
+
+     My daughter is dead. Frederick will tell you. If you can forgive me
+     for all I have done against you and your father, will you come here
+     to us, and tell Mrs. Graves and myself of the past few weeks.
+     Frederick has told me that he loves you, and of your sacrifice for
+     Teola. I can only say at present that we thank you.
+
+                                Yours in grief and gratitude,
+                                                        Elias Graves.
+
+     P. S.--When your father comes back, I shall ask you to give
+     him the title of the ground upon which your house stands."
+
+Professor Young read it slowly, word by word; each breath taken by the
+four people could be plainly heard in the silence that followed.
+
+Frederick broke it.
+
+"Tess, will you come to our home, and tell Father and Mother
+about--Teola?"
+
+The name slipped into a whisper from his lips, and, leaning against the
+hut door, he burst into boyish, bitter tears.
+
+"Forgive me, please," he murmured; "but it was so awful! And what she
+must have suffered!... And I didn't know--we none of us knew." He lifted
+his face, swept them with a heartrending glance, and finished. "She died
+in the church to-day with the baby."
+
+"She air happy to be with the man what she loves, ain't she?" said Tess,
+softly.
+
+Frederick grasped her hands, her brilliant smile easing the pain that
+like a knife stabbed his heart.
+
+"You think she was happy to die, Tess?... Tell me all she said.... Did
+she know she was going away?"
+
+For an instant the rapid rush of questions daunted Tessibel. But she
+sorted them out, commencing from the first one to answer them.
+
+"Yep, she air happy," she said positively; "awful happy. She wanted to
+go to her man in the sky.... He were a-waitin' for her every day, and
+she knowed she were a-goin' to die, 'cause--'cause she prayed every
+night that God'd take her and the brat."
+
+"Prayed? She prayed to die, when we all loved her so?" stammered
+Frederick.
+
+"Yep. She were a-lovin' the burnt student better'n anything else. And,
+when women air a-lovin' like that--"
+
+She ceased abruptly, and her own love for him attacked her as lightning
+attacks an oak in the autumn. Teola Graves had gone willingly to the
+burnt student, and Myra Longman had loved the ugly fisherman with a love
+that hurt like hers.
+
+No one asked the short-skirted, barefooted girl to finish her sentence.
+The three men understood that her last passionate statement rang from
+the depths of her woman's heart. Frederick lifted his head.
+
+"Tess--Tessibel, I can only say with my father that we all love you for
+what you have done for her."
+
+His voice broke.
+
+"And for myself, I say again, as I have said many times, that I--I love
+you--with my whole soul!"
+
+His fingers closed over hers in an intense, desperate clasp. How long
+she had waited for him to tell her this once more! And he had confessed
+his great love in the presence of Daddy Skinner and the big man from the
+hill.
+
+Her father watched her, this child whom but a year before he had left
+almost a baby. She was a woman now, with a woman's voice and a woman's
+love. The fisherman passed his hand over his face with a forlorn
+gesture. Had he found his darling again but to lose her?
+
+Impetuously Tess turned toward him, and met his misty gaze with her
+tear-dimmed eyes. The student was still clinging to her hand.
+
+"I air Daddy's brat," she whispered. "But I says," and she flashed
+Frederick a lightning-like glance through the red lashes before she
+dropped her eyes, and murmured, "but I says, as how I said before, that
+I air yer squatter."
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+"The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay"
+
+There Are Two Sides to Everything--
+
+--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
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+
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+
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+the publishers for a complete catalog.
+
+_There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+EMERSON HOUGH'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+THE COVERED WAGON
+NORTH OF 36
+THE WAY OF A MAN
+THE STORY OF THE OUTLAW
+THE SAGEBRUSHER
+THE GIRL AT THE HALFWAY HOUSE
+THE WAY OUT
+THE MAN NEXT DOOR
+THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE
+THE BROKEN GATE
+THE STORY OF THE COWBOY
+THE WAY TO THE WEST
+54-40 OR FIGHT
+HEART'S DESIRE
+THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE
+THE PURCHASE PRICE
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+GEORGE W. OGDEN'S WESTERN NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE BARON OF DIAMOND TAIL
+The Elk Mountain Cattle Co. had not paid a dividend in years; so Edgar
+Barrett, fresh from the navy, was sent West to see what was wrong at the
+ranch. The tale of this tenderfoot outwitting the buckaroos at their own
+play will sweep you into the action of this salient western novel.
+
+THE BONDBOY
+Joe Newbolt, bound out by force of family conditions to work for a
+number of years, is accused of murder and circumstances are against him.
+His mouth is sealed; he cannot, as a gentleman, utter the words that
+would clear him. A dramatic, romantic tale of intense interest.
+
+CLAIM NUMBER ONE
+Dr. Warren Slavens drew claim number one, which entitled him to first
+choice of rich lands on an Indian reservation in Wyoming. It meant a
+fortune; but before he established his ownership he had a bard battle
+with crooks and politicians.
+
+THE DUKE OF CHIMNEY BUTTE
+When Jerry Lambert, "the Duke," attempts to safeguard the cattle ranch
+of Vesta Philbrook from thieving neighbors, his work is appallingly
+handicapped because of Grace Kerr, one of the chief agitators, and a
+deadly enemy of Vesta's. A stirring tale of brave deeds, gun-play and a
+love that shines above all.
+
+THE FLOCKMASTER OF POISON CREEK
+John Mackenzie trod the trail from Jasper to the great sheep country
+where fortunes were being made by the flock-masters. Shepherding was not
+a peaceful pursuit in those bygone days. Adventure met him at every
+turn--there is a girl of course--men fight their best fights for a
+woman--it is an epic of the sheeplands.
+
+THE LAND OF LAST CHANCE
+Jim Timberlake and Capt. David Scott waited with restless thousands on
+the Oklahoma line for the signal to dash across the border. How the city
+of Victory arose overnight on the plains, how people savagely defended
+their claims against the "sooners;" how good men and bad played
+politics, makes a strong story of growth and American initiative.
+
+TRAIL'S END
+Ascalon was the end of the trail for thirsty cowboys who gave vent to
+their pent-up feelings without restraint. Calvin Morgan was not
+concerned with its wickedness until Seth Craddock's malevolence directed
+itself against him. He did not emerge from the maelstrom until he had
+obliterated every vestige of lawlessness, and assured himself of the
+safety of a certain dark-eyed girl.
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART
+Why was Barbara held captive in a deserted hermit's hut for days by a
+"man without a heart" and in the end how was it that she held the
+winning cards.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF A ROGUE
+Twenty-four hours after his release from prison Bruce Lawn finds himself
+playing a most surprising role in a drama of human relationships that
+sweeps on to a wonderfully emotional climax.
+
+THE MATHERSON MARRIAGE
+She married for money. With her own hands she had locked the door on
+happiness and thrown away the key. But, read the story which is very
+interesting and well told.
+
+RICHARD CHATTERTON
+A fascinating story in which love and jealousy play strange tricks with
+women's souls.
+
+A BACHELOR HUSBAND
+Can a woman love two men at the same time?
+
+In its solving of this particular variety of triangle "A Bachelor
+Husband" will particularly interest, and strangely enough, without one
+shock to the most conventional minded.
+
+THE SCAR
+With fine comprehension and insight the author shows a terrific contrast
+between the woman whose love was of the flesh and one whose love was of
+the spirit.
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF BARRY WICKLOW
+Here is a man and woman who, marrying for love, yet try to build their
+wedded life upon a gospel of hate for each other and yet win back to a
+greater love for each other in the end.
+
+THE UPHILL ROAD
+The heroine of this story was a consort of thieves. The man was fine,
+clean, fresh from the West. It is a story of strength and passion.
+
+WINDS OF THE WORLD
+Jill, a poor little typist, marries the great Henry Sturgess and
+inherits millions, but not happiness. Then at last--but we must leave
+that to Ruby M. Ayres to tell you as only she can.
+
+THE SECOND HONEYMOON
+In this story the author has produced a book which no one who has loved
+or hopes to love can afford to miss. The story fairly leaps from climax
+to climax.
+
+THE PHANTOM LOVER
+Have you not often heard of someone being in love with love rather than
+the person they believed the object of their affections? That was
+Esther! But she passes through the crisis into a deep and profound love.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL (MRS. LUTZ)
+
+May be had whatever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+BEST MAN, THE
+CLOUDY JEWEL
+DAWN OF THE MORNING
+ENCHANTED BARN, THE
+EXIT BETTY
+FINDING OF JASPER HOLT, THE
+GIRL FROM MONTANA, THE
+LO, MICHAEL!
+MAN OF THE DESERT, THE
+MARCIA SCHUYLER
+MIRANDA
+MYSTERY OF MARY, THE
+OBSESSION OF VICTORIA GRACEN, THE
+PHOEBE DEANE
+RED SIGNAL, THE
+SEARCH, THE
+TRYST, THE
+VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS, A
+WITNESS, THE
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP,   PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY GENE STRATTON-PORTER
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE WHITE FLAG.
+How a young girl, singlehanded, fought against the power of the Morelands
+who held the town of Ashwater in their grip.
+
+HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER.
+This story is of California and tells of that charming girl, Linda Strong,
+otherwise known as "Her Father's Daughter."
+
+A DAUGHTER OF THE LAND.
+Kate Bates, the heroine of this story, is a true "Daughter of the Land,"
+and to read about her is truly inspiring.
+
+MICHAEL O'HALLORAN.
+Michael is a quick-witted little Irish newsboy, living in Northern
+Indiana. He adopts a deserted little girl, a cripple. He also aspires to
+lead the entire rural community upward and onward.
+
+LADDIE.
+This is a bright, cheery tale with the scenes laid in Indiana. The story
+is told by Little Sister, the youngest member of a large family, but it
+is concerned not so much with childish doings as with the love affairs
+of older members of the family.
+
+THE HARVESTER.
+"The Harvester," is a man of the woods and fields, and is well worth
+knowing, but when the Girl comes to his "Medicine Woods," there begins a
+romance of the rarest idyllic quality.
+
+FRECKLES.
+Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which he
+takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms; and his love-story
+with "The Angel" are full of real sentiment.
+
+A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST.
+The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, loveable type of
+the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
+toward all things; her hope is never dimmed.
+
+AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW.
+The scene of this charming love story is laid in Central Indiana. It is
+one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing love.
+
+THE SONG OF THE CARDINAL.
+The love idyl of the Cardinal and his mate, told with rare delicacy and
+humor.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP,   PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+BOOTH TARKINGTON'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+SEVENTEEN. Illustrated by Arthur William Brown.
+No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed
+the immortal young people of this story. Its humor is irresistible
+and reminiscent of the time when the reader was Seventeen.
+
+PENROD. Illustrated by Gordon Grant.
+This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, humorous,
+tragic things which are locked secrets to most older folks. It is
+a finished, exquisite work.
+
+PENROD AND SAM. Illustrated by Worth Brehm.
+Like "Penrod" and "Seventeen," this book contains
+some remarkable phases of real boyhood and some of the best
+stories of juvenile prankishness that have ever been written.
+
+THE TURMOIL. Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.
+Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who revolts
+against his father's plans for him to be a servitor of big
+business. The love of a fine girl turns Bibb's life from failure
+to success.
+
+THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA. Frontispiece.
+A story of love and politics,--more especially a picture of
+a country editor's life in Indiana, but the charm of the book
+lies in the love interest.
+
+THE FLIRT. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.
+The "Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one girl's
+engagement, drives one man to suicide, causes the murder
+of another, leads another to lose his fortune, and in the end,
+marries a stupid and unpromising suitor, leaving the really
+worthy one to marry her sister.
+
+Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. In the courtroom scene on page 237, the original "She was not disloyal
+   to Tess" has been changed to "She was not disloyal to Teola" since
+   Tess is the speaker and she's keeping Teola's confidence about the
+   child's mother.
+2. The last chapter was originally numbered XI (11) though it is actually
+   the final chapter, XLIII (43).
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY***
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #22064 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22064)