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 of trouble I ain't got room for anything else. I don't feel like I want to eat again for seven or eight years."

"It'll all come out right—don't you worry over it, Mr. Hartwell."

"For my own part I can carry it; but look what I've brought on Miss Sallie McCoy, ma'am."

Malvina was wiping the showcase with her apron now, her head behind it, her face hidden.

"You was up there to see them this evening, wasn't you?"

"Yes, I called in on 'em for a minute."

"I heard they had the doctor for Sallie."

"So her mother told me, ma'am."

"It's a shame the way the school-board treated that girl! But it's nothing to get sick over—she knows she wasn't hurt nor spoilt by bein' seen walkin' along the street with you. It's foolish, plumb foolish!"

"But knowin' he's to blame for trouble like that is as draggin' on a man as a broken leg, ma'am. When did that man say he'd be back?"

"In a little while, he said."

"I'll set out in the cool of the night and wait for him, and thank you most generous for all your kindness to a footless stranger like me, ma'am."

Texas went out and sat on the bench along the hotel wall. There was a little space between the