He shied at long, blue eyes and turned his own uncompromisingly away.
He never would dance with a woman who had red hair, except in
quadrilles where he could not help himself; and then his hand-clasp was
brief and perfunctory when it came to "Grand right-and-left." If
commanded to "Balance-_swing_" the red-haired woman was swung airily by
the finger-tips--; which was not the way in which Weary swung the
others.

And then came the schoolma'am. The schoolma'am's hair was the darkest
brown and had a shine to it where the light struck at the proper angle,
and her eyes were large and came near being round, and they were a
velvety brown and also had a shine in them.

Still Weary shied consistently and systematically.

At the leap-year ball, given on New Year's night, when the ladies were
invited to "choose your pardners for the hull dance, regardless of who
brought yuh," the schoolma'am had forsaken Joe Meeker, with whose
parents she boarded, and had deliberately chosen Weary. The Happy
Family had, with one accord, grinned at him in a way that promised many
things and, up to the coming of the Fourth of July, every promise had
been conscientiously fulfilled.

They brought him many friendly messages from the schoolma'am, to which
he returned unfriendly answers. When he accused them openly of trying
to "load" him; they were shocked and grieved. They told him the
schoolma'am said she felt drawn to him--he looked so like her darling
brother who had spilled his precious blood on San Juan Hill. Cal
Emmett was exceedingly proud of this invention, since it seemed to "go