and peeped inter the winder to hev a good look at ye. It was very quiet
and kam. There was squirrels over the roof, yellow-jackets and bees
dronin' away, and kinder sleeping-like all around in the air, and
jay-birds twitterin' in the shingles, and they never minded me. You were
movin' up and down among them little gals and boys, liftin' up their
heads and talkin' to 'em softly and quiet like, ez if you was one of
them yourself. And they looked contented and kam. And onct--I don't
know if YOU remember it--you kem close up to the winder with your
hands behind you, and looked out so kam and quiet and so far off, ez if
everybody else outside the school was miles away from you. It kem to me
then that I'd given a heap to hev had the old woman see you thar. It kem
to me, Mr. Ford, that there wasn't any place for ME thar; and it kem
to me, too--and a little rough like--that mebbee there wasn't any place
there for MY Cress either! So I rode away without disturbin' you nor the
birds nor the squirrels. Talkin' with Cress that night, she said ez how
it was a fair sample of what happened every day, and that you'd always
treated her fair like the others. So she allowed that she'd go down to
Sacramento, and get some things agin her and Seth bein' married next
month, and she reckoned she wouldn't trouble you nor the school agin.
Hark till I've done, Mr. Ford," he continued, as the young man made a
slight movement of deprecation. "Well, I agreed. But arter she got to
Sacramento and bought some fancy fixin's, she wrote to me and sez ez how
she'd been thinkin' the hull thing over, and she reckoned that she and
Seth were too young to marry, and the engagement had better be broke.
And I broke it for her."

"But how?" asked the bewildered master.

"Gin'rally with this gun," returned McKinstry with slow gravity,
indicating the rifle he was carrying, "for I ain't kam. I let on to