as he had his forceps--toothers,
my little brother used to call them--with him, he had that aching
tooth out in no time."

"I'm afraid it hurt you dreadfully, didn't it, Jessie?" I inquired,
sympathetically.

"Not so much as I thought it would; not so much as the aching did,"
Jessie replied. "People are so cowardly about such things!" she added,
and the sly look that Mrs. Horton bestowed on Jessie's sister behind
her back, awoke a suspicion in my mind that, perhaps, Jessie herself
had betrayed some shrinking dread before the operation took place.

"How glad I am that you didn't have to go clear over to Antonito," I
said. "You wouldn't have been home for hours yet, and Mrs. Horton
wouldn't have been making us a visit."

"And Mrs. Horton would a good deal rather be making you a visit than
driving these horses to Antonito, I can tell you!" said that lady.
"They're quiet as lambs until it comes to cars and engines, and the
sight of them scares them both nigh to death, and the railway track
runs along right beside the highway for a mile before you get into
Antonito. I'd have been obliged to drive Jessie over, for the hired
man is gone, and Mr. Horton met with an accident to one of his hands
last night, and couldn't have driven."

"An accident! How did it happen?" I inquired, with feigned
carelessness.

"Why, I declare, I can hardly make out how it did happen!" exclaimed
Mr. Horton's wife, with a troubled look. "There, Jessie, that's hay
enough to last them a week, and I don't expect to stay that long. You
see," she went on, slipping the harness deftly off the nigh horse, and
tossing it down on the pile of hay, "nothing would do Jake last night
but he must go up to the north pasture to salt the cattle. I told him
there was no need--they were salted only last Sunday--but go he would,
and go he did. It got to be so late before he came back that I got
real uneasy about him. It's a good bit to the north pasture, but I
knew it ought not to keep him out so very late. Why, it was after
twelve o'clock when he came in at last, with his clothes torn, and his
hand done up in his handkerchief and just dripping with blood! Jessie
and Ralph had gone to bed, hours before, and I was thankful that she
wasn't up to see it, for it fairly scared me, and I'm not a mite
nervous, generally. I expect I was the more scared because of Jake's
way of taking it. He's as steady as iron, most times, but last night
he was all kind of trembly and ex