ace redden as they approached each other. To hide his
embarrassment he swung his little hickory switch gayly and called to his
dog Dunder that was nosing about by the roadside. Dunder bounded
forward, spied the newcomer, and leaped toward her playfully and with
natural canine curiosity.

Bella screamed. She screamed and ran to Ben and clung to him, clasping
her hands about his arm. Ben lifted the hickory switch in his free hand
and struck Dunder a sharp cut with it. It was the first time in his life
that he had done such a thing. If he had had a sane moment from that
time until the day he married Bella Huckins, he would never have
forgotten the dumb hurt in Dunder's stricken eyes and shrinking,
quivering body.

Bella screamed again. Still clinging to him, Ben was saying: "He won't
hurt you. He won't hurt you," meanwhile patting her shoulder
reassuringly. He looked down at her pale face. She was so slight, so
childlike, so apparently different from the sturdy country girls.
From--well, from the girls he knew. Her helplessness, her utter
femininity, appealed to all that was masculine in him. Bella the
experienced, clinging to him, felt herself swept from head to foot by a
queer, electric tingling that was very pleasant but that still had in it
something of the sensation of a wholesale bumping of one's crazy bone.
If she had been anything but a stupid little flirt, she would have
realized that here was a specimen of the virile male with which she
could not trifle. She glanced up at him now, smiling faintly. "My, I was
scared!" She stepped away from him a little--very little.

"Aw, he wouldn't hurt a flea."

But Bella looked over her shoulders fearfully to where Dunder stood by
the roadside, regarding Ben with a look of uncertainty. He still thought
that perhaps this was a new game. Not a game that he cared for, but
still one to be played if his master fancied it. Ben stooped, picked up
a stone, and threw it at Dunder, striking him in the flank. "Go on
home!" he commanded, sternly. "Go home!" He started toward the dog with
a well-feigned gesture of menace. Dunder, with a low howl, put his tail
between his legs and loped off home, a disillusioned dog.

Bella stood looking up at Ben. Ben looked down at her.

"You're the new teacher, ain't you?"

"Yes. I guess you must think I'm a fool, going on like a baby about that
dog."

"Most girls would be scared of him if they didn't know he wouldn't hurt
nobody. He's pretty b