me a fresh stump when we reach the
Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd
find some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad."

"I am gladder than I can ever expriss," said Freckles. "And now will I
be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get
all that money!"

"Mither o' Moses!" howled Duncan. "Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence
and honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin
ye. I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone
an' give ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so
dumb!"

"Exciptin' prisint company?" sweetly inquired Freckles.

"No!" growled Duncan. "Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a
price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right
to tell ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best.
Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah."

"I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan," said
Freckles. "I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might
be timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you
more than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be
the saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the
east line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will
let me have a glass of milk and a bite of something."

"Ye see now!" cried Duncan in disgust. "Ye'll start on that seven-mile
tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?"

"You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest
hearts of any people that's living," answered Freckles.

Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.

Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.

Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
repeated the conversation verbatim, ending: "And nae matter what happens
now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles
hasna guarded faithful as ony man could."

"I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad," answered
McLean.

Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their com