--not in particular! If he's
turned at all, lately, I reckon it's in his grave, and I'll bet he HAS
if he had any way of hearin' how much she must of spent for clothes!"

"I believe," Squire Buckalew began, "that young folks' memories are
short."

"They're lucky!" interjected Eskew. "The shorter your memory the less
meanness you know."

"I meant young folks don't remember as well as older people do,"
continued the Squire. "I don't see what's so remarkable in her comin'
back and walkin' up-street with Joe Louden. She used to go kitin'
round with him all the time, before she left here. And yet everybody
talks as if they never HEARD of sech a thing!"

"It seems to me," said Colonel Flitcroft, hesitatingly, "that she did
right. I know it sounds kind of a queer thing to say, and I stirred up
a good deal of opposition at home, yesterday evening, by sort of
mentioning something of the kind. Nobody seemed to agree with me,
except Norbert, and he didn't SAY much, but--"

He was interrupted by an uncontrollable cackle which issued from the
mouth of Mr. Arp. The Colonel turned upon him with a frown, inquiring
the cause of his mirth.

"It put me in mind," Mr. Arp began promptly, "of something that
happened last night."

"What was it?"

Eskew's mouth was open to tell, but he remembered, just in time, that
the grandfather of Norbert was not the audience properly to be selected
for this recital, choked a half-born word, coughed loudly, realizing
that he must withhold the story of the felling of Martin Pike until the
Colonel had taken his departure, and replied:

"Nothin' to speak of. Go on with your argument."

"I've finished," said the Colonel. "I only wanted to say that it seems
to me a good action for a young lady like that to come back here and
stick to her old friend and playmate."

"STICK to him!" echoed Mr. Arp. "She walked up Main Street with him
yesterday. Do you call that stickin' to him? She's been away a good
while; she's forgotten what Canaan IS. You wait till she sees for
herself jest what his standing in this com--"

"I agree with Eskew for once," interrupted Peter Bradbury. "I agree
because--"

"Then you better wait," cried Eskew, allowing him to proceed no
farther, "till you hear what you're agreein' to! I say: you take a
young lady like that, pretty and rich and all cultured up, and it
stands to reason that she won't--"

"No, it don't," exclaimed Buckalew, impatiently. "Nothing of t