otato-patch. It broke my fall, but it was very stiff, scratchy brush,
and when I got out I felt as if I had been in an argument with Mr.
Wildcat. I was limping, too, and afraid I was injured internally, for I
didn't feel hungry, which is always a bad sign. I was taking on a good
deal, and making some noise, I suppose, for when I got to the shop and
was going to drag myself up to bed, I heard Aunt Melissy's voice call
out the window:

"'What's the matter with you out there? What have you been doing?' And
then all at once she gave a howl, for she was in Minty Glenwood's room,
and had suddenly discovered that Cousin Minty wasn't in her bed, and
hadn't been in it that night. About five seconds later she came tearing
out there in the moonlight and grabbed me and says:

"'What does this mean?' she says. 'Where's your Cousin Minty Glenwood
and that hired creature, Winters?'

"I could tell from Aunt Melissy's looks and voice that it was not a good
time to tell it just as it was. I said I had done all I could to save
Minty Glenwood from sorrow, but I had been bruised and scratched in the
attempt, and she could see herself that I was bleeding in as many as
fifty places and could hardly walk. Very likely, I said, I would not
live long enough to tell all the tale, and that I didn't know which way
those two fierce young people had gone, which was true enough.

[Illustration: "HE LAUGHED MORE THAN I EVER SAW HIM LAUGH AT ANYTHING"]

"Then Uncle Silas came out and pretended to be very mad, too, and said
it was a shame the way I had been treated. As for Minty Glenwood, she
was not worth hunting for, and he would disown her from that moment,
though I knew he was as glad as he could be that it happened, and had
a pretty good idea I had something to do with it. Aunt Melissy she
stormed and carried on, and said her family was ruined and that she was
going back to her folks; but she had got more peaceful-like by morning,
and put some poultices and bandages on me, and said she didn't see how
in time that little, spindly hired man and a mere girl could get a big,
strong fellow like me into such a state, though, she said, of course
Minty was a Glenwood and the Glenwoods were always fighters. Then she
took me back to the tree, and gave me Minty Glenwood's room; and when
she was out Uncle Silas came to sit with me, and I told him all about
it, and he laughed more than I ever saw him laugh at anything,
especially when I told about how I went