better'n that?
What do you mean by going and being so bad, just 'cause I'm crippled and
can't look after yer? Would you grow up to be a thief, child?"

The old woman's strength failed her, and she fell back on the couch. The
girl stood for a moment, silent, the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"But you said 'twas all ours, anyway, gran'," she sobbed. "Will I have
to go to prison, do you think?"

"Nonsense!" cried Grannie Thornton. "But if Ellison found it out--"

Bess Thornton was darting out of the doorway.

"He'll find it out now," she said, bitterly. "I'll tell him. I don't
care what happens to me."

Benjamin Ellison, James Ellison's nephew, a heavy-set, large-boned,
clumsily-built youth, lounged lazily in the dooryard of the Ellison
homestead as the girl neared the gate, a quarter of an hour later.

"Hello, Tomboy," he said, barring her entrance, with arms outstretched.
"Don't know as I'll let you in this way. Let's see you jump the fence.
Say, what's the matter with you? Ho! ho! Why, you look like that cat I
dropped in the brook yesterday. You've got a ducking, somehow. Your
clothes aren't all dry yet. Who--?"

The youth's bantering was most unexpectedly interrupted. He himself
didn't know exactly how it happened. He only knew that the girl had
darted suddenly forward, that he had been neatly tripped, and that he
found himself lying on his back in a clump of burdocks.

"Here, you beggar!" he cried, spitefully, scrambling to his feet and
making after her. "You'll get another ducking for that."

But the girl, as though knowing human nature, instinctively ran close
beside another youth, of about the same size as Benjamin, who had just
appeared from the house, caught him by an arm and said, "Don't let him
hurt me, will you, John? I tripped him up. Oh, but you ought to have
seen him!"

Her errand was forgotten for an instant and she laughed a merry laugh.

The boy thus appealed to, a youth of about his cousin's size, but of a
less heavy mould, stood between her and the other.

"You go on, Bennie," he said, laughing. "Let her alone. Oh ho, that's
rich! Put poor old Bennie on his back, did you, Bess? What do you want?"

The girl's mirth vanished, and her face flushed.

"I want to see your father," she said, slowly.

"All right, go in the door there," responded John Ellison. "He's all
alone in the dining-room."

Farmer Ellison, finishing his third cup of coffee, and leaning back in
his chair, looked up i