yer was clean, than have yer livin'
in a king's palace, foul."

It was a thrilling speech dramatically delivered.

"And you'll keep my secret, boys? Tell them to, father."

"We will," they answered, without waiting for their father's command,
and speaking earnestly, as if they took an oath.

From downstairs came a rattling of the stove doors. Gret, unconscious of
the dramatic incident upstairs, was getting breakfast. She did not
wonder why Peter had called his sons. She was not inquisitive, not
officious, but sympathetic and helpful.

"I must tell one woman," Lizzi said, "for I can't bear to have all my
sex have a bad opinion of me. So I'll tell Gret Reed. Levi, you go down
and help her a minute, while I tidy up a bit."

Gret had breakfast on the table when Lizzi came downstairs, and the
hungry brothers had taken their seats. Peter stood at the foot of the
table. Gret was at Lizzi's accustomed place; the mother's chair at the
head of the table was vacant. Lizzi went to Gret: "You take mother's
place."

"No, Lizzi, that is your seat now. I will sit where you used to."

Gret would not yield to Lizzi's urgent request.

"Then," said Lizzi, "I can't sit there till you read that and know I
don't shame my mother's place."

"Why, Lizzi!" Gret began in protest, but Lizzi interrupted:

"Read it; you have trusted me, and I'll trust you."

Gret took the marriage-certificate, read it, and returned it without a
word. A soft smile was the only indication of joy at Lizzi's
vindication.

"I have good reason for wantin' nobody else to know it' Gret. Now sit
down to breakfast."

CHAPTER XIII.

AN OATH.

"It's not worth the paper it's written on, except to show us our sister
is pure."

Levi addressed his father and brothers in the school-room on the Sunday
following his mother's funeral. He referred to the marriage-certificate
which Lizzi guarded so carefully.

Hunch Blair lay close to the floor, under a desk which protected him
from discovery. During the day he had heard Levi tell Cassi to come to
the school-house in the evening. Suspecting something interesting, he
got there before the McAnays.

"It's no good, I say," Levi continued, "and there's nothing left for us
to do but bring the sneak back and have Parson Lawrence marry him and
Lizzi. And if he won't come, why, settle with him, that's all."

"Yes, tar and feather and then burn him," suggested Matthi as his idea
of settlement.

"No, lynch him," Cassi