acks we'll all go to heaven in a hand-basket. Mebbe he's
right, and then agin mebbe he's wrong; but this I know, ain't anybody
goin' to jump on him in my house, and he gets a fair show when fightin'
time comes."

"Well, if he ain't standin' in with the marshal, what does he--" began
Andy's high-pitched boyish voice, when somebody called, "Good evening,"
in pleasant tones, and Bonbright himself got off a light-stepping mule,
tethered him to the fence, and came toward the cabin.

He had just returned from a meeting of the County Court at Hepzibah,
where he did good service in representing the needs of his district,
fighting hard for more money for schools--the plan heretofore had been to
let them have only their own pro rata of the school tax.

"It'll pay you a heap better to educate the mountain people than to hire
their keep in jail," he said to his fellow justices of the valley. "The
blue-backed speller is the best cure for crime in the mountains that I
know of."

He failed to get this; but he succeeded in another matter, one less near
his heart, but calculated to appeal perhaps more strongly to his
constituents; he secured the opening of a highway for which the people in
the two Turkey Tracks had struggled and prayed more than twenty years. It
was with the pride of this victory strong in him that he had set out for
Judith's play-party. The young fellow might have been pardoned a half
wistful belief that this first success was the entering wedge and would
lead swiftly to that standing with his neighbours lacking which he was
helpless. Yet the sons of the house replied but gruffly to his greeting,
and, as though his coming had been a signal, the younger group promptly
disappeared in the direction of the main cabin.

At the old man's hearty invitation, Creed seated himself on the doorstep,
while his host went in for a coal from the smouldering hearth to light
his pipe, and joined the guest a moment later.

"Well sir, and how's the law coming on these days?" inquired old Jephthah
somewhat humorously.

"I reckon it's doing pretty well," allowed Creed. "The law's all right,
Mr. Turrentine; it's what our people need; and if there comes any failure
it's bound to be in me, not in the law."

"That's right," old Jephthah commended him. "Stand up for yo' principles.
Ef you go into a thing, back it. I never could get on with these here
good-Lord-good-devil folks. I like to know whar a man's at--cain't hit
him unless 'n yo