u do."

"That's what I say," piped Jim Cal's reedy voice from the interior. "Is
it true that you've done made up the Shalliday fuss over that thar cow,
Creed? I thort a jestice of the peace was to he'p folks have fusses,
place o' settlin' 'em up."

"That's what everybody seems to think," replied Creed rather dolefully.
"I can't say I'm very proud of my part in the Shalliday matter. It seemed
to be mighty hard on the widow; but the law was on her brother-in-law's
side; so I gave my decision in favour of Bill Shalliday, and paid the
woman for the cow. And now they're both mad at me."

Old Jephthah narrowed his eyes and chuckled in luxurious enjoyment of the
situation.

"To be shore they air. To be shore they air," he repeated with unction.
"Ain't you done a favour to the both of 'em? Is they anything a man will
hate you worse for than a favour? If they is I ain't met up with it
yet."

"That's what I say," iterated Jim Cal. "What's the use o' tryin' to he'p
folks to law and order when they don't want it, and you've got to buy 'em
to behave? When you git to be a married man with chaps, like me, you'll
keep yo' money in yo' breeches pocket and let other folks fix it up
amongst themselves about their cows an' sech."

"I had hoped to get a chance to do something that amounted to more than
settling small family fusses," Creed said in a discouraged tone. "I hoped
to have the opportunity to talk to many a gathering of our folks about
the desirability of good citizenship in a general way. This thing of
blockaded stills keeps us forever torn up with a bad name in the valley
and the settlement."

Old Jephthah stirred not a hair; Jim Cal sat just as he had; yet the two
were indefinably changed the moment the words "blockaded still" were
uttered.

"Do you know of any sech? Air ye aimin' to find out about em?" quavered
the fat man finally, and his father looked scornfully at him, and the
revelation of his terror.

"No. I don't mean it in that personal way," Creed answered impatiently.
"Mr. Turrentine, I wish you'd tell me what you think about it. You've
lived all your life in the mountains; you're a man of judgment--is there
any way to show our people the folly as well as the crime of illicit
distilling?"

Jephthah surveyed with amusement the youth who came to an old moonshiner
for an opinion as to the advisability of the traffic. He liked the
audacity of it. It tickled his fancy.

"Well sir," he said finally, "the guv'm