The words
hardly took on the form of a suave request: they were uttered in too
earnest, grave, and intent a tone.

I had dismissed my school for the day. The roar of the young lions just
released from bondage had not died away when George Olver entered the
school-room, closed the door behind him, and stood in a manly and
self-reliant attitude, his hat in his hand.

"No, ma'am," he said, in answer to some gesture of mine; "I'll be much
obleeged if _you'll_ set down in the chair."

"There's times, teacher," he then went on, gravely and steadily; "when
ordinary friends, like you and me, meetin' each other in the road, or in
a neighbor's house, maybe, we say, 'How d'ye do?' or 'It's a pleasant
day,' or the like o' that, and all well and good. It's a fair
understandin', and enough said 'twixt you and me: and then ag'in, there's
times when the wind blows up rough, as ye might say, and oncommon dark,
and some harm a befallin' of us, when we git closter together and more a
dependin' on each other, and then them old words ain't o' much account to
us, but to speak out different what need be without fear or shame."

"Yes," I said, much impressed by George Olver's manner. He was held
somewhat in awe among the Wallencampers, and regarded generally as a
"close-mouthed" fellow.

"I hear," he resumed; "that Dave Rollin has been down this way ag'in.
They say it was lucky for him I wasn't to home that day; maybe so. Ef
he'd a turned up suddenly in my path--I can't say--I might 'a' trod on
him. I never done anythin' like that for the fun on't. I'd rather go
round one any time than step on't, but if I'd a come on him so,
onexpected, I can't say for what might 'a' been the consequences. Wall,
he comes down here, and he goes to her with money! Her, that ain't used
to all the devilish ways o' the world, nor as fine clo's as some, but
that's got a lady's heart in her, for all that; and she told him--I know
just how she said it, in that quiet way she's had along lately--that it
was the last thing he could do to hurt her--but he'd made a mistake if he
thought she could take that.

"So, then, as I've heered, he went to her father, a tryin' to make it
appear, as nigh as I can make out, that he'd got suthin' in the shape of
a conscience that he wanted to whiten over a little more to his own
satisfaction afore he went away.

"Wall, Bede and his daughter used to be called about one piece for
temper, though I don't reckon that temper's lackin