told the boy that he had hit very near to the mark. Nehemiah
hardly waited for it to subside before he made an effort to divert
Leander's attention.

"An' what _air you-uns_ doin' hyar?" he demanded. "Tit for tat."

"Why," bluffly declared Leander, "I be a-runnin' away from you-uns. An'
I 'lowed the still war one place whar I'd be sure o' not meetin' ye.
Not ez I hev got ennything agin moonshinin' nuther," he added, hastily,
mindful of a seeming reflection on his refuge. "Moonshinin' _is
business_, though the United States don't seem ter know it. But I hev
hearn ye carry on so pious 'bout not lookin' on the wine whenst it be
red, that I 'lowed ye wouldn't like ter look on the still whenst--whenst
it's yaller." He pointed with a burst of callow merriment at the big
copper vessel, and once more the easily excited mirth of the circle
burst forth irrepressibly.

Encouraged by this applause, Leander resumed: "Why, _I_ even turns
my back on the still myself out'n respec' ter the family--Cap'n an'
Neighbor bein' so set agin liquor. Cap'n's ekal ter preachin' on it
ef ennything onexpected war ter happen ter Brother Vickers. An' when I
_hev_ ter view it, I look at it sorter cross-eyed." The flickering
line of light from the crevice of the furnace door showed that he
was squinting frightfully, with the much-admired eyes his mother had
bequeathed to him, at the rotund shadow, with the yellow gleams of the
metal barely suggested in the brown dusk. "So I tuk ter workin' at the
mill. An' _I_ hev got nuthin' ter do with the still." There was a pause.
Then, with a strained tone of appeal in his voice, for a future
with Uncle Nehe-miah had seemed very terrible to him, "So ye warn't
a-sarchin' hyar fur me, war ye, Uncle Nehemiah?"

Nehemiah was at a loss. There is a peculiar glutinous quality in
the resolve of a certain type of character which is not allied to
steadfastness of purpose, nor has it the enlightened persistence of
obstinacy. In view of his earlier account of his purpose he could not
avow his errand; it bereft him of naught to disavow it, for Uncle
Nehemiah was one of those gifted people who, in common parlance, do not
mind what they say. Yet his reluctance to assure Lean-der that he was
not the quarry that had led him into these wilds so mastered him, the
spurious relinquishment had so the aspect of renunciation, that he
hesitated, started to speak, again hesitated, so palpably that Hilary
Tarbetts felt impelled to take