ragged me from the creek. Something in the
gaunt man who lived among the clouds, something in the ragged creature
who lifted a smiling face and ribboned head above the weeds of that
lonely clearing, had touched me strangely. It seemed that I must be
their only friend, and for them I would tell the truth. I should have
told the truth but for Mr. Pound.

"I said, sir," I answered my father, "that James just took the bottle
and----"

"The bottle was Blight's, was it not?" broke in Mr. Pound.

"Yes, sir," I said.

It had dawned on me the afternoon before, as James and I rode home,
just what was the medicine I had taken. It was hard for me to believe
that the vilely tasting stuff was whiskey, which I had heard men drank
for pleasure, but when all doubt was removed by the exclamations of the
crowd who hovered about the prostrate man I was overwhelmed by a sense
of my own sin. Yet I had feared to confess to my mother the dose which
I had taken. It would only make her unhappy, I had told myself, and I
had tried to still my turbulent conscience with the plea that my
silence was saving others. Now simple justice demanded that I tell
everything, even to the admission of my own fault.

"Father," I cried, "the Professor didn't want James----"

"It is high time the community were rid of this man," Mr. Pound
interrupted.

"David!" said my father, and I shrank into the minister's shadow.

"And it seems to me, Squire Crumple," Mr. Pound went on, "it is clearly
your duty as a justice of the peace to act."

"Act how?" cried the astonished squire.

"Have him arrested!" replied Mr. Pound, making the dishes rattle under
the impact of his fist on the table.

At this suggestion every one forgot the dinner and sat up very
straight, staring in amazement at the bold propounder of it.

"Arrest him," exclaimed the squire, "and for what?"

"For anything that will rid the community of him," snapped Mr. Pound.
"Do you not agree with me, Judge?"

The Judge quite agreed with Mr. Pound. He admitted that until the
unfortunate occurrence of yesterday he had opposed any proceedings
which were not altogether regular in law. "And yet," he said gravely,
"it is incumbent on us to rid the community of him. We all know that
from the porch of Snyder's store he has been preaching doctrines that
are not only revolutionary but, if the ladies will pardon me, I will
call damnable. What good is it for us to have Mr. Pound in the pulpit
for o