er boys, Ole and Helge, rode, one behind the other, on
one horse, a flea-bitten gray with an enlarged knee and a habit of
traveling with its neck craned to the left. Christian, the leader of
the revolt, considered himself well-mounted on a pot-bellied bay that
could still be used to round up cattle, if the drive was not more than
a couple of miles. Looking after them from the window that faced the
corral, Tom could not wonder that they were anxious to start early.

"You better let the rest go, too," he advised the perturbed teacher,
looking out at the four Boyle children huddled in the shelter of the
shack, the skirts of the girl whipping in the wind like a pillowslip
on a clothesline in a gale. "There ain't any sense trying to teach
school in a place like this, in such weather. Don't you know them kids
have got all of twelve miles to ride, facing this wind most of the
way? And you've got to ride five miles; and when the sun drops it's
going to be raw enough to put icicles on your ribs under the skin.
Tell 'em to go home. Pore little devils, I wouldn't ask a cow-critter
to face this wind after sundown."

"You do not understand that I must have discipline in this school, Mr.
Lorrigan. To-morrow I shall have to punish those Swedes for leaving
school without permission. I shall make an example of Christian, for
his impudence. I do not think he will want to disobey me again, very
soon!" Mary Hope took her handkerchief from her pocket, refusing to
consider for one moment the significance of its flapping in the wind
while the windows and doors were closed.

"You're just plain stubborn," Tom said bluntly. "You've no business
hanging out in a place like this!"

"I've the business of teaching school, Mr. Lorrigan. I suppose that is
as important to me as your business is to you. And I can't permit my
pupils to rebel against my authority. You would not let your men
dictate to you, would you?"

"They would have a right to call for their time if I asked them to do
some damfool thing like sitting in this shack with the wind blowing
through it at forty miles an hour."

"I am sorry, Mr. Lorrigan, that I must remind you that gentlemen do
not indulge in profanity before a lady."

"Oh, hell! What have I said that was outa the way? I wasn't cussing; I
was telling you what your father and mother ought to tell you, and
what they would if they didn't think more of a few dollars than they
do of their kid's health. But I don't reckon it