ng
Tessibel's face upward. Then Deforrest Young grappled with him, and in
the one blow he landed under the squatter's chin, the angry lawyer
concentrated the vim of years of exasperated waiting. Sandy slumped to
the floor. Kneeling beside him, Young's leg pressed against something
round and hard in Letts' pocket.

A quick investigation brought forth a small revolver.

"Are you hurt, child?" he inquired, getting up. "Did he hurt you?"

"Not a bit, Uncle Forrie, but he scared me awful."

The prostrate man groaned, moved his limbs and sat up, slowly. He
glanced around as though trying to figure out what'd happened. The sight
of Young, holding the gun Waldstricker's money bought, told Sandy the
whole story of his downfall.

"Get up, Letts, and get out of here quick!" Young ordered, prodding him
with his foot.

Sandy scrambled to his feet unsteadily.

"Now, take your hat and get out," said Young, "and don't stay in Ithaca,
or I'll have you locked up again."

Sandy didn't wait for any further advice. He grabbed his hat and flung
out of the door. Deforrest followed him down through the pear orchard to
the lane, and there he stood for a long time watching the ex-convict
struggle up the hill to the railroad tracks.

When he returned to Tess he found her leaning on the table, her face
buried in her hands. She did not lift her head, nor make a move at
Deforrest's entrance.

"Child," he said, taking a chair at her side, "Letts won't bother you
any more. If he doesn't go away, I shall have him arrested tomorrow....
I won't have you insulted like this.... And, dear, I believe I'd better
send you and the boy away for a spell. A change will do you both good."

"Yes, yes, do!" pleaded Tess. She snatched his hand and pressed it to
her cheek hysterically. "Let me go somewhere, please!"

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE SINS OF THE PARENTS

A few days after Sandy's tempestuous courting, Tessibel Skinner and her
son left Ithaca to spend the remaining part of the summer in the North
Woods. In September Young joined them for a few days and then brought
them back to the hillside above Cayuga Lake.

Later in the fall, when the cold winds and driving rains of the lake
began to find out the cracks in the shanties, Tessibel asked, and the
lawyer consented, that old Mother Moll come from Brewer's to them. Tess
gave her one of Andy's rooms. The dwarf had entered a school on College
Hill and lived in the city most of the time, but was