he was yet to learn, but through some mystification an inkling
came. To be sure, everybody spoke to him as though he were a fixture in
the land. He could pass no door that somebody did not ask him to come
in and rest a spell, or stay all night. He never went by the mill that
Aunt Jane did not have a glass of buttermilk for him and Uncle Jerry did
not try to entice him in for a talk. Several times the little judge of
Happy Valley had ridden down to ask after Juno and to talk with him.
Pleasant Trouble waved his crutch from a hillside and shouted himself
at Doctor Jim's disposal for any purpose whatever. But one sunset he
had stopped at Lum Chapman's blacksmith-shop just as a big, black-haired
fellow, with a pistol buckled around him, was reeling away. The men
greeted him rather solemnly, and he felt that they wanted to say
something to him, but no one spoke. He saw Jay Dawn nod curtly to
Pleasant Trouble, who got briskly up and walked up the road with him
until they were in sight of Juno's home. For three days thereafter
Pleasant was waiting for him at the shop and walked the same space
with him. The next day Jay Dawn spoke with some embarrassment to him:

"Have you got a gun?"

"No." Jay handed forth one.

"Oh, no!" said Doctor Jim.

"Go on!" said Jay shortly; "I got another un."

"But why do I need a gun?" Jay was distinctly embarrassed.

"Well," he drawled, "thar's some purty bad fellers 'bout hyeh, an' when
they gits drunk they might do somethin'. Now that Jerry Lipps you seed
hyeh t'other day a-staggerin' off drunk--he's bad. An' you do a heap o'
travellin' alone. This ain't fer you to kill nobody but jus' kind o' to
pertect yerself."

"All right," laughed Doctor Jim. "I couldn't hit a barn--" but to humor
Jay he took the weapon, and this time Pleasant Trouble did not walk home
with him.

Later he mentioned the matter to St. Hilda, who looked very grave.

"Yes, Jerry Lipps is a bad man. He's just out of the penitentiary.
Pleasant walked home with you to protect you from him. They won't
let him do anything to you openly. And Jay gave you that gun in case
he should attack you when nobody was around."

"But what has the fellow got against me?" The teacher hesitated.

"Well, Jerry used to be in love with Juno, but she would never have
anything to do with him and he never would let her have anything to
do with anybody else. He shot one boy, and shot at another, and he
has always sworn that he would kill the