started for home alone and she followed alone. He
had never made any effort to speak to her alone, nor did he venture the
courting pleasantries of other men. Only in his telltale eyes was his
silent story plain, and she knew it better than if he had put it into
words. In spite of her certainty, however, she was a little resentful
that Sunday morning, for his slender figure climbed doggedly ahead, and
suddenly she sat down that he might get entirely out of her sight.

She got down on her hands and knees to drink from the little rain-clear
brook that tinkled across the road at the bottom of the hill, and all
at once lifted her head like a wild thing. Some one was coming down the
hill--coming at a dog-trot. A moment later her name was called, and it
was the voice of a stranger. She knew it was Jay Dawn, for she had heard
of him--had heard of his boast that he would keep company with her--and
she kept swiftly on. Again and again he called, but she paid no heed.
She glared at him fiercely when he caught up with her--and stopped.
He stopped. She walked on and he walked on. He caught her by the arm
when she stopped again, and she threw off his hold with a force that
wheeled him half around, and started off on a run. She stooped when
she next heard him close to her and whirled, with a stone in her hand.

"Go 'way!" she panted. "I'll brain ye!" He laughed, but he came no nearer.

"All right," he said, as though giving up the chase, but when she turned
the next spur there Jay was waiting for her by the side of the road.

"How-dye," he grinned. Three times he cut across ledge and spur and gave
her a grinning how-dye. The third time she was ready for him and she let
fly. The first stone whistled past his head with astonishing speed. The
second he dodged and the third caught him between the shoulders as he
leaped for a tree with an oath and a yell. And there she left him,
swearing horribly and frankly at her.

Jay Dawn did not go back to logging that week. Report was that he had
gone to "courtin' an' throwin' rocks at woodpeckers." Both statements
were true, but Jay was courting at long range. He hung about her house
a great deal. Going to mill, looking for her cow, to and fro from the
mission, Allaphair never failed to see Jay Dawn. He always spoke and he
never got answer. He always grinned, but his eye was threatening. To the
school-teacher he soon began to give special notice, for that was what
Allaphair seemed to be doing he