ed up its loose-woven pattern of dull threads and hung trembling
over the town.

Worsting the enemy brought the people more closely together. Suddenly
they seemed to know each other for the first time. They made changes,
entered into bonds, drew lines, and settled into their ways. Life grew
quickly with its strands woven tightly together into a weaving that
would be hard to unloose.

The mill managers made money. They saw to it that their mills buzzed
away continually. They visited their homes regularly. Mr. Stillman's
farm flourished. His apple trees were bearing. The school children
understood that they could always have apples for the asking. The
Stillman boys did not go to school. They had a tutor. Their father
whipped them soundly when they disobeyed him by going to play in the
streets of the town with the other children.

Dave Fellows had finally persuaded Dick Shelton to take a Cure. Dick
Shelton sober, it was discovered, was a man of culture and knew, into
the bargain, all the points of the law. So he was made Justice of the
Peace. His wife stopped taking in washing and spent her days trying to
keep the children out of the front room where Dick tried his cases.

Dave Fellows himself gave up the principalship of the school, finding
its meagre return insufficient to meet the needs of an increasing
family. Yielding to the persuasion of Henderson, he became contractor
for taking out timber at Trout Creek Mill. He counted on his two oldest
sons to do men's work during the summer when school was not in session.
Fellows moved his family into the very house in which Henderson had
lived. Henderson explained that he had to live in town to be near a
doctor for his ailing wife and sickly girls. The millmen told Dave
Fellows that Henderson was afraid of them because they had threatened
him if he kept on overcharging them at the Company store.

Abe Cohen did a thriving business in clothing. He had a long list of
customers heavily in debt to him through the promise that they could pay
whenever they got ready. He dunned them openly on the street so that
they made a wide detour in order to avoid going past his store.

Dr. Barton had established a reputation for kindness of heart as well as
skill in practice that threatened his rival's good will. Helen Barton,
the doctor's young daughter, perversely kept company with her father's
rival. Every one felt sorry for the father but secretly admired Dr.
Smelter's diabolic tactics.