or looking after you. Don't she make
you work like a hired girl, and pay you nothin' for it? You work all the
time--she'd have to pay a hired girl good wages for what you do, and
treat her decently, beside. You're so nice that everyone picks on you,
just 'cause they know they can do it and you won't hit back."

Glad of a chance to rest a little, Bessie had stopped her work to talk
to Zara, and neither of the two girls heard a stealthy rustling among
the leaves back of the woodshed, nor saw a grinning face that appeared
around the corner. The first warning that they had that they were not
alone came when a long arm reached out suddenly and a skinny, powerful
hand grasped Zara's arm and dragged her from her perch.

"Caught ye this time, ain't I?" said the owner of the hand and arm,
appearing from around the corner of the shed. "My, but Maw'll pickle yer
when she gits hold of yer!"

"Jake Hoover!" exclaimed Bessie, indignantly. "You big sneak, you! Let
her go this instant! Aren't you ashamed of yourself, hurtin' her like
that?"

Zara, caught off her guard, had soon collected herself, and begun to
struggle in his grasp like the wild thing she was. But Jake Hoover only
laughed, leering at the two girls. He was a tall, lanky, overgrown boy
of seventeen, and he was enjoying himself thoroughly. He seemed to have
inherited all his mother's meanness of disposition and readiness to find
fault and to take delight in the unhappiness of others. Now, as Zara
struggled, he twisted her wrist to make her stop, and only laughed at
her cries of pain.

"Let her go! She isn't hurting you!" begged Bessie. "Please, Jake, if
you do, I'll help you do your chores to-night--I will, indeed!"

"You'll have to do 'em anyhow," said Jake, still holding poor Zara.
"I've got a dreadful headache. I'm too sick to do any work to-night."

He made a face that he thought was comical. Zara, realizing that she was
helpless against his greater strength, had stopped struggling, and he
turned on her suddenly with a vicious glare.

"I know why you're hangin' 'round here," he said. "They took that
worthless critter you call your paw off to jail jest now--and you're
tryin' to steal chickens till he comes out."

"That ain't true!" she exclaimed. "My father never stole anything.
They're just picking on him because he's a foreigner and can't talk as
well as some of them--"

"They've locked him up, anyhow," said Jake. "An' now I'm goin' to lock
you up, too, an