trive new concoctions. Het kept boarders long enough to
git stingy, an' I told my wife to turn over a new leaf for a change. I
driv' a fat chicken in a fence-corner just now, and held its legs while
she chopped its spout off. She knows how to fry 'em, an' if she kin see
well enough to pick the pin-feathers off it will be all right. I'd put
her biscuits agin any ever baked."

After a really enjoyable supper Henley went out under the trees to get
the fresh air which, in invigorating gusts, swept up the valley along
the mountain-range. He told himself that his reason for wandering down
toward his barn was to avoid meeting Wrinkle, who he knew would soon
appear from the kitchen, where he was helping his wife wash the dishes.
He was aware, of course, that Dixie Hart's cow-lot adjoined his
stable-yard, and he knew that it was the hour at which she went to
milk, and yet he would not have admitted that he strolled thither in
the hope of meeting her, but, nevertheless, he went.

He saw her entering the lot-gate, a bright tin pail in her hand, and he
shielded himself with a jutting corner of his wagon-shed and watched her
graceful approach through the dusk. He saw her get the tub of cow's food
from the crib and give it to the animal, and then he heard her scream
out, and, following her startled eyes, he saw that, having failed to
close the gate behind her, the cow's calf had entered and was rushing to
its mother. With an ejaculation of impatience Dixie threw her arms about
the calf's neck and tried to pull it from the cow's bag, but it was of
no avail. The strong young beast would wriggle from her clutch and dart
back to its supper.

"Oh, you brat, you are stealing all the milk!" Dixie cried. She picked
up a dried corn-stalk, and with it belabored the sleek, brown back of
the calf, but she might as well have used an ostrich-plume for all the
effect it had on the hungry animal.

It was then that Henley, laughing heartily, sprang over the fence and
came to her assistance.

"Let me have the little scamp," he said. And he bent down and took the
squirming beast into his strong arms and lifted it bodily from the
ground. "Now, where do you want him put?" he asked, as he stood swaying
back and forth in his effort to control the wriggling prisoner.

"Over the fence!" she cried, and stood panting in admiration of his cool
skill and strength as he walked to the fence and dropped the calf on the
other side. He then fastened the gate an