up the fight for the paper, the editor bein' in Springfield, and
Dutchie not carin' what was printed. Mitch called 'em human wind-mills;
and when the paper came out, everybody in town began to laugh and the
papers sold like hot cakes. Mr. Wilkinson was in Springfield and had
nothin' to do with it; but Whistlin' Dick thought Mr. Wilkinson had
wrote the piece and put it in. So he kept goin' to the depot waitin' for
Mr. Wilkinson to get off the train from Springfield. When he did, which
was in a day or two, he went right up to Mr. Wilkinson and hit him, and
then proceeded to lick him until he had enough, and got up and ran;
though he was sayin' all the time that he didn't write the piece and
didn't know nothin' about it. Then Mr. Wilkinson came to the office and
read the piece and Dutchie told him that Mitch wrote it. And that ended
Mitch as an editor. He was afraid to go back to the office anyway, in
addition to bein' fired.

CHAPTER XXVII

Mitch was now a changed boy and every one could see it. He didn't come
around as much as he used to. At first Mr. Miller set him to work to
learn the printer's trade as I have told. That kept him away from me;
but after he lost the job, still I didn't see him like I used to. I
looked him up a good deal, but he was mostly quiet. He didn't want to
fish, or to swim, or to go out to the farm--he just read, Shakespeare
and other books; lying in the grass by his house. And he wouldn't come
down to see me much, because he said it made him think of Little Billie.
And Zueline had gone away with her mother, they said to Springfield; and
if she'd been home, Mitch couldn't have seen her anyway. I was terrible
lonesome without Mitch and the days dragged, and I kept hearin' of him
bein' off with Charley King and George Heigold and it worried me.

Harold Carman had been put in jail, and then let out on bond, which held
him to testify in the Rainey case. And one day Mitch came to me and
says: "I'm really caught in this law. I've been to see your pa. I
thought I'd told my story once and that would do; but he says there'll
be a new jury that never has heard about the case or what I know; and
I'll have to tell it all over again. And with Harold Carman to tell
about their tryin' to get him to say he found a pistol, and my story,
they can convict Temple Scott. So I'm caught; and if we had ever so much
to do, and ever so much treasure to find, or trips to take, I'd have to
put it aside for this h