t or of
question. When the girl had made an end, and sat waiting distressedly
for his verdict, he still rested mute, until the silence became more
than she could endure, and she cried out in pleading:

"Kain't ye fergive me, Gran'pap?"

Uncle Dick turned, and looked reproachfully at the distraught girl. A
great tenderness shone from the black eyes, in which age had not
dimmed the brilliance. As she saw the emotion there, a gasp of
rapturous relief broke from Plutina's lips. The stern restraints of
her training were broken down in that moment. She dropped to her knees
by the old man's side, and seized his hands, and kissed them, and
pressed them to her bosom. He released one of them presently, and laid
it gently on the dusk masses of his grandchild's hair in silent
blessing. His voice, when at last he spoke, was softer than she had
heard it ever before.

"Why, Tiny, ye mustn't be afeared o' yer ole gran'pap. I thinks a heap
o' my kin, an' ye're the clusest. I loves ye gal--more'n anythin' er
anybody else in the world, though I wouldn't want Alviry to hear thet.
I hain't mindin' what ye done none. I'd stan' by ye, Tiny, if he had
the hull cussed Gov'ment at yer back. I hain't got no likin' fer
revenuers, but I got a heap less for Dan Hodges."

He paused for a moment and lifted his hand from the girl's head to
stroke the gray beard thoughtfully, before he continued:

"I been thinkin' a right-smart lot o' things jest lately. I 'low I'm
a-gittin' old, mebby. An' I opine as 'tween the revenuers and Dan
Hodges, I hain't so much agin the Gov'ment as I was."

Again, he fell silent, as if in embarrassment over an admission so at
variance with the tenets of a lifetime. Then he spoke with sudden
briskness:

"But ye'd orter a-killed the critter then an' thar, Tiny!"

"I jest somehow couldn't, Gran'pap. I'm shore sorry." The girl felt
poignant shame for the weakness thus rebuked.

"I 'low I hain't likely to have no sech feelin's a-holdin' o' me
back," Uncle Dick remarked, drily. "Hit's my foolishness bailin' 'im
out got us in the pizen mess. I 'low I'll cancel the bond. But, fust,
I'd have to take the skunk to the jail-house, dead er alive. He'll
stan' some urgin', I reckon."

"Ye'll be keerful, Gran'pap," Plutina exclaimed anxiously, as she
stood up.

"Now, don't ye worrit none," Uncle Dick ordered, tartly. His usual
rather dictatorial manner in the household returned to him. "You-all
run along. I want to think."

T