shoot one or two--from the tops of the ridges--but nothing to depend on."

"I've never been nowhere," said Newton, "except once to
Minnesota--and--and that wasn't in the shooting season."

A year ago Newton would have boasted of having "bummed" his way to
Faribault. His hesitant speech was a proof of the embarrassment his new
respectability sometimes inflicted upon him.

"I used to shoot ducks for the market at Spirit Lake," said Pete. "I know
Fred Gilbert just as well as I know you. If I'd 'a' kep' on shooting I
could have made my millions as champion wing shot as easy as he has. He
didn't have nothing on me when we was both shooting for a livin'. But
that's all over, now. You've got to go so fur now to get decent shooting
where the farmers won't drive you off, that it costs nine dollars to send
a postcard home."

"I think we'll have fine shooting on the slew in a few days," said
Newton.

"Humph!" scoffed Pete. "I give you my word, if I hadn't promised the
colonel I'd stay with him another year, I'd take a side-door Pullman for
the Sand Hills of Nebraska or the Devil's Lake country to-morrow--if I had
a gun."

"If it wasn't for a passel of things that keep me hyeh," said Raymond,
"I'd like to go too."

"The colonel," said Pete, "needs me. He needs me in the election
to-morrow. What's the matter of your ol' man, Newt? What for does he vote
for that Bonner, and throw down an old neighbor?"

"I can't do anything with him!" exclaimed Newton irritably. "He's all
tangled up with Peterson and Bonner."

"Well," said Pete, "if he'd just stay at home, it would help some. If he
votes for Bonner, it'll be just about a stand-off."

"He never misses a vote!" said Newton despairingly.

"Can't you cripple him someway?" asked Pete jocularly. "Darned funny when
a boy o' your age can't control his father's vote! So long!"

"I wish I _could_ vote!" grumbled Newton. "I wish I _could_! We know a lot
more about the school, and Jim Irwin bein' a good teacher than dad
does--and we can't vote. Why can't folks vote when they are interested in
an election, and know about the issues. It's tyranny that you and I can't
vote."

"I reckon," said Raymond, the conservative, "that the old-time people that
fixed it thataway knowed best."

"Rats!" sneered Newton, the iconoclast. "Why, Calista knows more about the
election of school director than dad knows."

"That don't seem reasonable," protested Raymond. "She's prejudyced, I
reckon,