humorously looking out upon the
coach. "There's no time like the present," he added, "so I begin work
to-day."

Jack Hicks silently stared up at him for a moment; then he coughed and
exclaimed hoarsely:--

"The jedgment ain't fur off," but Dan laughed the prophecy aside and went
upstairs to write to Betty.

"I've got a job, Big Abel," he began, going into his room, where the negro
was pressing a pair of trousers with a flatiron, "and what's more it will
keep me till I get another."

Big Abel gloomily shook his head. "We all 'ud des better go 'long home ter
Ole Miss," he returned, for he was in no mood for compromises. "Caze I ain'
use ter de po' w'ite trash en dey ain' use ter me."

"Go if you want to," retorted Dan, sternly, "but you go alone," and the
negro, protesting under his breath, laid the clothes away and went down to
his breakfast.

Dan sat down by the window and wrote a letter to Betty which he never sent.
When he thought of her now it was as if half the world instead of ten miles
lay between them; and quickly as he would have resented the hint of it from
Jack Hicks, to himself he admitted that he was fast sinking where Betty
could not follow him. What would the end be? he asked, and disheartened
by the question, tore the paper into bits and walked moodily up and down
the room. He had lived so blithely until to-day! His lines had fallen so
smoothly in the pleasant places! Not without a grim humour he remembered
now that last year his grievance had been that his tailor failed to fit
him. Last year he had walked the floor in a rage because of a wrinkled
coat, and to-day-- His road had gone rough so suddenly that he stumbled
like a blind man when he tried to go over it in his old buoyant manner.

An hour later he was still pacing restlessly to and fro, when the door
softly opened and Mrs. Hicks looked in upon him with a deprecating smile.
As she lingered on the threshold, he stopped in the middle of the room and
threw her a sharp glance over his shoulder.

"Is there anything you wish?" he questioned irritably.

Shaking her head, she came slowly toward him and stood in her soiled
wrapper and curl papers, where the gray light from the latticed window fell
full upon her.

"It ain't nothin'," she answered hurriedly. "Nothin' except Jack's been
tellin' me you're in trouble, Mr. Dan."

"Then he has been telling you something that concerns nobody but myself,"
he replied coolly, and continued his walking.