has been discovered breaking the
law."

This time it was Frederick who flushed--it suddenly dawned upon him that
he was going to the court simply to see the squatter girl again. He
explained his embarrassment by exclaiming:

"Poor little soul! She is the loneliest child in the world. I wish we
could do something for her!"

"Father wouldn't let us," put in Teola in dismay; "then, too, I don't
know what we could do for a squatter."

"Neither do I, that's the problem," finished Frederick, and after he was
gone Teola mused long with Dan Jordan in her mind.

* * * * *

At the break of the first day of the Skinner trial, smoke could be seen
curling up from the chimney of Tessibel's hut. A candle stood in the
window, flickering its smoky flame toward the light streaks in the east.
From the lighthouse to the ragged rocks the lake was covered with the
ice and snow of an early winter. Beyond, the little waves curled up and
washed over the frozen masses, adhering here and there, making an icy
fringe along the edge. Flocks of wild ducks fluttered close to the lake
surface, filling the morning air with discordant quacking.

Tessibel had not forgotten that her father was to be brought that day
before his accusers,--she had made elaborate preparations for the
reception of her dear one, when he should be free to return to her. She
would stay in the shanty during the trial--and pray.

Daddy was playing a part in a most agonizing drama--he and the student
and herself were the principals--while a few others, their enemies, made
the background.

... When the curtain fell Tessibel would bring "Daddy" home to the
hut--and it was for this that she was preparing.

The bed had been dragged from the wall, and the squatter girl was
sweeping out the dust of ages which settled again upon the coats and
among the webby meshes of the net now dry and shrunken from disuse. One
leg was missing from the stove, but three red bricks shoved under the
side did the work of the broken part; the ancient frying pan with
patches of grease upon it suspended itself from a newly driven nail in
the wall.

Tess had learned many things since her father's imprisonment--had
learned that a girl of fifteen couldn't run barefooted in the open with
impunity. She had found a pair of Daddy's old cast-off boots, tied rags
about her feet, and clambered into them.

How like a woman she felt with covered legs! True, the water gushed in