ola. "Mother Moll! Oh, you mean the witch? And
will she--oh, will she help me so they will never know?"

"Yep. And now shut up. Ye air a woman, and was borned for things like
this. If ye walks a spell, then I lugs ye across the gully."

"And my father and mother--"

"Shut up, I says," ordered Tess. "It ain't no time to think of fathers
and mothers. They don't know nothin' about it, does they?"

"No," said Teola. "They have been in Europe with my little sister for
nearly four months. I've been alone all summer, with Rebecca, our maid,
and Frederick, my brother--"

Her lips closed over a moan of pain, and she did not continue her
sentence.

Through the forest, over the gullies, and down toward the Skinner hut
the two girls went slowly, Teola whimpering in her agony of soul, and
Tess carrying her when she could not walk. Only once did Tessibel stop.

"Hold a minute," she said gruffly, releasing Teola. "One of the dum
thorns went clean through my toe.... It air out now.... Come along! What
does I care, if it does bleed!"

Teola drew a sigh of relief when they crept under the willow tree. The
hut was in its usual dirty condition, the Bible in the accustomed place
on the stool. The suffering girl did not notice that the table was
littered with the remains of the dinner, and Tess put her in Daddy's
bed, and said, with a compelling, forceful glance:

"Ye air to stay there till I gets back.... And remember we air a woman,
and women, when they loves men, keep their mouths shet.... Even if their
man air dead.... Ye won't let anyone hear ye a-yelpin' while I air gone,
will ye?"

"No, no! Go quickly, Tessibel," murmured Teola. "Go quickly!"

This time the briars and thorns pierced the squatter's bare feet without
avail. Tess was rushing away upon an errand of love. Was she not perhaps
saving the sister of the student from death--keeping from him a
knowledge that would rend his heart? Since that night when Daddy Skinner
had been taken to prison, Tess had but once visited Mother Moll. In her
impatience, she did not wait to reach the hut.

"Mother Moll!" she shouted, bounding across the gully. "Come out! Tess
air here!"

"Come in," commanded a cracked voice.

Tessibel entered the shanty, finding Mother Moll stretched out on the
bed, with a corn-cob pipe between her shriveled lips.

"Get up from there, Ma Moll," ordered Tess, "and come to my hut. I wants
ye."

"It air too hot," muttered the witch. "I ain't a-movin' f