isher-girl did not steal anything. Let
that dirty squatter come into a minister's home! No, not again, vowed
Rebecca inwardly. It was only the girl's duty to save a human being from
a fall over the rocks. Tess turned and faced the woman when they were
alone.

"I air a-comin' again," she said slyly, "and I ain't one what tells that
ye slides from the house every night to the lake with Deacon Hall's
coachman, I ain't. I has a tongue in my head, I has, but it ain't
a-waggin' 'bout no coachman and yerself."

Tess saw instantly that her point was gained. That anyone had seen her
meet the man by the light of the summer's moon had never entered
Rebecca's head for one moment.

"And I don't steal from the minister's house, nuther," assured Tess,
with a smile. "I brings ye some berries to-morry, and gives them to ye.
And ye can keep the Dominie's money for a rag of a ribbon to light the
coachman's eyes with."

She smiled again, and left Rebecca, with wide-open mouth, gaping after
the scurrying figure.

In the hut Tessibel lifted the blanket from the scarred face, and
contemplated it earnestly. She had forgotten all save the babe and the
student. She knew that the Longman brat had sugar rags--she had arranged
them herself many a time. Tearing a piece from the cloth that was
wrapped about the child, she went to the shore, and washed it clean in
the blue lake water. Filling it with bread and a liberal amount of
sugar, Tessibel soaked it in some warm milk, and put the sop-rag into
the small, gaping mouth. She must make a place for him to sleep during
his stay in the shanty. Daddy would not need all the old coats hanging
about the wall, and the blankets were longer than was necessary. From
the back of the stove the squatter dragged a small box, and turned the
splinters of wood into the fire. This, too, she washed in the lake,
setting it in the sun to dry. From one of the hooks among the rafters
she took a large-sized grape-basket, which also received its cleansing
treatment. After a bit of blanket had been cut from those on Skinner's
bed, Tess slipped the infant into the basket, to see if it were long
enough. The tiny feet did mot reach the bottom.

"Ye air to sleep many a day in it," she said aloud, "for yer legs ain't
as big as a rabbit's, and yer face ain't any beautifuller than Ma
Moll's.... But ye air a livin' and that air somethin'."

Hardly had she got the words from her lips and fitted the cover securely
before the do