g
the past two years. Teola's face dropped as she heard Frederick's
halting answer.

"I know better," she retorted decidedly. "You have been having words
with father."

"No, not words," replied the boy, "but you see father thinks that no one
can have any ideas but himself. It sort of makes me tired, for sometimes
I know when a thing is right or wrong."

"What was the matter?" insisted Teola once more.

"The Skinners," replied Frederick slowly.

"You mean the squatters?"

"Yes."

"Aren't they alright where they are?" hesitated Teola.

"Skinner killed the gamekeeper to-night, and the girl is alone in the
shanty. Father doesn't seem to realize that they have souls to be saved
as well as the rest of the world."

Teola thought an instant before answering.

"They are so dirty," she said at last.

"That's true," Frederick reflected, "but nevertheless they are human."

"Were you in the hut?"

"Yes, with father."

"Whew! What did he say?"

The question was answered by loud words from the minister talking to
his wife in the dining room.

"I tell you," said his voice, ringing out so that the two listeners
could hear, "those squatters have got to go. I'm not the only one who
thinks that way. If they had the instincts of decency I wouldn't say a
word, but they haven't. I say it's time to make a move."

"You know," continued the minister, "that their hut is in direct line
with our view. There's no buying them off ... I've tried that. Now that
Skinner is arrested it won't be hard to frighten the girl away, for she
can't stay there alone."

"I'm not so sure," mused Mrs. Graves; "those people are not easily
frightened."

"She's afraid of me," shouted the Dominie, "and she will be more so
before I get through with her and her father. If Skinner is hanged, she
shan't stay there."

Later there was a long discussion between the father and son upon the
rights of squatters, which ended in Frederick's going to bed before it
was half finished more disgusted and unhappy than he had ever been
before. He looked out upon the lake. The wind was still rolling the
water into white crested waves, and his eyes could scarcely outline the
small hut under the willow tree. Into the boy's life something had
come--a new something he could not explain, while out of it another
something as hard to define had gone forever.

* * * * *

Two jack rabbits perched on the tracks above the fodder lot of Mini