the strange words
used by the girl from time to time. Yes, there _had_ a change taken
place; things were never going to be the same as they had been in the
past. Accident had opened the eyes of the old mountaineer, and he had
discovered a way to make money, with the Government for, not against
him.

"W'y, yuh see," he began, rather clumsily; when Polly took the words
from his mouth, being so full of the subject that she just could not
hold in.

"He used ter make up a kind o' medicine w'enever we gut ther shakes, an'
it did the bizness the slickest yuh ever did see, suh," she started to
say. "Thar was a man as kim erlong heah, an' heerd 'bout hit. So he sez
as how he'd like ter take a bottle erlong, and hev it tested. W'ich they
done, an' writ as how it was sich a wonder thet p'raps dad, he cud
supply ther trade. An' on'y yist'day he done gits a letter, suh, as
binds ther bargain. Old Phin, he ain't agwine tuh make moonshine no
moah. We's ameanin' tuh go tuh town, jest as soon's we heahs from ther
people in Washington, as these drug men hes gone ter see. Yuh know hit
wudn't be nice if they sot on my dad as soon as he showed up, an' locked
him in prison, 'case as how he use ter make mounting dew on ther sly."

Crudely expressed as it was, Thad understood the whole story now. It
fairly took his breath away, it was so strange. To think of this gaunt
old mountaineer having discovered a medicine that was going to prove as
great a benefit to mankind as the stuff he had been hitherto
manufacturing was a curse! It was almost too wonderful for belief.

"Do you mean that the gentlemen who mean to handle the product of your
Still in the future are trying to get the authorities to wipe all the
past off the slate, and let your father start fresh?" asked Mr. Quail.

"Thems erbout hit, suh," Polly replied, nodding her head. "Hand we-uns
'spect ter live in town arter this, whar p'raps I kin wear a hat, an'
hev sum shoes as hain't big ernuff fur a man, an' git some larnin' in
school. Soon's as we knows, we reckons on movin'."

"And Phin Dady, perhaps I might be of assistance to you down at
Washington, once I get to a barber, and look something respectable,"
said the late prisoner.

"D'ye mean thet ye don't hold no grudge agin me foh what I done tuh ye?"
demanded the old moonshiner, evidently surprised.

"That's just what I mean," replied the other, heartily. "Outside of
keeping me a prisoner, and even that was partly my fault, y