have time to think. But when I do think it is of something
besides village gossip."

She grew suddenly earnest; leaned down to them. "You haven't time to
think of it either," she told them; "have you, men of Tinkersfield?"

Her appeal was direct, and the answer came back to her in a roar from
the men who knew courage when they saw it; who knew, indeed, innocence!

"No!"

And it was that "No" which beat Tillotson.

"The way she put it over," Atwood exulted afterward, "to a packed crowd
like this!"

"The thing about Jane"--Henry was very seriously trying to say the thing
as he saw it--"the thing about Jane is that she sees things straight.
And she makes other people see."

IX

Well, Tillotson was beaten, and the men who supported O-liver came out
of the fight feeling as if they had killed something unclean.

And the morning after the election O-liver had a little note from Jane.

"I've got to go away. I didn't want to worry you with it before this. I
have saved enough money to start in at some college where I can work for
a part of my tuition. I have had experience in my little lunch room that
ought to be a help somewhere.

"When I finish college I'm going into some sort of occupation that will
provide a pleasant home for mother and me. I want books, and lovely
things, and a garden; and I'd like to speak a language or two and have
cultured friends. Then some day when you are made President you can say
to yourself: 'I am proud of my friend, Jane.' And I'll come to your
inauguration and watch you ride to the White House, and I'll say to
myself as I see you ride, 'I've loved him all these years.'

"But I shan't let myself say it now. And that's why I'm going away. And
I'm going without saying good-bye because I think it will be easier for
both of us. You and I can't be friends. What we feel is too big. I found
that out about myself that night when you sat there on the platform, and
I wanted to save you from Tillotson. If I'm going to work and be happy
in my work I've got to get away. And you will work better because I am
gone. I mustn't be here--O-liver."

Jane had indeed seen straight. O-liver laid the note down on his desk
and looked up at the mountain. He needed to look up. If he had looked
down for a moment he would have followed Jane.

X

And now there was no sandwich stand in Tinkersfield. But there was a
good hotel. O-liver saw to that. He got Henry Bittinger to put up the
money, with To