e wasn't even the boss of it; the
manager was about the meanest-lookin' human I ever saw--and most humans
look mighty mean, accordin' to my way of thinkin'! Riffraff of the
riffraff are his friends now, same as they were here. Weeds! and HE'S
a weed, always was and always will be! Him and his kind ain't any more
than jimpsons; overrun everything if you give 'em a chance.
Devil-flowers! They have to be hoed out and scattered--even then, like
as not, they'll come back next year and ruin your plantin' once more.
That boy Joe 'll turn up here again some day; you'll see if he don't.
He's a seed of trouble and iniquity, and anything of that kind is sure
to come back to Canaan!"

Mr. Arp stuck to his prediction for several months; then he began to
waver and evade. By the end of the second year following its first
utterance, he had formed the habit of denying that he had ever made it
at all, and, finally having come to believe with all his heart that the
prophecy had been deliberately foisted upon him and put in his mouth by
Squire Buckalew, became so sore upon the subject that even the hardiest
dared not refer to it in his presence.

Eskew's story of the ticket-seller was the only news of Joe Louden that
came to Canaan during seven years. Another citizen of the town
encountered the wanderer, however, but under circumstances so
susceptible to misconception that, in a moment of illumination, he
decided to let the matter rest in a golden silence. This was Mr.
Bantry.

Having elected an elaborate course in the Arts, at the University which
was of his possessions, what more natural than that Eugene should seek
the Metropolis for the short Easter vacation of his Senior year, in
order that his perusal of the Masters should be uninterrupted? But it
was his misfortune to find the Metropolitan Museum less interesting
than some intricate phases of the gayety of New York--phases very
difficult to understand without elaborate study and a series of
experiments which the discreetly selfish permit others to make for
them. Briefly, Eugene found himself dancing, one night, with a young
person in a big hat, at the "Straw-Cellar," a crowded hall, down very
deep in the town and not at all the place for Eugene.

Acute crises are to be expected at the "Straw-Cellar," and Eugene was
the only one present who was thoroughly surprised when that of this
night arrived, though all of the merrymakers were frightened when they
perceived its exte