He was delighted, he said, to
hear that I was getting along so well with the school, and he knew that
I would be of vast good to the community. "I have heard of the Aimes
conspiracy," said he, "and I am glad that I met you, for I wanted to
talk to you about it. The truth of it all is, not that you once larruped
that fellow Bentley, but that old Aimes wishes to put a sly indignity
upon me by misusing one who has been entertained at my house. That's the
point, sir. He heard that I had given you countenance at my board, and
what his sister afterward told him was an excuse for the exercise, sir,
of his distemper. But, by--I came within one of swearing, sir. I used to
curse like an overseer, but I joined the church not long ago, and I've
been walking a tight rope ever since. But as I was about to say, you are
not going to let those people humiliate you."

"I am going to do my duty," I answered, "and my duty does not tell me to
be humiliated."

"Good, sir; first-rate. As a general thing, we do not look for the
highest spirit in a school-teacher--pardon my frankness, for, as you
know, one who is dependent upon a whole community, one who seeks to
please many and varied persons, is not as likely to exhibit that
independence and vigor of action which is characteristic of the man who
stands solely upon honor, with nothing to appease save his own idea of
right. But I forgot. The grandson of Captain Hawes needs no such homily.
The Aimes family is a hard lot, sir, but a gentleman can at all times
stand in smiling conquest above a tough. Scott Aimes, a burly scoundrel,
and, therefore, the pet of his father, at one time threatened to
chastize my son Chydister, who is now off at college. And I said not a
word in reply, when my son told me of the threat. I merely pointed to a
shot-gun above the library door and went on with my reading of the death
notices in the newspaper. That gun is there now, sir, and whenever you
want it, speak the word and it shall be yours."

I laughed to myself and thought that I must be getting on well with the
old General--first the offer of his library and now of his gun--and I
thanked him for the interest which he had shown in me, a mere stranger.
"A well-bred Southerner is never a stranger in the South," said he. "We
are held together by an affection stronger than any tie that runs from
heart to heart in any other branch of the human family. But," he added,
sadly shaking his head, "I fear that this affecti