ouse to dismiss the
children and to tell them that I knew not when the session would be
resumed. And when I returned everything was quiet. The old man was
slowly walking up and down the spring-house path, evidently waiting for
me.

"Tell me all about it," he said, when I came up; "tell me from beginnin'
to end."

And I told him just as Alf had told me. He listened with his mouth half
open, rolling up his shirt-sleeves and then rolling them down again, as
if he knew not what to do with himself.

"Well," he said, when I was done, "I don't know that I can blame him,
poor feller, but they'll hang him."

"Do you think so?" I cried, with a start, for I had not dwelt upon that
possibility; it had not occurred to me, so wrapt had I been in thinking
of his own mental distress and the heart-breaking grief of his mother.
"Do you really think so?"

"I know it--just as clear to me as that sunshine. Stuart's kin folks
have got money and they'll spend every cent of it to put Alf on the
gallows. Etheredge don't like Alf and will spend every cent he's got;
and here we are without money. Yes, they'll hang him."

"But General Lundsford--won't he stand as Alf's friend?"

The old man shook his head. "He can't, and I don't know that he would if
he could. I mean that he can't and still be true to himself. Ever since
our agreement, the one I told you about, he has been putty open in
talkin' to me, and I know that he wanted Millie to marry Stuart. No,
he's too proud to help us."

"But can he for family reasons afford not to help us? His son----"

"Don't speak of that now, if you please, sir. Are you goin' to the
house?"

"I don't know. I am almost afraid to meet his mother."

"Don't be afraid of that. She won't reproach you; she knows that you had
nothing to do with it--knows that he never would have killed him if he
had asked your advice and followed it."

"I don't mean that--I mean that I cannot bear to look upon her grief."

"She is a Christian, sir. She is praying to her God, and whatever comes
she will trust in Him. The stock that she is from has stood at the
stake, sir."

We were slowly walking toward the house. Suddenly he clutched my arm
with a grip that reminded me of Alf, and in a voice betraying more
emotion than I had known him to show, asked whether I intended to leave
him. I put my arm about him and pressed him to me, just as if he were
Alf telling me of the love-trouble that lay upon his heart.

"I understand