with trimmin's, an' Willie listened without turnin' a hair
till he got all through.

"'Now,' he says, more quiet than ever--I can see him now, with his big
eyes blazin' black out o' his white face and his little hands that seemed
to me scarce more'n a baby's clenched tight at his side--'Now, I guess, I
got to lick you!'

"An' he did!"

"He beat him?" cried Mollie excitedly. "Oh, weren't you proud?"

"I guess I was!" answered the little old woman, her eyes snapping with the
memory. "That was the day my boy showed what was in him, an' after that
the other boys never called him any more names.

"But, o' course," she added, while the old cloud erased the glow from her
face, "that didn't keep the boys from wantin' to get even.

"Well, then came the awful day when Abner Conway's barn burned an' Abner
himself came over to accuse my Willie of havin' started the fire,
bringin' with him two or three o' the boys who had tried to call Willie
names to swear they'd seen him do it.

"O' course Willie denied it an' I backed him up by sayin'--an' there never
was truer word spoken--that Willie was with me before an' at the time the
barn took fire.

"But it didn't do any good. Abner was ragin' because it meant considerable
loss to him, an' so much blame had been laid at Willie's door by the other
boys that he declared this time he was goin' to have him punished.

"'I'll have the law on him!' he shouted, rampagin' round my kitchen like a
wild animal. I'll show that boy o' yours if he can go round settin' folks'
barns on fire an' not get come up with! I'll give him a taste o' what it
feels like to be behind bars. It's time somethin' was done, an', by Jerry,
I'm the one to do it!'

"An' without another word he slammed out with those grinnin' imps that was
makin' all the trouble followin' at his heels. Well, there isn't very much
more to tell."

Here she paused, the animation left her face and she looked pityfully old
and weary. Betty reached over and patted her hand, and finally she resumed
her story.

"Abner kept his word and brought the sheriff around that same afternoon,
but they couldn't find Willie--he was gone. He'd left a note for me--full
o' love--but sayin' that he couldn't bear to bring disgrace on me an' so
he'd gone away. When he'd done what his pa wanted him to, he said, he'd
come back an' then we could live in the big house an' be happy.

"An' from that day to this, I've never heard a word from my little boy."