re respectful tone, as he resumed, "Do you know that you puzzle me
somewhat?"

"Very likely. I am sure that I puzzle myself. Say on."

"Looking at your dress and--and--"

"The two shillings you gave me? Yes--"

"I took you for the son of some small farmer like myself. But now I
judge from your talk that you are a college chap,--anyhow, a gentleman.
Be n't it so?"

"My dear Mr. Saunderson, I set out on my travels, which is not long
ago, with a strong dislike to telling lies. But I doubt if a man can get
along through this world without finding that the faculty of lying was
bestowed on him by Nature as a necessary means of self-preservation.
If you are going to ask me any questions about myself, I am sure that
I shall tell you lies. Perhaps, therefore, it may be best for both if
I decline the bed you proffered me, and take my night's rest under a
hedge."

"Pooh! I don't want to know more of a man's affairs than he thinks fit
to tell me. Stay and finish the haymaking. And I say, lad, I'm glad you
don't seem to care for the girls; for I saw a very pretty one trying to
flirt with you, and if you don't mind she'll bring you into trouble."

"How? Does she want to run away from her uncle?"

"Uncle! Bless you, she don't live with him! She lives with her
father; and I never knew that she wants to run away. In fact, Jessie
Wiles--that's her name--is, I believe, a very good girl, and everybody
likes her,--perhaps a little too much; but then she knows she's a
beauty, and does not object to admiration."

"No woman ever does, whether she's a beauty or not. But I don't yet
understand why Jessie Wiles should bring me into trouble."

"Because there is a big hulking fellow who has gone half out of his wits
for her; and when he fancies he sees any other chap too sweet on her he
thrashes him into a jelly. So, youngster, you just keep your skin out of
that trap."

"Hem! And what does the girl say to those proofs of affection? Does she
like the man the better for thrashing other admirers into jelly?"

"Poor child! No; she hates the very sight of him. But he swears she
shall marry nobody else if he hangs for it. And, to tell you the truth,
I suspect that if Jessie does seem to trifle with others a little too
lightly, it is to draw away this bully's suspicion from the only man I
think she does care for,--a poor sickly young fellow who was crippled by
an accident, and whom Tom Bowles could brain with his little finger."

"This is