ver seen a woman faint, and he thought at first that Tillie
was dead. We almost had HIM on our hands unconscious!"

"Well, the faintin' saved Tillie a row with him till he got her home
oncet a'ready," the doctor said, as he puffed away at his pipe, his
hands in his vest arms, his feet on the table, and a newspaper under
them to spare the chenille table-cover.

"Yes. Otherwise I don't know how I could have borne to see her taken
home by that ruffian--to be punished for so heroically defending ME!"

"You bet! That took cheek, ain't?--fur that little girl to stand there
and jaw Jake Getz--and make him quit lickin' you! By gum, that minds me
of sceneries I've saw a'ready in the theayter! They most gener'ly
faints away in a swoond that way, too. Well, Tillie she come round all
right, ain't?--till a little while?"

"Yes. But she was very pale and weak, poor child!" Fairchilds answered,
resting his head wearily upon his palm. "When she became conscious,
Getz carried her out of the woods to his buggy that he had left near
the school-house."

"How did Absalom take it, anyhow?"

"He's rather dazed, I think! He doesn't quite know how to make it all
out. He is a man of one idea--one at a time and far apart. His idea at
present is that he is going to marry Tillie."

"Yes, and I never seen a Puntz yet where didn't come by what he set his
stubborn head to!" the doctor commented. "It wonders me sometimes, how
Tillie's goin' to keep from marryin' him, now he's made up his mind so
firm!"

"Tillie knows her own worth too well to throw herself away like that."

"Well, now I don't know," said the doctor, doubtfully. "To be sure, I
never liked them Puntzes, they're so damned thick-headed. Dummness runs
in that family so, it's somepin' surprisin'! Dummness and stubbornness
is all they got to 'em. But Absalom he's so well fixed--Tillie she
might go furder and do worse. Now there's you, Teacher. If she took up
with you and yous two got married, you'd have to rent. Absalom he'd own
his own farm."

"Now, come, Doc," protested Fairchilds, disgusted, "you know
better--you know that to almost any sort of a woman marriage means
something more than getting herself 'well fixed,' as you put it. And to
a woman like Tillie!"

"Yes--yes--I guess," answered the doctor, pulling briskly at his pipe.
"It's the same with a male--he mostly looks to somepin besides a good
housekeeper. There's me, now--I'd have took Miss Margaret--and she
couldn't wo