ou weigh?"

"Over two hundred," answered Cassidy consciously.

"And yuh haven't got any home?"--innocently.

"No, ma'am."

"What were yuh doing tuh that poor old man to-day?"

The sudden irrelevance of the question startled Cassidy immeasurably.

"Wot? That little old Arkinsaw man? Oh--nothin'. Did yuh see me
talkin' tuh him?"

"I did," said the woman; "and I also saw yuh poking him up the street
with a big stick. Do yuh think that was a nice thing for a strong
young man like yuh?"

"I was--I was just advisin' him," explained Cassidy thickly. "I----"

"What were yuh hurtin' that old man for?" was the forceful
interruption. "Did he ever hurt _yuh_ any?"

"Hurt _me_? Old Arkinsaw? No, ma'am; not tuh my knowledge. But----"

"_Never mind that_," said the woman stonily though the big, strong
eyes had a favorable light in their depths. "Yuh tell me why yuh were
sticking him in the back."

"Well--he wanted a drink--that's why," Cassidy mumbled.

"Oh!" remarked the woman, with withering comprehension. "And so,
because he was tired and thirsty and wanted a drink, yuh poked him. I
see."

Cassidy grew desperate. "I'm afraid, ma'am, yuh don't rightly
understand," he undertook to explain.

"Yes, I do," replied the woman hotly, and burned him with her eyes.
Then she turned her back on him, which hurt him a great deal more.

Cassidy groaned aloud.

"I believe you're a bully," goaded the little woman, and showed an
attractive, mutinous profile over her shoulder. "Do yuh bully women,
too?"

Cassidy did not answer at once. When he did, it was in a low, rather
lifeless voice: "No'm; I don't bother the women-folks much."

"There, there, now," soothed the woman, quickly turning to him and
putting her hand on his shoulder with a motherly gesture. "Don't go
tuh feelin' bad. Don't yuh s'pose I knew all the time why yuh did it?
I was glad, too. Just yuh lay down there in the sand and get rested,
and tell me all about it."

And so Cassidy, stretched full length, with his face half hidden in
his arm, mumbled fragmentarily--and told. After it was finished, after
all his misdeeds had been related, and counted over, one by one, he
ventured to look up.

The woman's face was grave, but she was smiling. She laid her hand
gently on his cheek and turned his eyes to hers.

"But you've quit now?" she stated.

"I've quit," answered Cassidy honestly.

"Well, then, it'll be all right. I reckon it's time for me to be going
now.