same
thing three years ago, that's a fact. And when she gets to blooming out
and enjoying her bits of girl finery there'll be pleasure in that too,
plenty of it."

She awakened from one of these light sleeps just as they were entering
Brownsboro, and her delight and awe at the dimensions and business aspect
of the place pleased Tom greatly, and was the cause of his appearing a
perfect mine of reliable information on the subject of large towns and
the habits of persons residing in them.

Brownsboro contained at least six or seven hundred inhabitants, and, as
Court was being held, there were a good many horses to be seen tied to
the hitching-posts; groups of men were sitting before the stores and on
the sidewalks, while something which might almost have been called a
crowd was gathered before the Court-house itself.

Sheba turned her attention to the tavern they were approaching with a
view to spending the night, and her first glance alighted upon an object
of interest.

"There's a big boy," she said. "He looks tired."

He was not such a very big boy, though he was perhaps fourteen years old
and tall of his age. He stood upon the plank-walk which ran at the front
of the house, and leaned against the porch with his hands in his pockets.
He was a slender, lithe boy, well dressed in a suit of fine white linen.
He had a dark, spirited face, and long-lashed dark eyes, but,
notwithstanding these advantages, he looked far from amiable as he stood
lounging discontentedly and knitting his brows in the sun.

But Sheba admired him greatly and bent forward that she might see him
better, regarding him with deep interest.

"He's a pretty boy," she said, softly, "I--I like him."

Tom scarcely heard her. He was looking at the boy himself, and his face
wore a troubled and bewildered expression. His gaze was so steady that at
length the object of it felt its magnetic influence and lifted his eyes.
That his general air of discontent did not belie him, and that he was by
no means an amiable boy, was at once proved. He did not bear the scrutiny
patiently, his face darkened still more, and he scowled without any
pretence of concealing the fact.

Tom turned away uneasily.

"He'd be a handsome fellow if he hadn't such an evil look," he said. "I
must have seen him before; I wonder who he is?"

There were many strangers in the house, principally attenders upon the
Court being held. Court week was a busy time for Brownsboro, which upon