had plowed through
both lugs of the can disconnecting the wire handle. Not much of the milk
was lost. He picked up the can and started down the road as fast as his
legs could take him. He had only gone a hundred yards when a man stepped
out into the road and leveled a gun at him.

"Another yard an' I'll blow yer brains out!" the man said.

"Is this yer milk?" Jamie asked.

"Aye, an' well ye know it's m' milk!"

Jamie put the can down on the road and stood silent. The farmer
delivered himself of a volume of profane abuse. Jamie did not reply. He
stood with his head bowed and to all appearances in a mood of penitence.

When the man finished his threats and abuse he stooped to pick up the
can. Before his hand touched it Jamie sprang at him with the ferocity of
a panther. There was a life and death tussle for a few seconds and both
men went down on the road--Jamie on top. Sitting on the man's chest he
took a wrist in each hand and pinned him to the ground.

"Ye think I'm a thief," he said to the man as he looked at him with eyes
that burned like live coals. "I'm not, I'm an honest maan, but I haave a
chile dying wi' hunger--now it's your life or his, by ---- an' ye'll
decide!"

"I think yer a liar as well as a thief," the man said, "but if we can
prove what ye say I'm yer friend."

"Will ye go with me?"

"Aye."

"D'ye mane it?"

"Aye, I do!"

"I'll carry th' gun."

"Ye may, there's nothin' in it."

"There's enough in th' butt t' batther a maan's brains out."

Jamie seized the gun and the can and the man got up.

They walked down the road in silence, each watching the other out of the
corners of his eyes.

"D'ye believe in God?" Jamie asked abruptly. The farmer hesitated
before answering.

"Why d'ye ask?"

"I'd like t' see a maan in these times that believed wi' his heart
insted ov his mouth!"

"Wud he let other people milk his cows?" asked the man, sneeringly.

"He mightn't haave cows t' milk," Jamie said. "But he'd be kind and not
a glutton!"

They arrived at the house. The man went in first. He stopped near the
door and Jamie instinctively and in fear shot past him. What he saw
dazed him. "Ah, God!" he exclaimed. "She's dead!"

Anna lay on her back on the floor and the boy was asleep by the hearth
with his head in the ashes. The neighbors were alarmed and came to
assist. The farmer felt Anna's pulse. It was feebly fluttering.

"She's not dead," he said. "Get some cold wather quickly!" The