! I ain't worth a cent in
things like that. Caesar! But you snatched him bald-headed."

"Makes me feel sick," Bradley said. "I ain't had but one squabble
before since I was a boy. It makes me feel like a plug-ugly."

Milton was delighted with it all. It made such a capital story to tell!
"Say Brad, do you know what I thought of when you was yankin' that
feller over the wheel? Scaldin' hogs! You pulled on him just as if he
was a three-hundred pound shote. It was funny as all time!"

But Bradley had trouble in going to sleep that night, thinking about
it. He was wondering what _She_ would have thought of him in that
disgraceful row. He tried to remember whether he swore or not. He felt,
even in the darkness, her grave, sweet eyes fixed upon him in a
sorrowful, disappointed way, and it made him groan and turn his face to
the wall, to escape the picture of himself standing there in the wagon,
with his coat off, shouting back at a band of rowdies.

But the story spread, and it pleased the farmers immensely. The
boldness of the charge and the magnificent muscle that backed it up
took hold of the people's imagination strongly, and added very greatly
to his fame.

When the story reached Judge Brown, he was deeply amused. On the
following Monday morning, as Brad was writing away busily, the Judge
entered the room.

"Well, Brad, they say you called the Russells thieves."

"I guess perhaps I did."

"Well, aint that goin' to embarrass you a little when--when you're
calling on Nettie?"

"I aint a-goin' to call there any more."

"Oh, I see! Expect the colonel to call on you, eh?"

"I don't care what he does," Bradley cried, turning and facing his
employer. "I said what I know to be the truth. I call it thieving, and
if they don't like it, they can hate it. I aint a-goin' to back down an
inch, as long as I know what I know."

"That's right!" chuckled the Judge. As a Democrat, he rejoiced to see a
Republican ring assaulted. "Go ahead, I'll stand by you, if they try
the law."

IX.

BRADLEY MEETS MRS. BROWN.

Though Bradley had called a good many times at the Russell house, to
accompany Nettie to parties or home from school, yet he had never had
any conversation to speak of with Russell, who was a large and somewhat
pompous man. He knew his place, as a Western father, and never
interfered with his daughter's love affairs. He knew Bradley as a
likely and creditable young fellow, and besides, his experience with