tence.

"You ought to think of her happiness. She is too sweet and beautiful for
a home like this."

There was an awkward moment of silence. The young man said good night and
opened the door.

"I'll go with you," said Kelso.

He went with Mr. Biggs to the tavern and got his daughter and returned
home with her.

Mrs. Kelso chided her husband for being hard on Mr. Biggs.

"He has had his lesson, perhaps he will turn over a new leaf," she said.

"I fear there isn't a new leaf in his book," said Kelso. "They're all
dirty."

He told his wife what Abe had said in the store.

"The wisdom of the common folk is in that beardless young giant," he
said. "It is the wisdom of many generations gathered in the hard school
of bitter experience. I wonder where it is going to lead him."

As Eliphalet Biggs was going down the south road next morning he met Bim
on her pony near the schoolhouse, returning from the field with her cow.
They stopped.

"I'm coming back, little girl," he said.

"What for?" she asked.

"To tell you a secret and ask you a question. Nobody but you has the
right to say I can not. May I come?"

"I suppose you can--if you want to," she answered.

"I'll come and I'll write to you and send the letters to Ann."

Mentor Graham, who lived in the schoolhouse, had come out of its door.

"Good-by!" said young Mr. Biggs, as his heels touched the flanks of his
horse. Then he went flying down the road.

CHAPTER VIII

WHEREIN ABE MAKES SUNDRY WISE REMARKS TO THE BOY HARRY AND ANNOUNCES HIS
PURPOSE TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR THE LEGISLATURE AT KELSO'S DINNER PARTY.

Harry Needles met Bim Kelso on the road next day, when he was going down
to see if there was any mail. She was on her pony. He was in his new suit
of clothes--a butternut background striped into large checks.

"You look like a walking checkerboard," said she, stopping her pony.

"This--this is my new suit," Harry answered, looking down at it.

"It's a tiresome suit," said she impaciently. "I've been playing checkers
on it since I caught sight o' you, and I've got a man crowned in the king
row."

"I thought you'd like it," he answered, quite seriously, and with a look
of disappointment. "Say, I've got that razor and I've shaved three times
already."

He took the razor from his pocket and drew it from its case and proudly
held it up before her.

"Don't tell anybody," he warned her. "They'd laugh at me. They wouldn't
know how I feel."