Rose when they were schoolchildren together,
but his passion had now reached such proportions that he deeply
resented the fact that his school-hoy love had been so careless and
shallow a feeling. Now that circumstances had placed her beyond his
reach, he regretted that his youthful love experience was not worthier
of the place it held in his remembrance. He could forget that Rose
Gaither was the daughter of the man to whom he attributed his troubles,
but he could never forget that he himself was the son of a man whose
weakness had found him out at an age when manhood ought to have made
him strong.

Still, Jack Carew made the most of a bad situation. He had the courage,
the endurance, and the hopefulness of youth. He faced his perplexities
with at least the appearance of good-humour; and if he had his moments
of despair, when the skeleton in the jug in the closet paraded in
public, Pinetucky never suspected it. The truth is, while Pinetucky was
sympathetic and neighbourly, it was not inclined to make a great fuss
over those who took a dram too much now and then. Intemperance was an
evil, to be sure; but even intemperance had its humorous side in those
days, and Pinetucky was apt to look at the humorous side.

One fine morning, however, Pinetuoky awoke to the fact that it was the
centre and scene of a decided sensation. Rumour pulled on her bonnet
and boots, and went gadding about like mad. Pinetucky was astonished,
then perplexed, then distressed, and finally indignant, as became a
conservative and moral community. A little after sunrise, Bradley
Gaither had galloped up to Squire Inchly's door with the information
that two bales of cotton had been stolen from hie place the night
before.

The facts, as sot forth by Bradley Gaither, were that he had twelve
bales of cotton ready for market. The twelve balei had been loaded upon
three, wagons, and the wagons were to start for Augusta at daybreak. At
the last moment, when everything was ready, the teams harnessed, and
the drivers in their seats, it was discovered that two bales of the
cotton were missing. Fortunately, it had rained during the night, and
Bradley Gaither had waited until it was light enough to make an
investigation. He found that a wagon bad been driven to his
packing-screw. He saw, moreover, that but one wagon had passed along the
road after the rain, and it was an easy matter to follow the tracks.

The fact of the theft had surprised Squire Inchly, but t