have good sense. Jake
was drapped when he was a baby. Well, Jerry struck Jake over the head
with a fence-rail 'bout two months ago, an when Jake come to, he had
just as good sense as anybody, and now he hates Jerry like pizen, an
Jerry's half afeard of him. An' they do say a how them two brothers air
a-goin'" Again Hence stopped abruptly and clucked to his team "But I
ain't a-sayin' a word, now, mind ye--not a word!"

Chad rode on, amused, and thinking that Hence had gone daft, but he was
to learn better. A reign of forty years' terror was starting in those
hills.

Not a soul was in sight when he reached the top of the hill from which
he could see the Turner home below--about the house or the orchard or
in the fields. No one answered his halloo at the Turner gate, though
Chad was sure that he saw a woman's figure flit past the door. It was a
full minute before Mother Turner cautiously thrust her head outside the
door and peered at him.

"Why, Aunt Betsey," called Chad, "don't you know me?"

At the sound of his voice Melissa sprang out the door with a welcoming
cry, and ran to him, Mother Turner following with a broad smile on her
kind old face. Chad felt the tears almost come--these were friends
indeed. How tall Melissa had grown, and how lovely she was, with her
tangled hair and flashing eyes and delicately modelled face. She went
with him to the stable to help him put up his horse, blushing when he
looked at her and talking very little, while the old mother, from the
fence, followed him with her dim eyes. At once Chad began to ply both
with questions--where was Uncle Joel and the boys and the
school-master? And, straightway, Chad felt a reticence in both--a
curious reticence even with him. On each side of the fireplace, on each
side of the door, and on each side of the window, he saw narrow blocks
fixed to the logs. One was turned horizontal, and through the hole
under it Chad saw daylight--portholes they were. At the door were taken
blocks as catches for a piece of upright wood nearby, which was plainly
used to bar the door. The cabin was a fortress. By degrees the story
came out. The neighborhood was in a turmoil of bloodshed and terror.
Tom and Dolph had gone off to the war--Rebels. Old Joel had been called
to the door one night, a few weeks since, and had been shot down
without warning. They had fought all night. Melissa herself had handled
a rifle at one of the portholes. Rube was out in the woods now, with