s
enemies for a minute till, as if he revolted against his own weakness,
one of them gave vent to a loud jest, at which the other laughed.

The words meant nothing to Susannah, nothing more than the Latin words
of the lesson-book that lay torn and muddy at her feet, but Smith no
sooner heard them than he hurled himself from the ground with almost
superhuman strength.

Both men were forced in self-defence to close upon him. Smith shouted
aloud, although a hand on his throat almost choked him, "Go to the
hotel, Mrs. Halsey; go in to your husband." Susannah knew now that he
was fighting for her, not for himself; the allegiance of his glance gave
her a thrill of loyalty to him which was wholly new.

Two men ran out from the hotel, and behind them John Biery. When they
neared the place the farmer and his accomplice got into their gig and
called back fierce threats against Smith as they went. John Biery was a
constable, yet, although he saw that Smith had been brutally assaulted,
he made no attempt to pursue and capture the offenders. The other men
contented themselves with picking up his hat and book and remarking that
the men that had run away hadn't had no sort of right, and that Smith
ought to have the law on them. Susannah was the more enraged by this
refusal to interfere.

Smith wiped his face from dust and blood. It pleased Susannah's love of
dignity to observe that when he spoke it was not in impotent wrath.

"Go in to your husband, Mrs. Halsey, and tell him to rejoice that we are
accounted worthy to suffer."

That was not exactly the news that Susannah did bring when she went back
to her husband's room. Her feelings were so upwrought that it was some
time before, in pouring out to Halsey her indignation, she could find
relief. Whatever might or might not be the truth of Smith's heart, it
remained true that in this persecution the many were ranged against the
few, and were lashing each other on by false reports to lawless
brutality. Like the Psalmist, Halsey led her as it were into the house
of the Lord, and pointed out the end of the wicked and the award of the
righteous. He added to the then popular notion of external reward
thoughts which had been working in his own mind under the influence of
that time-spirit which leads such minds as his in the foremost paths. He
spoke to her of the strength of character gained and lost by all that
was done and suffered in the right way or in the wrong.

Susannah was soot