' keep you here till maw comes home--right here in the
woodshed, where you'll be safe!"

And despite her renewed struggling and Bessie's tearful protests, he
kept his word, thrusting her into the woodshed and locking the great
padlock on the door, while she screamed in futile rage, and kicked
wildly at the door.

Then, with a parting sneer for Bessie, he went off, carrying the key
with him.

"Listen, Zara," said Bessie, sobbing. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes. I'm all right, Bessie. Don't you cry! He didn't hurt me any."

"I'll try and get a key so I can let you out before she comes home. If
she finds you in there, she'll give you a beating, just like she said.
I've got to go churn some milk into butter now, but I'll be back as soon
as ever I can. Don't you worry! I'll get you out of there all right."

"Please try, Bessie! I'm so worried about what he said about my father.
It can't be true--but how would he ever think of such a story? I want to
get home and find out."

"You keep quiet. I'll find some way to get you out," promised Bessie,
loyally.

And, stirred to a greater anger than she had ever felt by Jake Hoover's
bullying of poor Zara, she went off to attend to her churning.

Jake, as a matter of fact, was responsible for a good deal of Bessie's
unhappiness. As a child he had been sickly, and he had continued, long
after he had outgrown his weakness, and sprouted up into a lanky,
raw-boned boy, to trade upon the fears his parents had once felt for
him. Among boys of his own age he was unpopular. He had early become a
bully, abusing smaller and weaker boys.

Bessie he had long made a mark for his sallies of wit. He taunted her
interminably about the way her father and mother had left her; he pulled
her hair, and practiced countless other little tricks that she could not
resent. His father tried to reprove him at times, but his mother always
rushed to his defence, and in her eyes he could do no wrong. She upheld
him against anyone who had a bad word to say concerning him--and, of
course, Bessie got undeserved rebukes for many of his misdeeds.

He soon learned that he could escape punishment by making it seem that
she had done things of which he was accused, and, as his word was always
taken against hers, no matter what the evidence was, he had only
increased his mother's dislike for the orphaned girl.

The whole village shared Maw Hoover's dislike of Zara and her father. He
had settled down two or three years