your feelings, I shouldn't
think of taking the house."

But Jed slowly shook his head.

"I want you to," he declared. "Yes, I mean it. I want you to come
and live in this house for a month, anyhow. If you don't, that
Powless woman will come back and buy every stick and rag on the
place. I don't want to sell 'em, but I couldn't say no to her any
more than I could to the Old Harry. I called her the Old Scratch's
wife, didn't I," he added. "Well, I won't take it back."

Captain Sam laughed uproariously.

"You ain't very complimentary to Mr. Powless," he observed.

Jed rubbed his chin.

"I would be if I was referrin' to him," he drawled, "but I judge
he's her second husband."

CHAPTER VI

Of course Mrs. Armstrong still insisted that, knowing, as she did,
Mr. Winslow's prejudice against occupying the position of landlord,
she could not think of accepting his offer. "Of course I shall
not," she declared. "I am flattered to know that you consider
Barbara and me preferable to Mr. and Mrs. Powless; but even there
you may be mistaken, and, beside, why should you feel you must
endure the lesser evil. If I were in your place I shouldn't endure
any evil at all. I should keep the house closed and empty, just as
you have been doing."

Captain Sam shook his head impatiently. "If you was in his place,"
he observed, "you would have let it every year. Don't interfere
with him, Mrs. Armstrong, for the land sakes. He's showed the
first streak of common sense about that house that he's showed
since the Davidsons went out. Don't ask him to take it back."

And Jed stubbornly refused to take it back. "I've let it to you
for a month, ma'am," he insisted. "It's yours, furniture and all,
for a month. You won't sell that Mrs. Powless any of it, will
you?" he added, anxiously. "Any of the furniture, I mean."

Mrs. Armstrong scarcely knew whether to be amused or indignant.

"Of course I shouldn't sell it," she declared. "It wouldn't be
mine to sell."

Jed looked frightened. "Yes, 'twould; yes, 'twould," he persisted.
"That's why I'm lettin' it to you. Then I can't sell it to her; I
CAN'T, don't you see?"

Captain Sam grinned. "Fur's that goes," he suggested, "I don't
see's you've got to worry, Jed. You don't need to sell it, to her
or anybody else, unless you want to."

But Jed looked dubious. "I suppose Jonah cal'lated he didn't need
to be swallowed," he mused. "You take it, ma'am, for a month, as a