e time, almost happy himself.

When they rose to go Charlie laid a hand on Jed's shoulder.

"I can't tell you," he said, "what a brick you've been through all
this. If it hadn't been for you, old man, I don't know how it
might have ended. We owe you about everything, Maud and I. You've
been a wonder, Jed."

Jed waved a deprecating hand. "Don't talk so, Charlie," he said,
gruffly.

"But, I tell you, I--"

"Don't. . . . You see," with a twist of the lip, "it don't do to
tell a--a screech owl he's a canary. He's liable to believe it by
and by and start singin' in public. . . . Then he finds out he's
just a fool owl, and has been all along. Humph! Me a wonder! . . .
A blunder, you mean."

Neither of the young people had ever heard him use that tone before.
They both cried out in protest.

"Look here, Jed--" began Phillips.

Maud interrupted. "Just a moment, Charlie," she said. "Let me
tell him what Father said last night. When he went out he left me
crying and so miserable that I wanted to die. He had found
Charlie's letter and we--we had had a dreadful scene and he had
spoken to me as I had never heard him speak before. And, later,
after he came back I was almost afraid to have him come into the
room where I was. But he was just as different as could be. He
told me he had been thinking the matter over and had decided that,
perhaps, he had been unreasonable and silly and cross. Then he
said some nice things about Charlie, quite different from what he
said at first. And when we had made it all up and I asked him what
had changed his mind so he told me it was you, Jed. He said he
came to you and you put a flea in his ear. He wouldn't tell me
what he meant, but he simply smiled and said you had put a flea in
his ear."

Jed, himself, could not help smiling faintly.

"W-e-e-ll," he drawled, "I didn't use any sweet ile on the job,
that's sartin. If he said I pounded it in with a club 'twouldn't
have been much exaggeration."

"So we owe you that, too," continued Maud. "And, afterwards, when
Daddy and I were talking we agreed that you were probably the best
man in Orham. There!"

And she stooped impulsively and kissed him.

Jed, very much embarrassed, shook his head. "That--er--insect I
put in your pa's ear must have touched both your brains, I
cal'late," he drawled. But he was pleased, nevertheless. If he
was a fool it was something to have people think him a good sort of
fool.

It w