Mason
Hope appeared, hands in pockets and lank hair falling on his shoulders.
Norman Teale came next, with Tansey Moore in tow.

"Howdy, Tod?" was the universal greeting as the County Club took its
place. The chair of Smith Crothers, and two or three overturned potato
baskets--seats of the junior members of the club--were empty. It was
beneath the dignity of any man present to question what had just
occurred, but every son of them had witnessed it and in due time would
touch upon the subject.

The stove, summer and winter, focussed their wandering eyes and acted as
a stimulus to their dormant faculties. From long practice and
inheritance every man could aim and hit the sawdust under the stove when
he expectorated. Even old Andrew Townley had never been known to fail.

"There be some right good horses down to The Forge," Tansey Moore
ventured after a while.

"It's a blamed risky thing, though," said Mason Hope, "to let a--lady
drive 'em. I've allus noticed that a woman is more sot on gittin' where
she wants to git--than to considering _how_ to git there. It's mighty
risky to trust horseflesh to a female. They seem to reckon all horses is
machines."

"I've seen men as didn't know a hoss from a steam engine," Norman Teale
broke in, glancing sharply at Moore. "Times is when a hoss has to be
sacrificed to man--but I reckon The Forge folks was taking some risks
when they-all hired out a team to a stranger."

"That stranger," said Greeley, hitting the nail on the head with a
violence that brought his audience to an upright position, "ain't nothing
short of, to my mind, than"--he glanced at Teale--"well, she ain't, and
that's my opinion! She comes loaded with facts up to her teeth. Knows
all the names, and says she's going to settle down over to Trouble Neck
and--live along with us-all quite a spell. Weak lungs and all, but she's
a right new brand."

"Hell!" ejaculated Teale, springing to his feet. "If the government has
got so low that it has to trifle with ladies--it's in a bad way. I
reckon I better git a-moving. Any mail, Tod? I take it right friendly
that you give me this hint. A lady may be hard to handle in some ways,
but we-all can at least know where she is--that's something."

After the departure of Teale the club fell into moody gloom. It was
always upsetting to have outside interference with their affairs. Even
if Teale wasn't arrested the whiskey would be limited for a time, and
that was