h to believe that an exquisite soul animated that lovely
face. Perhaps she was better than she seemed. He tried to smother
his distrust of her, till it was rendered more acute by another
reflection--she had got him into the quarrel with Seth Stevens. He did
not trouble much about it. He was confident enough of his strength and
the advantages of his boyish training in the gymnasium to regard the
trial with equanimity. Still, the girls he had known in the East would
never have set two men to fight, never--it was not womanly. Good girls
were by nature peacemakers. There must be something in Loo, he argued,
almost--vulgar, and he shrank from the word. To lessen the sting of
his disappointment, he pictured her to himself and strove to forget her
faults.

On the following morning he went to his school very early. The girls
were not as obtrusive as they had been. Miss Jessie Stevens did not
bother him by coming up every five minutes to see what he thought of her
dictation, as she had been wont to do. He was rather glad of this; it
saved him importunate glances and words, and the propinquity of girlish
forms, which had been more trying still. But what was the cause of the
change? It was evident that the girls regarded him as belonging to Miss
Conklin. He disliked the assumption; his caution took alarm; he would
be more careful in future. The forenoon melted into afternoon quietly,
though there were traces on Jake Conklin's bench of unusual agitation
and excitement. To these signs the schoolmaster paid small heed at the
moment. He was absorbed in thinking of the evening before, and in trying
to appraise each of Loo's words and looks. At last the time came for
breaking up. When he went outside to get into the buggy--he had brought
Jack with him--he noticed, without paying much attention to it, that
Jake Conklin was not there to unhitch the strap and in various other
ways to give proof of a desire to ride with him. He set off for
Richards' mill, whither, needless to say, Jake and half-a-dozen other
urchins had preceded him as fast as their legs could carry them.

As soon as he was by himself the schoolmaster recognized that the affair
was known to his scholars, and the knowledge nettled him. His anger
fastened upon Loo. It was all her fault; her determination to "pay
Stevens out" had occasioned the quarrel.

Well, he would fight and win, and then have done with the girl whose
lips had doubtless been given to Stevens as often and