my Latin class to tell me.

"Oh, ye just fly around an' kiss and git kissed till ye feel like a
fool."

That settled it for me. Not that I would have failed to enjoy kissing
Sally, but we were out, as they used to say, and it would have
embarrassed both of us to meet at a party.

Saturday came and, when the chores were done, I went alone to the grain
barn in the back lot of the Senator's farm with flail and measure and
broom and fork and shovel and sacks and my luncheon, in a push cart,
with all of which Mrs. Wright had provided me.

It was a lonely place with woods on three sides of the field and a road
on the other. I kept laying down beds of wheat on the barn-floor and
beating them out with the flail until the sun was well over the roof
when I sat down to eat my luncheon. Then I swept up the grain and
winnowed out the chaff and filled one of my sacks. That done, I covered
the floor again and the thump of the flail eased my loneliness until in
the middle of the afternoon two of my schoolmates came and asked me to
go swimming, with them. The river was not forty rods away and a good
trail led to the swimming hole. It was a warm bright day and I was hot
and thirsty. The thought of cool waters and friendly companionship was
too much for me. I went with them.

More ancient than the human form is that joy of the young in the feel
of air and water on the naked skin, in the frog-like leap and splash and
the monkey-chatter of the swimming hole. There were a number of the
"swamp boys" in the water. They lived in cabins on the edges of the near
swamp. I stayed with them longer than I intended. I remember saying as I
dressed that I should have to work late and go without my supper in
order to finish my stent.

It was almost dark when I was putting the last sack of wheat into my
cart, in the gloomy barn, and getting ready to go.

A rustling in the straw near where I stood stopped me suddenly. My skin
prickled and began to stir on my head and my feet and hands felt numb
with a new fear. I heard stealthy footsteps in the darkness. I stood my
ground and demanded:

"Who's there?"

I saw a form approaching in the gloom with feet as noiseless as a cat's.
I took a step backward and, seeing that it was a woman, stopped.

"It's Kate," the answer came in a hoarse whisper as I recognized her
form and staff.

"Run, boy--they have just come out o' the woods. I saw them. They will
take you away. Run."

She had picked up the flai