useful articles,
while her sorrow was increased by the fact that she had to replenish her
household stores sooner than she had expected.

The sheriff examined so eagerly the articles which Jim deposited in
rapid succession on the cabin-floor, that Jim had nothing to do but look
at the sheriff, which he did industriously, though not exactly to his
heart's content. At last the sheriff looked up, and Jim saw two eyes
full of tears, and a pair of lips which parted and trembled in a manner
very unbecoming in a sheriff.

"Don't, please," said Jim, appealingly. "I wish I could have done
better for _you_, but somehow I couldn't think of nothin' in the house
that was fit for a woman, except the scissors."

"Don't think about me at all," said the sheriff, quickly.

"I care for nothing for myself. Forget that I'm alive."

"I--I can't," stammered Jim, looking as guilty as forty counterfeiters
rolled into one. The sheriff turned away quickly, while the father
called Jim to his side.

"Young man," said he, "you've been as good as an angel could have been,
but if you suspect _her_ a minute of being my accomplice, may heaven
blast you! I taught her engraving, villain that I was, but when she
found out what the work really was, I thought she'd have died. She
begged and begged that I'd give the business up, and I promised and
promised, but it isn't easy to get out of a crowd of your own kind,
particularly when you're not so much of a man as you should be. At last
she got sick of waiting, and ran away--then I grew desperate and worse
than ever. I've been searching everywhere for her; you don't suppose a
smart--smart counterfeiter has to get rid of his money in the way I've
been doing, do you? I traced her to this part of the State, and I've
been going over the roads again and again trying to find her; but I
never saw her until she put this hole through my arm last night."

"I hadn't any idea who you were," interrupted the sheriff, with a face
so full of mingled indignation, pain and tenderness, that Jim couldn't
for the life of him take his eyes from it.

"Don't let any one suspect her, young man," continued the father. "I'll
stay within reach--deliver me up, if it should be necessary to clear
_her_."

"Trust to me," said Jim. "I know a man when I see him, even if he _is_ a
woman."

Two days later the sheriff rode into town, leading behind him the
counterfeiter's horses, with the wagon and its contents, with thousands
of dol