elieved. "It's all right. I've got
darters to hum ez big ez you be, an' I want to talk to yer ez ef yer was
one uv 'em."

The judge looked uncertain for a moment, and then proceeded:

"That feller Toledo's dead in love with yer--uv course you know it,
though 'tain't likely he's told yer.' All I want to say 'bout him is,
drop him kindly. He's been took so bad sence you come, that he's stopped
drinkin' an' chewin' an' smokin' an' cussin', an' he hasn't played a
game at The Nugget sence the first singin'-school night. Mebbe this all
ain't much to you, but you've read 'bout that woman that was spoke well
uv fur doin' what she could. He's the fust feller I've ever seen in the
diggin's that went back on all the comforts uv life, an'--an' I've been
a young man myself, an' know how big a claim it's been fur him to work.
I ain't got the heart to see him spiled now; but he _will_ be ef, when
yer hev to drop him, yer don't do it kindly. An'--just one thing
more--the quicker he's out of his misery the better."

The old jail-bird screwed a tear out of his eye with a dirty knuckle,
and departed abruptly, leaving the little teacher just about ready to
cry herself.

But before she was quite ready, another knock startled her.

She opened the door, and let in Toledo himself.

"Good-evin', marm," said he, gravely. "I just come in to make my last
'fficial call, seein' I'm goin' away to-morrer. Ez there anything the
schoolhouse wants I ken git an' send from 'Frisco?"

"Going away!" ejaculated the teacher, heedless of the remainder of
Toledo's sentence.

"Yes, marm; goin' away fur good. Fact is, I've been tryin' to behave
myself lately, an' I find I need more company at it than I git about the
diggin's. I'm goin' some place whar I ken learn to be the gentleman I
feel like bein'--to be decent an' honest, an' useful, an' there ain't
anybody here that keers to help a feller that way--nobody."

The ancestor of the Browns of Middle Bethany was at Lexington on that
memorable morning in '75, and all of his promptness and his courage, ten
times multiplied, swelled the heart of his trembling little descendant,
as she faltered out:

"There's one."

"Who?" asked Toledo, before he could raise his eyes.

But though Miss Brown answered not a word, he did not repeat his
question, for such a rare crimson came into the little teacher's face,
that he hid it away in his breast, and acted as if he would never let it
out again.

Another knock at