hable English, there was trouble a-brew. It was a sign he had
never known to fail.

"I cannot understand the depraved instinct which prompts a man brutally
to destroy a life he cannot restore, and which in no way menaces his
own--or even interferes with his comfort. You may apologize to me; you
may even be sincerely repentant"--the schoolma'am's tone at this point
implied considerable doubt--"but you are powerless to return the life
you have so heedlessly taken. You have revealed a low, brutal trait
which I had hoped your nature could not harbor, and I am--am deeply
shocked and--and grieved."

Just here a tiny, dry-weather whirlwind swept around the corner, caught
ruffled, white apron and blue skirt in its gyrations and, pushing them
wickedly aside, gave Weary a brief, delicious glimpse of two small,
slippered feet and two distracting ankles. The schoolma'am blushed and
retreated to the doorstep, but she did not sit down. She still stood
straight and displeased beside him. Evidently she was still shocked
and grieved.

Weary tipped his head to one side so that be might look up at her from
under his hat-brim. "I'll get yuh another gopher; six, if yuh say so,"
he soothed, "The woods is full of 'em."

The angry, brown eyes of Miss Satterly swept the barren hills
contemptuously. She would not even look at him. "Pray do not
inconvenience yourself, Mr. Davidson. It is not the gopher that I care
for so much--it is the principle."

Weary sighed and slid the gun back into his pocket. It seemed to him
that Miss Satterly, adorable as she always was, was also rather
unreasonable at times. "All right, I'll get yuh another principle,
then."

"Mr. Davidson," she said sternly, "you are perfectly odious!"

"Is that something nice, Girlie?" Weary smiled trustfully up at her.

"Odious," explained the schoolma'am haughtily, "is not something nice.
I'm sorry your education has been so neglected. Odious, Mr. Davidson,
is a synonym for hateful, obnoxious, repulsive, disagreeable,
despicable--"

"I never did like cinnamon, anyhow," put in Weary, cheerfully.

"I did not mention cinnamon. I said--"

"Say, yuh look out uh sight with your hair fixed that way. I wish
you'd wear it like that all the time," he observed irrelevantly,
looking up at her with his sunniest smile.

"I wish to goodness I were really out of sight," snapped the
schoolma'am. "You make me exceedingly weary."

"_Mrs._ Weary," corrected he, compla