Gordon Keith

a very advanced seminary of learning, and possibly the young

system hardly less conservative than that of the Locrians. Any one who proposed an innovat

t to the squire, the old

idea you'd be so big a man." He measured him with

shoulders, but not so ta

ection in his eye. "You're a-goin' to try the Ridge College, are you?" He

n's face lit up. "I don't know m

y pleased

afred you mightn't be quite up to the place here; you was rather young wh

interrupted the young man,

them Dennison boys is pretty hard to learn an

ted Gordon, confidently. The

n' you they need. You've got to learn 'em a good deal, or they

ated that he though

ke to interfere with them," he drawled. "But you're pretty young to manage 'em jest so; you ain't quite big enough either, and you're too big to gi

n through the cat-hole either. I'll pr

u in anything you do, except to pizon 'em with slow pizon, a

and presently, as the outer man's g

and the trustee went on t

to five in winter, and you'll find all the books necessary in the book-chist. We had to have 'em locked up to keep 'em awa

," said Gordon. "Seems to me they

' th'ain't never been any change in 'em. An' I ain't see as they've ever been too long--leastways, I never see as the

on at once, as his father had warned him. The struggle was bitter, if brief,

o learn them scholars an' not the trustees," he said

is eyes were resting on him, an

'at he'd better stick to abusin' the sins of Esau and Jacob an

ve you satisfact

eased. His face relaxe

dly. "Not if you're like your father. I told 'em

softened eyes. A mention of his

sfaction," he said earnestl

es

he experiment of running it my way for, say, two months, and then come to another examina

o, Gordon Keith won another victory, and s

ght give Phrony a few extra lessons to fit her for a bo'din'

his young horses for him, drove his wagon, mended his vehicles, and

young man grew, the squir

he was right persuasive," continued the squire, "and I thought if all that money was a-goin' to be made and them railroads had to come, like he said, jest as certain as water runnin' down a hill, I might as well git some of it. I had a little slipe or two up there before, and havin' a

ountry," made her quite the belle of the region. She had already made a deep impression on both big Jake Dennison and his younger brother Dave. Dave was secretly in love with her, but Jake was openly so, a condition which he manifested by being as plainly and as

l with. She was much more intent on making an imp

e rather to make eyes at him, which if Keith ever dreamed of, he never gave the least sign of it. Sh

of a single room, with a small porch in fr

w duties, found his position much e

n the session, he had a week of surprising quiet. The school filled day after day, and even the noted Dennison boys, from Jacob Dennison, the strapping six-foot senior, down to

ce of the simplest things. It was incredible to him that, with so many hours of so-called study, so little progress had been made. He stated this in plain language, and outlined his plan for sh

is t

was no

?" he demanded. "I thou

't speakin' to you," said

ess yourself to me," said Keith. He c

oughtn't," said J

to see th

runt and a sneer, and the school rustle

hin revealed the fact that it was no accident, and the guffaw of derision that greeted his sharp comma

ake Dennison, ins

sung through

doin' dyah? Settin' in de c

y a puff of tobacco smoke through the keyhole

ore, dismissed all the younger scholars. The Dennisons and one or two larger boys he ordered to remain. As the scholars filed out, there was a colloquy between Jacob Dennison and his younger brother Dave. Dave had the brains of the family, and he was whispering to Jake. Keith moved his chair and seated

he door, the others f

se from

spoke so quietly that his v

der, contemptuously. "'Tain't no use for you to t

from which he had risen, and whirling it high above his head, brought it crashing down on his assail

an instinct the mutineers fell into the nearest seats, and Keith turned back to his first opponent, who was ju

your seat, I'll dash your

l in the eye. He still grasped the chair, and as he tightened his grip on it, the crestfallen bu

oys, who had gone out with the rest, hearing the fight, had rushed back, and, just as Keith drove

ve Dennison, confound y

ying to reach him with both fist and fo

ing Dave, the smallest member of the Dennison

g him into a seat and holding him there. "I'm n

d to see that Jake was not much h

but the young teacher did not move. He wrote letter after letter. It began to grow dark; he simply lit the little lamp on his desk, and taking up a book, settled down to read; and when at last he rose a

hey would sustain his action he would do his best to make the school th

e those youngsters need," said Dr.

n ride 'em," sa

ted to su

he said he might have to chop it down again. Not that there was not some hostility to him among those to whom his methods were too novel; but when he began to teach his pupils boxing, and showed that with his fists he was more than a match for Jake Dennison, the chief opposition to him died out; and before the year ended, Jake Dennison, putting into practice the art

fallen from a tree and broken his leg--"gettin' hawks' eggs for Phrony," Keith's i

ld him, she could not help it. She did not want the eggs, anyhow," she said disda

ith went over the

one of the little mountain creeks. When Keith arrived he found Mrs. Dennison, a small, angular woman with sharp eyes, a thin nose, and thin lips, very stiff and suspicious. She had never forgiven Keith

said he was better. She couldn' see no change. Yes, he could

shut off for so many weary weeks. He returned Keith's greeting in the half-surly way in which he had always received his advances since the day of the row; but when Keith sat down on the bed and began to talk to him c

ings, had scared him by telling him she thought it might have to be done; but Keith was able to r

leased Dave. The pale face relaxed into a smile. Keith told him stories of other boys who had had similar accidents and had turned them to good account--

cheered, and even the dismal woman at the door gave

And when, weeks later, the lame boy was able to return to school, Keith had no firmer friend in all the Ridge region than Dave Dennison, and Dave had made a mental progress w

he ladder the young teacher looked far up the shining steep to where Fame and Glory beckoned with their radiant hands. He would be known. He woul

capitalist. He had no idea before of the

return for your in

he squire, slowly; "but an investment ain't done till

" said Keit

him so loosely that he appeared in the distance hardly more than a rack to support them. As he came nearer he was a simple old countryman with a deeply graved face and unkempt air. On ne

mself knew at the time. For it is only by looking back