Sudden Jim

further parleying might have postponed or prevented. Again he had acted swiftly, suddenly, surprisingly to himself. Yet as he thought it over he was less inclin

tion, and that there remained only to surrender, play for dela

s not until seven. He dressed leisurely and descended to the piazza, where, grouped abou

as a wren. "You're an early bird. Thought

down the walk and strode away with the intention of

. Moran-you'll be meeting each other in a business way considerable. He o

ed a cordial welcome to Diversity, Jim was aware the man's clear gray eyes

of heart since last

folks will be quoting a discount o

in this business twenty

ard jest for fun. But most gen'ally, when an old

tement over a conversation as one would lower a candle-snuffer over the flame, and that a new subject to talk about became immediately desirable. The old justice

asked Mr. Welliver,

to run my own bu

his erect and beautifu

gan, suggestively, but did not

Jim said. "I'm off for a walk to

a brain reasonably able to travel from patent cause to obvious effect, or to reach a conclusion that birds which flock together are likely to be similarly feathered. The height of stupidity for a man in Jim's situation would have been not to speculate on the manifest acquaintance between Mr. Welliver, Michael Moran, and Justice of the Peace Frame. He

to climb a knoll surmounted by a lonely hickory-tree. From the top of this knoll Jim hoped to have a general view of the country and so to acquaint himself at a glance with the topography of his new home. He scrambled up, and reached the top breathless. The last dozen feet had been steep, hid

sed lips can speak, that young woman was saying

on," Jim panted.

seen me," she

," said Jim. "I shoul

eve he had seen her and had climbed up to her, probably in the prosecution of the common masculine ambition

sterday," she said,

I was staring at the expression in your eyes-the hun

her eyes darkened;

ot of Jim, not of herself, not of anybod

things on my mind than unexpected young women on hilltops at unholy hours in the morning. I am sorry I disturbed you." He did not go, but stood looking down at her. She was looking past him down

on. Jim thought she would have been homely were it not for the graceful settin

y in the morning and come here," she said, not so much sullenly as

t," said Jim,

ful litheness and stood facing him, her hands

look out of. I can see beyond Diversity. Sometimes a vessel passes. I imagine I am on it, going away-to Chicago-to New York-to San Francisco. Here I can turn my back on Diversity and see where its dead hand cannot reach. I hate the town, I hate the people, but most of all I hate the children. Oh, look shocked! But sit in a room with thirty of them

that was ludicrously paternal, "you're wor

tree, panting, clutching the folds

ing in a graveyard where there's a perpetual fog. Other people live. Other people have thi

outside the purview of his experience. It was a little adventure into a

why in thunder don't you

f it, but I'm safe. It might be less hideously barren if I weren't. I'm alone. I've been alone since I was fifteen. Some day it'll be too much for me and I'll go. But I won't be fooled into it. I'll go with my eyes open, knowing why I go. If I go nobody'll be to blame-exce

en in the bad ones there's more good than bad. I believe if you were to take all the law and machinery of the law, all the police, all the social protection out of the world to-day, that to-morrow the force for right which is in the world would assert itself. There is so much more good than bad in the world that the bad wou

efend themsel

ng men; I'm defe

inkling blue of the lake. When she spoke it was les

if my eyes reached far enough, they would see something thr

hing has happened

en for it! It's all so drowsy, so placid, and I'm tied t

dly, if life here is so unen

having lost my parents, added to the inconsequential condition that the forty doll

m him and started down

ou. After this I never want to see you again. I had to say these things to somebody

lderment. He was startled. His sensation was such as if he ha

n lumber-lack who had risen to be a walking boss. He found that Diversity returned he

f less than a thousand souls