Sudden Jim

he had been of two minds whether he should go in or pass on about

called Zaan

him. Over the top of this a pair of sharp blue eyes shaded by bushy eyebrows, each of which would ha

snorted

ffly, "that you don't like me. I can't say I h

eceived the tablets of stone. "Young feller, if you hain't too young to learn, lemme tell you it's possible to ketch more flies with maple sugar than you kin with stummick bitters.

ecause I have been assured that

ed Zaanan. "Um! I figgered you'd be to see me-or else you wouldn't.

think I'm getting ready

's grammar, hain't it, but I dun'no's I ever expected to he

deed," said Ji

e only boarder

ucharme is

twinkling again. "Makes it pleasanter, I

bear up under the blow if I w

"Mill hain't runnin

to see you about-tha

t? New machines? Oug

But, Judge, it looks a lot as

asiest ways of givin' information is to think up words that mean what you want to tell and then

reak down. Somebody has been driving nails into our logs to dull our saw

mebody's doin'

es

any p

evidence as he had, but it was su

't no doubt of it. Su

rking the mischief, but I have an

rin' him to do

es

ight i

the organization of clothespin manufacturers. I'm in a fight with them now beca

at he wasn't tickled to death with you and your doin's.

everybody-and I'm going to be

eh? Figgered I was tarred with

u with them the morning after my row with We

be. Knowed 'em

bad situation to deal with. I came to you-I don't

said Zaanan, w

heard th

se to you. Nobody'd climb a greased pole if 'twa'n't for the five-dollar bill t

against a fight he feels lonesome. He likes to know there's somebody besides himself to depend on. I had no reason to e

saction; but it was consid'able more of one to git 'em back to lovin' and trustin' after they'd started runnin' round for a lawyer to git 'em a divorce. The law don't give me the right to do quite a stretch of the meddlin' I do; but it sort of appertains to this here office, and I do it. You don't want nothin' of me that's printed

e like this, without any idea what I wanted. I need help, but what kind of he

it leetle Georgie Reed up before me for stealin' melons. The ol' man missed a big melon-next day Georgie was bein' doctored for stummick-ache. 'Twa'n't out of reason. It was evidence I was willin' to weigh and pass on in private. I calc'late Georgie et that melon.

out of the office; but a sense of humor came to his rescue. He turned

ened, was whittling on Zaanan's doorstep. It was his custom to do so during Zaanan's office hours, for Dolf desired greatly to be useful to the dictator of Diversi

Zaanan asked. "Time

le to spar

e, Dolf? Eh? Was that w

n' out for

Didn't happen to be goin' o

e I was goin'. Had a

So far you couldn't

ght, J

r's, was you-up back of t

etle past t

now Gi

'late

igger on stoppin' for a chat? And if y

adn't seen him f

be s

tion I seen

it looked like business was pickin' up and stirrin' times was comin'? Eh?

, I guess I'd make s

-mill? And allude to how the whistle's always tootin'

nt'restin' ne

was the cause of it? Eh? Might suggest that somebody up hi

o be so,"

olf," sai

Judge,"

, tied his horse to a tree by the roadside and plunged into the woods-jack-pine, scrub-oak, underbrush. Fifteen minutes' scrambling brought him to

that spot from anywhere, but simply to be there all at once. He was what our grandmothers would have called a "fine figger" of a man

der his arm-and the manner in which he carried it. It explained

ted?" inqui

Frame

axed. "Then you're

nt a message, but I can't mak

intended you shou

ne out; and that business was pickin' up and stirrin' times was ahead; and that the new clothespin-mill was havin' trouble with its machinery a

in' righ

he wanted me to s

s then. You k

ed. It was a peculiar thing to see. Somehow it was not reassuring, but exce

again that night. But that worried Dolf very little. Indeed, i

thely into the shanty, laboriously wrote a letter to Za

better make tracks

ot argue t