"And," continued the young girl brightly, "the freight question is
getting to be a pretty serious one. Aunt Miranda holds some shares in
the Briggsville branch line, and thinks something could be done with
the directors for a new tariff of charges if she put a pressure on them;
Tyler says that there was some talk of their reducing it one sixteenth
per cent. before we move this year's crop."

Courtland glanced quickly at his companion's face. It was grave, but
there was the faintest wrinkling of the corner of the eyelid nearest
him. "Had we not better leave these serious questions until to-morrow?"
he said, smiling.

Miss Sally opened her eyes demurely. "Why, yo' seemed SO quiet, I
reckoned yo' must be full of business this morning; but if yo' prefer
company talk, we'll change the subject. They say that yo' and Miss Reed
didn't have much trouble to find one last Sunday. She don't usually talk
much, but she keeps up a power of thinking. I should reckon," she added,
suddenly eying him critically, "that yo' and she might have a heap o'
things to say to each other. She's a good deal in yo' fashion,
co'nnle, she don't forget, but"--more slowly--"I don't know that THAT'S
altogether the best thing for YO'!"

Courtland lifted his eyes with affected consternation. "If this is in
the light of another mysterious warning, Miss Dows, I warn you that my
intellect is already tottering with them. Last Sunday Miss Reed thrilled
me for an hour with superstition and Cassandra-like prophecy. Don't
things ever happen accidentally here, and without warning?"

"I mean," returned the young lady with her usual practical directness,
"that Tave Reed remembers a good many horrid things about the wah that