My father and Miss Huntingdon would, of course, be ready to protect our small man as far as was in their power. But they, especially my father, were often far removed in higher spheres of work, while Miss Huntingdon was never in the boys' playground at all. But I had none of these disabilities. I was instructed, sharp-eyed, always on the spot, with fists in good repair--armed, too, with a certain authority and the habit of using it to the full. So little Louis found himself among his boys. I picked him out half-a-dozen of the most peaceable to play with, after he had received his first lesson from a very proud and smiling Miss Huntingdon. Miss Irma, after being formally introduced to the school, left the sort of throne which had been set for her beside my father, to go and sit beside Agnes Anne at the top of the highest form of girls. Her presence made a hush among the elder boys, and such of the young men as happened to be there that day. For though we had scholars up to the age of twenty, most of these were at work during the summer and came only in the winter season--though in the interval betwixt sowing and hay-harvest and between that again and the ripening of the corn we would receive stray visits from them, especially in the long wet spells of weather. It was at noon and the girls were walking in their playground talking with linked arms, apart from the noisy sportings of the boys, when I caught my first glimpse of Uncle Rob. He was standing right opposite the school in the big door of the Eden Valley Mill. I wondered what he was doing there, for it was not the season for grinding much corn. Besides, it would have been handier to send it down and call for it again during such a busy season on the farm. So I ran across and asked him what he was doing there. I could hardly hear his answer, for the loud _plash-plash_ of the buckets of water as they fell into the great pool underneath the wheel. I understood him, however, to say that it was open to me to attend to my own business and leave him to look after his. In a moment the demon of jealousy entered into my soul. Could it be that he came there to be near Irma--Irma, whom I had fought for and saved half-a-dozen times over all by myself--for it is not worth while going back to what Agnes Anne did, as it were, accidentally. I was so angry at the mere thought that there and then I charged him with his perfidy. He laughed a short, contemptuous laugh. "And what for no," he answered; "at least _I_ have a trade at my finger-ends. I can drive a plough. I can thresh a mow. At a pinch I can even shoe a horse. But you--you have quit even the school-mastering!"