"They are warming up to their work," Guinea remarked, and her mother sighed; and then she began to talk louder than was her wont, striving to drown the old man's voice. "It isn't any use, mother," said the girl. "The gentleman will find it out sooner or later." "And I suppose," said I, "that you think that you may find out my name sooner or later. Please pardon me for not introducing myself. My name is----" "Hike, there, Bob! Get him down, Sam! Now you are at it! Hike, there!" "My name is Hawes, William Hawes, and I am from Alabama." "And you have come to teach the school?" said the girl. "Yes, if I can make the arrangements." "But is there anything very satisfying in such an occupation?" she asked. I felt then that she placed no very high estimate upon my worth, and on her part this was but natural, for among country people school-teaching is looked upon as a lazy calling. "I have not chosen teaching as my real vocation," I answered. "Hike, there, I tell you! Hike!" "It is my aim to be a lawyer, to be eloquent, to stir emotions, to be strong in the presence of men. My earlier advantages, no matter how I sought to turn them about, gave me no promise of reaching the bar; I had good primary training, but in reality I had to educate myself, and in the work of a teacher I saw a hope to lead me onward." "Came within one of letting them fight to a finish," said the old man, stepping into the room. "Limuel, why will you always humiliate me?" his wife asked, placing a chair for him. "Humiliate you! Bless your life, I wouldn't humiliate you. The only trouble is that you are tryin' to make me fit a garment you've got, ruther than to make the garment fit me. I ain't doin' no harm, Susan, and it's my way, and you can't very well knock the spots off'en a leopard nur skin an Etheopian. Here comes Alf." The son was a young fellow of good size, shapely, and with his mother's black eyes. Guinea introduced me to him, and at once I felt that I should like to win his friendship. The old man explained my presence there. "And now," said he, "I want you to go over to old Perdue's with him after dinner and see if any arrangements can be made. He's goin' to board with us, and I want to tell you right now that he is from good stock; his grandaddy was the captain of the company that my daddy fit in durin' the Creek war, and from what I learn I don't reckon there was ever sich fightin' before nor since. What are they doin' over at the General's?" "Nothing much," Alf answered. "They started to plow this morning, but it is still most too wet." "Was Millie at home?" Guinea asked. "I think so, but I suppose you know that Chid isn't." "Never mind that," the old man spoke up. "Leave all cuttin' and slashin' to folks that ain't no kin to each other. You've been to dinner, have you, Alf? Well, hitch the mare to the buckboard and go with this gentleman over to old Perdue's." CHAPTER IV.