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Teeftallow

15

halted and left him marooned on the spot with a burning but unsatisfied curiosity concerning the colour, shape, and general condition of the other side of the mule. So all he could do was to stare fixedly at the mule's available side and speculate on the animal's entirety as astronomers speculate on the farther side of the moon.

It was hardly a convincing pose. It seemed to Abner that the girl saw through him, had become angry at him, and was wishing for him to go away. He could feel her pushing at his back with invisible arms, shoving him away from her.

The girl herself had become absolutely motionless, as a squirrel "freezes" to a tree when in danger. The utter novelty and uncertainty of the enterprise jangled at the boy's nerves. He was within the specified distance of the girl and now waited tensely for Zed to come and introduce him, yet he dreaded the ordeal tremendously.

Just as a hope began to dawn that Zed had forgotten this social engagement, he saw his friend and two other rustics enter the courthouse gate together. A lump arose in Abner's throat; he cursed himself for not having fled minutes ago.

The three young men entering the gate were in a gale of spirits. All were slightly drunk. One gave the other a hard but playful blow, then started to run. The second thrust out his foot and with a trip sent the first forward in a stumbling fall. Zed headed into the two, and so the three came ricochetting across the grass in this rough horse-play until with a whirl and a shove Zed sent one of the youths flying sidewise at the boy. The next moment Abner was catapulted squarely into the flaxen-haired girl behind him.

Teeftallow tried desperately hard to miss her, but Zed was as good as his word in bringing the two together. Abner struck her in the chest with his shoulder, but succeeded in keeping his feet and even prevented her from falling.

"Lord-a-mercy!" gasped the hill boy in the utmost confusion, "please excuse me; them blasted fellers bumped into me . . ." He got her balanced on her feet.