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I've seen her leave the house on a bright Sabbath half an hour before meetin' to be gone the whole day, and Hilary and all the ministers in town couldn't stop her." "I'll drop in once in a while to see you, Phrasie. I'll be at Jabe Jenney's." "Jabe's is not more than three or four miles from Flint's place," Euphrasia remarked. "I've thought of that," said Austen. "You'd thought of it!"
Before he realized what was happening, Jabe's left, sent in with tremendous force, hit him a smashing blow squarely on the nose, knocking him over backward. It was the beginning of the end. Percy tottered up, blood spurting from his nose, his head spinning. He saw Jabe preparing for another rush and knew it would be the last one. He stiffened himself to receive the knock-out.
The quilting party, we were informed, was expected to be a grand affair, provided, of course, there were no signs of rain; for country people are not expected to venture out for pleasure in rainy weather. Captain Jabe's house, as we saw it the next morning, was a good-sized waterside farmhouse, wide-spreading and low-roofed.
He had stanched the flow of blood from his nose, but it still pained him, and he was otherwise bruised and badly shaken by the buffets from Jabe's knobby fists. Judged by Percy's feelings, Jabe must have been all knuckles. Percy had to acknowledge that only Spurling's opportune appearance had saved him from being pounded unmercifully. But his pride had been injured far more than his physical body.
A tall, broad-shouldered figure broke through the circle. "What's the trouble here?" It was Spurling's voice. His glance took in the situation. "That'll be about all," he said. "Come away, Whittington!" A bullet-headed, shirt-sleeved man bristled up defiantly. It was Jabe's father. "Guess we'll let 'em fight it out," he observed. His boy was winning. "No," said Jim. "It's gone far enough."
That evening, when the whole story was told, the woodsmen were indignant, for a time, because the half-breeds had been let go; but at last they gave heed to Jabe's representations, and acknowledged that the Boy's plan had saved a "sight of bother."
Timothy trudged beside him, carrying the basket of greens in one hand, and the other locked in Jabe's huge paw; his eyes upturned and shining with pleasure, his lips moving as if he were chattering like a magpie.
"Hum! . . . W-e-e-ll. . . . One time when I was a little shaver, Sam, down to the fishhouse, I tried on a pair of Cap'n Jabe Kelly's rubber boots. You remember Cap'n Jabe, Sam, of course. Do you remember his feet?" The captain chuckled. "My dad used to say Jabe's feet reminded him of a couple of chicken-halibut."
They did not even dare to look at each other, but kept their narrow, beady eyes fixed on Jabe's face. The Boy came swiftly to Jabe's side. "Neat shot!" said the woodsman; but the note of astonished admiration in his tone was the most thrilling compliment the Boy had ever received. "What are you going to do with them, Jabe?" he inquired, mildly. "That's fer you to say!
Savagely, though somewhat wearily, yet with undaunted determination, Jabe rushed him and struck out with his left. For the first time in the battle Percy launched in with all his strength. He cross-countered with his right on the point of Jabe's jaw. It was the wind-up. Jabe hit the hayseed in a heap. For a few seconds he lay motionless, then struggled to a sitting position.
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