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Updated: June 21, 2025
Jake's crooked fingers mounted from his hair line to the back of his skull, lifting the soft cap partly from his head. Then he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, there ain't no guilty man down there," he said, at last. "There air Orn Skinner " Burnett gave an exultant cry. "My God, I'd forgotten he came from this part of the country! So Skinner's here among this set of squatters, eh?
Besides a beautiful town rectory, he owned the lake farm and held the title to the small piece of property upon which Orn Skinner squatted. That the hut and its filth injured his own magnificent cottage no one denied. It was true he only spent ten or twelve weeks of the summer in the lake house, but every man desired his own.
Finally, she took a piece of paper and a pencil from the shelf. "Mammy," she wrote, "I's a-goin' to save Ben Letts. Ezy tells ye about it, as how Ben Letts killed the gamekeeper it werent Orn Skinner. I takes the brat cause it air Bens I luves yer and Satisfied."
"A gert, tall think 'e be, wi' a 'orn on 'is 'ead, and likewise a tail; some might ha' thought 't was the Wanderin' Man o' the Roads as I found 'angin' on t' stapil some on 'em du, but I knowed better I knowed 't were Old Nick 'isself, all flame, and brimstone, an' wi' a babby under 'is arm!" "A baby?" I repeated. "A babby as ever was," nodded the Ancient.
And square on "the bill" the girl got the caress and then eagerly hastened to fry the inevitable fish. "I air coming after ye to Longman's when the nettin's over," broke in Orn Skinner presently, his mouth full of bread and fish, "and ye'd best duck yer head in the lake, Tess, afore ye go. Yer face has a week's dirt caked on it." Tessibel allowed her red lips to spread wide in a loving smile.
Frederick Graves, like his father, would teach the Gospel of Christ, of peace and good-will to all mankind, but the deep burnishing of the beautiful hair as it swept the floor in red curls had much to do with Frederick's sympathy, for man-like, he looked upon Eve in her beauty and pitied. "Your father is Orn Skinner, who shot the gamekeeper to-night?" he asked presently.
"Say, by George, I didn't know Orn Skinner had a pretty kid like you." "My, didn't ye?" gurgled Tess, with shy lids drooping and her color mounting. "I thought everybody in the hull world knew I were Daddy's brat. He air had me fer ever so long. I been growed up for a lot of years." She shifted the owl in her arms. "This owl air named Deacon.... Want to pet 'im a minute, huh?"
"He'd git five thousand fer handin' me over to Waldstricker, alive," replied Andy, solemnly. "I wouldn't a gone up if 't 'adn't been fer him. He can lie faster'n a horse can trot." Heaving a deep sigh, Orn turned to his daughter. "What we goin' to do with my pal, Tess?" he asked.
"I dunno," Skinner muttered, "but I know this much, I don't like high born pups like him hangin' 'round my girl. 'Tain't fittin' an' I told Tess so!" Orn knocked the ashes out of his pipe and rose slowly. "Guess I'll be moseyin' 'long, pals," he smiled. "The brat'll be back 'fore long." "Wait a minute, Orn," Longman broke in. "Ma's got some pork an' beans she wants to send up to Mother Moll.
He had delivered his speech in pompous pride, his voice rising higher and louder with each word. "What do ye say, Orn?" he demanded. Skinner looked at Tess out of the corner of his eye. He could see her lips moving ever so slightly, and he knew she was murmuring a prayer for the little man in the straw. His own eyes felt stinging tears around their lids.
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