"Yeth he wath, brother," Bud broke in, while Bess Anderson blushed deeply at Bud's teasing name. Bill and Bess were far along the happy way of youth and love.
"Why, what did he fear?" Judson asked Dave Mead at the head of the table.
"Phil Baronet. He never would fight Phil. He didn't dare. He couldn't bear to be licked."
And then the conversation turned on me, and my virtues and shortcomings were reviewed in friendly gossip. Only Judson's face wore a sneer.
"I don't wonder this Jean was afraid of him," a recent-comer to the town declared.
"Oh, if he was afraid of this young man, this boy," Judson declared, "he would have feared something else; that's it, he'd been afraid of other things."
"He was," O'mie spoke up.
"Well, what was it, O'mie?" Dr. John queried.
"Ghosts," O'mie replied gravely. "Oh, I know," he declared, as the crowd laughed. "I can prove it to you and tell you all about it. I'll do it some day, but I'll need the schoolhouse and some lantern slides to make it effective. I may charge a small admission fee and give a benefit to defray Bud's expenses home from this trip."
"Would you really do that, O'mie?" Mary Gentry asked him.