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"All the boys do--all but Jed. I don't reckon he does."

"Do I have to like him because the boys do?" she demanded.

"O' course not." Dick stopped, trying to puzzle it out. "He says

you ain't to blame, that he lied to you. That seems right

strange, too. It ain't like Steve to lie."

"How do you know so much about him? You haven't known him a

week."

"That's what Jed says. I say it ain't a question of time. Some

men I've knew ten years I ain't half so sure of. He's a man from

the ground up. Any one could tell that, before they had seen him

five minutes."

Secretly, the girl was greatly pleased. She so wanted to believe

that Dick was right. It was what she herself had thought.

"I wish you'd seen him the day he pulled Siegfried out of Lost

Creek. Tell you, I thought they were both goners," Dick

continued.

"I expect it was most ankle-deep," she scoffed. "Hello, we're

past Bald Knob!"

"They both came mighty nigh handing in their checks."