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She shook her head

"Nope"

She was not disloyal to Teola in saying this

"I have offered you all the help a " Here his voice broke a little "All I have offered to do for you, you have refused Now, if you want me to continue to help your father, you are to tell irl rose the handsome, manly face of the student Her labor for the child and itsin the world would she have consented to do what she had done, if it had not been to save him pain

"Well, 'tain'tto anyone ye know It air only a brat what ain't nothin' but a grape-basket to sleep in And now ye says that if I wants my Daddy saved from the rope, I must tell yer whose it air I says it ain't mine And I says as how ye knows a new little bloke when ye sees one Here it air! And if ye don't know that it ain't er fool lawyer than I thinks ye air"

She was speaking rapidly, and had again slipped the cover fro it fro of the half-naked child caused the man to sink into his seat The blood-red cheeks of the squatter denoted perfect health The eyes ide, confiding and entreating Young held out his hands and took it from her Then, for the second time in her life, Tess noted eiven way before it And now in the strong friend of her father, who laid his face on the body of the infant, and sobbed

In an instant Tess was on her knees before him

"Air ye a-blattin' 'cause ye thinks it air my brat? Aw, ye knows it ain't Ye knows I air but a-takin' care of it till its ma can If I swears by the student's God, will ye believe?"

Young rose, white and nervous, froers he placed the little one in the receptacle, set the rag securely between its lips, and turned to Tess

"I believe you, child," he said wearily "I thought at first--oh, it was an awful thought for mebecause I love you, Tessibel"