Jed’s voice was a trifle less listless as he answered.

“It was told me in confidence, Sam,” he said.  “I couldn’t tell you.  And, as time went along and I began to see what a fine boy Charlie really was, I felt sure ’twould all come out right in the end.  And it has, as I see it.”

“What?”

“Yes, it’s come out all right.  Charlie’s gone to fight, same as every decent young feller wants to do.  He thinks the world of Maud and she does of him, but he was honorable enough not to ask her while he worked for you, Sam.  He wrote the letter after he’d gone so as to make it easier for her to say no, if she felt like sayin’ it.  And when he came back from enlistin’ he was goin’ straight to you to make a clean breast of everything.  He’s a good boy, Sam.  He’s had hard luck and he’s been in trouble, but he’s all right and I know it.  And you know it, too, Sam Hunniwell.  Down inside you you know it, too.  Why, you’ve told me a hundred times what a fine chap Charlie Phillips was and how much you thought of him, and—­”

Captain Hunniwell interrupted.  “Shut up!” he commanded.  “Don’t talk to me that way!  Don’t you dare to!  I did think a lot of him, but that was before I knew what he’d done and where he’d been.  Do you cal’late I’ll let my daughter marry a man that’s been in state’s prison?”

“But, Sam, it wan’t all his fault, really.  And he’ll go straight from this on.  I know he will.”

“Shut up!  He can go to the devil from this on, but he shan’t take her with him. . . .  Why, Jed, you know what Maud is to me.  She’s all I’ve got.  She’s all I’ve contrived for and worked for in this world.  Think of all the plans I’ve made for her!”

“I know, Sam, I know; but pretty often our plans don’t work out just as we make ’em.  Sometimes we have to change ’em—­or give ’em up.  And you want Maud to be happy.”

“Happy!  I want to be happy myself, don’t I?  Do you think I’m goin’ to give up all my plans and all my happiness just—­just because she wants to make a fool of herself?  Give ’em up!  It’s easy for you to say ‘give up.’  What do you know about it?”

It was the last straw.  Jed sprang to his feet so suddenly that his chair fell to the floor.

“Know about it!” he burst forth, with such fierce indignation that the captain actually gasped in astonishment.  “Know about it!” repeated Jed.  “What do I know about givin’ up my own plans and—­ and hopes, do you mean?  Oh, my Lord above!  Ain’t I been givin’ ‘em up and givin’ ’em up all my lifelong?  When I was a boy didn’t I give up the education that might have made me a—­a man instead of—­of a town laughin’ stock?  While Mother lived was I doin’ much but give up myself for her?  I ain’t sayin’ ’twas any more’n right that I should, but I did it, didn’t I?  And ever since it’s been the same way.  I tell you, I’ve come to believe that life for me means one ‘give up’ after the other and won’t mean anything but that till I die.  And you—­you ask me what I know about it!  You do!”