“Yes, I should say ’twas. . . .  But Maud, how about her?  You had consider’ble of a job makin’ her see that you was worth waitin’ for, I presume likely, eh?”

Maud laughed and blushed and bade him behave himself.  Jed demanded to be told more particulars concerning the enlisting.  So Charles told the story of his Boston trip, while Maud looked and listened adoringly, and Jed, watching the young people’s happiness, was, for the time, almost happy himself.

When they rose to go Charlie laid a hand on Jed’s shoulder.

“I can’t tell you,” he said, “what a brick you’ve been through all this.  If it hadn’t been for you, old man, I don’t know how it might have ended.  We owe you about everything, Maud and I. You’ve been a wonder, Jed.”

Jed waved a deprecating hand.  “Don’t talk so, Charlie,” he said, gruffly.

“But, I tell you, I—­”

“Don’t. . . .  You see,” with a twist of the lip, “it don’t do to tell a—­a screech owl he’s a canary.  He’s liable to believe it by and by and start singin’ in public. . . .  Then he finds out he’s just a fool owl, and has been all along.  Humph!  Me a wonder! . . .  A blunder, you mean.”

Neither of the young people had ever heard him use that tone before.  They both cried out in protest.

“Look here, Jed—­” began Phillips.

Maud interrupted.  “Just a moment, Charlie,” she said.  “Let me tell him what Father said last night.  When he went out he left me crying and so miserable that I wanted to die.  He had found Charlie’s letter and we—­we had had a dreadful scene and he had spoken to me as I had never heard him speak before.  And, later, after he came back I was almost afraid to have him come into the room where I was.  But he was just as different as could be.  He told me he had been thinking the matter over and had decided that, perhaps, he had been unreasonable and silly and cross.  Then he said some nice things about Charlie, quite different from what he said at first.  And when we had made it all up and I asked him what had changed his mind so he told me it was you, Jed.  He said he came to you and you put a flea in his ear.  He wouldn’t tell me what he meant, but he simply smiled and said you had put a flea in his ear.”

Jed, himself, could not help smiling faintly.

“W-e-e-ll,” he drawled, “I didn’t use any sweet ile on the job, that’s sartin.  If he said I pounded it in with a club ’twouldn’t have been much exaggeration.”

“So we owe you that, too,” continued Maud.  “And, afterwards, when Daddy and I were talking we agreed that you were probably the best man in Orham.  There!”

And she stooped impulsively and kissed him.

Jed, very much embarrassed, shook his head.  “That—­er—­insect I put in your pa’s ear must have touched both your brains, I cal’late,” he drawled.  But he was pleased, nevertheless.  If he was a fool it was something to have people think him a good sort of fool.