The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-02

give you to understand" and he strengthened himself up like young giant. "Give me back my weapons '" and he took a nasty step towards her.
 There was little click of the pistol in Zelma's hand, and he paused.
 "Thunder! you'd as lief shoot a fel- low as not, I believe" he exclaimed :; and he could not help gazing, with some degree of admiration, at the spirited little teacher who stood im- perially before the huge truant, level ing his own revolver at him.
 "You will not find it very safe to menace me. intend to be obeyed without further trifling, too. Do you surrender, William Warren?" de- manded the plucky girl.
 The angry, sullen look gradually faded from his face, and for answer he turned and walked towards the school house, keeping close by Zelma's side.
 No word was necessary to prove that the encounter had resulted for him in a Waterloo; he was van- quished. Had it been feasible, Zelma might have banished him to St. Hell ena for all the resistance that Bill would have made.
 The incredulous stares of the schol- ars with which they favored Zelma as she marched in with her captive can be more easily imagined than de- scribed.
 She talked to him earnestly on the sin of disobedience, but she did not lecture him long before the whole school. He humbly stood with dropped head and listened to Zelma's words, then, when she had finished, the crushed, would-be outlaw took his seat and displayed assiduous atten- tion to his books for the remainder of the day.
 That evening she dismissed them all except Bill, whom she desired to re- main.
 Little Lola Warren hurried home with wild eyes to tell the news at home.
 "You ought to saw Bill," she said excitedly to her parents. "Why, he looked just as scared as could be when Miss Zelma walked him in. And she's kept him in, and she's got his rife and pistol by her desk, and I just expect she'll nigh about wear Bill out if he don't mind her."
 "God grant that she may reform my wayward boy" sighed Mrs. War ren. And MT. Warren echoed the prayerful hope.
 AS Zelma sat by the conquered "ter- TOT" that evening, she implored him to consider his parents, whose heads were bowed in trouble over his wild ways; she appealed to his sense of honor; she urged him kindly to think and develop the better nature and manhood that she knew was in him.
 When she ceased speaking to him, tears stood in her lovely dark eyes, and, could it be possible?-yes, there were tears, also, in the deep, blue eyes of Bill Warren. Zelma had moved him as he had never been moved be- fore.
 "Pve been an ugly, big brute, Miss Zelma, and beg your pardon" he taking the hand which she offered him as a sign that peace was restored between them.
 "You ought to shoot me down like a prairie dog for the mean way rve acted. Nobody ever talked to me as if there was anything but meanness in me. But you, Miss Zelma, make me see my ugly, rough self in such light that I want to make change"
 "And you can make a change for the better, Will, if you will try. True, earnestness never yet failed if it was on the side of right" she re- piled.
 "Tll begin at once to try. Pm re- solved to make man of myself or Ill ride over to the Indian camp and pay some Arapahoe brave to scalp me-" he responded, and then they parted for the night.
 Bill was faithful to his word. He did try to become 8 man, and the progress he made furnished Coyote Prairie with gossip enough to last it a lifetime. In school he applied him. self diligently to his studies, and his good mind readily grasped the most knotty subjects. No one was 80 tireless as he in assisting Zelma to make the school house comfortable for winter, while his gentlemanly deport- ment was the wonder of his school mates. But Bill Warren came of a fine family; he possessed the clements of noble manhood, but had never de- veloped them; hence, his reformation was the more rapid, the more notice able.
 "I jes' believe you-uns air a witch, Miss Zelmy," Mrs. Hadley said to her one wet evening that Zelma had come home with the children from school. 'Nothin' short of 8 right big hunk O would tuck the all-fired 1 stiffenin' outen thet wild Bill Warren vnyr nna hay dopa0