ave explained. The merchant made no comment, but when he paid off the
men Saturday night he said with careful casualness, "Sorry, Sanders. The
work will be slack next week. I'll have to lay you off."

The man from Canon City understood. He looked for another place, was
rebuffed a dozen times, and at last was given work by an employer who had
vision enough to know the truth that the bad men do not all go to prison
and that some who go may be better than those who do not.

In this place Sanders lasted three weeks. He was doing concrete work on a
viaduct job for a contractor employed by the city.

This time it was a fellow-workman who learned of the Arizonan's record.
A letter from Emerson Crawford, forwarded by the warden of the
penitentiary, dropped out of Dave's coat pocket where it hung across
a plank.

The man who picked it up read the letter before returning it to the
pocket. He began at once to whisper the news. The subject was discussed
back and forth among the men on the quiet. Sanders guessed they had
discovered who he was, but he waited for them to move. His years in
prison had given him at least the strength of patience. He could bide
his time.

They went to the contractor. He reasoned with them.

"Does his work all right, doesn't he? Treats you all civilly. Doesn't
force himself on you. I don't see any harm in him."

"We ain't workin' with no jail bird," announced the spokesman.

"He told me the story and I've looked it up since. Talked with the lawyer
that defended him. He says the man Sanders killed was a bad lot and had
stolen his horse from him. Sanders was trying to get it back. He claimed
self-defense, but couldn't prove it."

"Don't make no difference. The jury said he was guilty, didn't it?"

"Suppose he was. We've got to give him a chance when he comes out,
haven't we?"

Some of the men began to weaken. They were not cruel, but they were
children of impulse, easily led by those who had force enough to push
to the front.

"I won't mix cement with no c

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

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