n. One day, a long time ago, old General Lundsford came to
me--long after I had wallowed him, you understand. And now as to that
wallowin', why, he could have killed me if he had wanted to. He's game.
Well, he came to me, and about as nearly as I can ricollect said this:
'My son Chydister, strong-headed little rascal that he is, vows an'
declares that when he grows up he is goin' to marry your daughter
Guinea. I'll be frank with you and tell you that I didn't approve of it,
and I scouted the idea, not that your daughter ain't as good as any
girl, but because I don't mind tellin' you, I've got a family name to
keep up. I told him this, but he was so young and so headstrong that he
swore that it made no difference to him. You know they have played
together, up and down the branch, and he thinks there aint nobody like
her. Well, sir, he kept on talkin about it until I knowed that he was
set, and that there wasn't any use to try to turn him, so I began to
think it over seriously. That boy is my life's blood, and I want to
please him in every way I can, and I don't want him to marry beneath
him. I'm goin' to make a doctor out of him, the very best that can be
made, and his companion must be an educated woman. They are goin' to
marry when they grow up in spite of anything we can do, and now I've
got a request to make of you. I know that you wouldn't let me give you a
cent of money, but as an honest man you can't refuse to let me lend you
enough money to send your daughter to school along with my own daughter;
and whenever you think that you are able to pay me back, all right, and
if you never are able, it will still be all right.'"

The old man paused, and now I walked, along carrying the plow in front
of me, stumbling, seeing no road, caring not whither my feet might
wander. "I'll take it now," he said, reaching for the plow. "You don't
know how to tote it, nohow."

I pushed him back and said: "Go on with your story."

I was walking so fast that he was almost trotting to keep up with me.
"Right there I was weak," he said. "I thought of what a bright creature
my girl was, thought of what education would do for her, thought that I
could soon pay back the money, and I agreed. And I want to tell you that
it has been hot ashes on me ever since. They are goin' to marry all
right enough, but it galls me to think that I had to send her out to
have her educated at another man's expense--cuts me to think that she
wasn't good enough