up to, you slinkin' varmint ... I know where
you was Tuesday." Scattergood took possession of this sentence and
placed it in the safety-deposit box of his memory. Where had Asa been
Tuesday, he wondered, and what had Asa been doing there?

"I've put up with a heap from you, for you're my own flesh and blood. I
hain't never laid a hand on you, though I've threatened it often. But
now! by Gawd, I'm goin' to take you apart so's nobody kin put you
together ag'in ... you mis'able, cheatin', low-down, crawlin' snake."
With that he stepped back a pace and with his open palm struck Asa
across the mouth.

Asa licked his lips and continued to smile his crooked, saturnine smile.

"Hain't scarcely room in here," he said, softly.

"Git outside and take off your coat," said Abner, "for I'm goin' to fix
you so's nobody kin ever accuse flesh and blood of mine of doin' agin
what I've ketched you doin'."

"What's gnawin' you," said Asa, softly, "is that I got the best farm and
that I'm a-goin' to git your girl."

There was a stark pause. Abner stiffened, grew tense, as one becomes at
the moment of bursting into dynamic action, but he did not stir.
Scattergood was surprised, but he was more surprised by Abner's next
words. "I hain't goin' to half kill you on account of your lyin' to
father, nor on account of her--it's on account of _her_." The sentence
seemed without sense or meaning, but Scattergood placed it with his
other collected sentences; he did not perceive its meaning, but he did
perceive that the first 'her' and the second 'her' were pronounced so
that they became different words, like names, indicating, identifying,
different persons. That was Scattergood's notion.

Asa turned on his heel and walked into the square, removing his coat as
he went; Abner followed. They faced each other, crouching. Abner's face
depicting wrath, Asa's depicting hatred.... Before a blow was struck, a
girl, tall, slender, deep-bosomed, fit mate for a man of might, pushed
through the circle of spectators. Her face was pale and distressed, but
very lovely. Her brown eyes were dark with the emotion of the moment,
and a wisp of wavy brown hair lay unnoticed upon her broad forehead....
She walked to Abner's side and touched his arm.

"Abner!" she said, gently.

He turned his blazing eyes upon her. "Not this time" he said. "Go away,
Mary." Even in his rage he spoke to her in a voice of reverence.

"Abner!" she repeated.

He turned to his brothe