me as if you was a-sayin' hit right out loud all the
time,--a heap plainer hit was than if you'd done writ' hit down in your
book. I can't make out ter read print much, nohow, like youuns kin; but
I sure kin see what I see. I--"

"Judy! Judy!" Brian broke the stream of the excited girl's talk. "What
in the world are you saying? What do you mean, child?"

"You-all knows dad burned well what I'm a-meanin'!" she retorted, with
increasing anger. "I'm a-meanin' that you-all are plumb lovin' that
there Betty Jo gal,--that's what I'm a-meanin'!--an' you-all sure ain't
got ary right for ter go an' do sich a thing, nohow!"

Brian tried to check her, but she silenced him with: "I won't neither
hush! I can't! I tell you I'm a-goin' ter say my say if you-all kills
me! I've just naturally got ter! Seems like I was all afire inside an'
would burn plumb up if I didn't! I've got rights, I reckon, if I be all
crooked an' twisted out er shape, an' ugly-faced an' no learnin', ner
nothin'."

A dry sob choked the torrent of words for an instant; but, with a
savage effort she went on: "I know I ain't nothin' alongside of her,
but you-all ain't a-goin' ter have her just the same,--not if I have ter
kill her first! You ain't got no right ter have her, nohow, 'cause hit's
like's not you-all done got a woman already somewheres, wherever 'twas
you-all come from; an' even if you ain't got no woman already, I sure
ain't a-goin' ter let you have her! What'd she ever do for you? Hit was
me what dragged you-all from the river when you was mighty nigh dead
from licker an' too plumb sick ter save yourself! Hit's me that's
kept from tellin' the Sheriff who you be an' a-takin' that there
reward-money! Hit was me what jumped inter the river above Elbow Rock
just ter git your dad burned old book, when you'd done throwed hit plumb
away!

"I knowed first time I heard Auntie Sue name her what she'd do ter you!
Any fool would a-knowed what a woman with a half-gal, half-boy name like
her'n would do, an' she's done hit,--she sure has! But she ain't a-goin'
ter do no more! You-all belongs ter me a heap more'n you do ter her,--if
hit comes ter that,--though, I ain't a-foolin' myself none a-thinkin'
that sich as you could ever take up with sich as me,--me bein' what I
am. No, sir; I ain't never fooled myself ary bit like that, Mr. Burns.
But hit ain't a-makin' no difference how ugly an' crooked an' no 'count
I be outside; the inside of me is a-lovin' you like