m, Miss Carr--'and you and
her, sez I, 'kin just discuss this yer matter in a sociable, off-hand,
fash'nable way.' They're a good lot o' boys, Miss Carr, a square
lot--white men all of 'em; but they're a little soft and green, may be,
from livin' in these yer pine woods along o' the other sap. They just
worship the ground you and your sister tread on--certain! of course!
of course!" he added hurriedly, recognizing Christie's half-conscious,
deprecating gesture with more exaggerated deprecation. "I understand.
But what I wanter say is that they'd be willin' to be that ground,
and lie down and let you walk over them--so to speak, Miss Carr, so to
speak--if it would keep the hem of your gown from gettin' soiled in the
mud o' the camp. But it wouldn't do for them to make a reg'lar curderoy
road o' themselves for the houl camp to trapse over, on the mere chance
of your some time passin' that way, would it now?"

"Won't you let me offer you some refreshment, Mr. Hall?" said Christie,
rising, with a slight color. "I'm really ashamed of my forgetfulness
again, but I'm afraid it's partly YOUR fault for entertaining me to the
exclusion of yourself. No, thank you, let me fetch it for you."

She turned to a handsome sideboard near the door, and presently faced
him again with a decanter of whiskey and a glass in her hand, and a
return of the bewitching smile she had worn on entering.

"But perhaps you don't take whiskey?" suggested the arch deceiver, with
a sudden affected but pretty perplexity of eye, brow, and lips.

For the first time in his life Whiskey Dick hesitated between two forms
of intoxication. But he was still nervous and uneasy; habit triumphed,
and he took the whiskey. He, however, wiped his lips with a slight wave
of his handkerchief, to support a certain easy elegance which he firmly
believed relieved the act of any vulgar quality.

"Yes, ma'am," he continued, after an exhilarated pause. "Ez I said
afore, this yer's a matter you and me can discuss after the fashion o'
society. My idea is that these yer boys should kinder let up on you and
Miss Jessie for a while, and do a little more permiskus attention round
the Ford. There's one or two families yer with grown-up gals ez oughter
be squared; that is--the boys mighter put in a few fancy touches among
them--kinder take 'em buggy riding--or to church--once in a while--just
to take the pizen outer their tongues, and make a kind o' bluff to the
parents, d'ye see? Tha