you seem always half afraid of me."

The girl's lashes drooped shyly, veiling her splendid eyes, but she
made no immediate response to his amenities, and Henderson laughed.

"It's all the stranger," he said, "because I can't forget our first
meeting. Then you were the spirit of warfare. I can still seem to see
you standing there barring the path; your eyes ablaze and your nostrils
aquiver with righteous wrath."

For an instant, in recollection of the incident, she forgot her
timidity and there flashed into her face the swift illumination of a
smile.

"Thet war when I 'lowed ye war an enemy. Folks don't show no--I mean
don't show any--fear of thar enemies. Leastways--at least--mountain
folks don't."

He understood that attitude, but he smiled, pretending to misconstrue
it.

"Then I'm not dangerous as an enemy? It's only when I seek to be a
friend that I need be feared?"

Her flush deepened into positive confusion and her reply was faltering.

"I didn't mean nothin' like thet. Hit's jest thet when I tries ter talk
with ye, I feels so plumb ign'rant an'--an' benighted--thet--thet----"
She broke off and the man leaning on the fence bent toward her.

"You mean that when you talk to me you think I'm comparing you with the
girls I know down below, isn't that it?"

Blossom nodded her head and added, "With gals--girls I mean--that wears
fancy fixin's an' talks grammar."

"Sit down there for a minute, Blossom," he commanded, and when she had
enthroned herself on the square-hewn horse-block by the gate he seated
himself, cross-legged at her feet.

"Grammar isn't so very hard to learn," he assured her. "And any woman
who carries herself with your lance-like ease, starts out equipped with
more than 'fancy fixin's.' I want to tell you about a dream I had the
other night."

At once her face grew as absorbed as a child's at the promise of a
fairy story.

"I dreamed that I went to a very grand ball in a city down below. The
ladies were gorgeously dressed, but late in the evening an unknown girl
came into the room and everybody turned to look at her, forgetting all
the rest of the party." He paused a moment before adding, "I dreamed
that that girl was you."

"What did they all hev ter say about me?" she eagerly demanded.

"To be perfectly frank--you see it was a dream--most of them just
exclaimed: 'My God!'"

"I don't hardly censure 'em," admitted Blossom. "I reckon I cut a right
sorry figger at that party."

H