nson. 'I know
he's cl'ared some new ground fur terbacker on thet air hill-side.'

"'I believe hit is,' said Kunnel Bill, listenin' a minnit. 'Parker, ye
an' Haygood go over thar an' git him, while some o' the rest o' ye look
'bout the stable an' fodder-stack thar. Mind my orders, an' see thet
they are carried out.'

"His manner made me fear everything. A thought flashed inter my mind.
Thar wuz thet horn thar."--Harry followed her eyes with his, and saw
hanging on hooks against the wall one of the long tin horns, used in the
South to call the men-folks of the farms to their meals. It was crushed
and battered to uselessness.--"I thought I'd blow hit an' attract his
attention. He mout then see them a-comin' an' git away. I ran inter the
house an' snatched the horn down, but afore I could put hit ter my lips,
Bill Pennington jerked hit 'way from me, an' stamped on hit.

"'Deb Brill,' said he, with a mortally hateful look, 'yer peart an'
sassy an' bold, an' hev allers been so, an' so 's yer Yankeefied
husband. Ye've hed yer own way offen--too offen. Now I'll heve mine, an'
wipe out some long-standin' scores. Dave Brill hez capped a lifetime
o' plague an' disturbance ter his betters, by becomin' a trator to his
country, an' inducin' others ter be traitors. He must be quieted, come
out an' listen.'

"He pulled me out inter the yard. Dave wuz still choppin' away. Fur
nearly every day fur night thirty years, the sound o' his ax hed been
music in my ears. I had larned to know hit, even afore we wuz lovers,
fur his father's land jined my father's, an' hit seems ter me that I
could tell he note o' his ax from thet o' everybody else, a'most ez
airly ez I could tell a robin's song from a blackbird's. Girl, woman,
wife an' mother, I hed listened to hit while I knit, wove, or spun,
every stroke minglin' with the sounds o' my wheel or loom an' the
song o' the birds, an' tellin' me whar he wuz, an' thet he wuz toilin'
cheefully fur me an' mine.

"Now, fur the fust time in all these years, hits steady strong beat
brought mis'ry ter my ears. Hit wuz ez the tollin' of bell fur some one
not yit dead. My heart o'ny beat ez fast ez he chopped. Hit would give
a great jump when the sound o' the blow reached me, an' then stand still
until the next one came.

"At last came a long--O, so long pause.

"'They've got thar,' said Bill Pennington, cranin' forward his head ter
ketch the fust sound. 'He's seed 'em, an' is tryin' ter git 'way. But