her.

"What is there," he said, in the roughness of an emotion she saw
plainly, "what is there I wouldn't do to save your life? To save you
from being knocked about, touched"--he was about to add "violated," the
purity of her seemed so virginal, but he stopped and she went on:

"It's just as I told you before. If they asked me questions, I should
say 'twa'n't so. I should say you thought 'twas so, but 'twa'n't. I
should say you wrote books an' you got up things, I guessed. It made you
wrong in your head."

Old Crow! The innocent observers of his life and Old Crow's were in a
mysterious conspiracy to prove them both unsound. He laughed out
suddenly and she looked at him, surprised.

"Do you know why I would?" she continued earnestly. "Because he never'd
overlook it in this world. If they hauled him up before a judge, an' you
testified, the minute they let him go he'd take it out o' you. You'd be
in more danger'n I be now. Besides, I ain't in any danger. I tried it
this mornin' an' I found out." He sat with knitted brows and dry lips
waiting for her to go on. "Last night," she said, "after you went down
from the shack, I couldn't sleep. I never closed my eyes. But I wa'n't
lonesome nor afraid. I was thinkin' o' what you said. He was there.
Jesus Christ was there. An' I knew 'twas so because you said so.
Besides, I felt it. An' 'long about three I got up an' covered the coals
an' took baby an' come down along home. For, I says, if He was there
with me in the shack, He'll go with me when I go, an' my place is to
home. An' there was a light in the kitchen, an' I looked in through the
winder an' Isr'el was there. He was kneelin' before a chair, an' his
head was on his hands an' through the winder I heard him groan. An' I
stepped in an' he got up off his knees an' stood lookin' at me kinder
wild, an' he says: 'Where you been?' An' I says: 'No matter where I
been. Wherever I been He's come home with me.' An' he says, 'He? Who is
it now?' An' I felt as if I could laugh, it was so pleasant to me, an'
seemed to smooth everything out. An' I says, 'Jesus Christ. He's come
home with me.' An' he looked at me kinder scairt, an' says: 'I should
think you was out o' your head.' An' I went round the room an' kinder
got it in order an' brashed up the fire an' he set an' looked at me. An'
I begun to sing. I sung Coronation--it stayed in my mind from the
meetin'--I dunno when I've sung before--an' he set an' watched me. An' I
got us an e