ear in a hurry to avail herself of the freedom
offered, she simply looked at him. He took off his cap sheepishly
enough, and said, "Good-evenin'."

"Good-evenin'," she said, and then, as the pause became embarrassing,
she said, "Hear you're agoin' away to-morrer?"

"Yes--to-morrer mornin'."

"When you're acomin' back?" she asked, after a pause in which she had
been twisting the pink string of her hat.

"Don't know--may be never." Had he been looking at her he might have
seen the change which his words brought to her face; she lifted her eyes
to his face for the first time since the half defiant glance she had
given him when they met, and they had a strange light in them, but at
the moment he was looking at a bow on her dress which had been pulled
loose. He put out his hand and touched it and said:

"You're a-losin' yer bow," and as she found a pin and fastened it again,
he added, "An' I don' know as anybody keers."

An overpowering impulse changed her and forced her to say: "I don't know
as anybody does either; I know as I don't."

The look on his face smote her, and the spark died out of her eyes as
he said, slowly: "No, I knowed you didn'! I don't know as anybody does,
exceptin' my old woman. Maybe she will a little. I jist wanted to tell
you that I wouldn't a' fit them boys if they hadn't a' pushed me so
hard, and I wan't afeared to fight your old man, I jist wouldn't--that's
all."

What answer she might have made to this was prevented by him; for he
suddenly held out his hand with something in it, saying, "Here."

She instinctively reached out to take whatever it was, and he placed in
her hand a book which she recognized as the little Testament which she
had won as a prize at school and had given him when they went to school
together. It was the only book she had ever possessed as her very own.

"I brought this thinking as how maybe you might 'a'-wanted--me to
keep it," he was going to say; but he checked himself and said: "might
'a'-wanted it back."

Before she could recover from the surprise of finding the book in her
hand her own, he was gone. The words only came to her clearly as his
retreating footsteps grew fainter and his tall figure faded in the
darkening light. She made a hasty step or two after him, then checked
herself and listened intently to see if he were not returning, and then,
as only the katydids answered, threw herself flat on the ground and
grovelled in the darkness.

There were fe