gnation
disproportioned to its cause. Debby had unconsciously hit the raw. "Do
you s'pose I'd do anything David can't hear?"

"Law, I didn't know," said Debby, as if the matter were of very little
consequence. "Mis' Peleg Chase, she gi'n me a beef-bone, t' other day,
an' she says, 'Don't ye tell _him_!' An' Mis' Squire Hill gi'n me a
pail o' lard; but she hid it underneath the fence, an' made me come for
't after dark. I dunno how you're goin' to git along with men-folks, if
ye offer 'em the whip-hand. They'll take it, anyways. Well, don't you
want to know where I come on this ring?"

Letty had taken a few hasty steps toward the house. "Yes, I do," owned
she, turning about. "Where was it?"

"Well, Sammy was in swimmin', an' he dove into the Old Hole, to see'f't
had any bottom to 't. Vianna made him vow he wouldn't go in whilst he
had that rash; but he come home with his shirt wrong side out, an' she
made him own up. But he'd ha' told anyway, he was so possessed to show
that ring. He see suthin' gleamin' on a willer root nigh the bank, an'
he dove, an' there 't was. I told Sammy mebbe you'd give him suthin'
for't, an' he said there wa'n't nothin' in the world he wanted but a
mite o' David's solder, out in the shed-chamber."

"He shall have it," said Letty hastily. "I'll get it now. Don't you say
anything!" And then she knew she had used the formula she detested, and
that she was no better than Mrs. Peleg Chase, or the wife of Squire
Hill.

She ran frowning into the house, and down and up from kitchen to cellar.
Presently she reappeared, panting, with a great tin pan borne before
her like a laden salver. She set it down at Debby's feet, and began
packing its contents into the yawning bag.

"There!" she said, working with haste. "There's the solder, all of it.
And here's some of our sweet corn. We planted late."

Debby took an ear from the pan, and, tearing open the husk, tried a
kernel with a critical thumb.

"Tough, ain't it?" she remarked, disparagingly. "Likely to be, this time
o' year. Is that the pork?"

It was a generous cube, swathed in a fresh white cloth.

"Yes, it is," said Letty breathlessly, thrusting it in and shutting the
bag. "There!"

"Streak o' fat an' streak o' lean?" inquired Debby remorselessly.

"It's the best we've got; that's all I can say. Now I've got to speak to
David before he harnesses. Good-by!"

In a fever of impatience, she fled away to the barn.

"Well, if ever!" ejaculate