e never gets a letter from anybody, Mrs. Jones says."

"What is it to yeou, enyhow?" blazed Barker. "Keep yer suspicionin', as
well as yer blarsted consate, ter yerself. I don't want ter hear yeou
talk about her. Where's Henrietty Blaisdell? What right hev yeou ter
take a farncy ter another woman, when yeou've been a-keepin' company
with her for a year 'n' more? 'N' yeou pryin' raound ter see if Drusy
gits letters--"

"Nonsense, John! As I said before, sarse won't set things straight, 'n'
I've just as good a right as you or any other man ter make up to Drusy.
I ain't bound to Henrietta."

"Rights seem diffrunt to diffrunt folks, I catilate. Enyhow, I hain't
a-goin' ter listen ter eny more ov your tongue. I'm a-goin' along, 'n'
you kin go ahead or foller as it suits you."

"Well, now, it seems ter me that we're in a kind ov embarrassin' fix,
'n' the cards would be a consolin' way to git out of it. If--"

"Come along, then, but quit chinnin' about Drusy."

And the two men turned back into the woods, in whose weird darkness the
light of Reube's lantern was no more than that of a firefly. The
moonlight stole into little openings, outlined the trees upon the
glittering sward, and hovered like a ghost on the path before them. The
camp was a somewhat ruinous affair, but had lately been occupied by a
party of surveyors. With the blaze of a great fire its interior might
have been cheerful, but, as it was, it seemed a ghostly, haunted place,
filled with mysterious sounds and shadows. One feeble moon-ray struggled
through the foliage of a tall pine-tree, and, reaching down the wide
smoke-hole overhead, searched the ashes on the hearthstone with a pallid
finger. The wind rustled among some dead vines which reached through the
chinks between the logs, and made a creeping sound like footfalls over
the snow-covered plank floor.

Wetherbee placed his lantern upon the creaking old shelf which served
for a table, and, seating themselves upon a bench, the two men commenced
their game with deep earnestness. Barker's features were white and set;
his strong arm trembled as he handled the cards, and his breath came
quick and hard.

It was as if he were staking his life upon the play, as if his whole
fate were to be decided by it.

"Great Jupiter, man! don't look like that," said Wetherbee, regarding
him for the first time as the game proceeded.

"I've been feelin' as if 'twas a case of life 'n' death myself, 'n', by
George, it's n