nce you ast me, I'll tell you. It's a fence we're going to build."

"A fence?" says he. "We got a perfectly good fence now."

"Oh, have we? Well, it ain't high enough to keep out our people from
mixing with them can-nye." I wondered again what can-nye was. "I'll not
have you talking with their maids."

"Is that so?" says he. "I hadn't noticed much of that going on lately,"
says he. "I wish it was."

"James!" says she, so mad she couldn't hardly speak. "James!" And about
all she could do was to guggle in her throat and say: "James!"

"Well," says I to myself, "here's where he gets the can tied to him, all
right. It don't stand to reason she'll allow that kind of talk."

Well now, they was talking about that fence. In two or three days it was
easy enough to see what the Wisners was going to do: They was going to
cut out the herd law and fence in their own range.

It wasn't a fence at all. It was a wall they built, day after day--a
regular wall! Pretty soon it was up as high as our second-story window,
and it keep on a-going. It took them weeks to finish it. When it was
done it run clean from the sidewalk back to their boathouse. From our
side, on the ground, you couldn't only see the top of their house, and
from their side you couldn't only see the top of ours.

Well, anyway, the wall went up and we didn't stop it, because we
couldn't. It was like we was living in two different worlds, with that
wall between us, and that was the way they meant it. Nothing could cross
from one side to the other. It was the coldest deal I ever seen one set
of folks give another. And why? I couldn't figure why.

Bonnie Bell was right still and quiet. Old Man Wright he went around
thoughtful for quite a while. He seen this was a insult put on him, but
he didn't know what to do. At last he goes to Bonnie Bell one day, and
says he:

"Sis, it's coming along kind of hot in the summer. How'd you like to go
to White Sulphur or somewheres for a few months?" says he. "You're
looking kind of pale now for the last few weeks," says he, "and I don't
like to see it."

She turns and looks at him square in the eyes for a minute, and pointed
out the window.

"With that thing going on?" says she. "I'll see them damned first!" says
she.

That was the first time I ever heard Bonnie Bell cuss. I liked her for
saying it, and so did her pa.

"It's a hard game we got to play, sis," says he; "but we'll play it."

She nods, and we let it go at that.