broad as a
shovel!"

"Cutting of trees," said the woodman, as he spread his large
horny-knuckled hand upon the supper table, "and handling of logs, will
make any man's paw broad, and mine wa'n't small at first."

"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated the sergeant, "you ha'n't forgot Dick Rowley
over here on Congaree, Wat,--Walloping Dick, as they nicknamed him--and
the scrimmage you had with him when he sot to laughing at you because
they accused you for being light-fingered, and your letting him see that
you had a heavy hand, by giving him the full weight of it upon his ear
that almost drove him through the window of the bar-room at the Cross
Roads? You ha'n't forgot that--and his drawing his knife on you?"

"To be sure I ha'n't. That fellow was about as superfluous a piece of
wicked flesh as I say--as a man would meet on a summer's day journey.
But for all that, Horse Shoe, he wa'n't going to supererogate me,
without getting as good as he sent. When I come across one of your merry
fellows that's for playing cantraps on a man, it's my rule to make them
pay the piper; and that's a pretty good rule, Horse Shoe, all the world
through. But come, here is supper; draw up, Mr. Butler."

Mary Musgrove having completed the arrangement of the board whilst this
conversation was in progress, the family now sat down to their repast.
It was observable, during the meal, that Mary was very attentive in the
discharge of the offices of the table, and especially when they were
required by Butler. There was a modest and natural courtesy in her
demeanor that attracted the notice of our soldier, and enhanced the
kindly impression which the artless girl had made upon him; and it was,
accordingly, with a feeling composed, in one degree, of curiosity to
learn more of her character, and, in another, of that sort of tenderness
which an open-hearted man is apt to entertain towards an ingenuous and
pretty female, that he took occasion after supper, when Mary had seated
herself on the threshold of the porch, to fall into conversation with
her.

"You do not live here, I think I have gathered, but are only on a
visit?" was the remark addressed to the maiden.

"No, sir; it is thirty good long miles by the shortest road, from this
to my father's house. Mistress Adair is my mother's sister, and that
makes her my aunt, you know, sir."

"And your father's name?"

"Allen Musgrove. He has a mill, sir, on the Ennoree."

"You are the miller's daughter, then. W