common-sense do
you want to own land for?"

"What does a body want to _breathe_ for?" Dixie asked him, sharply, "or
own the duds on your back, or the grub you eat? Why, it is simply to be
independent. I wouldn't quake and shiver every time that old man meets
me if I wasn't in his clutch. I ain't afraid of anybody else, but I am
of him, and why? Because he's got me where he can do as he likes with
me. The last time I went to explain why I couldn't meet the payments
exactly to the day, he growled like a bear, and said if I didn't look
sharp he'd sell the roof over my head."

"Well, we needn't talk about him," the handsome daredevil said. "What I
want to know is why you'd rather hoe cotton in weather like this than go
with me to a jolly picnic. Why, Dixie, you don't begin to know your
power; you could do as you like in this world, if you only would. You
are the best-looking girl in the county, and you grow prettier every
day. The blood of life is in your veins; you haven't got the sickly,
palish look that the girls have who stay indoors half the time. You've
got a clear eye, a good figure, and a complexion that society women
would give big money for."

"You needn't begin all that again." The girl lowered her head and half
raised her hoe to strike at a weed near a stalk of cotton. "I know what
I am well enough. I was born with a load on me, and I'm going to tote it
till I get to a dumping-place. My good looks won't set the world on
fire."

"Well, they have set _me_ on fire," Bradley laughed, significantly. He
lowered his feet to the ground on her side of the fence and leaned his
gun against it. "Say, this sun will actually blister us; let's go down
to the spring."

"No spring for me to-day," she said, grimly. "I see Aunt Mandy on the
back porch now. She'll hang out a towel in a minute. That's the signal
that it is half-past eleven by the clock. I've got to go cook dinner."

"Well, I'll walk over with you."

"No, you mustn't."

"Why?"

"Because I'd rather you wouldn't--that's all."

"I declare I believe you mean that, and I won't push myself on you,
Dixie. You know how I feel about you, and you oughtn't to be so
dadblasted rough with a fellow. I think about you night and day. I
didn't come out to shoot anything this morning. I simply couldn't get
over the way you turned me down yesterday. I lay awake last night
thinking about it, and so I waited for you this morning. I stayed in the
bushes over there watching