e said, as she took the pile of silver into
her hand which Henley was extending. "As she stood there between the
corn-rows holding up her skirt she said she was going over to the
lumber-camp again with Martha Sims to another big all-day blow-out. She
said she was to start early and had so much fixing to do that she
wondered if I'd spare the time to wash and iron a muslin dress for her.
She said she'd pay well for it, because my things always looked so
nice."

"Impudent thing!" Henley said; "she ought to have, knowed better than
that."

"She _did_ know better, and that's exactly why she said it. She intended
to let me know where she was going, thinking it would break my heart.
She admits she is bent on getting married, and says she knows I'll live
and die an old maid. She hates me, Alfred; with all her soul she hates
me. She will never rest satisfied till she sees me plumb down and out.
It all started through no fault of mine, too. You remember that young
preacher, Mr. Wrenn, that boarded about in the families three years ago.
Well, she made a dead set at him. She literally tagged after him
everywhere he went till folks here in Chester was laughing about it and
calling her his little dog Fido. They say he got so he'd run and hide
every time she'd turn a corner. Well, he stayed at our house two weeks,
and, of course, we all tried to make him as comfortable as we could. I
give you my word that I never was alone with the fellow more than five
minutes in all the time he was there, but I'll admit he hung around
considerable--that is, with us all."

"I remember the fellow," Henley said, deeply interested. "I had a talk
with your Pa about him not a month before he died. Your Pa said he
couldn't see why you was so offish. The fellow made no beans about how
he felt, and when the report went out that you had turned him down folks
wondered powerful, for all the girls was setting their caps for him."

"I was too young to have good sense, I reckon," the girl said, shrugging
her shoulders. "Pa was alive, and we did not want for anything. I never
dreamt I'd have such a load on me as I've got now. Then I had a foolish
notion about love, anyway. I'd been reading novels, and got an idea in
my silly head that when a girl met the right person she went through
some sort of dazzling regeneration; and as I didn't feel anyways
peculiar when Mr. Wrenn was about I thought I ought to wait, and I told
him so. I'll never forget that young man's