per
done said as how them kind's arter the coin."

As she went her way, the girl's mind reveled in thoughts of the days
to come, when Zeke should be rich in sooth, and his riches for her.
She swung her sun-bonnet in vigorous slaps against her bare legs, to
scatter the ravenous mosquitoes and yellow flies, swarming from the
thickets, and she smiled contentedly.

"P'r'aps, them women's got more edication 'n me," she mused aloud,
complacently, "but I kin fill them silk stockin's plumb up." Her face
grew brooding with a wistful regret in the sudden droop of the tender
red lips. "I 'low I jest orter 'a' swung onto thet-thar neck o' his'n
an' hollered fer Parson, and got spliced 'fore he went." She shook her
head disconsolately. "Why, if he don't come back, I'll be worse nor
the widders. Humph, I knows 'em--cats. They'll say: 'Tiny Siddon
didn't never have no chance to git married--her disperzition an' her
looks wa'n't compellin' 'nough to ketch a man.'"

The great dark eyes were clouded a little with bitter disappointment,
when, two hours later, the girl came swiftly down the steep slopes
from Cherry Lane, for once again there had been no letter for her.
Despite her courage, Plutina felt a chill of dismay before the mystery
of this silence. Though faith was unshaken, bewilderment oppressed her
spirit. She could not understand, and because she could not
understand, her grief was heavy to bear. Then, presently, she chanced
upon a new mystery for her distraction--though this was the easier to
her solving.

As she descended into a hollow by Luffman's branch, which joins
Thunder Branch a little way above the Higgins' clearing, Plutina's
alert ears caught a sound that was not of the tumbling waters. Through
all the noises of the stream where it leaped and sprayed in miniature
falls over cluttering bowlders and fallen pines, she could distinguish
the splashing of quick footsteps in the shallows. Some instinct of
caution checked the girl's advance. Instead of going forward openly,
she turned aside and approached the bank where crowding alders and ivy
formed a screen. Here, she parted the vines stealthily, and peered up
the water-course.

A man was descending the run with hurried strides, wading with bare
feet, or springing from rock to rock where were the deeper pools. A
Winchester nestled in the crook of his left arm; two huge bear-traps,
the jaws wickedly fanged, were swung from a rope over his right
shoulder; a short-helve