rovokingly, "you mustn't hope--too hard."

"I'll hope as hard as the devil, darling--and, Molly, if you marry me,
you know, you won't have to live with my mother."

"I like that, even though I'm not going to marry you."

"Come here," he drew her toward the door, "and I'll show you where our
house will stand. Do you see that green rise of ground over the meadow?"

"Yes, I see it," her tone was gentler.

"I've chosen that site for a home," he went on, "and I'm saving a good
strip of pine--you can see it over there against the horizon. I've half
a mind to take down my axe and cut down the biggest of the trees this
afternoon!"

If his ardour touched her there was no sign of it in the movement with
which she withdrew herself from his grasp.

"You'd better finish your grinding. There isn't the least bit of a
hurry," she returned with a smile.

"If you'll go with me, Molly, you may take your choice and I'll cut the
tree down for you."

"But I can't, Abel, because I've promised Mr. Mullen to visit his
mother."

The glow faded from his eyes and a look like that of an animal under the
lash took its place.

"Come with me, not with him, Molly, you owe me that much," he entreated.

"But he's such a good man, and he preaches such beautiful sermons."

"He does--I know he does, but I love you a thousand times better."

"Oh, he loves me because I am pretty and hard to win--just as you do,"
she retorted. "If I lost my hair or my teeth how many of you, do you
think, would care for me to-morrow?"

"I should--before God I'd love you just as I do now," he answered with
passion.

A half mocking, half tender sound broke from her lips.

"Then why don't you--every one of you, fall head over ears in love with
Judy Hatch?" she inquired.

"I don't because I loved you first, and I can't change, however badly
you treat me. I'm sometimes tempted to think, Molly, that mother is
right, and you are possessed of a devil."

"Your mother is a hard woman, and I pity the wife you bring home to
her."

The softness had gone out of her voice at the mention of Sarah's name,
and she had grown defiant and reckless.

"I don't think you are just to my mother, Molly," he said after a
moment, "she has a kind heart at bottom, and when she nags at you it is
most often for your good."

"I suppose it was for my mother's good that she kept her from going to
church and made the old minister preach a sermon against her?"

"That's an old story--yo