s all about
Miss Dolly, and I might seem so impudent. But you know that I would
go through fire and water to serve Miss Dolly, and I durstn't go away
forever without one message to her. If I was in her own rank of life,
God Almighty alone should part us, whether I was rich or whether I
was poor, and I'd like to see any one come near her! But being only an
ignorant fellow without any birth or book-learning, I am not such a fool
as to forget that the breadth of the world lies between us. Only I may
wish her well, all the same--I may wish her well and happy, miss?"

"Certainly you may." Faith blushed at the passion of his words, and
sighed at their despair. "You have saved her life. She respects and
likes you, the same as my father and I do. You may trust me with your
message, Dan."

"I suppose it would not be the proper thing for me to see her once
before I go; just for one minute, with you standing by her, that I
might--that she might--"

"No," answered Faith, though it grieved her to say it; "we must not
think of that, Dan. It could do you no good, and it might do her harm.
But if you have any message, to be useful to her--"

"The useful part of it must be through you, miss, and not sent to her at
all, I think, or it would be very impertinent. The kind part is to give
her my good-bye, and say that I would die to help her. And the useful
part is for yourself. For God's sake, miss, do keep Miss Dolly out of
the way of Squire Carne! He hath a tongue equal to any woman, with the
mind of a man beneath it. He hath gotten me body and soul; because I
care not the skin of a dab what befalls me. But oh, miss, he never
must get Miss Dolly. He may be a very good man in some ways, and he is
wonderful free-minded; but any young lady as marries him had better have
leaped into the Culver Hole. Farewell, miss, now that I have told you."
He was gone before Faith could even offer him her hand, but he took
off his hat and put one finger to his curls, as he looked back from
the clearing; and her eyes filled with tears, as she waved her hand and
answered, "Farewell, Daniel!"

CHAPTER XXXIV

CAULIFLOWERS

"They cocks and hens," Mr. Swipes used to say in the earlier days of
his empire--"bless you, my lord, they cocks and hens knows a good bit of
gardening as well as I do. They calls one another, and they comes to see
it, and they puts their heads to one side and talks about it, and they
say to one another, 'Must be something goo