fer
lovin' mo'n one man to er time; fer ther ain't no good 'ooman ever did
thet. But some is made fer _lovin_'. They sech er heap o' no 'count
folks in ther worl', hit do seem like a shame when one o' them sort don'
love nobody, an' won't let nobody love them!"

Mary Ellen was silent. She could not quite say the word to stop the old
servant's garrulity, and the latter went on.

"Whut I does say, Miss Ma'y Ellen," she resumed, earnestly looking into
the girl's face as though to carry conviction with her speech--"whut I
does say, an' I says hit fer yo' own good, is this; Mas' Henry, he's
daid! He's daid an' buh'ied, an' flowehs growin' oveh his grave, yeahs
'n yeahs. An' you never wuz mahied toe him. An' you _wan't_ nothin' but
a gal. Chile, you don't know nothin' '_bout_ lovin' yit. Now, I says
toe you, whut's ther use? Thass hit, Miss Ma'y Ellen, whut's ther use?"

CHAPTER XXII

EN VOYAGE

"I wish, Sam," said Franklin one morning as he stopped at the door of
the livery barn--"I wish that you would get me up a good team. I'm
thinking of driving over south a little way to-day."

"All right, Cap," said Sam. "I reckon we can fix you up. How far you
goin'?"

"Well, about twenty-five or thirty miles, perhaps."

"Which will bring you," said Sam meditatively, "just about to the
Halfway House. Seein' it's about there you'll be stopping I reckon I
better give you my new buggy. I sort of keep it, you know, for special
'casions."

Franklin was too much absorbed to really comprehend this delicate
attention, even when Sam rolled out the carriage of state, lovingly
dusting off the spokes and with ostentation spreading out the new lap
robe. But finally he became conscious of Sam, standing with one foot
on the hub of a wheel, chewing a straw, and with a certain mental
perturbation manifest in his countenance.

"Cap," said he, "I know just how you feel."

"What's that?" said Franklin.

"Well, I mean, I allow me and you is pretty much in the same boat."

"Eh?" said Franklin, puzzled.

"Why, both us fellers is fixed about the same."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand you."

"Well, now, er--that is, you know, we both got a girl, you know--I
mean, we each has a girl--"

Franklin's face was not inviting, which fact Sam noticed, hastening
with his apology.

"Oh, no offence, Cap," said he hurriedly, "but I was just a-thinkin'.
You know that Nory girl over to the hotel. Well, now, I'm gone on that