Miz Mayfield is
smart--talks like a new book that's got picturs in it."

"Oh! Then I reckon I can't talk at all."

"Have you hearn anybody hint that you can't talk? Did you ever notice
that when a man begins to talk about a woman, makes no diffunce who, his
wife puts it up that he's a talkin' about her? Did you?"

"No, nor you nuther. Gracious above!--book with picturs in it! But if
Jim wants to marry her, why don't he say so? What do he want allus to
be a steppin' round her skirts like a frost-bit chicken?"

"Wall, he ain't had time to ax her yit. It took the gospel mo' than a
thousand years to reach America, an' we oughtn't to expect preachers to
be in a rush."

She scowled at him and he went away, laughing, and she stood in the
door, shading her eyes with her hand, watching Tom and Lou as slowly
they walked down the road. Over to the right, in the dazzle of the sun,
Jim and Mrs. Mayfield were climbing a hill; and reaching the top, she
sat down on a rock and bade him sit near her, but he shook his head and
said that he preferred to stand where he was, and then, realizing that
his remark was abrupt, sat down by her and was silent. At her feet the
violets were blooming. There came a breeze, and the blossom of a poplar
sapling brushed her face and shed its perfume in her hair.

"In the city all is struggle and plot," she said, and musing for a time
in silence, she continued: "But here all seems to be innocence and
beauty."

"Not all innocence, ma'm," the preacher replied. "The poisonous insect
sometimes lives where the air is sweet. There is no land that is not in
need of the doctrine of gentleness. To the lovely eye almost all things
may look lovely--"

"Thank you," she broke in.

"Oh, not at all," he replied, unable to remember his ease of a moment
ago. "The fact is I don't believe we are goin' to have any rain for some
time yet. Needin' it a little, now, too."

"You were talking in a different strain just now and I interrupted you.
I am sorry. Let me lead you back."

"I don't hardly know where I was, ma'm. The fact is, I'm always about
half lost when I'm with you."

"Mr. Reverend, don't embarrass me."

"Embarrass you? Ma'm, I haven't had a fight in a good while, but if a
feller was to come along and embarrass you, why he'd soon have reason to
think that scarlet fever had broke out in the neighborhood."

"Now, please don't talk that way. Let us get back to where we were. You
were saying that all lands