f soldiers."

Lije Peters came in, clearing his throat. Starbuck looked round at him
and said: "An' Satan come also."

"Starbuck," Peters began, "I want to see you a minit, by yo'se'f."

"I don't know that I've got anythin' to say to you, Lije, but that door
thar allus stands open, and I ain't in the habit of orderin' folks out
of my house. Margaret, will you please go in thar?" he added, motioning
with his head.

"But you won't have no trouble, will you, Jasper?"

"Trouble mostly comes to them that looks for it. I ain't lookin'."

Margaret went to the door, halted, looked back and then passed into the
adjoining room. Starbuck sat on a corner of the table. Peters stood
looking at him. Peters was much the larger man, and lifting at a
handspike, in the clearing at a log-rolling, would have been stronger;
but the bully, the half-coward, in combat, is rarely as strong as the
brave man. The blood of courage case-hardens a muscle.

They looked at each other, these two men whose relationship, never
agreeable, was nearing a crisis. Starbuck's voice was never softer than
when he said: "Won't you sit down, Lije?"

"Hardly wuth while. Did the folks tell you that I was over here earlier
in the day?"

"Nobody said anythin' about it, Lije. Couldn't have been very
important--what you said to 'em on that occasion."

Peters cleared his rasp-like throat. "Mo' important than some folks mout
think."

"Some folks don't think," Starbuck replied.

"And then ag'in," said Peters, "thar air others that does."

"Ah, hah, an' ef you air one of 'em, out with what you air thinkin'. Up
in the hills one time a dog bit an old feller, and his son's cotch the
dog an' put a rope around his neck to hang him. But they kept on a
standin' thar till finally the old feller 'low: 'Say, boys, when you've
got to hang a dog, do it as quick as you kin. Do you see whut I am a
drivin' at?"

Peters gave a gurgling, mirthless chuckle; and loose-jointed, shifted
his weight from one leg to the other. "Well, nobody ain't never accused
me of not understandin' things--yit."

"Mebbe it's because nobody ain't never paid you that much attention."

"Oh, you know how to talk. Ain't nobody ever denied that, but talk
that don't lead up don't amount to nuthin'. Starbuck, our families wan't
right good friends in the past."

"Wan't in love," Old Jasper agreed, and Peters coughed.

"Yes, that's a fact. An' I've got an old-fashioned, single-barrel,
cap-and-ball pi