arp squint.

"You didn't tell me that I shouldn't think of you as I please."

"But I didn't tell you to speak what you might be pleased to think.
There, Carl is calling me. Good-bye."

CHAPTER X.

Jim Taylor, too humane to impose the burden of his weight upon a horse,
always made his visits on foot, and this day while trudging homeward, he
met Mrs. Cranceford. She had of late conceived so marked a sympathy for
him, that her manner toward him was warmly gentle.

Taylor stepped to the road-side and halted there as she drove up alone
in a buggy. With a sorrowful reverence he took off his hat, and she
smiled sympathetically; and the lazy old horse, appearing to understand
it all, stopped of his own accord.

"Good morning, Jim. Have you been over to the house?"

"Yes, ma'm, just left there."

"How is he?"

"So much better that I believe he's going to get well."

"You don't say so! Why, I am----" she was about to say that she was
delighted to hear it, but on the giant's face she thought she saw a
deeper shadow lying, heard in his voice a softer note of sorrow; and
considerately she checked her intended utterance. Then they looked at
each other and were ashamed.

"He was up dressing himself when I left."

"You surprise me."

"And he has surprised us all, ma'm. I don't believe he's got
consumption; his cough has left him. Why, he's thinking of taking a
place in a college over in Alabama."

"He is? But I hope he won't take Louise so far from home."

He shifted his position and sunk his hands deep into his pockets. "I
guess he thinks she can't be so very far from home as long as she is
with him."

"But it makes no difference what he thinks." Mrs. Cranceford persisted.
"He must not take her over there. Why, I should think he could find
employment here." Jim looked far away, and she added: "Is your cotton
turning out well?"

"First-rate, and I want to sell it as soon as I can. I've got to go
away."

"Go away!" she repeated. "You don't mean it?"

"Yes, ma'm, I do. If he gets well they won't have any more use for me
and I might as well go off somewhere and take a fresh start; and
besides, I can't keep from showing that I love her, and no matter how
cool she might be toward me it couldn't help but pain him. And there are
people in this neighborhood mean enough to talk about it: No longer ago
than yesterday that strapping Alf Joyner threw out a hint of this sort,
and although he meant it in fun, maybe,