ured, contritely. Then, with a sudden rush of anger as she tore it
off: "'Twar granny's fault. She axed me ter put it on, so ez ter see
which one I looked most like."

"Stranger," quavered the old woman, with a painful break in her voice,
"I los' fower sons in the war, an' Mill'cent hev got the fambly favor."

"Ye _mought_ hev let me know ez I war a-perlitin' round in this hyar
men's gear yit," the girl muttered, as she hung the cap on a prong of
the deer antlers on which rested the rifle of the master of the house.

Roxby's face had clouded at the mention of the four sons who had gone
out from the mountains never to return, leaving to their mother's aching
heart only the vague comfort of an elusive resemblance in a girl's
face; but as he noted Millicent's pettish manner, and divined her
mortification because of her unseemly head-gear in the stranger's
presence, he addressed her again in that jocose tone without which he
seldom spoke to her.

[Illustration: Warn't you-uns apologizin' ter me 006]

"Warn't you-uns apologizin' ter me t'other day fur not bein' a nephew
'stiddier a niece? Looked sorter like a nephew ter-night."

She shook her head, covered now only with its own charming tresses
waving in thick undulations to the coil at the nape of her neck--a
trifle dishevelled from the rude haste with which the cap had been torn
off.

Roxby had seated himself, and with his elbows on his knees he looked
up at her with a teasing jocularity, such as one might assume toward a
child.

"_Ye war_," he declared, with affected solemnity--"ye war 'pologizin'
fur not bein' a nephew, an' 'lowed ef ye war a nephew we could go
a-huntin' tergether, an' ye could holp me in all my quar'ls an' fights.
I been aging some lately, an' ef I war ter go ter the settlemint an' git
inter a fight I mought not be able ter hold my own. Think what 'twould
be ter a pore old man ter hev a dutiful nephew step up an'"--he doubled
his fists and squared off--"jes' let daylight through some o' them
cusses. An' didn't _ye say_"--he dropped his belligerent attitude and
pointed an insistent finger at her, as if to fix the matter in her
recollection--"ef ye war a nephew 'stiddier a niece ye could fire a gun
'thout shettin' yer eyes? An' I told ye then ez that would mend yer aim
mightily. I told ye that I'd be powerful mortified ef I hed a nephew ez
hed ter shet his eyes ter keep the noise out'n his ears whenst he fired
a rifle. The tale would go mighty ha