It was evident from his face and his eyes,
which glowed with the suppressed fire of some powerful emotion
within, that he had remained for a purpose; and when he rose and
said, "I reckon I better be a-goin', Easter," his voice was so
unnatural that the girl looked up quickly.
Hit air late," she said, after a slight pause.
His face flushed, but he set his lips and caught the back of his
chair, as though to steady himself.
"I reckon," he said, with slow bitterness, "that hit would 'a' been
early long as the furriner was hyeh."
The girl was roused instantly, but she said nothing, and he
continued, in a determined tone:
"Easter, thar's a good deal I've wanted to say to ye fer a long time,
but I hev kept a-puttin' hit off until I'm afeard maybe hit air too
late. But I'm a-goin' to say hit now, and I want ye to listen." He
cleared his throat huskily. " Do ye know, Easter, what folks in the
mountains is a-sayin'?
The girl's quick insight told her what was coming, and her face
hardened.
"Have ye ever knowed me, Sherd Raines, to keer what folks in the
mountains say? I reckon ye mean as how they air a-talkin' about
me
That's what I mean," said the mountaineer-" you 'n' him."
"Whut air they a-sayin'?" she asked, defiantly. Raines watched her
narrowly.
"They air a-sayin' as how he air a-comin' up here mighty often; as
how Easter Hicks, who hev never keered fer no man, air in love
with this furriner from the settlemints.
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