"You-uns has shorely been long enough in gittin' har!"
Frank staggered a bit, for he had scarcely expected to hear the uncouth mountain dialect from such lips as those but he quickly recovered, lifted his hat with the greatest gallantry, and said:
"I assure you, miss, that we came as swiftly as we could."
"Ye're strangers. Ef you-uns had been maounting boys, you'd been har in less'n half ther time."
"I presume that is true; but, you see, we did not know the shortest way, and we were not sure you wanted us."
"Wal, what did you 'low I whooped at ye fur ef I didn't want ye? I nighly split my throat a-hollerin' at ye before ye h'ard me at all."
Frank was growing more and more dismayed, for he had never before met a strange girl who was quite like this, and he knew not what to say.
"Now that we have arrived," he bowed, "we shall be happy to be of any possible service to you."
"Dunno ez I want ye now," she returned, with a toss of her head.
"Howly shmoke!" gurgled Barney, at Frank's ear. "It's a doaisy she is, me b'y!"