“Oh, I'll do it, Tom,” Saxon nodded, smiling through the tears his sympathy had brought into her eyes. “And on top of it I'm going to do something else, I'm going to make Billy love me and just keep on loving me. And then I won't have to kid him into doing some of the things I want. He'll do them because he loves me, you see.”
“You got the right idea, Saxon. Stick with it, an' you'll win out.”
Later, when she had put on her hat to start for the laundry, she found Tom waiting for her at the corner.
“An', Saxon,” he said, hastily and haltingly, “you won't take anything I've said... you know... —about Sarah... as bein' in any way disloyal to her? She's a good woman, an' faithful. An' her life ain't so easy by a long shot. I'd bite out my tongue before I'd say anything against her. I guess all folks have their troubles. It's hell to be poor, ain't it?”
“You've been awful good to me, Tom. I can never forget it. And I know Sarah means right. She does do her best.”
“I won't be able to give you a wedding present,” her brother ventured apologetically. “Sarah won't hear of it. Says we didn't get none from my folks when we got married. But I got something for you just the same. A surprise. You'd never guess it.”
Saxon waited.
“When you told me you was goin' to get married, I just happened to think of it, an' I wrote to brother George, askin' him for it for you. An' by thunder he sent it by express. I didn't tell you because I didn't know but maybe he'd sold it. He did sell the silver spurs. He needed the money, I guess. But the other, I had it sent to the shop so as not to bother Sarah, an' I sneaked it in last night an' hid it in the woodshed.”
“Oh, it is something of my father's! What is it? Oh, what is it?”
“His army sword.”