"Don't Mr. Ford go over there pretty often?" queried Maria-Ann. "I see him gallopin' by two or three times a week."
"Well, what if you do?" Chi answered grumpily, much to Maria-Ann's surprise. "He can't fiddle the way Ladybird does, 'n' they all sit 'n' jabber some kind of lingo--French, they call it, but I call it, good, straight Canuck--'n' act as if they were at a party,--Rose, 'n' Miss Alton, 'n' the whole of 'em. 'T ain't much company for me. I get off to bed about dark. 'N' the worst of it is, when he isn't to our house, they're all to his--Come around!" Chi jerked the reins, to Bess's resentful surprise.
"They say he's payin' attention to Rose," ventured Maria-Ann, her eyes following the furrow, which was running not quite true.
"They 're a parcel of fools," growled Chi, eyeing the furrow with a dissatisfied air, "Rose need n't look Alan Ford's way for attention. She can have all she wants most anywheres.--Get up, Bess! what you backin' that way for!--'n' folks tongues can be measured by the furlong 'twixt here and Barton's."
"Well, there ain't any harm in Rose's havin' attention, Chi," said Maria-Ann with some spirit, and ready to stand up for her sex.
"Did n't say there was," retorted Chi, in mollified tones. "There ain't no more harm in Rose's havin' attention than in your havin' it."
"Me!" exclaimed Maria-Ann, pleasantly surprised out of her momentary resentment. "I ain't had any chance to have any."
"Ain't you?" said Chi, busying himself with the plough preparatory to leaving. "Well, that ain't any sign you won't have--Get along, Bess!--I 'll leave this plough here till to-morrow; I ain't drawn those last two furrers straight, 'n' I 've got too much pride to have any man see that--Malachi Graham, his mark.--No, sir-ee," said Chi, emphatically, "straight or starve is my motto every time, just you remember that, Marier-Ann Simmons."
"I will, Chi," laughed Maria-Ann, and went back to her washing, singing joyfully to her rubbing accompaniment:--
"Come, sinners all, repent in time,
The Judgment Day is dawning;
Sun, moon, and stars to earth incline,
The trumpet sounds a warning."