Looking at them with frightened eyes was a girl of possibly twenty years, her beauty in startling contrast to the ragged calico wrapper in which she was clad.
A mass of Titian hair, glorious despite its disorder, crowned a face exquisite in its fine moulding and delicate colouring.
Her eyes, blue and innocent as a babe's, alone bore trace of the poverty and want her environment proclaimed.
Blushing at the frank admiration in the faces of the men before her, the girl seemed to realize the incongruity of her appearance and in a tone of resentment demanded:
"What do you want?"
"We should like to get something to eat, if you will sell it to us," replied the bandit-chieftain.
"Food? You come here for food?" exclaimed the creature, and then burst into a laugh, awful in its bitterness.
Surprised at her action, Jesse was about to speak when she went on:
"We haven't enough for ourselves, let alone strangers. There's nothing in the house but a little corn meal. Ma's in bed with a fever, baby's ailing and they took our cow away from us today."
Then, as though ashamed for her rancor, she added: "But if we had anything you'd be welcome."