Tom took the girl by the hand. "Come with me now, please. Let us go where the spirit boy used to play with you."
"Yes. And now I know that all the time it was you—you lived under the rock. Come on. We will go up among the hills an' make like we are lost."
And as they were walking away, Jasper said to his wife: "Margaret, that reminds me of a Sunday, a long time ago."
"Yes, Jasper;" and then she said to Mrs. Mayfield: "But law me, it don't take 'em long to fall in love an' git married these days."
"No," Jasper replied, "not with the help of a right peart woman."
"Now, Jasper," she said, "you air shorely enough to provoke a saint, bein' a man. But, Miz Mayfield, this has all come about so sudden that—"
Jasper snorted and she scowled at him. "Don't pay no attention to him, Miz Mayfield. Yes, so sudden that I don't hardly know what to say. But Lou is a good child an' thar ain't but one pity about her, an' that is she hain't got much l'arnin', though she did go to school fur two year over at Dry Fork."
"She will learn, Mrs. Starbuck, and he will be proud of her."
"I'm so glad to hear you say that, Miz Mayfield. An' you ain't disapp'inted at yo' nephew's choice?"
"It was for him and her to choose, Mrs. Starbuck, and all the rest of the world should be silent."