Then, “Jed!” she cried, and he, “Mel!”
It was too good to be true. The girl’s voice quavered her doubt.
“Is it really you, Jed?”
“Hit shorely is, Mel. I seen yo’ advertisement three days ago in an old paper. I be’n away off on the roundup and jest got back. Co’se I burnt the wind back to help you-all out. I seen someone slippin’ acrost the slash an’ I suspicioned it might be my little sis Mellie.”
She began to sob. “Oh, Jed, yo’ don’t know haow bad I be’n feelin’! Yo’ can’t think haow often I be’n wishin’ I was dead!”
His indolent, good-looking face took on the dark expression she had seen only once or twice.
“If anybody’s done you-all any meanness, sis—”
The blood surged into her cheeks. “Maw’s bound an’ ’termined that I’ll ma’ie Mose Hughey. He’s gittin’ the license to-day.”
“Mose Hughey?” The loose, graceful Southern figure stiffened. “Maw must be crazy!”