Part 9 (2/2)

”Hev ye ben enjyin' yerself, Louisianny?” he asked.

”Yes,” she answered. ”Never better.”

”Ye must hev,” he returned, ”or ye wouldn't be in sperrits to play jokes.”

Then he changed his tone so suddenly that she was startled.

”What do ye want me to do?” he asked.

She put her hand on his shoulder and tried to laugh again.

”To pretend you don't know me--to pretend I have never been here before. That's joke enough, isn't it? They will think so when I tell them the truth. You slow old father! Why don't you laugh?”

”P'r'aps,” he said, ”it's on account o' me bein' slow, Louisianny.

Mebbe I shall begin arter a while.”

”Don't begin at the wrong time,” she said, still keeping up her feverish laugh, ”or you'll spoil it all. Now come along in and--and pretend you don't know me,” she continued, drawing him forward by the arm. ”They might suspect something if we stay so long. All you've got to do is to pretend you don't know me.”

”That's so, Louisianny,” with a kindly glance downward at her excited face as he followed her out. ”Thar aint no call fur me to do nothin'

else, is there--just pretend I don't know ye?”

It was wonderful how well he did it, too. When she preceded him into the room the girl was quivering with excitement. He might break down, and it would be all over in a second. But she looked Ferrol boldly in the face when she made her first speech.

”This is the gentleman of the house,” she said. ”I found him on the back porch. He had just come in. He has been kind enough to say we may stay until the storm is over.”

”Oh, yes,” said he hospitably, ”stay an' welcome. Ye aint the first as has stopped over. Storms come up sorter suddent, an' we haint the kind as turns folks away.”

Ferrol thanked him, Olivia joining in with a murmur of grat.i.tude. They were very much indebted to him for his hospitality; they considered themselves very fortunate.

Their host received their protestations with much equanimity.

”If ye'd like to set out on the front porch and watch the storm come up,” he said, ”thar's seats thar. Or would ye druther set here?

Women-folks is gen'rally fond o' settin' in-doors whar thar's a parlor.”

But they preferred the porch, and followed him out upon it.

Having seen them seated, he took a chair himself. It was a split-seated chair, painted green, and he tilted it back against a pillar of the porch and applied himself to the full enjoyment of a position more remarkable for ease than elegance. Ferrol regarded him with stealthy rapture, and drank in every word he uttered.

”This,” he had exclaimed delightedly to Olivia, in private--”why, this is delightful! These are the people we have read of. I scarcely believed in them before. I would not have missed it for the world!”

”In gin'ral, now,” their entertainer proceeded, ”wimmin-folk is fonder o' settin' in parlors. My wife was powerful sot on her parlor. She wasn't never satisfied till she hed one an' hed it fixed up to her notion. She was allers tradin' fur picters fur it. She tuk a heap o'

pride in her picters. She allers had it in her mind that her little gal should have a showy parlor when she growed up.”

”You have a daughter?” said Ferrol.

Their host hitched his chair a little to one side. He bent forward to expectorate, and then answered with his eyes fixed upon some distant point toward the mountains.

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