got to have a Sam and a Bob. Old
Craighead, that lives about ten miles from here, has some of the finest
in the world. Always wanted 'em, but they were so high that I couldn't
tip-toe and reach 'em. Reckon you could fix it so I could git a couple?"

"You shall have as many as you want--all of them."

"I'm a thousand times obleeged to you. Yes, sir; sometimes we think we
could run things better than He does, but I don't reckon we could. We
seen young Lundsford as we driv along jest now. And I think he'll be
over here putty soon, but don't you worry. No, sir, we ain't got nothin'
to worry about now. Believe it would push us to scratch up a worry,
don't you? By jings, though, I hardly know what to do; I step around
here like a blind sheep in a barn, as the feller says. Well, it's
gettin' pretty quiet down there now. Alf got away as soon as he could,
and has gone over to the General's. Hush a minit. Thought I heard Chyd's
voice. Well, I'm going to poke round a little, and it's not worth while
to tell you to make yourself at home."

He went out, and I heard him humming a tune as he tramped slowly down
the stairs. I took a seat near the window. Voices reached me, and,
looking down through the branches of a mulberry tree, I saw Guinea
sitting on a bench, and near her stood Chyd Lundsford. In his hand he
held a switch and with it he was slowly cutting at a bloom on a vine
that grew about the tree. He was talking. Guinea's face was turned
upward and her hands were clasped behind her head. I could look down
into her eyes, but she did not see me, and I felt a sense of
self-reproach at thus watching her, listening for her to speak, and I
thought to get up, but my legs refused to move, and I sat there, looking
down into her eyes. Her face was pale and her lips, which had seemed to
me in bloom with the rich juice of life, were now drawn thin.

"Of course, I was wrong," he said, "but I'm not the first man that ever
did a wrong. And I should think that as a broad-minded and generous
woman you could forgive me. I don't think that you can find any man who
would take any better care of you than I would. I've got no romance
about me, and why should I have? I can just remember seeing the trail of
that monster called advancement--that mighty thing called progress,
though in the guise of war, and that thing swallowed the romance of this
country. I say that I can remember seeing the fading trail, but I know
its history and I know that if it