al accent, and evidently in default of retort,
"I be powerful s'prised ter view ye hyar."

Nehemiah smarted under the sense of unmerited reproach; so definitely
aware was he of being out of the character which he had assumed and
worn until it seemed even to him his own, that he felt as if he
were constrained to some ghastly masquerade. Even the society of the
moonshiners as their guest was a reproach to one who had always piously,
and in such involuted and redundant verbiage, spurned the ways and
haunts of the evil-doer. According to the dictates of policy he should
have rested content with his advantage over the silenced lad. But his
sense of injury engendered a desire of reprisal, and he impulsively
carried the war into the enemy's country.

"I ain't in no ways s'prised ter view you-uns hyar, Lee-yander," he
said. "From the ways, Lee-yander, ez ye hev been brung up by them
slack-twisted Sud-leys--ungodly folks 'ceptin' what little regeneration
they kin git from the sermons of Brother Peter Vick-ers, who air
onsartain in his mind whether folks ez ain't church-members air goin'
ter be damned or no--I ain't s'prised none ter view ye hyar." He
suddenly remembered poor Laurelia's arrogations of special piety, and
it was with exceeding ill will that he added: "An' Mis' Sudley in
partic'lar. Ty ain't no great shakes ez a shoutin' Christian. I dun'no'
ez I ever hearn him shout once, but his wife air one o' the reg'lar,
mournful, unrejicing members, always questioning the decrees of
Providence, an' what ain't no nigher salvation, ef the truth war knowed,
'n a sinner with the throne o' grace yit ter find."

Leander had not picked up the violin; this disquisition had arrested
his hand until his intention was forgotten. He came slowly to the
perpendicular, and his eyes gleamed in the dusk. A vibration of anger
was in his voice as he retorted:

"Mebbe so--mebbe they air sinners; but they'd look powerful comical
'visitin' 'hyar!"

"Ty Sudley ain't one o' the drinkin' kind," interpolated the miller, who
evidently had the makings of a temperance man. "He never sot foot hyar
in his life."

"Them ez kem a-visitin' hyar," blustered the boy, full of the
significance of his observations and experience, "air either wantin' a
drink or two 'thout payin' fur it, or else air tradin' fur liquor ter
sell, an' that's the same ez moonshinin' in the law."

There was a roar of delight from the circle of lumpish figures about the
still which