mitted, "but not quite. Now I'm fair ready t' fight
that new Mis Hansen. I've been right fond of Luther, for th' short time
I've knowed 'im, but what he see in that there Sadie Crane's beyond me.
_He's_ square. He looks you in th' face 's open 's day when he talks t'
you, an' you know th' ain't no lawyer's tricks in th' wordin' of it. But
she's different. They was over t' our house Sunday 'fore last an' I never
knowed Liza Ann t' be's near explodin' 's she was 'fore they left. It done
me right smart good t' see 'er brace up an' defend 'erself. I tell you Mis
Hansen see she'd riled a hornet 'fore she got away. Liza Ann 'll take an'
take, till you hit 'er just right, an' then--oh, my!"

Silas ended with a chuckle.

"After they left, she just told me I could exchange works with somebody
else; she wasn't goin' t' have that woman comin' t' our house no more."

"Sadie is awfully provoking," Elizabeth admitted, "but--but--Luther likes
her, and Luther is a good judge of people, I always thought."

"Yep," Silas admitted in return, "an' I don't understand it. Anyhow, I
never knew Liza Ann come s' near forgettin' 'erself. It was worth a day's
travel t' see."

They talked of other things, the baby dropped asleep in its mother's arms,
and Silas took his departure.

"How unlike him," Elizabeth said to herself as she watched him go to his
wagon.

Silas rode away in an ill-humour with himself.

"Now there I've been an' talked like a lunatic asylum," he meditated. "I
allus was that crazy about babies! Here I've gone an' talked spiteful
about th' neighbours, an' told things that hadn't ought t' be told. If I'd
a talked about that baby, I'd 'a' let 'er see I was plum foolish about
it--an' I couldn't think of a blessed thing but th' Hansens."

He rode for a while with a dissatisfied air which gave way to a look of
yearning.

"My! How proud a man ought t' be! How little folks knows what they've got
t' be thankful for! Now I'll bet 'e just takes it as a matter of course,
an' never stops t' think whether other folks is as lucky or not. She
don't. She's in such a heaven of delight, she don't care if she has lost
'er purty colour, or jumped into a life that'll make an ol' woman of 'er
'fore she's hardly begun t' be a girl, nor nothin'. She's just livin' in
that little un, an' don't even know that can't last long."

There was a long pause, and then he broke out again.

"Think of a man havin' all that, an' not knowin' th' worth of it