Miller's name.

Fearing her brothers' wrath Betty had not told them of the scene
with Miller at the dance. She had learned enough of rough border
justice to dread the consequence of such a disclosure. She permitted
Miller to come to the house, although she never saw him alone.
Miller had accepted this favor gratefully. He said that on the night
of the dance he had been a little the worse for Dan Watkins' strong
liquor, and that, together with his bitter disappointment, made him
act in the mad way which had so grievously offended her. He exerted
himself to win her forgiveness. Betty was always tender-hearted, and
though she did not trust him, she said they might still be friends,
but that that depended on his respect for her forbearance. Miller
had promised he would never refer to the old subject and he had kept
his word.

Indeed Betty welcomed any diversion for the long winter evenings.
Occasionally some of the young people visited her, and they sang and
danced, roasted apples, popped chestnuts, and played games. Often
Wetzel and Major McColloch came in after supper. Betty would come
down and sing for them, and afterward would coax Indian lore and
woodcraft from Wetzel, or she would play checkers with the Major. If
she succeeded in winning from him, which in truth was not often, she
teased him unmercifully. When Col. Zane and the Major had settled
down to their series of games, from which nothing short of Indians
could have diverted them, Betty sat by Wetzel. The silent man of the
woods, an appellation the hunter had earned by his reticence, talked
for Betty as he would for no one else.

One night while Col. Zane, his wife and Betty were entertaining
Capt. Boggs and Major McColloch and several of Betty's girls
friends, after the usual music and singing, storytelling became the
order of the evening. Little Noah told of the time he had climbed
the apple-tree in the yard after a raccoon and got severely bitten.

"One day," said Noah, "I heard Tige barking out in the orchard and I
ran out there and saw a funny little fur ball up in the tree with a
black tail and white rings around it. It looked like a pretty cat
with a sharp nose. Every time Tige barked the little animal showed
his teeth and swelled up his back. I wanted him for a pet. I got Sam
to give me a sack and I climbed the tree and the nearer I got to him
the farther he backed down the limb. I followed him and put out the
sack to put it over his head and he bit