wop about
twenty-odd year ago, and whenever I hear him preach I can't git it out
of my head that he's trying to nip me agin."

"Why, pap, that was long before he joined the church."

"Yes, but I can't help from holdin' that a man that will nip you in a
hoss swop one time will do it agin if he gets the chance."

"Well," she said, "you would have nipped him if you could."

"Yes, that mout be, but I wouldn't have come round preachin' to him
afterwards. Go on in, you young folks, and I'll waller around here a
while and then go down and see how my hosses air gettin' along."

"And I will stay with you," said Lyman. The romance had gone out of
the old house, for him, but not for Warren and Nancy. Warren walked to
the church with her, and she pleaded with him to let her go up to the
door alone.

"Why should we care what they think?" he said.

"Oh, I care a good deal. They would talk about me and laugh at me, and
besides you ain't no kin to me. It's only kin folks that set
together."

"They don't know whether I'm any kin to you or not."

"Yes, they do. They know that I haven't any young men kin folks round
here but cousin Jerry."

"Who the deuce is he? Hold on a moment. Tell me about that fellow
Jerry."

"Oh, there ain't nothin' to tell except he's my cousin. If you let me
go in alone I'll tell you all about him when I come out."

He suffered her to go in alone, but he sat as close to her as he
could, on a bench just opposite, and it was so evident that he wanted
to be nearer that a hillside wag remarked to a friend; "See that young
feller a leanin' in toward her like a young steer with a sore neck."
The remark was passed from one to another and a titter went round the
room. Warren saw her blush and realizing that he was the cause of her
embarrassment, he leaned back, and the wag remarked: "Other side of
his neck's sore now--he's leanin' tuther way."

Lyman and the old man walked about the grounds. Pitt suggested going
to the spring, but Lyman drew back from the idea as if the place were
desolate now. They went down the road to a mossy place where the
ironwood trees leaned out over a stream. They looked at the sun-fish
flashing their golden sides in the light; they sat down to smoke a
pipe, the rising voice of the preacher seeming to sift in the leaves
above them. The sun was shining aslant when they got up and a shadow
lay upon the pool.

"He must be on the home-stretch," said the old man, nodding toward the