ort of a mare?"

"Gray--one of the best old nags I ever saw."

"Well, where air you goin'?"

"To Nashville. Will you let me ride?"

"Got business down there, I take it."

"Yes, or I wouldn't want to go."

"I don't know about that. Women folks goes a good many places where they
hain't got no business. Ain't a runnin' away from yo' old man, air you?"

"No, I'm goin' to him."

"Huh, he run away frum you. Is that it?"

"No, they tuck him away. Air you goin' to let me ride?"

"Tuck him away for what?"

"They have accused him of makin' wild-cat licker."

"Here, give me yo' hand an' I'll help you up. Wait, I'll make the seat
soft with this coat. Now we're all right. An' I've got a baked turkey
leg an' some mighty fine blackberry cordial--your'n."

She thanked him, and when she had eaten and drunk, he began to apologize
for his slowness in permitting her to ride with him.

"Ma'm, I didn't know but you mout be one these here women preachers. One
of 'em come up into my neighborhood an' it seemed that befo' she come
nature was a smilin' like she was waitin' fur her sweetheart. Well, me
an' my wife went to hear her preach, an' she talked right well--never
hearn a woman talk better--an' she cotch the folks. Worse than that, she
cotch my wife an' turned my home into a hell, an' nature shut her eyes
an' all war dark fur me. Nothin' would do my wife, but she must go out
an' preach too. I begged her--told her that I loved her better than I
did forty gospels, an' I did; but she would go. I told her not to come
back--but one night about three months atterward, when it was a pourin'
down rain, an' my little child was a cryin', there come a knock on the
door, an'--an' I know'd. I opened it an' there she was an' as I was a
huggin' of her, she says, 'Jeff, I b'l'eve a woman's duty is at home.
Christ was a man.' Ma'm, I kin haul you all the way down there. I know
where the jail is--I've been in there--an' I'll take you right straight
to it."

"What did they take you there for?"

"It war a funny thing. I went up in the hill country, fur up from my
home, an' the man what I stopped with was a maker of licker--an' atter
dark I went with him to his still an' helped him fetch some wood for the
fire; an' jest as I flung down a turn, bang, bang, an' here was the
government men. Well, they tuck us down, an' of course I know'd I'd git
outen it for I hadn't made no licker, but, bless you, the jedge sent me
to the penitentiary for a ye