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Show 86 HICIIAIW IIU11DIS. him as she does, I slwuld but mnrry her for him. Ilis hand would bo in my dish, and I should but fence in a crop for l1is benefit. 1\o, no, that would not do either. I tell you, wiJcrc these women once ion• a man, to sec l1im, to l1avc opportunity witll him, is fatnl, though they be lawfully bound to another. I should not sleep secure in l1cr arms, as 1 should not be able to think that I alone was their occupant." "Now, tha t's wlwt I c:.dl being of a mighty jealous sort of disposition, 'squire. I'm su re th:1t you're wrotJg in your notion of 1\fiss 1\Iary. I don't think she'd be the woman to do wrong in that way. She's a mighty nice girl, is so modest and well behaved, and so much of a. lady; I 'm a I ways afraid to look at her wl1cn I speak to her; and she carries }Jerself so high, that I 'm sure if a mrm had anything wrong to say to l1er, he could not say it if he looked at l1er and saw her look." " .Ay, tlwt is l1er look to you, Pickett, and to me, perhaps, whom she docs not love," said Jolm bitterly; u but let her look on Riclw.rd Hurdis, and meet l1is eye, and the face changes fast enough. She has no dignified look for him ; no cold, composed, commanding voice. Oh, no! It is tl1en her tul'll to tremble, and to speak brokenly :md with downcast eyes; it is then her turn to fCei the })Ower of another, and to forget l1cr own; to be awed, rather than to awe; to fear herself, rather than to inspire that fear in him which she may in both of us." "I reckon he feels it too, 'squire, quite as much, if not more, than you; for, say what you please, there's no srtying Richard Hmdis don't love her. I've watched him often when he's been with her, :u~d when he has not thought tl1at anybody was looking at him-and thnt was at a time, too, when T hnd no reason to like nny bone in his skin- and I saw enough to feel certain that he felt a real, earnest love for her." "Let us say no more of that now," said Jolm Hurd is coldly, as if not altogether pleased with tl1e tone of Ids companion's speech. u Do you like him any better now, Ben Pickett 1 is he not the same man to you now that 110 l1as ever been 1 would he not drive you out of the country if he could 1 lws he 110l tried to do it 1 And wlw was it stood bch\·een you and tl10 whipping-post, when, at the head of tl1e county regulators, he would have drngged yon to it, for robbh1g the cornhouso, and GUft."l'Y l'!tA(."l'ICJ.:. 87 buying cotton from the negroes 1 liHvc you_ forgotten all this, Ben P ickett 1 rtll(l do you like Ricktrd Hurd1s any Letter w?en you rcn1e1nbcr tl1nt, to this moment, he l1as uot relaxed ag:unst you, and, to my knowledge, only n. mouth :1go threatened you with the horsewhip, if he fouml you prowlmg about the plant< ltion 1" "Ay, I ]1ear you," said the man, while the thick sweat ac_tu. ally stood upon his forehead, as he listened to an enumeratiOn of events from which his pC'ril had been great-" I hear you, J -olm H urd is: all is true that you say, but you say _not all the truth. Did you hear what I said to Richard llurd1s when l~e threatened me with tl1e horsewhip 1 do you know what I sa1d to myself, and swore in my own heart,, when he would h,:tve hauled me to the whipping~post from wh1ch you saYed me 1 "No· wl1at said you 1 whnt did you swear?" . "To 'put my bullet through his lJe.aJ, if he laid the we1ght of ]1is finger upon me ; nnd but that you saved him in s~ving me, so smely would I kn-c shot him, had the regulators bed me to the tree and used one hickory upon me." " I was a fool for saving you, then, Pickett-that's all. lind I known that you could so well ha.Ye fought your own battles, I had let him go o11. I nm not sorry, Ben, that I saved you from the whip; but, by G-el, I am sorry to the soul that I saved him from the shot!" " l 'm not sorry,·· said the other. " Let Uichard Hurd is live; I wish him no harm. I could even like him; for , blast me,.but he hn.s something about him thnt l'm n.lwnys glad to see 111 a mnn, nnd if he would only let me alone- " " Uc will not let you alone, Ben Pickett. _ He can not let you alone, if yon would look at the matlcl'. He comes bnck from the • natiou,' mH.l l\Iary Easterby is still unm:nTied. What then 1 - an cxplanntion takes Jllace between them. 'l'hc_y find out the truth: they find, perhaps, that you put the letter m tl1e way of Mary that told her about Richard's doings nt Coosauda; that you have been my agent in breeding the d~fference ~etwee.n them. More tl1an this, they mnrry, and Rtchard bnugs h1s wife home to live with him at tl1e old mnn's, where, if he does that, l1e will l1a\'e full authority. Do you suppose, when that time comes, I will stay in the neighborhood 1 Impossible. It |