" His gaze
deepened into unconcealed admiration. "I wouldn't scare YOU for
anything!"
"I ain't so easy scairt," the girl returned defiantly. "Ef I
was," she went on in her fresh, young voice, full of queer,
upward inflections, "I wouldn't be a-berryin' in Ragged Woods
after sundaown."
She marched onward, her head thrown well back. Twenty steps later
the Man was again at her side.
"Pardoname, little one!" he said. "But, seein' you ain't scared,
an' thar bein' no blaze in these yere parts, maybe you'd put us
on the trail. Guess I'd a-gone on siesterin' till midnight if you
hadn't a-happened by--gracias a Dios!"
Her glance shot suspicion at him as though she scented banter in
the strange, foreign phrases; then she said:
"Ef you mean you wanter git to Potuck, whar the railroad starts,
you've got to walk three miles back to the Potuck Road; then it's
three miles west to Potuck taown."
"An' what lies on ahead, whar you're goin'?" he asked.
"Why, nothin'," she returned with a child's surprised simplicity.
"Nothin' but Twinklin' Island an' father an' me."
There was silence then, but the Man watched the strong, straight
lines of her face, her keen black eyes, her wealth of black hair
tumbled into the back-fallen sunbonnet.
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