The herald., 1897-02-14

juicy, on the broad blade of his knife,
to Ria. -,
Don't you want this here one, 'Ria?"
he asked, blushing all over his broad,
freckIed race.
Don't keer eff do, 'Kiah." the girl had
said, and she ate the peaeh ten.atiVeiS, @
looking away off across the fields to the
blue smirch Of distant pine trees be-
yond.
Well, the next Sunday and the next
found 'Kiah eating peaches with the
boys on the Tillys back gallery and so
on for every Sunday thereafter till the
fields were white and cotton picking
commenced. Then, though he saw Ria
every day and helped along nightly
with his big hands in filling the long cot
ton sack that trailed behind her. strap
ped to her frail shoulders, by that time
he had got used to going to see the boys
on Sunday, and, during the fall and WIN
ter would sit with them around the hre
peeling sugar cane for Ria or shelllng
great handfuls of goobers, that Drowned
and parched amid the ashes on the wide
hearth. Mrs. Tilly still manipulated the
conversation between dips. having much
ado to spit clear of the andirons into the
bank of ashes that climbed up in the
chimney corner.
, Thus had passed the first year OF
'Kiah's courtship. and in all the twenty
of them that followed the gossips had
been able to detect no difference. The
| only change had been, perhaps. that
'Kiah himself had grown bigger
and broader and more shambling in his
| gait; the freckles on his face were hid
! den by the sandy beard that straggled
| over it like weeds in a neglected fence
| corner after the fall frosts, but nothing
could hide the blush that mounted to
| his cheek the same now as it had done
I that first Sunday afternoon when he
peeled the first peach for Ria. AS for the
| girl herself, she had grown little tall
er and a little more slender, perhaps;
| there was a shade more wistfulness in
her blue eyes when she looked across the
fields to the smirch of pine hills beyond;
perhaps, sometimes, there was touch
of asperity in her voice when she said:
Don't keer eff 1 do 'Kiah," but that
was about all.
Mrs Tilly still dipped and talked and
| spat clear of the chicken trough or Of
the dog irons as of yore. But of the
| "boys," Ikey only was left Nose and
Pete had married and lived with their
! wives people down the creek and this,
of course, had left more work for 'Ria
| to do helping her mother indoors and
Ikey out. Perhaps this last had some
| thing to do with Kiah's increased en-
ergy in log hauling for, though the years
| went by, he was still at the same old
| boys business.
The gossips, who always knew more
| than other people, said it was a down
right shame that old man Burnet had
never given 'Kiah chance to do some
| thing for himself.
1.-THE OF man mought "a give 'Kiah Il
| strip er Ian an a mule an a COW anyhow
an sorter let the boy "a felt like he had
some chanst to start with little scrap
er sump mother to call his own. Hits
dog mean er OF Burnet to keep the boy
under like he done" This is what one OF
| the most highly respected gossips had
been heard to remark, whereupon an
other of the same ilk, though next in
rank had said:
"Leastaways, the OF man mought "a
up an died at decent age, fur he must
be turned er 20. an lef' 'Kiah his own
man fo' all the pith o. youth is sapped
outen them big, loose-j'inted bones er
his'n."
Sometimes I gifts out er all patience
with 'Kiah "a not standin up fur his own
sef mo-: then reckon tain't beholden er
me to judge him when them as ought to
amt never gin him no encouragement" i"
That's so; we all know 'Kiah's good
boy; naint better in the settlement, and
maybe so if Ria had "a been little
mo- demandin' of him, 'Kiah he'd "a
been little mo- respondin'. IT any rate,
hit would have pestered me fourth
Sunday after fourth Sunday these twen-
ty years, when church meetin' was over
an 'Kiah would come up an ak Ria eff
so be as he mought g'long home with her
to hear the gal say in that same onex-
pectin' tone O. hern, Don't keer eff you
do, 'Kiah.'
"Yes'm, that's SO, but maybe Ria amt
lost nothin' by not bein' forward an
too expectin'. Hits wuth sumpn to q
gal nowadays to KEEP her dignity, an
Ria cert'nly is proud. Pity some er the