feet, Silent Tom Ross merely looked up, but Shif'less Sol said:

"Thought Henry would be here in time for breakfast."

Henry walked down in the valley, and the shiftless one regarded
him keenly.

"I should judge, Henry Ware, that you've been hevin' a foot
race," he drawled.

"And why do you think that?" asked Henry.

"I kin see where the briars hev been rakin' across your leggins.
Reckon that wouldn't happen, 'less you was in a pow'ful hurry."

"You're right," said Henry. "Now, Jim, you've been holding that
venison in the air long enough. Give it to me, and after I've
eaten it I'll tell you all that I've been doing, and all that's
been done to me."

Long Jim handed him the slice. Henry took a comfortable seat in
the circle before the coals, and ate with all the appetite of a
powerful human creature whose food had been more than scanty for
at least two days.

"Take another piece," said Long Jim, observing him with approval.
"Take two pieces, take three, take the whole deer. I always like
to see a hungry man eat. It gives him sech satisfaction that I
git a kind uv taste uv it myself."