"You've been up to Devil-may-come Hollow!"

"Have I? Let me pass, Marg. Have your mully-grubs, if you please; I'm
going home."

As Nella-Rose tried to pass, Marg caught her by the arm.

"Burke's back!" she whispered, "he's hiding up to Devil-may-come! He's
been seen and you know it!"

"What if I do?" Nella-Rose never ignored a possible escape for the
future.

"You've been up there--to meet him. You ought to be licked. If you don't
let him alone--let him and me alone--I'll turn Jed on him, I will; I
swear it!"

"What is he--to you!" Nella-Rose confronted her sister squarely. Blue
eyes--bold, cold blue they were--looked into dark ones even now so soft
and winning that it was difficult to resist them.

"If you let him alone, he'll be everything to me!" Marg blurted out.
"What do you want of him, Nella-Rose?--of him or any other man? But if
you must have a sweetheart, pick and choose and let me have my day."

The rough appeal struck almost brutally on Nella-Rose's ears. She was as
un-moral, perhaps, as Marg, but she was more discriminating.

"I'm mighty tired of cleaning and cooking for--for father and you!"
Marg tossed her head toward Lone Dome. "Father's mostly always drunk