"Isn't it pretty risky for her to go with him so much?"

"Oh, I reckon she kin take care o' herse'f; she has that look to me;
besides, she's been warned; my wife an' among 'em has talked to her
plenty o' times. I reckon she knows what he is well enough. Do you
know I had my eye on you an' her to-night?"

"What do you mean, Luke?" Westerfelt managed to avoid meeting the eye
of his host as he put the question. He could not remember ever having
waited for a reply with more concern.

"Oh, I don't know," smiled Bradley, knowingly; "but somehow you an' her
seemed to me to be head an' shoulders above the rest o' that silly
crowd. The idee just popped into my head that you'd make a spankin'
team, an' then ag'in" (Bradley laughed) "I tuck notice that you never
went up to 'er an' talked to her free-like, as you did to most o' the
rest, an' I remembered I wus jest that big a fool when I fust met
Marthy. But you wus a-watchin' of her, though. I'll bet ef you looked
at 'er once you did forty times. As for her, I happen to know some'n
funny. You see, I heerd her an' Wambush a-talkin' on the back porch
when I went out thar to draw up a bucket o' water. The rope had got
tangled somehow, an' I had to fix it, an' while I was doin' of it I
couldn't help heerin' what they said, beca'se Toot wus as mad as a wet
hen, an' didn't keer a dern who heerd 'im."

"Mad--at her?" ejaculated Westerfelt.

"Yes; it seemed that he had bantered her to say what she thought about
you, an' she'd up an' told him you wus about the best-lookin' man she'd
ever seed, an' that you looked like a born gentleman, an' one thing