The girl laughed mockingly and took her foot from the pool, not in
deference to his outburst, but because the water was icy cold and gave
her a cramp.

"Now you've done it," she remarked. "The devil'll shore get ye for
sayin' that word, Tom-Jeff."

There was no reply, and she stepped back to see what had become of him.
He was prone, writhing in agony. She knew the way to the top of the
rock, and was presently crouching beside him.

"Don't take on like that!" she pleaded. "Times I cayn't he'p bein' mean:
looks like I was made thataway. Get up and slap me, if you want to. I
won't slap back."

But Thomas Jefferson only ground his face deeper into the thick mat of
cedar needles and begged to be let alone.

"Go away; I don't want you to talk to me!" he groaned. "You're always
making me sin!"

"That's because you're Adam and I'm Eve, ain't it? Wasn't you tellin' me
in revival time that Eve made all the 'ruction 'twixt the man and God? I
reckon she was right sorry; don't you?"

Thomas Jefferson sat up.

"You're awfully wicked, Nan," he said definitively.

"'Cause I don't believe all that about the woman and the snake and the