Then he stopped short.

"I reckon I got to break dat gal's head some day. Yessuh; she knows whut
my cross is," and then he started slowly after her, shaking his head
and, as his wont was, talking to himself.

He was still talking to himself when Basil came out to the stiles after
supper to get into his buggy.

"Young Cap'n, dat gal Molly mighty nigh pesterin' de life out o' me. I
done tol' her I'se gwine to de wah."

"What did she say?"

"De fool nigger--she jes laughed--she jes laughed."

The boy, too, laughed, as he gathered the reins and the mare sprang
forward.

"We'll see--we'll see."

And Bob with a triumphant snort turned toward Molly's cabin.

The locust-trees were quiet now and the barn was still except for the
occasional stamp of a horse in his stall or the squeak of a pig that was
pushed out of his warm place by a stronger brother. The night noises
were strong and clear--the cricket in the grass, the croaking frogs from
the pool, the whir of a night-hawk's wings along the edge of the yard,
the persistent wail of a whip-poor-will sitting lengthwise of a willow
limb over the meadow-branch, the occasional sleepy caw of crows from