exactly, Judy. Why?"

"'Cause I'm a-tellin' you-all not ter let her come back here ever," came
the startling answer, in a voice that was filled with menacing anger.
Then, before Brian could find a word to reply, the mountain girl
continued, with increasing excitement: "You-all dassn't let her come
back here, nohow, 'cause, if you do, I'll hurt her, sure. You-all
have been a-thinkin' as how I was plumb blind, I reckon; but I seen
you,--every evenin', when she'd pretend ter just go for a walk an'
then'd make straight for the clearin' where you was a-choppin', an' then
you'd quit, an' set with her up there on the hill. Youuns never knowed
I was a-watchin' from the bresh all the time, did you? Well, I was; an'
when youuns'd walk down ter the house, so slow like an' close together,
I'd sneak ahead, an' beat you home; but all the time I was a-seein' you,
an' youuns never knowed, 'cause youuns just naturally couldn't see nor
hear nothin' but each other. Don't you-all 'low as how I'd know by the
way you looked at her, while youuns was a-fixin' that there book, every
night, what you-all was a-thinkin' 'bout her? My God-A'mighty! hit was
just as plain ter me as if you was a-sayin' hit right out loud all the
time,--a heap plainer hit was than if you'd done writ' hit down in your
book. I can't make out ter read print much, nohow, like youuns kin; but
I sure kin see what I see. I--"

"Judy! Judy!" Brian broke the stream of the excited girl's talk. "What
in the world are you saying? What do you mean, child?"

"You-all knows dad burned well what I'm a-meanin'!" she retorted, with
increasing anger. "I'm a-meanin' that you-all are plumb lovin' that
there Betty Jo gal,--that's what I'm a-meanin'!--an' you-all sure ain't
got ary right for ter go an' do sich a thing, nohow!"