the hills out for signs, thinkin' maybe he met up with some
trouble. He'd sent all his pictures away the week before, Jim Lane
haulin' them to the settlement for him.

"The girl was nigh about wild and rode with me all durin' the
hunt, and once when we saw some buzzards circlin', she gave a
little cry and turned so white that I suspicioned maybe she got to
thinkin' more of him than we knew. Then one afternoon when we were
down yonder in the Hollow, she says, all of a sudden like, 'Daddy,
it ain't no use a ridin' no more. He ain't met up with no trouble.
He's left all the trouble with us.' She looked so piqued and her
eyes were so big and starin' that it come over me in a flash what
she meant. She saw in a minute that I sensed it, and just hung her
head, and we come home.

"She just kept a gettin' worse and worse, Mr. Howitt; 'peared to
fade away like, like I watched them big glade lilies do when the
hot weather comes. About the only time she would show any life at
all was when someone would go for the mail, when she'd always be
at the gate a waitin' for us.

"Then one day, a letter come. I brung it myself. She give a little
cry when I handed it to her, and run into the house, most like her
old self. I went on out to the barn to put up my horse, thinkin'
maybe it was goin' to be alright after all; but pretty soon, I
heard a scream and then a laugh. 'Fore God, sir, that laugh's a
ringin' in my ears yet. She was ravin' mad when I got to her, a
laughin', and a screechin', and tryin' to hurt herself, all the
while callin' for him to come.