I am now, a livin' here in the hills?"

The next day Mandy went back to her home on Jake Creek. And in the
evening Sammy's father, with Wash Gibbs, returned, both men and
horses showing the effects of a long, hard ride.





CHAPTER VIII.

"WHY AIN'T WE GOT NO FOLKS."


Preachin' Bill says "There's a heap o' difference in most men, but
Jim Lane now he's more different than ary man you ever seed. Ain't
no better neighbor'n Jim anywhere. Ride out o' his way any time t'
do you a favor. But you bet there ain't ary man lives can ask Jim
any fool questions while Jim's a lookin' at him. Tried it onct
myself. Jim was a waitin' at th' ferry fer Wash Gibbs, an' we was
a talkin' 'long right peart 'bout crops an' th' weather an' such,
when I says, says I, like a dumb ol' fool, 'How'd you like it down
in Texas, Jim, when you was there that time?' I gonies! His jaw
shet with a click like he'd cocked a pistol, an' that look o'
hisn, like he was a seein' plumb through you, come int' his eyes,
an' he says, says he, quiet like, 'D' you reckon that rain over on
James yesterday raised th' river much?' An' 'fore I knowed it, I
was a tellin' him how that ol' red bull o' mine treed th' Perkins'
boys when they was a possum huntin'."