"After dinner Hammond went down to the spring after some water and
Lobelia 'Ankins went along with him. I laid down in the shade for a
snooze, but I hadn't much more than settled myself comfortably when
I heard a yell and somebody running. I jumped up just in time to see
Hammond come busting through the bushes, lickety smash, with Lobelia
after him, yelling like an Injun. Hammond wa'n't yelling; he was saving
his breath for running.

"They wa'n't in sight more'n a minute, but went smashing and crashing
through the woods into the distance. 'Twas too hot to run after 'em, so
I waited a spell and then loafed off in a roundabout direction toward
where I see 'em go. After I'd walked pretty nigh a mile I heard Hammond
whistle. I looked, but didn't see him nowheres. Then he whistled again,
and I see his head sticking out of the top of a palm tree.

"'Is she gone?' says he.

"'Yes, long ago,' says I. 'Come down.'

"It took some coaxing to git him down, but he come after a spell, and he
was the scaredest man ever I see. I asked him what the matter was.

"''Edge,' says he, 'I'm a lost man. That 'ere 'orrible 'Ankins houtrage
is either going to marry me or kill me. 'Edge,' he says, awful solemn,
'she tried to kiss me! S'elp me, she did!'

"Well, I set back and laughed. 'Is that why you run away?' I says.

"'No,' says he. 'When I wouldn't let 'er she hups with a rock as big as
my 'ead and goes for me. There was murder in 'er eyes, 'Edge; I see it.'