he proceeded to do, with the aid of the sullen glare from the embers
within and the fluctuating gleams of the lightning without. There
was no pretense of utility in Rufe's performance; only the love of
handling lead could explain it.

"Ye hed better mind," his mother admonished him. "Birt war powerful
tried the t'other day ter think what hed gone with his bullets.
He'll nose ye out afore long."

"They hev got sech a fool way o' slippin' through the chinks in the
floor," said the boy in exasperation. "I never seen the beat! An'
thar's no gittin' them out, nuther. I snaked under the house
yestiddy an' sarched, an' sarched!--an' I never fund but two. An'
Towse, he dragged hisself under thar, too--jes' a-growlin' an' a-
snappin'. I thought fur sartin every minit he'd bite my foot off."

He resumed his self-imposed task of counting the rifle balls, and
now and then a sharp click told that another was consigned to that
limbo guarded by Towse. Mrs. Dicey stood in silence for a time,
gazing upon the unutterably gloomy forest, the distant, throbbing
stars, and the broad, wan flashes at long intervals gleaming through
the sky.

"It puts me in a mighty tucker ter hev yer brother a-settin' out
through the woods this hyar way, an' a-leavin' of we-uns hyar, all
by ourselves sech a dark night. I'm always afeared thar mought be a
bar a-prowlin' round. An' the cornfield air close ter the house,
too."

"Pete Thompson--him ez war yander ter the tanyard day 'fore yestiddy