"Am I a dog that you wake me in this fashion?" He colored, pointed
sullenly to the well and said sharply: "Your cattle have troubled the
water again; I shall have to wait here till it is clear and I can draw
some."

"The day is long," answered the shepherdess, and while she rose she
pushed, as if by chance, another stone into the water.

Her triumphant, flashing glance as she looked down into the troubled
spring did not escape the young man, and he exclaimed angrily:

"He is right! You are a venomous snake--a demon of hell."

She raised herself and made a face at him, as if she wished to show him
that she really was some horrible fiend; the unusual sharpness of her
mobile and youthful features gave her a particular facility for doing so.
And she fully attained her end, for he drew back with a look of horror,
stretched out his arms to repel her, and exclaimed as he saw her
uncontrollable laughter,

"Back, demon, back! In the name of the Lord! I ask thee, who art
thou?"

"I am Miriam--who else should I be?" she answered haughtily.

He had expected a different reply, her vivacity annoyed him, and he said
angrily, "Whatever your name is you are a fiend, and I will ask Paulus to
forbid you to water your beasts at our well."