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And indeed it might have seemed that the Quimbeys must have long sought a choice Kittredge infant for adoption, so far did their bewailings discount Rachel's mourning. "Don't cry, Eveliny," they said, ever and anon. "We-uns 'll git him back fur ye." But she had not shed a tear. She sat speechless, motionless, as if turned to stone.
"Then county court days, goin' to county court, an' comin' from county court, sech passels an' passels o' folks! I wisht we-uns hed it afore the jury o' view kem, so we-uns mought view the jury o' view." "It's along o' the jury o' view ez we-uns will git the road, ef we do git it," the young man said cautiously.
"Waal, Birt," he drawled at last, "ez yer dad is dead an' ye hev got nobody ter see arter ye an' advise ye, Andy an' me, we-uns agreed ez how we'd talk ter ye right plain, an' try ter git ye ter jedge o' this hyar matter like we-uns do. Andy an' me know more 'bout the law, an' 'bout folks too, than ye does. These hyar Griggs folks hev always been misdoubted ez a fractious an' contrary-wise fambly.
We can trade hit for store credit that's all. Corn juice is about all we can tote around over the country and git cash money for. Why, man, that's the only way some folks has o' payin' their taxes!" "But, aside from the work and the worry," I remarked, "there is the danger of being shot, in this business." "Oh, we-uns don't lay that up agin the Government!
"An' Josiah Kittredge he put out the eyes of a horse critter o' mine right thar at the court-house door " "Waal, arterward, we-uns fired his house over his head," put in Tim. "An' Josiah Kittredge an' me," the old man went on, "we-uns clinched every time we met in this mortal life. Every time I go past the graveyard whar he be buried I kin feel his fingers on my throat.
Let ary thing go wrong in the fam'ly fever, or snake bite, or somethin' and we can't git a doctor up hyar less'n three days; and it costs scand'lous. The only medicines we-uns has is yerbs, which customarily ain't no good 'thout a leetle grain o' whiskey. Now, th'r ain't no saloons allowed in all these western counties. The nighest State dispensary, even, is sixty miles away.
"So that's the way you people think of us?" he finally asked. "Bob, hyar, says you-uns 'n' we-uns hain't no different." He had begun calling Bob by his first name with child-like ingenuousness. "But there is a distinction," the old gentleman insisted. "The mountaineers are more I might say more intense, as your act this morning gives testimony.
When we-uns had a reckonin comin', we naterally went out an' shot our man; but these torn-down scoundrels like Jed Martin an' his kind they trap 'em an' send 'em to worse'n hell. Las' night" and here Merrivale bent close to Nella-Rose "my hen coop was 'tarnally gone through, an' a bag o' taters lifted. I ain't makin' no cry-out.
"Well, as to your face and clothes we might be mistook," replied Nels, slowly. "But you had oughter hid that watch chain before you come back amongst we-uns." He reached out to lay hold of the article in question, but the angry boy pushed his hand away.
And whether they schemed to burn the Kittredge cabin, or to arm themselves, burst in upon their enemies, shooting and killing all who resisted, Evelina said nothing, but stared into the fire with unnaturally dilated eyes, her white lined face all drawn and somehow unrecognizable. "Never mind," her father said at intervals, taking her cold hand, "we-uns 'll git him back, Eveliny.
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