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The next day Melissa turned her gray eyes with a vague, kindling interest toward the "volunteer barley-patch." Two or three points of white gleamed upon it in the afternoon sun. She mused upon them speculatively for awhile, and then consulted Lysander. "I reckon it's the survey stakes, M'lissy," he said kindly. "Forrester's dividin' it up, as he said.
"Well, A'nt Zuby might come," suggested Jerry, "but I should hate to have her nuss me, and as for bein' WELL in a house where she was whew!" "A'nt Zuby!" sneered his messmate. "If Lorenzo had a fit and they called A'nt Zuby he'd have another one and die. A'nt Zuby! I'd 'bout as soon have M'lissy and be done with it." "Yes, I don't doubt YOU WOULD," was the anything but gentle retort.
"Dawdlin'," answered the old woman, with a curtness that was eloquent, lifting the frying-pan from the stove, and shaking it into a more aggravated sputter. "Is she upstairs?" "I s'pose so. She gener'ly is, when there's anything doin' down." Mrs. Sproul put her hand over the baby's mouth and called upward, "M'lissy!"
Me and Jerry's been thinkin' we'd have to build a fence 'round the house to keep the girls away when he's home. Why, M'lissy Busteed fairly " "Oh, give us a rest, Eri!" exclaimed Perez, with even more indignation than was necessary. "M'lissy Busteed!"
Ah know they is, 'cos Ah cut mah finger openin' a can fo' M'lissy this mo'nin'. Yes, they's cake, too. You, Hamp, that size is fifteen!" As Friedrich approached, a laugh went up at the expense of 'Gene Frady, who had taken a bag of each size. "Watch out which one 'Gene gives his wife," cried Bud, sarcastically.
"That long-legged tenderfoot thinks you're purty, M'lissy," he announced, as he smoked his pipe on the doorstep one evening. "He come down to the ditch this afternoon to see if I could sharpen a pick fer 'em, and he asked if you was my little dotter. I told 'im no, I was your great-grandpap," and Lysander laughed teasingly.
"Poindexter calls him 'Sterling, but I don' know if it's his first name or his last. Anyway, he seems to be a powerful singer." The baby broke into a faint but rapidly strengthening wail. "Come, now, Pareppy Rosy," said Lysander soothingly, "don't you be jealous; your old pappy ain't a-goin' back on you as a musicianer. Give 'er to me, M'lissy."
Melissa bent over to fasten the tugs, and asked in a voice steadied to lifeless monotony, "Do you think they'll do anything to him for it, Lysander?" "I dunno, M'lissy," said the man. "He told the men at the camp it was self-defense, and mebbe he can prove it; but bein' no witnesses, they may lock 'im up fer a year or two, just to give 'im time to cool off. It'll be good fer 'im.
She'll have you yit; you can't git away! But say, I don't wonder you got to thinkin' 'bout the grave. Ten minutes of M'lissy gits me thinkin' of things way t'other side of that!" "Aw, belay there, Eri" protested Captain Perez testily. "'Twan't my fault. I didn't see her comin' or I'd have got out of sight.
Her slight figure in its limp blue cotton drapery had the scarred mountain-side for a background. "I don't see yet as he done anything so awful mean," she protested leniently. "Ner do I, M'lissy," acquiesced her brother-in-law.
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