Dixie Hart | Page 5

mine
I'd never kill 'im in a duel; I'd keep him alive to laugh at."
"You didn't say whether Mr. Wrinkle paid for the tobacco or not,"
Dixie reminded him, expectantly.
"Well, I'll tell you now that he didn't," was the answer, "nor for a
pocketful of red stick-candy which he took from a jar. He said it was
for his wife's sweet tooth; but if she got any of it she met him on the
road home, for he was chucking it in at a great rate as he walked away."
They both glanced toward Henley's house. They saw the subject of
their remarks emerge from the kitchen door, and hang his slouch hat on
a nail on the veranda, and reach for the dinner-horn.
"He's going to blow for me," Henley smiled, as the spluttering blast
from the horn rang out and reverberated from the mountain-side.
"Breakfast is ready. He eats like a horse at all times, and is as hardy as
a mountain-goat. I'm going to call him 'Kind Words.'"
"Kind Words"? Dixie looked up inquiringly and smiled. "That's as odd
as Carrie's 'stepfather-in-law.' Why are you going to call him that?"

"Because," and Henley glanced back as he was moving away, "the
Sunday-school hymn says, 'Kind words can never die,' and I know old
Wrinkle won't."
CHAPTER II
As Henley, the axe in hand, approached the house, his stepfather-in-law,
with considerable clatter, was hanging the horn on its nail.
"I noticed you was talkin' to Dixie Hart at the fence," he said, as he
discarded his quid of tobacco and stroked his grizzled chin, on which a
week-old beard grew. "Well, if I wasn't no older'n you are, an' was as
good-lookin', which maybe I ain't, I'd chin 'er over the fence mornin',
noon, and night--married or unmarried. Man laws was made to keep us
straight, I reckon; but when the Lord Himself lived on earth they wasn't
quite as bindin' as folks try to make 'em now. A feller, in that day an'
time, could be introduced to a new wife every mornin' at breakfast, if
he could afford to keep a drove of 'em, and still be looked up to as a
wise man and a prophet."
"Dixie was talking about buying a new axe," Henley answered, "but I
told her this one was good enough, and that I'd make Pomp grind it."
"She's as purty as red shoes," old Jason said. "And if she hain't had a
load to bear, no female ever toted one. Talk about justice! Why, Alf,
that gal hain't had a thimbleful sence she was a baby. She has set out to
make a livin' fer a mammy that can't hardly see where she's walkin',
and an aunt that is mighty nigh tied in a knot with rheumatism, and she
is doin' it--bless yore life!--better'n many a man could in the same
plight. Folks say she's already paid old Welborne half on that farm, and
that before long she'll own it, lock, stock, and barrel. As you may 'a'
noticed, I sometimes poke jabs of fun at women, but I never do at her.
Somehow I jest can't. I was a-settin' right back of Carrie Wade an' some
more frisky gals at meetin' last Sunday when Dixie come in an' tuck a
seat on the bench ahead of 'em. I don't let women bother me, one way
or another, but I got rippin' mad at that gang. They was makin' sport of
her. One of 'em re'ched over an' felt of the ribbon on the pore gal's hat,

and then they stuffed the'r handkerchiefs in the'r mouths and come nigh
bustin' with giggles. Them sort think they are the whole show, with
their white hands, smellin'-stuff, and the'r eyes on every man that
passes, while a gal like Dixie Hart is overlooked. I've stood thar at the
gate and watched her out in her corn or cotton in the br'ilin' sun with
her hoe goin' up and down as regular as the tick of a clock, while the
other gals was whiskin' by in some drummer's dinky-top buggy or
takin' a snooze flat o' the'r backs in a cool room."
"Is breakfast ready?" Henley asked, with an appreciative nod in
recognition of remarks he did not wish to prolong, as he leaned the axe
against the front gate and ascended the steps.
"Sech as it is," the old man answered, taking another tack. "When me
an' Jane decided to come here to reside, Hettie was goin' to do wonders
in the cookin' line. She was particular to ax just what our favorite
dishes was, and you may remember how she spread herse'f the fust
three days after we was installed. It was like a camp-meetin'. You
couldn't think of a single