I--" "Judy! Judy!" Brian broke the stream of the excited girl's talk.

"What in the world are you saying?
What do you mean, child ?" "You-all knows dad burned well what I'm a-meanin'!" she retorted, with increasing anger.

"I'm a-meanin' that you-all are plumb lovin' that there Betty Jo gal,--that's what I'm a-meanin'!--an' you-all sure ain't got ary right for ter go an' do sich a thing, nohow!" Brian tried to check her, but she silenced him with: "I won't neither hush! I can't! I tell you I'm a-goin' ter say my say if you-all kills me! I've just naturally got ter! Seems like I was all afire inside an' would burn plumb up if I didn't! I've got rights, I reckon, if I be all crooked an' twisted out er shape, an' ugly-faced an' no learnin', ner nothin'." A dry sob choked the torrent of words for an instant; but, with a savage effort she went on: "I know I ain't nothin' alongside of her, but you-all ain't a-goin' ter have her just the same,--not if I have ter kill her first! You ain't got no right ter have her, nohow, 'cause hit's like's not you-all done got a woman already somewheres, wherever 'twas you-all come from; an' even if you ain't got no woman already, I sure ain't a-goin' ter let you have her! What'd she ever do for you?
Hit was me what dragged you-all from the river when you was mighty nigh dead from licker an' too plumb sick ter save yourself! Hit's me that's kept from tellin' the Sheriff who you be an' a-takin' that there reward-money! Hit was me what jumped inter the river above Elbow Rock just ter git your dad burned old book, when you'd done throwed hit plumb away! "I knowed first time I heard Auntie Sue name her what she'd do ter you! Any fool would a-knowed what a woman with a half-gal, half-boy name like her'n would do, an' she's done hit,--she sure has! But she ain't a-goin' ter do no more! You-all belongs ter me a heap more'n you do ter her,--if hit comes ter that,--though, I ain't a-foolin' myself none a-thinkin' that sich as you could ever take up with sich as me,--me bein' what I am.

No, sir; I ain't never fooled myself ary bit like that, Mr.Burns.
But hit ain't a-makin' no difference how ugly an' crooked an' no 'count I be outside; the inside of me is a-lovin' you like she never could, ner nobody else, I reckon.

An' I'll just go on a-lovin' you, no matter what happens; an' I ain't a-carin' whether you got a woman already er not, er whether you-all have robbed er killed, er what you done.