We hunted the hills out for signs, thinkin' maybe he met up with some trouble.

He'd sent all his pictures away the week before, Jim Lane haulin' them to the settlement for him.
"The girl was nigh about wild and rode with me all durin' the hunt, and once when we saw some buzzards circlin', she gave a little cry and turned so white that I suspicioned maybe she got to thinkin' more of him than we knew.

Then one afternoon when we were down yonder in the Hollow, she says, all of a sudden like, 'Daddy, it ain't no use a ridin' no more.

He ain't met up with no trouble.
He's left all the trouble with us.' She looked so piqued and her eyes were so big and starin' that it come over me in a flash what she meant.

She saw in a minute that I sensed it, and just hung her head, and we come home.
"She just kept a gettin' worse and worse, Mr.Howitt; 'peared to fade away like, like I watched them big glade lilies do when the hot weather comes.