I'll fight for you--if you'll let me go with you and Peter!" She came a step nearer.
"And if I stay here Jed Hawkins is goin' to sell me to a tie-cutter over on the railroad.

That's what it is--sellin' me.

I ain't--I mean I haven't--told you before, because I was afraid of what you'd do.
But it's goin' to happen, unless you let me go with you and Peter.

Oh, Mister Roger--Mister Jolly Roger--" Her fingers crept up his arms.

They reached his shoulders, and her blue eyes, and her red lips, and the woman's soul in her girl-body were so close to him he could feel their sweetness and thrill, and then he saw a slow-gathering mist, and tears-- "I'll go wherever you go," she was whispering, "And we'll hide where they won't ever find us, and I'll be happy, so happy, Mister Roger--and if you won't take me I want to die.