I don't want to brag, Henry, but we've done a big thing or two before, an' maybe we kin do a bigger now." He spoke the dialect of the border, he was not a man of books, but that great look of exaltation came into his face again, and the boy on the other side of the fire shared it.
"It seems to me, Sol," said Henry presently, "that we've been selected for work of a certain kind.

We finish one job, and then another on the same line begins." "Mebbe it's because we like to do it, an' are fit fur it," said Sol philosophically.

"I've noticed that a river gen'ally runs in a bed that suits it.

I don't know whether the bed is thar because the river is, or the river is thar 'cause the bed is, but it's shore that they're both thar together, an' you can't git aroun' that." "There's something in what you say," said Henry.
Then they relapsed into silence, and, in a half hour, as if by mutual consent, they rose, left the fire burning, and departed, still walking steadily toward the south.
The country grew rougher.

The hills were higher and closer together, and the undergrowth became thick.