Did you know what that was?
To save him I took upon me a shame I don't deserve.

I let you think I was his mistress.

You think so now, don't you?
Well, before God to-day--and He may take me when He likes--I'm no more to him than a sister! I reckon your Nellie can't say as much." She turned away, and with the quick, impatient stride of some caged animal made the narrow circuit of the opening, stopping a moment mechanically before the sick man, and again, without looking at him, continuing her monotonous round.

The heat had become excessive, but she held her shawl with both hands drawn tightly over her shoulders.
Suddenly a wood-duck darted out of the covert blindly into the opening, struck against the blasted trunk, fell half stunned near her feet, and then, recovering, fluttered away.

She had scarcely completed another circuit before the irruption was followed by a whirring bevy of quail, a flight of jays, and a sudden tumult of wings swept through the wood like a tornado.