"Have some?" he asked, pointing the opening at Bob, who was settling into repose with his hat over his face. "No, I thank you. I must be going home in a few minutes. How are you getting on? Bought any more stock lately?" Bob lay on his back with one long leg balanced on the other knee like a see-saw on a saw-horse. The rowel of his spur rattled as he jerked his foot up and down at the ankle. "No." Pink had his mouth full. "How many head have you got now?" "Oh, jus' a mule 'n a couple o' cows." "Sold your horse?" "'M. Here Bud, take some o' this. Ah jus' natchelly hate to have you-all die o' starvation." "No, she's comin'. Ah see her now." And Bud ran to meet his wife and to relieve her of the baby. "Hungry, ain' he?" sneered Pink, as he watched his partner's alacrity, while Bob struggled to his feet to greet Melissa. "Say, you-all wasn' wantin' to buy a cow, was ye, Bob?" asked Pink. "Got one to sell?" "Yes, the muley cow." "No, I don't guess I want her." "You seemed so damn curious about my stock, Ah 'lowed ye were purchasin'." "Oh, no. I just thought you must have an extra lot of cattle to be providing for, or you wouldn't have needed to hire this land and to make an extra big crop of corn." A dull red showed on Pink's forehead above the tan-mark, and crowded into his pale-blue eyes, destitute of lashes. The two men looked steadily at each other. Then, as Melissa drew near, Pink broke into an ugly laugh. "Give a dog a bad name, eh? You-all needn' be quite so bigoty now yo' fine friends have been at the same business." He waved his hand towards the cabin, and Bob, in his turn, flushed as he shook hands with Melissa. The girl gave scant greeting to Pressley. Her husband's new friendship with him was distasteful to her; it filled her with foreboding when she remembered his threats. Yet there had been nothing definite of which she could complain to Bud since the day when Miss Carroll had caught Pink trying to kiss her. He had never been to the cabin since his rebuff, but she knew that he and Bud were constantly together, and this partnership in the hiring of the Baron's land was a culmination of their friendly relations. "Ah don' see how ye c'n stan' him, nohow, Bud," she often said, and Bud as often replied,-- "Ah never did see anythin' like the prejudice o' women! They certainly ain' no doubt about yo' sex, M'lissy." Pink bore his part in the present conversation with no trace of embarrassment. Indeed, there was an assertiveness in his bearing that reacted upon Melissa to produce extreme shyness. Neither cause nor effect escaped Morgan's shrewd black eyes. "How's Mr. Baron?" asked Bud, between bites. "Doing very well. He gets out on the porch every day now." "Great luck he has," growled Pressley. "Yo' father never paid my fine when Ah was given mah choice between 'a hundred dollars or three months.'" "My father likes to choose his friends," replied Bob, sternly. Melissa looked distressed.