"Uh-huh--fiddle and er banjer, and the feller that plays the banjer kin tear more music out o' it and stomp on the floor harder'n any other perfesser in the mountains. Better come if Paw ain't run you-all out befo' then." "Don't worry, little one. Paw won't run this outfit out just yet," replied Hippy. "I dunno, I dunno. Ain't no tellin' 'bout Paw. Bye." Julie pushed a mass of hair from her forehead, gave her head a jerk to settle the hair more firmly in place, then, turning on her heel, walked away without once turning her head. "With a stomach like his, 'Paw' should have been in France fighting the Boches," observed Emma Dean solemnly. "I'm going to the dance! I'm going to the dance! Tra-la-la," she cried, doing a fancy step about the camp, keeping time with her upraised arms until she stepped on Washington Washington's foot and brought a howl from that worthy. The Overland girls then fell upon and subdued Miss Dean without loss of time. "If you let her go to that dance there will be a riot, as sure as I am a foot high," declared Hippy Wingate, in which assertion most of the girls agreed with him. CHAPTER XIII THREE MEN IN THE CORNFIELD "Ah tells yuh, Ah did. Ah sawed him obah dar in de co'nfield," protested Washington Washington. "There you go again. You will saw the wrong person one of these days, then you will go to jail for life," rebuked Emma Dean. "What's that?" demanded Grace, hurrying to the excited colored boy, who was rolling his eyes and gesticulating as he tried to tell the Overlanders what he had seen. "Laundry performed a surgical operation on a man in the cornfield. That's all, Grace," Emma Dean informed her. "Ah did. Ah sawed his gun, too." "Yours must be a sharp saw if it will saw a gun," murmured Emma. "He war peekin' at yuh-all, an' when he seed Ah sawed him he snooked an' Ah didn't sawed him no moah." "Is that all?" questioned Grace. "Yassuh. Yes'm." "Quite likely it was the man who owns the cornfield. He probably was looking the crop over to see if it were fit to cut. I presume a man has a perfect right to look at his own cornfield, even up here in the Kentucky mountains," observed Miss Briggs. "Ah reckons you're right," chuckled Hippy. "I decline to get excited over it. I have troubles of my own. Say!" he added, his face growing suddenly serious. "You don't suppose it was a fellow trying to collect that head money on me, do you?" "Not in broad daylight, Hippy," smiled Grace. "The headsman probably will perform the delicate operation of decapitating you some night when you are asleep." "Nonsense!" exclaimed Nora. "The mountain air has made you all light-headed. I know who it was. It was 'Paw.' Paw has returned and was looking us over. I hope, for our own peace of mind, that he liked our looks." "Nora may be right," nodded Anne.