She then took o--u--t a silver dagger-r, And percht it thr--ough her lily-white breast, And these words uttered as she staggered, ‘True love, true l--o--ve, I’m goin’ to rest.’” And her lover, being at that very moment on that clear, broad river, and passing that very tree, “He ran, he r--a--n, he ran unto her,” and picking up the same silver dagger, he “percht it through his weeping heart,” and Serena sang to the world: “Let this be a gr--ea--t and awful warning, To all who ke--e--p true lovers apart; To all who ke--e--p true lovers apart.” “Serena,” said I gently, “wouldn’t you just as soon say ‘pierced’ as ‘percht’?” “That wouldn’t be doin’ right by granmommie. She always sung it thataway, an’ she was a hundred and three when she died, an’ died in her cheer. She knowed what she’s about to the last minute. She sung it ‘percht,’ an’ I wouldn’t change it noways. My, but you look like you’d been bee-huntin’ in a locus’ patch!” “I’ve had a good time, Serena.” “So’ve I,” she said, getting up. “An’ I didn’t resk my life fer it nuther.” We were to meet the men at the place where the spotted sow lay tied. Serena and I arrived first by a few minutes, as the men travelled slowly with their burden, and stopped frequently to “change the bone.” We found the sow quiet and sullen. There was only the one pig with her. “We must find the other pigs,” I said to the men, when they came up blowing and put their load down. “We kain’t do that. It’s turnin’ colder, an’ it’ll be night now ’fore we git in home with this chap.” “But they’re so little! They’ll starve!” “Oh, half of ’em’ll scratch through alive. Let’s go fer water, boys.” Everybody but myself went round the side of the hill to the spring. I stayed to ponder on the extravagant method of bringing in wild hogs. The thought of those ten or more little black-and-pink creatures shivering in the woods until starvation released them was more than I could passively bear. I looked at the rope, and found it tied in what to me was an unalterable knot. But I could cut it by laying it against a rock and rubbing it with the sharp edge of another rock. I found the stones I wanted and set to work, making the rope as ragged as possible. When the stringy ends dropped no one would have suspected that the rope had been cut. The sow rushed off with her little pig following, and they were soon out of sight. Then I found that I too was longing for water, and hurried to the spring. I knew I should find the others lingering, each wanting to get in one more comment on the inexhaustible subject of the capture. “We’d better git back,” said Len at last. “Pap, you can drive the sow in. Thanks to gracious, we don’t have to carry _her_.” It was an angry and bewildered group that paused at the spot where the sow had been tied. “Dern her sides, wha’d she mean by layin’ here all day an’ breakin’ the rope at the last minute?” said Sam. “It wuz a good rope too. There wuzn’t a weak spot in it.”