“Well, by granny--_he-he!_ Man's wife brustled up at me like a--a--” He searched his brain for a simile, and failed to find one. “'I have been helping Manley, Mr. Polycarp Jenks,' she says to me, 'and I flatter myself I have done as well as any _man_ could do.' And, by granny! the way them yeller eyes of hern blazed at me--_he-he!_ I had to laugh, jest to look at her. Dressed jest like a city girl, by granny! with ruffles on her skirts--to ketch afire if she wasn't mighty keerful!--and a big straw hat tied down with a veil, and kid gloves on her hands, and her yeller hair kinda fallin' around her face--and them yeller eyes snappin' like flames--by granny! if she didn't make as purty a picture as I ever want to set eyes on! Slim and straight, jest like a storybook woman--_he-he!_ 'Course, she was all smoke an' dirt; a big flake of burned grass was on her hair, I took notice, and them ruffles was black up to her knees--_he-he!_ And she had a big smut on her cheek--but she was right there with her stack of blues, by granny! Settin' into the game like a--a--” He leaned and spat “But burnin' guards ain't no work for a woman to do, an' I told Man so--straight out. 'You git help,' I says. 'I see you're might' near through with this here strip,' I says, 'an' I'm in a hurry, or I'd stay, right now.' And, by granny! if that there wife of Man's didn't up an' hit me another biff--_he-he!_ “'Thank you very much,' she says to me, like ice water. 'When we need your help, we'll be sure to let you know--but at present,' she says, 'we couldn't think of troubling you.' And then, by granny! she turns right around and smiles up at me--_he-he!_ Made me feel like somebody'd tickled m' ear with a spear of hay when I was asleep, by granny! Never felt anything like it--not jest with somebody smilin' at me. “'Polycarp Jenks,' she says to me, 'we do appreciate what you've told us, and I believe you're right,' she says. 'But don't insiniwate I'm not as good a fighter as any man who ever breathed,' she says. 'Manley has another of his headaches to-day--going to town always gives him a sick headache,' she says, 'and I've done nearly all of this my own, lone self,' she says. 'And I'm horribly proud of it, and I'll never forgive you for saying I--' And then, by granny! if she didn't begin to blink them eyes, and I felt like a--a--” He put the usual period to his hesitation.