"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven, Speak, girl! Can this thing be true? Are you here with that--that scoundrel, After all that I've gone through? Do you stand there, fiend or human, After lending him your hand, First to break an honest spirit, Then to steal away my land? Must a man who loves a woman Like a devil's imp be driven Through the tortures of damnation For a single glimpse of heaven? Tell me where the cur is hiding-- I've no wish to hurt his bride, But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip From his dirty, yaller hide! 37 "Speak to me and tell me, woman, How the God in heaven above Starts the fires of hell a-burning From a spark of human love; Why He ever made a woman Who could play a fickle part; Why He ever made a fellow With his soul tied to his heart; Why He made life just a gamble-- I can't talk the way I feel-- In the game that I've been playing, You know this ain't no square deal! I will go away and leave you, But 'twould kind o' ease the pain If you'd only tell me, Nancy-- If you'd try--to--just explain. [Illustration: "Standing there, a pictured goddess Sketched against a lowering storm."] 38 "If you wouldn't stand there looking With a face of livid white Like the specter of the prairie That I saw one horrid night, Riding through the endless darkness Like a being doomed from birth Just to roam outside of heaven And denied a place on earth. Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy, If you have a voice and live! Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me To be patient and forgive. I will listen--I will suffer-- I will do the best I can; Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading Of a broken-hearted man," 39 "See here, Billy! You gone crazy? Charging like you got a fit? Johnson ain't in--just at present-- Won't you stop and rest a bit? Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings, Though I've never seen before Any man that knocked like you did On a peaceful neighbor's door. Come right in; now, don't be backward, Like old times to have _you_ 'round! You look tired, like you'd traveled Over quite a stretch of ground. Sit right here in this old rocker; Johnson fixed it up one day, Feeling certain you would never Come meandering 'round this way. 40 "Don't get up and act uneasy, Rest yourself, now, if you can, You don't mind me like Jim Johnson-- He's a most obedient man. You went off and left your eighty, Roaming where the luck-wind blows, Like a tumbleweed in winter, Where you've been, Lord only knows. While Jim's gone we'll talk together, As we used to, months ago, When I tried to quench the burning Of a love I didn't know. Listen, Billy, while I tell you All about my 'fickle part'; When I'm done you may know better How God made a woman's heart. 41