"'Yes, we be,' says I, waking up all uv a sudden; for I'd lay sort
o' stupid till then: but now I wor wide enough awake, and soon made
Sam understand where we was, and what was to be done. He didn't say
much, but worked away like a good feller, till he got out, fust the
mauled karkiss o' the painter, with the flesh all hanging from it in
strips; then me, covered with blood, and looking wuss than a dead
man, I expect; and finally Harnah, jes' coming to after her dead
faint.
"We must git her out o' this horrid den 'fore she knows whar she is,
or it'll skeer her to death,' says I, as soon as I could speak. 'But
how'll we do it?'
"'You look as if you b'longed here; so I reckon you'd better stop
behind, and I'll git Harnah out by myself,' says Sam, laffin' in a
kind o' hard way.
"I didn't say nothing; but I thought I wouldn't 'a took that time to
laff at a feller, nor yet to show a spite agin him, if I'd been Sam,
and he me.
"It's more nor I could do to justly tell you how we ever got that
gal up them rocks. I expect it wor more the hand o' God, so to
speak, than us that did it. Fust place, we tied our handkerchers
raound her waist, fer a hold; and then Sam went ahead, pulling her
after him, and I sort o' helped behind, and clim' along as well's I
could; and bimby we got up, and laid Harnah down to rest among the
harebells. When she got a little smarter, she told us how she
thought she'd come and git 'em fer herself, and then pertend some
one had given 'em to her, jest so's to plague us, and see what we'd
say. Then, whilst she was a-picking of 'em, she heerd a painter cry
right clost to her, and was so scared, she sot out to run, and, fust
she knew, was over the edge of the clift, and rolling down the face
on't. When she got to the bottom, her leg was broke, and she
couldn't stir; and up to the top o' the rocks she see the painter's
head, with his green eyeballs a-glaring down at her, and his ears
laid back, ready for a spring. What with the pain, and what with the
scare, I expect the poor gal fainted. Anyways, the next thing she
knowed was finding herself in the cave with the two painter-kittens
playing round her, and the old one lying close to, moving his tail
from side to side, and yawning till she could see all his white
teeth and great red throat. Ef she wor scart afore, she didn't feel
no better now, you'd better believe. But Harnah was a stout-hearted
gal, with all her delicate ways; and she never stirred, no made a
sound, only lay still, and fixed her eyes as stiddy as she could on
those uv the great brute beside her. Pooty soon she see that he wor
a-looking at her; and pooty soon he began to make a purring sort of
noise, like 'bout forty big tomcats tied up in one bag. Then Harnah
spoke to him, like as she'd have coaxed a dog, and, arter a while,
began to play with the cubs a little. One way and another, they'd
got to be 'mazin' good friends all raound, when a cry was heerd
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