"It mought be better fur ye," she replied indifferently. His momentary independence left him suddenly. "Narcissa," he said reproachfully, "ye didn't always talk this way ter me." "That ain't news ter me. Ben 'lows ez I talk six ways fur Sunday." "Ye dunno how I feel, not knowin' how ye be set towards me, an' hevin' ter see ye so seldom, a-workin' all the time down yander, a-moonshinin'"-- "I wouldn't talk 'bout it so turr'ble loud." She glanced apprehensively over her shoulder. "An' ye'd better quit it, ennyhows." "Ye 'lows it be wrong," he said, his bold bright eyes all softened as he looked at her, "bein' agin the law?" "I ain't keerin' fur the law. Ef the truth war knowed, the law is aimin' ter git all the benefit o' whiskey bein' drunk itself. That's whar the law kems in. I only keer fur"--She stopped abruptly. She had nearly revealed to him that she cared only lest some disaster come to him in his risky occupation; that she would like him to be ploughing in a safe level field at the side of a cabin, where she might sit by the window and sew, and look out and see that no harm befell this big bold man, six feet two inches high. "Con Hite!" she exclaimed, her face scarlet, "I never see a body ez hard-hearted an' onmerciful ez ye air. Whyn't ye water that sufferin' beast, ez air fairly honing ter drink? Waal," she continued, after a pause in which he demonstrated the axiom that one may lead a horse to water, but cannot make him drink, "then whyn't ye go? I ain't got time ter waste, ef ye hev." She rose as if for departure, and he put his foot in the stirrup. "I wish ye wouldn't be so harsh ter me, Narcissa," he said meekly. "Waal, thar be a heap o' saaft-spoken gals ter be hed fur the askin'. Ye kin take yer ch'ice." And with this he was fain to be content, as he mounted and rode reluctantly away.