Nelia went over to Mrs. Caope's for supper, and Parson Rasba was there, having brought in a wild goose which he had shot on Wolf Island while going about his meditations that afternoon. Mrs. Caope had the goose sizzling in the big oven of her coal range--coal from Pittsburgh barges wrecked along the river on bars--and the big supper was sweeter smelling than Rasba ever remembered having waited for. Mrs. Caope told him to "ask one of them blessin's if yo' want, Parson!" and the four bowed their heads. Jim Caope then fell upon the bird, neck, wings, and legs, and while he carved Mrs. Caope scooped out the dressing, piled up the fluffy biscuits, and handed around the soup tureen full of gravy. Then she chased the sauce with glass jars full of quivering jellies, reaching with one hand to take hot biscuits from the oven while she caught up the six-quart coffee pot with the other. "I ain't got no patience with them women that don't feed their men!" she declared. "About all men want's a full stomach, anyhow, an' if you could only git one that wa'n't lazy, an' didn't drink, an' wasn't impedent, an' knowed anything, besides, you'd have something. Ain't that so, Nelia?" "Oh, indeed yes," Nelia cried, from the fullness of her experience, which was far less than that of the hostess. After they had eaten, they went from the kitchen into the sitting room, where Rasba turned to Nelia. "You came down the river alone?" he asked. "Yes," she admitted. "I wonder you wouldn't be scairt up of it--nights, and those lonesome bends?" "It's better than some other things." Nelia shook her head. "Besides, you've come alone down the Ohio yourself." He looked at her, and Mrs. Caope chuckled. "But--but you're a woman!" Rasba exclaimed. "Suppose a mean man came aboard your boat, and--and tried to rob you," Nelia asked, level voiced, "what would you do?" "Why, course, I'd--I'd likely stop him." "You'd throw him overboard?" "Well--if hit were clost to the bank an' he could swim, I mout." Nelia and the Caopes laughed aloud, and Rasba joined in the merriment. When the laughter had subsided, Rasba said: "The reason I was asking, as I came by the River Forks I found a little red boat there with a man on the cabin floor shot through----" "Dead?" Nelia gasped. "No, just kind of pricked up a bit, into one shoulder. He said a lady shot him because he 'lowed to land into the same eddy with her." "But--where----?" Nelia half-whispered. "Where did he go?" "Hit were Jest Prebol," Mrs. Caope said. "You was tellin' of him, Parson." "Hit were Prebol," Rasba nodded, "an' he shore needed shooting!" "Yas, suh. That kind has to be shot some to make 'em behave theirselves," Mrs Caope exclaimed, sharply. "If it wa'n't fer ladies shootin' men onct in awhile, down Old Mississip', why, ladies couldn't git to live here a-tall!"