"I reckon not, Jasper. It's sorter noised about that he's a pinin' for the lady from off yander." "Yes, caliker is got him at last. It's all right, though. The Lord has lit up brown jeans with a smile. Now, here's what I want cut on that rock," he added, handing the paper to Laz, but suddenly withdrawing it, remarked: "Remember, I ain't lendin' you this." He gave the paper to the borrower, who, looking at it, turning it over and over, replied: "All right. Don't need it--yit." "Say, Laz, come over with me to the mill. There's suthin' I want to put away." As they were going out through the gap, Lou came running into the yard. CHAPTER XVII. NOT TO TELL HER A LIE. The girl ran to the rocking-chair, sat down and covering her face with her hands, uttered what to her must have been a sad lament: "Oh, she has made a coward out of me." A moment later Tom came, walking briskly. "Miss Lou," he said, slowly approaching, "what made you run away from me? I wanted to tell you--" She sprang to her feet and with snapping eyes exclaimed: "What do you want to tell me? Somethin' that ain't true. Do you want to look a lie at me?" "No, I want to tell you something that is true. Do you know why I let that scoundrel Peters insult me?" And looking down she replied: "You told me not to ask and I haven't?" "Was it because you didn't want to know?" "Mebby I was almost dyin' to know, but you told me not to ask." "I didn't kill him because--" "Not because you were afraid to try," she broke in. "No. It was because they told me that--that you loved him." "What!" she cried, blazing at him, "I love that--that skeer crow! Oh, how could they tell you such a thing; and if you believed it I am mad at you." This greatly distressed him and he was quick to reply, "Oh, I didn't believe it much, you know." "But you believed it strong enough not to--" "Oh," he pleaded, "don't play me like a fish. Take the hook out of my mouth and don't make me flop. How did I know you didn't love him? Why, the prettiest girl I ever saw loved a--a scarecrow. And I wouldn't harm a scarecrow that you loved. I may be a scarecrow myself--I feel like one, and I know I must act like one, but I love you and I want you to be my wife." And now she was all of a flutter. "Oh, you love me? Do you--do you?" She clasped her hands and he took them and drew her toward him. "Do I? Why, I love you till I haven't got any sense. Didn't you see me out there in the rain yesterday?" She shook her head, looking down, hiding her eyes from him. "Didn't you see me there? I didn't have sense enough to come in." She snatched away her hands and stood looking at him. "Would you live a lie, like the man that married your aunt? Would you?" "Oh, he was a sport." "A 'sport!'" she gasped. "What's that?" "A fool that thinks he's got a sure thing when he hasn't. A man who might risk his home on the turn of a card. I'm not that sort of a fellow. I never loved any girl but you, and I never can love any other."