“Well, she sot on one side of the fire-place, and I sot on t’other, snuffin’ ashes, war there was nothin’ but a lighted chunk burnin’ to give light. Well, we talked, and I know you would like to hear all we talked about, but that would be too long. When I’m very interested in anything, or git bothered ’bout anything, I always leans forred and pokes the fire, if there be any. Well, we sot thar and talked, ’bout everything a’most. I axed her if she had any bos down to Macon. “‘Oh, yes,’ she said, and then she went on and named over Matthew Matin, Nat Filosophy, and a whole heap of fellers with foreign, outlandish names, that she’d been kepin’ company with ’most all her time. “‘Well,’ says I, ‘I s’pose they’re ’mazin’ poplar with you, ain’t they, Miss Mary?’ for I felt mighty oneasy, and dug away at the fire like anything. “‘Yes,’ ses she, ‘they’re the most interestin’ companions I ever had, and I am anxious to resume their pleasant society.’ “I tell you what, that sort o’ stumped me, and I poked up the fire and made it ‘flicker and flare’ like the mischief; it was a good thing it did, for I blushed as blue as a Ginny squash. “‘Then I s’pose you’r gwine to forget old acquaintances,’ ses I, ‘sense you’s been to Macon, ’mong them lawyers and doctors; is you, Miss Mary? You thinks more of them than you does of anybody else, I s’pose?’ “‘Oh!’ ses she, ‘I’m devoted to them—I think of them day and night!’ “That was too much—it shot me right up, and I sot as still as could be for more’n a minute. I never felt so warm behind the ears afore in all my life. Thunder! how my blood did bile up all over me, and I felt like I could knock Matthew Matin into a squash if he’d only been thar. Miss Mary sot with her handkerchief up to her face, and I looked rite into the fire-place. The blue blazes was runnin’ round over the chunk, ketchin’ hold here and lettin’ go thar, sometimes gwine ’most out, and then blazin’ up a little. I couldn’t speak—and was makin’ up my mind for tellin’ her the siteation of my heart, when I gave the soft wood chunk a desperate poke, and slap it went right over, and out it went spang! “I swar I never did feel so in all my born days. I didn’t know what to do. “‘My Lord, Miss Mary,’ ses I, ‘I didn’t go to do it; jest tell me the way to the kitchen, and I’ll go and git a light.’ “But she never said nothin’, so I sot down agin, thinkin’ she’d gone to git one herself, for it was pitch dark, and I couldn’t see my hand afore my face. “Well, I sot thar and ruminated, and waited a long time, but she didn’t come, so I begun to think maybe she wasn’t gone. I couldn’t hear nothin’, nor I couldn’t see nothin’; so bimeby ses I, very low, for I didn’t want to wake up the family, ses I: “‘Miss Mary! Miss Mary!’ but nobody answered. “Thinks I, what’s to be done? I tryed agin. “‘Miss Mary! Miss Mary!’ ses I, but it was no use.