A Cumberland Vendetta

lips trembled, and for a moment she could not speak. But her ey

shoot!" she as

makin war on women-folks, but I never belie

have ye stopped sellin' to folks on t'other si

ye want," said o

eerce on our side. We'll have to begin buyin' purty soon, so I thought

have to climb the mountain ag'in, I'll let ye hav

lips. Rome had fallen back to a corner of the mill, sobered, speechless, his rifle in a nerveless hand. The passion that fired him at the boy's warning had as swiftly gone down at sight of the girl, and her cutting rebuke made him hot again with shame. He was angry, too-more than angry-because he felt so helpless, a sensation that was new and stifling. The scorn of her face, as he remembered it that morning, hurt him again while he looked at her. A spirit of contempt was still in her eyes, and quivering about her thin lips and nostrils. She had put him beneath further notice, and yet every toss of her head, every movement of her hands, seemed meant for him, to irritate him. And once, while she combed her hair, his brain whirled with an impulse to catch the shining stuff in one hand and to pinion both her

he old miller, breaking the strained silence of the gro

it all," she said. "I s'pos

e some of th

my price al'a

" answered the

thought mebbe you charged f

side or t'other makes no diff'unce to me. I hev frien's on both side

; but the old miller was honored by both factions, and wit

the string between his teeth; and she tu

n, and the young mountaineer doggedly swung the bag to his shoulders.

do that?" she

to the boat, and merely

r lips almost startled him-"I'll hev ye understan' that

and the girl wheeled in hot anger. Her impulse to strike may have been for the moment and no longer, or she may have read swiftly

me, 'n' I thought it was him, 'n' I was ready fer him, when you come into the mil

ay that vaguely soothed the girl's pride,

still quietly. "I've seed ye goin' up thar,

es to her lips, and she gave a quick stroke with her paddle. The boat shot into the current, and was carried swiftly toward the Cumberland. The girl stood erect, swaying through light and shadow like a gr

Rome, turned, and old Gabe was w

ow that he had known her a long while ago. A puzzled

'n' both o' ye a-knowin' one 'nother sence ye was