at just now?"
Her brown eyes wavered for a moment, and then brimmed with merriment.
She threw herself sideways, in a leaning posture, supporting herself on
one arm, while with her other hand she slowly drew out her apron string,
as she said, in a demure voice:--
"Well, I reckoned it was jest too killin' to think of you, who didn't
want to talk to me, and would hev given your hull pile to hev skipped
out o' this, jest stuck here alongside o' me, whether you would or no,
for Lord knows how long!"
"But that was last night," he said, in a tone of raillery. "I was tired,
and you said so yourself, you know. But I'm ready to talk now. What
shall I tell you?"
"Anything," said the girl, with a laugh.
"What I am thinking of?" he said, with frankly admiring eyes.
"Yes."
"Everything?"
"Yes, everything." She stopped, and leaning forward, suddenly caught
the brim of his soft felt hat, and drawing it down smartly over his
audacious eyes, said, "Everything BUT THAT."
It was with some difficulty and some greater embarrassment that he
succeeded in getting his eyes free again. When he did so, she had risen
and entered the cabin. Disconcerted as he was, he was relieved to see
that her expression of amusement was unchanged. Was her act a piece
of rustic coquetry, or had she resented his advances? Nor did her next
words settle the question.
"Ye kin do yer nice talk and philanderin' after we've settled whar we
are, what we're goin', and what's goin' to happen. Jest now it 'pears
to me that ez these yere logs are the only thing betwixt us and 'kingdom
come,' ye'd better be hustlin' round with a few spikes to clinch 'em to
the floor."
She handed him a hammer and a few spikes. He obediently set to work,
with little confidence, however, in the security of the fastening. There
was neither rope nor chain for lashing the logs together; a stronger
current and a collision with some submerged stump or wreckage would
loosen them and wreck the cabin. But he said nothing. It was the girl
who broke the silence.
"What's your front name?"
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