"Well, well, I ain't sayin' nothin' against him," she said, presently.
"Yes, you air -- you're always sayin' somethin' against him --
and so is everybody else -- and they ain't fitten to tie his shoes.
Why don't they say it to his face! There ain't one of 'em as dares it,
and he's the best soldier in the comp'ny, an' I'm jest as proud of it
as if he was my own."
The old woman was evidently bound to defend herself. She said:
"It don't lay in your mouth to take up for him, Vashti Mills;
for you're the one as has gone up and down and abused him scandalous."
"Yes, and I know I did," said the girl, springing up excitedly
and tossing her arms and tearing at her ribbons. "An' I told him
to his face too, and that's the only good thing about it.
I knowed it was a lie when I told him, and he knowed it was a lie too,
and he knowed I knowed it was a lie -- what's more -- and I'm glad he did --
fo' God I'm glad he did. He could 'a' whipped the whole company
an' he jest wouldn't -- an' that's God's truth -- God's fatal truth."
The next instant she was on her knees hunting for something on the floor,
in an agony of tears; and as her father, aroused by the noise,
rose and asked a question, she sprang up and rushed out of the door.
The sound of an axe was already coming through the darkness
across the gum thickets from Mrs.
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