Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/131

 they're camped within thirty miles of the place," retorted Mrs. Blakely.

"How do you know!"

"I was tole," replied Mrs. Blakely with offended dignity.

Edith declared stoutly:

"I don't believe it!"

"You'll find out too late. When I was a girl"—Mrs. Blakely sighed sentimentally—"pa couldn't keep enough hay to winter his stock for the saddle-horses tied to his stacks. You know that song, 'The Yeller Rose of Texas beats the Belles of Tennessee'? Well, they's some says that was wrote about me. Anyway, I never lost a beau through bein' cut out. Edie"—Mrs. Blakely grew melodramatic—"I'd resort to nearly any vermifuge first!"

"What?"

"Fair means or foul, I'd keep him if I wanted him."

Edith pinned on her hat and did not look at her mother as she asked:

"But how would you keep him if he didn't want you?"

"They's ways!" Mrs. Blakely raised a