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 often was. And Bill being a good, gentle boy, weighing two hundred pounds at least, and fair as day and as blushing as rosy dawn, feared her terribly, but came on all the same, and prepared to tell her again that he loved the "perairie" she walked on.

"Good-day, Amandy," said Billy.

"Oh, it's you?" said the ungracious Amandy. "’Pears to me s'if I warn't allowed to walk the perairies o' Texas free and without guards. Whar did you spring from?"

"I wuz jest a-ridin' by" began Billy.

"You allers is jest a-ridin' by," said Amandy. "An' if you ain't jest a-ridin' by it's Mr. Galpin is, or Mr. Gaylord, or Morgan Harris."

"Waal, I knowed as your Paw wuz away to Painted Rock, Amandy, and I tho't as it wuz a good time to hev a talk with you and clear things up some. For I'm gettin' fair desprit, Amandy, and I owns it."

"That's what Morgan says, and Merrick, and Tom. You all says it; and what I've got to dew with you bein' desprit beats me, Billy Prentiss. Cayn't a girl go a-walkin' on the