Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/28

 knife out of his pocket and slit the lobe of her ear. "Now, you is marked for life," he said and laughed gaily. Mary wept with the hurt, but Maum Hannah called July and asked him why he had cut Mary's ear. He grinned sheepishly and said he had marked her with an underbit.

"Is dat you mark?"

"Yes'm," he answered boldly, adding that he had marked Mary so he could tell she was his when she grew up.

"Well, son, May-e's mark is a swallow-fork. Two cuts. You stand still while de gal cuts you ear. Lend em you knife. I ain' got a sharp one in de house."

July took out his knife and stood still while Mary cut his ear this way and that to make the swallow-fork. He was marked for life, too. His blood flowed fast, but he grinned good-naturedly and said nothing.

That very night he told her he loved her and was going to marry her when she grew up and she felt that she could walk on air, or fly like a bird, or blossom like a flower, when she heard his beautiful words.

Last summer he went away to find easier and better-paid work and her heart sickened in her breast so she could hardly eat or smile. But