"Yesterday mornin'--" Jim's voice broke, and he cleared his throat.
"Yesterday mornin' we went down the branch, as ye know, and she was
a-settin' on a log throwin' her fly into the pool, when one o' them
song-sparrows lit on a bush and looked at her, and begin to sing like
he'd bust his little chest, and she sung back at him with her eyes
a-laughin' and her hair a-flyin', and I stood lookin' at her and my
heart choked up in my throat, and I leaned over and took the rod out
o' her hand.
"'Baby-girl,' I says, 'there ain't a bird 'round here that ain't got a
mate; and that's what makes 'em so happy. I ain't got nobody but you,
Ruby--don't go 'way from me, child--stay with me.' And I told her. She
looked at me startled like, same as a deer does when he hears a dog
bark; then she jumped up and begin to cry.
"'Oh, Jim--Jim--dear Jim!' she says. 'I love you so, and you've been so
good to me all my life, but don't--don't never say that to me again.
That can never be--not so long as we live.
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