"But, Martha," says I, "I ain't that mean. I
ain't going to do that."
That dern girl ackshellay give me a disappointed
look! If anything, she was jest a bit TOO romanceful,
Martha was.
"No," says I, cheering up a little, "I am going
to do something they ain't many fellers would
do, Martha. I'm going to forgive you. Free
and fair and open. And give you back my half of
that ring, and--"
Dern it! I had forgot I had lost that half of that
there ring! I remembered so quick it stopped me.
"You always kept it, Danny?" she asts me, very
soft-spoken, so as not to give pain to one so faithful
and so noble as what I was. "Let me see it, Danny."
I made like I was feeling through all my pockets
fur it. But that couldn't last forever. I run out
of pockets purty soon. And her face begun to show
she was smelling a rat. Finally I says:
"These ain't my other clothes--it must be in
them."
"Danny," she says, "I believe you LOST it."
"Martha," I says, taking a chancet, "you know
you lost YOUR half!"
She owns up she has lost it a long while ago.
And when she lost it, she says, she knowed that
was fate and that our love was omened in under an
evil star. And who was she, she says, to struggle
agin fate?
"Martha," I says, "I'll be honest with you.
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