“Will you ask him for me, Cass? I sure hev lost you now — forever, Cass!”

“Yes, Frale. I’ll ask him to cover up all this year out of your life. It has been full of mad badness. Be like you used to be, Frale, and leave off thinking on me this way. It is sin. Go marry somebody who can love you and care for you like you need, and come back here and do for mother like you used to. Giles Teasley can’t pester you. He’s half dead with his badness — drinking his own liquor.”

She came to him, and, taking his hand, led him toward the laurel path. “Go down to mother now, Frale, and have supper and sleep in your own bed, like no evil had ever come into your neart,” she pleaded. “The good is in you, Frale. God sees it, and I see it. Heed to me, Frale. Good-night.”