Ever since, when Harnah didn't know how else to
plague Sam and me, she'd set up to talk about 'real gentlemen,' and
'folks that knowed manners,' and all sech stuff. Then she'd pretend
she'd got a letter from Cap'n Harris, and that he was coming agin,
and all that. So now I got it in my head that Cap'n Harris was
coming, and that she meant he'd get the harebells.
"'But I'll bet he won't, without a fight, anyway,' says I, clinching
up my fist; and then I went to sleep quite comf'table.
"Now, there wa'n't but one place, as I knew of, where harebells was
to be found; and Harnah had showed me that place herself the summer
afore, and I had picked the flowers for her. So I made up my mind to
go next day and see if they was in blow; and, if they was, to get a
bunch anyway, and take the resk of giving 'em to Harnah arterwards.
"I couldn't git away in the morning nohow; for Hitty seemed to know
it was something about Harnah that was calling me, and contrived all
sorts of business to keep me to hum: but, after dinner, I jist took
my hat, and cleared out afore she knowed it, and, by the time she
missed me, was half a mile up the river.
"'Twas a pooty day as ever you see; and as I rowed along, listening
to the water running by the boat, and the wind rustling in the
trees, I began to feel real sort of good, and didn't care half so
much about Sam or the British cap'n as I did when I started.
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