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"I reckon now that ye're back, Saer, "an' seein'

how yore Uncle Spicer is gettin' along all right, I'll jest let the two

of ye run things I've done had enough" It was a siency, but effectual

Old Caleb, however, still insurgent and unconvinced, brought in a

rue, as he spat tobacco and beat a rat-tat on the mill floor with

his long hickory staff "We don't want no deserters"

"Samson ain't a deserter," defended Sally "There isn't one of you fit

to tie his shoes" Sally and old Spicer South alone knew of her lover's

letter to the Circuit Judge, and they were pledged to secrecy

"Never mind, Sally!" It was Samson himself who answered her "I didn't

come back because I care what men like old Caleb think I ca eto do"

So, Samson slipped back, tentatively, at least, into his place as clan

head, though for a time he found it a post without action After the

fierce outburst of bloodshed, quiet had settled, and it was tacitly