"You'll catch it," Jerry-Jo comforted when pursuit was impossible, and he
had the responsibility of the rebel on his hands. "I wouldn't be in your
place, and you need not drag me in, for I'd have turned back had you said
the word."
A fleeting contempt stirred the beauty of the girl's face for a moment,
and then she told him of that which was seething in her heart.
"What does it matter, Jerry-Jo? All my life, ever since I can remember,
I have been growing surely to what is now near at hand. I cannot abide my
father; nor can he find comfort in me. Why should I darken the lives of
my parents and have no life of my own? The lure of the States has always
been in my thought and now it calls near and loud."
McAlpin stared helplessly at her, and her beauty, enhanced by her unusual
garments, moved him unwholesomely.
"What you mean?" he muttered.
"Only this: It would be no strange thing did a boy start for the States.
A little money, a ticket on a steamer, and--pouf! Off the boys and men
go to make their lives. Well, then, some day you will--find me gone,
Jerry-Jo. Gone to make my life.
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