"
Well, I made ready for a dig back, of course, and was going to surprise
the man; but somehow he spoke so kind and generous and 'peared to be so
properly sorry for me, that I struck another note. I thought I saw a
chance of getting on his blind side and being let off, so I kept away from
such a ticklish subject as the canister. Instead, I spoke very earnest of
my hopes for the future, and promised faithful as I'd try to see the
matter of pheasants and such like from his point of view. And I told him
that I was tokened to a good girl--same as he was--and that 'twould break
her very heart if I got a month, and very likely make her throw me over
and wreck my life, and so on. I worked myself up into a proper heat, and
pleaded all I knew with the man. I implored him to put mercy before
justice for once, and assured him that 'twould pay him a thousandfold to
let me off. I was contrite, and allowed that no doubt my views on the
subject of game might be altogether mistaken. I took his word for it that
he was right and I was wrong. In fact, I never talked so clever in all my
life afore; but at the end it was that the really thrilling thing fell
out. For then, just to make a good wind-up like, I called home my father's
oft-spoken words, and said to the man the very same speech that I'd said
to him more'n two years afore, when I was hid in the rhododendron bush.
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