The man's dark eyes were burning, and as the girl rose from her seat he reached out one brown hand to detain her. But his gesture was needless. She made no move to go. She stood before him, her proud young face now flushing, now pale with emotion, her wonderful eyes veiled lest he should read in their depths feelings that she was struggling to conceal. Her rounded bosom rose and fell with the furious beatings of a heart she could not still.
"No, no," the man rushed on, "you got to hear me, if it makes you hate me fer the rest of your life. I'm nothing but jest a plain feller who's lived all his life in this back country. I've got no education, nothin' but jest what I am--here. An' I love you, I love you like nothing else in all the world. Say," he went on, the first hot rush of his words checking, "I bin gropin' around these hills learning all that's bin set there for me to learn. I tried to learn my lessons right. I done my best. But this one thing they couldn't teach me. Something which I guess most every feller's got to learn some time. An' you've taught me that.
"Say." The restraint lost its power, and the man's great passion swept him on in a swift torrent. "I never knew a gal since I was raised. I never knew how she could git right hold of your heart, an' make the rest of the world seem nothing. I never knew how jest one woman could set the sun shining when her blue eyes smiled, and the storm of thunder crowding over, when those eyes were full of tears. I never dreamed how she could get around in fancy, and walk by your side smilin' and talkin' to you when you wandered over these lonesome hills at your work. I never knew how she could come along an' raise you up when you're down, an' most everything looks black. I've learned these things now. I've learned 'em because you taught me."
He laughed with a sort of defiance at what he felt must sound ridiculous in her ears. "You asked me to teach you! Me teach you! Say, it's you taught me--everything. It's you taught me life ain't just a day's work an' a night's sleep. It's you taught me that life's a wonderful, wonderful dream of joy an' delight. It's you taught me the sun's shining just for me alone, an' every breath of these mountains is just to make me feel good. It's you taught me to feel there's nothing on God's earth I couldn't and wouldn't do to make you happy. You, who taught me to Live! You, with your wonderful blue eyes, an' your beautiful, beautiful face. You, with your mind as white an' pure as the mountain snow, an' your heart as precious as the gold our folks are forever chasin'. I love you, Joan. I love you, every moment I live. I love you so my two hands ain't enough by a hundred to get helping you. I love you better than all the world. You're jest--jest my whole life!"