contrary to lizzie may's predictions and somewhat to her disappointment, judith failed to suffer from the marital troubles that increasingly vexed her own life. jerry proved to be, at least according to lizzie may's standards, a much better husband than dan. he did not care for the sport of fox hunting, so there were no hounds to bay around the house at night and greedily lick of the corn meal that could ill be spared. he never went anywhere in the evenings, and he had not been drunk a dozen times in his life. lizzie may had to admit to herself that judy, the wild and harum-scarum, who was capable of almost any foolishness, had made a much more sensible choice than she. but of course it was nothing but luck, she told herself. she felt in a vague, half acknowledged way that she had a quite justifiable complaint to make against the powers that be because chance had favored the irresponsible instead of meting out just reward to the careful and prudent. this did not mean that she would have been willing to exchange dan for jerry. she would have scorned such an opportunity. dan was dan. he was the man who had courted her. he was hers. but she would have liked to borrow some of jerry's qualities and insert them craftily into dan's character, making him over into a husband more contributory to her comfort and convenience.
all that summer, in spite of the toil of the field, judith was joyous and radiant. and she worked hard. she could not take the matter of earning a living as seriously as did jerry; but she caught some of the infection of his ambition to raise big crops and lay by money for a home of their own. so she worked in the corn and tobacco as determinedly as he, stopping only to cook their simple meals and wash up the few dishes, with an occasional day off for washing clothes. besides helping jerry in the field, she looked after her chickens and turkeys
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and made a kitchen garden near the house in which she raised beets, cabbages, beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables to take away the curse of bareness from their table.
the first big job of the season came in may. this was the tobacco setting. late in february jerry had made the tobacco bed. it was nine feet by sixty feet and it lay in a sheltered hollow sloping gently to the south. to kill the weed seeds jerry had burnt the bed by covering it with old fence rails and setting them on fire. then he had raked the ashes into the ground and made the earth as fine and smooth as sand. into this he had sowed the small, almost microscopic seed, had tramped it well into the ground and spread over the whole a tightly stretched covering of cheesecloth to protect the young plants from wind and frost. according to the custom of tenant farmers' wives in the tobacco country, judith had planted on the edges seed of tomatoes, peppers, and cabbages to make plants for the home garden.
it was a dry spring that year, and jerry had had to work hard to keep the plants alive. again and again, after his day's work was done, he had trudged to and fro between the nearest spring and the tobacco bed carrying big buckets of water to the thirsty young plants. jerry found to his dismay that it took a great many buckets of water to wet a nine by sixty bed. at last in late april there came several days of gently falling warm rain and the plants took on new life. by the middle of may they were lush and lusty and ready to be set when the right weather conditions arrived.
the big rain came the last week in may, bringing the much desired "season." little showers had fallen from time to time, but they were not enough to wet the ground deeply. jerry was beginning to grow uneasy and had been scanning the weather signs with an anxious eye for many days. on the evening of the twenty-fifth, as he drove his horses up from the field where he had been cultivating corn, the sun sank behind an opaque wall of sickly yellow cloud. looking about jerry saw the sky overcast in every direction with a uniform pale gray. birds flew low under the heavy gray canopy. the
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whistle and rumble of a train several miles away sounded distinct through the still, brooding air; and as he walked along the top of the ridge behind the horses he heard twice the harsh cry of a woodpecker.
"we'll have a terbacker settin' rain afore mornin', judy," he said, when she came out to help him put up the horses. "everything says so."
before they went to bed that night the rain began. jerry went out and fixed the drain of the eaves trough so that the water would run into the cistern. the next morning it was still coming down in a warm, steady downpour. all day it fell in the same soft, gently-falling stream, like a blessing upon mankind, not from a self-centered hebrew deity, but from some sweet natured and generous pagan god.
"bejasus, this'll fetch things along, judy," said jerry, who was busily nailing soles on judith's shoes beside the kitchen window. "land, haow everything'll pick up after this rain! i sholy do love to see things grow in spring. an' about to-morrow afternoon we kin go to settin'."
the next morning dawned blue and warm, full of birdsong and the scent of wet growing things. the ground was dank with rain, but by afternoon jerry thought it would be dry enough to begin setting. after breakfast he went to the tobacco bed to pull plants and judith got on one of the horses and rode over to her father's to get elmer to come and "drop." as the horse trotted along the top of the ridge and out onto the sodden "pike" full of puddles, she breathed deep of the fragrant air, felt the sun's warmth on her back and shoulders and almost fancied that she was a plant that had sucked in the life-giving rain and was preparing to raise its blossom to the sun.
she returned before long with elmer, now grown into a loutish chunk of fourteen, all hands and feet and appetite. elmer rode upon pete, a young mule that bill had bought to take the place of bob, who had died the year before of old age. pete was of a rich chestnut color, glossy, handsome, and liquid-eyed. he was also intelligent with the super-equine
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intelligence of a mule. he had a way of laying back his ears ever so slightly and looking at any one who approached him with a backward-sidewise glance of mingled playfulness and suspicion. it made judith laugh to see him do this.
"land, elmer," she exclaimed, as they were putting up the horse and mule in the shed, "if that critter, pete, hain't got the look of uncle sam whitmarsh, i never seen two folks that looks alike. uncle sam has got jes that same way o' lookin' at you sharp an' sidewise an' yet smilin', as though he kinda suspicioned that you was a-tryin' to git the best of him, an' yet he wanted to be good friends an' have some fun with you too. an' if uncle sam could move his ears i'm sure he'd lay 'em back jes a little. they say animals can't smile. but if that mule hain't a-smilin' then what is he a-doin'?"
she patted his glossy neck admiringly. he flicked his ears and looked at her in his characteristic way, then poked his soft nose into her face.
"he's durn hard to ketch up in paster," grunted elmer. "you come up alongside of him with the bridle, an' he gives you that 'ere look, an' fust thing you know he's a quarter of a mile off. my legs is run clean off since we got him."
after dinner the tobacco setting began. elmer had the easy job. with a basket of plants on his arm he went along the rows that jerry had laid off with the plow and dropped the plants at intervals of about eighteen inches, dropping two rows at a time. jerry and judith followed behind, each taking a row, and set the plants in the ground. they worked at first with their fingers, until the skin began to wear away. then jerry whittled two round, sharp-pointed sticks, and they used these instead of the fingers. with the sharp stick they made a hole in the wet earth, set the plant into it and pressed the earth down about the roots with their fingers.
at first they went along the rows gaily, rallying each other and trying to see which could work the fastest. sometimes jerry would get a little ahead and look back teasingly. then judith would make her fingers fly and outstrip him and laugh back at him from under her big blue sunbonnet. they soon
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stopped this, however, and fell into the regular, clockwork routine of those who go through the same set of motions many hundreds of times over, only now and then standing erect for a moment to straighten their cramped legs and ease their aching backs. very soon they had no energy left to laugh or even talk and plodded along the rows doggedly, silently, seeing only the wet ground and the plants that were to be put into it. the muscles of their legs grew sore and strained from the unusual exercise of constantly kneeling and rising, kneeling and rising. the ache in their backs became sometimes unbearable; and the backs of their necks, held always at tension and beat upon by the hot sun, throbbed with a dull, continual pain. the moisture rising from the soaked ground made the heat heavy and enervating. their hands cracked and stiffened. the wet clay stuck in layer after layer to their heavy work shoes until they found it hard to lift their feet, and had to stop often to scrape away the caked mud. elmer, who was barefoot, got along much better. when the strain of constant bending became unendurable and they stood up for relief, the earth swam about them and for a moment everything turned black. they reeled, righted themselves, and went at it again.
they drank enormous quantities of water. elmer, who was not kept so busy as the other two, had the job of bringing water from the spring in an earthenware molasses jug with a corncob stuck in the neck for a cork. the cool water tasted delicious.
they kept this up until after sunset, as long as they could see the ground and the plants, for no moment of the precious "season" must be wasted. when at last they stopped for want of light and dragged their mud-encrusted feet up the hill and along the ridge toward home, no one of the three spoke a word. spattered with mud from head to foot, they walked with bent heads and sagging legs, like horses that have tugged all day at the plow through ground too hard for their strength.
"my land, i'm glad i don't have to set terbaccer every day," said judith, as she fried the cakes. "i'm gonna make the coffee jes three times as strong to-night."
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after they had eaten and drunk several cups of the rank decoction, they went immediately to bed. when they closed their eyes they could see nothing but tobacco plants standing up stiffly out of wet clay. they fell asleep with this picture painted on the insides of their eyelids.
jerry had set the alarm clock for three. they seemed to have only just fallen asleep when its insistent ting-a-ling startled them awake. the early dawn was already melting the darkness of the room. jerry jumped out of bed and in a few seconds had put on his shirt and overalls and was lighting the fire.
"land alive, i wish i didn't have to get up," yawned judith, stretching her slim young arms above her head. reluctantly she put her feet out on the rag mat beside the bed, yawned, stretched, and began to put on her clothes. elmer, who was still fast asleep in the other room, had to be shaken into consciousness twice before he crawled sleepily out and felt around on the floor for his overalls. they all washed on the bench outside the door, splashing the water about plenteously and rubbing vigorously with the towel to get the sleep out of their eyes. soon judith was frying the cakes, and the smell of boiling coffee filled the kitchen. they ate from the unwashed dishes of the night before. after the cakes and coffee they felt better and all three set out together for the tobacco field. this time they all went barefoot.
when they began to work, they found themselves so stiff in every bone and muscle that it seemed at first as if they could not possibly go on. after a while, however, they limbered up and managed to get through the morning. but the afternoon seemed as if it would stretch into eternity. the sun beat down fiercely. the mud caked thicker on their feet and the skin wore thinner on their aching fingers. twice judith collapsed and had to go and lie in the shade until her strength returned and the intolerable ache in her back and neck subsided a little. jerry tried to persuade her to go back to the house and let him and elmer go on with the setting; but she scorned his male assumption of superior strength and
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endurance. at last the sun sank and the cool evening air revived them a little. gradually the sky paled, the light grew dimmer, and darkness closing in upon them made the green of the young plants intense and vivid. still they worked on. at last they began to stumble over clods in the darkness and elmer could no longer see to separate the plants from each other.
"thank god we can't do no more to-night," said jerry, in a tone of intense relief. he rose, straightened his strong young shoulders and surveyed the field.
"we got purty nigh an acre an' three quarters set," he announced. "an' the season's over. agin to-morrow it'll be too dry."
"gosh, i'm glad it will," said judith, rubbing her bare feet on the grass to scrape away some of the caked mud.
elmer went home that night the proud possessor of a dollar, and jerry did not set the alarm clock. when they awoke next morning, the sun was high in the sky.
"ain't you glad you don't have to set terbaccer to-day, jerry?" said judith, stretching luxuriously.
"you damn betcha i am," answered jerry. "but there hain't no rest for the wicked. i gotta git into that corn right away if it's to be saved. the weeds'll grow like wildfire after this rain."
there came a second fairly good rain in early june, and they were able to set another acre of tobacco. a week or so later, it rained for a day and a night; and jerry, going out next morning to see how deeply the rain had penetrated, was jubilant over his findings.
"she's soaked good, judy," he called exultantly. "even if the sun shines hot we'll be able to finish settin'. you git elmer over this mornin' an' i'll pull plants."
he went off immediately after breakfast to pull plants; but in half an hour he was back, full of anger and disgust.
"you know what's happened, judy? somebody's stole near all our plants. there hain't plants left to set a half an acre, an' them's little bits o' runts no good fer nothin'. all them
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nice big strong plants is took. an' i'm purty nigh sure i know who took 'em, too; an' it's luke wolf. he was too damn lazy to water his bed there when it was so dry in april, an' his plants didn't do no good. he didn't have hardly nothing in his bed. so after i found the plants was stole, i clim up on the brow o' the ridge an' looked over; an' there sure enough was him an' hat a-settin' fer dear life. they had that half witted brother o' luke's a-droppin' fer 'em. i had a good mind to go daown an' tell 'em to gimme back my plants. but there 'tis. i can't prove he took 'em; but i know damn well he did."
"ain't that a mean shame!" exclaimed judith. "an' after all how hard you slaved to save them plants! an' we can't git plants nowhere else, cause nobody hain't got plants this year, count o' the dry spring. you had the finest bed anywheres araound."
"we'll have to put it in corn," said jerry disgustedly. "an' the corn'll be so late the frost'll take it. if i'd a knowed, i might a saved myse'f the work o' plowin' an' harrowin' the ground. but that's haow it goes. a man works hard to do sumpin for hisself an' his fam'ly, an' then some lousy, thievin' neighbor slinks in an' gits away with it. it sholy is discouragin'."
judith tried to console jerry and tried for his sake to appear as indignant and disgusted as he over the loss. but it was not in her nature to take material loss so seriously; and she felt secretly relieved to think that she would not have to set any more tobacco that year. she was ashamed of this feeling, for it seemed like rank disloyalty to jerry; but she could not help entertaining it.
luke and hat wolf lived in a little ramshackle frame shanty in one of the neighboring hollows. they were a young couple not many years older than jerry and judith; but they had been married and had been raising tobacco on the shares for three or four years. they had a well sustained reputation for almost superhuman meanness and stinginess.
they were a pair of young giants. when they drove
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together in their buggy the springs sagged and passers-by felt sorry for the horse. luke was a big, stupid looking lout, with small blue eyes and beefy jowls. he could neither read nor write; although hat had been heard to say on different occasions that luke could read "some kinds o' print." the kinds that he could read, however, did not include the kind universally employed.
hat, a big, coarsely made, gipsy-like girl, was, to use her own phrase, a "great reader." she subscribed to a monthly magazine called "the farm wife's friend," which cost her twenty-five cents a year. when she found the magazine in her mail box she took it home eagerly, full of delicious anticipations, and read it from the name in fancy print across the top of the first page to the last advertisement on the back sheet. it was printed in the vilest manner on the sleaziest of paper. sometimes parts of it were so badly printed as to be illegible. it contained two or three sentimental love stories describing doings of people in high life. these stories abounded in beautiful heroines with delicate hands that had never approached a dish rag or a hoe handle, noble heroes and wicked, but fascinating villains. they opened to hat a vista of unexplored possibilities and caused her to sigh over her own lack of opportunity.
almost as engrossing as the stories, were little articles on how to get the best results with turnips, how to make the eyes sparkle, how to keep little chicks from getting head lice, how to remain always a mystery to your husband, how to keep sheets from fraying at the hems, how to make five hundred dollars out of a flock of fifty geese, how to tell fortunes with the tea cup, how to polish cut glass, how to keep the hands dainty and delicate, how to live so that the world is sweeter and sunnier for your presence, how to make orange marmalade out of carrots and how to treat a cow with a caked udder.
all of these "useful hints" hat read with avidity, and many of them she tried to apply in her own household. she spent hours messing over a stew of mutton fat and cheap perfume in an attempt to make a homemade cold cream for beautifying
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the skin. after it had stood for a few days it turned rancid and she had to throw it out to the hogs. she became enthusiastic over the possibility of making a big income from geese, set a hundred eggs and hatched out seventy-five little geese, only to have the foxes feed fat on her flock. she mixed up the decoction to make the eyes sparkle; but it hurt her eyes and interfered with her sight. so she used it only once. she tried on luke the receipt for remaining mysterious; but she was forced into the strong suspicion that he never even knew that anything unusual was affecting him in any way.
these failures did not, however, discourage her in the least. she read and experimented with the next month's collection with unabated enthusiasm. the magazine was her romance, her religion.
there were short poems in the paper, too. "be a beam of sunshine," "keep smiling all the while," and "never let the tear drop dim your eye," were characteristic titles. one poem, which made a deep impression on hat, celebrated the joy of washing clothes. it described the deep satisfaction to be derived from rubbing, rinsing, bluing, and hanging out the family wash on the line. the constantly recurring refrain was, "and the wind is right to dry." as hat rubbed out her own faded cotton dresses and aprons and scrubbed manfully on the sweaty collars and wristbands of luke's work shirts, even when she punished the washboard with his heavy denim overalls, stiffly encrusted with mud and axle grease and many other varieties of filth, and soused them up and down in the dirty, stinking, mouse-gray water, the words of this little poem lilted rhythmically through her mind, and she almost fooled herself into thinking that washing luke's overalls was a delight. who can say that the mail order sheet does not bring joy and comfort into the rural home? nevertheless, hat was glad when luke came home one day with the information gleaned from columbia gibbs that overalls last twice as long if they are never allowed to see water.
the feature of the "farm wife's friend" that caused her the most deep-seated excitement was the advertisements. the
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big black type exhorting the reader to "send no money," "win health and happiness without cost," "stop suffering," "send two-cent stamp and know your future," "make big money by pleasant work in spare time," these caused hat to get down from the clock shelf the pen, the bottle of ink, and the letter paper and write to such of the advertisers as most appealed to her imagination.
it is true that the answers were usually disappointing. one brought a sample of kidney remedy, for which hat, never having had any symptoms of kidney trouble, could find no present use. she laid it away carefully, half hoping that she or luke might need it at some time in the future. the "pleasant occupation in spare time" people always required you to buy some complicated and expensive apparatus before you could begin to earn money with it. this was the last thing that hat was prepared to do. she derived her greatest satisfaction from the firms that told your fortune for a dime or read your horoscope if you told them the date of your birth and the color of your eyes and hair; and from those that sent free samples of cosmetics, remedies for chicken diseases and gaudy calendars and bookmarks. there was no thrill in her life greater than that of finding a package in the mail box addressed to herself, of carrying it home in delightful suspense and at last opening the package in secret to see what it contained. the joy of getting something for nothing and of being in secret communication with unknown people appealed both to her cupidity and her thirst for adventure. luke was not a partner in these pleasures; and as he could neither read nor write, she had no difficulty in keeping him in the dark regarding her correspondence.
besides the "farm wife's friend," and the carefully studied current almanac, hat had other literature. she had a book called "lena rivers," in a tattered yellow paper cover, and another book entitled "no wedding bells for her," in no cover at all. these two books she had read through at least a dozen times. she had a paper bound dream book which interpreted dreams, not as professor freud would do, but in a
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way much more satisfying to hat. as she dreamed a good deal, she consulted this book frequently.
the remaining book, and the one that she valued most of all, was a small, much thumbed volume that had lost its cover and its first seven pages. this book was called "old secrets and new discoveries." there was something about the magic word "secret" that made the book especially precious to hat. between its covers, or more accurately speaking, between its eighth and its last page, was contained knowledge universal.
on page eight there were given directions "how to charm those whom you meet and love." this little article hat knew by heart.
"when you desire to make any one 'love' you with whom you meet, although not personally acquainted with him, you can very readily reach him and make his acquaintance if you observe the following directions: suppose you see him coming toward you in an unoccupied mood, or he is recklessly or passively walking past you, all that remains for you to do at that moment is to concentrate your thought and send it into him, and, to your astonishment, if he was passive, he will look at you, and now is your time to send a thrill to his heart by looking him carelessly, though determinately, into his eyes, and praying with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, that he may read your thought and receive your true love, which god designs we should bear one another. this accomplished, and you need not and must not wait for a cold-hearted, fashionable and popular christian introduction; neither should you hastily run into his arms, but continue operating in this psychological manner; not losing any convenient opportunity to meet him at an appropriate place, where an unembarrassed exchange of words will open the door to the one so magnetized. at this interview, unless prudence sanction it, do not shake hands, but let your manners and loving eyes speak with christian charity and ease. wherever or whenever you meet again, at the first opportunity grasp his hand in an earnest, sincere and affectionate manner, observing at the same time the following important directions, viz: as you take his bare hand
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in yours, press your thumb gently, though firmly, between the bones of the thumb and forefinger of his hand, and at the very instant when you press thus on the bloodvessels (which you can before ascertain to pulsate) look him earnestly and lovingly, though not pertly or fiercely, into his eyes, and send all your heart's, mind's and soul's strength into his organization, and he will be your friend, and if you find him not to be congenial you have him in your power, and by carefully guarding against evil influences, you can reform him to suit your own purified, christian, and loving taste."
hat loved to read the recipes for anchovy paste and artichokes served with hollandaise sauce, and eagerly devoured the directions for serving a formal dinner of eight courses to a party of twelve guests. her inability to apply this information did not greatly trouble her. but when she read aloud to luke the "hunters' and trappers' secrets," she felt somewhat aggrieved because the knowledge thus obtained did not result in an immediate increase of rabbits and muskrats and an equally rapid decrease of the foxes that slaughtered her geese; and her opinion of luke, always a low one, dropped a peg lower.
on one occasion, when he appeared to have gotten the worst of it in a horse trade, she upbraided him bitterly for not having applied the information contained in her book.
"huh," retorted luke, glaring at her across the supper table. "anybody'd think to listen to you that that measly little half-page in that 'ere damn book o' yourn tells all there is to know about a hoss. why, i know more about hosses, jes from handlin' 'em, than the print in all yer books together cud tell."
"well, then, if ye know so much, why did you let 'em put over a lame hoss on ye?" she flashed angrily.
"land alive, woman," luke's tone was high pitched with exasperation, "do you s'pose gad a'mighty c'n tell a lame hoss when he's shot full o' stuff to make him so's he hain't lame? haow cud i know he was lame when he wa'n't lame when i traded fer 'im? besides, naow, i've looked him over,
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i know jes what's wrong with him. he hain't got but a little start of a ringbone; an' i kin burn that out an' have 'im cured in a month. wimmin like you makes a man sick. you hain't got sense to pound sand with all yer books."
"oh, hain't we though? well, i hate to think o' the filthy, foul-livin' critters you men'd be if it wa'n't fer us wimmin. you'd go right back to be savages; an' you hain't fur off from it naow."
hat also considered herself something of a musician, performing by ear on a fiddle handed down from her grandfather, who had been a fiddler and a caller off of dances.
when jerry and judith came to live in the neighborhood, hat was the first to call upon the bride. life was lonely back in the deep hollow where she and luke lived, far from even the sound of a passing wagon; and the company of luke had long since ceased to be stimulating. last year, too, all the near neighbors had been old people. hat was glad that somebody young and lively had come to take the place of the doddering old patton couple who had lived there the year before.
not many days after the new arrivals had moved in, hat appeared one afternoon in the dooryard. she was dressed for visiting. she had on a clean pink and white checked frock and the inevitable little white apron. on her head was a starched pink sunbonnet. she was a tremendous creature, both tall and stout, and her skin was coarse. but she looked handsome in a dark, bold, gipsy-like way. judith, who was neither small nor delicate, looked like a frail blossom beside her.
"well, if it hain't hat wolf!" exclaimed judith, who was bringing a bucket of water from the cistern. she set the bucket down and hastened to meet her visitor.
"my, but i'm glad you've come to live here, judy," said hat, with genuine enthusiasm. "las' year i got so's i wouldn't come over here no matter haow lonesome i was, 'cause old aunt jinny patton wouldn't do nothing but set an' sigh an' say she knew the lord was a-goin' to take her soon. old people is that tiresome. naow you an' me, when we hain't got
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much to do, kin visit each other. an' i'll lend you my books an' you kin lend me yourn; an' we'll sew rags together an' have good times. you know it gits awful lonesome in these hollers, an' anybody needs neighbors. tain't like livin' on the pike."
judith proudly showed hat her new chicken coops, the four dozen hens that her father had given her, the place that they had selected for a garden spot and the shepherd pup which a neighbor had given them, a fluffy ball of black and white silk, trimmed, as nature knows how to trim, with soft tan. then she led her into the house and showed her, piece by piece, all her wedding finery, her new sheets and towels and her bright bedquilts. hat examined all these things with deep interest and exclaimed over them with unfeigned admiration. in the intervals of looking at the things to which judith called her attention, her bold black eyes travelled about the room and took in every detail of its floor, walls, and furnishings. nothing escaped her. she was alive with that small curiosity so frequent in farmers' wives, which causes them to take note of the smallest minutiæ of their neighbors' interiors. when she went away she carried in her mind an exact photograph of judith's two rooms and of her dooryard. she even knew that judith's clothesline was a wire and not a rope one. such capacity for detail does solitude engender in the female mind.
"well," she said at last, when she was prepared to leave, "i'll have to be a-gittin' along back home. i got a right smart o' little chicks hatched out an' i want to raise every one of 'em an' make as much as i kin this summer. it gits dark early in our holler, an' the rats begin to run around most afore the sun's gone. so i'd best git back an' git the chicks cooped up. i can't trust nothin' to luke. come over, judy."
"yes, you come agin, hat."
