"That's all right," Celestina declared, making haste to repair her blunder.  "I've plenty of time to lay it myself.  'Twas only that when I saw you settin' up before it I thought mebbe you'd built it 'cause you were cold." 

 "I was cold," acquiesced Willie, his eyes misty with thought.  "But I warn't noticin' there was no heat in the stove when I drew up here." 

 Celestina bit her lip. How characteristic the confession was! 

 "Well, there'll be a fire now very soon," said she, bustling out and returning with paper and kindlings.  "The kitchen will be warm as toast in no time. An' I'll make you some hot coffee straight away. That will heat you up. This northerly wind blows the cobwebs out of the sky, but it does make it chilly." 

 Although Willie's eyes automatically followed her brisk motions and watched while she deftly started the blaze, it was easy to see that he was too deep in his own meditations to sense what she was doing. Perhaps had his mood not been such an abstract one he would have realized that he was directly in the main thoroughfare and obstructing the path between the pantry and the oven. As it was he failed to grasp the circumstance, and not wishing to disturb him, Celestina patiently circled before, behind and around him in her successive pilgrimages to the stove. Such situations were exigencies to which she was quite accustomed, her easy-going disposition quickly adapting itself to emergencies of the sort. So skilful was she in effacing her presence that Willie had no knowledge he was an obstacle until suddenly the iron door swung back of its own volition and in passing brushed his knuckles with its hot metal edge. 

 "Ouch!" cried he, starting up from his chair. 

 "What's the matter?" called Celestina from the pantry. 

 "Nothin'. The oven door sprung open, that's all." 

 "It didn't burn you?" 

 "N—o, but it made me jump," laughed Willie.  "Why didn't you tell me, Tiny, that I was in your way?" 

 "You warn't in my way." 

 "But I must 'a' been," the man persisted.  "You should 'a' shoved me aside in the beginnin'." 

 Prev. P 23/181 next