Presently Hoyle returned and began removing his clumsy shoes, by the fire. "Did he ax ye a heap o' questions, Hoyle?" queried the old woman sharply. "Naw. Did'n' ax noth'n'." "Waal, look out 'at you don't let on nothin' ef he does. Talkin' may hurt, an' hit may not." "He hain't no government man, maw." "Hit's all right, I reckon, but them 'at larns young to hold ther tongues saves a heap o' trouble fer therselves." After they had eaten, old Sally gathered the few dishes together and placed all the splint-bottomed chairs back against the sides of the room, and, only half disrobing, crawled into the far side of the bed opposite to the mother's, behind the homespun curtain. "To-morrow I reckon I kin go home to my old man, now you've come, Cass." "Yes," said the girl in a low voice, "you have been right kind to we-all, Aunt Sally." Then she bent over her mother, ministering to her few wants; lifting her forward, she shook up the pillow, and[Pg 24] gently laid her back upon it, and lightly kissed her cheek. The child had quickly dropped to sleep, curled up like a ball in the farther side of his mother's bed, undisturbed by the low murmur of conversation. Cassandra drew her chair close to the fire and sat long gazing into the burning logs that were fast crumbling to a heap of glowing embers. She uncoiled her heavy bronze hair and combed it slowly out, until it fell a rippling mass to the floor, as she sat. It shone in the firelight as if it had drawn its tint from the fire itself, and the cold night had so filled it with electricity that it flew out and followed the comb, as if each hair were alive, and made a moving aureola of warm red amber about her drooping figure in the midst of the sombre shadows of the room. Her face grew sad and her hands moved listlessly, and at last she slipped from her chair to her knees and wept softly and prayed, her lips forming the words soundlessly. Once her mother awoke, lifted her head slightly from her pillow and gazed an instant at her, then slowly subsided, and again slept. [Pg 24] [Pg 25] [Pg 25]
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