n to see if 'twas safe in my dress pocket. All of a
sudden Joanna come right to the fore door and stood there, not sayin' a
word."

XIV. The Hermitage

MY COMPANION and I had been so intent upon the subject of the
conversation that we had not heard any one open the gate, but at this
moment, above the noise of the rain, we heard a loud knocking. We were
all startled as we sat by the fire, and Mrs. Todd rose hastily and went
to answer the call, leaving her rocking-chair in violent motion. Mrs.
Fosdick and I heard an anxious voice at the door speaking of a sick
child, and Mrs. Todd's kind, motherly voice inviting the messenger in:
then we waited in silence. There was a sound of heavy dropping of
rain from the eaves, and the distant roar and undertone of the sea.
My thoughts flew back to the lonely woman on her outer island; what
separation from humankind she must have felt, what terror and sadness,
even in a summer storm like this!

"You send right after the doctor if she ain't better in half an hour,"
said Mrs. Todd to her worried customer as they parted; and I felt a
warm sense of comfort in the evident resources of even so small a
neighborhood, but for the poor hermit Joanna there was no neighbor on a
winter night.

"How did she look?" demanded Mrs. Fosdick, without preface, as our large
hostess returned to the little room with a mist about her from standing
long in the wet doorway, and the sudden draught of her coming beat out
the smoke and flame from the Franklin stove. "How did poor Joanna look?"

"She was the same as ever, except I thought she looked smaller,"
answered Mrs. Todd after thinking a moment; perhaps it was only a last
considering thought about her patient. "Yes, she was just the same, and
looked very nice, Joanna did. I had been married since she left home,
an' she treated me like her own folks. I expected she'd look strange,
with her hair turned gray in a night or somethin', but she wore a pretty
gingham dress I'd often seen her wear before she went away; she must
have kept it nice for best in the afternoons. She always had beautiful,
quiet manners. I remember she waited till we were close to her, and then
kissed me real affectionate, and inquired for Nathan before she shook
hands with the minister, and then she invited us both in. 'Twas the same
little house her father had built him when he was a bachelor, with one
livin'-room, and a little mite of a bedroom out of it where she slept,
but