thinkin'."

"Well," said Mrs. Forder, very short-breathed with climbing the long
slope of the pasture hill, "I don't know but I'd as soon be them as
the Knowles gals. Hannah never knowed no peace again after she spoke
them words in the co't-house. They come back an' harnted her, an' you
know, Miss Downs, better 'n I do, being door-neighbors as one may say,
how they lived their lives out like wild beasts into a lair."

"They used to go out some by night to git the air," pursued Mrs. Downs
with interest. "I used to open the door an' step right in, an' I used
to take their yarn an' stuff 'long o' mine an' sell 'em, an' do for
the poor stray creatur's long's they'd let me. They'd be grateful for
a mess o' early pease or potatoes as ever you see, an' Peter he allays
favored 'em with pork, fresh an' salt, when we slaughtered. The old
Cap'n kept 'em child'n long as he lived, an' then they was too old to
l'arn different. I allays liked Hannah the best till that change
struck her. Betsey she held out to the last jest about the same. I
don't know, now I come to think of it, but what she felt it the most
o' the two."

"They'd never let me's much as git a look at 'em," complained
Mrs. Forder. "Folks got awful stories a-goin' one time. I've heard it
said, an' it allays creeped me cold all over, that there was somethin'
come an' lived with 'em--a kind o' black shadder, a cobweb kind o' a
man-shape that followed 'em about the house an' made a third to them;
but they got hardened to it theirselves, only they was afraid 't would
follow if they went anywheres from home. You don't believe no such
piece o' nonsense?--But there, I've asked ye times enough before."

"They'd got shadders enough, poor creatur's," said Mrs. Downs with
reserve. "Wasn't no kind o' need to make 'em up no spooks, as I know
on. Well, here's these young folks a-startin'; I wish 'em well, I'm
sure. She likes him with his one hand better than most gals likes them
as has a good sound pair. They looked prime happy; I hope no curse
won't foller 'em."

The friends stopped again--poor, short-winded bodies--on the crest of
the low hill and turned to look at the wide landscape, bewildered by
the marvelous beauty and the sudden flood of golden sunset light that
poured out of the western sky. They could not remember that they had
ever observed the wide view before; it was like a revelation or an
outlook towards the celestial country, the sight of their own green
farms and