he door behind her as tight as if
she hoped to shut out some evil spirit in the action. Her manner filled
Elizabeth with curiosity, but she crossed to Luther and held out her
hand.

"Before you 'uns begin," Sadie said with the air of burning her bridges
behind her, and before any one had had a chance to speak, "I want t' tell
you something. I could 'a' told it in th' kitchen," she stammered, "but I
made up my mind last night that I'd have it out with both of you. I've
done you th' meanest trick, Lizzie. Luther said you was goin' t' Hornby's
yesterday. Did you go?"

Elizabeth, standing at the head of Luther's bed, nodded in her surprise,
feeling that her visit with Nathan was not a subject to which she could
lend words.

"Now look here, Lizzie, if what I said t' th' Hornbys has made any
difference, I'll go t' him an' take it back right before your face."

Elizabeth's eyes opened in astonishment.

"Uncle Nate did not mention it to me," Elizabeth replied.

"Well, I've made up my mind I want t' tell it, an' have it off my mind."

Sadie considered a moment and then plunged into her tale hurriedly, for
fear that her courage would cease to support her.

"Well, when I was to your house last summer, an' you told me about th'
effect it had on a baby t' have a mother that never got mad, I come home
an' tried t' do everything I thought you meant an'--seems t' me I never
was s' mean in my life. Mean feelin' I mean. I got along pretty well at
first--I guess it was somethin' new--? but th' nearer I got t' th' time,
th' worse I got. I scolded Luther Hansen till I know he wished he'd never
been born. Th' worst of it was that I'd told 'im how--what a difference it
made, and he was that anxious----?"

Luther raised his hand to protest, but Sadie waved him aside and
continued:

"Oh, you needn't defend me, Luther!" she exclaimed. "I've been meaner 'n
you know of." Turning to Elizabeth again, "I used t' look over t' your
house an' feel--an' feel 's if I could only see you an' talk a while, I'd
git over wantin' t' be s' mean, but you wouldn't never come t' see
us--an'--an' I didn't feel's if--I didn't feel free t' go any more, 'cause
ma said you didn't want t' be sociable with our kind of folks."

Sadie paused a moment to crease the hem of her apron and get the twitching
out of the corners of her distressed mouth.

"Well, at last, when you didn't come, an' I couldn't git no help from no
one, I just said every mean thing I could.