baby with me,
Cass! Give hit up. Be ye 'feared o' Frale, honey?"

"No, mother, the man doesn't live that I'm afraid of." She paused,
holding the candle in her hand, lighting her face that shone whitely out
of the darkness. Her eyes glowed, and she held her head high. Then she
turned again to her work, gathering her few small treasures and placing
them on one of the highest shelves of the chimney cupboard. As she
worked, she tried to say comforting things to her mother.

"I'll write to you every day, like David does me, mother. See? I've
kept all his letters. They're in this box. I don't want to burn them
because I love them; and I don't want any one else to read them; and I
don't want to carry them with me because I'll have him there. Will you
lock them in your box, mother, and if anything happens to me, will you
sure--sure burn them?" She laid them on the table at her mother's elbow.
"You promise, mothah?"

"Yas, Cass, yas."

"What's in that bundle, mothah?"

With trembling fingers the widow opened her parcel and displayed the
silver teapot, from which the spout had been melted to be moulded into
silver bullets.

"Thar," she said, holding it out by the handle, "hit's yourn. Farwell,
he done that one day whilst I war gone, an' the last bullet war the one
Frale used when he nigh killed your man. No, I reckon you nevah did see
hit before, fer I've kept hit hid good. I knowed ther were somethin' to
come outen hit some day. Hit do show your fathah come from some fine
high fambly somewhar. I done showed hit to Doctah David, fer I 'lowed he
mount know was hit wuth anything, but he seemed to set more by them two
leetle books. He has them books yet, I reckon."

"Yes, he has them."

"When Frale told me you war a-goin' to David, I guessed 'at thar war
somethin' 'at I'd ought to know, an' I clum up here right quick, fer if
he war a-lyin', I meant to find out the reason why." She looked keenly
in her daughter's face, which remained passive under the scrutiny.

"Has Frale been a-pesterin' you?"

"He did--some--at first; but I sent him away."

"I reckoned so. Now heark. You tell me straight, did David send fer ye,
er didn't he?"

In silence Cassandra turned to her work, until it seemed as if the room
were filled with the suspense of the unanswered question. Then she tried
evasion.

"Why do you ask in that way, mothah?"

"Because if he sont fer ye, I'll help ye all I can; but if he didn't,
I'll hinder ye, and ye'll