twisted together in
her lap. Finally, "Did they say anything about me, Jacob?"

"I thought," said I, "that they talked as if you'd had a fuss."

"Yes," she said. "They're all I've got. They hain't much, I reckon, but
they're as good as I be, I s'pose. Yes, a lot better. They're my father
an' my mother, an' my brothers. In their way--in our way--they was
always, as good to me as they knowed how. I remember when ma used to
kiss me, and pa held me on his lap. Do you remember he's got one finger
off? I used to play with his fingers, an' try to build 'em up into a
house, while he set an' told about new places he was goin' to to git
rich. I wonder if the time'll ever come ag'in when I can set on any
one's lap an' be kissed without any harm in it!"

There was no false gaiety in her face now, as she sat and looked off
over the marsh from the brow of the hill-slope. A feeling of coming evil
swept over me as I looked at her, like that which goes through the
nerves of the cattle when a tornado is coming. I remembered now the
silence of her brothers when her father and mother had said that she was
no longer a member of their family, and was not going with them to
"the Speak."

The comical threat of the old man that he would will his property away
from her did not sound so funny now; for there must have been something
more than an ordinary family disagreement to have made them feel thus. I
recalled the pained look in Ma Fewkes's face, as she sat with her
shoulder-blades drawn together and cast Rowena out from the strange
family circle. What could it be? I turned my back to her as I sat on the
ground; and she took me by the shoulders, pulled me down so that my head
was lying in her lap, and began smoothing my hair back from my forehead
with a very caressing touch.

"Well," said she, "we wun't spoil our day by talkin' of my troubles.
This place here is heaven, to me, so quiet, so clean, so good! Le's not
spoil it."

And before I knew what she meant to do, she stooped down and kissed me
on the lips--kissed me several times. I can not claim that I was
offended, she was so pretty, so rosy, so young and attractive; but at
the same time, I was a little scared. I wanted to end this situation;
so, pretty soon, I proposed that we go down to see where I kept my milk.
I felt like calling her attention to the fact that it was getting well
along in the afternoon, and that she would be late home if she did not
start soon; but that would no