FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   >>  
so if I war ez big a sinner ez you-uns," he returned. "The woods air afire," the old woman declared, in a shrill voice. "They be a-soakin' with las' night's rain," he retorted, gruffly. The mare was standing near the porch. Suddenly he mounted her and rode hastily off, without a word of his intention to the staring women in the doorway. He left freedom of speech behind him. "Take yer bones along, then, ye tongue-tied catamount!" his wife's mother apostrophized him, with all the acrimony of long repression. "Got no mo' politeness 'n a settin' hen," she muttered, as she turned back into the room. The young woman lingered wistfully. "I wisht he wouldn't go a-ridin' off that thar way 'thout lettin' we-uns know whar he air bound fur, an' when he'll kern back. He mought git hurt some ways roun' that thar fire--git overtook by it, mebbe." "Ef he war roasted 'twould be mighty peaceful round in Lonesome," the old crone exclaimed, rancorously. Her daughter stood for a moment with the bar of the door in her hand, still gazing out at the flare in the sky. The unwonted emotion had conjured a change in the stereotyped patience in her face--even anxiety, even the acuteness of fear, seemed a less pathetic expression than that meek monotony bespeaking a broken spirit. As she lifted her eyes to the mountain one might wonder to see that they were so blue. In the many haggard lines drawn upon her face the effect of the straight lineaments was lost; but just now, embellished with a flush, she looked young--as young as her years. As she buttoned the door and put up the bar her mother's attention was caught by the change. Peering at her critically, and shading her eyes with her hand from the uncertain flicker of the tallow dip, she broke out, passionately: "Wa'al, 'Genie, who would ever hev thought ez yer cake would be _all_ dough? Sech a laffin', plump, spry gal ez ye useter be--fur all the wort' like a fresky young deer! An' sech a pack o' men ez ye hed the choice amongst! An' ter pick out Tobe Gryce an' marry him, an' kem 'way down hyar ter live along o' him in Lonesome Cove!" She chuckled aloud, not that she relished her mirth, but the harlequinade of fate constrained a laugh for its antics. The words recalled the past to Eugenia; it rose visibly before her. She had had scant leisure to reflect that her life might have been ordered differently. In her widening eyes were new depths, a vague terror, a wild speculation, a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   >>  



Top keywords:

mother

 

Lonesome

 

change

 

tallow

 

Peering

 
flicker
 

passionately

 

uncertain

 

critically

 
shading

laffin

 

thought

 
caught
 

buttoned

 

haggard

 

returned

 

effect

 

straight

 

looked

 
embellished

lineaments

 

sinner

 

attention

 

Eugenia

 

visibly

 

recalled

 

constrained

 
antics
 

leisure

 

reflect


depths

 

terror

 

speculation

 

widening

 
ordered
 

differently

 

harlequinade

 

choice

 
mountain
 
useter

fresky

 

chuckled

 

relished

 

spirit

 

wistfully

 

wouldn

 

lingered

 
mounted
 

turned

 

hastily