d us as if her eyes
had been quick to see a strange object in the familiar emptiness of the
field. William stood up in the wagon, and I thought he was going to
call or wave his hand to her, but he sat down again more clumsily than
if the wagon had made the familiar motion of a boat, and we drove on
toward the house.

It was a most solitary place to live,--a place where one might think
that a life could hide itself. The thick woods were between the farm
and the main road, and as one looked up and down the country, there was
no other house in sight.

"Potatoes look well," announced William. "The old folks used to say
that there wa'n't no better land outdoors than the Hight field."

I found myself possessed of a surprising interest in the shepherdess,
who stood far away in the hill pasture with her great flock, like a
figure of Millet's, high against the sky.

V.

Everything about the old farmhouse was clean and orderly, as if the
green dooryard were not only swept, but dusted. I saw a flock of
turkeys stepping off carefully at a distance, but there was not the
usual untidy flock of hens about the place to make everything look in
disarray. William helped me out of the wagon as carefully as if I had
been his mother, and nodded toward the open door with a reassuring look
at me; but I waited until he had tied the horse and could lead the way,
himself. He took off his hat just as we were going in, and stopped for
a moment to smooth his thin gray hair with his hand, by which I saw
that we had an affair of some ceremony. We entered an old-fashioned
country kitchen, the floor scrubbed into unevenness, and the doors well
polished by the touch of hands. In a large chair facing the window
there sat a masterful-looking old woman with the features of a warlike
Roman emperor, emphasized by a bonnet-like black cap with a band of
green ribbon. Her sceptre was a palm-leaf fan.

William crossed the room toward her, and bent his head close to her ear.

"Feelin' pretty well to-day, Mis' Hight?" he asked, with all the voice
his narrow chest could muster.

"No, I ain't, William. Here I have to set," she answered coldly, but
she gave an inquiring glance over his shoulder at me.

"This is the young lady who is stopping with Almiry this summer," he
explained, and I approached as if to give the countersign. She offered
her left hand with considerable dignity, but her expression never
seemed to change for the better. A mo