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"He said oncet as how he wouldn't give me to nobody. Ezy Longman wanted me to marry him, but I hated him.... I don't now, though, 'cause he air dead." "Tessibel, will you let me give you some money to buy milk for the strange little boy?" "Somebody gived me some money after my lickin' last night, so I don't need none now." A jealous feeling rose instantly in Young's heart.
She faced the storm and the tall, gaunt, emaciated form of Ezra Longman. Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy. "Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here?
She had been gone about an hour, when the sky suddenly darkened, the wind rose and the thunder rolled in prelude to the storm. Major Warfield came skurrying home from the mill, grasping his bridle with one hand and holding his hat on with the other. Meeting poor old Ezy in the shrubbery, he stormed out upon him with: "What are you lounging there for, you old idiot! You old sky-gazing lunatic!
The sight of her son, her only son, white and emaciated, and the appearance of the livid scar on his brow drew a painful cry from her lips. "He air sick," continued Myra, "put him to bed." "Where air ye been all this time, Ezy?" asked Longman, assisting him into the small back room.
With whom could she leave it? Her face whitened with grief.... Of course she could not go now. She turned again to Ezra, who was loitering at the door. "Ye go now, Ezy, and tell Myra I ain't a-comin' this evenin', and I hopes her brat won't be yelping too much." The next day Tess appeared at the back of the minister's cottage, with a basket slung over her arm.
"Sit down on the bed," interrupted the tired voice. "Myry and Ezy air both gone. Satisfied says as how Myry air a-smilin' and as how ye said she were happy. Satisfied and me feels better, we does." Tessibel choked back the welling tears. The gray head resting upon a soiled pillow, the pale face turned toward the wall, which had not turned to her, struck Tess deeper than Satisfied's stolid grief.
"Where's Ezy?" asked Longman. There was no anxiety in his voice. He was tumbling the fish into the cars. "I ain't no way a-knowin' where he air. He skipped away, and said how he wanted to speak to his pappy, and I ain't seed him since.... Ezy were a fool when he was born." "Gone home, like a sneakin' kid," put in Jake Brewer.
Herbert arrove about an hour ago, and thinking you all abed and asleep at the Hall, he just stopped in with us all night! I'll go and see I doubt if he's gone to bed yet," said Mr. Ezy, withdrawing into the house. "Oh, thank heaven! thank heaven!" exclaimed Capitola, just as the door opened and Herbert sprang forward to greet her with a "Dear Capitola! I am so glad to come to see you!"
"Scoot, and get an armful of wood, Ezy," ordered she; and no sooner had the tall boy disappeared than she slipped after him. She stood beside him at the wood pile, staring down upon the crouched form. "Hold a minute, Ezy," commanded she. Ezra stood up. "What air the matter with yer and Ben Letts?" "Nothin' ain't the matter." "There air," insisted Myra, "and it air Tess what air a-doin' it.
Besides, he knew it would be necessary to blow up Bill Ezy, his lazy overseer, before night, and perhaps saved himself for that performance. He finished his meal in silence and went out.
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