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At the same moment Jake growled, barked shortly, and dashed past him, with the hair bristling along his neck. The man's blood went to ice, as he sprang to the door of the shack, crying in a terrible voice: "Mandy! Mandy! Where are " But before the question was out of his mouth, the door leaped open, and Mandy was on his neck, shaking and sobbing. "The children?" she gasped.
She is, as she said to you, a stout, healthy creature, and, I understand, very industrious. I approve of John." She approved of John, but she addressed herself to exploiting Mandy; and the lady in the blue silk frock learned how poor and helpless the Meacham woman had been before she got in to the mill work, how greatly the Uplift Club had benefited her, with many interesting details.
"Didn't you know that Mandy was stoppin' with me? She's been a dyin' to see you." "I'm mighty sorry," he replied, fastening the gate and coming to the pony's side. "Why didn't you tell me before? I reckon she'll get over it alright, though," he added with a smile, as he raised his arms to assist the girl to dismount.
"Oh, thank God, Mandy!" he panted, "you are safe." He gathered her into his arms. "Oh, Allan, I am so sorry." "Sorry? Sorry? Why?" "Our beautiful house!" "House?" "And all our beautiful things!" "Things!" He laughed aloud. "House and things! Why, Mandy, I have YOU safe. What else matters?" Again he laughed aloud, holding her off from him at arm's length and gazing at her grimy face.
"She sure am a funny talkin' thing!" mumbled Mandy to herself, as she clipped the withered leaves from a plant near the window. "You are dead sure they know I ain't comin' on?" Polly asked with a lingering suspicion in her voice. "Dead sure"; and Douglas smiled to himself as he lapsed into her vernacular. There was a moment's pause.
"Yes," she said, "there's a pink gingham I want to wear to the barbecue to-morrow. There ought to be a hat to match. Did the hats come, Mandy?" "Calvin he say there's another box, but he ain' brought it up from the deepot. He was ridin' dat Jo-mule, and this yer basket was all he could ca'y." In the pink frock Becky looked like a lovely child.
Mandy had said truly that there wasn't a thing on the farm she didn't love to do, and the gift of housewifery ran in the family. Johnnie had barely explained who she was, and made such effort as she could to enlist Mandy's sister, when Zack came tramping home, and showed, she thought, some uneasiness at finding them there.
Mighty good hoss that you're ridin'. I never seed one with better shoulders. My name's Leffingwell, Seth Leffingwell, an' I live here alone, 'ceptin' my old woman, Mandy. All we ask of people is to let us be. Lots of us in the mountain feel that way. Let them lowlanders shoot one another up ez long ez they please, but up here there ain't no slaves, an' there ain't nothin' else to fight about."
"If yo's so anxious to be a-totin' water, jes' yo' come along outside and tote some fo' Mandy." "I can't do no mo' carryin', Mandy," protested Hasty. "I'se hurted in mah arm." "What hurt yo'?" "Tiger." "A tiger?" exclaimed the women in unison. "Done chawed it mos' off," he declared, solemnly. "Deacon Elverson, he seed it, an' he says I's hurt bad." "Deacon Elverson?" cried the spinster.
Poor Mandy made inarticulate moanings and reached up her arms; Shade Buckheath cursed softly under his breath; the women and children stared, eager to lose no detail. "I always have said, and I always shall say, that chaps as young as that ain't got no business around whar machinery's at!"
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