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I weren't thinkin' of nothin' but the storm, the water, and the time that ma and me were a-sleepin' when Myry were a-dyin'. She air happy, ye air sure, Tess?" "Yep, for she were a-seekin' Ben Letts. She told me as how " Tessibel choked back the words. "She told ye what?"
"Sure, they be happy!" she ejaculated. "Everybody air happy in Heaven; Ben Letts air a singin' 'round the throne jest the same's the rest of 'em air." In open disbelief Longman slowly shook his head. "Myry never could sing Myry couldn't," he answered, moodily, and his voice sank on the last two words.
"Myry air pert," she said, halting in the door. "She air more than that her fingers air lovin' ones. These," and she held up her two brown hands, "would be hurtin' ye, cause I hates ye so." Tessibel and Myra walked away from Ben's hut in silence, up the ragged rocks to the Longman shanty. "Ben were askin' to marry yer, Tess, weren't he?" demanded Myra as they approached the door. Tess nodded.
Then he slowly knocked the ashes from its bowl, giving it a final rap in the hollow of his hand. "Every day me an' ma miss Myry an' Ezry more," said he, stolidly. "Us uns just plumb lately made up our minds both them kids was too good to live, but us uns'd be awful satisfied to know if they air happy." Tessibel brightened. She flashed a radiant smile at the sad-faced man.
"Yer brat air sick to his grave, he air," said she mournfully, a tear settling in her voice, making its sweetness rough, "and Myry air a-dyin' of a broken heart.... If yer wants to make an hones' woman, make her one, that air what I says, I does. And ye broke her arm on the ragged rocks! Ye did! And then yer comes and talks about bein' hones'," the musical voice rose to a cry.
I says as how Myry air happy, Satisfied." "She were a-lovin' Ben Letts?" The pain in his clouded blue eyes stung Tess to the heart. The grief of this lonely old man, bereft of his all, seemed the most tragic spectacle she had ever faced. "Yep," she replied, trying to smile through her tears; "she were a-lovin' him, and were a-seekin' his lovin's all the time.
She had Ben Letts at last, and forever he was her gift of the storm, the eternal gift of a wild night. Myra had sought, and had found him. The shanty door pushed open. Like one in a dream, Tess was still looking down upon the dead. Lifting her gaze, she saw Satisfied watching her, his eyes glowing with subdued pain. "Myry air dead," he said, in a low voice, coming forward.
"Where air Myry's ma?" asked Tessibel presently. "Back there, in Ezy's bed. She air sick, and so air Mammy Letts." "Ezy were buried yesterday," ruminated Tess. "Yep, and Myry be a-goin' to the same place. Ma and me air alone." There was something strangely pathetic in the quiet words, in the stolid, ugly face with its hard lines, in the mouth twitching at the corners as he spoke.
She stooped down and placed the toad again in his hole, shoving him deep down into his cavity, for the sun was going down and Frederick would sleep as long as there were no flies about. The boy spoke again. "Mammy says as how if ye don't stop runnin' wild ye'll be worse than Myry with another "
"Tess ain't had no mother," remonstrated Longman, after a long silence, pausing a moment in his bloody work and allowing his eyes to rest upon the magnificent buildings of the University, rearing above the town, "and Myry says that them what has ought to be satisfied." Just then a shadow fell upon the shore of the lake near the fishermen.
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