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"Why, Jap, what are you doing there?" as her son came around one of the rear corners of the little building. "I'm just waiting. Say, mother," tremulously, "will it kill her?" "Kill her? Who, Sairay? No, indeed. She's lots better now. Gracious! you look sick yourself, child!" "I'll never do such a thing again, mother, never! I felt as if I'd stabbed her to the heart.
Bending over it, she fairly started at the pallor of the face upon the pillow, from which the dark eyes seemed starting with an expression of pain and anxiety which set her heart to beating heavily. "Sairay," whispered that strange voice, "I'm sick I'm awful sick in here." The hand, already at her side, pressed it more closely, and her brows contracted with pain.
In its close-shuttered condition she did not at first recognize the figure which rose to meet her, but a second look wrung from her almost a cry. "Jasper?" "Yes, Sairay, it's me. You you've been sick, I hear." She bowed her head, unable to speak for the second. "And you show it too," with an awed look into her lovely face, spiritualized by illness, as he took her extended hand.
"She's good!" said Sara with emphasis, as if nothing else counted for much. "Wall, nobody's goin' to say she ain't in Killamet, Sairay, leastways, not many. In course she's ruther top-headed an' lofty, but it's in the blood. Ole Cap'n Plunkett was the same, and my! his wife, Mis' Pettibone thet was, she was thet high an' mighty ye couldn't come anigh her with a ten-foot pole!
"What's the fun, Sairay? Pass it 'round, can't you? We've been a- wonderin' what you 'n' Miss Prue was a-gigglin' over!" The idea of Miss Prue's "giggling" rather shocked Sara; but that lady answered at once, "And we've been wondering if anybody else would ever take the time to do such a piece of work as this." "Oh!" cried Betty, quite complimented, "I guess there's plenty would; I enjoyed it!
"Sairay! Sairay!" The high, petulant voice rose shrilly through the steep, narrow stairway, and seemed to pierce the ears of the young girl who sat under the low, sloping roof, nearly bent double over the book in her lap.
Uncle Jabez rose awkwardly as she entered, with a "Good-evenin', Sairay, thort I'd call 'round a spell." "Good-evening," she said, constraining herself to be pleasant. "It is growing warmer out." "Yaas, looks like a break-up, some, makes a feller think o' the Banks these days. Thort I'd see what Mort hed laid aout to do 'bout shippin' 'long o' me." "He is not going," said Sara promptly.
She had motioned him to a chair, and dropped into another herself, feeling weak in body, and perplexed in mind. Why had he come? Was he the answer to her repining thoughts? His voice roused her from the sort of lethargic state into which she had dropped for a moment. "Sairay," he said, with a little choke, "I I couldn't stay away any longer when I heard about you and I've come"
Sairay!" her mother lifted an admonishing finger, "be careful how you talk about the A'mighty! Babies is different from growed-up folks, and, besides, I guess ef the Lord ain't too good to count the hairs of our heads, he can even take notice of a dog's howl!" and Sara, who had the reverent soul of a little child, was once again silenced, if not convinced.
Sara turned from the young man's hand-clasp to her father's embrace. "Waal, Sairay, we're off, an' good luck goes with us, ef a man kin jedge by the weather. Good-by. God bless you, darter!" Sara could not speak, but she held him close a minute, then stood with tearful eyes and watched him embark, telling herself he had always returned safe and sound, and surely he would again.
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