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Cranceford paused to wipe her eyes, and the Major, who had been walking up and down the room, now stood looking through the window at the sweep of yellow river, far away. "But does she say when she is coming home?" he asked without turning his head. "Read on, please." The sheets were disarranged and it was some time before she obeyed.
Ma'am, are you going to leave us?" he asked, seeing that Mrs. Cranceford was on her feet. "But of course you have duties to look after, even though you might not be glad to escape an old man's gabble. I call it gabble, but I know it to be wisdom. But I beg pardon for seeming vanity." A dignified smile was the only reply she made, but in the smile was legible the progress his efforts were making.
The carriage swayed, was lifted, was swung round the horses lunged; one of the doors was burst open and the water poured in. Mrs. Cranceford clung to the Major, but she uttered not a word. Up the slippery bank the horses strained. One of them fell, but he was up in a moment. Firmer footing was gained, and the road was reached. Now they were in a lane.
And I want you to come with me. Tom Cranceford and Sallie Pruitt will be there and in the shine of the fire we'll cut many a scollop. What do you say?" "Uncle Gideon, don't you know how strongly opposed Mrs. Cranceford is to Tom's " "Bah, law-abiding calf. They are going to marry anyway, so what's the difference?
"Then why did you begin to tell me?" She did not answer this question. She waited for him to say more. "Of course I'd like to know what has become of her." "I went over to see her," said Mrs. Cranceford. "The deuce you did." "John, don't talk that way." "I won't. You went to see her." "Yes, and in that miserable house, all open, she is nursing her dying husband."
Cranceford, sitting down, gave him the attention of a motherly fondness, smiling upon him; and he, looking up from the letter which a pleasurable excitement caused to shake in his hand, wondered why any one should ever have charged this kindly matron with a cold lack of sympathy.
He stepped back from her and Mrs. Cranceford took her arm and led her away. The Major slowly followed them. He felt the inquisitive look of a neighbor, and his shoulders stiffened. In a buggy the mother and the daughter had followed the hearse; the Major, Tom and big Jim Taylor were driven in the family carriage. Louise was to go back to the desolate house.
"Ah, the point I made," the Major broke in. "But you see a labor plank has been added to their platform of grievance." Parker nudged his neighbor. "I says, says I, 'Nancy, John Cranceford for the right word." "There's something in that," the Judge replied. "Nothing can be madder than misled labor.
Mayo, an adventurer, a scoundrel with a brutish force that passed for frankness, had at one time almost brought about an uprising among the negroes of Cranceford County, and eager ears in the North, not the ears of the old soldier, but of the politician, shutting out the suggestions of justice, heard only the clamor of a political outrage; and again arose the loud cry that the South had robbed the inoffensive negro of his suffrage.
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