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Tessibel's eyes followed his form through the dim twilight until he disappeared into his shanty. Her hand clutched convulsively the knob of the mission door; it yielded to her touch, and for the second time in her life Tessibel Skinner was inside the mission room. The small reed organ stood open: a hymn book stretched back with a rubber band caught her eye.
Tessibel's peremptory leaving and the hauteur in her face were so foreign to her that Ezra Longman did not dare follow. He leaned upon his rake looking after her, his gray eyes gathered into an incomprehensive squint.
Waldstricker will be very much pleased if they find him." Tessibel's questioning gaze prompted Helen to proceed. "The paper says, too, the men up there in Auburn are pretty sure he's somewhere among his own people." A scarlet wave dyed Tessibel's face, and then receded. Her eyes drew down a little at the corners. "Ye mean 'mong the squatters, don't ye?" she queried sharply.
Myra relinquished the child to her and the little fellow sank to sleep under Tessibel's crooning voice. His regular breathing told her that he slept; she placed him in the box and sat thoughtfully down. "Air Ben Letts been here lately?" she asked after a pause. Myra shook her head. "He ain't got no time for such as the brat and me," she replied bitterly.
"I heard ye talkin' to Daddy, mister," she said, gulping. "I air awful glad ye came in to see me too. I'd a been hurt if ye'd gone without my gettin' a peep at ye." During each infinitesimal space of time, Burnett stood in the sunshine of Tessibel's smile, his austere churlishness was slipping from him like a loosened garment. As if forced by an unseen hand, he took one step nearer her.
The swollen upper lid was tightly pressed over his blind eye, the squint one slowly opening at Tessibel's entrance. She looked down upon the bandaged face but for a moment; neither of them spoke. "I see ye comes," Ben broke in at last. "Yep, I's here ... What do ye want?" A drop of salt water oozed from the weak eye; Ben moved his head as if in pain.
One evening, three weeks after Tessibel's secret visit to her father in the city jail, twenty fraternities were preparing all the practical jokes which boyish minds could concoct, with which to initiate their new candidates to full membership. Five new men were to join the "Cranium" fraternity.
"But if they've had good luck, I suppose the young people are quite well on their way to Paris by now. The ceremony, one of those hasty affairs, was performed yesterday. They took the night train to New York." Tessibel's breath caught in her throat.... The heavens seemed to tumble into the lake.... An awful booming sounded in her ears.
As these thoughts floated past him, he saw the young squatter wither under a giggle from a girl in the corner. "Look at her feet," were the words that changed Tessibel's frankness to embarrassment, her eager pathos to wofulness. Tessibel shrank close to the door, for the first time realizing how out of place she was. "I were I were a fool to come, but but "
Longman loosened Tessibel's arms, and, walking slowly forward, looked down upon his daughter. "I hain't seed before that she were a-smilin'," he said, taking a long breath. "Ye says as how she air happy, Tess?" "Yep; she air with Ben Letts." "I air a-goin' in to tell her ma that Myry air happy," asserted Longman, with relief in his voice. "I thank ye, Tess, for tellin' me that she were.
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