"
"I know it," shivered Ella, "but you hadn't been gone an hour 'fore she
began to stir an' notice things. I found her lookin' at me first, an' it
give me such a turn I 'most dropped the medicine bottle in my hand. I
was clearin' off the little table by her bed, an' she was followin' me
around with them big gray eyes. 'Slickin' up?' she asks after a minute;
an' I could 'a' dropped right there an' then, 'cause I
wasslickin' up, fer her fun'ral. 'Where's Jim?' she asks then. 'Gone ter
town,' says I, kind o' faint-like. 'Umph!' she says, an' snaps her lips
tight shet. After a minute she opens 'em again. 'I think I'll have some
tea and toast,' she says, casual-like, jest as if she'd been callin' fer
victuals ev'ry day fer a month past. An' when I brought it, if she
didn't drag herself up in bed an' call fer a piller to her back, so's
she could set up. An' there she stayed, pantin' an' gaspin', but
settin' up--an' she stayed there till the toast an' tea was
gone."
"Gosh!" groaned Jim. "Who'd 'a' thought it? 'Course 't ain't that I grudge
the old lady's livin'," he added hurriedly, "but jest now it's so--
unhandy, things bein' as they be. We can't very well--" He stopped, a
swift change coming to his face.
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