I hadn't thought on him so for years, but it seemed jest as though
'twas back in New Hampshire, where we was born, a' playin' around the old
mill again. Him and me was the youngest, we was always together, and I
couldn't 'a' called him up so before me, to save me; but there he was, as
plain as life, with his little blue checked apron on, a skippin' along
towards me over the logs, and his eyes a dancin', and the wind a blowin'
his hair out; and all the while I couldn't help a knowin' that 'Lihu was
a man grown, a dyin' there before me on the bed.
"'Seems as though a man that's been a wearin' out as long as he has had
ought to die easier, Cinthy,' says I. 'It's pretty hard to have forty
years' consumption, and then go off with a fever,' 'We can't question the
Lord's doin's,' says Cinthy. But for all that, she wouldn't stay in the
room to see him. He couldn't ketch his breath and he was as crazy as a
loon. Lord, how he worried! All day, yesterday, he was a loadin' ship
down to the shore. It would a' made your bones ache to hear him workin'
so; and all night long he was a loadin', and a loadin.' Thinks I, won't
there never be no end to this, for I felt hard, and him a loadin' and a
loadin' all through them long hours, jest as faithful as life, with his
eyes like blood, and the sweat a rollin' off'n him.
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