with a scant black ribband about her waist, her sole
adornment a brassy wedding ring, that almost covered
an entire joint. She spoke in a rapid, absent
voice, as if her attention were perpetually wandering
down from the subject in hand to an invisible kitchen
stove, or a child temporarily unaccounted for.

"Lettice looks right good," she declared, "and,
dear me, why shouldn't she, with nothing on her
mind at all but what comes to every woman? When
I had my last Rutherford was down with the influenza,
the youngest was taken with green-sickness,
and we had worked out all our pay at the store in
supplies. You're fixed nice here," she added without
a trace of envy in her tired voice. "I suppose
that's Mrs. Hollidew in her shroud. We have one
of James -- he died at three -- sitting just as natural
as life in the rocker."

"Where's Rose?" he asked.

"In the kitchen, helping Mrs. Caley. I wanted
to ask that nothing be said before Rose of Lettice's
expecting. We've brought her up very delicate;
and besides there's a young man paying her attention,
it's not a fitting time -- she might take a scare.
I had promised to bring Barnwell K. the next time."

They could hear from without the boy and the
hysterical yelping of General Jackson. "That dog
won't bite?" Mrs. Berry worried. Gordon, patently
indignant, replied that the General never bit.

[[222]]

p221 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p222w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p223

v?