The
river road leads to Edgewood 'n' Hillside, whar there's consid'able
hayin' bein' done, as I happened to mention to Timothy this afternoon;
and plenty o' blackberries 'side the road, 'specially after you pass the
wood-pile on the left-hand side, whar there's a reg'lar garding of 'em
right 'side of an old hoss-blanket that's layin' there; one that I
happened to leave there one time when I was sleepin' ou'doors for my
health, and that was this afternoon 'bout five o'clock, so I guess it
hain't changed its location sence."
Jabe and Miss Vilda drove in silence along the river road that skirted
Wilkins's Woods, a place where Jabe had taken Timothy more than once, so
he informed Miss Vilda, and a likely road for him to travel if he were
on his way to some of the near villages.
Poor Miss Vilda! Fifty years old, and in twenty summers and winters
scarcely one lovely thought had blossomed into lovelier deed and shed
its sweetness over her arid and colorless life. And now, under the magic
spell of tender little hands and innocent lips, of luminous eyes that
looked wistfully into hers for a welcome, and the touch of a groping
helplessness that fastened upon her strength, the woman in her woke into
life, and the beauty and fragrance of long-ago summers came back again
as in a dream.
After having driven three or four miles, they heard a melancholy sound
in the distance; and as they approached a huge wood-pile on the left
side of the road, they saw a small woolly form perched on a little rise
of ground, howling most melodiously at the August moon, that hung like a
ball of red fire in the cloudless sky.
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