"
"You mean Barker, Sister?"
"Oh, no, I mean 'he'. I can remember how his hair waved, though I wasn't
but sixteen at the time; and the day when he hitched my hoss for me, all
the girls looked down-trod. It was more than fifty year ago."
"Of course I am a much younger woman," replied Sister Starbuck, "and I
can't look back an' see no man but J--J--Jasper."
They returned to their silent weeping, and after a time a cup of coffee
was suggested. Sister Barker objected. Her mind was so full of the past
that she had no heart to swallow the devices of the present, but upon
persuasion she yielded; and when the coffee was drunk, pipes were
lighted and comfortably back they sat and talked about the neighbors.
After a while an old carryall wobbled up to the gate and out got Mrs.
Spencer. By the time she reached the door-step fresh tears were falling.
"Come right in," said Margaret. "I am so glad to see you at this time."
"And what do you want with me--to set down an' help you cry? Wall, I
ain't of the cryin' sort. I put my cryin' aside when I got outen the
cradle.
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