One afternoon, as he lay on his bed in a darkened corner of his
room, a woman's shadow passed across the wall, returned, and a
moment later he saw Easter's face at the window. He had lain
quiet, and watched her while her wondering eyes roved from one
object to another, until they were fastened with a long, intent look
on a picture that stood upon a table near the window. He stirred,
and her face melted away instantly. A few days later he was sitting
with Easter and Raines at the cabin. The mother was at the other
end of the porch, talking to a neighbor who had stopped to rest on
his way across the mountains.
Easter air a-gettin' high notions," she was saying, " 'n' she air
a-spendin' her savin 's, 'n' all mine she kin git hold of, to buy fixin's
at the commissary. She must hev white crockery, 'n' towels, 'n'
newfangled forks, 'n' sichlike." A conscious flush came into the
girl's face, and she rose hastily and went into the house.
"I was afeard," continued the mother, " that she would hev her hair
cut short, 'n' be a-flyin' with ribbons, 'n' spangled out like a
rainbow, like old 'Lige Hicks's gal, ef I hadn't heerd the furriner tell
her it was ' beastly.' Thar ain't no fear now, fer what that furriner
don't like, Easter don't nother."
For an instant the mountaineer's eyes had flashed on Clayton, but
when the latter, a trifle embarrassed, looked up, Raines apparently
had heard nothing.
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