Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy.
"Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here? It air yer own self, ain't it, Ezy?"
"Yep."
"Where air yer been?"
"I dunno. I air sick unto death, I air."
"Have ye seen yer mammy?"
"Nope."
"Nor Satisfied?"
"Nope."
"Then ye be a-goin' there now, ain't ye?"
"Yep."
"Was ye to Albany?"
"Nope. I were sick in a house, and the big man from the hill were a-takin' care of me. I weren't a-goin' to stay no longer, so I runned away. I air a-goin' home to Mammy."
"Yep, that air right," rejoined Tess with conviction, "for yer mammy air a-grievin' every day for ye, and Satisfied air a-gettin' older and older-lookin'. They thought as how ye might be in Albany."
Another loud cry caused Ezy to turn his head toward the infant.
"Ye air the same as Myry," he said slowly; but before he could say another word, the girl interposed hastily: "It ain't my brat.... It belongs to a woman on the hill. I gets paid for it."
To every other man save to the one she loved was Tess able to deny the motherhood that had been thrust upon her. To the student she stood condemned of a sin he could not forgive. But to Ezra, Ben, and Professor Young she had told the truth.
The weakness of the squatter as he sat on the floor, panting for breath, aroused Tessibel's sympathy, and she proffered him a cup of little Dan's milk.
"Drink it," she commanded, "and then scoot to yer mammy. And--and ye needn't say as how I air a-carin' for another woman's brat, will ye, Ezy?"
"Nope; I ain't a-sayin' nothin' ... I goes home to my mammy."
If Tess had never seen the hue of death upon a human face, she saw it now. The boy rose totteringly, and Tessibel, with a tender expression in her eyes, opened the door.
"Ezy, I's sorry for ye! I's sorry that I slicked the dirty dishrag in yer face. Ye forgives me, don't ye, Ezy?"
"Yep." And Ezra stumbled away.
Tess watched him stagger along the shore through the rain, the shadows of the weeping-willow trees at last swallowing him up.