The Choir Invisible

"I am willing to work for her, but I am not willing to do her work!" he

replied." If the queen sits quietly in the parlour, eating bread and

honey"--and he nodded, protesting, toward the house.

"The queen's not in the parlour, eating bread and honey. She has gone to

town to stay with Kitty Poythress till after the ball."

She noted how his expression instantly changed, and how, unconscious of his

own action, he shifted his face back to the direction of the town.

"Her uncle was to take her in to-morrow," she went on, still watching him,

"but no! she and Kitty must see each other to-night; and her uncle must be

sure to bring her party finery in the gig to-morrow. I'm sorry you had your

walk for nothing; but you'll stay to supper?"

"Thank you; I must go back presently."

"Didn't you expect to stay when you came?"

He flushed and laughed in confusion.

"If you'll stay, I'll make you a johnny-cake on a new ash shingle with my

own hands."

"Thank you, I really must go back. But if there's a johnny-cake already

made, I could easily take it along."

"My johnny-cakes do not bear transportation."

"I wouldn't transport it far, you know."

"Do stay! Major Falconer will be so disappointed. He said at dinner there

were so many things he wanted to talk to you about. He has been looking for

you to come out. And, then, we have had no news for weeks. The major has

been too busy to go to town; and I!--I am as dry as one of the gourds of

Confucius."

His thoughts settled contentedly upon her once more and his face cleared.

"I can't stay to supper, but I'll keep the Indians away till the major

comes," he said. "What were you thinking of when I surprised you?"

"What was I thinking of?" She stopped working while she repeated his words

and folded her hands about the handle of the rake as if to rest awhile. A

band of her soft, shining hair, loosened by its own weight when she had bent

over to thin some seed carelessly scattered in the furrow, now fell across

her forehead. She pushed her bonnet back and stood gathering it a little

absently into its place with the tips of her fingers. Meanwhile he could see

that her eyes rested upon the edge of the wilderness. It seemed to him that

she must be thinking of that; and he noted with pain, as often before, the

contrast between her and her surroundings. From every direction the forest

appeared to be rushing in upon that perilous little reef of a clearing--that

unsheltered island of human life, newly displaying itself amid the ancient,

blood-flecked, horror-haunted sea of woods. And shipwrecked on this island,

tossed to it by one of the long tidal waves of history, there to remain in

exile from the manners, the refinement, the ease, the society to which she

had always been accustomed, this remarkable gentlewoman.