addressing Leonard with a doubtful smile] I don’t know what you’d call it but it’s pretty strange when you come to think about it, isn’t it?—I had just finished helping Aunt Jane set the table—she had come all the way from Yancey County to visit your grandmother—when all of a sudden it flashed over me—mind you [to Leonard] I never looked out the window or anything but I knew just as well as I knew anything that he was coming—mercy I cried— here comes—why what on earth are you talking about, Eliza? said your grandma—I remember she went to the door and looked out down the path—there’s no one there—He’s acoming, I said—wait and see— Who? said your grandmother—Why, father, I said—he’s carrying something on his shoulder—and sure enough—I had no sooner got the words out of my mouth than there he was just acoming it for all he was worth, up the path, with a tow-sack full of apples on his back— you could tell by the way he walked that he had news of some sort— well—sure enough—without stopping to say howdy-do—I remembered he began to talk almost before he got into the house—O father, I called out—you’ve brought the apples—it was the year after I had almost died of pneumonia—I’d been spitting up blood ever since— and having hemorrhages—and I asked him to bring me some apples— Well sir, mother said to him, and she looked mighty queer, I can tell you—that’s the strangest thing I ever heard of—and she told him what had happened—Well, he looked pretty serious and said— Yes, I’ll never forget the way he said it—I reckon she saw me. I wasn’t there but I was thinking of being there and coming up the path at that very moment—I’ve got news for you he said—who do you suppose I saw to-day—why, I’ve no idea, I said—why old Professor Truman—he came rushing up to me in town and said, see here: where’s Eliza—I’ve got a job for her if she wants it, teaching school this winter out on Beaverdam—why, pshaw, said your grandfather, she’s never taught school a day in her life—and Professor Truman laughed just as big as you please and said never you mind about that—Eliza can do anything she sets her mind on— well sir, that’s the way it all came about.” High-sorrowful and sad, she paused for a moment, adrift, her white face slanting her life back through the aisled grove of years.
“Well, sir!” said Mr. Leonard vaguely, rubbing his chin. “You young
