In the dark he knew that she was smiling tremulously at him, pursing her lips. She caught his low mutter of annoyance:
“Why, yes,” she said, nodding briskly. “I’d show them! I’d act as if I thought I was Somebody. Son,” she said more gravely, with a sudden change from her tremulous banter, “it worries me to see you walk like that. You’ll get lung-trouble as sure as you’re born if you go all humped over. That’s one thing about your papa; he always carried himself as straight as a rod. Of course, he’s not as straight now as he used to be—as the fellow says” (she smiled tremulously)—“I reckon we all have a tendency to shrink up a little as we get older. But in his young days there wasn’t a straighter man in town.”
And then the terrible silence came between them again. He had turned sullenly upon her while she talked. Indecisively she stopped, peered down at him with white pursed face, and in that silence, behind the trivial arras of her talk, he heard the bitter song of all her life.
The marvellous hills were blooming in the dusk. Eliza pursed her lips reflectively a moment, then continued:
“Well, when you get way up there—as the fellow says—in Yankeedom, you want to look up your Uncle Emerson and all your Boston kin. Your Aunt Lucy took a great liking to you when they were down here— they always said they’d be glad to see any of us if we ever came up—when you’re a stranger in a strange land it’s mighty good sometimes to have some one you know. And say—when you see your Uncle Emerson, you might just tell him not to be surprised to see me at any time now” (she nodded pertly at him)—“I reckon I can pick right up and light out the same as the next fellow when I get ready—I may just pack up and come—without saying a word to any one—I’m not going to spend all my days slaving away in the kitchen—it don’t pay—if I can turn a couple of trades here this Fall, I may start out to see the world like I always intended to—I was talking to Cash Rankin about it the other day—’Why, Mrs. Gant,’he said,’if I had your head I’d be a rich man in five years—you’re the best trader in this town,’he said.’Don’t you talk to me about any more trades,’I said—’when I get rid of what I’ve got now I’m going to get out of it, and not even listen to any one who says real-
