"Yes, thank
ye, you're real good, I will come back if I find I ain't wanted. Look
what a pretty sky there is!" and the two friends went to the side door
and stood together in a moment of affectionate silence, looking out
toward the sunset across the wide fields. The country was still with
that deep rural stillness which seems to mean the absence of humanity.
Only the thrushes were singing far away in the walnut woods beyond the
orchard, and some crows were flying over and cawed once loudly, as if
they were speaking to the women at the door.
Just as the friends were parting, after most grateful acknowledgments
from Sarah Ellen Dow, some one came driving along the road in a hurry
and stopped.
"Who's that with you, Mis' Crane?" called one of their near neighbors.
"It's Sarah Ellen Dow," answered Mrs. Crane. "What's the matter?"
"I thought so, but I couldn't rightly see. Come, they are in a peck o'
trouble up to Sister Barsett's, wonderin' where you be," grumbled the
man. "They can't do nothin' with her; she's drove off everybody an'
keeps a-screechin' for you. Come, step along, Sarah Ellen, do!"
"Sister Barsett!" exclaimed both the women. Mercy Crane sank down upon
the doorstep, but Sarah Ellen stepped out upon the grass all of a
tremble, and went toward the wagon. "They said this afternoon that
Sister Barsett was gone," she managed to say. "What did they mean?"
"Gone where?" asked the impatient neighbor. "I expect 'twas one of her
spells.
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