"That's enough of this. We'll both be stark,
ravin' distracted if we keep on this way. My soul! Hear that wind! I
said once that all the big things in my life had happened durin' a storm
and so they have. Jedediah went away in a storm and he's come back in
a storm. And now if UNCLE ABNER'S comin' back. . . . There I go again!
Emily, do you feel like goin' to bed?"
"To BED! After THAT? Auntie, how can you!"
"All right, then we'll set up till mornin'. Turn that lamp as high as
you can and we'll set by it and wait for daylight. By that time we may
have some of our sense back again and not behave like two feeble-minded
fools. Turn that wick up--WAY up, Emily Howes! And talk--talk just as
hard as you can--about somethin' or somebody that's ALIVE."
CHAPTER XVI
Emily obeyed orders as far as turning up the wick was concerned, and she
did her best to talk. It was hard work; both she and her cousin found
themselves breaking off a sentence in the middle to listen and draw
closer together as the wild gusts whistled about the windows and the
water poured from the sashes and gurgled upon the sills. Occasionally
Thankful went to the door to look down the dark hall in the direction
of Mr. Cobb's room, or to unlock Georgie's door and peer in to make sure
that the boy was safe and sleeping.
From the third of these excursions Mrs. Barnes returned with a bit of
reassuring news.
"I went almost there this time," she whispered. "My conscience has been
tormenting me to think of--of Solomon's bein' alone in there with--with
THAT, and I almost made up my mind to sing out and ask if he was all
right.
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