When he had parted from her at the fence which divided his land from
Gay's near the Poplar Spring, he watched her little figure climb the
Haunt's Walk and then disappear into the leafless shrubbery at the back
of the house. While he looked after her it seemed to him that the
wan November day grew radiant with colour, and that spring blossomed
suddenly, out of season, upon the landscape. His hour was upon him
when he turned and retraced his steps over the silver brook and up the
gradual slope, where the sun shone on the bare soil and revealed each
separate clod of earth as if it were seen under a microscope. All nature
was at one with him. He felt the flowing of his blood so joyously that
he wondered why the sap did not rise and mount upward in the trees.
In the yard Sarah was directing a negro boy, who was spreading a second
layer of manure over her more delicate plants. As Abel closed the gate,
she looked up, and the expression of his face held her eyes while he
came toward her.
"What has happened, Abel? You look like Moses when he came down from the
mountain."
"It was all wrong--what I told you last night, mother.
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