CHAPTER IX
A MEETING IN THE PASTURE
As Judy did not appear next morning, her breakfast was carried up to
her by Sarah, who allowed her own cakes to become leathery while she
arranged the tray. Her feet were still on the staircase, when Blossom
turned to Abel and said in a furtive and anxious voice:
"Mrs. Bottom told me yesterday the Gays were coming back to Jordan's
Journey. Have you heard anything about it?"
"No, I haven't heard," he answered indifferently, though his pulses
throbbed at the words. Rising from the table an instant later, he went
out into the yard, where the sunshine filtered softly through June
foliage. By the porch a damask rose-bush was in bloom, and the fragrance
followed him along the path between the borders of portulaca. At the
gate he found a young robin too weak to fly, and lifting it carefully,
he returned it to the nest in a pear-tree. Like all young and helpless
things, it aroused in him a tenderness which, in some strange way, was
akin to pain.
On the crooked sycamore the young leaves fluttered with shirred edges,
and beyond the mill and the fallow field, the slender green ribbons of
the corn were unfolding.
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