Look
here (to Big Abel), you set right down on that do' step an' I'll give you
something along with yo' marster. It's a good thing I happened to look
under the cow trough yestiddy or thar wouldn't have been an egg left in
this house. That's right, turn right in an' eat hearty--don't mince with
me." Big Abel, cowed by her energetic manner, seated himself upon the door
step, and for a half-hour the woman ceaselessly plied them with hot
biscuits and coffee made from sweet potatoes.
"You mustn't think I mind doing for the soldiers," she said when they took
their leave a little later, "but I've a husban' with General Lee and I
can't bear to see able-bodied men stragglin' about the country. No, don't
give me nothin'--it ain't worth it. Lord, don't I know that you don't git
enough to buy a bag of flour." Then she pointed out the way again and they
set off with a well-filled paper of luncheon.
"Beware of hasty judgments, Big Abel," advised Dan, as they strolled along
the road. "Now that woman there--she's the right sort, though she rather
took my breath away."
"She 'uz downright ficy at fu'st," replied Big Abel, "but I d'clar dose
eggs des melted in my mouf like butter. Whew! don't I wish I had dat ole
speckled hen f'om home. I could hev toted her unner my arm thoo dis wah des
es well es not."
The sun was well overhead, and across the landscape the heavy dew was
lifted like a veil. Here and there the autumn foliage tinted the woods in
splashes of red and yellow; and beyond the low stone wall an old sheep
pasture was ablaze in goldenrod.
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