.. and this would
seem to be the land of tall men."
Only once again did he speak to her that night and then just to say in
plain matter-of-fact style: "You'd better lie down there and get some
sleep. Good night." And this remark had come only after fifteen minutes
of busy preparation on his part and curiosity on hers. He had gone out
of the room into the night with no offered explanation and with many
eyes following him; men began to show rising signs of excitement and to
regret audibly that they had not "gathered him in." But in a few minutes
he was back, his arms filled with loose hay from the barn. He spread it
out in a corner, down by the long table. The table itself he drew out of
the way. On the hay he smoothed out her quilt. Then, after a brief word
with Poke Drury, he made another expedition into the night, returning
with a strip of weather beaten, patched canvas; this he hung by the
corners from the nails he hammered into a beam of the low ceiling,
letting the thing drop partition-wise across the room. It had been then
that he said quietly: "You'd better lie down there and get some sleep.
Good night."
"Good night," she answered him. And as it was with his eyes that again
he told her frankly what he thought of her, so was it with her eyes that
she thanked him.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51