There was a sound at the door. Andy and Jeff came awkwardly in, and while they all stood looking, Creed’s eyes opened suddenly upon them. Andy put out a hand swiftly.
“I’m mighty sorry for—for all that chanced,” he said huskily.
“So ’m I,” Jeff instantly seconded him.
Creed looked at them both with a little puzzled drawing of the brows; then the ghost of a smile flickered across his lips, and his hand that lay on the covers moved weakly toward theirs.
“It’s all right,” he said, scarcely above a whisper—the first words he had uttered. “I told—Aunt Nancy—you were good—boys—” he faltered to a hesitating close, his eyelids drooped over the tired eyes; but they flashed open once more with a smile that included Judith and her uncle standing back of the two.
“You’re all—mighty—good—to me,” said Creed Bonbright. And again he sank into that lethargic sleep.
As the day advanced came the visitors that are the torment of a sick-room in the country. It would scarcely have been thought that a bare land like that could produce so many. Finally Judith went to her uncle and begged that Creed be no longer made a show of, and that old Dilsey set out food in the other room and entertain those who came, without promising that they should see the sick man.
“Uh—huh,” agreed Jephthah, understandingly, “I reckon yo’ about right, Jude. Creed’s obliged to lay there like a baby an’ sleep ef he’s to have any chance for his life. I don’t want to fall out with the neighbours, but we’ll see if we cain’t make out with less visitin’.”
But this prohibition was not supposed to apply to Iley Turrentine, a member of the family. About eight o’clock that morning, having then for the first time heard of the arrival at the cabin, she came hurrying across the slope with the baby on her hip. Long abstinence had made keen that temper of hers, and here was a situation where virtue itself cried to arms. She was eager to give Creed Bonbright a piece of her mind.
“You cain’t go in unless’n you’ll promise to be plumb quiet—not to open yo’ mouth,” Judith told her sharply. “Uncle Jep ain’t here right now—but that’s what he said.”