"I don't wish to seem harsh, Mr. Strong," said Abigail, "but it does seem a blessing that that man came along and was taken sick as he was. It's given Miss Delia something to do besides clutterin' up my kitchen. I am blessed beyond all when some of the neighbors fall sick and will let Miss Delia in to nurse 'em."
"I see she is a wonderful nurse," said Hiram approvingly.
"Well, she'll do less harm that way than most," said Abigail, who seldom was known to approve thoroughly of anything finite. "But that's what made trouble between her and that Yance Battick, I guess."
"Indeed?"
"Yes. He was pretty near down sick—just hobblin' around. Rheumatism and all. That old Pringle house is as damp as the grave. Miss Delia heard how bad off he was and off she marched with her pills and plasters and what-not. But Yance Battick wasn't goin' to let no woman into his house—and he told her so to her face."
"I don't think Mr. Battick understands Miss Pringle's character," said Hiram. "He does not realize how very kind she means to be."
"'Means to be'—yes. That's it. I never could give three cheers for those folks that always mean so much better than they do," sniffed the angular woman, who could not even speak in entire approval of her employer. "But it's wisdom to let fellows like Yance Battick alone. Besides," she added, dropping her voice, "there's dark doin's in that house of Battick's. Ain't no place for a decent, respectable woman."
"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Hiram, rather amused. "I stopped there over night, and I saw nothing much out of the way."
"You weren't let to," said Abigail pursing her lips. "There's those that say Yance Battick is deeper than Sim Paget's well—and it never had no bottom! He's got a power of knowledge that never came out of books. And no man would ever be so crotchety and shy off his fellowmen like Yance Battick does, if he wasn't sold, body and soul, to the devil."
Hiram found no answer to this statement. It was evident that Abigail Wentworth, lineal descendant of Salem Puritans transplanted to this Middle West, possessed superstitions that are popular still in some localities.