'Pete say ez how he jes' laffed at him an' named him a fool.'
'Pete air ekal ter that,' she returned with some sarcasm.
She was deftly winding the yarn once more, the fire showing a deeper thoughtfulness upon her face. Its flicker gave the room a sense of motion; the festoons of scarlet pepper-pods, the long yellow and red strings of pop-corn, the peltry hanging from the rafters, apparently swayed as the light rose and fell; and the warping-bars, with their rainbow of spun-truck stretched from peg to peg, seemed to be dancing a clumsy measure in the corner. The rocking-chair where granny was wont to sit was occupied now by a shadow, and now was visibly vacant.
She looked up into his face with an absorbed un-noting eye. He was pierced by the knowledge that though she saw him, she was thinking of something else.
'Won't the Court let the pa'son go free now, sence they know ye done no crime?' she asked.
'Naw. The pa'son air accused of a rescue, an' whether the man he rescued air convicted or no it air jes' the same ter the law ez agin him. The rescue air the thing he hev got ter answer fur.'
She dropped her hands in her lap and threw herself back in her chair.
'Ten year in prison!' she exclaimed.
Her face was all the tenderest pity; her voice was full of yearning sympathy; she cast her eyes upward with a look that was reverence itself.
'How good he war! I s'pose he knowed ye never done no harm, an' he war willin' ter suffer stiddier you-uns. I never hearn o' sech a man! 'Pears ter me them old prophets don't tech him! I never hearn o' them showin' sech love o' God an' thar feller man. He rescued ye jes' fur that!'