"Behind the hazel-bush, with his head just looking out at the top, all turned white as dead folks do."
Mopsey was in immediately with her dark head, crying out, "Don't belief a word of it."
"I guess you saw nothing but the hazel-bush, William," said the widow.
"That was it, Aunt; it was the hazel-bush with a great mop of moss on it," Robert added.
Miriam sat looking on and listening, pale and trembling.
"If your cousin Elbridge and Mr. Barbary should ever come back," said the widow, addressing Peabody Junior, "you would be sorry for what you have said, William."
"So he would, Aunt," echoed Robert.
Mopsey was in again from the kitchen; this time she advanced several steps from the door-sill into the room, lifted up both her arms and addressed the assembled company.
"One ting I know," said Mopsey, "dere's a big pie baking in dat ere oven, and if Mas'r Elbridge don't eat that pie it'll haf to sour, dat I know."
"What is it, Mopsey," asked Margaret, "that gives you such a faith in my son?"