The baby roused a little, and stretched and grunted, baby fashion.
“Lordie! what good sleep they do have!” Silas said, holding out his finger to the little red hand extended toward him, and then withdrawing it suddenly. “Now, Liza Ann sleeps just like that t’ this day.” He spoke hesitatingly, as if searching for a topic of conversation. “She does ’er work regular like, an’ she sleeps as regular as she works. I often think what a satisfyin’ sort of life she leads, anyhow. She tends t’ ’er own business an’ she don’t tend t’ nobody else’s, an’—an’—she ain’t got no more on ’er mind ’n that there baby.”
Elizabeth gathered the child into her arms and seated herself in a rocking chair, while the old man sat stiffly down on the edge of the lounge and continued:
“Now I ain’t that way, you know. I have a most uncomfortable way of gettin’ mixed up in th’ affairs of others.”
“But it’s always a friendly interest,” Elizabeth interposed, mystified by his curious manner and rambling conversation.
Silas crossed his knees and, clasping his hands about the uppermost one, rocked back and forth on the edge of the lounge.
“Most allus,” he admitted, “but not quite. Now I’m fair ready t’ fight that new Mis Hansen. I’ve been right fond of Luther, for th’ short time I’ve knowed ’im, but what he see in that there Sadie Crane’s beyond me. He’s square. He looks you in th’ face ’s open ’s day when he talks t’ you, an’ you know th’ ain’t no lawyer’s tricks in th’ wordin’ of it. But she’s different. They was over t’ our house Sunday ’fore last an’ I never knowed Liza Ann t’ be’s near explodin’ ’s she was ’fore they left. It done me right smart good t’ see ’er brace up an’ defend ’erself. I tell you Mis Hansen see she’d riled a hornet ’fore she got away. Liza Ann ’ll take an’ take, till you hit ’er just right, an’ then—oh, my!”
Silas ended with a chuckle.
“After they left, she just told me I could exchange works with somebody else; she wasn’t goin’ t’ have that woman comin’ t’ our house no more.”
“Sadie is awfully provoking,” Elizabeth admitted, “but—but—Luther likes her, and Luther is a good judge of people, I always thought.”