The farmer looked at her and shook his head again.
“I wouldn’t get their ill-will, miss. They’re thieves, and they set things afire, and I expect they wouldn’t stop at murder.”
“I can’t see why you citizens have allowed them to remain as they are all these years.”
The farmer opened his gate.
“It’s better to let some things be,” he explained. “There are some things you’d better just stand, like skunks and weasels. They can’t be brought to judgment, they’re too all-fired sly and disagreeable.”
Elizabeth climbed the road slowly. She saw that in another week the golden-rod would be in bloom. Already, though it was only July, a bright red branch of a gum tree showed here and there in the woods.
Then she quickened her steps. She had not seen Herbert since noon and that was a long time for him to spend alone in the woods. For several days he had been more quiet than usual and she believed that he was growing more depressed. At first he had gained in strength and weight, but now he was losing. Herbert was all she had; it would be madness to carry her plans for him to the point of risking his life! They would go to a city; they would do anything in the world that he wished to do.
Then as she entered the yard the old place put its spell upon her once more. If this cloud could be removed, Herbert would be as anxious to stay as she. It was theirs, and never in the world could they possess elsewhere anything so beautiful.
To her astonishment Herbert had not come, though the woodland must be by this time almost dark.
“He rode to the upper end and Joe is slow as molasses,” said she aloud for the sake of hearing a human voice. Then she set about preparing the kind of supper that Herbert liked. For a while she whistled; then her own whistling disturbed her. When supper was prepared she walked to the edge of the woodland and called, then she walked back to the house. She remembered now that she had a new blow to transmit to him. If their orchards could not be planted, then they had reason for anxiety. At least she would not tell him until after supper. She said aloud her mother’s proverb about an empty stomach. She knew as she said it that she was trying to keep out of her mind another thought.