“I’ve never been sick, not plain sick, in all my life,” she murmured, “and why should I be now?”
But left alone, she made ready, in a strange way, for what she felt was coming upon her. She undressed carefully and put her room in order. Then she lay down upon her bed and drifted lightly between the known and the unknown.
She touched Noreen’s sleeping face so gently that the child did not heed the caress. Then:
“Perhaps I am going to die––people die so easily at times––just flare out!”
And so Peneluna found her and knelt beside her.
“You hear me, Mary-Clare?”
“Yes. I hear you, of course.”
“Well, then, child, take this along with you, wherever you bide for a time. I’m here and God Almighty’s here and things is safe! You get that?”
“Yes, Peneluna.”