The weather-door slowly opened, and the tall form of a young man appeared.
“Asahel,” said Asenath, “we were just speakin’ of you and your folks, and now I want to have a talk with you. Take off your frock, and don’t be standing there like a swamp crane, but sit down on the uniped here close by me, as you used to do when you was a small boy. I set store by you, and you just think what a mother I’ve been to you since your own mother was laid away in the juniper lot! But I am a proper plain-speakin’ woman, as your own mother was—she that answered the minister back in meetin’ time when the good old elder said that your father was a hypocrit.”
Presently the weather-door opened, and Amanda appeared and sat down on the same uniped with Asahel.
The good woman continued:
“You two have been cowslippin’ together, and sassafrassin’ together, and a-huntin’ turkeys’ nests and wild honey, and pickin’ Indian pipe and all. Now, that was all right when you were children. But, Asahel, you and Amanda have come to the pastur’ bars of life, and you must part, and you, Asahel, must be content to become just one of our hired men and sit at the table with the other hired men, on Thanksgivin’ days the same as on all other days, and not stand in the way of any one. And, Amandy Short, do you see that?”
Asenath held up the courting stick.
“Do you know what that is?”
“It is just a hollow stick. I’ve seen sticks before. What does all this mean?”
“You’ve seen sticks before, have you, Amanda? And you have experienced ’em, too, for I have been a faithful mother to you—as good as two. But this is the stick that must unite some farm to ours, and I am goin’ to hang it up over the dresser, and when the right young man comes, Amanda, I want you to take it down and put it up to your ear, so, and it may be that you will hear somethin’ useful, somethin’ to your advantage and ourn. I hope that I made myself clearly understood.”
She did. The two young people had not been left in any darkness at all in regard to her solution of their social equation. Asahel stepped into the middle of the great kitchen floor. His face was as fixed as an image, and the veins were mapped on his forehead.