All this was said as though his father’s borrowing would be a great favor conferred upon Miss Eliza.
“The stone-boat. What does your father intend to do?”
“He’s got a job hauling stone to fix the wall at Paddy’s Run. The man was up to see him yesterday. The wall’s bulging out. They mean to tear some away and build it in and higher than it was.”
Miss Eliza shuddered at the mention of the wall. It was a retaining wall built to hold the public road and railroad from the water. At this point, the river had come so close to the mountain that the way for the railroad had been cut out. To make this safe, a high stone wall had been built.
It had been here that Prince had gone over. That had been ten years before, but even yet Miss Eliza could recall the sensation of dizziness, of feeling herself falling, which she had felt then.
“Look for the chain. As to the stone-boat, tell your father that I’ll sell that to him if he finds he needs it. I’ll never have use for it.”
Jim-Boy went his way. Eliza and Beth went into the house and began the preparation of the evening meal. Beth was not a cook, but there was a score of things she could do to help Adee. She arranged the table and did the errands to the cellar and milk-house.
When the meal had been finished and she sat with Adee in the living-room, she drew close and began wistfully, “I want to ask you something, Adee. One of the girls asked me questions. That put it in my mind. I couldn’t answer anything she asked. I don’t know whether I have a father or mother, or if I ever had one. I do not know if they are living or dead. She asked me if I was your niece and I could not tell her. Am I, Adee?”
There was silence. Eliza had nothing to say. She had known that the time would come when Beth could not understand and would ask questions. It had come sooner than she expected.
“Will you tell me, Adee? I do not know what to say when people ask me, and I feel ashamed that I do not know. Every little girl in school has a father and mother and I have none. I cannot understand it.”