“Trouble!” repeated Miss Betsey, as she gathered up the reins and laid the whip lightly on the back of “old Samson.”
“Trouble is just as folks take it. I have had my own share in my day, or I thought so,” she added, with a sharp little laugh. “I just wonder what I should have done now if the Lord had let me have my own way about some things.”
Old Samson moved steadily along, past Joel Bean’s, and the bridge, and up the hill that brought Gershom in sight, and then she said aloud: “But then things might have been different,” and then old Samson felt the whip laid on with a little more decision this time, and this, probably with the anticipation of the measure of oats awaiting him in the squire’s stable, quickened his movements; and in a few minutes Miss Betsey was shaking the snow from her cloak in Sally Griffith’s back kitchen. It had been snowing heavily for a while, and the movement of the sleigh had been unheard by Elizabeth, or she would have taken the shaking of the snowy garments into her own hands.
“Folks as usual?” said Miss Betsey, as she came into the front kitchen, where Sally reigned supreme, conscious of her value as “help,” and careful of her dignity as a citizen of Gershom, “as good as anybody.”
“Well, pretty much so, I guess. Kind of down these days, in general.”
They had been youthful companions, these two, and had plenty to say to each other. So Betsey warmed her feet at the oven door, and they discussed several questions before she went into the sitting-room. She went in softly, so as not to disturb the old man, should he have fallen asleep in his chair, as he sometimes did after dinner; so she had a chance to see Elizabeth’s face before she knew that she was not alone. It was grave and paler than Betsey had ever seen it, and there was a weary, far-away look in her eyes that were following the grey clouds just beginning to drift over the clearing sky. They brightened, however, as they turned at the sound of the opening door.
“Cousin Betsey! I’m so glad to see you. You have come to stay?”
Friendly as they had become of late, Elizabeth did not often venture to kiss her cousin. She did this time, however, repeating:
“You have come to stay?”
“Well, yes. I came fixed so as to stay a spell if I was wanted. Joel Bean’s folks heard somewhere that Uncle Gershom hadn’t been seen out in the street these two days, and I thought I’d just come over and see how he was keeping along.”