"Clytie tole yer dat, did she? Whut else she done tole yer?"
"Nothing else, Mammy. Why are you so mad?"
"'Cause dat nigger's tryin' to put you 'ginst me—I knowed it all de time."
"But no one can do that, Mammy, and I don't mind you being a Voodoo if you'll look in the fire and see if the schoolmaster is coming back. Won't you, please, Mammy?"
"Whut yer wants ter know sich er heap 'bout dat Perfesser fur?" Dicey said, a little subdued from her excitement, and pulling Natalia back to her. "Hit's no use yer stedyin' 'bout him an' lubbin' him, 'cause he's gwine 'way from heah soon's he kin, and he's nebber gwine stedy 'bout you no mo'. Sho' an' he ain', chile, an' hit ain' no use fer yer to be a lubbin him to sich er pint. Sh'h, sugar plum, don' yer cry now," for at her words Natalia's eyes had clouded and the tears were beginning to pour down her cheeks. "I'se jest talkin'—dat's all. Cose he lubs yer—eve'ybody do. Sh'h now, and Mammy'll fin' pictures fer yer in de fire."
She knelt on the hearth and poked the back log until some glowing coals fell from it. Then she leaned forward and raked them into a heap, blowing upon them all the time to keep them alive. Natalia crept up behind her, watching intently her every movement. The room was deathly still, except for the laboured breathing of the old woman blowing life into the cooling embers, and as the moments slipped by, the moon swung opposite the window and sent a streak of ghostly light into the dark kitchen.
Natalia stared into Dicey's face, a new fear of the old woman taking possession of her. She had never seen this expression on her face, a far away look in her eyes as if she were seeing into another world and was frozen lifeless by the vision.
Natalia put one cold, trembling hand on the negro's coarsened one. There was no response to her touch. "What is it, Mammy?" she whispered. "Tell me what you see."
The old woman's body shook convulsively, then she sank upon her haunches and sat still, staring into the ashes. "I sees a long, long time afore me." She began to count automatically until she reached six, then suddenly stopped. "Six years. I sees heaps ob watah and heaps ob trabellin' 'bout. I sees a strange man wid yeller ha'r an' blue eyes. An' dah's er weddin' goin' on, and a bride ooman all dressed out waitin' fer him—an' he ain' comin'. Dah's er dead man, too. Who's he? Who's he? Fo' Gawd, I knows him. An' de bride ooman—Lawdy, honey chile," the old woman's voice rose to a shrill cry. "Honey chile, de bride ooman's you."
Dicey grabbed Natalia to her, her bosom rising and falling rapidly, her breath gasping, her eyes wild with the vision. And while they sat there, each clinging to the other under the strange spell, the loud clanging of a bell burst upon the still night. Both of them rose quickly and ran to the window. Dicey threw the sash up, and the sound of the bell rushed into the room, bringing with it the intensity of the one who was ringing it a mile away.