Karen looked at her still, but her face unbent in a little bit of a smile.
"You ain't one of the Lord's people, be you, young lady?"
"I don't know —" said Elizabeth, blushing and hesitating, — "I mean to be."
"Do you mean to be one of 'em?" said Karen.
"I wish to be — yes, I mean to be, — if I can."
The old woman dried her hand which had been busy in water, and coming up took one of Elizabeth's, — looked at its delicate tints in her own wrinkled and black fingers, and then lifting a moistened eye to Elizabeth's face, she answered expressively,
"Then you'll know."
"But I want to know something about it now," said the young lady as Karen went back to her work. "Tell me. How can you wish to 'leave all for heaven,' as you were singing a moment ago?"
"I'd ha' done that plenty o' years ago," said Karen. "I'd got enough of this world by that time."
"Is that the reason?"