"Good day! Didn't expect you here. Pretty cold out, ain't it? Have a chair."
Abbie did not realize how numb the cold had made her body until she tried to sit down.
"Maggie, give her a cup of that hot tea," Owen Frazer continued. "She's been almost froze, an' I guess she'll have a cup of tea. Hey! Miss Snover?"
"I want to talk to Old Chris."
"Talk to Old Chris! Talk to Old Chris, you want to?"
Owen Frazer looked at his wife. Abbie Snover didn't know, yet she had walked all the way to Mile Corners in the cold. He couldn't understand it.
"What'd you come for, anyhow, Abbie Snover?"
"Now, Owen, you wait!" Owen Frazer's wife turned to Abbie:
"Got lonesome, did you, all by yourself in that big barn of a house?"
"I want to talk to Old Chris," Abbie repeated.