“Good evening, kind lady.”
“Where have you been, my son?”
“Why, I am following my nose to the end of the world. I have just walked through this enterprising valley.”
She looked into the dust and meditated awhile. Then she said: “It’s getting late. No one has let you in?”
“No one.”
“How about that house by the bridge?” She pointed with her cane.
“The lady said she had a sick child.”
“Nonsense, nonsense. Do you see that little Ardella by that corner of the ploughed field near the house? She don’t run like a sick child.... Did you ask at the next place, the one that has a green porch?” She pointed again with her cane.
“The woman said she had no spare bed.”
“But she has. I slept in it last week.... And that last house before you start up this hill?”