'Come here, Dimpey,' said he.
I walked toward him, for I felt as if he had a right to ask me; he got up from the big chair, and put me gently in it, and then took a little bench and sat down close to my feet.
'Are you glad to live, Dimpey?' said he.
I looked at him in astonishment at such a strange question; but I saw his eyes were full, and his lips trembling.
He said it again, 'Are you glad your life was spared, Dimpey?'
'Yes, to be sure,' said I; 'it would have been dreadful to die so suddenly; and oh, think how our folks would have felt, if I had been killed! And you too, Race! what could your mother do without you? I am so sorry you were hurt saving me, and so thankful it was no worse,' and here my eyes ran over, and I stopped.
'Dimpey,' said Race, and his voice shook as it did that night in the Hollow, 'I ought to be very thankful for my mother's sake, that God has spared my life, and I hope I am now; but when I sat in the elder bushes on Spring Mountain, and saw you sitting by the side of Ned Hassel, and looking so sweet and innocent, I thought that the day you married him would finish all my happiness on earth, and I should have nothing to live for but to take care of my good mother. You will tell me the truth now, Dimpey, I'm sure—will that day ever come?'
'Never, Race!' said I; 'the lying coward! has he dared to say so?'
I started up from the chair; and, I don't know how it was, I fell into Race's arms, and he sat down in the chair, and drew me on his knee as he did when I was a little child; and looking down on his broken arm, it seemed to me like my own old dolly, and I put my hands carefully around it, as I did around my doll in my childish trouble.