"
She looked so weak as she spoke, her face was so transparently white,
that I trembled with fear.
That night we slept together--she alone slept, however, for my eyes were
open, their lids refusing to close until after midnight, and it was long
after that hour before I fully lost consciousness. I felt wretched the
next day in both body and mind, and my spirit was roused within me.
"I will avert it," I said to myself--thinking first to ask mother how,
and afterward saying aloud "No, I'll do it myself, Emily will do it,"
and the harder I thought the faster I worked.
I never washed the dishes so quickly; milkpans were despatched speedily
to the buttery shelves, and at last Aunt Hildy, who was kneading bread,
stopped, and looking at me, said:
"What on airth are you going to do? you work as if you was a gettin'
reddy to go to a weddin', or somethin'--Is there doins on hand among the
folks?"
"No, mam," I replied, "but I have been so full of thoughts I could not
help hurrying."
"I hope you're on the right track, Emily; sometimes ideas that stir one
up so aint jest the kind we ought to have."
"I'm on the track of truth, Aunt Hildy, and that is the right track."
"Well, it ought to be, but sometimes truth has to wait for sin to get by
before it can move an inch. I've seen it so many a time," and a sort of
sigh fluttered to her lips, but the look of resolution that followed it
closely gave it no time to linger, and the lines about her mouth grew
firm as she resumed her bread-kneading.
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