Every little while she slipped into
her bedroom, stood before a real dresser, and pulled out its trays
to make sure that her fresh, light dresses were really there. She
shook out the dainty curtains repeatedly, watered the flowers, and
fed the fish when they did not need it. She babbled incessantly to
the green linnet, which with swollen throat rejoiced with her, and
occasionally she looked in the mirror.
She lighted the fire, and put food to cook. She covered a new
table, with a new cloth, and set it with new dishes, and placed a
jar of her flowers in the center. What a supper she did cook! When
she had waited until she was near crazed with nervousness, she
heard the wagon coming up the lane. Peeping from the window, she
saw Dannie stop the horses short, and sit staring at the cabins,
and she realized that smoke would be curling from the chimney, and
the flowers and curtains would change the shining windows outside.
She trembled with excitement, and than a great yearning seized her,
as he slowly drove closer, for his brown hair was almost white, and
the lines on his face seemed indelibly stamped. And then hot anger
shook her. Fifteen years of her life wrecked, and look at Dannie!
That was Jimmy Malone's work.
Over and over, throughout the winter, she had planned this home-
coming as a surprise to Dannie. Book-fine were the things she
intended to say to him. When he opened the door, and stared at her
and about the altered room, she swiftly went to him, and took the
bundles he carried from his arms.
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