head up," I added softly, though I blushed from my toes to my top curl
at the necessity that had called out the prayer the last time. It's
awful on a woman to feel herself growing up stiff and sturdy by a man's
side and then to get sight of a gourd-vine tangling itself up between
them. I'm the dryad out of one of my own twin oaks down by the gate,
and I want the other twin to be--

I wonder if his eyes really look to other women like deep gray pools
that you can look deeper and deeper into and never seem to get to the
bottom, no matter if the look does seem to last forever and you feel
yourself blushing and wanting to take your eyes away, or if it is just I
that get so drowned in them!

"You've a gallant stroke, Evelina," he said softly, as I at last gained
possession of my own sight. "And here I am with a hand out to you for
assistance in carrying out your own plan that seems to be just the thing
to--"

"Say, Cousin James. Aunt Marfy says for you to come home to breakfast
right away. Mis' Hargrove won't let nobody begin until you says the
blessing, and Cousin Jasmine have got the headache from waiting for her
coffee. What do you want to fool with Evelina this time of day for
anyway?" And with the delivery of which message and reproof Henrietta
stood on the edge of the path looking down upon us with great and
scornful interest.

"You've got on your night shirt and haven't combed your hair or washed
your face," she continued sternly. "There'll be hell to pay with all the
breakfast getting cold, and I'm empty down to my feet. Come on, quick!"