Ann struck her on her back and shook her up, and dropped her
dinner-plate and broke it in her excitement.

"For de Lawd's sake, 'tan't no use," she said, gathering up the pieces
and taking them to the kitchen, where Sonsie laughed till the tears ran
at Mandy Ann's attempt "to be gran'," and its result.

Meanwhile the stranger ate Sonsie's corn cakes and muffins, and said
they were good, and drank muddy coffee, sweetened with brown sugar out
of a big thick cup, and thought of his dainty service at home, and
glanced at the girl opposite him with a great pity, which, however, did
not move him one whit from his purpose. He had told her his plan and she
had accepted it, and he told it again when, after supper, she walked
with him through the clearing and the woods to the main road which led
to the river. He did the talking, while she answered yes or no, with a
sound of tears in her voice. When they reached the highway they stopped
by the sunken grave, and leaning against the fence which inclosed it,
Eudora removed her sunbonnet, letting the moon shine upon her face, as
it had done when she sat in the clearing. It was very white but there
were no tears now in her eyes. She was forcing them back and she tried
to smile as she said, "You are very kind, and I think I understand what
you want, and here by this grave I promise all you ask, and will do my
best--my very best."

Her lips began to quiver and her voice to break, for the visit from
which she had expected so much had proved a blank, and her high hopes
were dead as the woman by whose grave she stood. She had folded her
hands one over the other upon the top rail of the fence, and her
companion looked at them and thought how small they were and shapely,
too, although brown with the work she had to do when Jake and Mandy Ann