Jerome drew up the wood-team at the gate with a great creak. "Stand
here 'side of the horse a minute," he said to Elmira. He swung
himself off the load and went up the path to the house. As he drew
near the door he could hear his mother's chair. Ann Edwards, crippled
as she was, managed, through some strange manipulation of muscles, to
move herself in her rocking-chair all about the house. Now the
jerking scrape of the rockers on the uncarpeted floor sounded loud.
When Jerome opened the door he saw his mother hitching herself
rapidly back and forth in a fashion she had when excited. He had seen
her do so before, a few times.

When she saw Jerome she stopped short and screwed up her face before
him as if to receive a blow. She did not ask a question.

"I met the team comin' home," said Jerome.

Still his mother said nothing, but kept that cringing face before a
coming blow.

"Father wa'n't on it," said Jerome.

Still his mother waited.

"I hitched the horse," said Jerome, "and then I went up to the
ten-acre lot, and I looked everywhere. He ain't there."

Suddenly Ann Edwards seemed to fall back upon herself before his
eyes. Her head sank helplessly; she slipped low in her chair.

Jerome ran to the water-pail, dipped out some water, and sprinkled