“By the road ’tis. If you cut through the woods you kin git to Fox’s mill down the path back of Bennet’s barn, but that mill’s shet down. You kin cut up back of their house an’ git to Sumner’s. That’s a mile or so an’ a good path. Mrs. Sumner, now, she comes over to see Mrs. Bennet an’ brings Gertrude. She ain’t tied down like the rest of us. She ain’t but the one, an’ a good little girl, too. Not like my good-fer-nothin’ Liz.” Hope suddenly leaped high, a sense of surety crowned its leaping. “And the path to her place is back of the house over there?” “Yes. Walk right past the spring an’ cut up over the hill, an’ there’s a path.” The woman started to go. “But I thought you was goin’ to Goff’s? An’ your husband?” Suspicion came into the lines of the leathery face. “I must have misspoken myself.” The woman kept her head turned toward Bennet’s. Her voice was calm. She had a slight wonder at her calmness while her mind searched out through the forest back of Bennet’s. “I came the wrong way, I guess. It was Sumner’s I wanted.” “But you said your husband--” “He isn’t coming for a few days.” She spoke with decision. It was easy to say anything, anything that any one wanted her to say. “I came on first to kind of look around and it was Sumner’s I wanted but I forgot the name.” “Well, it’s a good thing you found me. You’d been to Goff’s not knowin’ no better.” She laughed a hoarse chuckle. The woman said, “Yes, I’m glad I found you. Now I know how to go.” “But you ain’t had your drink. Liz!” the raucous voice screamed. “Fetch that water or I’ll tan your hide good!” “Never mind, I’ll get a drink as I go past. I’m much obliged to you.” The woman crossed quickly over the road, took the path past the spring, not stopping to drink, cut up back of Bennet’s, and was swallowed up in the forest before the figure in blue had recovered from surprise. She was surrounded by forest, by trees growing out of earth. She was full of pain. Her head was a ball of fire and her body a world of pain. Roots were twining in her trying to get a foothold, roots were sucking away at her vitals trying to extract nourishment. She was earth and she could not lie down, for she had a Sin that kept urging her on. Blindly she followed the pathway. The pathway led to Sumner’s where there was a woman who had time to visit and a little girl who was good. If Sumner’s was not the place, there was only the forest. She was in forest now but she was on a path that divided forest. Forest on both sides of her, trees and earth in a great swelling together and the sky smiling through the network of branches and leaves. She went on. She went quickly. Roots caught at her feet. The smart of branches fell on her face. Her Sin clamored for its hour.