She went on with her work, but it was interrupted every now and then by strange fits of abstraction and revery, an unusual thing for this bustling and practical spinster. But then there are few of us but have had our hopes and dreams, and it would be unfair to think that Miss Hester was an exception. For once she had broken through her own discipline, and in her own kitchen was spending precious moments in dreams, and all because a man and a child had rattled away in a rickety buggy. CHAPTER V "Goodness gracious, Mis' Smith," exclaimed Mrs. Martin, rushing excitedly into the house of her next-door neighbour, "you 'd ought to seen what I seen jest now." "Do tell, Mis' Martin! What on airth was it?" "Oh, I 'm shore you 'd never guess in the wide, wide world." "An' I 'm jest as shore that I ain't a-goin' to pester my head tryin' to: so go on an' tell me what it was." "Lawsy me! what next 'll happen, an' what does things mean, anyhow?" "I can't tell you. Fur my part, I 'ain't heerd what 'things' air yit." Mrs. Smith was getting angry. "My! Mis' Smith, don't git so impatient. Give me time to git my breath: it 'll be enough, when I do tell you, to take away yore breath, jest like it did mine." "Sallie Martin, you do beat all fur keepin' a body on the hooks." "T ain't my fault, Mis' Smith. I declare I 'm too astonished to speak. You know I was a-standin' in my window, not a-thinkin' nor expectin' nothin', jest like any person would, you know--" "Yes, yes; go on." "I was jest a-lookin' down the street, careless, when who should I see drive up to Miss Prime's door, an' hitch his hoss an' go in, but Brother 'Liphalet Hodges!" "Well, sakes alive, Sallie Martin, I hope you ain't a-considerin' that strange. Why, you could 'a' seen that very same sight any time these fifteen years." "But wait a minute till I tell you. I ain't done yit, by no means. The strange part 'ain't come. I thought I 'd jest wait at the window and see how long Brother Hodges would stay: not that it was any o' my bus'ness, of course, or that I wanted to be a spyin' on anybody, but sorter fur--fur cur'osity, you know." "Cert'n'y," said Mrs. Smith, feelingly. She could sympathise with such a sentiment. "Well, after a while he come out a-smilin' as pleasant as a basket o' chips; an' I like to fell through the winder, fur he was a-leadin' by the hand--who do you suppose?" "I 'ain't got a mortal idea who," said Mrs. Smith, "unless it was Miss Hester, an' they 're married at last." "No, indeed, 't wa'n't her. It was that little Brent boy that his mother died the other day." "Sallie Martin, what air you a-tellin' me?" "It 's the gospel truth, Melviny Smith, as shore as I 'm a-settin' here. Now what does it mean?" "The good Lord only knows. Leadin' that little Brent boy? Ef it was n't you a-settin' there tellin' me this, Mis' Martin, I would n't believe it. You don't suppose Hodges has took him to raise, do you?"