She pulled the folds about, to get at the period of the deluge. "'Course I see now jest what it was intentioned for," Ellen professed eagerly. "If I'd looked right good I could 'a' made out the angels goin' up an' down. How"--she hesitated, but the resolve to retrieve herself overcame all timidity--"how nateral them loaves an' fishes does look!" "That thar's the ark," explained the widow, putting her finger on the supposed loaf. There was a moment of depressed silence; then Roxy, willing to let bygones be bygones, observed, "Over here is the whale and Joney." These [173] twin objects were undoubtedly what Ellen had taken for the fishes. "Ye see I had to make the whale some littler than life," the artist deprecated. "I sort o' drawed him in, as a body may say, 'caze 'course I couldn't git him all on my quilt without. I didn't aim to git Joney quite so big, but that thar sprigged percale that he's made outen was so pretty, and the piece I had was just that length, an' I hated to throw away what wouldn't be good for anything, an' I'd already got my whale, so I sort o' len'thened the beast's tail with a few stitches. Would you call a whale a beast or a fish?" "Well, I should sure call anything that could swaller a man a beast," opined Little Liza. "An' yit he's sorter built like a fish," suggested Ellen. "That's true; an' he lives in the water," admitted her sister. "Here's a right good big open place," observed Ellen. "Ef you was a-goin' to make--whatever--out of that turkey red, hit could come in here." "It could that," said the widow thoughtfully. "Did you-all have any idee as to what it would suit best for?" The two looked at each other in embarrassment. As unmarried women, the subject that they had discussed was in some degree questionable. [174] "Well, hit's in the Bible," Ellen began defensively. "An' yit--Sis' an' me didn't know whether you'd care to--to give room to sech as the Scarlet Woman." It was out. The idea evidently fascinated Roxy. "That turkey red shore fits the case," she agreed with gusto. "As you say, hit's in the Bible. An' yit, anything that's what a body might call ondecent that-a-way--don't ye reckon a person'd be sort o' 'shamed to--I vow! I'll do it." "Oh, Miz. Griever!" exclaimed Little Liza of comical dismay at the prompt acceptance in their idea. "I believe I wouldn't. There's the crossin' o' the Red Sea; you could use the turkey red for that jest as easy." But the widow shook her head. "Good lands!" she cried, "what you studyin' about, Liza? I say, the crossin' o' the Red Sea! I ain't a-goin' to do no sech a thing. Hit'd take me forever to cut out all them Chillen of Is'rul. And I never in the world would git done makin' Egyptians! No, that turkey red goes into a scarlet woman--to reprove sin."