Then she asked me where they went. I told her, and said that
when it got lighter I meant to creep after them and see if they were
still in the grove.
"Don't leave me," said she. "I reckon I'm a little frightened, after
all, and it's very lonesome in here all alone. Please get into the
wagon with me!"
I said nothing. Instead I sat for some time on the wagon-tongue and
asked myself what I should do, and what she meant by this invitation.
At last I started up, and trembling like a man climbing the gallows, I
climbed into the wagon. There, sitting in the spring seat in the gown
she had worn yesterday, with her little shoes on the dashboard, sat
Virginia trying to wrap herself in the buffalo-robe.
I folded it around her and took my seat by her side. With scarcely a
whisper between us we sat there and watched the stars wheel over to the
west and down to their settings. At last I felt her leaning over against
my shoulder, and found that she was asleep; and softly putting my arms
about her outside the warm buffalo-robe, I held her sleeping like a baby
until the shrill roundelays of the meadow-larks told me it was morning.
Then after taking away my arms I awakened her.
CHAPTER X
THE GROVE OF DESTINY DOES ITS WORK
Virginia opened her eyes and smiled at me. I think this was the first
time that she had given me more than just a trace of a smile; but now
she smiled, a very sweet winning smile; and getting spryly out of the
wagon she said that she had been a lazy and useless passenger all the
time she had been with me, and that from then on she was going to do the
cooking.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199