contact.

Afterwards, as he went a lonely way, he burst out again in song and
pantomimic celebration of his estate. His feet moved in prancing
steps.

When he came in sight of his cabin, the fields were bathed in a blue
dusk, and the light in the window was pale. Cavorting and
gesticulating, he gazed joyfully for some moments upon this light.
Then suddenly another idea seemed to attack his mind, and he stopped,
with an air of being suddenly dampened. In the end he approached his
home as if it were the fortress of an enemy.

Some dogs disputed his advance for a loud moment, and then discovering
their lord, slunk away embarrassed. His reproaches were addressed to
them in muffled tones.

Arriving at the door, he pushed it open with the timidity of a new
thief. He thrust his head cautiously sideways, and his eyes met the
eyes of his wife, who sat by the table, the lamp-light defining a half
of her face. '"Sh!" he said, uselessly. His glance travelled swiftly
to the inner door which shielded the one bed-chamber. The
pickaninnies, strewn upon the floor of the living-room, were softly
snoring. After a hearty meal they had promptly dispersed themselves
about the place and gone to sleep. "'Sh!" said Williams again to his
motionless and silent wife. He had allowed only his head to appear.
His wife, with one hand upon the edge of the table and the other at
her knee, was regarding him with wide eyes and parted lips as if he
were a spectre. She looked to be one who was living in terror, and
even the familiar face at the door had thrilled her because it had
come suddenly.

Williams broke the tense silence. "Is he all right?" he whispered,
waving his eyes towards the inner door. Following his glance
timorously, his wife nodded, and in a low tone answered:

"I raikon he's done gone t' sleep."

Williams then slunk noiselessly across his threshold.

He lifted a chair, and with infinite care placed it so that it faced
the dreaded inner door. His wife moved slightly, so as to also
squarely face it. A silence came upon them in which they seemed to be
waiting for a calamity, pealing and deadly.

Williams finally coughed behind his hand. His wife started, and looked
upon him in alarm. "Pears like he done gwine keep quiet ternight," he
breathed. They continually pointed their speech and their looks at the
inner door, paying it the homage due to a corpse or a phantom. Another
long stillness followed this sentence. Their eyes shone