e cross-roads. So Em'ry
Keenan--he hev been waitin' on her sence the year one--so he put his
skeer in his pocket an' kem along with her, a-shakin' in his shoes, I'll
be bound! So down the hill in the frosty moonlight them few kem--purty
nigh beat out, I reckon, Mill'cent war, what with the sermonizin' an'
the hyme-singin' an' hevin' ter look continual at the sheep's-eyes o'
Em'ry Keenan--he wears my patience ter the bone! So she concluded ter
take the short-cut. An' Em'ry he agreed. So they tuk the lead, the rest
a following an' kem down thar through all that black growth"--he lifted
his arm and pointed at the great slope, dense with fir and pine and the
heavy underbrush--"keepin' the bridle-path--easy enough even at night,
fur the bresh is so thick they couldn't lose thar way. But the moonlight
war mightily slivered up, fallin' through the needles of the pines an'
the skeins of dead vines, an' looked bleached and onnatural, an' holped
the dark mighty leetle. An' they seen the water a-shinin' an' a-plungin'
down the gorge, an' the glistenin' of the frost on the floor o' the
bredge. Thar war a few icicles on the hand-rail, an' the branches o' the
firs hung ez still ez death; only that cold, racin', shoutin', jouncin'
water moved. Jes ez they got toler'ble nigh the foot-bredge a sudden
cloud kem over the face o' the sky. Thar warn't no wind on the yearth,
but up above the air war a-stirrin'. An' Em'ry he 'lowed Mill'cent
shouldn't cross the foot-bredge whilst the light warn't clar--I wonder
the critter hed that much sense! An' she jes' drapped down on that rock
thar ter rest"--he pointed up the slope to a great fragment that had
broken off from the ledges and lay near the bank: the bulk of the mass
was overgrown with moss and lichen, but the jagged edges of the recent
fracture gleamed white and crystalline among the brown and olive-green
shadows about it. A tree was close beside it. "Agin that thar pine trunk
Em'ry he stood an' leaned. The rest war behind, a-comin' down the
hill. An' all of a suddenty a light fell on the furder eend o'
the foot-bredge--a waverin' light, mighty white an' misty in the
darksomeness. Mill'cent 'lowed ez fust she thunk it war the moon. An'
lookin' up, she seen the cloud; it held the moon close kivered. An'
lookin' down, she seen the light war movin'--movin' from the furder eend
o' the bredge, straight acrost it. Sometimes a hand war held afore it,
ez ef ter shield it from the draught, an' then M