He sat on his rock until the
grass was dry, and patiently jingled his cow-bell. It was to young
Ezra Ray, although all unwittingly, as if he himself were assisting
in the operations of nature. He watched so assiduously that it was as
if he dried the dewy grass and ripened the cherries.
When the cherry party began to arrive he still sat on his rock and
jingled his bell; he did not know when to stop. But his eyes were
upon the assembling people rather than upon the robins. He watched
the brave young men whose ignominy of boyhood was past, bearing
ladders and tossing up shining tin pails as they came. He watched the
girls swinging their little straw baskets daintily; his stupidly
wondering eyes followed especially Rebecca Thayer. Rebecca, in her
black muslin, with her sweet throat fairly dazzling above the
half-low bodice, and wound about twice with a slender gold chain,
with her black silk apron embroidered with red roses, and beautiful
face glowing with rich color between the black folds of her hair,
held the instinctive attention of the boy. He stared at her as she
stood talking to another girl with her back quite turned upon all the
young men, until his own sister touched him upon the shoulder with a
sharp nudge of a bony little hand.
Amelia Ray's face, blonde like her brother's, but sharp with the
sharpness of the thin and dark, was thrust into his.
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