"All right," said Thomas, "I ought not to have asked it of you,
Charlotte. Good-bye."
As soon as Thomas Payne got out in the dark night air, and the door
had shut behind him, he set up his merry whistle. Charlotte stood at
the front window, and heard it from far down the hill.
Chapter IX
One Sunday evening, about four months after the cherry party,
Barnabas Thayer came out of his house and strolled slowly across the
road. Then he paused, and leaned up against some pasture bars and
looked around him. There was nobody in sight on the road in either
direction, and everything was very still, except for the vibrating
calls of the hidden insects that come to their flood-tide of life in
early autumn.
Barnabas listened to those calls, which had in them a certain element
of mystery, as have all things which reach only one sense. They were
in their humble way the voices of the unseen, and as he listened they
seemed to take on a rhythmic cadence. Presently the drone of
multifold vibrations sounded in his ears with even rise and fall,
like the mighty breathing of Nature herself. The sun was low, and the
sky was full of violet clouds. Barney could see outlined faintly
against them the gray sweep of the roof that covered Charlotte's
daily life.
Soon the bell for the evening meeting began to ring, and Barney
started.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170