Sunlight was
streaming through and brightening up the cottages and resting
on uncle Darry's swarth face. Down through the sunlight I went
to the cottages. The first door stood open, and I looked in.
At the next I was about to knock, but Preston pushed open the
door for me; and so he did for a third and a fourth. Nobody
was in them. I was a good deal disappointed. They were empty,
bare, dirty, and seemed to me very forlorn. What a set of
people my mother's hands must be, I thought. Presently I came
upon a ring of girls, a little larger than I was, huddled
together behind one of the cottages. There was no manners
about them. They were giggling and grinning, hopping on one
foot, and going into other awkward antics; not the less that
most of them had their arms filled with little black babies. I
had got enough for that day, and turning about left the dell
with Preston.
At the head of the dell, Preston led off in a new direction,
along a wide avenue that ran through the woods. Perfectly
level and smooth, with the woods closing in on both sides and
making long vistas through their boles and under their boughs.
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