FullReads

Rosa lost a shade of pink from her cheeks. Her round blue eyes widened, in an unmistakable terror quite piteous to see.

“O Dilly!” she quavered, “how do you know such things? Why, you ‘ain’t looked at me!”

Dilly opened her eyes, and chuckled in keen enjoyment.

“Bless ye!” she said, “I can’t help imposin’ on ye, no more ‘n a cat could help ketchin’ a mouse, if’t made a nest down her throat. Why, I see ye comin’ round the corner! But when folks thinks you’re a witch, it ain’t in human natur’ not to fool ’em. I am a witch, ain’t I, dear? Now, ain’t I?”

Rosa’s color had faltered back, but she still stood visibly in awe of her old neighbor.

“Well,” she owned, “Elvin Drew says you can see in the dark, but I don’t know’s he means anything by it.”

Again Dilly broke into laughter, rocking back and forth, in happy abandonment.

“I can!” she cried, gleefully. “You tell him I can! An’ when I can’t, folks are so neighborly they strike a light for me to see by. You tell him! Well, now, what is it? You’ve come to ask suthin’. Out with it!”

“Father told me to come over, and see if you can’t tell something about our cows. They’re all drying up, and he don’t see any reason why.”

Dilly nodded her head sagely.

“You’d better ha’ come sooner,” she announced. “You tell him he must drive ’em to pastur’ himself, an’ go arter ’em, too.”

“Why?”

“An’ you tell him to give Davie a Saturday, here an’ there, to go fishin’ in, an’ not let him do so many chores. Now, you hear! Your father must drive the cows, an’ he must give Davie time to play a little, or there’ll be dark days comin’, an’ he won’t be prepared for ’em.”

“My!” exclaimed Rosa, blankly. “My! Ain’t it queer! It kind o’ scares me. But, Dilly,”–she turned about, so that only one flushed cheek remained visible,–“Dilly, ‘ain’t you got something to say to me? We’re going to be married next Tuesday, Elvin and me. It’s all right, ain’t it?”

Dilly bent forward, and peered masterfully into her face. She took the girl’s plump pink handy and drew her forward. Rosa, as if compelled by some unseen force, turned about, and allowed her frightened gaze to lie ensnared by the witch’s great black eyes. Dilly began, in a deep intense voice, with the rhythm of the Methodist exhorter, though on a lower key,–

“Two years, that boy’s been arter you. Two years, you trampled on him as if he’d been the dust under your feet. He was poor an’ strugglin’. He was left with his mother to take care on, an’ a mortgage to work off. An’ then his house burnt down, an’ he got his insurance money; an’ that minute, you turned right round an’ says, ‘I’ll have you.’ An’ now, you say, ‘Is it all right?’ Is it right, Rosy Tolman? You tell me!”

Rosa was sobbing hysterically.

“Oh, I wish you wouldn’t scare me so!” she exclaimed, yet not for a moment attempting to withdraw her hand, or turn aside her terrified gaze. “I wish I never’d said one word!”

Dilly broke the spell as lightly as she had woven it. A smile passed over her face, like a charm, dispelling all its prophetic fervor.

“There! there!” she said, dropping the girl’s hand. “I thought I’d scare ye! What’s the use o’ bein’ a witch, if ye can’t upset folks? Now don’t cry, an’ git your cheeks all blotched up afore Elvin calls to fetch ye, with that hired horse, an’ take ye to the Cattle-Show! But don’t ye forgit what I say! You remember we ain’t goin’ to wait for the Day o’ Judgment, none on us. It comes every hour. If Gabriel was tootin’, should you turn fust to Elvin Drew, an’ go up or down with him, wherever he was ‘lected? That’s what you’ve got to think on; not your new hat nor your white pique. (Didn’t iron it under the overskirt, did ye? How’d I know? Law! how’s a witch know anything?) Now, you ‘ain’t opened your bundle, dear, have ye? Raisin-cake in it, ain’t there?”