Page:E Nesbit - The Literary Sense.djvu/146

134 "Will you?" he cried, his face lighting up as he moved to arrange the sacks. "I didn't like to offer. I thought you'd think I was takin' too much on myself. Come up—reach me your hand. Right oh!"

The cart clattered away.

"I was thinking ever since yesterday when I see you how is it you can think o' so many words all at once. It's just as if you was seeing it all—the way you talked about the red barns and the grey gates and all such."

"I do see it," she said, "inside my mind, you know. I can see it all as plainly as I see these great cruel hills."

"Yes," said he, "that's just what they are—they're cruel. And the fields and woods is kind—like folks you're friends with."

She was charmed with the phrase. She talked to him, coaxing him to make new phrases. It was like teaching a child to walk.

He told her about his home. It was a farm in Kent—"red brick with the glorydyjohn rose growin' all up over the front door—so that they never opened it."

"The paint had stuck it fast," said he, "it was