Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/235

Rh "Was that the way it was on that hot moonlight night?" asked Rebecca, who was afraid Aunt Pearly Gates might switch off from her story into a dissertation concerning heredity.

"P'raps! Anyhow, I woke up from a doze an' pappy wa' gone an' mammy wa' a standin' up in the middle er the flo' in her yaller cotton shift an' I could see her plain as day, the moon wa' that bright. She didn't look lak mammy, somehow, 'cause her eyes wa' a rollin' lak a res'less young filly's. She wa' a listenin' ter somethin' an' I never said nothin', but listened, too. Away off yonder you could hear a kinder hollow boom! boom!"

"Like soldiers marching?"

"No! Not like soldiers—not lak anything I ever done hearn befo' er sence. There wa' the boom an' a kinder hum a' keepin' up with it, jes' lak bumbly bees. Mammy kinder snorted an' 'thout payin' no 'tention ter her chilluns she jes' bulged out'n the do' an' made fer the woods. I jumps up an' starts arfter her. I ain't got no notion wha' she a goin', but I 'lowed I wa'n't a gonter stay in that cabin wif nothin' but sleepin' chilluns an' the air all full er that gashly boomin'.

"Outside you could hear the boomin' plainer an' the hummin' got louder an' louder. In them days the woods wa' thick 'roun' here. Great