Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/314

310 herself after a copious swig from the tin cup. "If hants cyarn't hurt him they cyarn't hurt me. I'm gonter show him an' show him this very night."

It was the evening of the vaudeville performance at the Court House and Rolfe Bolling and his old nurse were to be left alone while Philip took his mother and sister and Jo to the show. Elizabeth had been doubtful about the advisability of leaving them but had been cackled down by Aunt Peachy.

"Sho'! Go on! My baby an' me air took keer er each other befo' any mounting po' whites ever come along an' we kin go on a keepin' keer er each other. Ain't it the truf, my baby?"

Rolfe had merely grunted. He had a kind of nameless terror lately of being left alone with Mam' Peachy for any length of time, but he was too much in awe of her to voice his feelings. Before they started Elizabeth had turned down his bed and persuaded him to get in it. He was quite docile in complying with her wishes. He hoped Mam' Peachy would stay in the kitchen or go to her own room.

In the gathering dusk Aunt Peachy watched the family carriage as it disappeared over the hill—watched it with glittering eyes and cursed