Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/299

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as his wife's glance fell on them, she exclaimed, with uplifted hands,—"Fo' de lan' sake, ef yo' aint done gone an' killt de baby's dominick pullet!"

Reuben's crest-fallen countenance softened her heart, however, and she said no more and was soon on a stool beside Molly. Did she miss old associates in the sunny South? If so, no one knew it; as with Reuben, Massa John and Miss Bessie's world was hers, and had they gone to the wilds of Siberia, these two faithful servants would have followed and been content.

Cornelia's face sparkling with perfect health just then peeped out of the kitchen door. She was going "after an appetite," she declared, and skipping past Margaret was soon climbing to a point beyond and above the barn. Reuben's heart smote him as he thought of the "dominick pullet," and he called out to the fast vanishing figure,—"Oh, Miss Cornelia, don't yo' forget Molly's salt!"

She threw back a laughing glance and ran her hand into her pocket, a motion he under-