he had "dwopped" his cane, "you know." And I could see for myself jest what a time he had had pickin' it up. For the land's sake! I don't see how he ever done it, and so I told Josiah.
But, anyway, Tom Willis took me out of the buggy jest as tender and careful as if I had been his own Ma, and, leanin' on his strong arm, I arrived at Hamenses door and went in, Tom leavin' me at the doorsteps and not goin' in, for reasons to be named hereafter. But as I stood on the front stoop, and Tom turned to go away, I see a red, red rose come a-circlin' through the air from right over our heads and fall at Tom's feet, and he took it up and kissed it, for I see him, and put it in his bosom. And then he turned and looked up into a window overhead, and no light of the mornin' sun breakin' through a cloud wuz ever brighter or more luminous than the glance and smile he gin to somebody overhead. But it wuz all done in a minute, and Tom wuz gone, and in a minute more Anna Smith wuz in my arms, with both her sweet young arms round my neck and her soft pink cheeks pressed clost to mine. I think enough of Anna Smith, and she thinks enough of me.
Well, Hamenses wife come runnin' in dretful glad to see me, she wuz in the back kitchen givin' orders to her hired girl, Arabeller, and Hamen come in, too, real cordial actin', he wuz in the back yard at work, and Jack come boundin' in and most eat me up, he wuz so glad to see me. And bimeby Cicero come in with his fingers between the pages of a dime novel, and shook hands with me in a absent mekanical way, but he didn't seem to sense my bein' there much of any, and what he did sense didn't seem to be an overagreeable feelin', real
