"Does yer pa want me?" grunted Matty, lifting a tousled black head.
Virginia made a gesture of negation.
"No, he told me to get the hell out," she answered. "So I got! He's awful sick! I guess mebbe he'll die!"
Matty nodded meaningly.
"Some folks might better 'a' stayed to hum for the past ten years than be runnin' wild over the country like mad," she observed.
Virginia reached behind the stove and drew Milly Ann from her bed.
"Father"--Jinnie enjoyed using the word and spoke it lingeringly--"says he wishes he'd stayed here now. You know, my Uncle Jordan, Matty----" She hesitated to confide in the negro woman what her father had told her. So she contented herself with: "He's coming here soon."
Matty rolled her eyes toward the girl.
"I'se sorry for that, honey bunch." Then, without explaining her words, asked: "Want me to finish about Jonathan Woggles' grandpa dyin'?"
But Virginia's mind was traveling in another channel.
"Where's Bellaire, Matty?" she demanded.
"Off south," replied the woman, "right bearin' south."
"By train?"
"Yes, the same's walkin' or flying'," confirmed Matty. "Jest the same."
"Then you can finish the story now, Matty," said Virginia presently.
Matty settled back in her chair, closed her eyes, and began to hum.
"How far'd I tell last night?" she queried, blinking.
"Just to where the white thing was waiting for Grandpa Woggles' spirit," explained Virginia.
"Oh, yas. Well, round and round that house the white shadder swep', keepin' time to the howlin' of other spirits in the pine trees----"
"But there aren't any pine trees at Woggles'," objected Virginia.
"Well, they'd be pines if they wasn't oaks," assured Matty. "Oaks or pines, the spirits live in 'em jest the same."
"I 'spose so," agreed Virginia. "Go on!"
"An' round and round he went, meltin' the snow with his hot feet," mused Matty, sniffing the air. "And in the house Betty Woggles set beside the old man, holdin' his hand, askin' him to promise he wouldn't die.... Hum! As if a human bein' could keep from the stalkin' whiteness beckonin' from the graveyard. 'Tain't in human power."
"Can't anybody keep death away, Matty?" inquired Virginia, an expression of awe clouding her eyes.
She was thinking of the man upstairs whom she but twice had called "father."
"Nope, not after the warnin' comes to him. Now Grandad Woggles had that warnin' as much as three days afore the angel clim' the fence and flopped about his house. But don't keep breakin' in on me, little missy, 'cause I cain't finish if ye do, and I'se jest reachin' the thrillin' part."
"Oh, then hurry," urged Jinnie.