'Yes, Race,' I answered; 'I'd do you a hundred, if I knew how.'
'Well, then, just come over to our house, and take tea with mother; she's been waiting on me so long, I want to do something to please her, and I know you'll brighten her up nicely; _I'm_ such a dull fellow for company, you know.'
I didn't _know_ any such thing; but I ran and asked Calanthy if I'd better go, and she said 'Certainly.'
So I went home with Mrs. Miller and Race, and we had the snuggest little tea that ever was. Mrs. Miller makes the best muffins I ever tasted, and she had some ready mixed, and nothing to do but put them on the griddle. After we had done tea, she told Race to sit down in her big chair by the window, and not to stir out of it till she gave him leave. Then she gave me an apron, and said I might help her wash up the tea things, if I liked; of course, I was delighted to do it; and Race sat still, and looked at us.
'What are you smiling at, Race?' said his mother--they always joked together considerable.
'I was thinking,' said he, 'how funny it seems to sit here and be waited on; take care I don't grow lazy, mother!'
Mrs. Miller laughed, and said: 'Well, I _am_ a little uneasy about that--' and just then Hiram came in from milking, and she went into the milkroom to strain the milk.
I was folding up my apron, and I thought I mightn't have another chance to speak, so I said:
'I haven't thanked you yet, Race, for saving my life; but you believe I _am_ thankful, don't you?'
I walked toward him, for I felt as if he had a right to ask me; he got up from the big chair, and put me gently in it, and then took a little bench and sat down close to my feet.
I looked at him in astonishment at such a strange question; but I saw his eyes were full, and his lips trembling.
He said it again, 'Are you glad your life was spared, Dimpey?'
'Yes, to be sure,' said I; 'it would have been dreadful to die so suddenly; and oh, think how our folks would have felt, if I had been killed! And you too, Race! what could your mother do without _you?_ I am so sorry you were hurt saving _me_, and so thankful it was no worse,' and here my eyes ran over, and I stopped.
'Dimpey,' said Race, and his voice shook as it did that night in the Hollow, '_I_ ought to be very thankful for my mother's sake, that God has spared my life, and I hope I am _now_; but when I sat in the elder bushes on Spring Mountain, and saw you sitting by the side of Ned Hassel, and looking so sweet and innocent, I thought that the day you married him would finish all _my_ happiness on earth, and I should have nothing to live for but to take care of my good mother. You will tell me the truth now, Dimpey, I'm sure--will that day _ever_ come?'