Tilley."You see ours is braided for the most part, an' their good looks is all in the beginnin'.Poor dear used to say they made an easier floor.I go shufflin' round the house same's if 'twas a bo't, and I always used to be stubbin' up the corners o' the hooked kind.Her an' me was always havin' our jokes together same's a boy an' girl.Outsiders never'd know nothin' about it to see us.She had nice manners with all, but to me there was nobody so entertainin'.She'd take off anybody's natural talk winter evenin's when we set here alone, so you'd think 'twas them a-speakin'.There, there!"
I saw that he had dropped a stitch again, and was snarling the blue yarn round his clumsy fingers.He handled it and threw it off at arm's length as if it were a cod line; and frowned impatiently, but I saw a tear shining on his cheek.
I said that I must be going, it was growing late, and asked if I might come again, and if he would take me out to the fishing grounds someday.
"Yes, come any time you want to," said my host, "'tain't so pleasant as when poor dear was here.Oh, I didn't want to lose her an' she didn't want to go, but it had to be.Such things ain't for us to say; there's no yes an' no to it.""You find Almiry Todd one o' the best o' women?" said Mr.
Tilley as we parted.He was standing in the doorway and I had started off down the narrow green field."No, there ain't a better hearted woman in the State o' Maine.I've known her from a girl.
She's had the best o' mothers.You tell her I'm liable to fetch her up a couple or three nice good mackerel early tomorrow," he said."Now don't let it slip your mind.Poor dear, she always thought a sight o' Almiry, and she used to remind me there was nobody to fish for her; but I don't rec'lect it as I ought to.Isee you drop a line yourself very handy now an' then."We laughed together like the best of friends, and I spoke again about the fishing grounds, and confessed that I had no fancy for a southerly breeze and a ground swell.
"Nor me neither," said the old fisherman."Nobody likes 'em, say what they may.Poor dear was disobliged by the mere sight of a bo't.Almiry's got the best o' mothers, I expect you know; Mis'
Blackett out to Green Island; and we was always plannin' to go out when summer come; but there, I couldn't pick no day's weather that seemed to suit her just right.I never set out to worry her neither, 'twa'n't no kind o' use; she was so pleasant we couldn't have no fret nor trouble.'Twas never 'you dear an' you darlin''
afore folks, an' 'you divil' behind the door!"As I looked back from the lower end of the field I saw him still standing, a lonely figure in the doorway."Poor dear," Irepeated to myself half aloud; "I wonder where she is and what she knows of the little world she left.I wonder what she has been doing these eight years!"I gave the message about the mackerel to Mrs.Todd.
"Been visitin' with 'Lijah?" she asked with interest."Iexpect you had kind of a dull session; he ain't the talkin' kind;dwellin' so much long o' fish seems to make 'em lose the gift o'
speech." But when I told her that Mr.Tilley had been talking to me that day, she interrupted me quickly.
"Then 'twas all about his wife, an' he can't say nothin' too pleasant neither.She was modest with strangers, but there ain't one o' her old friends can ever make up her loss.For me, I don't want to go there no more.There's some folks you miss and some folks you don't, when they're gone, but there ain't hardly a day Idon't think o' dear Sarah Tilley.She was always right there; yes, you knew just where to find her like a plain flower.'Lijah's worthy enough; I do esteem 'Lijah, but he's a ploddin' man."
