I Came Back,
Therefore, And, Setting Down The Mug, Asked The Child If The
Stream Was Good To Drink; Whereupon
He seized the mug, and, going
to the corner of the room, where a cool spring which issued from
the
Mountain behind trickled through a pipe into the apartment,
filled it, and drank, and gave it to me empty again, and, calling
to the dog, rushed out of doors. Erelong some of the hired men
made their appearance, and drank at the spring, and lazily washed
themselves and combed their hair in silence, and some sat down as
if weary, and fell asleep in their seats. But all the while I
saw no women, though I sometimes heard a bustle in that part of
the house from which the spring came.
At length Rice himself came in, for it was now dark, with an
ox-whip in his hand, breathing hard, and he too soon settled down
into his seat not far from me, as if, now that his day's work was
done, he had no farther to travel, but only to digest his supper
at his leisure. When I asked him if he could give me a bed, he
said there was one ready, in such a tone as implied that I ought
to have known it, and the less said about that the better. So
far so good. And yet he continued to look at me as if he would
fain have me say something further like a traveller.
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