He could not go long distances, like the other
men, as he felt constrained to come home every day or two to look
after his mother and Rodman, but the work was too lucrative to be
altogether refused. With Waitstill's help, he had at last
overcome his mother's aversion to old Mrs. Mason, their nearest
neighbor; and she, being now a widow with very slender resources,
went to the Boyntons' several times each week to put the forlorn
household a little on its feet.
It was all uphill and down to Ivory's farm, Waitstill reflected,
and she could take her sled and slide half the way, going and
coming, or she could cut across the frozen fields on the crust.
She caught up her shawl from a hook on the kitchen door, and,
throwing it over her head and shoulders to shield herself from
the chill blasts on the stairway, ran up to her bedroom to make
herself ready for the walk.
She slipped on a quilted petticoat and warmer dress, braided her
hair freshly, while her breath went out in a white cloud to meet
the freezing air; snatched her wraps from her closet, and was
just going down the stairs when she remembered that an hour
before, having to bind up a cut finger for her father, she had
searched Patty's bureau drawer for an old handkerchief, and had
left things in disorder while she ran to answer the Deacon's
impatient call and stamp upon the kitchen floor.
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