How could I stand the loneliness?
Did I know what I was getting into? Could I take care of myself
entirely? What if I fell ill again and in the middle of the winter,
when the ways were snowbound?
I thought of Zoe. Why not take her with me? I could teach her. She could
run the house. Reverdy looked at me with a certain dubiety. Sarah would
hate to part with Zoe. Perhaps there were other things; but he did not
express them. However, nothing could deter me.
Zoe was delighted with the plan. She wanted to get away, to be with me,
since I wanted her. Besides, Reverdy and Sarah were to be married in a
few days. He was coming to the house to live and that would make a
difference in the conveniences. And Mrs. Spurgeon, as far as I could
judge, was not averse to Zoe's departure. Thus it was to be as I wished.
Reverdy left off the work on my new house to help me repair the hut. We
had to make a hearth. For this I found stones by the brook. We stopped
the chinks between the logs with heavy, tough clay. We mended the holes
in the roof. We repaired the floor. I bought beds and bedding, utensils
for cooking, a rifle, an ax, and some other tools. I stocked the house
with provisions. And in a week I was installed, listening at night to
the cry of the wild animals, wolves and foxes and owls; and the song of
late whippoorwills when an access of lingering summer warmed the
midnights.
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