“No, dear, not even I. Old Ike never dreams of receiving any love in return.  I have seen his eyes follow you with just such a look as dogs’ eyes have.  I wish we could do something for him.”

“We will, dear, we will go and see him often.  I own it smites me to the soul sometimes to think how humble he is, and so glad to see me when I haven’t been near him for six months, maybe.”

At this moment Hannah put her head into the door and said, in no pleasant voice:—­

“Here’s that Ike Sanborn wantin’ to speak to ye sir, but I telled him”—­

“Let him come right in here, Hannah,” said Draxy.  “Mr. Kinney and I will be very glad to see him this morning.”  Hannah’s face relaxed in spite of herself, in answer to Draxy’s smile, but she could not forgive Ike for what seemed to her a most unwarrantable intrusion, and she was grimmer than ever when she returned to him, saying,—­

“They’ll see ye; but I must say, I sh’d ha’ thought ye’d know better’n to be comin’ round here this mornin’ of all mornin’s.  Ain’t they to have a minute’s peace to theirselves?”

Ike looked up appealingly at the hard Indian face.

“I wa’n’t goin’ to keep ’em a minute,” he said:  “I won’t go in now.  I’ll come agin, ef you say so, Hannah.”

“No, no—­go in, now ye’re here; ye’ve interrupted ’em, and ye may’s well take the good on’t now,” replied the vengeful Hannah, pushing Ike along towards the sitting-room door.

“Ef there’s anythin’ I do hate, it’s shiftless white folks,” grumbled Hannah as she went back to her work.  If poor Ike had known the angry contempt for him which filled Hannah’s heart, he would have felt still less courage for the proposition he had come to make.  As it was, he stood in the doorway the very picture of irresolution and embarrassment.

“Come in, come in, Ike,” said the Elder; “you’re the first one of the parish to pay your respects to Mrs. Kinney.”  Draxy rose from her seat smiling, and went towards him and said:  “And Mrs. Kinney is very glad to see you, Ike.”

This was too much for the loving old heart.  He dropped his hat on the floor, and began to speak so rapidly and incoherently that both Draxy and the Elder were almost frightened.

“O Elder!  O Miss Kinney!—­I’ve been a thinkin’ that p’raps you’d let me come an’ live with you, an’ do all yer chores.  I’d bring my two cows, an’ my keepin’ wouldn’t be very much; an’—­oh, sir, ef ye’ll only let me, I’ll bless ye all the days o’ my life,” and Ike began to cry.

So did Draxy, for that matter, and the Elder was not very far from it.  Draxy spoke first.

“Why, Ike, do you really want so much to live with us?”

Ike’s first answer was a look.  Then he said, very simply,—­

“I’ve laid awake all night, ma’am, tryin’ to get bold enough to come and ask ye.”

Draxy looked at her husband, and said in a low voice, “You know what I told you just now, Mr. Kinney?”