We are good friends now , and I like you real well , and like to have you drop in for a neighbourly chat as often as you wish to , but there 'll be an end , short and sudden , to that , if you do n't mind what I say . '' `` Oh , Josephine , ai n't that rather hard ? '' protested David feebly . It seemed terrible to be cut off from all hope with such finality as this . `` I mean every word of it , '' returned Josephine calmly . `` You 'd better go home now , David . I always feel as if I 'd like to be alone for a spell after a disagreeable experience . '' David obeyed sadly and put on his cap and overcoat . Josephine kindly warned him not to slip and break his legs on the porch , because the floor was as icy as anything ; and she even lighted a candle and held it up at the kitchen door to guide him safely out . David , as he trudged sorrowfully homeward across the fields , carried with him the mental picture of a plump , sonsy woman , in a trim dress of plum-coloured homespun and ruffled blue-check apron , haloed by candlelight . It was not a very romantic vision , perhaps , but to David it was more beautiful than anything else in the world . When David was gone Josephine shut the door with a little shiver . She blew out the candle , for it was not yet dark enough to justify artificial light to her thrifty mind . She thought the big , empty house , in which she was the only living thing , was very lonely . It was so still , except for the slow tick of the `` grandfather 's clock '' and the soft purr and crackle of the wood in the stove . Josephine sat down by the window . `` I wish some of the Sentners would run down , '' she said aloud . `` If David had n't been so ridiculous I 'd have got him to stay the evening . He can be good company when he likes -- he 's real well-read and intelligent . And he must have dismal times at home there with nobody but Zillah . ''
She looked XXXXX the yard to the little house at the other side of it , where her French-Canadian hired man lived , and watched the purple spiral of smoke from its chimney curling up against the crocus sky .
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