A lamp in one of the windows of the school--placed
so that after I turned in on the yard, I could not see
it--it might have blinded my eye, and the going is rough
there with stumps and stones. I could not see the cottage,
it stood behind the school. But the school I saw clearly
outlined against the dark blue, star-spangled sky, for
it stands on a high gravel ridge. And in the most friendly
and welcoming way it looked with its single eye across
at the nocturnal guest.
I could not see the cottage, but I knew that my little
girl lay sleeping in her cosy bed, and that a young woman
was sitting there in the dark, her face glued to the
windowpane, to be ready with a lantern which burned in
the kitchen whenever I might pull up between school and
house. And there, no doubt, she had been sitting for a
long while already; and there she was destined to sit
during the winter that came, on Friday nights--full often
for many and many an hour--full often till midnight--and
sometimes longer...
TWO
Fog
Peter took me north, alone, on six successive trips. We
had rain, we had snow, we had mud, and hard-frozen ground.
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