"What a nice neighbor!" commented Alicia. She added, musingly:
"Sophy, this is an enchanted place--a place where one has good
meals, bad advice, and black cats showered on one, free and gratis.
All one has to do is to stand still and take things as they come!"
"And hope one won't follow in the footsteps of one's predecessor,
who was an unmitigated old devil."
"At least," said Alicia, laughing, "_he_'ll never live to be an old
woman, will he, Sophy?"
"The man has the tact of a cannibal--"
"The shoulders of a Hercules--"
"An abominable temper--"
"And a beautiful beard. Somehow, Sophy, I rather approve of a beard,
on somebody his size. I decidedly approve of a beard!"
"If his miserable hens come over here, I shall most certainly--"
"Keep the eggs. We'll tell him so when he comes again."
"Comes again? What, and my name Sophronisba?"
"My own grandmother had the second sight; and _I_ don't need
spectacles," said Alicia. "Sophy, that man has come into our lives
to stay. I feel it in my bones! It's not an unpleasant feeling," she
finished gracelessly.
When Unc' Adam presently put in his appearance, he was profoundly
impressed and respectful: we were brisk, unhaunted, and unafraid,
after a night in Hynds House! The three colored women who had come
with him, induced by cupidity and curiosity to enter ol' Mis'
Scarlett's ill-omened domain, at first hung back.
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