"I s'pose I was a poor miserable creatur' to git out of it that way,"
said she. "If I'd felt as I do now, I needn't ha' done it. I could ha'
spoke up. But then it seemed as if there wa'n't no other way. I jest
wanted my Thanksgivin' in my own home, an' so I throwed you off the
track the best way I could. I dunno's I lied. I dunno whether I did or
not; but I guess, anyway, I shall be forgiven for it."
Ezra spoke first: "Well, if you didn't want to come"--
"Want to come!" broke in John. "Of course she don't want to come! She
wants to stay in her own home, an' call her soul her own--don't you,
Lucy?"
Lucy Ann glanced at him with her quick, grateful smile.
"I'm goin' to, now," she said gently, and they knew she meant it.
But, looking about among them, Lucy Ann was conscious of a little hurt
unhealed; she had thrown their kindness back.
"I guess I can't tell exactly how it is," she began hesitatingly; "but
you see my home's my own, jest as yours is. You couldn't any of you go
round cousinin', without feelin' you was tore up by the roots. You've
all been real good to me, wantin' me to come, an' I s'pose I should
make an awful towse if I never was asked; but now I've got all my
visitin' done up, cousins an' all, an' I'm goin' to be to home a spell.
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