'I'm glad I'm alive,' I said. 'I'm thankful!' Seemed to me I'd been
dead for the last twenty year. I'd come alive.
"An' so I set there an' held my breath, for fear 'twould go. I dunno
how long, but the moon riz up over my left shoulder, an' the sky begun
to fade. An' then it come over me 't was goin'. I knew 't was terrible
tender of me, an' sorry, an' lovin', an' so I says, 'Don't you mind; I
won't forgit!' An' then It went. But that broke suthin', an' I turned
an' see my own shadder on the grass; an' I thought I see another, 'side
of it. Somehow that scairt me, an' I jumped up an' whipped it home
without lookin' behind me. Now that's my experience," said Hannah
Prime, looking her neighbors again in the face, with dauntless eyes. "I
dunno what 't was, but it's goin' to last. I ain't afraid no more, an'
I ain't goin' to be. There ain't nuthin' to worry about. Everything's
bigger'n we think." She folded her shawl more closely about her and
moved toward the door. There she again turned to her neighbors.
"Good-night!" she said, and was gone.
They sat quite still until the tread of her feet had ceased its beating
on the dusty road. Then, by one consent, they rose and moved slowly
out. There was no prayer that night, and "Lord dismiss us" was not
sung.
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