And now it was calling
again--not in his sleep, but in reality, for he knew he was
awake--calling from the adjoining room, which no one could enter without
his knowledge.
Mentally weak as he was, and apt to be superstitious, his limbs shook,
and his heart beat faster than its wont, as he went toward his
sleeping-apartment, from which the voice came again a little louder and
more peremptory:
'Mr. Crazyman! where are you? I've brought you some cherries!'
He had reached the door by this time, and saw the pail on the broad
window-ledge where Jerry had put it, and to which she was clinging, with
her white sun-bonnet just in view.
'Oh, Gretchen! how did you get here?' he said, bounding across the
floor, with no thought of Jerry in his mind, no thought of any one but
Gretchen, whom he was constantly expecting to come, though not exactly
in this way.
'I climbed the ladder to fetch you some cherries, and I'm standing on
the toppest stick,' Jerry said, craning her neck until her bonnet fell
back, disclosing to view her beautiful face flushed with excitement, and
her bright, wavy hair, which, moist with perspiration, clung in masses
of round curls to her head and forehead.
'Great Heaven!' Arthur exclaimed, as he stood staring at the wide-open
blue eyes confronting him so steadily.
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