"I saw it a-coming, and set on--on devouring o' me, and still I couldn't
stir. Everything was growing black and black except a big square with
that monster eye a-glaring into the soul o' me!"
The girl's face was set--her eyes vacant and wild; suddenly they
softened, and her little white teeth showed through the childish, parted
lips.
"Then the eye went away, there was a blackness in the square place, and
then a face came--a kind face it was--all a-laughing and it--it kept
going farther and farther off to one side and I kept a-following and
a-following and then--the big noise went rushing by me, and there I was
right safe and plump up against a tree!"
"Good Lord!" Again Truedale wiped his brow.
"Since then," Nella-Rose relaxed, "I can shut my eyes and always there
is the black square and sometimes--not always, but sometimes--things
come!"
"The face, Nella-Rose?"
"No, I can't make that come. But things I want to, do and have. I
always think, when I see things, that I'm going to do a big, fine thing
some day. I feel upperty and then--poof! off go the pictures and I am
just--lil' Nella-Rose again!"
A comically heavy sigh brought Truedale back to earth.
"But the face you saw long ago," Truedale whispered, "was it my face, do
you think?"
Nella-Rose paused--then quietly:
"I--reckon it was. Yes, I'm mighty sure it was your face.
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