A black turkey gobbler, who looked as if he had been charred in a fire, followed by five turkey hens, also suggesting the idea that water had been thrown over them before anything but their surfaces had been burned, came timidly around the house and stopped before venturing upon the greensward in front of the porch; then, seeing nobody but Mrs Null, they advanced with bobbing heads and swaying bodies to look into the resources of this seldom explored region.

Plez, who was coming from the spring with a pail of water on his head, saw the dog on the porch and the turkeys on the grass, and stopped to regard the spectacle.

He looked at them, and he looked at Mrs Null, and a grin of amused interest spread itself over his face.
Mrs Null went down the steps and approached the boy.

"Plez," said she, "if your mistress, or anybody, should come here this morning, you must run over to Pine Top Hill and call me.

I'm going there to read." "Don' you want me to go wid yer, and show you de way, Miss Null ?" asked Plez, preparing to set down his pail.
"Oh, no," said she, "I know the way." And with her hands still in her pockets, from one of which protruded a rolled-up novel, she walked down to the little stream which ran from the spring, crossed the plank and took the path which led by the side of the vineyard to Pine Top Hill.
This lady visitor had now been here two days waiting for the return of the mistress of the little estate; and the sojourn had evidently been of benefit to her.