Deborah strode across the room, out into the shed.
"I guess she won't say much; don't you be scared, Ephraim," whispered Caleb.
But Ephraim, curious to say, did not feel scared.

Suddenly his mother seemed to have lost all her terrifying influence over him.

He felt very strange, and as if he were sinking away from it all through deep abysses.
His mother came back, and she held a stout stick in her right hand.
Caleb gasped when he saw it.

"Mother, you ain't goin' to whip him ?" he cried out.
"Father, you keep still!" commanded Deborah.

"Ephraim, you come with me!" She led the way into Ephraim's little bedroom, and he stumbled up and followed her.