Sandy got up, his legs stiff and numb, and went into the kitchen. An elderly brown woman, dressed in black silk that swished as she moved, opened the door to Hager’s bedroom and whispered to him loudly: “Be quiet, chile.”

Sandy entered between a lane of old women. Hager looked up at him and smiled—so grave and solemn he appeared.

“Is they takin’ care o’ you?” she asked weakly. “Ain’t it bedtime, honey? Is you had something to eat? Come on an’ kiss yo’ old grandma befo’ you go to sleep. She’ll be better in de mawnin’.”

She couldn’t seem to lift her head, so Sandy sat down on the bed and kissed her. All he said was: “I’m all right, grandma,” because there were so many old women in there that he couldn’t talk. Then he went out into the other room.

The air in the house was close and stuffy and the boy soon became groggy with sleep. He fell across the bed that had been Annjee’s, and later Dogberry’s, with all his clothes on. One of the lodge women in the room said: “You better take off yo’ things, chile, an’ go to sleep right.” Then she said to the other sisters: “Come on in de kitchen, you-all, an’ let this chile go to bed.”

In the morning Tempy woke him. “Are you sure you had Annjee’s address correct last night?” she demanded. “The telegraph office says she couldn’t be found, so the message was not delivered. Let me see the letter.”

Sandy found the letter again, and the address was verified.

“Well, that’s strange,” said Tempy. “I suppose, as careless and irresponsible as Jimboy is, they’ve got it wrong, or else moved.... Do you know where Harriett can be? I don’t suppose you do, but mother has been calling for her all night. I suppose we’ll have to try to get her, wherever she is.”

“I got her address,” said Sandy. “She wrote it down for me when I was working at the hotel this winter. I can find her.”

“Then I’ll give you a note,” said Tempy. “Take it to her.”

So Sandy went to the big grey house in the Bottoms that morning to deliver Tempy’s message, before the girls there had risen from their beds.

XXII. BEYOND THE JORDAN

During the day the lodge members went to their work in the various kitchens and restaurants and laundries of the town. And Madam de Carter was ordered to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a split in her organization was threatened because of the elections of the grand officers. Hager was resting easy, no pain now, but very weak.

“It’s only a matter of time,” said the doctor. “Give her the medicine so she won’t worry, but it does no good. There’s nothing we can do.”

“She’s going to die!” Sandy thought.

Harriett sat by the bedside holding her mother’s hand as the afternoon sunlight fell on the white spread. Hager had been glad to see the girl again, and the old woman held nothing against her daughter for no longer living at home.