"Land no!" She laughed. "I was shootin' at Brant Severance!"
"You--!"
"Didn't hit him," she said. "Didn't aim to hit him. Just wanted to show
him he couldn't pester my sheep."
"But--isn't there--"
She anticipated and forestalled his question. "Nope, I'm all alone. My
boys, they want me to come with them. Land! I'd grow old and shrively in
a city! Two houses are one too many! Do come in."
Granny opened the door that was made of carefully-mortised,
hand-polished boards and adorned with an excellent wood carving that
depicted a running buck chased by wolves. Jeff and Dan breathed their
delight.
Except for the stove, the pots and pans that hung behind it, the lamps,
and a few other articles that would be very difficult to fashion with
hand tools, every bit of furniture had been made of whatever materials
were available. But whoever made it had not been contented with
something merely useful. Strict utility had received consideration, but
beauty was in vast abundance.
Jeff looked through a large window that faced the back and saw a neat
garden, a little grove of fruit trees, a fat mule, a brown cow, and a
cat sitting on a stone. It was exactly the big, fluffy, white cat that
should have belonged in such a place. Not until he took a second glance
did he realize that the cat was not alive at all, but woven into a
tapestry. He went nearer.
Stretched on a walnut frame, the tapestry was so exquisitely woven that
the cat's every hair not only showed but was in the right place. The cat
was about to lick a front paw, and even after he knew it was a tapestry,
so real was the illusion of life that Jeff extended a hand to see if the
cat might not be soft and warm. He turned to Granny.
"Who did this?"
She was all gentleness. "I did. That's my Kitty Cat, dead these four
months."
There was longing in her voice, and more than a hint of sadness, and
Jeff knew that the cat had meant a great deal to her. He understood.
Some people loved horses, some preferred dogs, and some set their
affections on cats. But for Granny it could not be just any cat.