"Whew, this is going to be a scorcher!" said she.
From the opposite sides of the path their eyes met. Both smiled again, and felt better for it.
"My, but you're a mighty religious boy, aren't you?" she asked suddenly.
"Religious?" said he, looking at her in serious surprise.
She nodded girlishly. The sun, long slanting through the cherry-trees, fell on her hair, loosely gathered up after her sleep, one free strand on her cheek.
"Oh, well!" said he, stooping as if to lift his pails.
Joe straightened his long back without his pails. Beyond the orchard the hogs were clamoring shrilly for their morning draught; from the barn there came the sound of Isom's voice, speaking harshly to the beasts.
"Well, because I like it, for one thing," said he, "and because it's the only book I've got here, for another."
"Do you?" he inquired, as if interested in her likes and dislikes at last.
"I'd think you'd like other books better--detective stories and that kind," she ventured. "Didn't you ever read any other book?"
"Some few," he replied, a reflection as of amusement in his eyes, which she thought made them look old and understanding and wise. "But I've always read the Bible. It's one of the books that never seems to get old to you."
"Oh-h," said she, fairly lifting herself by the long breath which she drew, like the inhalation of a pleasant recollection, "you don't know what you've missed! They are lovely!"
He stooped again, and this time came up with his pails.
"I'm glad you're not religious, anyhow," she sighed, as if heaving a trouble off her heart.
"Are you?" he asked, turning to her wonderingly.
"Yes; religious people are so glum," she explained. "I never saw one of them laugh."
"There are some that way," said Joe. "They seem to be afraid they'll go to hell if they let the Almighty hear them laugh. Mother used to be that way when she first got _her_ religion, but she's outgrowing it now."
"The preachers used to scare me to death," she declared. "If I could hear some comfortable religion I might take up with it, but it seems to me that everybody's so sad after they get it. I don't know why."
Joe put down the pails again. Early as the day was, it was hot, and he was sweating. He pushed his hat back from his forehead. It was like lifting a shadow from his serious young face. She smiled.