It was something to have a companion to talk to.

It was something to be the victor even in a spelling-match, and to be applauded even by Flat Creek.
And so, chatting earnestly about the most uninteresting themes, Ralph courteously helped Hannah over the fence, and they took the usual short-cut through the "blue-grass pasture." There came up a little shower, hardly more than a sprinkle, but then It was so nice to have a shower just as they reached the box-elder tree by the spring! It was so thoughtful in Ralph to suggest that the shade of a box-elder is dense, and that Hannah might take cold! And it was so easy for Hannah to yield to the suggestion! Just as though she had not milked the cows in the open lot in the worst storms of the last three years! And just as though the house were not within a stone's-throw! Doubtless it was not prudent to stop here.

But let us deal gently with them.

Who would not stay in an earthy paradise ten minutes longer, even though it did make purgatory the hotter afterward?
And so Hannah stayed.
"Tell me your circumstances," said Ralph, at last.

"I am sure I can help you in something." "No, no! you cannot," and Hannah's face was clouded.