"Set down an' help your father shell that corn," said she.

And Ephraim pulled a grating chair up to his father, muttering cautiously.
Caleb kept looking at Deborah anxiously.

He glanced at the door frequently.
"Where's Rebecca ?" he asked at last.
"I dunno," replied Deborah.
"Has she laid down ?" "No, she ain't." "She ain't gone out in the snow, has she ?" Caleb said, with deploring anxiety.
Deborah answered not a word.

She pursed her lips and knitted.
"She ain't, has she, mother ?" "Keep on with your corn," said Deborah; and that was all she would say.
Presently she arose and prepared dinner in the same dogged silence.
Caleb, and even Ephraim, watched her furtively, with alarmed eyes.
When Rebecca did not appear at the dinner-table Caleb did not say anything about it, but his old face was quite pale.

He ate his dinner from the force of habit of over seventy years, during which time he had always eaten his dinner, but he did not taste it consciously.
He made up his mind that as soon as he got up from the table he would go over to Barney's and consult him.