`` Not that I know of . I tried but I had to give up in despair -- never could tell when I was counting the same cat over again . Look at that black goblin sunning himself on the woodpile . I say , Nelly , you 're not going , are you ? '' `` I must . It 's time to get dinner . Mr. Pennington will be in from the fields soon . '' The next minute he heard her stepping briskly about the kitchen , shooing out intruding cats , and humming a darky air to herself . He went reluctantly back to the shore and rowed across the river in a brown study . I do n't know whether Winslow was afflicted with chronic thirst or not , or whether the East side water was n't so good as that of the West side ; but I do know that he fairly haunted the Pennington farmhouse after that . Mrs. Pennington was home the next time he went , and he asked her about her new girl . To his surprise the good lady was unusually reticent . She could n't really say very much about Nelly . No , she did n't belong anywhere near Riverside . In fact , she -- Mrs. Pennington -- did n't think she had any settled home at present . Her father was travelling over the country somewhere . Nelly was a good little girl , and very obliging . Beyond this Winslow could get no more information , so he went around and talked to Nelly , who was sitting on the bench under the poplars and seemed absorbed in watching the sunset . She dropped her g 's badly and made some grammatical errors that caused Winslow 's flesh to creep on his bones . But any man could have forgiven mistakes from such dimpled lips in such a sweet voice .
He XXXXX her to go for a row up the river in the twilight and she assented ; she handled an oar very well , he found out , and the exercise became her .
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