As the rest of the family went inside to prepare the evening meal, the Professor drove his wagon to the barn where Ben helped him unhitch Pegasus.

Outdoors the wind was picking up, and heavy dark clouds scudded across the sky, blotting out the last of the day’s sun.  While they walked back towards the house from the barn, the Professor saw through an open second story window a woman lighting an oil lamp against the growing darkness of the coming storm.

Suddenly he stopped, assumed a dramatic pose, and started to recite Shakespeare:  “‘But, soft!  What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!’”

With a confused look on his face, Ben said, “That’s not Juliet, Professor, that’s mama’s cousin Laura Mary Alice.  She’s the schoolteacher.”

If the Professor heard Ben, he gave no reply but continued to recite: “‘See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!  Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand, / That I might touch that cheek!’”

Above them, Laura Mary Alice looked out her window and sighed deeply, “‘Ay, me!’”

The Professor turned to Ben very excitedly.  “Ben! She knows it:  Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene II!”  He resumed his dramatic pose and, gazing at the woman above him, said, “‘She speaks: O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art / As glorious to this night, being o’er my head / As is a winged messenger of heaven.’”

Still pretending she hadn’t heard him speak, Laura Mary Alice sighed once more and said, “‘O, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?’”

“‘Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?’” the Professor said turning to Ben.

At this, Laura Mary Alice suddenly took notice of  him:  “‘What man art thou, that, thus bescreened in night, / So stumblest on my counsel?’”

“This ain’t no man, Laura Mary Alice,” Ben interrupted. “This is the Professor.  You two sure is acting strange.”

Laura Mary Alice ignored Ben and looked down directly at the Professor.  “‘How camest though hither, tell me, and wherefore? / The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, / And the place death, considering who thou art, / If any of my kinsmen find thee here.’”

“‘With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls, / For stony limits cannot hold love out: / And what love can do, that dares love attempt; / Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.’”

“‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee.’”

“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye / Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, / And I am proof against their enmity.’”

Ben, standing silently with his mouth hanging open in wonder, suddenly grabbed the Professor’s arm and tugged him towards the door.  “C’mon, Professor, it’s starting to rain and supper’s near ready.  You can see Laura Mary Alice inside.”

Smiling up at Laura Mary Alice, the Professor bowed once and allowed himself to be led by Ben up the back porch steps.

No sooner were they underneath the overhanging roof than a bolt of lightning ripped the sky, thunder shook the heavens, and a deafening wall of rain fell.