g. Oliver Gilbert sat before his desk in the workshop. He was not looking at what was before him, but out of the windo

lly punctuated by the cry of a little screech-owl or the call of a robin shifting its

ing thoughts was a thing accomplished. A week before, when the matter hung in the balance, possession of the child had seemed the finality. To-night it appeared as merely an open gate through whi

alling us aunty and uncle? Then byme-by, when she comes to know,

she grew up for the two white stones on the hillside to stand for Mother and little sister. Perhaps, God helping, she might not learn the truth

er. Presently he pulled himself together, lighted the other lamps in office and workshop, talking to himself in an argumentative strain as he wal

e a book some day that should be printed out like them in Squire Oldys's study. The printing won't be compassed, but I can write out all that happens from that night on concerning the child, and the village doings, so's it'll be there plain and no hearsay when she comes to read it and I'm not here perhaps. Yes, and I must not forget disc

by lying for years side by side with its shelf mates. The pages within were of thick smooth paper, finely ruled. Gilbert tried sev

xt he took his two precious Lincoln letters from their drawer and fastened them betwe

week, but as time went on, he would naturally g

wered: "No, Gilbert or I either one of us may feel called to marry, then what's to do? 'Cause I wouldn't be number four to Deacon Green with his white chin whiskers, and his 'it's all for the best' and other heartless sayings when number one, two, and three was took, or, I claim, clean froze to death

nbonnet of brown-and-white-checked gingham, a sack-shaped slip of the same material, reenforced by the species of extension-legged underwear called pantalets, below which came a glim

like the neighborhood children, as he expressed it. Thus Poppea began life at Harley's Mills without pretence, having for guardian Mack, who was fast developing into a brown-and-white hound of medium

light of night and morning like seneschals in plumed helmets, keeping watch over the doings of those humbly encamped below, whom they suspected, but might not displace. Yet what does Nature

ot holes, beloved of robins, bluebirds, and woodpeckers, where the ample red cow flavored her cud with apple blossoms, me

s some deep-sleeping seed or bulb put forth, Johnny-jump-ups, prim quilled asters, and, with June, there swayed a flock of butterfly-winged poppies that in still other seasons would wander from their earth bank and alight among the plumes of orchard grass to colonize all the sunny spaces. This was the child's playground, where she first rolled among the daisies, while Mack, led by his nose, made quest of ground-hog and cottontail; there she sucked clover honey, was stung by jealous bees, solve

Poppea went with him, riding in the old chaise safe in the grasp of Daddy's left arm. It was on one of the first of these visits that Gilbert began to train the five-fingered woodbine, that, creeping through the half-wild grass, clung to the two white stones and would not be denie

ht-hued, short-stemmed violets and soft-pawed "pussy-toes." She neither paused nor seemed to heed, yet two sounds heard wee

of McClellan's fruitless meanderings, as well as lack of money, forbade crackers or fireworks, so that the return

r arrival as she crossed the platfo

at knows which way she wants to go, 'n' mark my words, if John Angus's goin' to foller lik

age street, he holding her sunshade to the best advantage, while she let her flounced, fresh organdie gown brush the ground that she might c

rketed in Bridgeton), she chatting gayly. Presently, as they reached the post-office

dges. Please open the door, it hurts my hand. Oh, what a lovely child!" For though An

t is vacant. Is that your little grandchild? No, your daughter? You must le

tuck a big yaller rose she was wearing in her belt right under his chin, and says she, 'Jack, do yo

York as Miss Duane and those who had not. Meanwhile the stern mansion on Windy Hill r

at home, Miss Emmy, by a process of calculation all her own, said thirty-six, but Mr. Esterbrook gallantly d

d escorting her to the door each Sunday, they lost their breaths completely. But when she invited all to a garden party to see a new lawn game called croquet that had been sent her direct from London by a married sister, they found their tongues again to w

t it was a relief to both when, on the Anguses' return from town late the next spring, the touch of nature that makes all women kin colored the village gossip, and it was known that at last there would be a child born in the great house on Windy Hill. Satira Pegrim, who chatted often with the gardener's wife, though her brother had

idowed, who were ready and willing to "accommodate," was overlooked; an English head nurse of the brand accustomed to rear an

ed its lips, folded i

. It had to be, but now I'm wondering what will become of them. Poppea may see the working out of this, though I shall not. Having her, the

y were when it began. We've all been living around the station for the last three days, just gasping for news like stranded fish for w

nds can't feel. What if they should win-b

ging for powder! There's been hallelujahs in the meeting-house, bell-ringings and speeches on the green. I've run up both the flags, one atop of t'other, and yet now it's night and I've come in out of the crowd, it seems like I must put a bit of black out

through battering and starving, Vicksburg has given in! Hallelujah for victory! say I with the rest, yet I can't get the thought out of my head of those famished women and children living in ground-hole

this village. John Angus's wife has borne h

oseleaf? I hauled my victory flags down just so soon as Dr. Morewood told me. Then I run the little one back, halfway up. I wouldn't want Angus to think that I bear malice or was aught bu

Latimer's church that he teaches music. Hughey Oldys sang one piece all alone about flying away on the wings of a dove to find rest. It

funeral anyhow, for there on a graven silver plate

half over. Blood it seems everywhere, in earth and sky and sea. Our boys dropping down at more'n a thousand a day, week in

fodder and labor both being so high. Three dollars a day for a man at haying. Tough bull beef at thirty cents the pound; sack flour taken over from the Mills is at the rate of seventeen dollars a

rt of seems as if she belonged with it, and he claims ever since she left and shut the door more'n half the place is missing. Satira isn't in any hurr

es. What woul

n is safe for Lin

e chief Rebel leaders, but he would not let them. So it goes. I want the child by and by to think of this every time she sees those letters th

d Territory. So help us, God! that every soul of us on this soil may be free forever more, black or white, m

rday, Lincoln

h to count out those four years that he's younger than Satira. Dave Morse came with him, but little Davy lies at Gettysburg. It seems as if we ones b

ll. This ends the war. Yet woe is still upon the la

! Assassinated! None

ey have a house on Union Square, New York. He will pass that way. The neighbors think I'm crazy to take a child of four or five. She

r. Esterbrook being at the station to meet some friends, he counselled me. Carrying Poppea, for the streets were thronged, I went out to Madison Square and so down to Fifth Avenue. Black on every side, hanging from roof to street, black-banded fl

indows hid by black-trimmed flags. I asked a passer-by whose house it was, and he told me that it was the h

verandy being crowded, I could see the black-covered horses swinging round the corner from Broadway, and after them the car. Down the street it came, from the corner seemed an hour. I lifted Poppea to the iro

, drawing my head down, "I don't see him, Daddy. Is he going to heaven in that bed asleep?" "Ye

think perhaps he'll find her mother, and tell her that there's an

ing at them without seeing, until one man passed and looked back as he went, at us I thought. It was John

eye for faces. Then she turned her mind to some cakes the ladies gave h

footing as a boy should who is turning three. Satira saw him yesterday, sitting in hi

ee him. Morewood only shakes his head when asked, a

ething in his backbone,-Pott's disease they call it. He will be a hunchback. "An' when he looks at me so lo

s father say

lp standing by, 'Do all the doctors say, but never mention to my son or to me that he is different from other boys. Who br

and Hughey Oldys reads fairy books to her, but it's the hill-country speech that worries me, and also the Felton ladies. When

me her breeding. For manners, she's catching them already, and Stephen Latimer says she has a great ear for music, and can sing