he could bear.

"Lie down a little, Davie. You are quite worn out," said she, softly,
soothing him with hand and voice.

But he could not go away. He sat down on the floor, and laid his face
on the pillow of little Mary's deserted cot, and by and by his mother
came and covered him with a shawl, and he must have fallen asleep, for
when he looked up again there were others in the room, and his mother's
hand was laid on his father's closed eyes.

Of the awe and stillness that filled the house for the next three days
of waiting, few words need be spoken.

"I must have three days for my husband, and then all my life shall be
for my children," said their mother. "Davie, you and Letty must help
one another and comfort the little ones."

So for the most part she was left alone, and David and Letty did what
they could to comfort the rest, through that sorrowful time. The
neighbours were very kind. They would have taken the little ones away
for awhile, but they did not want to go, and David and Violet said to
one another it was right that even the little ones should have these
days to remember afterwards.

How long the days of waiting seemed! Sudden bursts of crying from the
little ones broke now and then the stillness too heavy to be borne, and
even Violet sometimes gave way to bitter weeping. But they thought of
their mother, and comforted one another as well as they could; and David
stood between her closed door and all that could disturb her in her
sorrow, with a patient quiet at which they all wondered. Just once it
failed him. Some one came, with a trailing mass of black garments,
which it was thought necessary for her to see, and Violet said so to her
brother, very gently, and with many tears. But David threw up his hands
with a cry.

"What does it matter, Letty? What can mamma care for all that now? She
shall not be troubled."

And she was not. Even Miss Bethia could not bring herself to put aside
the words of the boy who lay sobbing in the dark, outside his mother's
door.

"He's right," said she. "It don't matter the least in the world. There
don't anything seem to matter much. She sha'n't be worried. Let it
go," said Miss Bethia, with a break in her sharp voice. "It'll fit, I
dare say, well enough--and if it don't, you can fix it afterwards. Let
it go now."

But David came down, humble and sorry, in a little while.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Bethia," said he. "I don't suppose mamma would