f and
silence. An absolute, archaic grief possessed this countrywoman; she
seemed like a renewal of some historic soul, with her sorrows and the
remoteness of a daily life busied with rustic simplicities and the
scents of primeval herbs.

I was not incompetent at herb-gathering, and after a while, when I had
sat long enough waking myself to new thoughts, and reading a page of
remembrance with new pleasure, I gathered some bunches, as I was bound
to do, and at last we met again higher up the shore, in the plain
every-day world we had left behind when we went down to the penny-royal
plot. As we walked together along the high edge of the field we saw a
hundred sails about the bay and farther seaward; it was mid-afternoon or
after, and the day was coming to an end.

"Yes, they're all makin' towards the shore,--the small craft an' the
lobster smacks an' all," said my companion. "We must spend a little time
with mother now, just to have our tea, an' then put for home."

"No matter if we lose the wind at sundown; I can row in with Johnny,"
said I; and Mrs. Todd nodded reassuringly and kept to her steady plod,
not quickening her gait even when we saw William come round the corner
of the house as if to look for us, and wave his hand and disappear.

"Why, William's right on deck; I didn't know's we should see any more of
him!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "Now mother'll put the kettle right on; she's
got a good fire goin'." I too could see the blue smoke thicken, and then
we both walked a little faster, while Mrs. Todd groped in her full bag
of herbs to find the daguerreotypes and be ready to put them in their
places.

XI. The Old Singers

WILLIAM WAS sitting on the side door step, and the old mother was busy
making her tea; she gave into my hand an old flowered-glass tea-caddy.

"William thought you'd like to see this, when he was settin' the table.
My father brought it to my mother from the island of Tobago; an' here's
a pair of beautiful mugs that came with it." She opened the glass door
of a little cupboard beside the chimney. "These I call my best things,
dear," she said. "You'd laugh to see how we enjoy 'em Sunday nights in
winter: we have a real company tea 'stead o' livin' right along just
the same, an' I make somethin' good for a s'prise an' put on some o' my
preserves, an' we get a'talkin' together an' have real pleasant times."

Mrs. Todd laughed indulgently, and looked to see what I thought of such
childishne