They took up the carpets, swept down the walls,
and washed the windows. They hung pictures, prints, and lithographs,
and curtained the windows in dainty white. They covered the floors with
bright carpets, and placed new ornaments on the mantle, and comfortable
furniture in the rooms. There was a white iron bed, and several rocking
chairs, and a shelf across the window filled with potted hyacinths in
bloom. Among them stood a glass bowl, containing three wonderful little
gold fish, and from the top casing hung a brass cage, from which a
green linnet sang an exultant song.

You should have seen Mary Malone! When everything was finished, she was
changed the most of all. She was so sure of Dannie, that while the
winter had brought annoyance that he did not come, it really had been
one long, glorious rest. She laughed and sang, and grew younger with
every passing day. As youth surged back, with it returned roundness of
form, freshness of face, and that bred the desire to be daintily
dressed. So of pretty light fabrics she made many summer dresses, for
wear mourning she would not.

When calmness returned to Mary, she had told the Dolans the whole
story. "Now do you ixpict me to grieve for the man?" she asked.
"Fiftane years with him, through his lying tongue, whin by ivery right
of our souls and our bodies, Dannie Micnoun and I belanged to each
other. Mourn for him! I'm glad he's dead! Glad! Glad! If he had not
died, I should have killed him, if Dannie did not! It was a happy thing
that he died. His death saved me mortal sin. I'm glad, I tell you, and
I do not forgive him, and I niver will, and I hope he will burn----"

Katy Dolan clapped her hand over Mary's mouth. "For the love of marcy,
don't say that!" she cried. "You will have to confiss it, and you'd be
ashamed to face the praste."

"I would not," cried Mary. "Father Michael knows I'm just an ordinary
woman, he don't ixpict me to be an angel." But she left the sentence
unfinished.

After Mary's cabin was arranged to her satisfaction, they attacked
Dannie's; emptying it, cleaning it completely, and refurnishing it from
the best of the things that had been in both. Then Mary added some new
touches. A comfortable big chair was placed by his fire, new books on
his mantle, a flower in his window, and new covers on his bed. While
the women worked, Dolan raked the yards, and freshened matters outside
as best he could. When everything they had planned to do was
accomplis