n't it?" with a tone of disappointment. "I cal'lated
you'd stop all night, 't had got to be so late, an' I was just going
over to the Knowles gals'; well, to kind o' ask how they be, an'"--Mr.
Peter Downs was evidently counting on his visit.

"They never passed me the compliment," replied the wife. "I declare I
didn't covet the walk home; I'm most beat out, bein' on foot so much.
I was 'most put out with 'em for letten' of me see quite so plain that
my room was better than my company. But I don't know's I blame 'em;
they want to look an' see what they've got, an' kind of git by
theirselves, I expect. 'T was natural."

Mrs. Downs knew that her husband would resent her first statements,
being a sensitive and grumbling man. She had formed a pacific habit of
suiting her remarks to his point of view, to save an outburst. He
contented Himself with calling the Knowles girls hoggish, and put a
direct question as to whether they had let fall any words about their
situation, but Martha Downs was obliged to answer in the negative.

"Was Enoch Holt there after the folks come back from the grave?"

"He wa'n't; they never give _him_ no encouragement neither."

"He appeared well, I must say," continued Peter Downs. "He took his
place next but one behind us in the procession, 'long of Melinda
Dutch, an' walked to an' from with her, give her his arm, and then I
never see him after we got back; but I thought he might be somewhere
in the house, an' I was out about the barn an' so on."

"They was civil to him. I was by when he come, just steppin' out of
the bedroom after we'd finished layin' the old Cap'n into his coffin.
Hannah looked real pleased when she see Enoch, as if she hadn't really
expected him, but Betsey stuck out her hand's if 't was an eend o'
board, an' drawed her face solemner 'n ever. There, they had natural
feelin's. He was their own father when all was said, the Cap'n was,
an' I don't know but he was clever to 'em in his way, 'ceptin' when he
disappointed Hannah about her marryin' Jake Good'in. She l'arned to
respect the old Cap'n's foresight, too."

"Sakes alive, Marthy, how you do knock folks down with one hand an'
set 'em up with t' other," chuckled Mr. Downs. They next discussed the
Captain's appearance as he lay in state in the front room, a subject
which, with its endless ramifications, would keep the whole
neighborhood interested for weeks to come.

An hour later the twinkling light in the Downs house sudd