lk an' through the
garden. Her heart wuz broke. You could see it in the leetle lambkin's
eyes an' hear it in her voice. Wanted to tell her sometimes when she
kissed me and called me "father"--wanted to tell her, "Leetle Lizzie,
let me help ye bear yer load. Speak out the sorrer that's in yer
broken heart; speak it out, leetle one, an' let me help yer bear yer
load!"

But it is n't for a man to have them feelin's--leastwise, it is n't for
him to tell uv 'em. So I held my peace and made no sign.

She jest drooped, an' pined, an' died. One mornin' in the spring she
wuz standin' in the garden, an' all at oncet she threw her arms up, so,
an' fell upon her face, an' when they got to her all thet wuz left to
us uv leetle Lizzie wuz her lifeless leetle body. I can't tell of what
happened next--uv the funeral an' all that. I said this wuz in the
spring, an' so it wuz all around us; but it wuz cold and winter _here_.

One day mother sez to me: "Reuben," sez she, softlike, "Marthy an' I is
goin' to the buryin' ground for a spell. Don't you reckon it would be
a good time for you to step over an' see Bill while we 're gone?"

"Mebbe so, mother," sez I.

It wuz a pretty day. Cuttin' across lots, I thought to myself what I
'd say to Bill to kind uv comfort him. I made it up that I 'd speak
about the time when we wuz boys together; uv how we used to slide down
the meetin'-house hill, an' go huckleberryin'; uv how I jumped into the
pond one day an' saved him from bein' drownded; uv the spellin' school,
the huskin' bees, the choir meetin's, the sparkin' times; of the
swimmin' hole, the crow's nest in the pine-tree, the woodchuck's hole
in the old pasture lot; uv the sunny summer days an' the snug winter
nights when we wuz boys, an' happy! And then----

No, no! I could n't go on like that! I 'd break down. A man can't be
a man more 'n jest so far!

Why did mother send me over to see Bill? I 'd better stayed to home!
I felt myself chokin' up; if I had n't took a chew uv terbacker, I 'd
'ave been cryin', in a minute!

The nearer I got to Bill's, the worst I hated to go in. Standin' on
the stoop, I could hear the tall clock tickin' solemnly
inside--"tick-tock, tick-tock," jest as plain as if I wuz settin' aside
uv it. The door wuz shet, yet I knew jest what Bill wuz doin'; he was
settin' in the old red easy-chair, lookin' down at the floor--like
this. Strange, ain't it, how sometimes when you love folks you know