, that the cat might go in and out. It was
no difficulty whatever for the boy to see how things were in the cabin.

He had hardly cast a glance in there before he staggered back and turned
his head away. An old, gray-haired woman lay stretched out on the floor
within. She neither moved nor moaned; and her face shone strangely
white. It was as if an invisible moon had thrown a feeble light over it.

The boy remembered that when his grandfather had died, his face had also
become so strangely white-like. And he understood that the old woman who
lay on the cabin floor must be dead. Death had probably come to her so
suddenly that she didn't even have time to lie down on her bed.

As he thought of being alone with the dead in the middle of the dark
night, he was terribly afraid. He threw himself headlong down the steps,
and rushed back to the cowshed.

When he told the cow what he had seen in the cabin, she stopped eating.
"So my mistress is dead," said she. "Then it will soon be over for me
as well." "There will always be someone to look out for you," said the
boy comfortingly. "Ah! you don't know," said the cow, "that I am already
twice as old as a cow usually is before she is laid upon the
slaughter-bench. But then I do not care to live any longer, since she,
in there, can come no more to care for me."

She said nothing more for a while, but the boy observed, no doubt, that
she neither slept nor ate. It was not long before she began to speak
again. "Is she lying on the bare floor?" she asked. "She is," said the
boy. "She had a habit of coming out to the cowshed," she continued, "and
talking about everything that troubled her. I understood what she said,
although I could not answer her. These last few days she talked of how
afraid she was lest there would be no one with her when she died. She
was anxious for fear no one should close her eyes and fold her hands
across her breast, after she was dead. Perhaps you'll go in and do
this?" The boy hesitated. He remembered that when his grandfather had
died, mother had been very careful about putting everything to rights.
He knew this was something which had to be done. But, on the other hand,
he felt that he didn't care go to the dead, in the ghastly night. He
didn't say no; neither did he take a step toward the cowshed door. For a
couple of seconds the old cow was silent--just as if she had expected an
answer. But when the boy said nothing, she did not repeat her request.
Ins