rvest odors and every
shrub and flower and vine which had been hiding back a few late buds let
them burst forth in honor of the day, and in many instances they bloomed
from a new growth thrown over the scars in the sides of the old town. In
one short month most of the ruins had been reduced to orderly piles of
material to be used in rebuilding, and a great many of the deepest
gashes had been healed completely and covered with merciful vine and
blossom. And it had also been like that with most of the scars in the
lives of the bereaved; they ached, but they had been covered with a
courage to go on building again until the new structure could be
complete.

I think something of this feeling was in the minds of most of the people
as they began to assemble around Goodloe Chapel long before the time for
its opening. And as had happened once before, the procession from the
Town met the procession from the Settlement, only this time they were
not divided so completely from the right to the left. A tall mill woman,
whose husband had gone down in the crash at the saddlery, came and took
Nell's hand in hers and laid a strong arm around her shoulders, while
Harriet went over and took from the arms of the young father the little
motherless mite who had been rescued from the pillow floating on the
river. Billy shook hands with a young tanner in tight but wholly new
clothes, to whom Luella May Spain introduced him as her imminent
husband.

In times of stress women are apt to seize and cling to the arm of
masculine protection, and Luella May had chosen to forget the
fascination of Billy's hesitation and two-steps and secure for herself a
life of thorough normality. She would probably never forget those dances
with Billy, and they would lend a kind of reminiscent glow of pleasure
over her boiling cabbage pots, but it would be no worse than that.

Mr. Todd was shaven and habitated in the neat black coat he had thrown
off as he went at the ruin of the schoolhouse a month before, and with a
tender smile on his lean old face he came over and stood beside Martha,
as if to be watchful of her in the new order of her life.

And it was for quite a half hour that most of the inhabitants of
Goodloets stood around in the yard of the chapel and waited for the
formal opening of the doors. We all knew that the chapel would not hold
the half of us, for the small Presbyterian congregation had been
dismissed by Mr. Farraday to come over and join us in