n' she had to run a hot flatiron over
hern before it would do to send. He writ her that she was the only
faithful woman on earth--he was hintin' at Dick's burial arrangements, I
reckon--an' that if she was thar he'd put his head in her lap an' have a
good cry. They would have had to swap laps if they had been together
to-day, for Het needed a foot-tub to take care of her overflow. Well,
I'm keepin' you from your royal banquet. You'll find it on the
dinner-table, with the cloth all drawed up over it like a bundle ready
for the wash. Ma tied it up that way to keep the cat out of it. I don't
think the cat 'u'd care for any of it, but I reckon Jane 'lowed the
thing mought paw it over in the hope o' strikin' some'n worth while."

Conscious of little that the old man was saying, Henley passed on into
the dimly lighted farm-house, experiencing a vague sense of relief that
he was not just then to face his wife.

CHAPTER XXVI

One evening shortly after this Henley was returning from the store about
an hour later than was his custom. He was nearing Dixie Hart's cottage,
when, in the clear moonlight, he saw the girl emerge from the little
apple-orchard behind her barn and come rapidly toward him. Her glance
was on the ground, and she had evidently not seen him. As she drew near
where he stood waiting, he noted that her head was bare, and that she
had a medicine-bottle in her hand. He noted, too, from her gait and
hurried manner, that she was greatly disturbed. She was about to pass
him when he called out, cheerily, "Where away, in such a hurry?"

"Oh!" She looked up and stopped. "You scared me, Alfred. I couldn't
imagine who it was. I'm going over to Sam Pitman's. Joe is
sick--powerful sick. If I am any judge, it is pneumonia, and a bad case
at that."

"Pneumonia!" he echoed, aghast. "I didn't know anything was wrong with
him."

"It's been coming on some time," she said. "He caught an awful cold. You
know the day it rained so hard and the creek got out of banks? I was
trying to cross the ford below Pitman's in my wagon. I thought I could
make it all right, but the current washed the wagon in a hole, and old
Bob couldn't touch bottom. The wagon was floating like a boat, and he
finally got stuck in the mud with just his head and neck out and
couldn't budge. Joe was digging sprouts in the field on the right-hand
side, and ran down to me. I yelled at him not to come in, but he struck
out toward me with his clothes on, s