ben gettin' ready to leave this earth ever since. Not that she's gloomy,
oh, my senses no! She's jes' as interested as can be in her flowers, and
in folks, an' the church, but she don't want to try to do so many
things, and she has them weak, fainty spells oftener, an' more pain in
her heart. She sits fer long hours with jest her Bible open now, but
land, she don't need to read it! She knows it most by heart--that is the
livin' parts, you know. She don't seem to care 'tall fer them magazine
articles now any more. I wish t' the land they'd be anuther Gen'l
'Sembly! Thet was the greatest thing fer her. She jest acted like she
was tendin' every blessed one o' them meetin's. Why, she couldn't wait
fer me t' git done my breakfast dishes. She'd want me t' fix her up fer
the day, an' then set down an' read their doin's. 'We kin let things go,
you know, 'Meelia Ellen,' she'd say with her sweet little smile, 'just
while the meetin's last. Then when it's over they'll be time 'nough fer
work--an' rest too, 'Meelia Ellen,' says she. Well, seems like she was
just 'tendin' those meetin's herself, same es if she was there. She'd
take her nap like it was a pill, er somethin', and then be wide awake
an' ready fer her afternoon freshenin', an' then she'd watch fer the
stage to bring the evenin' paper. John, he hed a whole cartload o'
papers sent, an' the day he spoke they was so many I jes' couldn't get
my bread set. I hed to borry a loaf off the inn. First time that's ever
happened to me either. I jest hed to set an' read till my back ached,
and my eyes swum. I never read so much in my whole borned days t' oncet;
an' I've done a good bit o' readin' in my time, too, what with nursin'
her an' bein' companion to a perfessor's invaleed daughter one summer.

"Wal, seems like she jest went on an' on, gettin' workeder-up an'
workeder-up, till the 'Sembly closed, an' he come; and she was clear to
the top o' the heap all them three weeks whilst he was here. Why, I
never seen her so bright since when I was a little girl an' went to her
Sunday-school class, an' she wore a poke bonnet trimmed with lute-string
ribbon an' a rose inside. Talk 'bout roses--they wasn't one in the
garden as bright an' pink as her two cheeks, an' her eyes shone jest fer
all the world like his. I was terrible troubled lest she'd break down,
but she didn't. She got brighter an' brighter. Let him take her out
ridin', an' let him carry her into the orchard an' lay her down und