. "I wan't gwine to lie an' put on 'Eudora Harris,' for she
ain't Eudora Harris, an' I didn't know t'other name for shoo. Ain't she
lovely!"

"She is, indeed," Mr. Mason said, feeling the moisture in his eyes, as
he looked at the young, innocent face on which there was no trace of
guilt.

He was sure of that without Jake's repeated assertion, "Fo' God, it's
all right, for she tole me so. Mostly, she'd say nothin'. She'd promised
she wouldn't, but jess fo' she died she said agen to me, 'I tole him I'd
keep dark till he come for me, but it's all right. Send for Elder Covil
'crost the river. He knows.' I've tole you this afore, I reckon, but my
mind is so full I git rattled."

By this time the bent figure sitting in the rocking-chair, near the
coffin began to show signs of life and whimper a little.

"'Scuse me," Jake said, pulling a shawl more squarely around her
shoulders and straightening her up. "Mas'r Mason, this is ole Miss Lucy.
Miss Lucy, this is Mas'r Mason, come to 'tend Miss Dory's funeral. Peart
up a little, can't you, and speak to him."

There didn't seem to be much "peart up" in the woman, who began at once
to cry. Instantly Mandy Ann started up and wiped her face, and settled
her cap, and taking the trumpet screamed into it that she was to behave
herself and speak to the gemman.

"Dory's dead," she moaned, and subsided into her shawl and cap, with a
faint kind of cry.

"Dory's dead," was repeated, in a voice very different from that of the
old woman--a child's clear, sweet voice--and turning, Mr. Mason saw a
little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl standing by Mandy Ann.

Mr. Mason was fond of children, and stooping down he kissed the child,
who drew back and hid behind Jake.

"Me 'fraid," she said, covering her face with her hands, and looking
with her bright eyes through her fingers at the stranger.

Something in her eyes attracted and fascinated, and at the same time
troubled Mr. Mason, he scarcely knew why. The old grandmother was
certainly demented. The landlord had said Eudora and the whole family
were queer. Was the child going to be queer, too, and did she show it in
her eyes? They were very large and beautiful, and the long, curling
lashes, when she closed them, fell on her cheeks like those of her dead
mother, whom she resembled. She seemed out of place in her surroundings,
but he could not talk to her then. The people in the next room were
beginning to get restless, and to talk in low tones