was there; and then she looked
out the front door, just as if she could _look_ him home.

An hour went by--an hour after the time he said he'd come; and Tom
always punctual to the minute, too. Betsey grew nervous. Somebody rang
the bell. She flew to the door. (Tom never rang the bell.) It was only
a boy inquiring for the next neighbor. Betsey pulled a little wrinkle
out of the table-cloth, set Tom's chair up to the table, and peeped
into the coffee-pot. It was all right. He would soon be there. But
somehow she couldn't keep still a minute. She had a great mind (if she
were not afraid of being laughed at) to run down to Phil Dolan's
brother's, to see if Phil had got back.

There's the bell again! Betsey trembled so she could hardly get to the
door, though she couldn't tell why.

It is Phil's brother.

Why don't Betsey speak to him? Why don't _he_ speak to Betsey? Why are
his lips so ashen white?

Poor Betsey! she knew it all; though he has not spoken a word.

Tom is drowned.

Phil lifts Betsey from the floor, chafes her hands, and speaks to her
pitifully. Betsey does not answer: she does not even hear him.

By and by she comes to herself and opens her eyes. She sees the little
supper table. She looks at Phil, and then she puts her hand over his
mouth, and says, "Not yet, not yet."

Phil's kind heart is wrung with pity. He knows they will soon bring in
Tom's dead body. He loved Tom. Everybody loved him. It was only that
very morning that he left home so bright, so full of life. Poor Tom!

Dear children, you can imagine how poor Betsey hung, weeping, over her
husband's dead body; how dreadful it was to see the earth close over
it, and to leave her dear little happy home, and go out among
strangers, with such a sorrowful heart, to earn her bread.

She heard that Minnie's mother wanted a cook; she called and Minnie's
mother engaged her; and now, perhaps, you'd like to hear the end of the
trick the two little girls were planning to play on poor, heart-broken
Betsey. You know now _why_ she started whenever a bell rang, and _why_
her nerves were in such a state.

"Now is the time," said Minnie; "Betsey has just gone in after the
tea-waiter. Quick! get behind the coat, Louise."

Betsey soon came out with the tea-tray of dishes, and Minnie and Louise
jumped at her, from behind the coats, seizing rudely hold of her arm.

Betsey uttered a loud scream, and fell to the bottom of the stairs,
with the tray of dishes; w