world goes well. This 'ere old Bible--why it's jest
like yer mother,--ye rove and ramble, and cut up round the world without
her a spell, and mebbe think the old woman ain't so fashionable as some;
but when sickness and sorrow comes, why, there ain't nothin' else to go
back to. Is there, now?"

Moses did not answer, but he shook the hand of the Captain and turned
away.

CHAPTER XLII

LAST WORDS

The setting sun gleamed in at the window of Mara's chamber, tinted with
rose and violet hues from a great cloud-castle that lay upon the smooth
ocean over against the window. Mara was lying upon the bed, but she
raised herself upon her elbow to look out.

"Dear Aunt Roxy," she said, "raise me up and put the pillows behind me,
so that I can see out--it is splendid."

Aunt Roxy came and arranged the pillows, and lifted the girl with her
long, strong arms, then stooping over her a moment she finished her
arrangements by softly smoothing the hair from her forehead with a
caressing movement most unlike her usual precise business-like
proceedings.

"I love you, Aunt Roxy," said Mara, looking up with a smile.

Aunt Roxy made a strange wry face, which caused her to look harder than
usual. She was choked with tenderness, and had only this uncomely way of
showing it.

"Law now, Mara, I don't see how ye can; I ain't nothin' but an old
burdock-bush; love ain't for me."

"Yes it is too," said Mara, drawing her down and kissing her withered
cheek, "and you sha'n't call yourself an old burdock. God sees that you
are beautiful, and in the resurrection everybody will see it."

"I was always homely as an owl," said Miss Roxy, unconsciously speaking
out what had lain like a stone at the bottom of even her sensible heart.
"I always had sense to know it, and knew my sphere. Homely folks would
like to say pretty things, and to have pretty things said to them, but
they never do. I made up my mind pretty early that my part in the
vineyard was to have hard work and no posies."

"Well, you will have all the more in heaven; I love you dearly, and I
like your looks, too. You look kind and true and good, and that's beauty
in the country where we are going."

Miss Roxy sprang up quickly from the bed, and turning her back began to
arrange the bottles on the table with great zeal.

"Has Moses come in yet?" said Mara.

"No, there ain't nobody seen a thing of him since he went out this
morning."

"Poor boy!" said Mara, "it is too ha