a young
inexperienced soul with me to battle and struggle in the thorny paths
that I must tread."

"I reckon you know your own mind," said Sister Hiler grimly. "But
thar's folks ez might allow that Meely Parsons ain't any better than
others, that she shouldn't have her share o' trials and keers and
crosses. Riches and bringin' up don't exempt folks from the shadder.
I married Marvin Hiler outer a house ez good ez Sister Parsons', and at
a time when old Cyrus Parsons hadn't a roof to his head but the cover
of the emigrant wagon he kem across the plains in. I might say ez
Marvin knowed pretty well wot it was to have a helpmeet in his
ministration, if it wasn't vanity of sperit to say it now. But the
flesh is weak, Brother Gideon." Her influenza here resolved itself
into unmistakable tears, which she wiped away with the first article
that was accessible in the work-bag before her. As it chanced to be a
black silk neckerchief of the deceased Hiler, the result was funereal,
suggestive, but practically ineffective.

"You were a good wife to Brother Hiler," said the young man gently.
"Everybody knows that."

"It's suthin' to think of since he's gone," continued the widow,
bringing her work nearer to her eyes to adjust it to their tear-dimmed
focus. "It's suthin' to lay to heart in the lonely days and nights
when thar's no man round to fetch water and wood and lend a hand to
doin' chores; it's suthin' to remember, with his three children to
feed, and little Selby, the eldest, that vain and useless that he can't
even tote the baby round while I do the work of a hired man."

"It's a hard trial, Sister Hiler," said Gideon, "but the Lord has His
appointed time."

Familiar as consolation by vague quotation was to Sister Hiler, there
was an occult sympathy in the tone in which this was offered that
lifted her for an instant out of her narrower self. She raised her
eyes to his. The personal abstraction of the devotee had no place in
the deep dark eyes that were lifted from the cradle to hers with a sad,
discriminating, and almost womanly sympathy. Surprised out of her
selfish preoccupation, she was reminded of her apparent callousness to
what might be his present disappointment. Perhaps it seemed strange to
her, too, that those tender eyes should go a-begging.

"Yer takin' a Christian view of yer own disappointment, Brother
Gideon," she said, with less astringency of manner; "but every heart
knoweth its own sorrer.