m his forehead, two shoes creaked a number of
times, there was a rustling of heavy curtains, four times repeated; at
each rustling the room grew darker. A door closing sounded faintly. The
Poor Boy slept on. But for his breathing you might have thought him
dead, flat on his back, ankles crossed, hands peacefully folded.

It was the middle of the night when he waked.

"Martha."

The old woman was there, crouched between the lounge and the fire. God
knew how her poor bones ached. The Poor Boy would never know.

"Yes, dearie."

"Put your arms around me like old times and tell me you _know_ I didn't
do it."

There arose in the room, like sad music, the sound of the old woman's
sobbing.

"I'm so tired," said the Poor Boy, "and so glad."

This time he slept till morning.

IV

For many days it appeared as if the Poor Boy's entire efforts were
directed into an attempt to sleep off his troubles. Experience was like
a drug of which he could not rid himself; he waked, tried to read, tried
to walk, tried to enjoy looking out over the valley, and soon gave it
up, and threw himself on his bed, or on the big lounge in the
living-room. And these days, of course, so the pendulum swings, were
followed by days and nights in which he could not sleep at all.

But old Martha was not worried, though she pretended to be. It was
natural that having slept too much he should now sleep too little. She
prescribed exercise and usefulness. One day she made him wash all the
dishes, and prune all the rose-vines, and tie them in readiness for
straw jackets when winter should set in, and she made him split wood in
the cellar, and after dinner she made him go to the piano and play Irish
music for her until the sweat stood out on his forehead. Then she
ordered him under a cold shower, and when he was in bed she pulled up a
chair, and told him the longest and dullest story she knew--"The Banshee
of Kilmanogg." And behold he slept, and was wakened by birds in the ivy
who were talking over their plans for going south for the winter.

The Poor Boy opened his rested eyes and listened to the birds. There
were some who intended to travel by the seaboard air-line, others by the
midland air-line; for the most part they were going to Florida and the
Gulf States for the cold months; but a certain robin and his wife,
tempted by the memory of crumbs and suet which a wise and wonderful old
lady always put out for them, had determined to winter at