"How did you know?" asked Lottie, as she raised her tear-stained face in surprise at his knowledge, when she knew he had been away so long.
"Never mind that, either," returned Joel; "but tell me everything."
Lottie told about the death of their mother, then added:
"Oh, Joel, she so wanted to see you before she died, and now it's too late."
"Yes, too late." The words found an echo in the young man's own breast. He had put it off too long, this home-coming. Hoping and wanting to come back to his home and parents, well able to take care of himself and to help them too, he had waited, and worked, and saved, and now she for whom he so longed was not here to bid him welcome. The thought also came to him that it was well this "too late" came only in the disappointment of earthly hopes. Suppose it meant the loss of his soul as well? Then another thought came, this time full of comfort and peace:
"She will know I am changed, and I shall meet her in heaven."
Then he turned to his sister, feeling that here was a work for him—a legacy left him by his mother.
"Where is father, Lottie?" he asked a moment later, inwardly wondering at her presence here.
"Father? Oh, after mother's death he couldn't stay there any more, he said, and so he went away to work. Out west, I believe," she added, rather glad than otherwise to break the silence that had followed her last words. "I haven't seen him since he brought me to live here."
"Live here? With whom?" inquired her brother.