“It is a shame to disregard our dear mother’s wishes, now that she cannot speak for herself,” said Mary, in a whisper, aside to Jean.
“I know it; and I’ve already made a bargain with Mrs. McAlpin to store them in one of her wagons. Daddie will thank us for it sometime.”
Sadly and silently the work went on; for the living had to be cared for, and nothing more could be done for the dead.
When evening came Jean sought her journal, climbed to the rim of the little natural amphitheatre overlooking the sparkling spring of icy water near her mother’s last resting-place, and read in the last space she had left blank, in her father’s bold chirography, some lines of a poem which he had quoted from memory:—
“’Twas midnight, and he sat alone,
The husband of the dead.
That day the dark dust had been thrown
Above her buried head.
“Her orphaned children round him slept,
But in their sleep would moan;