"Nothing more, only as one recollects that she has been miserably asleep."
"But it was in this time, while I was away to see about that wood, that our baby was killed."
"Killed!—how?"
"Strangled."
"Mother—mother!"
The anguish of this cry made the poor woman tremble; but she must speak out all her fearful knowledge or her daughter would never be prepared for the future.
"Mother, tell me—tell me!"
The poor young creature lay gasping upon her pillow. It was a terrible scene to witness.
"It had been strangled or smothered, and buried deep in the snow, by the rocks under the butternut tree, half way to Mr. Thrasher's."
"There—there in sight of his father's house!"