Mary went out for the beef tea. Then Jack saw Gran's white hand feebly beckon.
"Ruth!" she said. "Ruth!"
The eldest daughter went over and took the hand, mopping her eyes. She was the parson's wife.
"Well, Ruth, how are you!" said Gran's high, quavering voice in a conversational tone.
"I'm well, Mother. It's how are you?" replied Ruth dismally.
But Gran was again totally oblivious of her. So at length Ruth dropped away embarrassed from the bedside, shaking her head.
Again Gran lifted her head on the pillow.
"Where's Jacob?"
"Upstairs, mother."
"The only one that has the decency to leave me alone." And she subsided again. Then after a while she asked, without lifting her head from the pillow, in a distant voice: