“Your father sometimes walks on the railroad a little distance, as far as Carter’s pasture. Perhaps we had better take that way.”

Harry assented. There was a scared look on his face, and a fear which he did not dare to define to himself.

It was realized all too soon. About fifty rods distant, they came upon the mangled remains of his father, lying stretched across the track. His hearing had been affected by a fever, which, he had three years previous. It was evident, that as he was walking on the track, the train sweeping round a curve had come upon him unawares, and his life was the forfeit. Harry uttered one shriek of horror, and sank down beside his father’s body, now cold in death.

CHAPTER IV.
AFTER THE FUNERAL.

The grief of Mrs. Raymond and her two children, for the death of the husband and father, was very sharp and poignant. Had he died at home of some lingering illness, their minds would have been prepared in some measure for the stroke. But, cut off as he was in an instant, the blow fell upon them very heavily.

On the third day after the body was found, the funeral took place. Harry attended as chief mourner, for his mother was compelled to remain at home on account of illness. But when the funeral was over other cares forced themselves upon their attention. It is only the rich who can afford to give themselves up unreservedly to the luxury of grief. The poor must rouse themselves to battle for their bread. In Mr. Raymond’s death his family had not only lost an affectionate husband and father, but the one upon whom they had leaned for support. How they were to live in future was a question which demanded their earliest consideration.

They were gathered in the little sitting-room one evening about a week after Mr. Raymond’s death. Mrs. Raymond was looking sad and pale, while Harry’s face was sober and earnest. He already began to realize that his father’s cares and responsibilities had fallen on his young shoulders, and that it was his duty to take that father’s place as well as he should be able.

“It is time, mother,” he said, “that we began to talk about our future plans.”