He shook her gently. Her head drooped a little lower, but her eyes remained closed.
"Mother, get awake."
His voice was harsh and loud, and the shake he gave her vigorous and sudden, but her head only drooped lower.
The Myers brothers had laid Cassi on the floor at her feet, and were standing at a little distance from her. Matthi, stanching the flow of blood from his lips, stood near the door.
It was a cruel scene, this attempt on the part of an older son to arouse his mother to the knowledge of the injury done to her best beloved, and in silence the spectators beheld it.
Sharply the stillness was broken as Lizzī, with a shriek, threw herself across Cassi and buried her face in her mother's lap.
"Dead, dead!" she moaned, "Cassi and mother—and both for me!"
Cassi was restored to his senses by the jar of her fall upon him, and Thomas Myers saw in his opening eyes the return of life.
"Cassi's livin'!" he cried. "He's opened his eyes."