children being all in bed,
and his father not come down from the study, his mother asked him about
old Tim's funeral, and the people who were there, and what his father
had said to them. He told her about it, and surprised her and himself
too, by the clearness and accuracy with which he went over the whole
address. He grew quite eager about it, and told her how the people
listened, and how "you might have heard a pin fall" in the little pauses
that came now and then. And when he had done, he said to her as he had
said to his father:

"I wish Frank had been there to hear all that papa said about victory,"
and then, remembering how his father had answered him, his troubled
thoughts came back again, and his face grew grave.

"But it was good for you to hear it, Davie," said his mother.

"Yes," said David, uneasily, thinking she was going to say more. But
she did not, and he did not linger much longer down-stairs. He said he
was tired and sleepy with his long drive in the cold, and he would go to
bed. So carrying them with him, he went up-stairs, where Jem was
sleeping quite too soundly to be wakened for a talk, and they stayed
with him till he went to sleep, which was not for a long time. They
were all gone in the morning, however. A night's sleep and a morning
brilliant with sunshine are quite enough to put painful thoughts out of
the mind of a boy of fourteen--for the time, at least, and David had no
more trouble with his, till Miss Bethia Barnes, coming to visit them one
afternoon, asked him about Mr Bent's funeral and the bearers and
mourners, and about his father's text and sermon, and then they came
back to him again.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Miss Bethia Barnes was a plain and rather peculiar single woman, a good
deal past middle age, who lived by herself in a little house about half
way between the two village's. She was generally called Aunt Bethia by
the neighbours, but she had not gained the title as some old ladies do,
because of the general loving-kindness of their nature. She was a good
woman and very useful, but she was not always very agreeable. To do
just exactly right at all times, and in all circumstances, was the first
wish of her heart; the second wish of her heart was, that everybody else
should do so likewise, and she had fallen into the belief, that she was
not only responsible for her own well-being and well-doing, but for that
of all with whom she came in contact.

Of course it is rig