wore on, after you
left here, one after another ventured to make occasion to put somethin'
ashore for her if they went that way. I know mother used to go to see
her sometimes, and send William over now and then with something fresh
an' nice from the farm. There is a point on the sheltered side where you
can lay a boat close to shore an' land anything safe on the turf out o'
reach o' the water. There were one or two others, old folks, that
she would see, and now an' then she'd hail a passin' boat an' ask for
somethin'; and mother got her to promise that she would make some sign
to the Black Island folks if she wanted help. I never saw her myself to
speak to after that day."

"I expect nowadays, if such a thing happened, she'd have gone out West
to her uncle's folks or up to Massachusetts and had a change, an' come
home good as new. The world's bigger an' freer than it used to be,"
urged Mrs. Fosdick.

"No," said her friend. "'Tis like bad eyesight, the mind of such a
person: if your eyes don't see right there may be a remedy, but there's
no kind of glasses to remedy the mind. No, Joanna was Joanna, and there
she lays on her island where she lived and did her poor penance. She
told mother the day she was dyin' that she always used to want to be
fetched inshore when it come to the last; but she'd thought it over, and
desired to be laid on the island, if 'twas thought right. So the funeral
was out there, a Saturday afternoon in September. 'Twas a pretty day,
and there wa'n't hardly a boat on the coast within twenty miles that
didn't head for Shell-heap cram-full o' folks an' all real respectful,
same's if she'd always stayed ashore and held her friends. Some went out
o' mere curiosity, I don't doubt,--there's always such to every funeral;
but most had real feelin', and went purpose to show it. She'd got most
o' the wild sparrows as tame as could be, livin' out there so long among
'em, and one flew right in and lit on the coffin an' begun to sing
while Mr. Dimmick was speakin'. He was put out by it, an' acted as if he
didn't know whether to stop or go on. I may have been prejudiced, but
I wa'n't the only one thought the poor little bird done the best of the
two."

"What became o' the man that treated her so, did you ever hear?" asked
Mrs. Fosdick. "I know he lived up to Massachusetts for a while. Somebody
who came from the same place told me that he was in trade there an'
doin' very well, but that was years ago."

"I ne