cast upon the moonlit meadowland where she had gaily
danced with her rake in hand only a few hours before. Two giant forms
(so the moonbeams made it) swayed back and forth, gripped together like
one, scarcely moving from one spot as they wrestled, as though 'twould
take force to uproot them--force like that of the whirlwind in the
spring, that tore the old oak like a sapling from its foundations laid
centuries ago.

"Kitty, struck dumb like one in nightmare, fled across the meadow
towards the mill-race.

"As she went, the shadows lifted and changed with a cruel uprising that
told her the end was near. If she could have cried out then, and if they
had heard! But as she fled on unheeding, the moon was suddenly obscured.
It was pitch dark, and the muttering thunder broke into a roar that
shook the earth under Kitty's feet. How long was it before the moon
drifted from out that cloud-bank, where lightning played with zig-zag
flames? How long?

"When the moonbeams fell again upon the meadow-lands the shadows were
gone and Kitty stood alone upon the banks of the mill-race, looking at
the rushing dark waters. When she turned homewards she met Joel face to
face. He was pale, but a triumphant light shone in his eyes. He came
forward with open arms--'Kitty, my Kitty!' he cried.

"Kitty stood one moment, with eyes that seemed to pierce to his very
heart, then she turned to the splashing waters and pointed solemnly.

"'Elihu, where is Elihu?' she asked; and in that moment, when Joel hung
his head before her without a word of answer, Kitty fell down like a
dead thing at his feet.

"And I, who knew her so well, I tell you that Kitty died there on that
meadow by the race, just twenty year ago to-day.

"Joel, you ask? What come to Joel? Well, p'raps he felt bad just at
first, for he went away for two, three year, I believe. But he come
back, did Joel, and Kitty never molested him by word or deed. You can
see his house there below the mill; he's married long since and his
house is full of children. But never, since that June night twenty year
ago, has he dared set foot at the old homestead. Folks talked--of course
they talked--but Kitty, the staid, sad woman they called Kitty, heeded
nothing that was said. Joel, he tried to right himself and writ her many
a long letter at the first.

"'It was a fair wrestle,' said he, 'and him as was beaten was to leave
the place and not come back for months or years. Elihu was beat on the
wres