gravity in which his
hand frequently glided over his bald crown, "are you a good Bible
woman? I mean are you a good interpreter of the Scriptures? Seems like I
didn't used to look to others fer the meanin' in things, but I'm gittin'
a leetle mite older and folks is pretty apt to confuse wishes with
facts----"

But Elizabeth's austere face, with its rigid regard for set duties, was
reddening. "I read my chapter every night and I try to live accordin',"
she answered.

Then into Uncle Ambrose's old voice there crept such an eagerness it
might have held the warm desire of youth: "Mebbe you kin tell me
then--the meanin' of this here Bible text. I ain't never regarded it for
seventy years, but I been worryin' over it consider'ble of late, and now
I'd like to get a woman's views on it." And with his trembling
forefinger following the lines he had read to himself on the evening
before Elizabeth's installation he said: "It is what Jesus remarked to
the Sadducees: 'For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given
in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.'" And here Uncle
Ambrose's eyes travelled wistfully toward the faded daguerreotype on his
side wall.

Naturally his listener was puzzled, but afterward laughed a laugh with a
touch of new humour in it. "Lord! Uncle Ambrose, I _am_ sorry," she
apologized, "but I ain't had cause to worry over that text same as you
have; bein's as I'm turned fifty now and ain't had so much as _one_
husband on this earth, I'm kind of expectin' to carry my same single
blessedness along with me on the t'other side."

Uncle Ambrose's eyes twinkled appreciatively, but a moment later he
looked uncomfortable again. "Well, I reckon that's reasonable of you,
'Lizabeth," he agreed. "Folks can't understand things fer other folks;
there's plenty can't comprehend me marryin' so often and now worryin'
over arrangements for the future. But it's like this, child: a man may
git a lot of _help_mates in this world, but he don't find his _real_
mate but once. And I want to know which one of my three wives is goin'
to claim me in heaven, 'cause it looks like that combination's got to be
eternal. To tell you the truth, I was so worried lately I sent fer the
latest Baptist preacher and put this question up to him, and all he did
was to read this selfsame verse out of St. Matthew as though I hadn't
read and studied over it more'n a hundred times. The new brother seemed
to think we'd have to travel a