, and how she tries to
say, 'God bless you!' as you come up to her?"

"Yes, I think I've marked it," said Willy, "and I've seen that light
in her eyes die away into a blank stare or puzzled look, as if she
wanted to ask some question while she lifted them to my face."

"And Laddie there, when he barks down the lonnin--haven't you seen her
then--her breast heaving, the fingers of that hand of hers twitching,
and the mumble of her poor lost voice, as though she'd say, 'Come,
Rotha, my lass, be quick with the supper--he's here, my lass, he's
back?'"

"I think you must be right in that, Rotha--that she misses Ralph,"
said Willy.

"She's nobbut a laal bit quieter, that's all," said Matthew
Branthwaite one morning when he turned in at Shoulthwaite. "The dame
nivver were much of a talker--not to say a _talker_, thoo knows; but
mark me, she loves a crack all the same."

Matthew acted pretty fully upon his own diagnosis of his old
neighbor's seizure. He came to see her frequently, stayed long,
rehearsed for her benefit all the gossip of the village, fired off his
sapient proverbs, and generally conducted himself in his intercourse
with the invalid precisely as he had done before. In answer to any
inquiries put to him at the Red Lion he invariably contented himself
with his single explanation of Mrs. Ray's condition, "She's nobbut a
laal bit quieter, and the dame nivver were much of a talker, thoo
knows."

Rotha Stagg remained at Shoulthwaite in accordance with her promise
given to Ralph. It was well for the household that she did so. Young
as the girl was, she alone seemed to possess either the self-command
or the requisite energy and foresight to keep the affairs of the home
and of the farm in motion. It was not until many days after the
disasters that had befallen the family that Willy Ray recovered enough
self-possession to engage once more in his ordinary occupations. He
had spent the first few days in the room with his stricken mother,
almost as unconscious as herself of what was going on about him; and
indeed his nature had experienced a shock only less serious.

Meantime, Rotha undertook the management of the home-stead. None ever
disputed her authority. The tailor's daughter had stepped into her
place as head of the household at the Moss, and ruled it by that force
of will which inferior natures usually obey without question, and
almost without consciousness of servitude. She alone knew rightly what
had to be d