her limbs and do for those poor young 'uns!"

To Nonie and Davy death was a strangely mysterious thing which they
took for granted; dogs and cats and calves died; frequently there was a
burial in the village cemetery. These had always had an element of
excitement which even stirred the Hopworth home, detached though it was
from the village life. They looked at Liz, now, with wide eager eyes.
To have "straightened poor Sarah Hopkins' limbs" seemed to have
transformed her--her tone was kinder, something almost tender gleamed
in her tired eyes, and she was making pan-cakes for their breakfast!

"Just fetch that grease, Nonie. Step spry, too--there's a lot to be
done before this day's over. Lordy, I thought to myself last night,
that the Lord strikes hard--leavin' those ten children that haven't
done no wrong without any mother to manage and Timothy Hopkins sittin'
there as helpless like he'd been hit over the head, he's that stunned.
And scarcely a bite in the house."

Old Dan'l had long since gotten past the day of worrying over the ways
of the Lord. Nor to him was there anything particularly startling in a
lack of food. His had always been a philosophy that believed that from
somewhere or other Providence would provide, and if it didn't--

"Scarcely a bite, and all steppin' on one another, there's so many of
'em, and then when I think o' Happy House and the plenty there's there,
well, 's I say, the Lord's ways are beyond _me_! Eat up your
breakfast, Nonie. You gotta do up the work here, for I told that poor
man I'd come back quick as ever I could. There's no end of work to be
done 'fore that place will look fit for folks to come and see her."

"Can I go, too, Liz?" asked Davy. "Mebbe I can help."

Normally Liz would have made a sharp retort. Now she considered a
moment.

"Mebbe you can. You can play with the baby so's Jennie can help me
sweep and dust. Sarah Hopkins would turn over if she thought folks was
goin' to see the muss and litter. Hurry along."

All that Liz had said of the house of mourning had been true. Davy
found the muss and litter; the poor smithy wandering helplessly around
and the "young 'uns" stepping on one another. He shut his eyes tight
so that he would not have to catch the tiniest glimpse of poor Sarah
Hopkins lying very still in the bedroom off the kitchen. He was glad
when Liz, in a strangely brisk tone, bade Jennie, the oldest Hopkins
girl, give the baby over to Davy.