mmand "not
to give notice to-night" any ray of comfort. She choked down her tears as
best she might, and started for the parsonage.

Thaddeus had almost to run to keep up with her, such was her troubled and
impatient haste, and she scarcely noticed him, though he tramped through
the mud to show his contrition, instead of taking his place by her side
on the board walk.

It is curious to see how a simple soul inflicts useless punishment upon
itself, when the person it has offended refuses to retaliate. Had
Alfaretta scolded, Thaddeus would not have walked in the mud.

Her silence was most depressing.

"Retta," he ventured timidly, "don't be mad with me,--now don't."

He came a little nearer, and essayed to put an arm about her waist, a
privilege often accorded him on such an occasion. But now she flounced
away from him and said sharply, "You needn't be comin' round me, Mr.
Thaddeus Green. Anybody that thinks my Mrs. Ward isn't goin' to heaven
had just better keep off from me, fer I'm goin' with her, wherever that
is; and I suppose, if you think _that_ of me, you'd better not associate
with me."

"I didn't say _you_ was goin'," protested Thaddeus tearfully, but she
interrupted him with asperity.

"Don't I tell you I'm bound to go where she goes? And if you're so
fearful of souls bein' lost, I wonder you don't put all your money in the
missionary-box, instead of buying them new boots."

Perhaps it was the thought of the new boots, but Thaddeus stepped on the
board walk, and this time, unreproved, slipped his arm about Alfaretta's
waist.

"Oh, now Retta," he said, "I didn't mean any harm. I only didn't want the
elder thinkin' I wasn't sound, for he'd be sayin' we shouldn't keep
company, an' that's all I joined the church for last spring."

"Well, then," said Alfaretta, willing to be reconciled if it brought any
comfort, "you do think Mrs. Ward will go to heaven?"

"Yes," Thaddeus answered with great confidence, and added in a burst of
gallantry, "She'll have to, Retta, if she goes along with you, for you'll
go there sure!"

CHAPTER XV.

Mrs. Forsythe did not come to Ashurst until the middle of April, and then
she came alone. Dick had been detained, she said, and would come in a
week or two. So Lois breathed freely, though she knew it was only a
respite, and made the most of her freedom to go and see his mother.

She was very fond of the invalid, who always seemed to her, in her
glowing, rosy health,