ove that I was right. Then I shall die young, and perhaps he will
plant something on my grave, and water it with his tears; and perhaps
he will put up a marble gravestone over me, unbeknownst to Jennie, and
have an appropriate verse of Scripture carved on it, something like:

she openeth her mouth with wisdom;
and in her tongue is the law of kindness

I can see it as plain as if it was written. I hope they will make it
come out even on the edges, and that he will think to have a white
marble dove perched on the top, unless it costs too much."

* * * * *

The years went on. Huldah surprised everybody by going away from home
to get an education. She would have preferred marriage at that stage
of her development, but to her mind there was no one worth marrying in
Pleasant River save Pitt Packard, and, failing him, study would fill
up the time as well as anything else.

The education forced a good many helpful ideas into pretty Huldah's
somewhat empty pate, though it by no means cured her of all her
superstitions. She continued to keep a record of Saturday weather, and
it proved as interesting and harmless a hobby as the collecting of
china or postage-stamps.

In course of time Pitt Packard moved to Goshen, Indiana, where he made
a comfortable fortune by the invention of an estimable pump, after
which he was known by his full name of W. Pitt Fessenden Packard. In
course of time the impish and incredulous Jimmy Rumford became James,
and espoused the daughter of a wealthy Boston merchant. His social
advancement was no surprise to Huldah and her mother, for, from the
moment he had left home, they had never dreamed of him save in
conjunction with horned cattle, which is well known to signify
unexampled prosperity.

In course of time, too, old Mrs. Rumford was gathered to her fathers
after a long illness, in which Huldah nursed her dutifully and well.
Her death was not entirely unexpected, for Hannah Sophia Palmer
observed spots like iron rust on her fingers, a dog howled every night
under Almira Berry's window, and Huldah broke the kitchen
looking-glass. No invalid could hope for recovery under these sinister
circumstances, and Mrs. Rumford would have been the last woman in the
world to fly in the face of such unmistakable signs of death. It is
even rumored that when she heard the crash of glass in the kitchen she
murmured piously, "Now lettest T