her mother, which the place and occasion awakened.

"Every once in a while it comes over me how poor mother relished them
hot biscuits and that tea at your funeral," she whispered softly to
Abel, who smiled with child-like serenity in response.

All day Abel sat in state, which was, however, intensified in the
afternoon by a new suit of clothes, which Jerome had purchased in
Dale. As soon as Jerome returned with it, he was hustled into the
bedroom with his father.

"Get your father into 'em quick, before anybody else comes," said Ann
Edwards. She was dressed in her best, and Elmira had further adorned
her with a little worked lace kerchief of her own, fastened at the
bosom with a sprig of rose-geranium leaves and blossoms. Ann had
confined herself to her chair since arising that morning. She made no
allusion to her walking the night before, and seemed to expect
assistance as usual.

"Do you suppose mother can't walk this morning?" Elmira whispered to
Jerome.

"Hush," he replied, "don't bother her with it unless she speaks of it
herself. I have a book which gives instances of people recovering
under strong excitement, and then going back to where they were
before. I don't believe mother can walk, or she would."

Ann Edwards and Abel sat side by side on the sofa in the parlor, and
the visitors came and greeted them, with a curious manner, which had
in it not so much of the joy of greeting, as awe and a solemn
perplexity. Always, after shaking hands with the united couple, they
whispered furtively to one another that Abel Edwards was much
changed, they should scarcely have known him. Yet, with their simple
understandings, they could not have defined the change, which they
recognized plainly enough, for it lay not so much in form and feature
as in character. Abel Edwards's hair was white, he was somewhat
fuller in his face, but otherwise he was little altered, so far as
mere physical characteristics went. The change in him was subtler.
Jerome had noticed it the night before, and it was evidently a
permanent condition. Abel Edwards, from being a reserved man, with
the self-containment of one who is buffeted by unfair odds of fate,
yet will not stoop to vain appeals, but holds always to the front his
face of dumb dissent and purpose, was become a garrulous and happy
child. People hinted that Abel Edwards's mind was affected, but it
was a question whether that was the case, or whether it was the
simple result of his a