ER.

Jackanapes' death was sad news for the Goose Green, a sorrow justly
qualified by honorable pride in his gallantry and devotion. Only the
Cobbler dissented, but that was his way. He said he saw nothing in it
but foolhardiness and vain-glory. They might both have been killed,
as easy as not, and then where would ye have been? A man's life was a
man's life, and one life was as good as another. No one would catch
him throwing his away. And, for that matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare
a child a great deal better than Miss Jessamine.

But the parson preached Jackanapes' funeral sermon on the text,
"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose
his life for My sake shall find it;" and all the village went and wept
to hear him.

Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the Cobbler's point of view.
On the contrary, Mrs. Johnson said she never to her dying day should
forget how, when she went to condole with her, the old lady came
forward, with gentle-womanly self-control, and kissed her, and thanked
GOD that her dear nephew's effort had been blessed with success, and
that this sad war had made no gap in her friend's large and happy home
circle.

"But she's a noble, unselfish woman," sobbed Mrs. Johnson, "and she
taught Jackanapes to be the same, and that's how it is that my Tony
has been spared to me. And it must be sheer goodness in Miss
Jessamine, for what can she know of a mother's feelings? And I'm sure
most people seem to think that if you've a large family you don't know
one from another any more than they do, and that a lot of children are
like a lot of store-apples, if one's taken it won't be missed."

Lollo--the first Lollo, the Gipsy's Lollo--very aged, draws Miss
Jessamine's bath-chair slowly up and down the Goose Green in the
sunshine.

The Ex-postman walks beside him, which Lollo tolerates to the level of
his shoulder. If the Postman advances any nearer to his head, Lollo
quickens his pace, and were the Postman to persist in the injudicious
attempt, there is, as Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might
happen.

In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss Jessamine has borne her
troubles "wonderfully." Indeed, to-day, some of the less delicate and
less intimate of those who see everything from the upper windows, say
(well behind her back) that "the old lady seems quite lively with her
military beaux again."

The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson is leaning over one side
of