elieve it. A nice
set of friends you are--the whole of you. I mean to stir up the ground
under you all until I find out where the truth is. Then you can begin to
stare with the others, you blind mole!" and Judith suddenly walked off as
if the earth were burning beneath her angry feet.

Blasi understood neither her words nor her anger. He looked after her,
shook his head rather sadly, and said to himself,

"Women folk are a very foolish folk."

Home sped the "foolish" Judith; put on her Sunday garments and started on
her journey. If ever she had a project in her head, she did not wait till
to-morrow to put it into execution. And to-day she was bent on giving the
cattle dealer a piece of her mind. She paused a moment when she came to
Gertrude's house, then went on her way, saying half aloud,

"No, I'll say nothing to her, since she says nothing to me. If 'mum's' the
word I can use it as well as she."

Judith was pained that Gertrude had not from the beginning talked with her
of her troubles, for Judith was one who liked to give and receive
sympathy. Veronica too was much too reticent to please her kind-hearted
neighbor who could never get a word with her about what was going on.
Veronica and Gertrude were both very silent by nature, about anything that
touched them deeply, especially in sorrow. On the first day after the
terrible blow that had befallen them, they talked it all over, and wept
together, to ease their hearts of the first misery. Then Gertrude said,

"Dietrich has sinned and he must make atonement, but he has not stolen; I
am sure that my son is not a thief." And Veronica had responded promptly,

"If every one in the whole world said that he had stolen that money, I
should not listen; for I know he is no thief."

As soon as it became known that Dietrich was gone, letters and bills came
pouring in upon the poor widow. Her son had borrowed large sums of money
and had lost even more at play. She soon found that not only all her
husband's savings, but also the house and the business were deeply
encumbered. She talked things over with the workman who had been so many
years in her employ and asked if he would help her carry on the business
as he had done after her husband's death while Dietrich was still a child.
The man was very angry with Dietrich for having thrown away the result of
all those years of labor, and at first refused to have anything more to do
with the business. He yielded at last, howeve