from her sight, he waved his cap toward her,
and she turned homeward, murmuring to herself, "He didn't say nothin';
but he looked just as ef he _wanted_ to say suthin'." On that look the
poor hungry heart fed itself. It was the one thing in the world that was
her own, that nobody could take from her,--the memory of a look.

Time passed on, and Chloe went her rounds, from house-service to the
field, and from field-service to the fish-flake. The Widow Lawton had
strongly impressed upon her mind that the Scripture said, "Six days
shalt thou work." On the Sabbath no out-door work was carried on, for
the Widow was a careful observer of established forms; but there were so
many chores to be done inside the house, that Chloe was on her feet most
of the day, except when she was dozing in a dark corner of the
meeting-house gallery, while the Reverend Mr. Gordonmammon explained the
difference between justification and sanctification. Chloe didn't
understand it, any more than she did the moaning of the sea; and the
continuous sound without significance had the same tendency to lull her
to sleep. But she regarded the minister with great awe. It never entered
her mind that he belonged to the same species as herself. She supposed
God had sent him into the world with special instructions to warn
sinners; and that sinners were sent into the world to listen to him and
obey him. Her visage lengthened visibly whenever she saw him approaching
with his cocked hat and ivory-headed cane. He was something far-off and
mysterious to her imagination, like the man in the moon; and it never
occurred to her that he might enter as a disturbing element into the
narrow sphere of her humble affairs. But so it was destined to be.

The minister was one of the nearest neighbors, and not unfrequently had
occasion to negotiate with the Widow Lawton concerning the curing of
hams in her smoke-house, or the exchange of pumpkins for dried fish.
When their business was transacted, the Widow usually asked him to "stop
and take a dish o' tea"; and he was inclined to accept the invitation,
for he particularly liked the flavor of her doughnuts and pies. On one
of these occasions, he said: "I have another matter of business to speak
with you about, Mrs. Lawton,--a matter nearly connected with my temporal
interest and convenience. My Tom has taken it into his head that he
wants a wife, and he is getting more and more uneasy about it. Last
night he strayed off three mil