ut I meant to
store them in the cedar chest. I wonder if I have been that careless."

She stood up on a chair and threw down some bundles with unnecessary
force. Then she stepped down and began to look them over, keeping up a
running comment. She would not have admitted that she was talking
against time, secretly hoping the little girl would drop off to sleep.
But the coat was not in any of the bundles.

"I think it must be in the chest. While I'm about it I may as well go
and see. If you have outgrown it, it could be made over into a dress;
it's nice, fine merino, a little thicker than I'd buy for a dress, but
your father would have just that piece. I'll get a candle and go
up-stairs--I wouldn't trust a glass lamp with this horrid burning-fluid
in _my_ storeroom. Hanny, be sure you don't get up and touch it," as if
there was the slightest possibility. "I'll be down again in five
minutes."

That was a shrewd motherly excuse not to leave the little girl alone in
the dark, though she was never afraid.

She lay there very still, with a feeling of safety since her mother was
up-stairs. Of course she was old enough to know a great many things and
to have ideas on religious subjects. But I think the Underhills were
more intelligent than intellectual, and people were still living rather
simple lives, not yet impregnated with ideas. They had not had the old
Puritan training, and the ferment of science and philosophy and
transcendentalism had not invaded the country places. To-night in the
city there were wise heads proving and disproving the times and half
times, and days and signs, but they really had no interest for Mrs.
Underhill, who was training her family the best she knew how, making
good men and women.

And the little girl's ideas were extremely vague. She thought her soul
was that part of her heart that beat. When it ceased beating you died
and the body was left behind; so of course that was what went to heaven.
And when she had been naughty or when she had left something undone and
was hurrying with all her might to do it, this thing beat and throbbed.
If she wanted something very much and was almost tempted to take it, the
feeling came up in her throat, and she knew that was conscience. She was
trying now to recall and repent of her sins, and oh, she did so wish
her father was here. Would he be back before the end came, and take them
all in his strong arms? and they would run--Oh, no! they were to be
caught up