. Now I'm through. This is my house--or, at
any rate, I pay the rent for it. If you leave it to go gold-diggin' you
needn't come back to it. If you do you won't be let in.' Of course I
never thought he'd go, but he did. Ah hum! I'm afraid I didn't do
right. I ought to have realized that he wa'n't really accountable, poor,
weak-headed critter!"

Emily's eyes were fast shutting, but she made one more remark.

"Your life has been a hard one, hasn't it, Auntie," she said.

Thankful protested. "Oh, no, no!" she declared. "No harder'n anybody
else's, I guess likely. This world has more hards than softs for the
average mortal and I never flattered myself on bein' above the average.
But there! How in the nation did I get onto this subject? You and
me settin' here on other folks's furniture--or what was furniture
once--soppin' wet through and half froze, and me talkin' about troubles
that's all dead and done with! What DID get me started? Oh, yes, the
storm. I was just thinkin' how most of the important things in my life
had had bad weather mixed up with 'em. Come to think of it, it rained
the day Mrs. Pearson was buried. And her dyin' was what set me to
thinkin' of cruisin' down here to East Wellmouth and lookin' at the
property Uncle Abner left me. I've never laid eyes on that property and
I don't even know what the house looks like. I might have asked that
depot-wagon driver, but I thought 'twas no use tellin' him my private
affairs, so I said we was bound to the hotel, and let it go at that.
If I had asked he might at least have told me where. . . . Hey?
Why--why--my land! I never thought of it, but it might be! It might!
Emily!"

But Miss Howes' eyes were closed now. In spite of her wet garments and
her nervousness concerning their burglarious entry of the empty house
she had fallen asleep. Thankful did not attempt to wake her. Instead she
tiptoed to the kitchen and the woodbox, took from the latter the last
few slabs of pine wood and, returning, filled the stove to the top. Then
she sat down in the chair once more.

For some time she sat there, her hands folded in her lap. Occasionally
she glanced about the room and her lips moved as if she were talking to
herself. Then she rose and peered out of the window. Rain and blackness
and storm were without, but nothing else. She returned to the sofa and
stood looking down at the sleeper. Emily stirred a little and shivered.

That shiver helped to strengthen the fears in Mrs