the black
night.

CHAPTER IV.

The house in which the Smiths lived was small. Susannah crossed a
field-path, led by a light in their window. In the living room a truckle
bed had already been made up. By the fire Joseph and Emma were both
occupied with two sick children. These children, twins of about a year,
had been taken out of pity at their mother's death, and Susannah was
told as she entered that they had been attacked by measles.

Susannah found that the fact that she had been to the meeting had not
irritated the Smiths, although Mrs. Rigdon had called to make the most
of the story. Emma, absorbed in manifold cares for the children, was
only solicitous on Susannah's account lest a night's rest in that house
should be impossible. Smith, pacing with a child in his arms, seemed to
be head and shoulders above the level whose surface could be ruffled by
life's minor affairs. With the eye of his inner mind he was gazing
either at some lofty scheme of his own imagining, or at heaven or at
vacancy. All of him that was looking at the smaller beings about him was
composed and kind.

One of the twins, less ill than the other, had fallen asleep in Emma's
arms. The other was wailing pitifully upon the prophet's breast.

"Do you and Mrs. Halsey go in and lie down with that young un, Emmar,
and rest now for a bit while ye can."

"I can't leave ye, Joseph, with the child setting out to cry all night
like that."

But he had his way. Long after they had lain down in the inner room
Susannah heard him rocking the wailing babe, or trying to feed it, or
pacing the floor. Emma, worn out, slept beside her. Upstairs the owners
of the house, an old couple named Johnson, and Emma's own child, were at
rest.

Susannah lay rigidly still in the small portion of the bed which fell to
her share. Her mind was up, wandering through waste places, seeking rest
in vain. The wail of the child in the next room at last had ceased. The
prophet had lain down with it on the truckle bed. Long after midnight
Susannah began to hear a low sound as of creeping footsteps in the
field. Some people were passing very near, surely they would go past in
a moment? She heard them brushing against the outer wall, and gleams of
a light carried fell upon the window.

In a minute more the outer door of the house was broken open. Emma woke
with a cry; instinct, even in sleep, made her spring toward the door
that separated her from her husband.

The two w