like death even better
as soon as I've gotten used to the feel of it. The Lord always appears
a heap nearer to the dead, somehow, than He does to the livin', and
I shouldn't be amazed to find it less lonely than life after I'm once
safely settled."

"You've seen so many die that you've grown used to it," said Molly
through her tears.

For a moment he gazed wistfully at the apple boughs, while his face
darkened, as if he were watching a procession of shadows. In his seventy
years he had gained a spiritual insight which penetrated the visible
body of things in search of the truth beneath the ever-changing
appearance. There are a few blameless yet suffering beings on whom
nature has conferred a simple wisdom of the heart which contains
a profounder understanding of life than the wisdom of the mind can
grasp--and Reuben was one of these. Sorrow had sweetened in his soul
until it had turned at last into sympathy.

"I've seen 'em come an' go like the flakes of light out yonder in the
orchard," he answered almost in a whisper. "Young an' old, glad an'
sorry, I've seen 'em go--an' never one among 'em but showed in thar face
when 'twas over that 'twas the best thing had ever happened. It's hard
for me now to separate the livin' from the dead, unless it be that the
dead are gittin' closer all the time an' the livin' further away."

"And you're never afraid, grandfather?"

"Well, when it comes to that, honey, I reckon if I can trust the Lord in
the light, I can trust him in the darkness. I ain't as good a Christian
as my ma was--she could beat Sarah Revercomb when it came to sayin' the
Bible backwards--but I've yet to see the spot of natur, either human
or clay, whar we couldn't find the Lord at work if we was to dig deep
enough."

He stopped at sight of a small figure running under the apple trees,
and a minute later Patsey, the Gay's maid, reached the flagged walk
and panted out a request that Miss Molly should come to the house for a
birthday present which awaited her there.

"Won't you go with me, grandfather?" asked the girl, turning to Reuben.

"I ain't at home thar, Molly," answered the old man. "It's well enough
to preach equality an' what not when you're walking on the opposite side
of the road, as Abel would say, but it don't ring true while yo' feet
are slippin' an' slidin' over a parlour floor."

"Then I shan't go without you. Where you aren't welcome is a place I can
stay away from."

"Thar, thar, honey,