hun. Make way ef you don' wants to
go to Kingdom come fo' yo' time.'

"Well, I 'lows dey did make way. Only Pere Antoine, he look mighty
sorry an' down cas'.

"Gregor go out dat sto' taking plenty room, an' walkin' car'ful like,
an' he swing he se'f on de hoss; den he lean down mos' flat an' stick
he spurs in dat hoss an' he go tar'in' like de win' down street, out
o' de town, a firin' he pistol up in de a'r."

Uncle Hiram had listened to the foregoing recital with troubled
countenance, and with many a protesting groan. He now shook his old
white head, and heaved a deep sigh. "All dat gwine come hard an' heavy
on de madam. She don't desarve it--God knows, she don't desarve it."

"How you, ole like you is, kin look fu' somethin' diffunt, Unc'
Hiurm?" observed Aunt Belindy philosophically. "Don't you know Gregor
gwine be Gregor tell he die? Dat's all dar is 'bout it."

Betsy arose with the sudden recollection that she had let the time
pass for bringing in Miss Therese's hot water, and Pierson went to the
stove to see what Aunt Belindy had reserved for him in the shape of
supper.

IX

The Reason Why.

Sampson, the young colored boy who had lighted Fanny's fire on the
first day of her arrival at Place-du-Bois, and who had made such
insinuating advances of friendliness towards her, had continued to
attract her notice and good will. He it was who lighted her fires on
such mornings as they were needed. For there had been no winter. In
mid-January, the grass was fresh and green; trees and plants were
putting forth tender shoots, as if in welcome to spring; roses were
blossoming, and it was a veritable atmosphere of Havana rather than of
central Louisiana that the dwellers at Place-du-Bois were enjoying.
But finally winter made tardy assertion of its rights. One morning
broke raw and black with an icy rain falling, and young Sampson
arriving in the early bleakness to attend to his duties at the
cottage, presented a picture of human distress to move the most
hardened to pity. Though dressed comfortably in the clothing with
which Fanny had apparelled him--he was ashen. Save for the chattering
of his teeth, his body seemed possessed of a paralytic inability to
move. He knelt before the empty fire-place as he had done on that
first day, and with deep sighs and groans went about his work. Then he
remained long before the warmth that he had kindled; even lying full
length upon the soft rug, to bask in the generous h