er to grow fond of any one in
so short a time, but she took you right into her heart from the first.
If I had not loved you so much I should have been jealous, but who could
be jealous of you, you precious, brave saint?

'I have heard of the gate of heaven, but last night we were there.

'Dick was supporting her in his arms, poor Dick, he was so fond of her,
and it was so hard for her to breathe--and we were all gathered round
her, our hearts breaking to think it was the last time. She has suffered
terribly lately, but at the last the pain left her, and she lay with the
very rapture of heaven on her dear face, talking so brightly of how we
should do after she had gone. It was just as if she were going on a
pleasure trip, and we were to follow later. She turned to me with her
lovely eyes all aglow with joy, and said:--

'"Give my Bible to the dear child in the valley" (that was what she
always called you), "and tell her 'the miles to heaven are but short and
few.'"

'She had a message for us all, and then, suddenly, just as the dawn
broke, a great light swept over her face and she turned her head and
whispered, "Jesus!" just as if He were close beside her, and then--she
was gone.

'I shall never forget it. I have always thought of Death as the King of
Terrors, but last night it was the coming of the Bridegroom for His
own.'

With a low cry Pauline's head dropped. There could never be anyone just
like 'my lady,' and she had gone away.

The hours passed silently, as she sat benumbed in the grasp of her great
sorrow.

Suddenly she sprang up. Her father was calling her from the foot of the
stairs.

'Mother's had a bad turn. Send Stephen for the doctor, and come, quick!'

She hurried down, and mechanically heated water, and did what she could
to help the stricken woman, but before the doctor could reach the house,
the Angel of Death had swept over the threshold, and Pauline and her
father were left alone.

* * * * *

'Here's a letter for yer, Pawliney. Don't yer wish yer may git it?' and
Lemuel, the irrepressible, waved it at her tantalisingly from the top of
the tall hickory, where he had perched himself, like the monkey that he
was.

She saw the Boston post-mark, and stretched out her hands for it
longingly.

'Bring it down, there's a dear boy.'

'Not much! I bet Leander that I could make you mad, an' he bet his new
jack-knife that I couldn't. I'm goin' to chew it up. It's