and shivering and standing
about, not knowing where to go or what to do. And then Miss Katherine is
in the midst of them, smiling and beckoning, and they follow and follow,
and wings come out. Just tiny ones at first, and then larger and larger,
and presently they fly all around her, and she points the way, smiling
and cheering.

And then they rise higher and higher, and off they go, and she is alone.
Tired out but glad, because she taught them how to use their wings.

VII

"STERILIZED AND FERTILIZED"

This is Sunday, and we have done all the usual Sunday things. There
won't be another for seven days. For that we give thanks in our hearts,
but not out loud.

This was Presbyterian Sunday. Miss Bray is a Presbyterian.

It is a solemn thing to be a Presbyterian, and easy for the mind, too.
Everything is fixed, and there is no unfixing. You are saved or you are
not saved, and you will never know which it is until after you are dead
and find out. Miss Bray believes she is saved, and she takes liberties.
She also thinks everything is as God ordered it, and she believes God
ordered poor Mrs. Craddock to die--that is, took her away. I don't. I
think it was that last baby.

She had had twelve, and the thirteenth just wore her out at the thought.
There being nobody to do anything for her, she got up and cooked
breakfast in her stocking feet when the baby was only a week old, and
that night she had the influenza, and the next pneumonia. On the sixth
day she was dead, and so was the baby. They forgot to feed it.

I don't believe God ever took any mothers away intentional. He never
would have made them so necessary if He had meant to take them away when
they were most needed. When they go I believe He is sorry.

I don't know how to explain it. Nobody does, though a lot try. But I
know He sees it bigger than we do, and maybe He is working at something
that isn't finished yet.

Minnie Peters is real sick. Miss Katherine has put her in the
hospital-room, and is staying in there with her.

I am all alone by myself to-night. I don't like aloneness at night. It
makes you pay too much attention to your feelings, which Miss Katherine
says is the cause of more trouble in this world than all other diseases
put together.

She says, too, that what we feel about a thing is very often different
from the way other people feel about it. And when you don't agree with
people, the only thing you can be sure about is that they d