of the death of Mrs. Excell. She died very suddenly of acute
pneumonia. She was always careless of her footwear and went
out in the snow to hang out some linen without her rubber
shoes. We did everything that could be done but she only
lived six days after the exposure. Life is very hard for me
now. I write also to say that as I am now alone and in bad
health I shall accept a call to Sweetwater Springs, Colorado,
for two reasons. One is that my health may be regained, and
for the reason, also, my dear son, that I may be nearer
you. If this reaches you and you can come to see me I hope
you will do so. I am lonely now and I long for you. The
parish is small and the pay meager, but that will not matter
if I can see you occasionally. Maud and her little family
are well. I go to my new church in April.

"Your father,
"SAMUEL EXCELL."

For a moment this letter made Mose feel his father's loneliness, and had
he not held in his hand two other and more important letters he would
have replied with greater tenderness than ever before in his life.

"Well, Mose, set up," said Mrs. Reynolds; "letters'll keep."

He was distracted all through the meal in spite of the incessant
questioning of his good friends. They were determined to uncover every
act of his long years of wandering.

"Yes," he said, "I've been hungry and cold, but I always looked after my
horse, and so, when I struck a cow country I could whirl in and earn
some money. It don't take much to keep me when I'm on the trail."

"What's the good of seein' so much?" asked Mrs. Reynolds.

He smiled a slow, musing smile. "Oh, I don't know. The more you see the
more you want to see. Just now I feel like taking a little rest."

Cora smiled at him. "I wish you would. You look like a starved cat--you
ought'o let us feed you up for a while."

"Spoil me for the trail," he said, but his eyes conveyed a message of
gratitude for her sympathy, and she flushed again.

After supper Mrs. Reynolds said: "Now if you want to read your letters
by yourself, you can." She opened a door and he looked in.

"A bed! I haven't slept in a bed for two years."

"Well, it won't kill ye, not for one night, I reckon," she said.

He looked around the little room, at the dainty lace curtains tied with
little bows of ribbon, at the pictures and lambrequins