aw the brass candlesticks with prisms all
'round 'em that used to belong to my mother; and all at once I seemed
to see jest what the Lord intended for me to do.

"'You know,' she says, 'I had a boarder summer before last--that lady
from Louisville--and she wanted them candlesticks the worst kind, and
offered me fifteen dollars for 'em. I wouldn't part with 'em then, but
she said if ever I wanted to sell 'em, to let her know, and she left
her name and address on a cyard. I went to the big Bible and got out
the cyard, and I packed the candlesticks in the cyarpetbag, and put on
my bonnet. When I opened the door I looked up the road, and the first
thing I saw was Dave Crawford comin' along in his new buggy. I went
out to the gate, and he drew up and asked me if I was goin' to town,
and said he'd take me. It looked like the Lord was leadin' me all the
time,' says she, 'but the way things turned out it must 'a' been
Satan. I got to Mary just two hours before she died, and she looked up
in my face and says, "Mother, I knew God wouldn't let me die till I'd
seen you once more."'"

Here Aunt Jane took off her glasses and wiped her eyes.

"I can't tell this without cryin' to save my life," said she; "but
'Lizabeth never shed a tear. She looked like she'd got past cryin',
and she talked straight on as if she'd made up her mind to say jest so
much, and she'd die if she didn't git to say it."

"'As soon as the funeral was over,' says she, 'I set out to find the
lady that wanted the candlesticks. She wasn't at home, but her niece
was there, and said she'd heard her aunt speak of the candlesticks
often; and she'd be home in a few days and would send me the money
right off. I come home thinkin' it was all right, and I kept expectin'
the money every day, but it never come till day before yesterday. I
wrote three times about it, but I never got a word from her till
Monday. She had just got home, she said, and hoped I hadn't been
inconvenienced by the delay. She wrote a nice, polite letter and sent
me a check for fifteen dollars, and here it is. I wanted to confess
it all that day at the Mite Society, but somehow I couldn't till I had
the money right in my hand to pay back. If the lady had only come back
when her niece said she was comin', it would all have turned out
right, but I reckon it's a judgment on me for meddling with the Lord's
money. God only knows what I've suffered,' says she, 'but if I had to
do it over again, I believe I