But slowly the confusion in his mind took form, and he remembered his

great loss; the beloved form in the coffin; his talk with a generous

stranger who offered him a home; the funeral, where the stranger's wife

held him by the hand at the grave, and cried with him and comforted him;

and he remembered how this, new mother tucked him in his bed in the

neighboring farm house, and coaxed him to talk about his troubles, and

then heard him say his prayers and kissed him good night, and left him

with the soreness in his heart almost healed and his bruised spirit at

rest.

And now the new mother came again, and helped him to dress, and combed

his hair, and drew his mind away by degrees from the dismal yesterday,

by telling him about the wonderful journey he was going to take and the

strange things he was going to see. And after breakfast they two went

alone to the grave, and his heart went out to his new friend and his

untaught eloquence poured the praises of his buried idol into her ears

without let or hindrance. Together they planted roses by the headboard

and strewed wild flowers upon the grave; and then together they went

away, hand in hand, and left the dead to the long sleep that heals all

heart-aches and ends all sorrows.

The Gilded Age