only does His own will forever. Oh, Abel, Abel, Abel! Oh, my husband!
Where are you? where are you? Where is the head that I've held on my
breast? Where are the lips I have kissed? I couldn't even see him
laid safe in his grave--not even that comfort! Oh, Abel, Abel, my
husband, my husband! my own flesh and my own soul, torn away from me,
and I left to draw the breath of life! Abel, Abel, come back, come
back, come back!"

Ann Edwards's voice broke into inarticulate sobs and moans; then she
did not speak audibly again. Jerome lay back in his bed, cold and
trembling. Elmira, in the next chamber, was sound asleep, but he
slept no more that night. A revelation of the love and sorrow of this
world had come to him through his mother's voice. He was shamed and
awed and overwhelmed by this glimpse of the nakedness of nature and
that mighty current which swept him on with all mankind. The taste of
knowledge was all at once upon the boy's soul.




Chapter V


The next morning Jerome arose at dawn, and crept down-stairs
noiselessly on his bare feet, that he might not awake his mother.
However, still as he was, he had hardly crossed the threshold of the
kitchen before his mother called to him from her bedroom, the door of
which stood open.

"Who's that?" called Ann Edwards, in a strained voice; and Jerome