"Is she dead?" asked the boy, his face very pale.

"She is dead!"



CHAPTER IV

THE TOWN AUTOCRAT


"The Widder Fowler is dead," remarked Deacon Pinkerton, at the supper
table. "She died this afternoon."

"I suppose she won't leave anything," said Mrs. Pinkerton.

"No. I hold a mortgage on her furniture, and that is all she has."

"What will become of the children?"

"As I observed, day before yesterday, they will be constrained to find a
refuge in the poorhouse."

"What do you think Sam Pomeroy told me, father?"

"I am not able to conjecture what Samuel would be likely to observe, my
son."

"He observed that Frank Fowler said he wouldn't go to the poorhouse."