Edna passed on to the kitchen, and as she deposited the bucket on
the table, a tall, muscular, red-haired woman, who was stooping over
the fire, raised her flushed face, and exclaimed angrily:

"What upon earth have you been doing? I have been halfway to the
spring to call you, and hadn't a drop of water in the kitchen to
make coffee! A pretty time of day Aaron Hunt will get his breakfast!
What do you mean by such idleness?"

She advanced with threatening mien and gesture, but stopped
suddenly.

"Edna, what ails you? Have you got an ague? You are as white as that
pan of flour. Are you scared or sick?"

"There was a man killed this morning, and the body will be brought
here directly. If you want to hear about it, you had better go out
on the porch. One of the gentlemen is talking to grandpa."

Stunned by what she had seen, and indisposed to narrate the horrid
details, the girl went to her own room, and seating herself in the
window, tried to collect her thoughts. She was tempted to believe
the whole affair a hideous dream, which would pass away with
vigorous rubbing of her eyes; but the crushed purple and scarlet
flowers she took from her forehead, her dripping hair and damp feet
assured her of the vivid reality of the vision. Every fibre of her
frame had received a terrible shock, and when noisy, bustling Mrs.
Hunt ran from room to room, ejaculating her astonishment, and
calling on the child to assist in putting the house in order, the
latter obeyed silently, mechanically, as if in a state of