Sara, who had not spoken, at this dropped to the doorstep, and, doubling
up in a forlorn little heap, buried her face in her hands. Morton burst
out crying; and Molly, with a puzzled look around, joined in promptly,
thinking it the proper thing to do, though she had not yet an idea of
what had really happened.

But why prolong the heart-rending scene, as little by little Jasper
stammered out all the story he had to tell, and the poor children began
to realize how doubly orphaned they were? This was a grief before which
the loss of their. stepmother seemed as nothing. They had loved their
big, kind, good-natured father as a companion, far more than a parent;
and the thought of never meeting him again, of never hearing his well-
known greeting after his absences,--

"Waal, waal, younkers, come and kiss your old dad! Did you miss him
much, eh?"--seemed intolerable.

Sara, under this new blow, for a time lost all self-control, and broke
into such a passion of grief, that Jasper, much frightened, ran for the
nearest neighbor, Mrs. Updyke.

She soon appeared,--a gaunt woman, with a wrinkled visage, and a
constant sniff.

"Land sakes!" she cried, upon hearing Jasper's ill news, "Yeouw don't
say! Well, well, it's a disposition o' Providence, to be sure!" by which
she doubtless meant a dispensation, though it did not much matter, for
no one paid the slightest attention to her moral axioms just then.