Her boys looked upon her and knew that they had lost their best friend.
Home would have little more attraction for them. George and Wilbur took
selfish comfort in the thought that they were old and strong enough to care
for themselves, but Austin forgot himself in wondering what would become of
the children. The little ones spoke to Mama, but she did not answer, they
called to her, but she did not hear, and they went away weeping; for though
they could not tell what, they knew something dreadful had happened.

Kind friends and neighbors came in and did what has to be done at such a
time. They pitied with full hearts the afflicted family, and they wept for
their friend, for they too had loved her. They took her and laid her with
others of death's sleepers in the silent churchyard, and her orphaned
children returned with their helpless father to the lonely and broken home.

Only those who have returned home after Mother is gone know what these
children and father suffered. Kind hands had put the house in order and the
familiar furniture in its accustomed place, endeavoring to make the house
look as if all were well. But they could not bring back the one who had
made this house home, and to the children it was a dreary, lonely place.
Fearfully they crept out-of-doors, only to find it as cheerless there.

That first night around the fireside without her, what a desolate place it
was! The father sat with drooped head and heaving breast, and the children
huddled together and some of them sobbed. Just to escape their misery they
went early to bed, and little pillows were wet with tears. When they were
all in bed a gentle hand tucked them in with a kind caress. "It is what
Mother would have done," thought Austin, as he made the rounds.

In those first days of sorrow every one seemed to remember only his own