"I'm sure I don't know; it ain't on my certificate, anyhow. Maybe it's
on the voucher; but I ain't read that since I first went to sign it. I
just go every three months and draw my money, and think no more about
it. Maybe--if they knew at Washington--"

"Sho! they couldn't make a difference for one; and it's just what Josh
says--they ain't goin' to pay you for havin' a dead husband if you got
a live one. Well, it wouldn't be sense, Lizzie."

Lizzie shook her head. "Wait till I look at my paper--"

Mrs. Butterfield followed her into the house, and waited while she
lighted a lamp and lifted a blue china vase off the shelf above the
stove. "I keep it in here," Lizzie said, shaking the paper out. Then,
unfolding it on the kitchen table, the two women, the lamplight
shining upon their excited faces, read the certificate together,
aloud, with agitated voices:

"BUREAU OF PENSIONS

"It is hereby certified that in conformity with the laws of the
United States--" and on through to the end.

"It don't say a word about not marryin' again," Lizzie declared.

"Well, all the same, it's the law. Josh knows."

Lizzie blew out the lamp, and they went back to the door-step. Mrs.
Butterfield's hard feelings were all gone; her heart warmed to