son." The brave man's eyes, that had never quailed before the belching
artillery, had now ado indeed. Such sickness at heart behind them,
such keen mother's instinct trying them before.

"Oh, Perez! My boy is dying! I see it."

"He is not, I tell you he is not," he cried hoarsely, breaking away
from her. "He is well. He looks strong. Do you think I would lie to
you? I tell you he is well and getting better."

But after that she would not be comforted. The afternoon wore on.
Elnathan came from meeting, and at last, through the open windows of
the house, came the cry, in children's voices.

"Sun's down! Sun's down!"

From the upper windows, its disc was yet visible, above the crest of
the western mountains, and on the hilltops, it was still high Sabbath;
but in the streets below, holy time was at an end. The doors, behind
which, in Sabbatical decorum, the children had been pent up all day
long, swung open with a simultaneous bang, and the boys with a whoop
and halloo, tumbled over each other into the street, while the girls
tripped gaily after. Innumerable games of tag, and "I spy," were
organized in a trice, and for the hour or two between that and bed
time, the small fry of the village devoted themselves, without a
moment's intermission, to getting the Sabbath stiffening out of their
legs and tongues.

Nor was the reawakening of the community by any means confined to the
boys and girls. For soon the streets began to be alive with groups of