moving about in the kitchen. Then he thought that he would go up very
softly, and peep into the bedroom. Perhaps his father would like
something to eat: it was long past the meal-time.

He slipped behind the stove, mounted the little steps, and went very
softly into the bedroom. After a while he returned, went at once into
the kitchen, approached quite close to his cousin, and said softly,--

"Cousin, come up."

The woman was about to strike him angrily, when she happened to glance
at his face. He was perfectly colorless,--cheeks and lips as white as
a sheet, and his eyes looked so black that the cousin was almost
afraid of him.

"What is the matter with you?" she asked hastily, and followed him
almost involuntarily.

He mounted the little steps softly, and entered the chamber. His father
lay on the bed with staring, wide-open eyes,--he was dead.

"Oh, my God!" screamed the cousin, and ran crying out of the door that
opened upon the passage on the other side of the room, went down the
staircase, and across into the opposite house, where she called out to
tell the neighbor and the grandmother the sad news; and thence she ran
on to the teacher and to the mayor.

One after another they came, and entered the quiet room until it was
full of people; for the news spread from one to another of what had
taken place. And in the midst of all the tumult, and of all the clamor