s got enough in it for a i told him only yesterday and says he i don t you know it s better to have some to spare than some to want i can see him laugh now there s plenty will need it if he don t said mrs who was a dismal grasping soul and � at farthest from the fire mrs gathered herself up scornfully � she � lid not like her neighbor you were a ht as going to the men s meeting said she s fortune yes said he said he d got to get some papers and i offered to fetch em but he never wanted to be waited on and he went up stairs � i s pose to that old o drawers overhead i heard a noise like something heavy a falling and my first thought was he d tipped the o drawers over for i know the lower drawers where the sheets and pillow cases is kept sticks sometimes and then something started me and come across me quick as a flash that there was something wrong and i got upstairs as quick as ever i could and found bim laying on the floor i s pose he did n t know asked mrs bless you no i tried to get him up and i found i could n t i thought he was dead but i see jim pierce a goin by � he was some use for once in his life � and i sent him for help mis x me right over bein so near and jim met the or up the road and we got him into bed and there lie lays it give me a dreadful start i ain t myself yet s here i s pose said mrs as if � he thought it of very little consequence yes said he d walked over to tha mill right after breakfast to carry word about country by way borne boards his uncle wanted but he got back just as the doctor was he s been real faithful he ain t left the old gentleman a minute he s all broke down he feels so i never saw him so distressed he ain t one that shows his s much of any i think likely he be married right away now said mr martin told me in the summer that he d left him about everything he ain t no such a man as his uncle but i don t know no harm of a silence fell between the guests and the fire snapped once in a while and made such a light that the one little oil lamp might have blown out for all the good it did nobody would ha j missed it i told our folks last night there was going to be a death over this way said mrs i was a looking out o the window over this way last night just before i went to bed and i see a great bright light come down and i says there s a great blaze fallen over s way and my father always said it was a sure sign of a death he laughed and says my eyes was dazzled from setting before the fire i d like to know what he say when he hears o this � triumphantly he went up to the wood � ot before day fortune i did hear a death in the wall after i went to bed two or three nights ago said and then there was another pause u i s pose i might go up easy and look in bein a connection ventured mrs meekly and luckily nobody opposed her in fact they had all bad that satisfaction you might ask if he could n t rise his uncle s head by and by so i could give him a little o the he ain t eat the value o no thin since morning and he s a hearty man when he a about suggested you ought to help all you can said martin and armed with this sufficient excuse mrs went up stairs softly sat by the bedside looking as dismal as possible � a thin dark young man with a pleasant sort of face yet you always felt at once that you could get on just as well without him perhaps we had better wait now until the doctor comes answered he when he heard the message from do sit down mrs i have been wishing somebody would come up � it s since it got dark has n t sent any word has she i sent jim pierce over right after dinner bat i suppose he stopped in at every house � country by ways not as i ve heard of said mrs i ve only just got here i was over to ann s to spend a day or so and i never got word about y r uncle till past two o clock how does he seem to be i don t know said the young man he s lost that red look but he seems to have failed all away and they both went close to the bed to look at the face on the pillow which showed at once that death had come very near the old man s eyes were shut and he looked pinched and sunken and as if he were ten years older than in the morning one hand that lay outside the bed moved a little and the fingers picked at the blanket he has n t stirred all day except his arm and that hand once in a while as you see it now mrs knew better than he what it meant and she gave a long look and turned away with a heavy sigh he s death struck she whispered but he may hold out for a good spell yet he 