And so no care nor shadow of care came to darken these last days. Truly her eyes said to them, when her lips could not utter the words: "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." And, waiting and watching beside her, Fidelia was for the time lifted above all fear or care or sorrow for herself, and rejoiced in her sister's joy. Thus quietly one summer morning she passed away. So quietly, they-- "Thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died." They buried her beside her kinsfolk in the little graveyard of Halsey; and her memory still lives in the hearts of her friends and neighbours who knew and loved her so well. Then, for a time, life and all its interests seemed to stand still for Fidelia. She was weary and spent, and they left her alone to rest and grow strong again. By-and-by, with no word of appeal or entreaty from any one, she came back to her old ways, and tried to take up her work again. It was not easy for her to do this, but it was easier than it would have been had her loss come a year sooner. "It is God's will that I should go first; and, dear, though you cannot see it now, God's will in this, as in all things, is best," Eunice had said to her many times; and she knew in her heart that it was true. "And, oh, how much the best for my Eunice!" she said with many tears, yet with submission also. But her occupation was gone; and, though friends and neighbours did what kind friends and neighbours may do at such a time, to cheer her, the days passed slowly and heavily, till one night Jabez came up "to have a little talk" with her. She had not seen much of him since her sister's death. He had kept away, he told her, "because it hurt him dreadfully to see her in trouble that he could not help." It cannot be said that she had missed him much, but she was glad to see him when he came. Jabez's "little talk" was about himself, and nothing could have been farther from his thoughts than a desire to give a lesson to his teacher. But she got her lesson all the same. They sat for awhile in the front porch, which was bright with the glory of the sunset. Mrs Stone was there as well as Fidelia, and they spoke about various matters at first; and a few words were said about Eunice. When Mrs Stone rose to go about some household duty, the others rose also, and went through the house into the garden, and down the walk between the tall hollyhocks, to the fence, where there was an opening between the apple-trees--a spot where Fidelia always stood a minute or two whenever she came there. They lingered for awhile in silence, looking down over the river flowing softly between wide irregular meadows, and over to the broken hill country beyond, beautiful now in the glow that fell on it from the west.