"Where have you been, ’Lijy?" exclaimed Mrs. Morgan when her husband returned. "We waited an’ waited for you, till the supper was spoiled." "I met a man I used to know," he said, evasively, casting a wistful, troubled glance toward the corner where ’Lizabeth, his wife’s sister, sat knitting, a crutch lying at her side. Cynthia, a rosy, merry-eyed girl, laughed. "Pa is always meetin’ a man he knows." Mrs. Morgan began hastily removing the covered dishes from the hearth to the table. "Well, where is the sugar you went over to the store to get?" she demanded with some irritation. "I forgot it, Marthy. I’ll go for it in the mornin’," in a confused, propitiatory tone. She stared at him. "I never! Forgot what you went after! You beat all, ’Lijy Morgan; you certainly do beat all." "The man must ’a’ sent your wits wool-gatherin’, pa," cried Cynthia, jocosely. ’Lizabeth leaned forward. Her face was long, thin, and pale, and the smooth hair framing it glinted like silver in the firelight; but her dark eyes were wonderfully soft and beautiful, and her mouth had chastened, tender lines about it. "Are you sick, ’Lijy?" she inquired, in a gentle, subdued voice, a voice with much underlying, patient sweetness in it. Morgan gave her a grateful look. "N—no; but I don’t think I care for any supper," he said slowly. "I’ll step out an’ see if the stock has all been fed." When he returned Mrs. Morgan sat by the fire alone. He looked hastily about the room. "Where is Cynthy?" "Gone to bed." "An’ ’Lizabeth?" "She’s off, too." He drew a sigh of relief, and stirred the fire into a brighter blaze. "Marthy Ann, it was ’Zeki’l I saw this evenin’." She dropped the coarse garment she was mending. "’Zeki’l!" "Hush! Yes; he lives up on the hill between here an’ the store;" and then he went on to tell her about their meeting and conversation. Her hard, sharp-featured face softened a little when he came to ’Zeki’l’s refusal to live with them or to have their kinship acknowledged. "I’m glad to see he’s got that much consideration. We left the old place because folks couldn’t forget how he’d disgraced himself; an’ to come right where he is! I never heard of anything like it. Why didn’t he leave the State if he wanted to save us more trouble?" wiping tears of vexation from her eyes. "You spent nearly all you had to get him out of prison, an’ when he had to go to the penitentiary it killed his pa an’ ma, an’—" "Be silent, woman! you don’t know what you are talkin’ about!" he said sternly, writhing in his chair like a creature in bodily pain. "God A’mighty forgive me!" He paused, smote his knee with his open palm, and turned his face away.