When the train came to a stop, a little way farther on, after the cruel deed was done—not that anybody could be blamed!—several gentlemen got out; and the driver of the engine sat down on the ground, and hid his face, and cried like a child at the awfulness of what had happened. But, poor fellow, nobody could find fault with him! Mother saw the whole from first to last. She never took her eyes away; and when the mangled body was tossed out by the wheels upon the six-foot way, she went swiftly down, never faltering, and knelt beside it, and wouldn't be torn away till the doctor came and told her all was over—as she might have seen. But they said she didn't seem to see. Her eyes were fixed, and she never spoke a word, nor shed a tear. I saw nothing more after the moment that the buffer struck father. It must have been a long faint. When I struggled back to sense, with a strange dreadful feeling that some sort of thunderbolt had fallen on us, Mr. Baitson and Lady Arthur and Mrs. Hammond were all standing over me, and I was down on the floor in our kitchen. "Poor things! How terrible for them!" I heard Lady Arthur say. "And they seeing it all! Why, it's enough to kill 'em—more than enough," Mrs. Hammond said, in the brisk sort of way she had. "Hush!" Mr. Baitson said, quite low. And I opened my eyes, and looked at them all three. I didn't know what had happened, and I didn't want to know. I didn't want to be told. I only felt it was something frightful—something awful. "Poor dear! I do believe it'll kill her!" says Mrs. Hammond, with a click of her tongue meaning pity. Mr. Baitson turned upon her, more fierce-like than I'd ever seen him, for he was commonly so quiet. "If you can't be silent, Mrs. Hammond, you will please to leave the room," says he, under his breath, as it were; and Mrs. Hammond looked all taken aback, the more as Lady Arthur added— "Hammond, you forget yourself! How can you be so unwise?" And then Lady Arthur did nigh as unwisely herself, for she stooped down to kiss my forehead, and burst into tears. "Hush! No agitation, pray!" Mr. Baitson says, in the same voice. But somehow that kiss of Lady Arthur's, being uncommon and unexpected, woke me up, and my memory too. In a moment I saw the train rushing up, and father standing on the line, and I tried to shriek "Father!" but the word wouldn't come. I think I struggled up, sitting, and somebody got hold of my hand, and then I seemed to hear the buffer strike poor father, and everything turned again into a black mist. I don't seem to have any clear remembrance of the next coming-to, except that I was in bed, and a sort of horror was on me, and I called for mother, and she didn't come. Then I got so tired, I didn't know how to bear myself, nor how to lie; and Mr. Baitson gave me something to drink; and after that I seemed to go off sound asleep.