The sweet daylight brightening over all the familiar things had its moment of trying to convince that the strange and terrible must be unreal. Only, there upon the carriage-seat lay the proof that the past belief was true. Celia stood, her eyes held by it, a chill from it stealing congealingly upon her. And as at the sight, with the horror, the sorrowfulness of it all smote her directly upon the heart,--and the sense, at last fully brought home, of the ruin of the most adorable thing the earth had given her to know wrung from her a scalding quintessence of tears,--her eyes closed against the image that would form of what the grey folds concealed, and her figure swayed. Judith, beside her, had been struggling to screw her nerve to the point where it might be subjected once more to the strain that had broken it down; but at the sight in accusing daylight of the burden which must be taken up again, her whole being recoiled with such violence that her head jerked convulsively back and her hand reached out for something steadying--and the two women, in a common anguish before their work, clung to each other for support. HIS NEED OF MIS' SIMONS BY LUCY PRATT ILLUSTRATIONS BY FREDERIC DORR STEELE [Illustration] "Jes look, Miss No'th! Looker w'at's comin' down de road!" Miss North turned her head inquiringly, and Ezekiel continued to comment enthusiastically. "It's ole Arch'bal' Smiff," he declared, with lively appreciation, though in the near distance Archibald failed to look as aged as Ezekiel might have led one to expect. "Yas'm, 'tis; dat's ole Arch'bal' Smiff. Now, w'at dey-all doin' 'im dat-a-way fer? Look, Miss No'th! Dey's jes a-_chasin'_ 'im down de road!" Miss North stopped a moment and glanced back at the rapidly approaching Archibald. "They are probably just chasing him for fun, aren't they?" she began reassuringly. "'Tain' no fun ter git w'ite men chasin' after yer dat-a-way," objected Ezekiel. There were excited shouts from the passing, jostling runners, and Archibald turned and cast a momentary exalted, half-dramatic smile on Miss North. "They are just in fun, you see. Come, Ezekiel, I want you to go on with me, and bring back some books that I order; will you?" "Yas'm--yas'm, I'll go on wid yer, Miss No'th; but look like ole w'ite men's gwine ketch 'im, too, doan't it?" "Catch him? No. Why should they want to catch him?" "Cert'nly make me think 'bout de time dey-all come a-chasin' af' Jonah w'en I'se ter Mis' Simons'. An' I reckon, ef 'tain' been fer Mis' Simons, dey'd 'a' ketch 'im, too. But Mis' Simons she jes 'ntirely dis'range dey plans." "How did she do that?" questioned Miss North, suddenly interested. "W'y, she jes _done_ it," explained Ezekiel, explicitly. "I see; but--how? Did Jonah get into some--some trouble?"