"They say Easter's as white as a corpse," went on the speaker. "Eh! But she'll be a sight to move a heart o' stone, I say, with her babe and her pretty young face pinched up in a widow's cap. She's naught but a girl yet; I recollect her birthday as if it was yesterday. Oh! But what a feast we should ha' been sure of, in this very house, if Easter had never taken up wi' those new-fangled ways, and had married to please her father! But Christmas is too hard, I say." "Ay! That he is," rejoined the other voices with one consent. "Widow Evans' money is no more than five pounds a quarter," he continued, "and it dies when she dies. It will be close living for two women and a growing boy; though women know how to starve and famish better than men do, God help them! And to think of Christmas being so well off! Better than anybody knows fairly, with heaps of money in the bank. He oughtn't to be so hard!" CHAPTER III His Grandson CHRISTMAS, as they guessed, overheard all their gossip, as he sat in his own little room behind the screen, with the door ajar. He felt pricked and stung, and he stole away noiselessly, that none of them might know he had been there, and went down to his garden beside the river, where he was secure of being alone. His heart had always been readily melted at the thought of a widow's loneliness and helplessness; and now Easter was coming back to her native place, his little daughter, a poor, friendless widow, burdened with a child! Why! It seemed but a few days ago that she was tottering along these smooth walks, her little feet tripping at the smallest pebble, and her little fingers clasping his own thick finger closely. How long was it since she watched with him the ripening of the fruit upon the trees, and with all a child's delight took from his hands the first that was ready for gathering! How many a time had Easter been seated dry and warm on his wheelbarrow, and watched him at work, digging, and pruning, and grafting with his own hands, while he listened all the while to her prattle! Those were happy, blessed days! And all these pure and innocent joys might be beginning for him again. His little grandson would soon be old enough to totter along these same garden paths, and to call him grandfather. He felt almost heartsick as he looked at the dream for a moment.