He could not lift his head from the pillow, he was so tired and weak, but with his eyes he begged the other to come nearer. The man came close to the couch and looked down tenderly at the old man. "She wore the white trailing gown," he said. "Yes," whispered the old man, "and the great wide hat. And she held him up under the brim and said that if it should rain, she and he could keep dry together, but I must stay in the rain!" "Do you remember," said the other, "how when he could just say words, you played with him under the apple tree?" "Can I ever forget?" said the old man. "But now the angels teach him a better language, so that he had but one to learn!" "Do you remember how she left him with her mother and went away with you?" said the other. The old man smiled a little. "Ah, yes! Well enough!" he said. "We thought we would be young again, and leave him to his grandmother and his sisters. He had enough care! It was not lack of that----" "And when you had gone only a few miles she grew anxious----" "Yes, yes!" said the old man. "She said, 'Suppose he is sick? Suppose he falls into the brook? He walks about so brave and strong--and he is our only son!' So we came back." "You were good to her," said the other. "You did always just as she wished." "I loved her," said the old man simply. The stranger's eyes grew moist and his voice shook as he said, "When he grew sick----" "Ah, when he grew sick!" cried the old man bitterly. "Almost I lost my trust in the Giver of my child, and dared not give him back! How I begged! How I prayed!--you know!" "Yes," whispered the stranger, "I know." "Then she left me for the first time," said the old man slowly. "For the first time. She went alone and prayed. Oh Rachel, my dear, dear wife, I could not go with you to God! I think even we go best alone! I said 'It cannot be! He cannot let it come! I have done all my life as best I knew how, and is this my reward?' And I heard her crying, and I wished I had never lived." "But not for long?" said the other. The old man smiled through his tears. "No, no, not for long!" he said. "When Rachel saw that I was weak she grew strong. It is strange, but women are the strongest then. And she showed me the folly and wickedness of throwing away my faith because the Most Faithful had taken away my child. And she brought me my little daughters and set them on my knees and put her arms around my neck. So I grew comforted. And there have come other sons--Arthur and John. But he--ah, Rachel! Little we thought when we laid him on the grass under the tree and measured him with goldenrod, that he would so soon lie there for all our lives!" "And he lies there now," said the stranger.