"Yes," said the old man softly, "he lies there now. Under the apple tree where he lay and laughed that day, he lies there now. For Rachel wanted it so. 'I carried him out there the first time,' she said, 'and he always loved it there. I used to walk there before he came, and plan for him, how he should grow so great and famous and good; and now I want him to be there, while he is asleep. And I think that all the fields are God's--the orchard as well as the graveyard.' So we laid him there, and she goes there often, and I." "You miss her?" said the stranger. "Miss her?" said the old man, staring at the visitor, "miss her? Why, she is here! She is my wife!----" but he was alone, on the couch, with the faint breath of ripening apples dying on the air. And as he turned wearily, the shadow crept softly and covered the porch and the couch where he lay. The sun dropped behind the hills and the air struck cold on his uncovered shoulders. He was too tired to cry, too old and weak to question or find fault, but he dimly felt that to be left alone was hard. His memory grew suddenly untrustworthy; had they come or not? It was all so plain to him now. He was not with Rachel, he was neither in the church nor in the garden nor in the orchard. He was an old man, strangely weak and confused, left alone. "Ah, Rachel," he murmured, "only come again, while I go! Come to take me--not that it will be long to wait before I see you, dear! We have been so happy, you and I! But it was so cold----" And then while he shivered helplessly and half afraid, there came the scent of spring lilac-bushes, and by his bed stood the bright-eyed child. "Come! come and sit by me!" cried the old man. But the boy only smiled. "Take my hands--they are so cold!" he begged. Still the boy smiled. And as the old man looked, the child's eyes filled him with half hope, half fear. "Are you--are you----" he tried to speak, but no sound came from his lips. "If I come and touch you," said the boy, "it will be the end. Shall I come?" The old man's face lighted softly. "Yes," he said in his heart, for he could not speak aloud, "yes, come now!" The boy laughed and stepped to the couch and lay down beside him, putting his cheek close to the white hair. Into the heart of the old man rushed a quick, new life. "Ah, Rachel, Rachel," he said strong and clear, "sit on the step and eat your cake with me? Here is the flag-root I promised you--it's quite clean. I took off all the mud! And here is the red marble"--but the child kissed him and he went to sleep, holding to his heart his happy youth. And when they found him in the evening, they were not too grieved, for on his face was a great content. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Whom The Gods Destroyed, by Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon