268 THE LAND OF PLUCK

“T saw it all in a moment,— her gentleness, her patience,
her holiness. Then, while her love and beautiful dignity
seemed to fold about me like a bright cloud, the sweet
every-day lines in her face told me a secret,— that even
then in the wonderful sunset of life she was, oh, how hu-
man! So human that she missed old faces and old scenes;
so human that she needed a share of what God was giving
us,— friends, home interests, little surprises and expecta-
tions, loving offices, and, above all, a recognition in the
details of our fresh young lives.

“Girls, when Grandmother woke up, she found us all
three stealing softly into the room; for I had told my
sisters about it, and we all had talked it over. Mary only
kissed her and asked if she had been having a good nap ;
Susie lifted her ball of yarn off the carpet, where it had
rolled, and began to wind it, all the while telling her a
pleasant bit of news about one of the school-girls; and I
—well, I knelt down at Grandmother’s feet and, just as I
was going to cry, I gave her knees a good hard hug, and
told her she was a darling.

“That ’s all, girls. Grandmother is different. And it ’s
been different with us too ever since that day when she
fell asleep by the window. Instead of our waking her,
you see, she really wakened us.”