They started for home. Farmers drove past them. A wagon loaded with three generations of Jeddo’s good-natured, noisy, the laughter of the women and young girls sounding shrilly above the gruff voices of the men, clattered up from behind. “Hello, Ben! Hello, Sam! Want a ride? Tumble in, boys! Tumble in! Lots of room!”

The two old men shook their heads and tramped on. Ben did not brag of the exploits that ended when he married Sadie Chambers; nor did Old Sam talk of the Saturday nights when he, and not his red-headed son, was hired man of the Predmore Farm. They reached Predmore’s Corners. “Good-night, Sam!”

“ ’Night!”

“I got them earrings, anyhow,” Ben prided himself, as he went along the stretch of road. “An’ I ain’t had a drink. Won’t Ma be surprised!”

Aggie and Josie came to the door when they heard Ben’s step. “Pa! Oh, Pa!” they called to him. “Ma’s dead!”

“Now, now, Josie! Don’t say that! She ain’t, Aggie! She ain’t, Josie! Say she ain’t dead!”

Mrs. Lowell was the first of the neighbours to come in the next day. She brewed strong tea for Ben and looked after the girls:

“Now you run upstairs, Josie, an’ you, Aggie, an’ get fixed. People will begin a-comin’ soon. An’ you, Ben, go put on that black coat of yourn.”

Ben wandered from room to room. His daughters watched him. He wiped the face of the Swiss clock with his sleeve. He found the World’s Fair souvenir spoon in the china-closet, picked it up and put it down again. He took the silver-handled cane that Uncle George had brought with him from the city, and carried it about.

Aggie turned to Josie. “See, he’s already a-takin’ of Ma’s pretties.”

“He’ll sell ’em all for drink, now Ma’s gone.”

“Ma loved Grandma Chambers’s earrings, didn’t she, Aggie?”

“Yes, Josie. An’ the jet beads with the locket on ’em. An’ the Swiss clock.”

“An’ the silver pitcher-frame.”

“An’ Uncle George’s cane with the silver end.”

“Ma loved her pretties.”

“Pa’ll sell ’em all for drink, now Ma’s gone.”

They began to cry.

“We don’t care for ourselves,” Aggie appealed to Mrs. Lowell. “It’s you ought to get something nice. You’ve always been so good to Ma.”

“Yes, one of the nicest,” said Josie. “It’d be such a comfort to Ma to know you got the best. Pa’ll sell ’em all for drink, now Ma’s gone.”

Ben took Grandma Chambers’s earrings into the parlour where Ma was lying in her coffin. “She didn’t know, she didn’t know I brought ’em home. Here they be, Ma! Here they be. See, on the coffin!”