Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/391

 loe been killed down in Chicago, everybody say; who done that to him?"

"Nobody," said Barney. "That was an accident."

"Huh?" said Sam doubtfully. "Perhaps you tell me when old man come back?"

"I don't know," Barney admitted.

"Two day ago," said Sam, "old lady say old man come back wabang (to-morrow). Say come back wabang yesterday; to-day he come back wabang. When anybody ketch up with wabang, I like to know?"

Barney made no reply to this philosophical query, and Sam stood gazing about musingly and whistled cheerfully to himself. "Old woman all right, you think? Sure to go to heaven?"

Barney agreed.

"Old man akiwesiish, eh? Sure to go to hell! But all good old woman, sure to go to heaven, think about is bad old man, sure to go to hell. How anybody fix up that?"

Barney did not attempt the task.

When at last Ethel appeared from the house, he took her quickly away from the curious scrutiny of the Chippewa gardener. Near the lake they climbed a little hillock wooded with new pine and balsam and cedar, where the slanting rays of the warm sun had dried the softly carpeted ground. Ethel sank down and, as Barney sat beside her, he saw tears again wetting her cheek.

"I'm not crying," she denied, when he tried to comfort her. "Barney, I'm so proud of grandmother. I've seen the finest thing in the world just now."

"I know," Barney said. "Even Sam was speaking to me of her—love."

"She doesn't think of herself at all, but only of him