“This is what I want to say.  After that, there will be another way for you to go, on the other side.  Look at the mountains, dear.  See, there are other peaks beyond, with alternating slopes of sunshine and canyons of shadow.  It is much easier to stick to the sunny slopes when there are two together.  It is very easy to stagger off into the shadows, when one has to travel alone.  But, Carol, don’t you go into the shadows.  I want to think always that you are staying in the sunshine, on the slopes, where it is bright, where Julia can laugh and play, where you can sing and listen to the birds.  Stick to the sunny slopes, dear, even when you are climbing alone.”

Carol nodded her head in affirmation, though her face was hidden.

“I will, David.  I will run right out of the shadows and find the sunny slopes.”

“And do not try to live by, ‘what would David like?’ Be happy, dear.  Follow the sunshine.  I think it guides us truly, for a pure kind heart can not mistake fleeting gaiety for lasting joys like you and I have had.  So wherever your journey of joy may take you, follow it and be assured that I am smiling at you in the sunshine.”

Carol stayed with him after that, sitting very quietly, speaking softly, in the subdued way that had developed from her youthful buoyance, always quick to smile reassuringly and adoringly when he looked at her, always ready to look hopefully to the sunny slopes when his finger pointed.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE END

In a low hammock beneath the maples Carol lay, pale and slender, dressed in a soft gown of creamy white, with a pink rose at her belt.  Through an open window she could see her father at his desk up-stairs.  Often he came to the window, waving a friendly greeting that told how glad he was to have her in the family home again.  And she could see Aunt Grace in the kitchen, energetically whipping cream for the apple pie for dinner—­“Carol always did love apple pie with whipped cream.”  Julia was digging a canal through the flower bed a dozen steps away.  And close at her side sat Lark, the sweet, old, precious twin, who could not attend to the farm a single minute now that Carol was at home once more.

Carol’s hands were clasped under her head, and she was staring up through the trees at the clear blue sky, flecked like a sea with bits of foam.

“Mother,” cried Julia, running to the hammock and sweeping wildly at the sky with a knife she was using for a spade, “I looked right up into Heaven and I saw my daddy, and he did not cough a bit.  He smiled at me and said, ‘Hello, little sweetheart.  Take good care of Mother.’”

Carol kissed her, softly, regardless of the streaks of earth upon her chubby face.

“Mother,” puzzled Julia, “what is it to be died?  I can’t think it.  And I lie down and I can’t do it.  What is it to be died?”