Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter Three EAETH TO EARTH QUIETLY Simon stepped out of the presence of death. The weakness, helplessness, and despair of the other members of the Ware family was his strength. All the days of his life he had never thought of himself, but he lived, thought, and planned for others. Simon had crucified self so long ago that he rarely remembered him. Now, as always, he forgot his own grief in his deeper grief for Wilbur Ware, Peggy, Ralph, and Virginia. Gladly would he have borne all their griefs, if he could. Joyfully would he have lain down his own life, if he could have brought Young Missus back and have restored her to health and the bosom of her family. He went to the nearest neighbor and told the tragic news, and in a little while it spread throughout the settlement, and the neighbors gathered in as they do in the rural communities in the South, and the women mingled their tears with those of the heart-broken children, while the men, ashamed to show such womanly weakness, walked away from the scene of grief, and gazed toward the snow-clad peaks in the distance. One motherly soul carried Ralph and Virginia to her home, but Peggy refused to leave the presence of her mother for a moment. Some of the men tried to address Wilbur Ware, but his speech and manner repelled all advances. He even spoke harshly to Peggy as she placed her arms abouthim in her grief, craving his sympathy and tenderness. He would give no instruction about the funeral, except to say with what sounded like an oath that no preacher should officiate at the grave. This was in answer to a suggestion from one of the men that he would go to the nearest town, some twenty miles away, and get a minister. To Peggy’s pleading he was obdurate, and even brutal, and sensing a great mental reaction in he…
