Part 33 (2/2)

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 suns.h.i.+ne. 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 a.s.sured that I am smiling at you in the suns.h.i.+ne.”

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 rea.s.suringly 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 ca.n.a.l 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, 'h.e.l.lo, 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?”

”Death, Julia, you mean death. I think, dear, it is life,--life that is all made straight; life where one can work and never be laid aside for illness; life where one can love, and fear no separation; life where one can do the big things he yearned to do, and be the big man he yearned to be with no hindrance of little petty things. I think that death is life, the happy life.”

Julia, satisfied, returned to her ca.n.a.l, and Lark, with throbbing pity, patted Carol's arm.

”Do you know, Larkie, I think that death is life on the top of a sunny slope, clear up on the peak where it touches the sky. Such a big sunny slope that the canyons of shadow are miles and miles away, out of sight entirely. I believe that David is living right along on the top of a sunny slope.”

Her father stepped to the window and tapped on the pane, waving down to them. ”I can't keep away from this window,” he called. ”Whenever you twins get together I think I have to watch you just as I used to when you were mobbing the parsonage.”

The twins laughed, and when he went back to his desk they turned to each other with eyes that plainly said, ”Isn't he the grandest father that ever lived?”

Then Carol folded her hands behind her head again and looked dreamily up through the leafy maples, seeing the broad mesa stretching off miles away to the mountains, where the dark canyons underlined the sunny slopes.

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