Of, at least,--why, of course, she knew he must have changed some; hadn't she?
But then she did _not_ think he would be so tall, and have a face and hands without tan or freckle, or that his clothes would be so _very_ black and fine, and fit as though they had grown on him, or that his collar would be so white and glossy, or his boots so small and shiny.

So Kitty stood still in embarrassed silence.

But the mother,--oh, she saw in him the picture of the dear, dead father, as he used to come to her long, long ago; the husband who, through all change and poverty and pain, she had _always_ loved! And all the tenderness that had ever been in her heart took form, and spoke in those words with which she came forward to greet her son,--"Oh, my _dear_ boy!" There was happiness in the little home that night; only the bedroom door was closed, and Edward knew that his father's bed was vacant.
Such a queer feeling as possessed him all the next day, while he went around the village! He went _every_where.

He felt like walking through every street, and stepping on every stone on which his feet had trod in the old life, now utterly gone from him.

He wandered down to the river-bank, where he had lain that summer morning and envied the fishes; and, standing there, thanked God for the mission class in Mr.Holbrook's Sabbath school.