She had had an over-mastering presentiment from the moment when she read the telegram that she should reach Penfield too late to see Parson Dorrance alive.

A strange certainty that he had died in the night settled upon her mind as soon as she waked from her troubled sleep; and when she reached Lizzy's door, and saw standing before it the undertaker's wagon, which she so well remembered, there was no shock of surprise to her in the sight.

At the first sound of Mercy's voice, Lizzy came swiftly forward, and fell upon her neck in a passion of crying.
"O Mercy, Mercy, he"-- "Yes, dear, I know it," interrupted Mercy, in a calm tone.

"I know he is dead." "Why, who told you, Mercy ?" exclaimed Lizzy.

"He only died a few hours ago,--about daybreak," "Oh, I thought he died in the night!" said Mercy, in a strange tone, as if trying to recollect something accurately about which her memory was not clear.