"But yer can't allers tell by that nowadays.

There's folks wears 'em that ain't married.

This is a real harndsome ring, 's heavy 's ever I see." How Mercy's heart must have been touched, and also her fine and pathetic sense of humor, if her freed spirit hovered still in that little low-roofed room! This cast-off garment of hers, so carefully honored, so curiously considered and speculated upon by these simple-minded people! There was something rarely dramatic in all the surroundings of these last hours.

Among the guests in the house was one, a woman, herself a poet, who toward the end of the second day came into the chamber, bringing long trailing vines of the sweet Linnea, which was then in full bloom.

Her poet's heart was moved to the depths by the thought of this unknown, dead woman lying there, tended by strangers' hands.