"Talk to me, then, of your mother, Rima.

Do you know that you will see her again some day ?" "Yes, when I die.

That is what the priest said." "The priest ?" "Yes, at Voa--do you know?
Mother died there when I was small--it is so far away! And there are thirteen houses by the side of the river--just here; and on this side--trees, trees." This was important, I thought, and would lead to the very knowledge I wished for; so I pressed her to tell me more about the settlement she had named, and of which I had never heard.
"Everything have I told you," she returned, surprised that I did not know that she had exhausted the subject in those half-dozen words she had spoken.
Obliged to shift my ground, I said at a venture: "Tell me, what do you ask of the Virgin Mother when you kneel before her picture?
Your grandfather told me that you had a picture in your little room." "You know!" flashed out her answer, with something like resentment.
"It is all there in there," waving her hand towards the hut.

"Out here in the wood it is all gone--like this," and stooping quickly, she raised a little yellow sand on her palm, then let it run away through her fingers.
Thus she illustrated how all the matters she had been taught slipped from her mind when she was out of doors, out of sight of the picture.
After an interval she added: "Only mother is here--always with me." "Ah, poor Rima!" I said; "alone without a mother, and only your old grandfather! He is old--what will you do when he dies and flies away to the starry country where your mother is ?" She looked inquiringly at me, then made answer in a low voice: "You are here." "But when I go away ?" She was silent; and not wishing to dwell on a subject that seemed to pain her, I continued: "Yes, I am here now, but you will not stay with me and talk freely! Will it always be the same if I remain with you?
Why are you always so silent in the house, so cold with your old grandfather?
So different--so full of life, like a bird, when you are alone in the woods?
Rima, speak to me! Am I no more to you than your old grandfather?
Do you not like me to talk to you ?" She appeared strangely disturbed at my words.

"Oh, you are not like him," she suddenly replied.