The grief which she feels nearly crushes her spirit and evokes the
sympathies of her neighbors, as well it may. She finds a bitterness
within her heart which it is difficult to sweeten into resignation. Why
should the blow have singled her as its object? Then, with the lapse of
the days, comes a change of the season, and the wonderful climatic
effects on both mind and body accompanying them. She wanders into the
woods, and the rustling of the leaves beneath her feet betrays her from
her dead husband for the first time, and her