The children awakened her by their delighted cooing and kissing. It was a
great event, this waking to find mamma in their bed. It was hardly light,
of a dull gray morning; and with the children tumbling about over her,
feeling the pressure of the warm little hands and soft lips, she went
over the whole situation again, and at last settled upon her action.
She rose, shook down the coal in the stove in the sitting-room, and
started a fire in the kitchen; then she dressed the children by the
coal-burner. The elder of them, as soon as dressed, ran in to wake
"poppa" while the mother went about breakfast-getting.
Sanford came out of his bedroom unwontedly gloomy, greeting the children
in a subdued maimer. He shivered as he sat by the fire, and stirred the
stove as if he thought the room was cold. His face was pale and moist.
"Breakfast is ready, James," called Mrs. Sanford, in a tone which she
meant to be habitual, but which had a cadence of sadness in it.
Someway, he found it hard to look at her as he came out. She busied
herself with placing the children at the table, in order to conceal her
own emotion.
"I don't believe I'll eat any meat this morning, Nellie. I ain't very
well."