The little crowd dispersed quietly; Lige Willetts plucked to his horse and cantered away to overtake the buckboard; William Todd took his courage between his teeth, and, the song ringing in his ears, made a desperate resolve to call upon Miss Bardlock that evening, in spite of its being a week day, and Caleb Parker gently and stammeringly asked Cynthia if she would wait till he shut up the shop, and let him walk home with her and Bud.
Soon the Square was quiet as before, and there was naught but peace under the big stars of July.
That day the news had come that Harkless, after weeks of alternate improvement and relapse, hazardously lingering in the borderland of shadows, had passed the crucial point and was convalescent.

His recovery was assured.

But from their first word of him, from the message that he was found and was alive, none of the people of Carlow had really doubted it.

They are simple country people, and they know that God is good..