But that subtle tissue of the little things! They talked of Katie's mother, and as they talked it came to Katie that perhaps the most live things of all might be the dead things.

Katie's mother had not been unlike Mrs.Prescott, save that to Katie, at least, she seemed softer and sweeter.

They had been girls together in Charleston.

They had lived on the same street, gone to the same school, come out at the same party, and Katie's mother had met Katie's father when he came to be best man at Mrs.Prescott's wedding.

Then they had been stationed together at a frontier post in a time of danger.