He had no words wherewith to answer him, but he nodded an assent as he went on nervously tossing the acorns from one hand to another.
There was a long silence, and when he looked up inquiringly, George had put his thin hands over his face to hide the tears that were slowly trickling down.
"What's the mattah ?" he asked anxiously.

"Shall I call Mars' Nat ?" "No," answered the man, steadying his voice.

"I was only thinking that I had expected to go through the gate, when my turn came, with my arms piled full of sheaves,--but I've come to the end too soon.

It seems so hard to come down to death empty-handed, when I have longed all these years to do so much for my people.

Oh, my poor people!" he cried out desperately; "so helpless and so needy, and my life that was to have been given to them going out in vain! utterly in vain!" It was not the first time that John Jay had heard that cry.