Sim did not hear her as she slipped up the stairs to the little low, unfinished chamber beside her oldest children.

She could not bear to sleep near _him_ that night,--she wanted a chance to sob herself to quiet.
As for Sim, he was a little disturbed, but would as soon have cut off his head as acknowledge himself in the wrong.

As he went to bed, and found her still away, he yelled up the stairway: "Say, o' woman, ain't ye comin' to bed ?" Upon receiving no answer he rolled his aching body into the creaking bed.

"Do as y' damn please about it.

If y' want to sulk y' can." And in such wise the family grew quiet in sleep, while the moist, warm air pulsed with the ceaseless chime of the crickets.
II.
When Sim Burns woke the next morning he felt a sharper twinge of remorse.