`` Well , when Leslie was twelve years old , the first dreadful thing happened . She worshipped little Kenneth -- he was four years younger than her , and he WAS a dear little chap . And he was killed one day -- fell off a big load of hay just as it was going into the barn , and the wheel went right over his little body and crushed the life out of it . And mind you , Anne , Leslie saw it . She was looking down from the loft . She gave one screech -- the hired man said he never heard such a sound in all his life -- he said it would ring in his ears till Gabriel 's trump drove it out . But she never screeched or cried again about it . She jumped from the loft onto the load and from the load to the floor , and caught up the little bleeding , warm , dead body , Anne -- they had to tear it from her before she would let it go . They sent for me -- I ca n't talk of it . '' Miss Cornelia wiped the tears from her kindly brown eyes and sewed in bitter silence for a few minutes . `` Well , '' she resumed , `` it was all over -- they buried little Kenneth in that graveyard over the harbor , and after a while Leslie went back to her school and her studies . She never mentioned Kenneth 's name -- I 've never heard it cross her lips from that day to this . I reckon that old hurt still aches and burns at times ; but she was only a child and time is real kind to children , Anne , dearie . After a while she began to laugh again -- she had the prettiest laugh . You do n't often hear it now . '' `` I heard it once the other night , '' said Anne . `` It IS a beautiful laugh . '' `` Frank West began to go down after Kenneth 's death . He was n't strong and it was a shock to him , because he was real fond of the child , though , as I 've said , Leslie was his favorite . He got mopy and melancholy , and could n't or would n't work .
And one day , when XXXXX was fourteen years of age , he hanged himself -- and in the parlor , too , mind you , Anne , right in the middle of the parlor from the lamp hook in the ceiling .
Anne Cornelia Gabriel Leslie West burns first minutes night years