He died twenty years ago , and a worthless , drunken scamp he was . He served a term in the penitentiary for breaking into Andrew Messervey 's store , and after it he had the face to come back to North Point . But respectable people would have nothing to do with him , and he went to the dogs altogether -- had to be buried on charity when he died . He has n't any relations here . There was a sister , a little girl of ten , who used to live with the Cogswells over at East Point . After Jord died , some rich folks saw her and was so struck with her good looks that they took her away with them . I do n't know what become of her , and I do n't care . Go and bring the cows up . '' When Freda went to bed that night her mind was made up . She would adopt Jordan Slade 's grave . Thereafter , Freda spent her few precious spare-time moments in the graveyard . She clipped the blueberry shrubs and long , tangled grasses from the grave with a pair of rusty old shears that blistered her little brown hands badly . She brought ferns from the woods to plant about it . She begged a root of heliotrope from Nan Gray , a clump of day lilies from Katie Morris , a rosebush slip from Nellie Bell , some pansy seed from old Mrs. Bennett , and a geranium shoot from Minnie Hutchinson 's big sister . She planted , weeded and watered faithfully , and her efforts were rewarded . `` Her '' grave soon looked as nice as any in the graveyard . Nobody but Freda knew about it . The poplar growth concealed the corner from sight , and everybody had quite forgotten poor , disreputable Jordan Slade 's grave . At least , it seemed as if everybody had . But one evening , when Freda slipped down to the graveyard with a little can of water and rounded the corner of the poplars , she saw a lady standing by the grave -- a strange lady dressed in black , with the loveliest face Freda had ever seen , and tears in her eyes .
The lady gave a little start when she saw Freda with her can XXXXX water .
After At as by from of on that to with