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                              GRANDMOTHER




                         Handy Volume Editions
                        of Copyrighted Fiction

                               BY
                               LAURA E.
                               RICHARDS


                      MRS. TREE’S WILL      $.75

                      MRS. TREE              .75

                      GEOFFREY STRONG        .75

                      FOR TOMMY              .75

                      LOVE AND ROCKS         .75

                      CAPTAIN JANUARY        .75

                       _Tall 16mos, Individual Cover
                       Designs. Illustrated._

                     DANA ESTES & CO., PUBLISHERS
                      ESTES PRESS, BOSTON, MASS.

[Illustration: “GRANDMOTHER KNELT DOWN BESIDE HIM, AND TOOK HIS HAND.”
(_See page 62_)]

[Illustration:

  GRANDMOTHER

The Story of a Life That Never
Was Lived

By

Laura E. Richards

_Author of_
“Captain January,” “Melody,” “Marie,” “Mrs. Tree’s
Will,” etc.

Boston
DANA ESTES & COMPANY
Publishers]

                           _Copyright_, 1907
                        BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY

                         _All rights reserved_

                              GRANDMOTHER

                            _COLONIAL PRESS
            Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
                           Boston, U. S. A._




                                  TO
                              MY DAUGHTER
                               Elizabeth

  I heard an angel singing
  When the day was springing,
  “Mercy, pity and peace
  Are the world’s release!”

  —WILLIAM BLAKE.




                               CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                           PAGE

     I. HOW SHE CAME TO THE VILLAGE                    1

    II. HOW THE FIRST LINE CAME IN HER FACE           15

   III. HOW SHE PLAYED WITH THE CHILDREN              30

    IV. HOW SHE SANG GRANDFATHER TO SLEEP             50

     V. HOW THE SECOND LINE CAME IN HER FOREHEAD      65

    VI. HOW SHE WENT VISITING                         81

   VII. HOW THE LIGHT CAME TO HER                     99

  VIII. HOW HER HAIR TURNED WHITE                    116

    IX. HOW SHE FOUND PEACE                          132




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                PAGE

  “GRANDMOTHER KNELT DOWN BESIDE HIM, AND
        TOOK HIS HAND”(_Page 62_)                     _Frontispiece_

  “THE LONG WHITE LILY—PUTTING IT DELICATELY TO HER CHEEK”        20

  “GRANDMOTHER HAD FORGOTTEN ALL THE  WORLD EXCEPT THE CHILD”    102

  “SHE LAY LIKE AN IVORY STATUE”                                 145




                              GRANDMOTHER




CHAPTER I

HOW SHE CAME TO THE VILLAGE


SHE was a slip of a girl when first she came to the village; slender
and delicate, with soft brown hair blowing about her soft face. Those
who saw her coming down the street beside Grandfather Merion thought he
had brought back one of his grandnieces with him from the west for a
visit; it was known that he had been out there, and he had been away
all summer.

Anne Peace and her mother looked up from their sewing as the pair went
by; Grandfather Merion walking slow and stately with his ivory-headed
stick and his great three-cornered hat, the last one left in the
village, his kind wise smile greeting the neighbors as he met them; and
beside him this tall slender maiden in her light print gown that the
wind was tossing about, as it tossed the brown cloud of hair about her
cheeks.

“Look, mother!” said Anne Peace. “She is for all the world like a
windflower, so pretty and slim. Who is it, think?”

“Some of his western kin, I s’pose,” said Widow Peace. “She is a
pretty piece. See if she’s got the new back, Anne; I was wishful some
stranger would come to town to show us how it looked.”

“Land, Mother,” said Anne; “her gown’s nothing but calico, and might
have come out of the Ark, looks ’s though; not but what ’tis pretty on
her. Real graceful! There! see her look up at him, just as sweet! I
expect she is his grandniece, likely.