"I can't read the writin'," she said, handing it back. "Will ye tell me what it says?"
"Oh, I can't, I can't, Tessibel! I am so ashamed, so miserable!"
Tess silently handed the paper to Professor Young; then she slipped forward and stood close to Frederick, rapidly considering his face with forgiving eyes.
Young turned to the student.
"Shall I?"
An acquiescent nod gave him permission to lift the note and read:
"Dear Child: My daughter is dead. Frederick will tell you. If you can forgive me for all I have done against you and your father, will you come here to us, and tell Mrs. Graves and myself of the past few weeks. Frederick has told me that he loves you, and of your sacrifice for Teola. I can only say at present that we thank you.
Yours in grief and gratitude, Elias Graves.
P. S.--When your father comes back, I shall ask you to give him the title of the ground upon which your house stands."
Professor Young read it slowly, word by word; each breath taken by the four people could be plainly heard in the silence that followed.
Frederick broke it.
"Tess, will you come to our home, and tell Father and Mother about--Teola?"
The name slipped into a whisper from his lips, and, leaning against the hut door, he burst into boyish, bitter tears.
"Forgive me, please," he murmured; "but it was so awful! And what she must have suffered!... And I didn't know--we none of us knew." He lifted his face, swept them with a heartrending glance, and finished. "She died in the church to-day with the baby."
"She air happy to be with the man what she loves, ain't she?" said Tess, softly.
Frederick grasped her hands, her brilliant smile easing the pain that like a knife stabbed his heart.
"You think she was happy to die, Tess?... Tell me all she said.... Did she know she was going away?"
For an instant the rapid rush of questions daunted Tessibel. But she sorted them out, commencing from the first one to answer them.
"Yep, she air happy," she said positively; "awful happy. She wanted to go to her man in the sky.... He were a-waitin' for her every day, and she knowed she were a-goin' to die, 'cause--'cause she prayed every night that God'd take her and the brat."
"Prayed? She prayed to die, when we all loved her so?" stammered Frederick.
"Yep. She were a-lovin' the burnt student better'n anything else. And, when women air a-lovin' like that--"