"Yes, it was all the same," she repeated musingly, "and just as real, though grandfather used to argue with her sometimes that a person who couldn't hear her own name across the room couldn't hear frogs peeping at a quarter of a mile. And she would admit it sometimes in a humble way, but she always forgot it, and enjoyed the singing just the same the next evening."
"She wasn't a bit like grandfather, was she?" asked Esther. She wanted Stella to keep on talking about this sweet old grandmother, whom she herself had known only in a brief childish way.
"Oh, dear, no," said Stella; "there couldn't be two people more unlike. She never talked of herself, and she never quoted scripture unless it was one of the promises. Grandfather always lorded it over her in a way, and she was so frail toward the last that he did it more than ever. If the least thing ailed her he thought she was going to die right off, and he always felt it his duty to tell her that she was a very sick woman, and that it would not be surprising if she were drawing near her end."
She made a soft gurgling in her throat, then went on.
"But that never worried grandmother a bit. She always said she was willing to go if 'twas the Lord's will; but, do you know, in her heart she really expected to outlive him! She told me so once confidentially, and explained, in her perfectly sweet way, that she knew how to manage him better than any one else, and she was afraid it would be a little hard for us to get along with him if she were gone. She said it had been a subject of prayer with her for years, and she had faith that her prayer would be answered."
She paused, and Esther said gravely: "But she did die before him, after all. I wonder what she thought about her prayer then." Stella shook her head. "I don't know," she said; "I imagine she didn't think of it at all, but only that God wanted her. It would have been just like her."
Esther did not speak for a minute. She was pondering her grandmother's case, while the crickets in the grass filled the stillness with their chirping, and the long, clear call of a whippoorwill sounded from the woods. Presently she asked, "Did she know at the last that she was really going to die?"