noon
The old man bowed his head upon her pillow , and sobbed aloud . Throughout the night Edna crouched beside the bed , watching the wan but lovely face of the young widow , and tenderly chafing the numb , fair hands which lay so motionless on the coverlet . Children are always sanguine , because of their ignorance of the stern , inexorable realities of the untried future , and Edna could not believe that death would snatch from the world one so beautiful and so necessary to her prattling , fatherless infants . But morning showed no encouraging symptoms , the stupor was unbroken , and at noon the wife 's spirit passed gently to the everlasting reunion . Before sunrise on the ensuing day , a sad group clustered once more under the dripping chestnuts , and where a pool of blood had dyed the sod , a wide grave yawned . The coffins were lowered , the bodies of Henry and Helen Dent rested side by side , and , as the mound rose slowly above them , the solemn silence was broken by the faltering voice of the surgeon , who read the burial service . `` Man , that is born of a woman , hath but a short time to live , and is full of misery .