noon
Her mother worked about the house ; Lois could hear her now and then , and every time she shuddered . She had a feeling that the woman in the house was not her mother . Had she been familiar with the vampire superstition , she might have thought of that , and had a fancy that some fiend animated the sober , rigid body of the old New England woman with evil and abnormal life . At noon Lois went in and ate some dinner mechanically ; then she returned . Presently , as she sat there , a bell began tolling , and a funeral procession passed along the road below . Lois watched it listlessly -- the black-draped hearse , the slow-marching bearers , the close-covered wagons , and the nodding horses . She could see it plainly through the thin spring branches .