...At evening, the man came home, tired and dirty from a long day’s labor. Entering the house, he called for his wife but there was no answer. As she usually cheerfully greeted him at the door, he thought it rather strange that he had received no reply. Looking in all the rooms, both upstairs and in the cellar, he found that she was not there. He went outside and loudly called her name again and again, but there was still no answer.

A neighbor, hearing the ruckus, came over and asked what the matter was. Frantic, the husband asked if he had seen his wife, but the neighbor said he had not. They both searched the nearby brush and among the trees on the property, but still could not find her. As his neighbor left to check with others nearby, he stood and wondered where his wife might have gone. There were still a few Indians in the area, and panthers and bears, and he feared that something dreadful had happened to her.

“Of course - to the valley!” he finally thought, and sped down the road toward the creek bed. Calling out her name loudly, he rushed through the thick underbrush, tearing his clothes as he went. He finally arrived at his wife’s beloved glen and looked frantically about him. His eyes fell on the slight mound where his wife lay on her back on the ground. Rushing to her side and crying her name, he picked her up only to find that she was lifeless.

It is said that he surveyed her corpse through tears and could not find any blood nor wounds which may have killed her. Her face had aged greatly since he had seen her last that morning, long creases and cracked lips staring back at him, the gray pallor of death upon her. Her clothing was not in any disarray, still bundled against the cold. Her eyes were closed, but her hair had turned gray and scraggly. He knew that she had not been sick, and wondered what may have caused this calamity.

The husband sat in this place for a long time, holding his wife’s body, mourning silently among the sounds of the small creek beside him. He did not know what to do or what to say. He just knew that the person who he loved more than any other could was now dead, and there was nothing he could do about it. Aloud, he pleaded to his God to intercede and bring her back to life once more, but no answer was heard.

Dark had now fully fallen, and the neighbors eagerly searched by torchlight along the roadside in search of the young woman. They were startled at the sight of the young man suddenly appearing on the road carrying his wife’s body. They crowded around with their many questions and condolences, but the young man would acknowledge no one. He slowly went back to his home and laid the body of the young woman on the sofa in the sitting room. Then he went to his chair nearby and sat down, staring at his loved one throughout the long night...