bein' clear discouraged, and anon makin' a little sunthin', and then
agin makin' first rate for a day or two, as the way of agents is.

Till one day about sundown--she hadn't seen a house for milds back--she
come to a little house a-standin' back on the edge of a pleasant strip
of woods. A herd of sleek cows and some horses and some sheep wuz in
pastures alongside of it, and a little creek of sparklin' water run
before it, and she went over a rustic bridge, up through a pretty front
yard, into a little vine-shaded porch, and rapped at the door.

Nobody come; she rapped agin; nobody made a appearance.

But anon she hearn a low groanin' and cryin' inside.

So, bein' at the bottom one of the kindest-hearted creeters in the
world, but embittered by strugglin' along alone, Arvilly opened the door
and went in. She went through a little parlor into the back room, and
wuzn't that a sight that met her eyes?

A good-lookin' man of about Arvilly's age laid there all covered with
blood and fainted entirely away, and on his breast wuz throwed the form
of a little lame girl all covered with blood, and a-cryin' and
a-groanin' as if her heart would break.

She thought her Pa wuz dead.

It seemed that he had cut his head dretfully with a tree branch
a-fallin' onto it, and had jest made out to git to the house before he
fainted; and his little girl, havin' never seen a faint, thought it wuz
death; and it _is_ its first cousin.