there was a sort of break in her voice. She
was putting dishes on the table as she talked,
and turned some ham in the skillet, and got
the children up before the fire, and dropped
some eggs in water, -- all with a rapidity that
bewildered Henderson.

"How long have you been alone?" he
asked, softly.

"Three months before baby was born,
and he's five months old now. I -- I -- you
think I can get on here, don't you? There
was nothing else to do."

She was folding another blanket over the
sleeping baby now, and the action brought
to her guest the recollection of a thousand
tender moments of his dimly remembered
youth.

"You'll get on if we have anything to do
with it," he cried, suppressing an oath with
difficulty, just from pure emotion.

And he told her about the three Johns'
ranch, and found it was only three miles
distant, and that both were on the same
road; only her cabin, having been put up
during the past week, had of course been