be send up
some clothes for her. She felt better when she had set the wheels in
motion again, and as she stood in the door and watched John's broad,
stolid back out of sight on his homeward journey, she made up her mind
that she would start at daylight for Mill Creek, and she didn't care
whether it stormed or not. She simply would not leave Ward there alone
any longer. She almost wished that she had told Seabeck about Ward; he
would have sent a man over to look after him. But she was selfish, and
she wanted Ward to herself; so she had not so much as mentioned his
name to Seabeck.

She milked the two cows by lantern light, next morning; and the pigs
did not seem to want to leave their nests when she poured their
breakfast into the trough by the wavering light she carried. She made
coffee for Marthy and took it to her in bed, and told her that she
would leave plenty of wood and kindling, and that Marthy must sleep as
long as she could and not worry about a single, living thing. She said
she must get an early start, because it might be "bad going" and she
meant to bring Ward back with her if he were able to travel at all.

"I can't be in two places at once, Marthy, so if you don't mind, I'll
bring him down here where I can look after the two of you at the same
time. You'll let me, won't you? Or else," she added hopefully, "I'll
take you both down home. Would you rather--"

"I'd ruther stay here where I b'long," said Marthy dully. "But I don't
want you should go t' any trouble about me, Billy Louise. I've rustled
fer m'self all my life, and I guess I kin yit. If it wa'n't fer my
rheumatiz, I'd ask no odds of anybody. I ain't goin' t' leave, anyway.
Charlie might come back, er--"

"Well, you needn't leave." Billy Louise told herself that she was not
disappointed, because she had not hoped to persuade Marthy to leave the
Cove. "You don't mind if I bring Ward down here, do you, Marthy?"

"No, I don't mind nothin' you kin do," said Marthy in the same dull
tone, pouring her saucer full of coffee and spilling some on her
pillow, because her hands were not as steady as they used to be. "He
kin sleep in Charlie's room, if yuh want he should." She took two big
swallows that emptied the saucer, handed the dish to Billy Louise, and
lay down again. "I don't seem to care about nothin'," she remarked
tonelessly. "I'd jest as soon die as live. I wisht you'd send word to
Seabeck I want t' see him, Billy Louise. Oh