ll, with the
peach blossoms standing pitifully awry upon the western end. Her eyes
filled with tears. "Oh, Marthy! When was it?"

"In the night, sometime, I guess." Marthy's voice had a harsh
huskiness. "He was--gone--when I woke up. Well--he's better off than
I be. I dunno what woulda become of him if I'd went first." There, at
last, was a note of tenderness, stifled though it was and fleeting.
"Git down, Billy Louise, and come in. I been kinda lookin' for yuh to
come, ever sence the weather opened up. How's your maw?"

Spoken sympathy was absolutely impossible in the face of that stoical
acceptance of life's harsh law. Marthy turned toward the gate, taking
the shovel and the wheelbarrow in with her. Billy Louise glanced
furtively at the raw, yellow ridge under the rock wall and rode on to
the stable. She pulled off the saddle and bridle and turned Blue into
the corral before she went slowly--and somewhat reluctantly--to the
cabin, squat, old, and unkempt like its mistress, but buried deep in
the renewed sweetness of bloom-time.

"The fruit's comin' on early this year," said Marthy from the doorway,
her hands on her hips. "They's goin' to be lots of it, too, if we
don't git a killin' frost." So she closed the conversational door upon
her sorrow and pointed the way to trivial, every-day things.

"What are you going to do now, Marthy?" Billy Louise was perfectly
capable of opening a conversational door, even when it had been closed
decisively in her face. "You can't get on here alone, you know. Did
you send for that nephew? If you haven't, you must hire somebody
till--"

"He's comin'. That letter you sent over last month was from him. I
dunno when he'll git here; he's liable to come most any time. I ain't
going to hire nobody. I kin git along alone. I might as well of been
alone--" Even harsh Marthy hesitated and did not finish the sentence
that would have put a slight upon her dead.

"I'll stay to-night, anyway," said Billy Louise. "Just a week ago I
hired John Pringle and that little breed wife of his for the summer. I
couldn't afford it," she added, with a small sigh, "but Ward had to go
back to his claim, and mommie needs someone in the house. She hasn't
been a bit well, all winter. And I've turned all the stock out for the
summer and have to do a lot of riding on them; it's that or let them
scatter all over the country and then have to hire a rep for every
round-up. I can't affor