until I had seen
what the place was like and he thought that kind of life very hard on
women, but my brother was the only relative I had, though I had not seen
him for years. After I had started I was frightened about the journey
and the strange people. There was one woman with a baby, a bright,
beautiful child with rosy cheeks and brilliant eyes. I supposed her the
mother, for I saw her nurse the infant, and there was with them such a
beautiful woman. She came to me in the night, and when I looked at her
the last time she was dead," and she sighed.

"We were most of us asleep when there was an awful crash. Then horrible
shrieks and cries and being thrown about--"

"Oh, mother, don't, don't!" Lilian implored. "Your mind is wandering--"

"No, it is true, horribly true. It was one of the awful accidents of
that time, more than fifteen years ago, but I suppose I became
unconscious. My babe flew out of my arms; my little baby," in a
lingering tone as if the words were sweet to say.

"When I came to myself it was in a room where several were lying around
on cots, and two women sat close together trying to hush the crying
child."

"Give me my baby, I almost shrieked. Bring me my baby."

"They brought it and I hugged it to my breast, gave it nourishment,
cuddled it in my arms and I fell asleep full of joy. We both slept a
long while. When I woke the woman brought me a cup of tea and some
bread. I was ravenously hungry. Then I asked what had happened. It had
been twenty-four hours."

"It was a horrible accident at a place where tracks crossed. All day
they had been clearing away the wreck and sending bodies into the
nearest towns for this place was small. A number had been killed
outright. Will you give me some of that tea in the tumbler?"

"Oh, mother, do not tell any more," the girl pleaded, shuddering.

"Yes, I must, I must! When morning came the woman helped me up and I had
some breakfast. I had been stunned and bruised, but no bones were
broken."

"We are so glad the baby was yours," one of the women said. "The other
poor baby and its mother was killed."

"I went to the bed presently and turned down the blanket. There lay the
lovely child warm and rosy, the picture of health. I devoured it with
kisses. Yes, it was mine. God had saved it and sent it to me. It had no
mother, so it was mine. I called it by my baby's name, and I couldn't
have cared more for my own flesh and blood. You were so beautiful and
brigh