ldren, and Mrs. Gerhardt
shared their emotions in a suppressed way. Jennie was to go first, as
Bass had suggested; later on they would all follow.

When the hour came for Jennie's departure there was great
excitement in the household.

"How long you going to be 'fore you send for us?" was Martha's
inquiry, several times repeated.

"Tell Bass to hurry up," said the eager George.

"I want to go to Cleveland, I want to go to Cleveland," Veronica
was caught singing to herself.

"Listen to her," exclaimed George, sarcastically.

"Aw, you hush up," was her displeased rejoinder.

When the final hour came, however, it required all of Jennie's
strength to go through with the farewells. Though everything was being
done in order to bring them together again under better conditions,
she could not help feeling depressed. Her little one, now six months
old, was being left behind. The great world was to her one
undiscovered bourne. It frightened her.

"You mustn't worry, Ma," she found courage enough to say. "I'll be
all right. I'll write you just as soon as I get there. It won't be so
very long."

But when it came to bending over her baby for the last time her
courage went out like a blown lamp. Stooping over the cradle in which
the little one was resting, she looked into its face with passionate,
motherly yearning.

"Is it going to be a good little girl?" she cooed.

Then she caught it up into her arms, and hugging it closely to her
neck and bosom, she buried her face against its little body. Mrs.
Gerhardt saw that she was trembling.

"Come now," she said, coaxingly, "you mustn't carry on so. She will
be all right with me. I'll take care of her. If you're going to act
this way, you'd better not try to go at all."

Jennie lifted her head, her blue eyes wet with tears, and handed
the little one to her mother.

"I can't help it," she said, half crying, half smiling.

Quickly she kissed her mother and the children; then she hurried
out.

As she went down the street with George she looked back and bravely
waved her hand. Mrs. Gerhardt responded, noticing how much more like a
woman she looked. It had been necessary to invest some of her money in
new clothes to wear on the train. She had selected a neat, ready-made
suit of brown, which fitted her nicely. She wore the skirt of this
with a white shirt-waist, and a sailor hat with a white veil wound
around it in such fashion that it could be easily drawn over her face.