n top of waves as
big as mountains an' the next minute goin' down, down, down, till I
thought sure we'd strike bottom before ever we come up again. But even
the longest night must wear away, an' when day broke we seen a big
vessel comin' towards us an' in the course of an hour or so we was all
transferred to her decks. She cruised around for a time, hopin' to pick
up some of the other boats, but couldn't find none of 'em. There was no
tellin' how far away from the wreck an' the boats we'd drifted in the
night. The vessel that picked us up was bound for America an' so we
continued our voyage to this country.

"I've often heard people complain of the coldness an' hardness of the
world; by 'the world,' always meanin' the folks that live in it, I
suppose. To my way of thinkin' there's a deal more kindness in the world
than there is selfishness an' badness, an' the people on that steamer
proved me right in one case anyway. They made up a purse among 'em an'
give a share to each of us that had been picked out of the sea, as you
might say. So, when we landed, we each had a little money to start in
with. I soon found work in a mill, an' my poor Mona managed to keep
herself an' the baby by doin' fine sewin'. For a long time we kep' house
together, me an' Mona, then I married an' moved away to another town. My
own troubles come on me thick an' fast after that an' what with one
thing an' another, an' movin' here an' there, it was years before I set
eyes on her again. Then we met quite by accident an' I found she was
livin' not far from here with an old woman who peddled shoestrings an'
pencils on the street. Mona herself kep' a stand on a corner where she
sold apples an' peanuts an' such stuff.

"That night she come to see me here an' we talked over old times an' all
that had happened since last we met. She'd done well at her sewin', she
said, and brought up the baby in tolerable comfort. Then, just as the
child was growin' into a woman that could be of help to her mother an'
pay her back for her years of workin' an' strugglin', she was took down
with consumption. All the little poor Mona had managed to save went in
carin' for her sick daughter an' buryin' her when she died. By that
time, Mona's health was pretty well broke up, her eyes was not as good
as they used to be, an' she had to give up the sewin'. She fell in with
the old woman who peddled shoestrings, and, by her advice, started in
with her apple-stand. They'd been toge