n and children.

"And here look _encore_!" I exclaimed, as I drew from my breast the
large silver "peasants' locket" I had bought in Belgium, perhaps in her
own village, and which I always wear with my street clothes, and had put
on even in the hurry of my summons. I snapped it open and let her see
what it contained. Sam saw, also! It was a picture of Sam milking old
Buttercup in the shed. Just as he turned to call me to bring an extra
bucket to feed the calf, I had snapped it. I don't know just why I had
put it in the locket, except that it is safe to have Sam around in time
of trouble.

"_Eh, le bon Dieu_--I see, I see!" she exclaimed, looking first at Sam
and then at the locket. Then suddenly she clasped my wrist and looked at
the two big, hard, live callouses in my own palm, that some kind of a
queer prophetic sentiment had warned me not to let a manicure work on.
Also, she saw the pea-thumb that still held a trace of the blister.
Intently she looked for a few seconds, first at me and then at Sam. Then
with a cry of agonized joy she fell at Sam's feet, and I drew down on my
knees beside her, while the other women crowded around, kneeling, too,
as their leader bowed her tear-drenched eyes in Sam's big, warm hands.
One woman thrust a tiny baby into my arms as she kissed my sleeve and
leaned forward to clasp Sam's knees, while the old man who had been
praying all the time spread out his hands in a joyful benediction. The
men's sullen faces lightened, and they bent to take up their pitiful old
bundles and baskets.

For a long minute there was a sobbing silence while the Commissioner
blew his nose over by the window. I clasped the little starved baby
close and pressed with the other women against Sam's knees, and Sam
stood calm over us all. I know, I _know_ he was praying down away from
the sea, across half the world, into his own everlasting hills, over
Paradise Ridge.

"Good, Bettykin!" he said as he bent and raised me and the fierce woman
to our feet. The others began to bustle and hustle the children, and
men, brushing tears from faces that had begun to smile uncertainly, as
if they had never smiled before. A big tear fell off Sam's own cheek as
he roughed my hair with his chin under the edge of my perky little hat,
and took the woman's baby from my arms, as well as her bag and bundle,
to carry them to the car. He led the way, and we all trailed after him.

It was a strenuous hour that we spent getting them all