d me how he
was I'd say he was better, or more comfortable, or easier; an' so he
was, thank God! bein' in heaven."

She roused herself wearily, and wiped her eyes with the back of her
hand. Babcock sat motionless.

"Since that I've kep' the promise to me Tom that I made on me
knees beside his bed the night I lifted him in me arms to take him
downstairs--that I 'd keep his name clean, and do by it as he would hev
done himself, an' bring up the children, an' hold the roof over their
heads. An' now they say I dar'n't be called by Tom's name, nor sign it
neither, an' they're a-goin' to take me contract away for puttin' his
name at the bottom of it, just as I've put it on ivery other bit o'
paper I've touched ink to these seven years since he left me."

"Why, Tom, this is nonsense. Who says so?" said Babcock earnestly, glad
of any change of feeling to break the current of her thoughts.

"Dan McGaw an' Rowan says so."

"What's McGaw got to do with it? He's out of the fight."

"Oh, ye don't know some men, Mr. Babcock. McGaw'll never stop fightin'
while I live. Maybe I oughtn't tell ye,--I've niver told anybody,--but
whin my Tom lay sick upstairs, McGaw come in one night, an' his own
wife half dead with a blow he had given her, an' sat down in this very
room,--it was our kitchen then,--an' he says,' If your man don't git
well, ye'll be broke.' An' I says to him, 'Dan McGaw, if I live twelve
months, Tom Grogan'll be a richer man than he is now.' I was a-sittin'
right here when I said it, wid a rag carpet on this floor, an' hardly
any furniture in the room. He said more things, an' tried to make love
to me, and I let drive and threw him out of me kitchen. Then all me
trouble wid him began; he's done everything to beat me since, and now
maybe, after all, he'll down me. It all come up yisterday through McGaw
meetin' Dr. Mason an' askin' him about me Tom; an' whin the doctor told
him Tom was dead seven years, McGaw runs to Justice Rowan wid the story,
an' now they say I can't sign a dead man's name. Judge Bowker has the
papers, an' it's all to be settled to-morrow."

"But they can't take your contract away," said Babcock indignantly, "no
matter what Rowan says."

"Oh, it's not that--it's not that. That's not what hurts me. I can git
another contract. That's not what breaks me heart. But if they take me
Tom's NAME from me, an' say I can't be Tom Grogan any more; it's like
robbin' me of my life. When I work on the docks I all