ars. I knew then that I had taken
his coming back lightly; had fussed over it and been silly-proud of it;
while not _really_ caring at all. All that awful reducing my waist
measure seemed just a lack of confidence in his love for me; he wouldn't
have minded if I weighed five hundred pounds, I felt sure. He loved
me--really, really, really; and I had sat and weighed him with a lot of
men who were nothing more than amused by my chatter, or taken with my
beauty, and who wouldn't have known such love if it were shown to them
through a telescope.

I reached into a trunk that stood just beside me and took out a box that
I hadn't looked into for years. His letters were all there, and his
photographs, that were very handsome. I could hardly see them through
my tears, but I knew that they were dim in places with being cried over
when I had put them away years ago after Aunt Adeline decided that I was
to be married. I kissed the poor little-girl cry-spots; and with that a
perfect flood of tears rose to my eyes--but they didn't fall, for there,
right in front of me, stood a more woe-stricken human being than I could
possibly be, if I judged by appearances.

"Molly, Molly," gulped Billy, "I am so ill I'm going to die here on the
floor," and he sank into my arms.

"Oh, Billy, what is the matter?" I gasped and gave him a little
terrified shake.

"Mamie Johnson did it--poked her finger down her throat and mine, too,"
he wailed against my breast. "We was full of things people gived us to
eat and couldn't eat no more. She said if we did that with our fingers
it would make room for some more then. She did it, and I'm going to die
dead--dead!

"No, no, pet; you'll be all right in a second. Stay quiet here in your
Molly's lap and you will be well in just a few minutes," I said with a
smile I hid in his yellow mop as I kissed the drake-tail kiss-spot.
"Where's Mamie?" I thought to ask with the greatest apprehension.

"In the garden eating cup-cake Jane baked hot for both of us," he
answered, snuggling close and much comforted.

"Don't ever, ever do that again, Billy," I said, giving him both a hug
and a shake. "It's piggy to eat more than is good for you and then still
want more. What would your father say?"

"Father isn't no good, and I don't care what he says," answered Billy
with spirit. "He don't play no more, and he don't laugh no more, and he
don't eat no more hardly, too. I'm not going to live in that house with
him more'n