ney fixing up the house,
which was in a most dilapidated condition.

Bill Cavers had lost the ambition that he once had, and now did not
care very much what sort of house he lived in. Bill was content to
live the simple life, if the liquid refreshment were not simplified
too much, and Mrs. Cavers never complained.

The Caverses had only one child living, Libby Anne, eleven years old;
but there were several little unmarked mounds in the Millford
cemetery that Libby Anne and Mrs. Cavers sometimes piled high with
white cherry-blossoms or blue anemones. Little George had lived to be
two years old, and Libby Anne remembered that when he died there was
a funeral, with horses and buggies in the yard, and the minister
prayed and there was singing, and Martha Perkins brought over little
cookies with pink seeds on them, and it was fine!

But for days and days Libby Anne would steal up the narrow stairs,
fully expecting to find her little brother sleeping under the pink
quilt on his mother's bed, but there wasn't ever even the dint of him
on the quilt, and Libby Anne at last went up with her eyes shut to
feel around the bed, so as not to be disappointed so soon. Then her
mother told her about the beautiful country that little George had
gone to, and Libby Anne was glad to know that no one there was ever
cold or hungry, and that nobody's father ever came home drunk. One
day in school Libby Anne told the teacher what heaven was like, and
when she mentioned this last and greatest advantage of living there
he told her gently that she must not say such things.

For some time after coming to the Steadman farm things had gone
better with the Caverses, for a strong influence was brought to bear
on Bill, to keep him sober. Mr. Steadman had never taken any interest
in the liquor question--he had no taste for whiskey himself, and,
besides, it costs money--but now, with Bill Cavers for his tenant, he
began to see things differently. If Bill Cavers drank he would not be
able to pay the rent. So Mr. Steadman desired Bill to be a sober man,
and to this end had a very straight talk with him on the subject of
total abstinence.

Bill Cavers was a very poor farmer, as one look at his abandoned
homestead would show; that he was not a success as a husband no one
would doubt after seeing Mrs. Cavers; and that he was a conspicuous
failure as a father, Elizabeth Anne Cavers, his daughter, with her
frightened eyes and sad mouth, would abundantly tes