"I'd stake my life that as a little further piece of my punishment, the
girl looks exactly like Mrs. Holt."

"By Jove," said the doctor, "I couldn't just think who it was."

He carried the babies from the room, lowered the blinds, and Kate tried
to sleep, and did sleep, because she was so exhausted she could not
keep awake.

Later in the evening Aunt Ollie slipped in, and said George was in the
woodhouse, almost crying himself to death, and begging to see her.

"You tell him I'm too sick to be seen for at least a week," said Kate.

"But, my dear, he's so broken up; he feels so badly," begged Aunt Ollie.

"So do I," said Kate. "I feel entirely too badly to be worried over
seeing him. I must take the babies now."

"I do wish you would!" persisted Aunt Ollie.

"Well, I won't," said Kate. "I don't care if I never see him again.
He knows WHY he is crying; ask him."

"I'll wager they ain't a word of truth in that tale they're telling,"
she said.

Kate looked straight at her: "Well, for their sakes and my sake, and
the babies' sake, don't TALK about it."

"You poor thing!" said Aunt Ollie, "I'll do anything in the world to
help you. If ever you need me, just call on me. I'll go start him
back in a hurry."

He came every night, but Kate steadily refused, until she felt able to
sit up in a chair, to see him, or his mother when she came to see the
babies. She had recovered rapidly, was over the painful part of
nursing the babies, and had a long talk with Aunt Ollie, before she
consented to see George. At times she thought she never could see him
again; at others, she realized her helplessness. She had her babies to
nurse for a year; there was nothing she could think of she knew to do,
that she could do, and take proper care of two children. She was tied
"hand and foot," as Aunt Ollie said. And yet it was Aunt Ollie who
solved her problem for her. Sitting beside the bed one day she said to
Kate: "My dear, do you know that I'm having a mighty good time? I
guess I was lonesomer than I thought out there all alone so much, and
the work was nigh to breaking me during the long, cold winter. I got a
big notion to propose somepin' to you that might be a comfort to all of
us."

"Propose away," said Kate. "I'm at my wit's end."

"Well, what would you think of you and George taking the land, working
it on the shares, and letting me have this room, an' live in Walden,
awhile?"

Kate sat straight up in bed: "