in the house,--when the
flies are thick, and the fire won't burn, and the irons stick to the
clothes. You see, you both suffer. Don't lay up this fit of temper
against Sim--will you?"

The wife lifted her head and looked away. Her face was full of
hopeless weariness.

"It aint this once. It aint that 't all. It's having no let up. Just
goin' the same thing right over 'n' over--no hope of anything better."

"If you had a hope of another world--"

"Don't talk that--that's rich man's doctrine. I don't want that kind
o' comfert. I want a decent chance here. I want 'o rest an' be happy
_now_--then I'm sure of it."

Lily's big eyes were streaming with tears. What should she say to the
desperate woman?

"What's the use? We might jest as well die--all of us."

The woman's livid face appalled the beautiful girl. She was gaunt,
heavy-eyed, nerveless. Her faded dress settled down over her limbs
showing the swollen knees and thin calves, her hands with distorted
joints protruded painfully from her sleeves. And all about was the
ever-recurring wealth and cheer of nature that knows no fear or favor.
The bees and flies buzzing in the sun, the jay and kingbird in the
poplars, the smell of strawberries, the motion of lush grass, the
shimmer of corn blades tossed gayly as banners in a conquering army.

Like a flash of keener light a sentence shot across the girl's mind.
"Nature knows no title-deed. The bounty of her mighty hands falls as
the sunlight falls, copious, impartial; her seas carry all ships, her
air is for all lips, her lands for all feet."

"Poverty and suffering such as yours will not last." There was
something in the girl's voice that roused the woman. She turned her
dull eyes upon her face.

Lily took her hand in both hers as if by a caress she could impart her
own faith.

"Look up, dear. When Nature is so good and generous, man must come to
be better, surely. Come, go in the house again. Sim is there, he
expects you, he told me to tell you he was sorry." Lucretia's face
twitched a little at that, but her head was bent. "Come, you can't
live this way. There isn't any other place to go to."

No, that was the bitterest truth. Where on this wide earth with its
forth-shooting fruits and grains, its fragrant lands and shining seas,
could this dwarfed, bent, broken, middle-aged woman go? Nobody wanted
her, nobody cared for her. But the wind kissed her drawn lips as
readily as those of the girl, and the blooms of