k of the
little grave on which the leaves were falling. I wanted, too, to save
enough money to mark the precious spot, and then I wanted to leave.
But first one thing and then another took every dollar we made for
three years.

"One morning big Dave looked so worn out and pale that I said, 'I am
going to get out of here; I am not going to stay here and bury _you_,
Dave. Sunrise to-morrow will see us on the road West. We have worked
for eighteen years as hard as we knew how, and have given up my boy
besides; and now we can't even afford to mark his grave decently. It
is time we left.'

"Big Dave went back to bed, and I went out and sold what we had. It
was so little that it didn't take long to sell it. That was years ago.
We came West. The country was really wild then; there was a great
deal of lawlessness. We didn't get settled down for several years; we
hired to a man who had a contract to put up hay for the government,
and we worked for him for a long time.

"Indians were thick as fleas on a dog then; some were camped near
us once, and among them was a Mexican woman who could jabber a
little English. Once, when I was feeling particularly resentful and
sorrowful, I told her about my little Dave; and it was her jabbered
words that showed me the way to peace. I wept for hours, but peace had
come and has stayed. Ambition came again, but a different kind: I
wanted the same peace to come to all hearts that came so late to mine,
and I wanted to help bring it. I took the only course I knew. I have
gone to others' help every time there has been a chance. After Fanny
married and Dave died, I had an ambition to save up four hundred
dollars with which to buy an entrance into an old ladies' home. Just
before I got the full amount saved up, I found that young Eddie
Carwell wanted to enter the ministry and needed help to go to college.
I had just enough; so I gave it to him. Another time I had almost
enough, when Charlie Rucker got into trouble over some mortgage
business; so I used what I had that time to help him. Now I've given
up the old ladies' home idea and am saving up for the blue silk dress
Dave would have liked me to have. I guess I'll die some day and I want
it to be buried in. I like to think I'm going to my two Daves then;
and it won't be hard,--especially if I have the blue silk on."

Just then a sleepy little bird twittered outside, and the baby stirred
a little. The first faint light of dawn was just creeping up