s your name?" asked Mrs. O'Shaughnessy.

He hesitated a moment, then said, "Daniel Holt."

I wondered why he hesitated, but forgot all about it when Clyde said
we would stop there for a few days, if we wanted to help Mr. Holt.
Mrs. O'Shaughnessy's mind was already made up. Elizabeth said she
would be glad to help, and I was not long in deciding when Daniel
said, "I'll take it as a rale friendly favor if you women could help,
because mother ain't had what could rightly be called a home since I
left home. She's crippled, too, and I want to do all I can. I know
she'd just like to have some aprons and a sunbonnet."

His eyes had such a pathetic, appealing look that I was ashamed, and
we at once began planning our work. Daniel helped with the dishes and
as soon as they were done brought out his cloth. He had a heap of
it,--a bolt of checked gingham, enough blue chambray for half a dozen
bonnets, and a great many remnants which he said he had bought from
peddlers from time to time. Mrs. O'Shaughnessy selected what she said
we would begin on, and dampened it so as to shrink it by morning. We
then spread our beds and made ready for an early start next day.

Next morning we ate breakfast by the light of the lamp that smoked for
the sake of companionship, and then started to cut out our work.
Daniel and Mr. Stewart went fishing, and we packed their lunch so as
to have them out of the way all day. I undertook the making of the
bonnet, because I knew how, and because I can remember the kind my
mother wore; I reckoned Daniel's mother would have worn about the
same style. Mrs. O'Shaughnessy and Elizabeth can both cross-stitch, so
they went out to Daniel's granary and ripped up some grain-bags, in
order to get the thread with which they were sewed, to work one apron
in cross-stitch.

But when we were ready to sew we were dismayed, for there was no
machine. Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, however, was of the opinion that _some
one_ in the country must have a sewing machine, so she saddled a horse
and went out, she said, to "beat the brush."

She was hardly out of sight before a man rode up and said there had
been a telephone message saying that Mrs. Holt had arrived in Rock
Springs, and was on her way as far as Newfork in an automobile. That
threw Elizabeth and myself into a panic. We posted the messenger off
on a hunt for Daniel. Elizabeth soon got over her flurry and went at
her cross-stitching. I hardly knew what to do, but acting from fo