ll ye I wanted to
jump off that ship an' go back to him--but we'd started--an' I don't
know how to swim."

How it relieved her pent-up feelings to talk to some one about her
father! Already she felt she had known Jerry for years. In a moment she
went on again:

"I cried meself to sleep THAT night, I did. An' many a night, too, on
that steamer."

"I didn't want to come here--that I didn't. I only did it to please me
father. He thought it 'ud be for me good."

"An' I wish I hadn't come--that I do. He's missin' me every minnit--an'
I'm missin' him. An' I'm not goin' to be happy here, ayther."

"I don't want to be a lady. An' they won't make me one ayther if I can
help it. 'Ye can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,' that's what
me father always said. An' that's what I am. I'm a sow's ear."

She stopped,--her eyes fixed on the ground.

Jerry was more than moved at this entirely human and natural outbreak.
It was even as looking into some one's heart and brain and hearing
thoughts spoken aloud and seeing the nervous workings of the heart.
When she described herself in such derogatory terms, a smile of relief
played on Jerry's face as he leaned over to her and said:

"I'm afraid I cannot agree with you."

She looked up at him and said indifferently: "It doesn't make the
slightest bit of difference to me whether ye do or not. That's what I
am. I'm a sow's ear."

He reasoned with her:

"When the strangeness wears off you'll be very happy."

"Do yez know the people here--the Chi-sters?"

"Oh, yes. Very well."

"Then what makes ye think I'll be happy among them?"

"Because you'll know that you're pleasing your father."

"But I'm all alone."

"You're among friends."

Peg shook her head and said bitterly: "No, I'm not. They may be me
RELATIONS, but they're not me FRIENDS. They're ashamed of me."

"Oh, no!" interrupted Jerry.

"Oh, yes," contradicted Peg. "I tell ye they are ashamed of me. They
sent me to the kitchen when I first came here. And now they put
'MICHAEL' to slape in the stable. I want ye to understand 'MICHAEL' is
not used to that. He always sleeps with me father."

She was so unexpected that Jerry found himself on the verge of tears
one moment, and the next something she would say, some odd look or
quaint inflection would compel his laughter again. He had a mental
picture of "MICHAEL," the pet of Peg's home, submitting to the
indignity of companionship with mere horses. Small wonder he w