had got safe
across in their rush for home and safety.

"What water is that?" asked Rowena as we crossed.

"Plum Pudd'n' Pond," I told her.

"Is it deep?" she said.

"Pretty deep in the middle."

"Over your head?"

"Oh, yes!"

"I reckoned it was," said she. "I was huntin' fur it when you found me."

"That was after you saw the fire," I said.

"No," said she. "It was before."

In my slow way I pondered on why she had been hunting water over her
head, and sooner than is apt to be the case with me I understood. The
despair in her face as she turned and looked at the shining water told
me. She had refused to accept my offer to be her protector, because she
saw how it hurt me; but she was now ready to balance the books--if it
ever does that--by taking shelter in the depths of the pool! And this
all for the pleasure of that smiling scoundrel!

"I hope God will damn him," I said; and am ashamed of it now.

"What good would that do?" said she wearily. "This world's hard enough,
Jake!"

3

We got to my house, and I helped her in. I told her to wait while I went
to look at the fire to see whether my stacks were in danger, and to put
out and feed the horse. Then I went back, and found her sitting where I
had left her, and as I went in I heard again that little moan of pain.

The house was as light as day, without a lamp. The light from the fire
shone against the western wall of the room almost as strong as sunlight,
and as we sat there we could hear the roar of the fire rising in the
gusts of the wind, dying down, but with a steady undertone, like the
wind in the rigging of a ship. I got some supper, and after saying that
she couldn't eat, Rowena ate ravenously.

She had gone away from Blue-grass Manor, whipped forth by Mrs. Mobley's
abuse, days and days before, living on what she had carried with her
until it was gone, drinking from the brooks and runs of the prairie, and
then starving on rose-haws, and sleeping in stacks until I had found her
looking for the pool. If people could only have known! Presently she
moaned again, and I made her lie down on the bed.

"What will you do with me, Jacob?" she asked.

"We'll think about that in the morning," said I.

"Maybe you can bury me in the morning," she said after a while. "Oh,
Jake, I'm scared, I'm scared. My trouble is comin' on! My time is up,
Jake. Oh, what shall I do! What shall I do?"

I went out and sat on the stoop and thought about this. Finally I m