ing you in the same way. I am so sorry. I loved
your son with all my heart, and I had no right to speak so to his
mother, no matter what she said to me."

The paroxysm of pain had passed, and Mrs. Putnam was her old self again.
Looking at the girl who was kneeling with her head bowed down she said,
"I guess both of us talked about as we felt; as for loving my son, yer
had no right to, and he had no right to love you."

"But we were brother and sister," cried Lindy, looking up.

"'Twould have been all right if he'd let it stop there," replied Mrs.
Putnam. "Who put it into his head that there was no law agin a man
marryin' his adopted sister? You wuz a woman grown of eighteen, and he
wuz only a young boy of sixteen, and you made him love yer and turn
agin his mother, and then we had ter send him away from home ter keep
yer apart, and then you ran after him, and then he died, and it broke my
heart. You wuz the cause of it, but for yer he would be livin' now, a
comfort to his poor old mother. I hated yer then for what yer did. Ev'ry
time I look at yer I think of the happiness you stole from me, an' I
hate yer wusser'n ever."

"Oh, mother, mother!" sobbed Lindy.

"I'm not your mother," screamed Mrs. Putnam. "I s'pose you must have had
one, but you'll never know who she wuz; she didn't care nuthin' fer yer,
for she left yer in the road, and Silas was fool enough to pick yer up
and bring yer home. What yer right name is nobody knows, and mebbe yer
ain't got none."

At this taunt Lindy arose to her feet and looked defiantly at Mrs.
Putnam. "You are not telling the truth, Mrs. Putnam," said the girl;
"you know who my parents were, but you will not tell me."

"That's right," said Mrs. Putnam, "git mad and show yer temper; that's
better than sheddin' crocodile's tears, as yer've been doin'; yer've
been a curse to me from the day I fust set eyes on yer. I've said I hate
yer, and I do, an' I'll never forgive yer fer what yer've done to me."

Lindy saw that words were useless. Perhaps Mrs. Putnam might, recover,
and if she did not provoke her too far she might relent some day and
tell her what she knew about her parents; so she walked to the door and
opened it. Then she turned and said, "Good-by, Mrs. Putnam, I truly hope
that you will recover."

"Wall, I sha'n't," said Mrs. Putnam. "I'm goin' to die, I want ter die.
I want ter see Jones; I want ter talk ter him; I want ter tell him how
much I loved him--how much I've suffe