t direction.
Besides, I had neither money nor a sufficient outfit. There was no
communication by mail in those days oftener than once in three months.
You might perish a thousand times before you could get assistance from
the East. O, no! there was nothing to be done, except to make the best
of the situation."

"Certainly, you had some friends among your fellow-immigrants who
interested themselves in your behalf to find you a home? Somebody
besides your guardian already mentioned."

"The most of them were as badly off as myself. Many had lost near
friends. I was not the only widow; but some women had lost their
husbands who had several young children. They looked upon me as
comparatively fortunate. Men had lost wives, and these were the most
wretched of all; for a woman can contrive some way to take care of her
children, where a man is perfectly helpless. Families, finding no houses
to go into by themselves, were huddled together in any shelter that
could be procured. The lines of partition in houses were often as
imaginary as the parallels of latitude on the earth; or were defined by
a window, or a particular board in the wall. O, I couldn't live in that
way. My object was to get a real home somewhere. As soon as I could, I
rented a room in a house with a good family, for the sake of the
protection they would be to me, and went to work to earn a living. Of
course, people were forward enough with their suggestions."

"Of what, for instance?"

"Most persons--in fact everybody that I talked with--said I should have
to marry. But I could not think of it; the mention of it always made me
sick that first winter. I was recovering strength, and was young; so I
thought I need not despair."

"Such a woman could not but have plenty of offers, in a new country
especially; but I understand how you must have felt. You could not marry
so soon after your husband's death, and it revolted you to be approached
on the subject. A wife's love is not so easily transferred."

"You speak as any one might think, not having been in my circumstances.
But there was something more than that in the feeling I had. I could not
realize the fact of Mr. Greyfield's death. It was as if he had only
fallen behind the train, and might come up with us any day. I _waited_
for him all that winter."

"How distressing!" I could not help saying. Mrs. Greyfield sat silent
for some minutes, while the storm raged furiously without. She rested
her cheek on he