am so glad you came. Tell me how he is.... I have nearly died to see
him."

"He air well. Have ye had a doctor?"

"Yes, and I have told him all about it, for I was so sick. I told him
about you, and he ordered Rebecca to let you come and see me. He is a
friend of my father's, and will never tell anyone."

Tess walked to the door, and listened; then laid her finger on her lips.
She raised the basket from the floor, slipped back the cover, and Teola
Graves was peeping in upon a tiny sleeping face.

"He air a-goin' with me wherever I has to go.... I ain't a-comin' here
again with him, fearin' some one will know.... I think ye be happier,
now that ye hes seen his bed--eh? Now I air a-goin', and when ye gets
well ye can come to the hut to see him. He air gettin' powerful hungry.
He can smack louder than a dog can holler.... Poor little devil!"

That night, a small figure left the Skinner shanty bent upon an act of
theft. Up through the lane to the tracks, with a small pail in her hand,
Tessibel went. The brindle bull capered about her as she slid through
the wires. Without the slightest compunction, Tessibel returned to the
shanty with the warm milk which she had taken from one of the fine cows
at Kennedy's; then by the light of the candle she filled the tin cup,
and warmed it over the fire. This, too, would have to be sweetened.
Spoonful after spoonful she emptied into the smacking lips, and, when
the babe slept, Tess placed it under the blankets, and took up the Bible
to read of the promises of the student's God.

CHAPTER XXIX

During the illness of Teola, Tessibel had forgotten that she had
promised Professor Young she would come some morning to his office in
Morril Hall on the hill. Two weeks after the birth of the baby, Tess
filled his small stomach with warm milk, shoved the sugar rag into his
mouth, hung the child's bed over her arm, and made off toward the
tracks. The sun was far in the heavens before she stopped at the
building in which Deforest Young had his office. He was looking from the
window, and saw her glance about hastily, settling the cover to her
basket a little closer.

"That child will be my ruination," he muttered, seating himself at the
desk. "She affects me so strangely that I can't get her out of my mind.
To bring her to a place of safety.... But what can I do? She won't let
me help her!"

The thought of Frederick Graves came over him with torture. Was it
possible for her to love