self upon the stool, resting her head in
her arms on the table, heeding not the second whining command from the
infant.

Suddenly, with flashing eyes, she bounded up. She would tell him. Teola
had promised that he should know. Why not be happy, and make him happy?
She would call him back, and--

The door opened under her impulsive hand. She faced the storm--and the
tall, gaunt, emaciated form of Ezra Longman.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Ezra looked so like a wandering night-shade, so tall, wet and thin, that
Tess uttered a shriek. The lad pushed his way into the cabin, and
dropped on the floor. All thought of the student was driven from
Tessibel's mind by her superstition at the sight of the boy.

"Ezy, Ezy, air it yerself, or air it yer shade what air here? It air yer
own self, ain't it, Ezy?"

"Yep."

"Where air yer been?"

"I dunno. I air sick unto death, I air."

"Have ye seen yer mammy?"

"Nope."

"Nor Satisfied?"

"Nope."

"Then ye be a-goin' there now, ain't ye?"

"Yep."

"Was ye to Albany?"

"Nope. I were sick in a house, and the big man from the hill were
a-takin' care of me. I weren't a-goin' to stay no longer, so I runned
away. I air a-goin' home to Mammy."

"Yep, that air right," rejoined Tess with conviction, "for yer mammy air
a-grievin' every day for ye, and Satisfied air a-gettin' older and
older-lookin'. They thought as how ye might be in Albany."

Another loud cry caused Ezy to turn his head toward the infant.

"Ye air the same as Myry," he said slowly; but before he could say
another word, the girl interposed hastily:

"It ain't my brat.... It belongs to a woman on the hill. I gets paid for
it."

To every other man save to the one she loved was Tess able to deny the
motherhood that had been thrust upon her. To the student she stood
condemned of a sin he could not forgive. But to Ezra, Ben, and Professor
Young she had told the truth.

The weakness of the squatter as he sat on the floor, panting for breath,
aroused Tessibel's sympathy, and she proffered him a cup of little Dan's
milk.

"Drink it," she commanded, "and then scoot to yer mammy. And--and ye
needn't say as how I air a-carin' for another woman's brat, will ye,
Ezy?"

"Nope; I ain't a-sayin' nothin' ... I goes home to my mammy."

If Tess had never seen the hue of death upon a human face, she saw it
now. The boy rose totteringly, and Tessibel, with a tender expression in
her eyes, opened the door.

"Ezy, I's