to know you--she's been very good to
me. Come in, won't you? Sit down on the gallery."

"Yes, this new porch is about as good as anywheres right now,"
commented Mrs. Jensen. "It's a little hot, ain't it?" They found
seats of boxes and ends of logs.

Mrs. Davidson cast a glance into the open door. It included the
spectacle of a neat, white-covered bed, a table with a clean white
oil-cloth cover, a series of covered and screened receptacles such as
the place might best afford out of its resources. She saw a floor
immaculately clean. She spoke after a time ending a silence which was
unusual with her.

"The latter title that you gave me, Mrs. Gage, is correct," said she.
"I am a widow, having never encountered the oppor-r-r-tunity but once."
It was worth going miles out of one's way to hear her say
"opportunity"--or to see her wide-mouthed smile.

"As a widow," she resumed with orotundity not lessened by her absence
from her own accustomed dais, "as a widow yourself, you are arranged
here with a fair degree of comfort, as I am disposed to believe, Mrs.
Gage."

"I cannot complain," said Mary Gage simply.

"A great trait in life, my dear madam; resignation! I endeavor to
inculcate in my pupils the virtue of stoicism. I tell them of the
Spartan boy, Mrs. Gage. Perhaps you have heard of the Spartan boy?"

"Yes," said Mary. "I know something about stoicism, I hope. But now
I'm going to get you some berries--I picked some, up beyond, on the
meadows." She rose now and passed into that part of her cabin which
constituted the kitchen.

"An extr-r-r-aordinary young woman!" said Mrs. Davidson to Karen
Jensen. "An extra_or_dinary person to be here. Why, she is a person
of culture, like myself. And once married--married to that man!"

Mrs. Davidson's lips were tight pursed now.

"I don't reckon she ever was, real," said Karen Jensen, simply. "I
don't hardly believe they _was_."

Mrs. Davidson showed herself disposed to regard all the proprieties,
hence she but coughed ponderously and shook her head ponderously,
turning from side to side two or three times in her chair ponderously
also.

"For what has happened here," said she at last, "I thank God. If
things had happened worse it would have been my fault. Never again
shall I address myself to the task of writing advertisements for men in
search of wives. Great Providence! An extraordinary woman like this!
To-night I shall pray on my two knees for forg