, the dreary dragger on of death
through life.

And so one day old Baby died. It was dreary, more than sad, for the
good Anna. She did not want the poor old beast to linger with its
weary age, and blind old eyes and dismal shaking cough, but this death
left Anna very empty. She had the foolish young man Peter, and the
jolly little Rags for comfort, but Baby had been the only one that
could remember.

The good Anna wanted a real graveyard for her Baby, but this could not
be in a Christian country, and so Anna all alone took her old friend
done up in decent wrappings and put her into the ground in some quiet
place that Anna knew of.

The good Anna did not weep for poor old Baby. Nay, she had not time
even to feel lonely, for with the good Anna it was sorrow upon sorrow.
She was now no longer to keep house for Miss Mathilda.

When Anna had first come to Miss Mathilda she had known that it might
only be for a few years, for Miss Mathilda was given to much wandering
and often changed her home, and found new places where she went to
live. The good Anna did not then think much about this, for when she
first went to Miss Mathilda she had not thought that she would like
it and so she had not worried about staying. Then in those happy years
that they had been together, Anna had made herself forget it. This
last year when she knew that it was coming she had tried hard to think
it would not happen.

"We won't talk about it now Miss Mathilda, perhaps we all be dead by
then," she would say when Miss Mathilda tried to talk it over. Or, "If
we live till then Miss Mathilda, perhaps you will be staying on right
here."

No, the good Anna could not talk as if this thing were real, it was
too weary to be once more left with strangers.

Both the good Anna and her cherished Miss Mathilda tried hard to think
that this would not really happen. Anna made missions and all kinds of
things to keep her Miss Mathilda and Miss Mathilda thought out all the
ways to see if the good Anna could not go with her, but neither the
missions nor the plans had much success. Miss Mathilda would go, and
she was going far away to a new country where Anna could not live, for
she would be too lonesome.

There was nothing that these two could do but part. Perhaps we all be
dead by then, the good Anna would repeat, but even that did not really
happen. If we all live till then Miss Mathilda, came out truer. They
all did live till then, all except poor old blin