stop a little
with her scolding, and then when Lena was a little stronger, Herman
should have his own house for her, next door to his father, so he
could always be there to help him in his working, but so they could
eat and sleep in a house where the old woman could not control them
and they could not hear her awful scolding.

And so things went on, the same way, a little longer. Poor Lena was
not feeling any joy to have a baby. She was scared the way she had
been when she was so sick on the water. She was scared now every time
when anything would hurt her. She was scared and still and lifeless,
and sure that every minute she would die. Lena had no power to be
strong in this kind of trouble, she could only sit still and be
scared, and dull, and lifeless, and sure that every minute she would
die.

Before very long, Lena had her baby. He was a good, healthy little
boy, the baby. Herman cared very much to have the baby. When Lena was
a little stronger he took a house next door to the old couple, so he
and his own family could eat and sleep and do the way they wanted.
This did not seem to make much change now for Lena. She was just the
same as when she was waiting with her baby. She just dragged around
and was careless with her clothes and all lifeless, and she acted
always and lived on just as if she had no feeling. She always did
everything regular with the work, the way she always had had to do it,
but she never got back any spirit in her. Herman was always good and
kind, and always helped her with her working. He did everything he
knew to help her. He always did all the active new things in the house
and for the baby. Lena did what she had to do the way she always had
been taught it. She always just kept going now with her working, and
she was always careless, and dirty, and a little dazed, and lifeless.
Lena never got any better in herself of this way of being that she had
had ever since she had been married.

Mrs. Haydon never saw any more of her niece, Lena. Mrs. Haydon had now
so much trouble with her own house, and her daughters getting married,
and her boy, who was growing up, and who always was getting so much
worse to manage. She knew she had done right by Lena. Herman Kreder
was a good man, she would be glad to get one so good, sometimes,
for her own daughters, and now they had a home to live in together,
separate from the old people, who had made their trouble for them.
Mrs. Haydon felt she had done very w