mother. "But I work,
pray, hope, and hang to them; that's all I know to do."

"Well, if they don't come out right, they ought to be bumped!" said
Mrs. Freshett. "After all the chances they've had! I don' know jest
how Freshett was brung up, but I'd no chance at all. My folks--well, I
guess the less said--little pitchers, you know! I can't see as I was
to blame. I was the youngest, an' I knew things was wrong. I fought
to go to school, an' pap let me enough that I saw how other people
lived. Come night I'd go to the garret, an' bar the trapdoor; but
there would be times when I couldn't help seein' what was goin' on.
How'd you like chances such as that for a girl of yourn?"

"Dreadful!" said mother. "Mrs. Freshett, please do be careful!"

"Sure!" laughed Mrs. Freshett. "I was jest goin' to tell you about me
an' Josiah. He come to our house one night, a stranger off the road.
He said he was sick, an' tired, an' could he have a bed. Mother said,
'No, for him to move on.' He tried an' he couldn't. They was
somethin' about him--well, you know how them things go! I wa'n't only
sixteen, but I felt so sorry for him, all fever burned and mumblin', I
helped pap put him to bed, an' doctored him all I could. Come mornin'
he was a sick man. Pap went for the county doctor, an' he took jest
one look an' says: 'Small pox! All of ye git!'

"I was bound I wouldn't go, but pap made me, an' the doctor said he'd
send a man who'd had it; so I started, but I felt so bad, come a chanct
when they got to Groveville, I slipped out an' went back. The man
hadn't come, so I set to work the best I knowed. 'Fore long Josiah was
a little better an' he asked who I was, an' where my folks went, an' I
told him, an' he asked WHY I came back an' I didn't know what to say,
so I jest hung my head an' couldn't face him. After a while he says,
'All right! I guess I got this sized up. If you'll stay an' nuss me
through, I'll be well enough to pull you out, by the time you get it,
an' soon as you're able we'll splice, if you say so.'

"'Marry me, you mean?' says I. They wa'n't ever any talk about
marryin' at our house. 'Sure!' says he. 'You're a mighty likely
lookin' girl! I'll do fair by ye.' An' he always has, too! But I
didn't feel right to let him go it blind, so I jest up and says. 'You
wouldn't if you knowed my folks!' 'You look as decent as I do,' says
he; 'I'll chance it!' Then I tole him I was as good as I was born, an'