ich consoled me a good
deal. I hoped that, either as a soul or a form with impulses, she
remembered that father or Joe had never made a practice of letting
both horses out at once. When one was in the barn, his mate in the
pasture could be easily caught. Otherwise, the catching was a work of
labor and of pain. Once, indeed, when both had been inadvertently
turned out together, father had been obliged to hire a cowboy to come
with his lariat and rope Jim, the principal offender. When Jim, with
the compelling noose about his neck, had been led ignominiously back
to the stable, father had told us never to let them out together
again, a warning that Jessie evidently recalled now for the first
time.

"Dear me, Leslie! I'm dreadfully sorry!" she exclaimed, lifting Ralph
into his high chair; "I just meant to save a little work, and I guess
I've brought on no end of it!"

"Perhaps not; we'll leave the barn door open. It's so cold that they
may go in of their own accord after a while." And that was what they
did do, along in the afternoon, when it was quite too late for them to
be of any service that day.

My hasty breakfast finished, I got up from the table. "I am going
right away, Jessie; it will never do to let the cows lie out all day."

"No," Jessie assented. She was waiting on Ralph. I had thrown the
mackintosh over a chair near the stove. I had had enough of that, but
I must wear something. Picking up the big felt hat, I went into the
next room and looked into a closet where a number of garments were
hanging. Back in the corner, partially hidden under some other
clothing, I caught a glimpse of a worn gray coat--the coat that father
had loaned Joe on that fatal morning months ago. The rain dashed
fiercely against the window panes as it had on that morning, too, and
the sad, dull day seemed to grow sadder and grayer. With a sudden,
homesick longing for father's love and sympathy, I took down the coat.
Tears sprang to my eyes at sight of the big, aggressive patch on the
left sleeve. Father had praised me for that bit of clumsy workmanship
at which Jessie had laughed. I resolved to wear the coat. "I shall
feel as if father were with me," I thought, as I slipped it on. Going
out at the front door I did not again encounter Jessie, but as I
passed the kitchen windows I saw her glance up and look at me with a
startled air.

It was still raining heavily and I started out on a fast walk.
Crossing the foot-bridge below the ho