ther ever since an' managed to
earn a livin' between 'em. We talked an' we talked that night, an' when
Mona was goin' she turned to me an' says:

"'Nancy,' says she, 'I can't tell you how thankful I am to have seen
you again. An' I can't tell you how much good you've done me. Nancy,'
says she, 'I've been a wicked woman, a wicked, rebellious woman,' says
she. 'I've said dreadful things in my heart an' felt hard an' bitter at
times against Almighty God for all the trials an' sufferin' He sent me.
When I look at you, I'm ashamed of myself. I've lost a husband, so have
you; I lost a daughter, you lost two; my son sleeps at the bottom of the
sea, but your son--.Nancy, Nancy, when I go home to-night, I'll get down
on my knees an' thank God that my boy is sleepin' at the bottom of the
sea instead of wanderin' the earth a shame an' a disgrace to me.'

"You see, child, that was before my Danny come back to me to be
reconciled to His God. It was while he was still wanderin' I didn't know
where, an' goin' from one piece of villainy to the next.

"Poor Mona, I don't believe she was half as bad as she made herself out
to be, an' certainly from that day to this I've never heard a complaint
or a murmur cross her lips. She's been sick, too, most all the time, an'
there's been many a day when she'd ought to be home in bed but off she'd
go an' stand on her corner an' peddle her apples because the old woman
that lived with her was sicker than she an' they wouldn't have no money,
come rent day, unless Mona went out an' earned it for 'em. Talk about
the heroes that done such wonderful things that folks has to write whole
books about 'em! I tell you what, child, there's many a hero hid away in
the dirty little side-streets and alley-ways of every big city; only
folks don't know about 'em. To my mind, Mona was one of them heroes; so
sweet an' patient, pretty well on in years herself, an' all crippled
with the rheumatism, but goin' out day after day to sell her apples; a
slavin' an' a killin' herself for a woman a little older an' a little
sicker than she was. An' all this because the old woman had been kind to
her in her hour of greatest need.

"Well, after findin' her again, I seen Mona every day; she used to come
here in the evenin' an' we'd sit an' talk of them that was gone. She was
with me when my Danny died, an' she thanked God with me for havin'
brought him back to me in the end. Then, one night, Mona didn't come,
but they brought m