ears, and she staggered as she crossed the yard. But when she went at
last with a cup of milk to feed the little one, it lay with clenched
fists and fixed eyes, and as she lifted it, a last convulsion laid it
back breathless, and its heart had ceased to beat.

Annie ran with it to her room, and tried such remedies as she had.
But nothing could keep the chill from creeping over the wasted little
form,--not even the heat of the day, not even the mother's agonized
embrace. Then, suddenly, Annie looked at the clock. It was time to get
the dinner. She laid the piteous tiny shape straight on the bed, threw a
sheet over it, and went back to the weltering kitchen to cook for those
men, who came at noon and who must be fed--who must be fed.

When they were all seated at the table, Jim among them, and she had
served them, she said, standing at the head of the table, with her hands
on her hips:--

"I don't suppose any of you have time to do anything about it; but I
thought you might like to know that the baby is dead. I wouldn't think
of asking you to spare the horses, for I know they have to rest. But I
thought, if you could make out on a cold supper, that I would go to the
town for a coffin."

There was satire in the voice that stung even through the dull
perceptions of these men, and Jim arose with a cry and went to the room
where his dead baby lay.

About two months after this Annie insisted that she must go home to
Illinois. Jim protested in a way.

"You know, I'd like to send you," he said; "but I don't see where the
money is to come from. And since I've got this nomination, I want to run
as well as I can. My friends expect me to do my best for them. It's a
duty, you know, and nothing less, for a few men, like me, to get in the
legislature. We're going to get a railroad bill through this session
that will straighten out a good many things. Be patient a little longer,
Annie."

"I want to go home," was the only reply he got. "You must get the money,
some way, for me to go home with."

"I haven't paid a cent of interest yet," he cried angrily. "I don't see
what you mean by being so unreasonable!"

"You must get the money, some way," she reiterated.

He did not speak to her for a week, except when he was obliged to. But
she did not seem to mind; and he gave her the money. He took her to the
train in the little wagon that had met her when she first came. At the
station, some women were gossiping excitedly, and Annie a