he wanted it; at which he
brightened up, and said, come to think on 't, he could make the brogans
right away.

"Sure enough, they was finished at the appinted time, and I carried 'em
home, with the money that come back in change inside o' one on 'em.

"'Why, Johnny,' says mother, when she counted it, her face all
a-glowin', 'here's enough left to buy a handkerchief for your father!'

"Then she counted it agin, and said there was enough, she was a'most
sure on 't. It mightn't get a silk one, not pure silk, but if she could
only find somethin' with a leetle mixter o' cotton in 't, why it would
look nearly as well,--the difference would never be knowed across the
house.

"She wanted a new gingham apron for herself; but that wa' n't bought,
and all the money, as I have guessed sence, went into the handkerchief.
And a purty one it was, too,--yaller-colored, with a red border, and an
anchor worked in one corner on 't with blue-silk yarn.

"So the fine presents was put away on the top shelf o' the cupboard,
with the cap and the ring and the shawl, and there they stayed, week in
and week out, and still the Dauphin didn't come in. I could see that my
mother was a-growin' uneasy, more and more, though she never said
nothin' to me that was discouragin'. She'd set sometimes for an hour
a-lookin' straight into the air, and then she went up to the ruf more 'n
common to look arter the things a-dryin' there.

"One day there come on snow and sleet, but for all that she stayed
aloft, just as though the sun had been a-shinin'; and at last, when the
dusk had gathered so that she couldn't see no longer, she come down with
a gret heap o' wet things, in her arms, and all of a shiver.

"Her hand shook as she sot down to bind shoes,--she had took to bindin'
of shoes some them times, not bein' so strong as she used to be for the
washin'; but arter a while she fell of a tremble all over. 'It's no
use,' says she, 'I ain't good for nothin' no more,' and she put away the
bindin' and cowered close over the ashes.

"I wanted to lay on a big stick, but she said no, she'd go to bed, and
get warm there; but she didn't get warm, not even when I had piled all
the things I could rake and scrape over the bed-quilt, for I could see
them tremblin' together like a heap o' dry leaves.

"I went to the lady with the painted door, and she promised to come in
and see my mother early in the mornin'; but in the mornin', when I went
agin, she said she had so