the lantern with her heart thumpin'
so, and her knees all weak and wobbly--and Bill, you know how he'd
be. Sandy Braden had got the wheat-ticket, and he hadn't paid a bill
or bro't a thing for the house, and so at last she saw she was beat
and done for; she saw that every hope she had had was a false one."

They were putting up the stove now, and when it was set in place
Pearl said: "Let's get a fire goin' now, quick, Pa--and that'll cheer
us up."

Her father went to the river and brought water, which they heated on
the stove, and then he scrubbed the floor while Pearl cleaned the
windows and put up the cheese-cloth curtains she had brought. She
went outside to see how the curtains looked, and came back well
pleased.

"Pa," she said, "I've got a name for it. We'll call it 'The Second
Chance.'"

"For why, Pearlie?" her father asked curiously. "Well, it just came
to me as I was lookin' round, what this farm has had to put up with
Bill Cavers. Here it is as good a farm as any around here, and it's
all run to weeds. I am sure this yard is knee-high with ragweed and
lamb's quarter in the summer, and the fields are all grown up with
mustard and wild-oats, and they're an abomination to any farm; and so
it has just sort, of give up and got discouraged, and now it lets in
any old weed that comes along, because it thinks it'll never be any
good. But here comes the Watsons, the whole bilin' of them, and I can
see over there, Pa"--taking him to the window--"the place the garden
will be, all nicely fenced to keep out the cattle; and over there,
under the trees, will be the chicken-house, with big white hens
swaggerin' in and out of it and down the ravine there will be the
pig-pasture, and forninst us will be acres and acres of wheat, and be
hind the bluff there will be the oat-field. I can see it, Pa."

"Faith, and yer a grand girl at seein' things," her father said, with
his slow smile, "and I just hope yer right."

"I'm sure of it," said Pearl, after a pause, "and that's why, we'll
call it 'The Second Chance,' for it's a nice kind name, and I like
the sound of it, anyway. I am thinkin', maybe that it is that way
with most of us, and we'll be glad, maybe, of a second chance. Now,
Pa, I don't mind tellin' ye that it was a sore touch for me to have
to leave school, and me doin' so well, but I am hopin' still that
some time, some place, perhaps, for me, too, like the farm, there may
be a second chance. Do you see what I mane,