beginning of June, when school closed, Thea had told Wunsch that
she didn't know how much practicing she could get in this summer because
Thor had his worst teeth still to cut.

"My God! all last summer he was doing that!" Wunsch exclaimed furiously.

"I know, but it takes them two years, and Thor is slow," Thea answered
reprovingly.

The summer went well beyond her hopes, however. She told herself that it
was the best summer of her life, so far. Nobody was sick at home, and
her lessons were uninterrupted. Now that she had four pupils of her own
and made a dollar a week, her practicing was regarded more seriously by
the household. Her mother had always arranged things so that she could
have the parlor four hours a day in summer. Thor proved a friendly ally.
He behaved handsomely about his molars, and never objected to being
pulled off into remote places in his cart. When Thea dragged him over
the hill and made a camp under the shade of a bush or a bank, he would
waddle about and play with his blocks, or bury his monkey in the sand
and dig him up again. Sometimes he got into the cactus and set up a
howl, but usually he let his sister read peacefully, while he coated his
hands and face, first with an all-day sucker and then with gravel.

Life was pleasant and uneventful until the first of September, when
Wunsch began to drink so hard that he was unable to appear when Thea
went to take her mid-week lesson, and Mrs. Kohler had to send her home
after a tearful apology. On Saturday morning she set out for the
Kohlers' again, but on her way, when she was crossing the ravine, she
noticed a woman sitting at the bottom of the gulch, under the railroad
trestle. She turned from her path and saw that it was Mrs. Tellamantez,
and she seemed to be doing drawn-work. Then Thea noticed that there was
something beside her, covered up with a purple and yellow Mexican
blanket. She ran up the gulch and called to Mrs. Tellamantez. The
Mexican woman held up a warning finger. Thea glanced at the blanket and
recognized a square red hand which protruded. The middle finger twitched
slightly.

"Is he hurt?" she gasped.

Mrs. Tellamantez shook her head. "No; very sick. He knows nothing," she
said quietly, folding her hands over her drawn-work.

Thea learned that Wunsch had been out all night, that this morning Mrs.
Kohler had gone to look for him and found him under the trestle covered
with dirt and cinders. Probably he had been trying to ge