m. He
took off his hat to her also, and walked with wavering dignity, setting
his steps as if his legs were not long enough to reach the walk, so
that each step ended with a decided thump. Kate could see the
neighbours watching at their windows, and her own children playing on
the roof of the woodshed. When the children saw their parents, they
both stopped playing to stare at them. Then suddenly, shrill and high,
arose Adam's childish voice:

"Father came home the other night,
Tried to blow out the 'lectric light,
Blew and blew with all his might,
And the blow almost killed Mother."

Polly joined him, and they sang and shrilled, and shrieked it; they
jumped up and down and laughed and repeated it again and again. Kate
guided George to his room and gave him a shove that landed him on his
bed. Then to hush the children she called them to supper. They
stopped suddenly, as soon as they entered the kitchen door, and sat,
sorry and ashamed while she went around, her face white, her lips
closed, preparing their food. George was asleep. The children ate
alone, as she could take no food. Later she cleaned the kitchen, put
the children to bed, and sat on the front porch looking at the mill,
wondering, hoping, planning, praying unconsciously. When she went to
bed at ten o'clock George was still asleep.

He awakened shortly after, burning with heat and thirst. He arose and
slipped to the back porch for a drink. Water was such an aggravation,
he crossed the yard, went out the back gate, and down the alley. When
he came back up the street, he was pompously, maliciously, dangerously
drunk. Either less or more would have been better. When he came in
sight of the mill, standing new and shining in the moonlight, he was a
lord of creation, ready to work creation to his will. He would go over
and see if things were all right. But he did not cross the bridge, he
went down the side street, and entered the yard at the back. The doors
were closed and locked, but there was as yet no latch on the sliding
windows above the work bench. He could push them open from the ground.
He leaned a board against the side of the mill, set his foot on it, and
pulled himself up, so that he could climb on the bench.

That much achieved, he looked around him. After a time his eyes grew
accustomed to the darkness, so that he could see his way plainly.
Muddled half-thoughts began to filter through his brain. He remembered
he