there broke from the grey parcel a little
moaning cry, and from it there protruded a small, scared face, with very
bright brown eyes, and two little speckled, dimpled fists.

"You've hurt me!" said a childish voice reproachfully.

"Have I though," the man answered penitently, "I didn't go for to do
it." As he spoke he unwrapped the grey shawl and extricated a pretty
little girl of about five years of age, whose dainty shoes and smart
pink frock with its little linen apron all bespoke a mother's care. The
child was pale and wan, but her healthy arms and legs showed that she
had suffered less than her companion.

"How is it now?" he answered anxiously, for she was still rubbing the
towsy golden curls which covered the back of her head.

"Kiss it and make it well," she said, with perfect gravity, shoving
[19] the injured part up to him. "That's what mother used to do. Where's
mother?"

"Mother's gone. I guess you'll see her before long."

"Gone, eh!" said the little girl. "Funny, she didn't say good-bye; she
'most always did if she was just goin' over to Auntie's for tea, and now
she's been away three days. Say, it's awful dry, ain't it? Ain't there
no water, nor nothing to eat?"

"No, there ain't nothing, dearie. You'll just need to be patient awhile,
and then you'll be all right. Put your head up agin me like that, and
then you'll feel bullier. It ain't easy to talk when your lips is like
leather, but I guess I'd best let you know how the cards lie. What's
that you've got?"

"Pretty things! fine things!" cried the little girl enthusiastically,
holding up two glittering fragments of mica. "When we goes back to home
I'll give them to brother Bob."

"You'll see prettier things than them soon," said the man confidently.
"You just wait a bit. I was going to tell you though--you remember when
we left the river?"

"Oh, yes."

"Well, we reckoned we'd strike another river soon, d'ye see. But there
was somethin' wrong; compasses, or map, or somethin', and it didn't
turn up. Water ran out. Just except a little drop for the likes of you
and--and----"

"And you couldn't wash yourself," interrupted his companion gravely,
staring up at his grimy visage.

"No, nor drink. And Mr. Bender, he was the fust to go, and then Indian
Pete, and then Mrs. McGregor, and then Johnny Hones, and then, dearie,
your mother."

"Then mother's a deader too," cried the little girl dropping her face in
her pinafore and sobbing bitterly.