t ain't what I thought you'd do! Burley,
he'll never fergive me s'long 's I live ef I get et up. It ain't ez if I
was all alone in the world, you know. I got him to think of an' I can't
afford to run no resks of bein' et, _ef you can_."

Not a wink of sleep did she get that night and when the morning dawned
and to the horrors of the night were added a telegram from a neighbour
of Burley's saying that Burley had fallen from the haymow and broken his
leg, but he sent his respects and hoped they'd have a good journey,
Amelia Ellen grew uncontrollable. She declared she would not stay in
that awful country another minute. That she would take the first train
back--back to her beloved New Hampshire which she never again would
leave so long as her life was spared, unless Burley went along. She
would not even wait until Hazel had delivered her message. How could two
lone women deliver a message in a land like that? Never, _never_ would
she ride, drive or walk, no, nor even set foot on the sand of the
desert. She would sit by the track until a train came along and she
would not even look further than she need. The frenzy of fear which
sometimes possesses simple people at sight of a great body of water, or
a roaring torrent pouring over a precipice, had taken possession of her
at sight of the desert. It filled her soul with its immensity, and poor
Amelia Ellen had a great desire to sit down on the wooden platform and
grasp firm hold of something until a train came to rescue her from this
awful emptiness which had tried to swallow her up.

Poor Peter, with his broken leg, was her weird cry! One would think she
had broken it with the wheels of the car in which she had travelled away
from him by the way she took on about it and blamed herself. The tragedy
of a broken vow and its consequences was the subject of her discourse.
Hazel laughed, then argued, and finally cried and besought; but nothing
could avail. Go she would, and that speedily, back to her home.

When it became evident that arguments and tears were of no use and that
Amelia Ellen was determined to go home with or without her, Hazel
withdrew to the front porch and took counsel with the desert in its
morning brightness, with the purple luring mountains, and the smiling
sky. Go back on the train that would stop at the station in half an
hour, with the desert there, and the wonderful land, and its strange,
wistful people, and not even see a glimpse of him she loved? Go back