I was as young as he, an' had his chance, I
would _make_ myself worthy o' you, or die. But it is too late. Old Joe
Chillis may starve his heart, as he has many a time starved his body in
the desert. But I did love you so! O, my sweet White Rose, I did love
you so! always, from the first time I saw you."

"What is that you say?" said Mrs. Smiley, in a shocked voice.

"Always, I said, from the first time I saw you. My love was true; it did
not harm you. I said, '_There_ is such a woman as God designed for me.
But it is too late to have her now. I will jest worship her humbly, a
great ways off, an' say "God bless her!" when she passes; an' think o'
her sweet ways when I am ridin' through the woods, or polin' my
huntin'-boat up the sloughs, among the willows an' pond-lilies. She
would hardly blame me, ef she knew I loved her that way.'

"But it grew harder afterwards, White Rose, when you were grateful to
me, in your pretty, womanly way, an' treated me so kindly before all the
world, an' let your little boy love me, an' loved me yourself--I knew
it--in a gentle, friendly fashion. O, but it was sweet!--but not sweet
enough, sometimes. Ef I have been crazed for the lack o' love in my
younger days, I have been crazed with love since then. There have been
days when I could neither work nor eat, nights when I could not sleep,
for thinkin' o' what might have been, but never could be; times when I
have been tempted to upset my boat in the bay, an' never try to right
it. But when I had almost conquered my madness, that you might never
know, then comes this Rumway, with his fine looks, an' his fine house,
an' his fine professions, an' blots me out entirely; for what will old
Joe be worth to Madame Rumway, or to Madame Rumway's fine husband?"

Mrs. Smiley sat thoughtful and silent a long time after this declaration
of love, that gave all and required so little. She was sorry for it; but
since it was so, and she must know it, she was glad that she had heard
it that night. She could place it in the balance with that other
declaration, and decide upon their relative value to her; for she saw,
as he did, that the two were incompatible--one must be given up.

"It is late," she said, rising. "You will come up and take breakfast
with Willie and me, before you go home? My strawberries are in their
prime."

"I thought you would a-told me to go, an' never come back," he said,
stepping out into the moonlight with the elastic tread of twen