ated herself at the oven, and warmed the
infant with tender solicitude, forcing the warm, sweetened water into
the meager body. Then she slipped off her clothes, gathered the little
Dan to her breast, and crept into bed.

"I said as how I hated ye, brat," she whispered, "but I don't hate ye
now, poor little shiverin' dum devil!"

During the rest of the storm the babe slept, but Tessibel wept out her
loss of the only love she had ever known save Daddy Skinner's--wept
until, from sheer exhaustion, her head dropped upon the dark one of Dan
Jordan's babe, and she slept.

* * * * *

The next morning, Tess rose languidly. Without a smile or a prayer, she
arranged the sop for the babe, then sat down beside him to think. Such a
radical change in her life brought an influx of indescribable emotions.
Her Bible was gone--the one book out of which she was learning the
secret of happiness and patience. She remembered how, the night before,
the realization of her despair had brought her closer to the Cross. Out
of the brightness of the lightning she had received a promise of a
blessing. Still, the tender, sensitive heart was bleeding for its own.
But Tess had the hidden God to help her--and the child. She sat watching
him; she could see that he was growing thinner, growing more emaciated
as the days passed. He could eat only the food Tess forced into his
mouth. But the sugar rags kept him from whining. At this moment he was
eying the window-pane with intelligent intentness.

"Ye air the miserablest little devil I ever seed. No pappy, and a mammy
what air afraid to say ye air hers. I hated ye last night, but ye air
such a wrinkled little tramp that this mornin' I promises ye to keep ye
till ye dies."

She was bending over the babe, watching every expression that flitted
over the drawn mouth. In this position she did not hear the door open
silently, as Teola stepped in.

The minister's daughter whispered to the crouching squatter:

"Tessibel, can--can you ever forgive me?"

Tess stood up and took a long breath. Teola noted how the night had
changed the brilliant coloring to a whiteness that startled her. An
agony of remorse broke over her, and, dropping upon her knees, she wept
upon the face of little Dan.

"Tess, I've nearly died all through the night.... Oh, can you forgive
me?"

"I ain't no business to be a-forgivin' ye. It be the brat what ye air
to asks forgiveness of."

Teola sprang