to her feet.

"Tess!" she cried sharply. Never had the girl appeared in this light.

"It air hard on the little kid," Tessibel said meditatively, "when its
ma says what another woman air a-mothering it for good and all."

This remark came forth in even tones. Teola had not thought of the harm
she had done the child of Dan Jordan, by throwing the motherhood upon
the squatter. She turned her troubled eyes, first upon Tess, then upon
the child.

"Tessibel, I do love him, even if I disowned him. But I haven't the
courage you have. You looked so beautiful when you said he was yours....
And Frederick is ill to-day."

Tessibel's heart thumped loudly.

"I heard him crying all night, Tess," went on Teola, "and, oh! so many
times I wanted to go and tell him that you were--a good girl; but I
didn't have the courage. But I know that sometime--Tess, will you pray
for me?"

"I ain't doin' no prayin' to-day," replied Tess. "To-morry, mebbe....
Aw! I wanted the student to pray for Daddy, and to like me--"

Teola never forgot the scene that followed.

The fisher-girl settled in a heap upon the floor, bowed the tired head,
and wept.

"Tessibel! Tess," called Teola, touching the girl's shoulder, "listen.
I'll tell him!--I'll tell him! He shall come back to you to-night--if it
kills me."

Tessibel lifted her white face.

"Ye be goin' to tell him that the brat air yers?" queried she brokenly.

"I'll go and make it all right with him. He shall come to you to-day....
Oh, what a wicked girl I was! Kiss me, Tess."

Elias Graves' beautiful daughter sank on the breast of the squatter, and
there was a kiss of forgiveness.

The baby whimpered. Teola drew away from Tessibel with a long sigh. She
reached for the milk-can.

"There ain't none there," Tess said, with a touch of joy in her tones.
"It air all gone. He et all that you brought him."

"And I can't get him any more now," moaned Teola. "Oh, Tess, I'm so ill!
I wish I were dead!"

A tall boy had repeated the same words the night before. Tess drew
herself up painfully. She pitied Teola from the bottom of her heart,
but, in spite of her pity, she could not help the thrill of happiness
when she thought of Frederick coming, and knowing all.

"It ain't no use to wish ye were dead," said she, "'cause ye can't
allers die if ye wants to. When I thought Daddy was a-goin' to the rope,
I say every day I were a-goin' to die.... Women ain't a-dyin' so easy."

She was preparing the