th' fall, an' that was the last of him. That hurt a bit, but I
had Derrick. _Oh, Derrick! Derrick!_"--whispering, rocking herself to
and fro as if she held a baby, cooing over the uncouth name with an
awful longing and tenderness in the sound.

Miss Defourchet was silent. Something in all this awed her; she did not
understand it.

"I mind," she wandered on, "when the day's work was done, I'd hold him
in my arms,--so,--and his sleepy little face would turn up to mine. I
seemed to begin to loss him after he was a baby,"--with an old, worn
sigh. "He went with other boys. The Weirs and Hallets took him up; they
were town-bred people, an' he soon got other notions from mine, an'
talked of things I'd heerd nothin' of. I was very proud of my Derrick;
but I knowed I'd loss him all the same. I did washin' an' ironin' by
nights to keep him dressed like the others,--an' kep' myself out o'
their way, not to shame him with his mother."

"And was he ashamed of you?" said Mary, her face growing hot.

"Thee did not know my little boy,"--the old woman stood up, drawing
herself to her full height. "His wee body was too full of pluck an' good
love to be shamed by his mother. I mind the day I come on them suddint,
by the bridge, where they were standin', him an' two o' the Hallets. I
was carryin' a basket of herrings. The Hallets they flushed up, an'
looked at him to see what he'd do; for they never named his mother to
him, I heerd. The road was deep with mud; an' as I stood a bit to
balance myself, keepin' my head turned from him, before I knew aught, my
boy had me in his arms, an' carried me t' other side. I'm not a heavy
weight, thee sees, but his face was all aglow with the laugh.

"'There you are, dear,' he says, puttin' me down, the wind blowin' his
brown hair.

"One of the Hallets brought my basket over then, an' touched his hat as
if I'd been a lady. That was the last time my boy had his arms about me:
next week he went away. That night I heerd him in his room in the loft,
here an' there, here an' there, as if he couldn't sleep, an' so for many
nights, comin' down in the mornin' with his eye red an' swollen, but
full of the laugh an' joke as always. The Hallets were with him
constant, those days, Judge Hallet, their father, were goin' across
seas, Derrick said. So one night, I'd got his tea ready, an' were
waitin' for him by the fire, knittin',--when he come in an' stood by the
mantel-shelf, lookin' down at me, steady. He had