she was
warned, but she acted real mad when folks said anythin': said Luella
was a poor, abused woman, too delicate to help herself, and they'd
ought to be ashamed, and if she died helpin' them that couldn't help
themselves she would--and she did.

"'I s'pose Maria has gone home,' says I to Luella, when I had gone in
and sat down opposite her.

"'Yes, Maria went half an hour ago, after she had got supper and washed
the dishes,' says Luella, in her pretty way.

"'I suppose she has got a lot of work to do in her own house to-night,'
says I, kind of bitter, but that was all thrown away on Luella Miller.
It seemed to her right that other folks that wa'n't any better able
than she was herself should wait on her, and she couldn't get it
through her head that anybody should think it WA'N'T right.

"'Yes,' says Luella, real sweet and pretty, 'yes, she said she had to
do her washin' to-night. She has let it go for a fortnight along of
comin' over here.'

"'Why don't she stay home and do her washin' instead of comin' over
here and doin' YOUR work, when you are just as well able, and enough
sight more so, than she is to do it?' says I.

"Then Luella she looked at me like a baby who has a rattle shook at it.
She sort of laughed as innocent as you please. 'Oh, I can't do the
work myself, Miss Anderson,' says she. 'I never did. Maria HAS to do
it.'

"Then I spoke out: 'Has to do it I' says I. 'Has to do it!' She don't
have to do it, either. Maria Brown has her own home and enough to live
on. She ain't beholden to you to come over here and slave for you and
kill herself.'

"Luella she jest set and stared at me for all the world like a
doll-baby that was so abused that it was comin' to life.

"'Yes,' says I, 'she's killin' herself. She's goin' to die just the
way Erastus did, and Lily, and your Aunt Abby. You're killin' her jest
as you did them. I don't know what there is about you, but you seem to
bring a curse,' says I. 'You kill everybody that is fool enough to
care anythin' about you and do for you.'

"She stared at me and she was pretty pale.

"'And Maria ain't the only one you're goin' to kill,' says I. 'You're
goin' to kill Doctor Malcom before you're done with him.'

"Then a red colour came flamin' all over her face. 'I ain't goin' to
kill him, either,' says she, and she begun to cry.

"'Yes, you BE!' says I. Then I spoke as I had never spoke before. You
see, I felt it on account of Erastus. I t