h so he
shaa'n't feel 'em; 't is her joy to hear him babble of all his hopes an'
delights; an' when the time comes she'll taake the maid of his heart to
her awn, though maybe 't is breakin' wi' fear that he'll forget her in
the light of the young eyes. Ax your awn mother if what I sez ban't
God's truth. We as got the bwoys be content wi' that little. We awnly
want to help theer young shoulders wi' our auld wans, to fight for 'em
to the last. We'll let theer wives have the love, we will, an' ax no
questions an'--an' we'll break our hearts when the cheel 's took out o'
his turn--break our hearts by inches--same as I be doin' now."

"An' doan't I love, tu? Weern't he all the world to me, tu? Isn't my
heart broken so well as yours?" sobbed Chris.

"Hear this, you wummon as talks of a broken heart," answered the elder
almost harshly. "Wait--wait till you 'm the mother of a li'l man-cheel,
an' see the shining eyes of un a-lookin' into yourn while your nipple's
bein' squeezed by his naked gums, an' you laugh at what you suffered for
un, an' hug un to you. Wait till he'm grawed from baby to bwoy, from
bwoy to man; wait till he'm all you've got left in the cold, starved
winter of a sorrowful life; an' wait till he'm brought home to 'e like
this here, while you've been sittin' laughin' to yourself an' countin'
dream gawld. Then turn about to find the tears that'll comfort 'e, an'
the prayers that'll soothe 'e, and the God that'll lift 'e up; but you
won't find 'em, Chris Blanchard."

The girl listened to this utterance, and it filled her with a sort of
weird wonder as at a revelation of heredity. Mrs. Hicks had ever been
taciturn before her, and now this rapid outpouring of thoughts and
phrases echoed like the very speech of the dead. Thus had Clement
talked, and the girl dimly marvelled without understanding. The
impression passed, and there awoke in Chris a sudden determination to
whisper to this bereaved woman what she could not even tell her own
mother. A second thought had probably changed her intention, but she did
not wait for any second thought. She acted on impulse, rose, put her
arms round the widow, and murmured her secret. The other started
violently and broke her motionless posture before this intelligence.

"Christ! And he knawed--my son?"

"He knawed."

"Then you needn't whisper it. There's awnly us three here."

"An' no others must knaw. You'll never tell--never? You swear that?"

"Me tell! No, no. To thi