side the door. Then the yellow-faced woman said:

"Sam, doctor says I ain't got much time left."

"Mary," said Sam, "I wish ter God I could die fur yer. The children--"

"It's them I want to talk about, Sam," replied his wife. 'An' I wish
they could die with me, rather'n hev 'em liv ez I've hed to. Not that
you ain't been a kind husband to me, for you hev. Whenever I wanted meat
yev got it, somehow; an' when yev been ugly drunk, yev kep' away from
the house. But I'm dyin', Sam, and it's cos you've killed me."

"Good God, Mary!" cried the astonished Sam, jumping up; "yure
crazy--here, doctor!"

"Doctor can't do no good, Sam; keep still, and listen, ef yer love me
like yer once said yer did; for I hevn't got much breath left," gasped
the woman.

"Mary," said the aggrieved Sam, "I swow to God I dunno what yer drivin'
at."

"It's jest this, Sam," replied the woman: "Yer tuk me, tellin' me ye'd
love me an' honor me an' pertect me. You mean to say, now, yev done it?
I'm a-dyin', Sam--I hain't got no favors to ask of nobody, an' I'm
tellin' the truth, not knowin' what word'll be my last."

"Then tell a feller where the killin' came in, Mary, for heaven's sake,"
said the unhappy Sam.

"It's come in all along, Sam," said the woman; "there is women in the
States, so I've heerd, that marries fur a home, an' bread an' butter,
but you promised more'n that, Sam. An' I've waited. An' it ain't come.
An' there's somethin' in me that's all starved and cut to pieces. An'
it's your fault, Sam. I tuk yer fur better or fur wuss, an' I've never
grumbled."

"I know yer hain't, Mary," whispered the conscience-stricken Pike. "An'
I know what yer mean. Ef God'll only let yer be fur a few years, I'll
see ef the thing can't be helped. Don't cuss me, Mary--I've never knowed
how I've been a-goin'. I wish there was somethin' I could do 'fore you
go, to pay yer all I owe yer. I'd go back on everything that makes life
worth hevin'."

"Pay it to the children, Sam," said the sick woman, raising herself in
her miserable bed. "I'll forgive yer everything if you'll do the right
thing fur them. Do--do--everything!" said the woman, throwing up her
arms and falling backward. Her husband's arm caught her; his lips
brought to her wan face a smile, which the grim visitor, who an instant
later stole her breath, pityingly left in full possession of the
rightful inheritance from which it had been so long excluded.

Sam knelt for a moment with his face