The Desert and The Sown

And when it tapped the kitchen drain, and typhoid took the elder children, and the mother followed the children, it was called the will of God. A gloo

armer had ever drunk water himself, except as tea or coffee, or mixed with something stronger, he must have been an early victim, to his own crass ignorance. He was a vigorous, heavy-set man, a grand field for t

ld raise talk and blame among the neighbors, and do away with the honor of a special visitation; would cost no trifle of money; would justify the doctor's interference, and insult the old well of his father and his father's father, the fountain of generations. To seal its mouth and bid its usefulness cease in the house where it had ministered for upwards of a hundred years was an act of de

y of those unhappy "cases;" she had listened to discussions, violent or

the flock, was now a child of four, dark like her mother, sturdy and strong like her father. On an August day soon after t

nk that water and the snakes will grow and wriggle and work all through ye, and eat your insides out, and you'll die. Your mother"-in a whisper-"she drunk that water, and she died. Your sister Ruth, and Dirck, and Jimmy, they drunk it, and they died. Now if Emmy wants to die"-Large eyes of horror fastened on the speaker's face. "No-o, she don't want to die, the Love

etty things. He noticed the innocent pail on the

his water?

. "Drinking wat

oing here al

Emmy. She can't reac

water was hard, with a tang of iron. The spring

you get t

lf. There's

his water come from

m the barn! I'm too lame to be histin' buckets. I've got the

here. You are not going to ask the men to carry water for you. They've got something e

out upon the grass, scattering the hens that cam

and led her into the dim meat-cellar, a half-basement with one low window lev

Becky says. She knows! But you mustn't ever tell. Your father 'd be as mad as fire if he knowed I said anything about snakes. He'd send me right away, and some strange woman would come, and maybe she'd whip Emmy. Emmy want Becky to go?" Sobs, and little arms clinging w

t her father. She did not love him, and the smile with which she met him was no new lesson in diplomacy. B

she not five years old!" For vital reasons she had taught the child an ugly lesson. Such less

ft little trustful hand in his. She trotted at his heels like one of the lambs or chickens that he fed. She brought him into perpetual disgrace with Becky, for wasting his time through her imperious demands. She was the burden, the delight, the handicap, the incentive, and the reward of his humble apprenticeship. And when he was promoted to be one of the regular hands she followed him still, and got her pleasure out of his day's work. No one had such patience to tell her things, to wait for her and help her over places where her tagging powers fell short. But though she bullied him, she looked up to him as well. His occupations commanded her respect. He was the god of the orchards and of the cider-making; he presided at all the functions of the farm year. He was a perfect calendar besides of country sports in their season. He swept the ice pools in the mea

ubt they were sympathetically close to the truth. He lingered over them, dres

oever met her father's team on those long stony hills of Saugerties would see his little daughter seated beside his hired man, her face turned up to his in endless confiding talk. It was a face, as we say, to dream of. But the

in the kitchen while she was amusing herself in the parlor. She discussed her young acquaintances with him on their way home. The time for distinctions had come, but she was too innocent to feel them herself, and too

men, and though his pay was that of a common laborer, his duties had long been of a much higher order. Abraham had made a very good bargain out of the widow's son. Adam knew well that he could not be spared, and pitied the old man's helpless rage. He took his frantic insults as part of his senility, and felt it no unmanliness to appease it by giving his promise that he would speak no more of love to Emmy while he was taking her father's wages. But Emmy did not indorse this promise ful

as strong upon them both. But it was Emm

on itself with the tide, glared yellow as an old man's teeth in the setting sun. From across the river came the thunder of a train, bound north, two engines dragging forty cars of freight piled up by some recent traffic-jam; it plunged into a tunne

"Hundreds, hundreds going every day! It seems ea

do, Emmy?" Adam knew well w

you ever want t

bad, I gen'ly think i

stand it,-to stay here year after year. And now you've tied

ing to k

do!" She dropped her voice hurriedly. "To live here and eat

bashful through its heat. "I don't feel like a stick nor a stone. You know it, Emm

" The girl tried to meet his eyes. She tu

on that. Would you want we should leave him here alon

he can put you down like a boy. He won't believe I care for you. There's only one way to show him-that is, if we do care. In one month he would be sending for us back. Then we

ppose he don't send

here was it? And now everybody stops to shake hands with him;-he's as much of a man as anybody. If you could

ut that out of your mind, Emmy. It don't run in

u don't believe you can, you can't. Who has

money after you've scraped the first few thousand

have you g

ike to talk of money to the girl who was the prayer, the inspiration,

d it all,

ance and he showed me how. And-he's your father. I don't

t makes people know what you are. I wish I could put into you some of my fury that I feel when things get in my way! Y

I can let go whenever you say so. But-do you unders

, her dark eyes full of mystery fixed themselves on

she assent

tchen. It's bucklin' right down with our bare hands-me outside and you

red. "I made you break it. You will

d do so to me and more also, if I ha

ldly chances. But the love he had for her told him it was not love that made her so bold. The first touch of such love as his would have made her fear him as he feared her. A

explained it by such a scene as this. It would have hampered him terribly in his tale had he dreamed of it. He passed over the unfortunate incident with a romancer's touch, and

e was trouble between him and his brother Jacob, of New York, dating from the settlement of their father's, Broderick Van Elten's, estate; and no one knows what besides that was private and personal may have entered into it. It w

girl gone off with his hired man. Poor Chrissy! Guess she had about enough of it. Things have come out pretty much even, after all! There was more love and lickin's wasted on Abe. Father was proudest of him, but he couldn't break him. Hi! but

is brother's path in life through its fai