The Second Chance

what I li

t knee-de

me aft

git out

ork at no

Whitco

a hammock under Aunt Kate's directions. They had found an old barrel in the scrub, and Aunt Kate was showing them how, with

swung between two big trees, Pear

ne of the beds and brought her mother out to the hammock, which was now held down by the four youngest boys. By a quick

ok up to the clouds and listen to the birds and think of the nicest things you ever heard, and forget that there ever comes holes in the little lads' pants, and forget tha

by, looked in wonder

e yer Uncle Bill as if ye belonged to him. He'd have taken great co

ce, Katie, dear," sai

k over all the good times you've had, and that'll carry ye over till the trouble passes by. Every night here there'll be a lovely sunset, all blue and gold, like the streets of heaven. That ought to help some, and now the leaves are comin' and new flowers every day nearly, and

Aunt Kate asked, lo

tout old lady was w

said, in alarm. "Let me out o' this, Pearlie. It's a laz

her good to see some one restin' easy. I know her, M

forward and introduced her to her mo

aight back and rolled at the back of her neck in a little knob about the size and shape of a hickory nut. She was dressed in a clean print dress, of that good old colour called lilac. It had little white daisies on a striped ground and was o

ought ou

ust a shadow of reproach in her voice that did not escape Pearli

ly. "She worked all her life raisin' us, and now she's g

gallantly interposed on Pearl's behalf by telling what a fine help the was to her mother, and soon the con

p some of Aunt Kate's home-made bread as thin as she could, and buttered it; she brought out, from the packing box that they were still in, one of the few jars of peaches, and then made the tea. She and

he picnics in Millford in old Major Rogers's time. I mind the last one we had. I seen old Mrs. Gilbert just fillin' the stuff into her basket, and I do believe she tuk more home

ers picnics, now?" Pearl a

but when she got down to pray before she left, she started off all right, and I wasn't really noticin' what she was sayin' until I hears her say: 'Lord, take away the cows and the pigs and the hens from these people, if it is the pigs and the cows and hens that's keepin' them from attendin' church, for it is better for them to do without milk or butter or eggs all their live

don't do you a bit of good to eat outside if you're thinkin' hard of anybody. It'll take a queer old lot of blue

t her. All her life she had had to tell her stories against a counter-attraction, that is, if her husband was prese

. When I saw her first she was as pretty a girl as you'd see, and Bill was a fine-lookin' man, too. We never knew he would drink, and I don't think he ever did until Sandy Braden got his license and opened up a bar. I'll never forget the first night he came home drunk. She came runnin' over to our house and told us she was afraid he was dyin'. Pa and I went over with her, and I told her right out, plump and plain, what was wrong with him just as soon as I saw him. I'll never f

c interest. She had known this all the time-

but he was too far gone. Bill came home in the mornin' so drunk we couldn't make him understand that the child was dead, and he kept askin' us all the time how little Georgie was now. I came home in the mornin' to help to milk, and Martha went over to stay with her. Mar

nto the kitchen she re

and the wind through the trees is beginnin' to