Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/159

149 "Very well. My friend and I want to go into the other room for a few minutes. I want you to promise to lie still on this sofa and not stir till I come back. Will you?"

"Yes, sir, I will," again with all her strength on the "will."

Jim stooped over and kissed her forehead.

"You know, I shall come back in a few minutes," he said.

"Yes, sir, I do;" and she looked up at Jim with an expression of trust which was as much too old for the little face as were the lines about the mouth. Both were born of past suffering. As we went towards the door, the brown eyes followed us wistfully, but she did not speak.

As soon as we had closed the door, Jim took both my hands in his and exclaimed:— "Now, Will, don't you see, I 've got to take her! It 's a clear Providence from beginning to end; and if you don't help me through with it, I 'll cut loose from you, and college may go to the devil. I 've got five hundred dollars here with me, and that to these country folks is a fortune; they 'll be glad enough to have me take her off their hands."

"But, Jim," I interrupted, "you talk like a crazy man. You don't know that she is on their hands, as you call it. There may be twenty relations here to the funeral before to-morrow, for all you know. The man may have lived in the very next town."

"No, no, I know all about them," said Jim. "I