Dirk Waldron was the only being that seemed to shed a ray of
sunshine into this house of mourning. He came in with cheery look
and manly spirit, and tried to reanimate the expiring heart of the
poor money digger, but it was all in vain. Wolfert was completely
done over.[1] If anything was wanting to complete his despair, it
was a notice, served upon him in the midst of his distress, that
the corporation was about to run a new street through the very
center of his cabbage garden. He now saw nothing before him but
poverty and ruin; his last reliance, the garden of his forefathers,
was to be laid waste, and what then was to become of his poor wife
and child?
[1] Exhausted.
His eyes filled with tears as they followed the dutiful Amy out of
the room one morning. Dirk Waldron was seated beside him; Wolfert
grasped his hand, pointed after his daughter, and for the first
time since his illness broke the silence he had maintained.
"I am going!" said he, shaking his head feebly, "and when I am
gone, my poor daughter--"
"Leave her to me, father!" said Dirk manfully; "I'll take care of
her!"
Wolfert looked up in the face of the cheery, strapping youngster,
and saw there was none better able to take care of a woman.
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