Here she could
hide her sorrow and poverty. Here she could touch what he had
touched, and sit during the long winter evenings in his favorite
corner by the fire. Around her, within and without, were the
little appliances for her comfort which his hands had made, flow
could she leave all this and live? Deep in her heart also the hope
would linger that he would come again and seek her where he had
left her.
"O God!" she cried suddenly. "Thou wouldst not, couldst not permit
him to die without one farewell word," and she buried her face in
her hands and rocked back and forth, while hard, dry sobs shook
her slight, famine-pinched form.
The children stopped their play and came and leaned upon her lap.
"Don't cry, mother," said Jamie, a little boy of ten. "I'll soon
be big enough to work for you; and I'll get rich, and you shall
have the biggest house in town. I'll take care of you if papa
don't come back."
Little Sue knew not what to say, but the impulse of her love was
her best guide. She threw her arms around her mother's neck with
such an impetuous and childlike outburst of affection that the
poor woman's bitter and despairing thoughts were banished for a
time.
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