shifted her position so as to bring the mute figure of the ruined man
between her and her audience, hiding in the shadow behind it, as if
she offered it as a tacit apology for her actions. Silent and
expressionless, it yet spoke for her; helpless, crushed, and smitten
with the Divine thunderbolt, it still stretched an invisible arm around
her.

Hidden in the darkness, but still holding his hand, she went on:

"It was a long time before I could get the hang of things about yer, for
I was used to company and excitement. I couldn't get any woman to help
me, and a man I dursen't trust; but what with the Indians hereabout,
who'd do odd jobs for me, and having everything sent from the North
Fork, Jim and I managed to worry through. The Doctor would run up from
Sacramento once in a while. He'd ask to see 'Miggles's baby,' as
he called Jim, and when he'd go away, he'd say, 'Miggles; you're a
trump--God bless you'; and it didn't seem so lonely after that. But
the last time he was here he said, as he opened the door to go, 'Do you
know, Miggles, your baby will grow up to be a man yet and an honor to
his mother; but not here, Miggles, not here!' And I thought he went away
sad--and--and--" and here Miggles's voice and head were somehow both
lost completely in the shadow.

"The folks about here are very kind," said Miggles, after a pause,
coming a little into the light again. "The men from the fork used to
hang around here, until they found they wasn't wanted, and the women are
kind--and don't call. I was pretty lonely until I picked up Joaquin in
the woods yonder one day, when he wasn't so high, and taught him to beg
for his dinner; and then thar's Polly--that's the magpie--she knows no
end of tricks, and makes it quite sociable of evenings with her talk,