"No need to stay up with her to-night, Christian Ann."

"But won't the _boght millish_ be afraid to be left alone?" she asked.

I said I shouldn't, and she kissed me and told me to knock at the wall
if I wanted anything. And then, with her husband's arm about her waist,
the good soul left me to myself.

I don't know how I knew, but I did know that that house was a home of
love. I don't know how I knew, but I did know, that that sweet woman,
who had been the daughter of a well-to-do man, had chosen the doctor out
of all the men in the world when he was only a medical student fresh
from Germany or Switzerland. I don't know how I knew, but I did know,
that leaving father and mother and a sheltered home she had followed her
young husband when he first came to Ellan without friends or
connections, and though poor then and poor still, she had never
regretted it. I don't know how I knew, but I did know, that all this was
the opposite of what had happened to my own dear mother, who having
everything yet had nothing, while this good creature having nothing yet
had all.




SEVENTH CHAPTER


When I awoke next morning the sun was shining, and, after my hair had
been brushed smooth over my forehead, I was sitting up in bed, eating