her know that he sees it. Why, my mother--" he stopped.
"It gives me a lump in the throat," he said apologetically,
with an attempt at a laugh. Then he went on: "She
was a little frail thing, not bigger than a good-sized
intermediate school-girl; but she did the whole work
of a family of boys, and boarded the hired men besides.
She cooked, swept, washed, ironed, made and mended
from daylight till dark--and from dark till daylight,
I was going to say; for I don't know how she got any
time for sleep. But I suppose she did. She got time
to go to church, and to teach us to read the Bible,
and to misunderstand it in the old way. She was GOOD.
But it ain't her on her knees in church that comes back
to me so much like the sight of an angel as her on her knees
before me at night, washing my poor, dirty little feet,
that I'd run bare in all day, and making me decent for bed.
There were six of us boys; it seems to me we were all
of a size; and she was just so careful with all of us.
I can feel her hands on my feet yet!" Bartley looked at
Lapham's No. 10 boots, and softly whistled through his teeth.
"We were patched all over; but we wa'n't ragged.
I don't know how she got through it. She didn't seem
to think it was anything; and I guess it was no more
than my father expected of her. HE worked like a horse
in doors and out--up at daylight, feeding the stock,
and groaning round all day with his rheumatism, but not
stopping."

Bartley hid a yawn over his note-book, and probably,
if he could have spoken his mind, he would have suggested