But there were the other crops which
must be attended to, and Jim watched those
with the alertness of a despairing man; and
so harvest came again, and again the house
was filled with men who talked their careless
talk, and who were not ashamed to gorge
while this one woman cooked for them.
The baby lay on a quilt on the floor in the
coolest part of the kitchen. Annie fed it
irregularly. Sometimes she almost forgot
it. As for its wailing, she had grown so
used to it that she hardly heard it, any
more than she did the ticking of the clock.
And yet, tighter than anything else in life,
was the hold that little thing had on her
heart-strings. At night, after the intermin-
able work had been finished -- though in
slovenly fashion -- she would take it up and
caress it with fierceness, and worn as she
was, would bathe it and soothe it, and give
it warm milk from the big tin pail.

"Lay the child down," Jim would say
impatiently, while the men would tell how
their wives always put the babies on the
bed and let them cry if they wanted to.
Annie said nothing, but she hushed the
little one with tender songs.

One day, as usual, it lay on its quilt