The boy's head dropped, and a sob escaped him.

"I wish mother hadn't died;" he said chokingly. "Most every boy has
a mother."

He tried to stop crying, but it was hard, for he was overworked, and
he was only twelve years old.

Six months before this, his mother had died. Several weeks alter her
death, Claude's father had been called East on business; and had
left the boy and his younger sisters Rose and Daisy on a ranch owned
by Cousin Harriet, several miles from the children's former home. It
had been very hard for the children to part from their father so
soon after their mother's death, but he told them that while the
business that called him East would take a number of months, yet
there was some prospect that their mother's own sister, Aunt Jennie,
with her husband and little boy, would come with Claude's father on
his return. Then they could all live together at the dear home
place. So the stay at Cousin Harriet's would not probably be
perpetual.

Cousin Harriet was a widow. She looked after her ranch with great
diligence. She had several hired men and women, and the ranch was a
very busy place. Cousin Harriet was not much used to children,
having none of her own, but she tried to do her duty by the three
left in her charge. Rose and Daisy did not find the household tasks
that were assigned them very difficult. Cousin Harriet secretly did
not like boys, however. She tried to treat Claude justly, but the
boy sadly missed the mother-love to which he had been accustomed all
his life. He was expected to help the hired men on the ranch, and