"'Have you nothing better than that to sell?" I says, not quite sure
that she wasn't all a humbug, like so many of 'em. She seemed to see
that, and looked up at me again with such innocent eyes, I couldn't
doubt her when she said, shivering with something beside the cold,--

"'Nothing but myself.' Then the tears came, and she laid her head
down on my arm, sobbing,--'Keep me! oh, do keep me safe somewhere!'"

Thorn choked here, steadied his voice with a resolute hem! but could
only add one sentence more:

"That's how I found my wife."

"Come, don't stop thar? I told the whole o' mine, you do the same.
Whar did you take her? how'd it all come round?"

"Please tell us, Thorn."

The gentler request was answered presently, very steadily, very
quietly.

"I was always a soft-hearted fellow, though you wouldn't think it
now, and when that little girl asked me to keep her safe, I just did
it. I took her to a good woman whom I knew, for I hadn't any women
belonging to me, nor any place but that to put her in. She stayed
there till spring working for her keep, growing brighter, prettier,
every day, and fonder of me I thought. If I believed in witchcraft,
I shouldn't think myself such a cursed fool as I do now, but I don't
believe in it, and to this day I can't understand how I came to do
it. To be sure I was a lonely man, without kith or kin, had never