"Oh, yes, Bet--oh, my poor gel, has the Lord seen fit to soften yer
hard heart?"

"Look here, mother,"--here the tall, splendidly-made girl stood up,
and throwing back her head, and with the firelight full on her face,
and reflecting a new, strange expression of excitement, she spoke
suddenly: "I can't promise the other, but I'll promise this. The little
boys' lives shall come afore my life--harm shall come to me afore it
touches them; and ef religion can do anything for them, why, they shall
hear of it and choose for themselves. There, I have promised."




CHAPTER II.


MRS. Granger lingered all through that night, but she scarcely said
anything more, and in the cold dawn of the morning her spirit passed
very quietly away. The two little boys opened the room door noisily
at midnight, but they too were impressed, as Bet had been, by the
unusual order and appearance of comfort of the room. Perhaps they were
also startled by the girl's still figure crouching by the bedside, and
by the look on their mother's face as she lay with her eyes closed,
breathing hard and fast. They ceased to talk noisily, and crept over
to a straw mattress on the floor which they shared together. When they
next opened their eyes they were motherless.

Mrs. Granger died between five and six in the morning; and when the
breath had quite left her body Bet arose, stretched herself,--for she