Three Lives

_Stories of The Good Anna, Melanctha and The Gentle Lena_

GERTRUDE STEIN

 _Donc je suis malheureux et ce n'est ni ma faute ni celle de la vie. _[1]

 Jules Laforgue

 [Footnote 1: Therefore I am unhappy and it is neither my fault nor that of life. ]

Contents

 page

 The Good Anna 1 Melanctha 47 The Gentle Lena 142

THE GOOD ANNA

Part I

The tradesmen of Bridgepoint learned to dread the sound of "MissMathilda", for with that name the good Anna always conquered. 

The strictest of the one price stores found that they could givethings for a little less, when the good Anna had fully said that "MissMathilda" could not pay so much and that she could buy it cheaper "byLindheims. "

Lindheims was Anna's favorite store, for there they had bargain days, when flour and sugar were sold for a quarter of a cent less for apound, and there the heads of the departments were all her friends andalways managed to give her the bargain prices, even on other days. 

Anna led an arduous and troubled life. 

Anna managed the whole little house for Miss Mathilda. It was a funnylittle house, one of a whole row of all the same kind that made aclose pile like a row of dominoes that a child knocks over, for theywere built along a street which at this point came down a steep hill. They were funny little houses, two stories high, with red brick frontsand long white steps. 

This one little house was always very full with Miss Mathilda, anunder servant, stray dogs and cats and Anna's voice that scolded, managed, grumbled all day long. 

"Sallie! can't I leave you alone a minute but you must run to the doorto see the butcher boy come down the street and there is Miss Mathildacalling for her shoes. Can I do everything while you go around alwaysthinking about nothing at all? If I ain't after you every minute youwould be forgetting all, the time, and I take all this pains, and whenyou come to me you was as ragged as a buzzard and as dirty as a dog. Go and find Miss Mathilda her shoes where you put them this morning. "

"Peter!", --her voice rose higher, --"Peter!", --Peter was the youngestand the favorite dog, --"Peter, if you don't leave Baby alone, "--Babywas an old, blind terrier that Anna had loved for many years, --"Peterif you don't leave Baby alone, I take a rawhide to you, you bad dog. "

The good Anna had high ideals for canine chastity and discipline. Thethree regular dogs, the three that always lived with Anna, Peter andold Baby, and the fluffy little Rags, who was always jumping up intothe air just to show that he was happy, together with the transients, the many stray ones that Anna always kept until she found them homes, were all under strict orders never to be bad one with the other. 

A sad disgrace did once happen in the family. A little transientterrier for whom Anna had found a home suddenly produced a crop ofpups. The new owners were certain that this Foxy had known no dogsince she was in their care. The good Anna held to it stoutly that herPeter and her Rags were guiltless, and she made her statement with somuch heat that Foxy's owners were at last convinced that these resultswere due to their neglect. 

"You bad dog, " Anna said to Peter that night, "you bad dog. "

"Peter was the father of those pups, " the good Anna explained to MissMathilda, "and they look just like him too, and poor little Foxy, they were so big that she could hardly have them, but Miss Mathilda, Iwould never let those people know that Peter was so bad. "

Periods of evil thinking came very regularly to Peter and to Rags andto the visitors within their gates. At such times Anna would bevery busy and scold hard, and then too she always took great care toseclude the bad dogs from each other whenever she had to leave thehouse. Sometimes just to see how good it was that she had made them, Anna would leave the room a little while and leave them all together, and then she would suddenly come back. Back would slink all thewicked-minded dogs at the sound of her hand upon the knob, and thenthey would sit desolate in their corners like a lot of disappointedchildren whose stolen sugar has been taken from them. 

Innocent blind old Baby was the only one who preserved the dignitybecoming in a dog. 

You see that Anna led an arduous and troubled life. 

The good Anna was a small, spare, german woman, at this time aboutforty years of age. Her face was worn, her cheeks were thin, her mouthdrawn and firm, and her light blue eyes were very bright. Sometimesthey were full of lightning and sometimes full of humor, but they werealways sharp and clear. 

Her voice was a pleasant one, when she told the histories of bad Peterand of Baby and of little Rags. Her voice was a high and piercing onewhen she called to the teamsters and to the other wicked men, whatshe wanted that should come to them, when she saw them beat a horse orkick a dog. She did not belong to any society that could stop themand she told them so most frankly, but her strained voice and herglittering eyes, and her queer piercing german english first made themafraid and then ashamed. They all knew too, that all the policemenon the beat were her friends. These always respected and obeyedMiss Annie, as they called her, and promptly attended to all of hercomplaints. 

For five years Anna managed the little house for Miss Mathilda. Inthese five years there were four different under servants. 

The one that came first was a pretty, cheerful irish girl. Anna tookher with a doubting mind. Lizzie was an obedient, happy servant, andAnna began to have a little faith. This was not for long. The pretty, cheerful Lizzie disappeared one day without her notice and with allher baggage and returned no more. 

This pretty, cheerful Lizzie was succeeded by a melancholy Molly. 

Molly was born in America, of german parents. All her people had beenlong dead or gone away. Molly had always been alone. She was a tall, dark, sallow, thin-haired creature, and she was always troubled witha cough, and she had a bad temper, and always said ugly dreadful swearwords. 

Anna found all this very hard to bear, but she kept Molly a long timeout of kindness. The kitchen was constantly a battle-ground. Annascolded and Molly swore strange oaths, and then Miss Mathilda wouldshut her door hard to show that she could hear it all. 

At last Anna had to give it up. "Please Miss Mathilda won't you speakto Molly, " Anna said, "I can't do a thing with her. I scold her, andshe don't seem to hear and then she swears so that she scares me. Sheloves you Miss Mathilda, and you scold her please once. "

"But Anna, " cried poor Miss Mathilda, "I don't want to, " and thatlarge, cheerful, but faint hearted woman looked all aghast at such aprospect. "But you must, please Miss Mathilda!" Anna said. 

Miss Mathilda never wanted to do any scolding. "But you must pleaseMiss Mathilda, " Anna said. 

Miss Mathilda every day put off the scolding, hoping always that Annawould learn to manage Molly better. It never did get better and atlast Miss Mathilda saw that the scolding simply had to be. 

It was agreed between the good Anna and her Miss Mathilda that Annashould be away when Molly would be scolded. The next evening that itwas Anna's evening out, Miss Mathilda faced her task and went downinto the kitchen. 

Molly was sitting in the little kitchen leaning her elbows on thetable. She was a tall, thin, sallow girl, aged twenty-three, by natureslatternly and careless but trained by Anna into superficial neatness. Her drab striped cotton dress and gray black checked apron increasedthe length and sadness of her melancholy figure. "Oh, Lord!" groanedMiss Mathilda to herself as she approached her. 

"Molly, I want to speak to you about your behaviour to Anna!", hereMolly dropped her head still lower on her arms and began to cry. 

"Oh! Oh!" groaned Miss Mathilda. 

"It's all Miss Annie's fault, all of it, " Molly said at last, in atrembling voice, "I do my best. "

"I know Anna is often hard to please, " began Miss Mathilda, with atwinge of mischief, and then she sobered herself to her task, "butyou must remember, Molly, she means it for your good and she is reallyvery kind to you. "

"I don't want her kindness, " Molly cried, "I wish you would tell mewhat to do, Miss Mathilda, and then I would be all right. I hate MissAnnie. "

"This will never do Molly, " Miss Mathilda said sternly, in herdeepest, firmest tones, "Anna is the head of the kitchen and you musteither obey her or leave. "

"I don't want to leave you, " whimpered melancholy Molly. "Well Mollythen try and do better, " answered Miss Mathilda, keeping a good sternfront, and backing quickly from the kitchen. 

"Oh! Oh!" groaned Miss Mathilda, as she went back up the stairs. 

Miss Mathilda's attempt to make peace between the constantlycontending women in the kitchen had no real effect. They were verysoon as bitter as before. 

At last it was decided that Molly was to go away. Molly went away towork in a factory in the town, and she went to live with an old womanin the slums, a very bad old woman Anna said. 

Anna was never easy in her mind about the fate of Molly. Sometimes shewould see or hear of her. Molly was not well, her cough was worse, andthe old woman really was a bad one. 

After a year of this unwholesome life, Molly was completely brokendown. Anna then again took her in charge. She brought her from herwork and from the woman where she lived, and put her in a hospital tostay till she was well. She found a place for her as nursemaid to alittle girl out in the country, and Molly was at last established andcontent. 

Molly had had, at first, no regular successor. In a few months it wasgoing to be the summer and Miss Mathilda would be gone away, and oldKatie would do very well to come in every day and help Anna with herwork. 

Old Katy was a heavy, ugly, short and rough old german woman, with astrange distorted german-english all her own. Anna was worn out nowwith her attempt to make the younger generation do all that it shouldand rough old Katy never answered back, and never wanted her ownway. No scolding or abuse could make its mark on her uncouth and agedpeasant hide. She said her "Yes, Miss Annie, " when an answer had tocome, and that was always all that she could say. 

"Old Katy is just a rough old woman, Miss Mathilda, " Anna said, "butI think I keep her here with me. She can work and she don't give metrouble like I had with Molly all the time. "

Anna always had a humorous sense from this old Katy's twisted peasantenglish, from the roughness on her tongue of buzzing s's and from thequeer ways of her brutish servile humor. Anna could not let old Katyserve at table--old Katy was too coarsely made from natural earth forthat--and so Anna had all this to do herself and that she never liked, but even then this simple rough old creature was pleasanter to herthan any of the upstart young. 

Life went on very smoothly now in these few months before the summercame. Miss Mathilda every summer went away across the ocean to be gonefor several months. When she went away this summer old Katy was sosorry, and on the day that Miss Mathilda went, old Katy cried hardfor many hours. An earthy, uncouth, servile peasant creature old Katysurely was. She stood there on the white stone steps of the little redbrick house, with her bony, square dull head with its thin, tanned, toughened skin and its sparse and kinky grizzled hair, and her strong, squat figure a little overmade on the right side, clothed in her bluestriped cotton dress, all clean and always washed but rough and harshto see--and she stayed there on the steps till Anna brought her in, blubbering, her apron to her face, and making queer guttural brokenmoans. 

When Miss Mathilda early in the fall came to her house again old Katywas not there. 

"I never thought old Katy would act so Miss Mathilda, " Anna said, "when she was so sorry when you went away, and I gave her full wagesall the summer, but they are all alike Miss Mathilda, there isn't oneof them that's fit to trust. You know how Katy said she liked you, Miss Mathilda, and went on about it when you went away and then shewas so good and worked all right until the middle of the summer, whenI got sick, and then she went away and left me all alone and took aplace out in the country, where they gave her some more money. Shedidn't say a word, Miss Mathilda, she just went off and left me therealone when I was sick after that awful hot summer that we had, andafter all we done for her when she had no place to go, and all summerI gave her better things to eat than I had for myself. Miss Mathilda, there isn't one of them has any sense of what's the right way for agirl to do, not one of them. "

Old Katy was never heard from any more. 

No under servant was decided upon now for several months. Many cameand many went, and none of them would do. At last Anna heard ofSallie. 

Sallie was the oldest girl in a family of eleven and Sallie was justsixteen years old. From Sallie down they came always littler andlittler in her family, and all of them were always out at workexcepting only the few littlest of them all. 

Sallie was a pretty blonde and smiling german girl, and stupid and alittle silly. The littler they came in her family the brighter theyall were. The brightest of them all was a little girl of ten. She dida good day's work washing dishes for a man and wife in a saloon, andshe earned a fair day's wage, and then there was one littler still. She only worked for half the day. She did the house work for abachelor doctor. She did it all, all of the housework and receivedeach week her eight cents for her wage. Anna was always indignant whenshe told that story. 

"I think he ought to give her ten cents Miss Mathilda any way. Eightcents is so mean when she does all his work and she is such a brightlittle thing too, not stupid like our Sallie. Sallie would never learnto do a thing if I didn't scold her all the time, but Sallie is a goodgirl, and I take care and she will do all right. "

Sallie was a good, obedient german child. She never answered Annaback, no more did Peter, old Baby and little Rags and so thoughalways Anna's voice was sharply raised in strong rebuke and wornexpostulation, they were a happy family all there together in thekitchen. 

Anna was a mother now to Sallie, a good incessant german mother whowatched and scolded hard to keep the girl from any evil step. Sallie'stemptations and transgressions were much like those of naughty Peterand jolly little Rags, and Anna took the same way to keep all threefrom doing what was bad. 

Sallie's chief badness besides forgetting all the time and neverwashing her hands clean to serve at table, was the butcher boy. 

He was an unattractive youth enough, that butcher boy. Suspicion beganto close in around Sallie that she spent the evenings when Anna wasaway, in company with this bad boy. 

"Sallie is such a pretty girl, Miss Mathilda, " Anna said, "and she isso dumb and silly, and she puts on that red waist, and she crinklesup her hair with irons so I have to laugh, and then I tell her if sheonly washed her hands clean it would be better than all that fixingall the time, but you can't do a thing with the young girls nowadaysMiss Mathilda. Sallie is a good girl but I got to watch her all thetime. "

Suspicion closed in around Sallie more and more, that she spent Anna'sevenings out with this boy sitting in the kitchen. One early morningAnna's voice was sharply raised. 

"Sallie this ain't the same banana that I brought home yesterday, forMiss Mathilda, for her breakfast, and you was out early in the streetthis morning, what was you doing there?"

"Nothing, Miss Annie, I just went out to see, that's all and that'sthe same banana, 'deed it is Miss Annie. "

"Sallie, how can you say so and after all I do for you, and MissMathilda is so good to you. I never brought home no bananas yesterdaywith specks on it like that. I know better, it was that boy was herelast night and ate it while I was away, and you was out to get anotherthis morning. I don't want no lying Sallie. "

Sallie was stout in her defence but then she gave it up and she saidit was the boy who snatched it as he ran away at the sound of Anna'skey opening the outside door. "But I will never let him in again, MissAnnie, 'deed I won't, " said Sallie. 

And now it was all peaceful for some weeks and then Sallie withfatuous simplicity began on certain evenings to resume her bright redwaist, her bits of jewels and her crinkly hair. 

One pleasant evening in the early spring, Miss Mathilda was standingon the steps beside the open door, feeling cheerful in the pleasant, gentle night. Anna came down the street, returning from her eveningout. "Don't shut the door, please, Miss Mathilda, " Anna said in a lowvoice, "I don't want Sallie to know I'm home. "

Anna went softly through the house and reached the kitchen door. Atthe sound of her hand upon the knob there was a wild scramble anda bang, and then Sallie sitting there alone when Anna came into theroom, but, alas, the butcher boy forgot his overcoat in his escape. 

You see that Anna led an arduous and troubled life. 

Anna had her troubles, too, with Miss Mathilda. "And I slave and slaveto save the money and you go out and spend it all on foolishness, "the good Anna would complain when her mistress, a large and carelesswoman, would come home with a bit of porcelain, a new etching andsometimes even an oil painting on her arm. 

"But Anna, " argued Miss Mathilda, "if you didn't save this money, don't you see I could not buy these things, " and then Anna wouldsoften and look pleased until she learned the price, and then wringingher hands, "Oh, Miss Mathilda, Miss Mathilda, " she would cry, "and yougave all that money out for that, when you need a dress to go out inso bad. " "Well, perhaps I will get one for myself next year, Anna, "Miss Mathilda would cheerfully concede. "If we live till then MissMathilda, I see that you do, " Anna would then answer darkly. 

Anna had great pride in the knowledge and possessions of her cherishedMiss Mathilda, but she did not like her careless way of wearing alwaysher old clothes. "You can't go out to dinner in that dress, MissMathilda, " she would say, standing firmly before the outside door, "You got to go and put on your new dress you always look so nice in. ""But Anna, there isn't time. " "Yes there is, I go up and help you fixit, please Miss Mathilda you can't go out to dinner in that dress andnext year if we live till then, I make you get a new hat, too. It's ashame Miss Mathilda to go out like that. "

The poor mistress sighed and had to yield. It suited her cheerful, lazy temper to be always without care but sometimes it was a burdento endure, for so often she had it all to do again unless she made arapid dash out of the door before Anna had a chance to see. 

Life was very easy always for this large and lazy Miss Mathilda, withthe good Anna to watch and care for her and all her clothes and goods. But, alas, this world of ours is after all much what it should be andcheerful Miss Mathilda had her troubles too with Anna. 

It was pleasant that everything for one was done, but annoying oftenthat what one wanted most just then, one could not have when onehad foolishly demanded and not suggested one's desire. And then MissMathilda loved to go out on joyous, country tramps when, stretchingfree and far with cheerful comrades, over rolling hills andcornfields, glorious in the setting sun, and dogwood white and shiningunderneath the moon and clear stars over head, and brilliant air andtingling blood, it was hard to have to think of Anna's anger at thelate return, though Miss Mathilda had begged that there might be nohot supper cooked that night. And then when all the happy crew ofMiss Mathilda and her friends, tired with fullness of good health andburning winds and glowing sunshine in the eyes, stiffened and justlyworn and wholly ripe for pleasant food and gentle content, were allcome together to the little house--it was hard for all that tired crewwho loved the good things Anna made to eat, to come to the closeddoor and wonder there if it was Anna's evening in or out, and then theothers must wait shivering on their tired feet, while Miss Mathildasoftened Anna's heart, or if Anna was well out, boldly orderedyouthful Sallie to feed all the hungry lot. 

Such things were sometimes hard to bear and often grievously didMiss Mathilda feel herself a rebel with the cheerful Lizzies, themelancholy Mollies, the rough old Katies and the stupid Sallies. 

Miss Mathilda had other troubles too, with the good Anna. MissMathilda had to save her Anna from the many friends, who in the kindlyfashion of the poor, used up her savings and then gave her promises inplace of payments. 

The good Anna had many curious friends that she had found in thetwenty years that she had lived in Bridgepoint, and Miss Mathildawould often have to save her from them all. 

Part II

THE LIFE OF THE GOOD ANNA

Anna Federner, this good Anna, was of solid lower middle-class southgerman stock. 

When she was seventeen years old she went to service in a bourgeoisfamily, in the large city near her native town, but she did not staythere long. One day her mistress offered her maid--that was Anna--toa friend, to see her home. Anna felt herself to be a servant, not amaid, and so she promptly left the place. 

Anna had always a firm old world sense of what was the right way for agirl to do. 

No argument could bring her to sit an evening in the empty parlour, although the smell of paint when they were fixing up the kitchen madeher very sick, and tired as she always was, she never would sit downduring the long talks she held with Miss Mathilda. A girl was a girland should act always like a girl, both as to giving all respect andas to what she had to eat. 

A little time after she left this service, Anna and her mother madethe voyage to America. They came second-class, but it was for them along and dreary journey. The mother was already ill with consumption. 

They landed in a pleasant town in the far South and there the motherslowly died. 

Anna was now alone and she made her way to Bridgepoint where an olderhalf brother was already settled. This brother was a heavy, lumbering, good natured german man, full of the infirmity that comes of excess ofbody. 

He was a baker and married and fairly well to do. 

Anna liked her brother well enough but was never in any way dependenton him. 

When she arrived in Bridgepoint, she took service with Miss MaryWadsmith. 

Miss Mary Wadsmith was a large, fair, helpless woman, burdened withthe care of two young children. They had been left her by her brotherand his wife who had died within a few months of each other. 

Anna soon had the household altogether in her charge. 

Anna found her place with large, abundant women, for such were alwayslazy, careless or all helpless, and so the burden of their lives couldfall on Anna, and give her just content. Anna's superiors must bealways these large helpless women, or be men, for none others couldgive themselves to be made so comfortable and free. 

Anna had no strong natural feeling to love children, as she had tolove cats and dogs, and a large mistress. She never became deeply fondof Edgar and Jane Wadsmith. She naturally preferred the boy, for boyslove always better to be done for and made comfortable and full ofeating, while in the little girl she had to meet the feminine, thesubtle opposition, showing so early always in a young girl's nature. 

For the summer, the Wadsmiths had a pleasant house out in the country, and the winter months they spent in hotel apartments in the city. 

Gradually it came to Anna to take the whole direction of theirmovements, to make all the decisions as to their journeyings to andfro, and for the arranging of the places where they were to live. 

Anna had been with Miss Mary for three years, when little Jane beganto raise her strength in opposition. Jane was a neat, pleasant littlegirl, pretty and sweet with a young girl's charm, and with two blondebraids carefully plaited down her back. 

Miss Mary, like her Anna, had no strong natural feeling to lovechildren, but she was fond of these two young ones of her blood, andyielded docilely to the stronger power in the really pleasing littlegirl. Anna always preferred the rougher handling of the boy, whileMiss Mary found the gentle force and the sweet domination of the girlto please her better. 

In a spring when all the preparations for the moving had been made, Miss Mary and Jane went together to the country home, and Anna, afterfinishing up the city matters was to follow them in a few days withEdgar, whose vacation had not yet begun. 

Many times during the preparations for this summer, Jane had met Annawith sharp resistance, in opposition to her ways. It was simple forlittle Jane to give unpleasant orders, not from herself but from MissMary, large, docile, helpless Miss Mary Wadsmith who could never thinkout any orders to give Anna from herself. 

Anna's eyes grew slowly sharper, harder, and her lower teeth thrust alittle forward and pressing strongly up, framed always more slowly the"Yes, Miss Jane, " to the quick, "Oh Anna! Miss Mary says she wants youto do it so!"

On the day of their migration, Miss Mary had been already put into thecarriage. "Oh, Anna!" cried little Jane running back into the house, "Miss Mary says that you are to bring along the blue dressings out ofher room and mine. " Anna's body stiffened, "We never use them in thesummer, Miss Jane, " she said thickly. "Yes Anna, but Miss Mary thinksit would be nice, and she told me to tell you not to forget, good-by!"and the little girl skipped lightly down the steps into the carriageand they drove away. 

Anna stood still on the steps, her eyes hard and sharp and shining, and her body and her face stiff with resentment. And then she wentinto the house, giving the door a shattering slam. 

Anna was very hard to live with in those next three days. Even Baby, the new puppy, the pride of Anna's heart, a present from her friendthe widow, Mrs. Lehntman--even this pretty little black and tan feltthe heat of Anna's scorching flame. And Edgar, who had looked forwardto these days, to be for him filled full of freedom and of things toeat--he could not rest a moment in Anna's bitter sight. 

On the third day, Anna and Edgar went to the Wadsmith country home. The blue dressings out of the two rooms remained behind. 

All the way, Edgar sat in front with the colored man and drove. It wasan early spring day in the South. The fields and woods were heavy fromthe soaking rains. The horses dragged the carriage slowly over thelong road, sticky with brown clay and rough with masses of stonesthrown here and there to be broken and trodden into place by passingteams. Over and through the soaking earth was the feathery new springgrowth of little flowers, of young leaves and of ferns. The tree topswere all bright with reds and yellows, with brilliant gleaming whitesand gorgeous greens. All the lower air was full of the damp hazerising from heavy soaking water on the earth, mingled with a warm andpleasant smell from the blue smoke of the spring fires in all the openfields. And above all this was the clear, upper air, and the songs ofbirds and the joy of sunshine and of lengthening days. 

The languor and the stir, the warmth and weight and the strong feelof life from the deep centres of the earth that comes always with theearly, soaking spring, when it is not answered with an active ferventjoy, gives always anger, irritation and unrest. 

To Anna alone there in the carriage, drawing always nearer to thestruggle with her mistress, the warmth, the slowness, the jolting overstones, the steaming from the horses, the cries of men and animals andbirds, and the new life all round about were simply maddening. "Baby!if you don't lie still, I think I kill you. I can't stand it any morelike this. "

At this time Anna, about twenty-seven years of age, was not yet allthin and worn. The sharp bony edges and corners of her head and facewere still rounded out with flesh, but already the temper and thehumor showed sharply in her clean blue eyes, and the thinning wasbegun about the lower jaw, that was so often strained with the upwardpressure of resolve. 

To-day, alone there in the carriage, she was all stiff and yet alltrembling with the sore effort of decision and revolt. 

As the carriage turned into the Wadsmith gate, little Jane ran out tosee. She just looked at Anna's face; she did not say a word about bluedressings. 

Anna got down from the carriage with little Baby in her arms. She tookout all the goods that she had brought and the carriage drove away. Anna left everything on the porch, and went in to where Miss MaryWadsmith was sitting by the fire. 

Miss Mary was sitting in a large armchair by the fire. All the nooksand crannies of the chair were filled full of her soft and spreadingbody. She was dressed in a black satin morning gown, the sleeves, great monster things, were heavy with the mass of her soft flesh. She sat there always, large, helpless, gentle. She had a fair, soft, regular, good-looking face, with pleasant, empty, grey-blue eyes, andheavy sleepy lids. 

Behind Miss Mary was the little Jane, nervous and jerky withexcitement as she saw Anna come into the room. 

"Miss Mary, " Anna began. She had stopped just within the door, herbody and her face stiff with repression, her teeth closed hard and thewhite lights flashing sharply in the pale, clean blue of her eyes. Her bearing was full of the strange coquetry of anger and of fear, the stiffness, the bridling, the suggestive movement underneath therigidness of forced control, all the queer ways the passions have toshow themselves all one. 

"Miss Mary, " the words came slowly with thick utterance and withjerks, but always firm and strong. "Miss Mary, I can't stand itany more like this. When you tell me anything to do, I do it. I doeverything I can and you know I work myself sick for you. The bluedressings in your room makes too much work to have for summer. MissJane don't know what work is. If you want to do things like that I goaway. "

Anna stopped still. Her words had not the strength of meaningthey were meant to have, but the power in the mood of Anna's soulfrightened and awed Miss Mary through and through. 

Like in all large and helpless women, Miss Mary's heart beat weakly inthe soft and helpless mass it had to govern. Little Jane's excitementshad already tried her strength. Now she grew pale and fainted quiteaway. 

"Miss Mary!" cried Anna running to her mistress and supporting all herhelpless weight back in the chair. Little Jane, distracted, flew aboutas Anna ordered, bringing smelling salts and brandy and vinegar andwater and chafing poor Miss Mary's wrists. 

Miss Mary slowly opened her mild eyes. Anna sent the weeping littleJane out of the room. She herself managed to get Miss Mary quiet onthe couch. 

There was never a word more said about blue dressings. 

Anna had conquered, and a few days later little Jane gave her a greenparrot to make peace. 

For six more years little Jane and Anna lived in the same house. Theywere careful and respectful to each other to the end. 

Anna liked the parrot very well. She was fond of cats too and ofhorses, but best of all animals she loved the dog and best of alldogs, little Baby, the first gift from her friend, the widow Mrs. Lehntman. 

The widow Mrs. Lehntman was the romance in Anna's life. 

Anna met her first at the house of her half brother, the baker, whohad known the late Mr. Lehntman, a small grocer, very well. 

Mrs. Lehntman had been for many years a midwife. Since her husband'sdeath she had herself and two young children to support. 

Mrs. Lehntman was a good looking woman. She had a plump well roundedbody, clear olive skin, bright dark eyes and crisp black curlinghair. She was pleasant, magnetic, efficient and good. She was veryattractive, very generous and very amiable. 

She was a few years older than our good Anna, who was soon entirelysubdued by her magnetic, sympathetic charm. 

Mrs. Lehntman in her work loved best to deliver young girls who werein trouble. She would take these into her own house and care for themin secret, till they could guiltlessly go home or back to work, andthen slowly pay her the money for their care. And so through this newfriend Anna led a wider and more entertaining life, and often she usedup her savings in helping Mrs. Lehntman through those times when shewas giving very much more than she got. 

It was through Mrs. Lehntman that Anna met Dr. Shonjen who employedher when at last it had to be that she must go away from her Miss MaryWadsmith. 

During the last years with her Miss Mary, Anna's health was very bad, as indeed it always was from that time on until the end of her stronglife. 

Anna was a medium sized, thin, hard working, worrying woman. 

She had always had bad headaches and now they came more often and morewearing. 

Her face grew thin, more bony and more worn, her skin stained itselfpale yellow, as it does with working sickly women, and the clear blueof her eyes went pale. 

Her back troubled her a good deal, too. She was always tired at herwork and her temper grew more difficult and fretful. 

Miss Mary Wadsmith often tried to make Anna see a little to herself, and get a doctor, and the little Jane, now blossoming into a pretty, sweet young woman, did her best to make Anna do things for her good. Anna was stubborn always to Miss Jane, and fearful of interferencein her ways. Miss Mary Wadsmith's mild advice she easily could alwaysturn aside. 

Mrs. Lehntman was the only one who had any power over Anna. Sheinduced her to let Dr. Shonjen take her in his care. 

No one but a Dr. Shonjen could have brought a good and german Annafirst to stop her work and then submit herself to operation, but heknew so well how to deal with german and poor people. Cheery, jovial, hearty, full of jokes that made much fun and yet were full of simplecommon sense and reasoning courage, he could persuade even a good Annato do things that were for her own good. 

Edgar had now been for some years away from home, first at a schooland then at work to prepare himself to be a civil engineer. Miss Maryand Jane promised to take a trip for all the time that Anna was away, and so there would be no need for Anna's work, nor for a new girl totake Anna's place. 

Anna's mind was thus a little set at rest. She gave herself to Mrs. Lehntman and the doctor to do what they thought best to make her welland strong. 

Anna endured the operation very well, and was patient, almost docile, in the slow recovery of her working strength. But when she was oncemore at work for her Miss Mary Wadsmith, all the good effect of theseseveral months of rest were soon worked and worried well away. 

For all the rest of her strong working life Anna was never reallywell. She had bad headaches all the time and she was always thin andworn. 

She worked away her appetite, her health and strength, and always forthe sake of those who begged her not to work so hard. To her thinking, in her stubborn, faithful, german soul, this was the right way for agirl to do. 

Anna's life with Miss Mary Wadsmith was now drawing to an end. 

Miss Jane, now altogether a young lady, had come out into the world. Soon she would become engaged and then be married, and then perhapsMiss Mary Wadsmith would make her home with her. 

In such a household Anna was certain that she would never take aplace. Miss Jane was always careful and respectful and very good toAnna, but never could Anna be a girl in a household where Miss Janewould be the head. This much was very certain in her mind, and sothese last two years with her Miss Mary were not as happy as before. 

The change came very soon. 

Miss Jane became engaged and in a few months was to marry a man fromout of town, from Curden, an hour's railway ride from Bridgepoint. 

Poor Miss Mary Wadsmith did not know the strong resolve Anna had madeto live apart from her when this new household should be formed. Annafound it very hard to speak to her Miss Mary of this change. 

The preparations for the wedding went on day and night. 

Anna worked and sewed hard to make it all go well. 

Miss Mary was much fluttered, but content and happy with Anna to makeeverything so easy for them all. 

Anna worked so all the time to drown her sorrow and her consciencetoo, for somehow it was not right to leave Miss Mary so. But what elsecould she do? She could not live as her Miss Mary's girl, in a housewhere Miss Jane would be the head. 

The wedding day grew always nearer. At last it came and passed. 

The young people went on their wedding trip, and Anna and Miss Marywere left behind to pack up all the things. 

Even yet poor Anna had not had the strength to tell Miss Mary herresolve, but now it had to be. 

Anna every spare minute ran to her friend Mrs. Lehntman for comfortand advice. She begged her friend to be with her when she told thenews to Miss Mary. 

Perhaps if Mrs. Lehntman had not been in Bridgepoint, Anna would havetried to live in the new house. Mrs. Lehntman did not urge her to thisthing nor even give her this advice, but feeling for Mrs. Lehntman asshe did made even faithful Anna not quite so strong in her dependenceon Miss Mary's need as she would otherwise have been. 

Remember, Mrs. Lehntman was the romance in Anna's life. 

All the packing was now done and in a few days Miss Mary was to go tothe new house, where the young people were ready for her coming. 

At last Anna had to speak. 

Mrs. Lehntman agreed to go with her and help to make the matter clearto poor Miss Mary. 

The two women came together to Miss Mary Wadsmith sitting placid bythe fire in the empty living room. Miss Mary had seen Mrs. Lehntmanmany times before, and so her coming in with Anna raised no suspicionin her mind. 

It was very hard for the two women to begin. 

It must be very gently done, this telling to Miss Mary of the change. She must not be shocked by suddenness or with excitement. 

Anna was all stiff, and inside all a quiver with shame, anxietyand grief. Even courageous Mrs. Lehntman, efficient, impulsive andcomplacent as she was and not deeply concerned in the event, feltawkward, abashed and almost guilty in that large, mild, helplesspresence. And at her side to make her feel the power of it all, wasthe intense conviction of poor Anna, struggling to be unfeeling, selfrighteous and suppressed. 

"Miss Mary"--with Anna when things had to come they came always sharpand short--"Miss Mary, Mrs. Lehntman has come here with me, so I cantell you about not staying with you there in Curden. Of course I gohelp you to get settled and then I think I come back and stay righthere in Bridgepoint. You know my brother he is here and all hisfamily, and I think it would be not right to go away from them so far, and you know you don't want me now so much Miss Mary when you are alltogether there in Curden. "

Miss Mary Wadsmith was puzzled. She did not understand what Anna meantby what she said. 

"Why Anna of course you can come to see your brother whenever youlike to, and I will always pay your fare. I thought you understood allabout that, and we will be very glad to have your nieces come to staywith you as often as they like. There will always be room enough in abig house like Mr. Goldthwaite's. "

It was now for Mrs. Lehntman to begin her work. 

"Miss Wadsmith does not understand just what you mean Anna, " shebegan. "Miss Wadsmith, Anna feels how good and kind you are, and shetalks about it all the time, and what you do for her in every way youcan, and she is very grateful and never would want to go away fromyou, only she thinks it would be better now that Mrs. Goldthwaitehas this big new house and will want to manage it in her own way, she thinks perhaps it would be better if Mrs. Goldthwaite had all newservants with her to begin with, and not a girl like Anna who knew herwhen she was a little girl. That is what Anna feels about it now, andshe asked me and I said to her that I thought it would be better foryou all and you knew she liked you so much and that you were so goodto her, and you would understand how she thought it would be betterin the new house if she stayed on here in Bridgepoint, anyway for alittle while until Mrs. Goldthwaite was used to her new house. Isn'tthat it Anna that you wanted Miss Wadsmith to know?"

"Oh Anna, " Miss Mary Wadsmith said it slowly and in a grieved tone ofsurprise that was very hard for the good Anna to endure, "Oh Anna, I didn't think that you would ever want to leave me after all theseyears. "

"Miss Mary!" it came in one tense jerky burst, "Miss Mary it's onlyworking under Miss Jane now would make me leave you so. I know howgood you are and I work myself sick for you and for Mr. Edgar and forMiss Jane too, only Miss Jane she will want everything different fromlike the way we always did, and you know Miss Mary I can't have MissJane watching at me all the time, and every minute something new. MissMary, it would be very bad and Miss Jane don't really want me to comewith you to the new house, I know that all the time. Please Miss Marydon't feel bad about it or think I ever want to go away from you if Icould do things right for you the way they ought to be. "

Poor Miss Mary. Struggling was not a thing for her to do. Anna wouldsurely yield if she would struggle, but struggling was too much workand too much worry for peaceful Miss Mary to endure. If Anna would doso she must. Poor Miss Mary Wadsmith sighed, looked wistfully at Annaand then gave it up. 

"You must do as you think best Anna, " she said at last letting all ofher soft self sink back into the chair. "I am very sorry and so I amsure will be Miss Jane when she hears what you have thought it best todo. It was very good of Mrs. Lehntman to come with you and I am sureshe does it for your good. I suppose you want to go out a little now. Come back in an hour Anna and help me go to bed. " Miss Mary closed hereyes and rested still and placid by the fire. 

The two women went away. 

This was the end of Anna's service with Miss Mary Wadsmith, and soonher new life taking care of Dr. Shonjen was begun. 

Keeping house for a jovial bachelor doctor gave new elements ofunderstanding to Anna's maiden german mind. Her habits were as firmfixed as before, but it always was with Anna that things that had beendone once with her enjoyment and consent could always happen anytime again, such as her getting up at any hour of the night to makea supper and cook hot chops and chicken fry for Dr. Shonjen and hisbachelor friends. 

Anna loved to work for men, for they could eat so much and with suchjoy. And when they were warm and full, they were content, and let herdo whatever she thought best. Not that Anna's conscience ever slept, for neither with interference or without would she strain less to keepon saving every cent and working every hour of the day. But truly sheloved it best when she could scold. Now it was not only other girlsand the colored man, and dogs, and cats, and horses and her parrot, but her cheery master, jolly Dr. Shonjen, whom she could guide andconstantly rebuke to his own good. 

The doctor really loved her scoldings as she loved his wickednessesand his merry joking ways. 

These days were happy days with Anna. 

Her freakish humor now first showed itself, her sense of fun inthe queer ways that people had, that made her later find delight inbrutish servile Katy, in Sally's silly ways and in the badness ofPeter and of Rags. She loved to make sport with the skeletons thedoctor had, to make them move and make strange noises till the negroboy shook in his shoes and his eyes rolled white in his agony of fear. 

Then Anna would tell these histories to her doctor. Her worn, thin, lined, determined face would form for itself new and humorous creases, and her pale blue eyes would kindle with humour and with joy as herdoctor burst into his hearty laugh. And the good Anna full of thecoquetry of pleasing would bridle with her angular, thin, spinsterbody, straining her stories and herself to please. 

These early days with jovial Dr. Shonjen were very happy days with thegood Anna. 

All of Anna's spare hours in these early days she spent with herfriend, the widow Mrs. Lehntman. Mrs. Lehntman lived with her twochildren in a small house in the same part of the town as Dr. Shonjen. The older of these two children was a girl named Julia and was nowabout thirteen years of age. This Julia Lehntman was an unattractivegirl enough, harsh featured, dull and stubborn as had been her heavygerman father. Mrs. Lehntman did not trouble much with her, but gaveher always all she wanted that she had, and let the girl do as sheliked. This was not from indifference or dislike on the part of Mrs. Lehntman, it was just her usual way. 

Her second child was a boy, two years younger than his sister, abright, pleasant, cheery fellow, who too, did what he liked with hismoney and his time. All this was so with Mrs. Lehntman because shehad so much in her head and in her house that clamoured for herconcentration and her time. 

This slackness and neglect in the running of the house, and theindifference in this mother for the training of her young was veryhard for our good Anna to endure. Of course she did her best to scold, to save for Mrs. Lehntman, and to put things in their place the waythey ought to be. 

Even in the early days when Anna was first won by the glamour ofMrs. Lehntman's brilliancy and charm, she had been uneasy in Mrs. Lehntman's house with a need of putting things to rights. Now that thetwo children growing up were of more importance in the house, and nowthat long acquaintance had brushed the dazzle out of Anna's eyes, shebegan to struggle to make things go here as she thought was right. 

She watched and scolded hard these days to make young Julia do the wayshe should. Not that Julia Lehntman was pleasant in the good Anna'ssight, but it must never be that a young girl growing up should haveno one to make her learn to do things right. 

The boy was easier to scold, for scoldings never sank in very deep, and indeed he liked them very well for they brought with them newthings to eat, and lively teasing, and good jokes. 

Julia, the girl, grew very sullen with it all, and very often won herpoint, for after all Miss Annie was no relative of hers and had nobusiness coming there and making trouble all the time. Appealing tothe mother was no use. It was wonderful how Mrs. Lehntman could listenand not hear, could answer and yet not decide, could say and do whatshe was asked and yet leave things as they were before. 

One day it got almost too bad for even Anna's friendship to bear out. 

"Well, Julia, is your mamma out?" Anna asked, one Sunday summerafternoon, as she came into the Lehntman house. 

Anna looked very well this day. She was always careful in her dressand sparing of new clothes. She made herself always fulfill her ownideal of how a girl should look when she took her Sundays out. Annaknew so well the kind of ugliness appropriate to each rank in life. 

It was interesting to see how when she bought things for Miss Wadsmithand later for her cherished Miss Mathilda and always entirely from herown taste and often as cheaply as she bought things for her friendsor for herself, that on the one hand she chose the things having theright air for a member of the upper class, and for the others alwaysthe things having the awkward ugliness that we call Dutch. She knewthe best thing in each kind, and she never in the course of her stronglife compromised her sense of what was the right thing for a girl towear. 

On this bright summer Sunday afternoon she came to the Lehntmans', much dressed up in her new, brick red, silk waist trimmed with broadblack beaded braid, a dark cloth skirt and a new stiff, shiny, blackstraw hat, trimmed with colored ribbons and a bird. She had on newgloves, and a feather boa about her neck. 

Her spare, thin, awkward body and her worn, pale yellow face thoughlit up now with the pleasant summer sun made a queer discord with thebrightness of her clothes. 

She came to the Lehntman house, where she had not been for severaldays, and opening the door that is always left unlatched in the housesof the lower middle class in the pleasant cities of the South, shefound Julia in the family sitting-room alone. 

"Well, Julia, where is your mamma?" Anna asked. "Ma is out but comein, Miss Annie, and look at our new brother. " "What you talk sofoolish for Julia, " said Anna sitting down. "I ain't talkin' foolish, Miss Annie. Didn't you know mamma has just adopted a cute, nice littlebaby boy?" "You talk so crazy, Julia, you ought to know better thanto say such things. " Julia turned sullen. "All right Miss Annie, you don't need to believe what I say, but the little baby is in thekitchen and ma will tell you herself when she comes in. "

It sounded most fantastic, but Julia had an air of truth and Mrs. Lehntman was capable of doing stranger things. Anna was disturbed. "What you mean Julia, " she said. "I don't mean nothin' Miss Annie, you don't believe the baby is in there, well you can go and see it foryourself. "

Anna went into the kitchen. A baby was there all right enough, and alusty little boy he seemed. He was very tight asleep in a basket thatstood in the corner by the open door. 

"You mean your mamma is just letting him stay here a little while, "Anna said to Julia who had followed her into the kitchen to see MissAnnie get real mad. "No that ain't it Miss Annie. The mother was thatgirl, Lily that came from Bishop's place out in the country, and shedon't want no children, and ma liked the little boy so much, she saidshe'd keep him here and adopt him for her own child. "

Anna, for once, was fairly dumb with astonishment and rage. The frontdoor slammed. 

"There's ma now, " cried Julia in an uneasy triumph, for she was notquite certain in her mind which side of the question she was on. 

"There's ma now, and you can ask her for yourself if I ain't told youtrue. "

Mrs. Lehntman came into the kitchen where they were. She was bland, impersonal and pleasant, as it was her wont to be. Still to-day, through this her usual manner that gave her such success in herpractice as a midwife, there shone an uneasy consciousness of guilt, for like all who had to do with the good Anna, Mrs. Lehntman dreadedher firm character, her vigorous judgments and the bitter fervour ofher tongue. 

It had been plain to see in the six years these women were together, how Anna gradually had come to lead. Not really lead, of course, forMrs. Lehntman never could be led, she was so very devious in her ways;but Anna had come to have direction whenever she could learn what Mrs. Lehntman meant to do before the deed was done. Now it was hard totell which would win out. Mrs. Lehntman had her unhearing mind and herhappy way of giving a pleasant well diffused attention, and then shehad it on her side that, after all, this thing was already done. 

Anna was, as usual, determined for the right. She was stiff and palewith her anger and her fear, and nervous, and all a tremble as was herusual way when a bitter fight was near. 

Mrs. Lehntman was easy and pleasant as she came into the room. Annawas stiff and silent and very white. 

"We haven't seen you for a long time, Anna, " Mrs. Lehntman cordiallybegan. "I was just gettin' worried thinking you was sick. My! but it'sa hot day to-day. Come into the sittin'-room, Anna, and Julia willmake us some ice tea. "

Anna followed Mrs. Lehntman into the other room in a stiff silence, and when there she did not, as invited, take a chair. 

As always with Anna when a thing had to come it came very short andsharp. She found it hard to breathe just now, and every word came witha jerk. 

"Mrs. Lehntman, it ain't true what Julia said about your taking thatLily's boy to keep. I told Julia when she told me she was crazy totalk so. "

Anna's real excitements stopped her breath, and made her words comesharp and with a jerk. Mrs. Lehntman's feelings spread her breath, andmade her words come slow, but more pleasant and more easy even thanbefore. 

"Why Anna, " she began, "don't you see Lily couldn't keep her boy forshe is working at the Bishops' now, and he is such a cute dear littlechap, and you know how fond I am of little fellers, and I thought itwould be nice for Julia and for Willie to have a little brother. Youknow Julia always loves to play with babies, and I have to be awayso much, and Willie he is running in the streets every minute all thetime, and you see a baby would be sort of nice company for Julia, and you know you are always saying Anna, Julia should not be on thestreets so much and the baby will be so good to keep her in. "

Anna was every minute paler with indignation and with heat. 

"Mrs. Lehntman, I don't see what business it is for you to takeanother baby for your own, when you can't do what's right by Julia andWillie you got here already. There's Julia, nobody tells her a thingwhen I ain't here, and who is going to tell her now how to do thingsfor that baby? She ain't got no sense what's the right way to do withchildren, and you out all the time, and you ain't got no time for yourown neither, and now you want to be takin' up with strangers. I knowyou was careless, Mrs. Lehntman, but I didn't think that you coulddo this so. No, Mrs. Lehntman, it ain't your duty to take up with noothers, when you got two children of your own, that got to get alongjust any way they can, and you know you ain't got any too much moneyall the time, and you are all so careless here and spend it all thetime, and Julia and Willie growin' big. It ain't right, Mrs. Lehntman, to do so. "

This was as bad as it could be. Anna had never spoken her mind so toher friend before. Now it was too harsh for Mrs. Lehntman to allowherself to really hear. If she really took the meaning in these wordsshe could never ask Anna to come into her house again, and sheliked Anna very well, and was used to depend on her savings and herstrength. And then too Mrs. Lehntman could not really take in harshideas. She was too well diffused to catch the feel of any sharp firmedge. 

Now she managed to understand all this in a way that made it easy forher to say, "Why, Anna, I think you feel too bad about seeing what thechildren are doing every minute in the day. Julia and Willie are realgood, and they play with all the nicest children in the square. Ifyou had some, all your own, Anna, you'd see it don't do no harm to letthem do a little as they like, and Julia likes this baby so, and sweetdear little boy, it would be so kind of bad to send him to a 'sylumnow, you know it would Anna, when you like children so yourself, and are so good to my Willie all the time. No indeed Anna, it's easyenough to say I should send this poor, cute little boy to a 'sylumwhen I could keep him here so nice, but you know Anna, you wouldn'tlike to do it yourself, now you really know you wouldn't, Anna, thoughyou talk to me so hard. --My, it's hot to-day, what you doin' with thatice tea in there Julia, when Miss Annie is waiting all this time forher drink?"

Julia brought in the ice tea. She was so excited with the talk she hadbeen hearing from the kitchen, that she slopped it on the plate out ofthe glasses a good deal. But she was safe, for Anna felt this troubleso deep down that she did not even see those awkward, bony hands, adorned today with a new ring, those stupid, foolish hands that alwaysdid things the wrong way. 

"Here Miss Annie, " Julia said, "Here, Miss Annie, is your glass oftea, I know you like it good and strong. "

"No, Julia, I don't want no ice tea here. Your mamma ain't able toafford now using her money upon ice tea for her friends. It ain'tright she should now any more. I go out now to see Mrs. Drehten. Shedoes all she can, and she is sick now working so hard taking care ofher own children. I go there now. Good by Mrs. Lehntman, I hope youdon't get no bad luck doin' what it ain't right for you to do. "

"My, Miss Annie is real mad now, " Julia said, as the house shook, asthe good Anna shut the outside door with a concentrated shatteringslam. 

It was some months now that Anna had been intimate with Mrs. Drehten. 

Mrs. Drehten had had a tumor and had come to Dr. Shonjen to betreated. During the course of her visits there, she and Anna hadlearned to like each other very well. There was no fever in thisfriendship, it was just the interchange of two hard working, worryingwomen, the one large and motherly, with the pleasant, patient, soft, worn, tolerant face, that comes with a german husband to obey, andseven solid girls and boys to bear and rear, and the other was ourgood Anna with her spinster body, her firm jaw, her humorous, light, clean eyes and her lined, worn, thin, pale yellow face. 

Mrs. Drehten lived a patient, homely, hard-working life. Her husbandan honest, decent man enough, was a brewer, and somewhat given to overdrinking, and so he was often surly and stingy and unpleasant. 

The family of seven children was made up of four stalwart, cheery, filial sons, and three hard working obedient simple daughters. 

It was a family life the good Anna very much approved and also shewas much liked by them all. With a german woman's feeling for themasterhood in men, she was docile to the surly father and rarelyrubbed him the wrong way. To the large, worn, patient, sickly mothershe was a sympathetic listener, wise in council and most efficient inher help. The young ones too, liked her very well. The sons teased herall the time and roared with boisterous pleasure when she gave themback sharp hits. The girls were all so good that her scoldings herewere only in the shape of good advice, sweetened with new trimmingsfor their hats, and ribbons, and sometimes on their birthdays, bits ofjewels. 

It was here that Anna came for comfort after her grievous stroke ather friend the widow, Mrs. Lehntman. Not that Anna would tell Mrs. Drehten of this trouble. She could never lay bare the wound that cameto her through this idealised affection. Her affair with Mrs. Lehntmanwas too sacred and too grievous ever to be told. But here in thislarge household, in busy movement and variety in strife, she couldsilence the uneasiness and pain of her own wound. 

The Drehtens lived out in the country in one of the wooden, uglyhouses that lie in groups outside of our large cities. 

The father and the sons all had their work here making beer, and themother and her girls scoured and sewed and cooked. 

On Sundays they were all washed very clean, and smelling of kitchensoap. The sons, in their Sunday clothes, loafed around the house or inthe village, and on special days went on picnics with their girls. Thedaughters in their awkward, colored finery went to church most of theday and then walking with their friends. 

They always came together for their supper, where Anna always was mostwelcome, the jolly Sunday evening supper that german people love. Here Anna and the boys gave it to each other in sharp hits and heartyboisterous laughter, the girls made things for them to eat, and waitedon them all, the mother loved all her children all the time, andthe father joined in with his occasional unpleasant word that made abitter feeling but which they had all learned to pass as if it werenot said. 

It was to the comfort of this house that Anna came that Sunday summerafternoon, after she had left Mrs. Lehntman and her careless ways. 

The Drehten house was open all about. No one was there but Mrs. Drehten resting in her rocking chair, out in the pleasant, scented, summer air. 

Anna had had a hot walk from the cars. 

She went into the kitchen for a cooling drink, and then came out andsat down on the steps near Mrs. Drehten. 

Anna's anger had changed. A sadness had come to her. Now with thepatient, friendly, gentle mother talk of Mrs. Drehten, this sadnesschanged to resignation and to rest. 

As the evening came on the young ones dropped in one by one. Soon themerry Sunday evening supper was begun. 

It had not been all comfort for our Anna, these months of knowingMrs. Drehten. It had made trouble for her with the family of her halfbrother, the fat baker. 

Her half brother, the fat baker, was a queer kind of a man. He was ahuge, unwieldy creature, all puffed out all over, and no longer ableto walk much, with his enormous body and the big, swollen, burstedveins in his great legs. He did not try to walk much now. He sataround his place, leaning on his great thick stick, and watching hisworkmen at their work. 

On holidays, and sometimes of a Sunday, he went out in his bakerywagon. He went then to each customer he had and gave them each alarge, sweet, raisined loaf of caky bread. At every house with manygroans and gasps he would descend his heavy weight out of the wagon, his good featured, black haired, flat, good natured face shining withoily perspiration, with pride in labor and with generous kindness. Up each stoop he hobbled with the help of his big stick, and into thenearest chair in the kitchen or in the parlour, as the fashion of thehouse demanded, and there he sat and puffed, and then presented to themistress or the cook the raisined german loaf his boy supplied him. 

Anna had never been a customer of his. She had always lived in anotherpart of the town, but he never left her out in these bakery progressesof his, and always with his own hand he gave her her festive loaf. 

Anna liked her half brother well enough. She never knew him reallywell, for he rarely talked at all and least of all to women, buthe seemed to her, honest, and good and kind, and he never tried tointerfere in Anna's ways. And then Anna liked the loaves of raisinedbread, for in the summer she and the second girl could live on them, and not be buying bread with the household money all the time. 

But things were not so simple with our Anna, with the other members ofher half brother's house. 

Her half brother's family was made up of himself, his wife, and theirtwo daughters. 

Anna never liked her brother's wife. 

The youngest of the two daughters was named after her aunt Anna. 

Anna never liked her half brother's wife. This woman had been verygood to Anna, never interfering in her ways, always glad to see herand to make her visits pleasant, but she had not found favour in ourgood Anna's sight. 

Anna had too, no real affection for her nieces. She never scoldedthem or tried to guide them for their good. Anna never criticised orinterfered in the running of her half brother's house. 

Mrs. Federner was a good looking, prosperous woman, a little harsh andcold within her soul perhaps, but trying always to be pleasant, goodand kind. Her daughters were well trained, quiet, obedient, welldressed girls, and yet our good Anna loved them not, nor their mother, nor any of their ways. 

It was in this house that Anna had first met her friend, the widow, Mrs. Lehntman. 

The Federners had never seemed to feel it wrong in Anna, her devotionto this friend and her care of her and of her children. Mrs. Lehntmanand Anna and her feelings were all somehow too big for their attack. But Mrs. Federner had the mind and tongue that blacken things. Notreally to blacken black, of course, but just to roughen and to rub ona little smut. She could somehow make even the face of the Almightyseem pimply and a little coarse, and so she always did this with herfriends, though not with the intent to interfere. 

This was really true with Mrs. Lehntman that Mrs. Federner did notmean to interfere, but Anna's friendship with the Drehtens was a verydifferent matter. 

Why should Mrs. Drehten, that poor common working wife of a man whoworked for others in a brewery and who always drank too much, and wasnot like a thrifty, decent german man, why should that Mrs. Drehtenand her ugly, awkward daughters be getting presents from her husband'ssister all the time, and her husband always so good to Anna, and oneof the girls having her name too, and those Drehtens all strangers toher and never going to come to any good? It was not right for Anna todo so. 

Mrs. Federner knew better than to say such things straight out to herhusband's fiery, stubborn sister, but she lost no chance to let Annafeel and see what they all thought. 

It was easy to blacken all the Drehtens, their poverty, the husband'sdrinking, the four big sons carrying on and always lazy, the awkward, ugly daughters dressing up with Anna's help and trying to look sofine, and the poor, weak, hard-working sickly mother, so easy todegrade with large dosings of contemptuous pity. 

Anna could not do much with these attacks for Mrs. Federner alwaysended with, "And you so good to them Anna all the time. I don't seehow they could get along at all if you didn't help them all the time, but you are so good Anna, and got such a feeling heart, just like yourbrother, that you give anything away you got to anybody that will askyou for it, and that's shameless enough to take it when they ain't norelatives of yours. Poor Mrs. Drehten, she is a good woman. Poor thingit must be awful hard for her to have to take things from strangersall the time, and her husband spending it on drink. I was saying toMrs. Lehntman, Anna, only yesterday, how I never was so sorry for anyone as Mrs. Drehten, and how good it was for you to help them all thetime. "

All this meant a gold watch and chain to her god daughter for herbirthday, the next month, and a new silk umbrella for the eldersister. Poor Anna, and she did not love them very much, theserelatives of hers, and they were the only kin she had. 

Mrs. Lehntman never joined in, in these attacks. Mrs. Lehntman wasdiffuse and careless in her ways, but she never worked such things forher own ends, and she was too sure of Anna to be jealous of her otherfriends. 

All this time Anna was leading her happy life with Dr. Shonjen. She had every day her busy time. She cooked and saved and sewed andscrubbed and scolded. And every night she had her happy time, inseeing her Doctor like the fine things she bought so cheap and cookedso good for him to eat. And then he would listen and laugh so loud, asshe told him stories of what had happened on that day. 

The Doctor, too, liked it better all the time and several times inthese five years he had of his own motion raised her wages. 

Anna was content with what she had and grateful for all her doctor didfor her. 

So Anna's serving and her giving life went on, each with its variedpleasures and its pains. 

The adopting of the little boy did not put an end to Anna's friendshipfor the widow Mrs. Lehntman. Neither the good Anna nor the carelessMrs. Lehntman would give each other up excepting for the gravestcause. 

Mrs. Lehntman was the only romance Anna ever knew. A certain magneticbrilliancy in person and in manner made Mrs. Lehntman a woman otherwomen loved. Then, too, she was generous and good and honest, thoughshe was so careless always in her ways. And then she trusted Anna andliked her better than any of her other friends, and Anna always feltthis very much. 

No, Anna could not give up Mrs. Lehntman, and soon she was busier thanbefore making Julia do things right for little Johnny. 

And now new schemes were working strong in Mrs. Lehntman's head, andAnna must listen to her plans and help her make them work. 

Mrs. Lehntman always loved best in her work to deliver young girls whowere in trouble. She would keep these in her house until they could goto their homes or to their work, and slowly pay her back the money fortheir care. 

Anna had always helped her friend to do this thing, for like all thegood women of the decent poor, she felt it hard that girls shouldnot be helped, not girls that were really bad of course, these shecondemned and hated in her heart and with her tongue, but honest, decent, good, hard working, foolish girls who were in trouble. 

For such as these Anna always liked to give her money and herstrength. 

Now Mrs. Lehntman thought that it would pay to take a big house forherself to take in girls and to do everything in a big way. 

Anna did not like this plan. 

Anna was never daring in her ways. Save and you will have the moneyyou have saved, was all that she could know. 

Not that the good Anna had it so. 

She saved and saved and always saved, and then here and there, to thisfriend and to that, to one in her trouble and to the other in her joy, in sickness, death, and weddings, or to make young people happy, italways went, the hard earned money she had saved. 

Anna could not clearly see how Mrs. Lehntman could make a big housepay. In the small house where she had these girls, it did not pay, andin a big house there was so much more that she would spend. 

Such things were hard for the good Anna to very clearly see. One dayshe came into the Lehntman house. "Anna, " Mrs. Lehntman said, "youknow that nice big house on the next corner that we saw to rent. Itook it for a year just yesterday. I paid a little down you know so Icould have it sure all right and now you fix it up just like you want. I let you do just what you like with it. "

Anna knew that it was now too late. However, "But Mrs. Lehntman yousaid you would not take another house, you said so just last week. Oh, Mrs. Lehntman I didn't think that you would do this so!"

Anna knew so well it was too late. 

"I know, Anna, but it was such a good house, just right you know andsomeone else was there to see, and you know you said it suited verywell, and if I didn't take it the others said they would, and I wantedto ask you only there wasn't time, and really Anna, I don't need muchhelp, it will go so well I know. I just need a little to begin andto fix up with and that's all Anna that I need, and I know it will goawful well. You wait Anna and you'll see, and I let you fix it up justlike you want, and you will make it look so nice, you got such sensein all these things. It will be a good place. You see Anna if I ain'tright in what I say. "

Of course Anna gave the money for this thing though she could notbelieve that it was best. No, it was very bad. Mrs. Lehntman couldnever make it pay and it would cost so much to keep. But what couldour poor Anna do? Remember Mrs. Lehntman was the only romance Annaever knew. 

Anna's strength in her control of what was done in Mrs. Lehntman'shouse, was not now what it had been before that Lily's little Johnnycame. That thing had been for Anna a defeat. There had been nofighting to a finish but Mrs. Lehntman had very surely won. 

Mrs. Lehntman needed Anna just as much as Anna needed Mrs. Lehntman, but Mrs. Lehntman was more ready to risk Anna's loss, and so the goodAnna grew always weaker in her power to control. 

In friendship, power always has its downward curve. One's strength tomanage rises always higher until there comes a time one does not win, and though one may not really lose, still from the time that victoryis not sure, one's power slowly ceases to be strong. It is only in aclose tie such as marriage, that influence can mount and grow alwaysstronger with the years and never meet with a decline. It can onlyhappen so when there is no way to escape. 

Friendship goes by favour. There is always danger of a break or of astronger power coming in between. Influence can only be a steady marchwhen one can surely never break away. 

Anna wanted Mrs. Lehntman very much and Mrs. Lehntman needed Anna, butthere were always other ways to do and if Anna had once given up shemight do so again, so why should Mrs. Lehntman have real fear?

No, while the good Anna did not come to open fight she had beenstronger. Now Mrs. Lehntman could always hold out longer. She knewtoo, that Anna had a feeling heart. Anna could never stop doing allshe could for any one that really needed help. Poor Anna had no powerto say no. 

And then, too, Mrs. Lehntman was the only romance Anna ever knew. Romance is the ideal in one's life and it is very lonely living withit lost. 

So the good Anna gave all her savings for this place, although sheknew that this was not the right way for her friend to do. 

For some time now they were all very busy fixing up the house. Itswallowed all Anna's savings fixing up this house, for when Anna oncebegan to make it nice, she could not leave it be until it was as goodas for the purpose it should be. 

Somehow it was Anna now that really took the interest in the house. Mrs. Lehntman, now the thing was done seemed very lifeless, withoutinterest in the house, uneasy in her mind and restless in her ways, and more diffuse even than before in her attention. She was good andkind to all the people in her house, and let them do whatever theythought best. 

Anna did not fail to see that Mrs. Lehntman had something on her mindthat was all new. What was it that disturbed Mrs. Lehntman so? Shekept on saying it was all in Anna's head. She had no trouble now atall. Everybody was so good and it was all so nice in the new house. But surely there was something here that was all wrong. 

Anna heard a good deal of all this from her half brother's wife, thehard speaking Mrs. Federner. 

Through the fog of dust and work and furnishing in the new house, andthrough the disturbed mind of Mrs. Lehntman, and with the dark hintsof Mrs. Federner, there loomed up to Anna's sight a man, a new doctorthat Mrs. Lehntman knew. 

Anna had never met the man but she heard of him very often now. Notfrom her friend, the widow Mrs. Lehntman. Anna knew that Mrs. Lehntmanmade of him a mystery that Anna had not the strength just then tovigorously break down. 

Mrs. Federner gave always dark suggestions and unpleasant hints. Evengood Mrs. Drehten talked of it. 

Mrs. Lehntman never spoke of the new doctor more than she could help. This was most mysterious and unpleasant and very hard for our goodAnna to endure. 

Anna's troubles came all of them at once. 

Here in Mrs. Lehntman's house loomed up dismal and forbidding, amysterious, perhaps an evil man. In Dr. Shonjen's house were beginningsigns of interest in the doctor in a woman. 

This, too, Mrs. Federner often told to the poor Anna. The doctorsurely would be married soon, he liked so much now to go to Mr. Weingartner's house where there was a daughter who loved Doctor, everybody knew. 

In these days the living room in her half brother's house was Anna'storture chamber. And worst of all there was so much reason for herhalf sister's words. The Doctor certainly did look like marriage andMrs. Lehntman acted very queer. 

Poor Anna. Dark were these days and much she had to suffer. 

The Doctor's trouble came to a head the first. It was true Doctor wasengaged and to be married soon. He told Anna so himself. 

What was the good Anna now to do? Dr. Shonjen wanted her of course tostay. Anna was so sad with all these troubles. She knew here in theDoctor's house it would be bad when he was married, but she had notthe strength now to be firm and go away. She said at last that shewould try and stay. 

Doctor got married now very soon. Anna made the house all beautifuland clean and she really hoped that she might stay. But this was notfor long. 

Mrs. Shonjen was a proud, unpleasant woman. She wanted constantservice and attention and never even a thank you to a servant. Soonall Doctor's old people went away. Anna went to Doctor and explained. She told him what all the servants thought of his new wife. Anna badehim a sad farewell and went away. 

Anna was now most uncertain what to do. She could go to Curden to herMiss Mary Wadsmith who always wrote how much she needed Anna, but Annastill dreaded Miss Jane's interfering ways. Then too, she could notyet go away from Bridgepoint and from Mrs. Lehntman, unpleasant as italways was now over there. 

Through one of Doctor's friends Anna heard of Miss Mathilda. Anna wasvery doubtful about working for a Miss Mathilda. She did not think itwould be good working for a woman anymore. She had found it very goodwith Miss Mary but she did not think that many women would be so. 

Most women were interfering in their ways. 

Anna heard that Miss Mathilda was a great big woman, not so bigperhaps as her Miss Mary, still she was big, and the good Anna likedthem better so. She did not like them thin and small and active andalways looking in and always prying. 

Anna could not make up her mind what was the best thing now for herto do. She could sew and this way make a living, but she did not likesuch business very well. 

Mrs. Lehntman urged the place with Miss Mathilda. She was sure Annawould find it better so. The good Anna did not know. 

"Well Anna, " Mrs. Lehntman said, "I tell you what we do. I go with youto that woman that tells fortunes, perhaps she tell us something thatwill show us what is the best way for you now to do. "

It was very bad to go to a woman who tells fortunes. Anna was ofstrong South German Catholic religion and the german priests in thechurches always said that it was very bad to do things so. But whatelse now could the good Anna do? She was so mixed and bothered in hermind, and troubled with this life that was all wrong, though she didtry so hard to do the best she knew. "All right, Mrs. Lehntman, " Annasaid at last, "I think I go there now with you. "

This woman who told fortunes was a medium. She had a house in thelower quarter of the town. Mrs. Lehntman and the good Anna went toher. 

The medium opened the door for them herself. She was a loose made, dusty, dowdy woman with a persuading, conscious and embracing mannerand very greasy hair. 

The woman let them come into the house. 

The street door opened straight into the parlor, as is the way in thesmall houses of the south. The parlor had a thick and flowered carpeton the floor. The room was full of dirty things all made by hand. Somehung upon the wall, some were on the seats and over backs of chairsand some on tables and on those what-nots that poor people love. Andeverywhere were little things that break. Many of these little thingswere broken and the place was stuffy and not clean. 

No medium uses her parlor for her work. It is always in her eatingroom that she has her trances. 

The eating room in all these houses is the living room in winter. Ithas a round table in the centre covered with a decorated woolen cloth, that has soaked in the grease of many dinners, for though it should bealways taken off, it is easier to spread the cloth upon it than changeit for the blanket deadener that one owns. The upholstered chairs aredark and worn, and dirty. The carpet has grown dingy with the foodthat's fallen from the table, the dirt that's scraped from off theshoes, and the dust that settles with the ages. The sombre greenishcolored paper on the walls has been smoked a dismal dirty grey, andall pervading is the smell of soup made out of onions and fat chunksof meat. 

The medium brought Mrs. Lehntman and our Anna into this eating room, after she had found out what it was they wanted. They all three sataround the table and then the medium went into her trance. 

The medium first closed her eyes and then they opened very wide andlifeless. She took a number of deep breaths, choked several times andswallowed very hard. She waved her hand back every now and then, andshe began to speak in a monotonous slow, even tone. 

"I see--I see--don't crowd so on me, --I see--I see--too manyforms--don't crowd so on me--I see--I see--you are thinking ofsomething--you don't know whether you want to do it now. I see--Isee--don't crowd so on me--I see--I see--you are not sure, --I see--Isee--a house with trees around it, --it is dark--it is evening--Isee--I see--you go in the house--I see--I see you come out--it willbe all right--you go and do it--do what you are not certain about--itwill come out all right--it is best and you should do it now. "

She stopped, she made deep gulps, her eyes rolled back into her head, she swallowed hard and then she was her former dingy and bland selfagain. 

"Did you get what you wanted that the spirit should tell you?" thewoman asked. Mrs. Lehntman answered yes, it was just what herfriend had wanted so bad to know. Anna was uneasy in this house withsuperstition, with fear of her good priest, and with disgust at allthe dirt and grease, but she was most content for now she knew what itwas best for her to do. 

Anna paid the woman for her work and then they came away. 

"There Anna didn't I tell you how it would all be? You see the spiritsays so too. You must take the place with Miss Mathilda, that is whatI told you was the best thing for you to do. We go out and see herwhere she lives to-night. Ain't you glad, Anna, that I took you tothis place, so you know now what you will do?"

Mrs. Lehntman and Anna went that evening to see Miss Mathilda. MissMathilda was staying with a friend who lived in a house that did havetrees about. Miss Mathilda was not there herself to talk with Anna. 

If it had not been that it was evening, and so dark, and that thishouse had trees all round about, and that Anna found herself going inand coming out just as the woman that day said that she would do, hadit not all been just as the medium said, the good Anna would neverhave taken the place with Miss Mathilda. 

Anna did not see Miss Mathilda and she did not like the friend whoacted in her place. 

This friend was a dark, sweet, gentle little mother woman, very easyto be pleased in her own work and very good to servants, but she feltthat acting for her young friend, the careless Miss Mathilda, she mustbe very careful to examine well and see that all was right and thatAnna would surely do the best she knew. She asked Anna all about herways and her intentions and how much she would spend, and how oftenshe went out and whether she could wash and cook and sew. 

The good Anna set her teeth fast to endure and would hardly answeranything at all. Mrs. Lehntman made it all go fairly well. 

The good Anna was all worked up with her resentment, and MissMathilda's friend did not think that she would do. 

However, Miss Mathilda was willing to begin and as for Anna, she knewthat the medium said it must be so. Mrs. Lehntman, too, was sure, andsaid she knew that this was the best thing for Anna now to do. So Annasent word at last to Miss Mathilda, that if she wanted her, she wouldtry if it would do. 

So Anna began a new life taking care of Miss Mathilda. 

Anna fixed up the little red brick house where Miss Mathilda was goingto live and made it very pleasant, clean and nice. She brought overher dog, Baby, and her parrot. She hired Lizzie for a second girl tobe with her and soon they were all content. All except the parrot, forMiss Mathilda did not like its scream. Baby was all right but not theparrot. But then Anna never really loved the parrot, and so she gaveit to the Drehten girls to keep. 

Before Anna could really rest content with Miss Mathilda, she had totell her good german priest what it was that she had done, and howvery bad it was that she had been and how she would never do so again. 

Anna really did believe with all her might. It was her fortune neverto live with people who had any faith, but then that never worriedAnna. She prayed for them always as she should, and she was very surethat they were good. The doctor loved to tease her with his doubts andMiss Mathilda liked to do so too, but with the tolerant spirit of herchurch, Anna never thought that such things were bad for them to do. 

Anna found it hard to always know just why it was that things wentwrong. Sometimes her glasses broke and then she knew that she had notdone her duty by the church, just in the way that she should do. 

Sometimes she was so hard at work that she would not go to mass. Something always happened then. Anna's temper grew irritable and herways uncertain and distraught. Everybody suffered and then her glassesbroke. That was always very bad because they cost so much to fix. Still in a way it always ended Anna's troubles, because she knew thenthat all this was because she had been bad. As long as she could scoldit might be just the bad ways of all the thoughtless careless world, but when her glasses broke that made it clear. That meant that it wasshe herself who had been bad. 

No, it was no use for Anna not to do the way she should, for thingsalways then went wrong and finally cost money to make whole, and thiswas the hardest thing for the good Anna to endure. 

Anna almost always did her duty. She made confession and her missionwhenever it was right. Of course she did not tell the father whenshe deceived people for their good, or when she wanted them to givesomething for a little less. 

When Anna told such histories to her doctor and later to her cherishedMiss Mathilda, her eyes were always full of humor and enjoyment as sheexplained that she had said it so, and now she would not have to tellthe father for she had not really made a sin. 

But going to a fortune teller Anna knew was really bad. That had to betold to the father just as it was and penance had then to be done. 

Anna did this and now her new life was well begun, making MissMathilda and the rest do just the way they should. 

Yes, taking care of Miss Mathilda were the happiest days of all thegood Anna's strong hard working life. 

With Miss Mathilda Anna did it all. The clothes, the house, the hats, what she should wear and when and what was always best for her to do. There was nothing Miss Mathilda would not let Anna manage, and only betoo glad if she would do. 

Anna scolded and cooked and sewed and saved so well, that MissMathilda had so much to spend, that it kept Anna still busier scoldingall the time about the things she bought, that made so much work forAnna and the other girl to do. But for all the scolding, Anna wasproud almost to bursting of her cherished Miss Mathilda with all herknowledge and her great possessions, and the good Anna was alwaystelling of it all to everybody that she knew. 

Yes these were the happiest days of all her life with Anna, eventhough with her friends there were great sorrows. But these sorrowsdid not hurt the good Anna now, as they had done in the years thatwent before. 

Miss Mathilda was not a romance in the good Anna's life, but Anna gaveher so much strong affection that it almost filled her life as full. 

It was well for the good Anna that her life with Miss Mathilda was sohappy, for now in these days, Mrs. Lehntman went altogether bad. Thedoctor she had learned to know, was too certainly an evil as well asa mysterious man, and he had power over the widow and midwife, Mrs. Lehntman. 

Anna never saw Mrs. Lehntman at all now any more. 

Mrs. Lehntman had borrowed some more money and had given Anna a notethen for it all, and after that Anna never saw her any more. Anna nowstopped altogether going to the Lehntmans'. Julia, the tall, gawky, good, blonde, stupid daughter, came often to see Anna, but she couldtell little of her mother. 

It certainly did look very much as if Mrs. Lehntman had now gonealtogether bad. This was a great grief to the good Anna, but not sogreat a grief as it would have been had not Miss Mathilda meant somuch to her now. 

Mrs. Lehntman went from bad to worse. The doctor, the mysterious andevil man, got into trouble doing things that were not right to do. 

Mrs. Lehntman was mixed up in this affair. 

It was just as bad as it could be, but they managed, both the doctorand Mrs. Lehntman, finally to come out safe. 

Everybody was so sorry about Mrs. Lehntman. She had been really a goodwoman before she met this doctor, and even now she certainly had notbeen really bad. 

For several years now Anna never even saw her friend. 

But Anna always found new people to befriend, people who, in thekindly fashion of the poor, used up her savings and then gave promisesin place of payments. Anna never really thought that these peoplewould be good, but when they did not do the way they should, and whenthey did not pay her back the money she had loaned, and never seemedthe better for her care, then Anna would grow bitter with the world. 

No, none of them had any sense of what was the right way for them todo. So Anna would repeat in her despair. 

The poor are generous with their things. They give always what theyhave, but with them to give or to receive brings with it no feelingthat they owe the giver for the gift. 

Even a thrifty german Anna was ready to give all that she had saved, and so not be sure that she would have enough to take care of herselfif she fell sick, or for old age, when she could not work. Save andyou will have the money you have saved was true only for the day ofsaving, even for a thrifty german Anna. There was no certain way tohave it for old age, for the taking care of what is saved can never berelied on, for it must always be in strangers' hands in a bank or ininvestments by a friend. 

And so when any day one might need life and help from others of theworking poor, there was no way a woman who had a little saved couldsay them no. 

So the good Anna gave her all to friends and strangers, to children, dogs and cats, to anything that asked or seemed to need her care. 

It was in this way that Anna came to help the barber and his wife wholived around the corner, and who somehow could never make ends meet. They worked hard, were thrifty, had no vices, but the barber was oneof them who never can make money. Whoever owed him money did not pay. Whenever he had a chance at a good job he fell sick and could nottake it. It was never his own fault that he had trouble, but he neverseemed to make things come out right. 

His wife was a blonde, thin, pale, german little woman, who bore herchildren very hard, and worked too soon, and then till she was sick. She too, always had things that went wrong. 

They both needed constant help and patience, and the good Anna gaveboth to them all the time. 

Another woman who needed help from the good Anna, was one who was introuble from being good to others. 

This woman's husband's brother, who was very good, worked in a shopwhere there was a Bohemian, who was getting sick with consumption. This man got so much worse he could not do his work, but he was notso sick that he could stay in a hospital. So this woman had him livingthere with her. He was not a nice man, nor was he thankful for all thewoman did for him. He was cross to her two children and made a greatmess always in her house. The doctor said he must have many things toeat, and the woman and the brother of the husband got them for him. 

There was no friendship, no affection, no liking even for the manthis woman cared for, no claim of common country or of kin, but in thekindly fashion of the poor this woman gave her all and made her housea nasty place, and for a man who was not even grateful for the gift. 

Then, of course, the woman herself got into trouble. Her husband'sbrother was now married. Her husband lost his job. She did not havethe money for the rent. It was the good Anna's savings that werehandy. 

So it went on. Sometimes a little girl, sometimes a big one was introuble and Anna heard of them and helped them to find places. 

Stray dogs and cats Anna always kept until she found them homes. Shewas always careful to learn whether these people would be good toanimals. 

Out of the whole collection of stray creatures, it was the young Peterand the jolly little Rags, Anna could not find it in her heart topart with. These became part of the household of the good Anna's MissMathilda. 

Peter was a very useless creature, a foolish, silly, cherished, coward male. It was wild to see him rush up and down in the back yard, barking and bouncing at the wall, when there was some dog out beyond, but when the very littlest one there was got inside of the fence andonly looked at Peter, Peter would retire to his Anna and blot himselfout between her skirts. 

When Peter was left downstairs alone, he howled. "I am all alone, " hewailed, and then the good Anna would have to come and fetch him up. Once when Anna stayed a few nights in a house not far away, she had tocarry Peter all the way, for Peter was afraid when he found himself onthe street outside his house. Peter was a good sized creature and hesat there and he howled, and the good Anna carried him all the wayin her own arms. He was a coward was this Peter, but he had kindly, gentle eyes and a pretty collie head, and his fur was very thick andwhite and nice when he was washed. And then Peter never strayed away, and he looked out of his nice eyes and he liked it when you rubbedhim down, and he forgot you when you went away, and he barked wheneverthere was any noise. 

When he was a little pup he had one night been put into the yard andthat was all of his origin she knew. The good Anna loved him well andspoiled him as a good german mother always does her son. 

Little Rags was very different in his nature. He was a lively creaturemade out of ends of things, all fluffy and dust color, and he wasalways bounding up into the air and darting all about over and thenunder silly Peter and often straight into solemn fat, blind, sleepyBaby, and then in a wild rush after some stray cat. 

Rags was a pleasant, jolly little fellow. The good Anna liked himvery well, but never with her strength as she loved her good lookingcoward, foolish young man, Peter. 

Baby was the dog of her past life and she held Anna with old ties ofpast affection. Peter was the spoiled, good looking young man, of hermiddle age, and Rags was always something of a toy. She liked him buthe never struck in very deep. Rags had strayed in somehow one day andthen when no home for him was quickly found, he had just stayed rightthere. 

It was a very happy family there all together in the kitchen, the goodAnna and Sally and old Baby and young Peter and the jolly little Rags. 

The parrot had passed out of Anna's life. She had really never lovedthe parrot and now she hardly thought to ask for him, even when shevisited the Drehtens. 

Mrs. Drehten was the friend Anna always went to, for her Sundays. Shedid not get advice from Mrs. Drehten as she used to from the widow, Mrs. Lehntman, for Mrs. Drehten was a mild, worn, unaggressivenature that never cared to influence or to lead. But they could mourntogether for the world these two worn, working german women, for itssadness and its wicked ways of doing. Mrs. Drehten knew so well whatone could suffer. 

Things did not go well in these days with the Drehtens. The childrenwere all good, but the father with his temper and his spending kepteverything from being what it should. 

Poor Mrs. Drehten still had trouble with her tumor. She could hardlydo any work now any more. Mrs. Drehten was a large, worn, patientgerman woman, with a soft face, lined, yellow brown in color and thelook that comes from a german husband to obey, and many solid girlsand boys to bear and rear, and from being always on one's feet andnever having any troubles cured. 

Mrs. Drehten was always getting worse, and now the doctor thought itwould be best to take the tumor out. 

It was no longer Dr. Shonjen who treated Mrs. Drehten. They all wentnow to a good old german doctor they all knew. 

"You see, Miss Mathilda, " Anna said, "All the old german patientsdon't go no more now to Doctor. I stayed with him just so long asI could stand it, but now he is moved away up town too far for poorpeople, and his wife, she holds her head up so and always is spendingso much money just for show, and so he can't take right care of uspoor people any more. Poor man, he has got always to be thinking aboutmaking money now. I am awful sorry about Doctor, Miss Mathilda, buthe neglected Mrs. Drehten shameful when she had her trouble, so now Inever see him any more. Doctor Herman is a good, plain, german doctorand he would never do things so, and Miss Mathilda, Mrs. Drehten iscoming in to-morrow to see you before she goes to the hospital for heroperation. She could not go comfortable till she had seen you first tosee what you would say. "

All Anna's friends reverenced the good Anna's cherished Miss Mathilda. How could they not do so and still remain friends with the good Anna?Miss Mathilda rarely really saw them but they were always sendingflowers and words of admiration through her Anna. Every now and thenAnna would bring one of them to Miss Mathilda for advice. 

It is wonderful how poor people love to take advice from people whoare friendly and above them, from people who read in books and who aregood. 

Miss Mathilda saw Mrs. Drehten and told her she was glad that she wasgoing to the hospital for operation for that surely would be best, andso good Mrs. Drehten's mind was set at rest. 

Mrs. Drehten's tumor came out very well. Mrs. Drehten was afterwardsnever really well, but she could do her work a little better, and beon her feet and yet not get so tired. 

And so Anna's life went on, taking care of Miss Mathilda and all herclothes and goods, and being good to every one that asked or seemed toneed her help. 

Now, slowly, Anna began to make it up with Mrs. Lehntman. They couldnever be as they had been before. Mrs, Lehntman could never be againthe romance in the good Anna's life, but they could be friends again, and Anna could help all the Lehntmans in their need. This slowly cameabout. 

Mrs. Lehntman had now left the evil and mysterious man who had beenthe cause of all her trouble. She had given up, too, the new bighouse that she had taken. Since her trouble her practice had beenvery quiet. Still she managed to do fairly well. She began to talk ofpaying the good Anna. This, however, had not gotten very far. 

Anna saw Mrs. Lehntman a good deal now. Mrs. Lehntman's crisp, black, curly hair had gotten streaked with gray. Her dark, full, good lookingface had lost its firm outline, gone flabby and a little worn. She hadgrown stouter and her clothes did not look very nice. She was as blandas ever in her ways, and as diffuse as always in her attention, butthrough it all there was uneasiness and fear and uncertainty lest somedanger might be near. 

She never said a word of her past life to the good Anna, but it wasvery plain to see that her experience had not left her easy, nor yetaltogether free. 

It had been hard for this good woman, for Mrs. Lehntman was really agood woman, it had been a very hard thing for this german woman to dowhat everybody knew and thought was wrong. Mrs. Lehntman was strongand she had courage, but it had been very hard to bear. Even thegood Anna did not speak to her with freedom. There always remained amystery and a depression in Mrs. Lehntman's affair. 

And now the blonde, foolish, awkward daughter, Julia was in trouble. During the years the mother gave her no attention, Julia kept companywith a young fellow who was a clerk somewhere in a store down in thecity. He was a decent, dull young fellow, who did not make much moneyand could never save it for he had an old mother he supported. Heand Julia had been keeping company for several years and now it wasneedful that they should be married. But then how could they marry?He did not make enough to start them and to keep on supporting his oldmother too. Julia was not used to working much and she said, and shewas stubborn, that she would not live with Charley's dirty, cross, oldmother. Mrs. Lehntman had no money. She was just beginning to get onher feet. It was of course, the good Anna's savings that were handy. 

However it paid Anna to bring about this marriage, paid her inscoldings and in managing the dull, long, awkward Julia, and her good, patient, stupid Charley. Anna loved to buy things cheap, and fix up anew place. 

Julia and Charley were soon married and things went pretty well withthem. Anna did not approve their slack, expensive ways of doing. 

"No Miss Mathilda, " she would say, "The young people nowadays have nosense for saving and putting money by so they will have something touse when they need it. There's Julia and her Charley. I went in therethe other day, Miss Mathilda, and they had a new table with a marbletop and on it they had a grand new plush album. 'Where you get thatalbum?' I asked Julia. 'Oh, Charley he gave it to me for my birthday, 'she said, and I asked her if it was paid for and she said not allyet but it would be soon. Now I ask you what business have they MissMathilda, when they ain't paid for anything they got already, whatbusiness have they to be buying new things for her birthdays. Juliashe don't do no work, she just sits around and thinks how she canspend the money, and Charley he never puts one cent by. I never seeanything like the people nowadays Miss Mathilda, they don't seem tohave any sense of being careful about money. Julia and Charley whenthey have any children they won't have nothing to bring them up withright. I said that to Julia, Miss Mathilda, when she showed me thosesilly things that Charley bought her, and she just said in her silly, giggling way, perhaps they won't have any children. I told her sheought to be ashamed of talking so, but I don't know, Miss Mathilda, the young people nowadays have no sense at all of what's the rightway for them to do, and perhaps its better if they don't have anychildren, and then Miss Mathilda you know there is Mrs. Lehntman. Youknow she regular adopted little Johnny just so she could pay out somemore money just as if she didn't have trouble enough taking care ofher own children. No Miss Mathilda, I never see how people can dothings so. People don't seem to have no sense of right or wrong oranything these days Miss Mathilda, they are just careless and thinkingalways of themselves and how they can always have a happy time. No, Miss Mathilda I don't see how people can go on and do things so. "

The good Anna could not understand the careless and bad ways of allthe world and always she grew bitter with it all. No, not one of themhad any sense of what was the right way for them to do. 

Anna's past life was now drawing to an end. Her old blind dog, Baby, was sick and like to die. Baby had been the first gift from her friendthe widow, Mrs. Lehntman in the old days when Anna had been with MissMary Wadsmith, and when these two women had first come together. 

Through all the years of change, Baby had stayed with the good Anna, growing old and fat and blind and lazy. Baby had been active and aratter when she was young, but that was so long ago it was forgotten, and for many years now Baby had wanted only her warm basket and herdinner. 

Anna in her active life found need of others, of Peter and the funnylittle Rags, but always Baby was the eldest and held her with the tiesof old affection. Anna was harsh when the young ones tried to keeppoor Baby out and use her basket. Baby had been blind now for someyears as dogs get, when they are no longer active. She got weak andfat and breathless and she could not even stand long any more. Annahad always to see that she got her dinner and that the young activeones did not deprive her. 

Baby did not die with a real sickness. She just got older and moreblind and coughed and then more quiet, and then slowly one brightsummer's day she died. 

There is nothing more dreary than old age in animals. Somehow it isall wrong that they should have grey hair and withered skin, and blindold eyes, and decayed and useless teeth. An old man or an old womanalmost always has some tie that seems to bind them to the younger, realer life. They have children or the remembrance of old duties, buta dog that's old and so cut off from all its world of struggle, islike a dreary, deathless Struldbrug, the dreary dragger on of deaththrough life. 

And so one day old Baby died. It was dreary, more than sad, for thegood Anna. She did not want the poor old beast to linger with itsweary age, and blind old eyes and dismal shaking cough, but this deathleft Anna very empty. She had the foolish young man Peter, and thejolly little Rags for comfort, but Baby had been the only one thatcould remember. 

The good Anna wanted a real graveyard for her Baby, but this could notbe in a Christian country, and so Anna all alone took her old frienddone up in decent wrappings and put her into the ground in some quietplace that Anna knew of. 

The good Anna did not weep for poor old Baby. Nay, she had not timeeven to feel lonely, for with the good Anna it was sorrow upon sorrow. She was now no longer to keep house for Miss Mathilda. 

When Anna had first come to Miss Mathilda she had known that it mightonly be for a few years, for Miss Mathilda was given to much wanderingand often changed her home, and found new places where she went tolive. The good Anna did not then think much about this, for when shefirst went to Miss Mathilda she had not thought that she would likeit and so she had not worried about staying. Then in those happy yearsthat they had been together, Anna had made herself forget it. Thislast year when she knew that it was coming she had tried hard to thinkit would not happen. 

"We won't talk about it now Miss Mathilda, perhaps we all be dead bythen, " she would say when Miss Mathilda tried to talk it over. Or, "Ifwe live till then Miss Mathilda, perhaps you will be staying on righthere. "

No, the good Anna could not talk as if this thing were real, it wastoo weary to be once more left with strangers. 

Both the good Anna and her cherished Miss Mathilda tried hard to thinkthat this would not really happen. Anna made missions and all kinds ofthings to keep her Miss Mathilda and Miss Mathilda thought out all theways to see if the good Anna could not go with her, but neither themissions nor the plans had much success. Miss Mathilda would go, andshe was going far away to a new country where Anna could not live, forshe would be too lonesome. 

There was nothing that these two could do but part. Perhaps we all bedead by then, the good Anna would repeat, but even that did not reallyhappen. If we all live till then Miss Mathilda, came out truer. Theyall did live till then, all except poor old blind Baby, and theysimply had to part. 

Poor Anna and poor Miss Mathilda. They could not look at each otherthat last day. Anna could not keep herself busy working. She just wentin and out and sometimes scolded. 

Anna could not make up her mind what she should do now for her future. She said that she would for a while keep this little red brick housethat they had lived in. Perhaps she might just take in a few boarders. She did not know, she would write about it later and tell it all toMiss Mathilda. 

The dreary day dragged out and then all was ready and Miss Mathildaleft to take her train. Anna stood strained and pale and dry eyedon the white stone steps of the little red brick house that they hadlived in. The last thing Miss Mathilda heard was the good Anna biddingfoolish Peter say good bye and be sure to remember Miss Mathilda. 

Part III

THE DEATH OF THE GOOD ANNA

Every one who had known of Miss Mathilda wanted the good Anna now totake a place with them, for they all knew how well Anna could takecare of people and all their clothes and goods. Anna too could alwaysgo to Curden to Miss Mary Wadsmith, but none of all these ways seemedvery good to Anna. 

It was not now any longer that she wanted to stay near Mrs. Lehntman. There was no one now that made anything important, but Anna wascertain that she did not want to take a place where she would beunder some new people. No one could ever be for Anna as had been hercherished Miss Mathilda. No one could ever again so freely let her doit all. It would be better Anna thought in her strong strained wearybody, it would be better just to keep on there in the little redbrick house that was all furnished, and make a living taking in someboarders. Miss Mathilda had let her have the things, so it would notcost any money to begin. She could perhaps manage to live on so. Shecould do all the work and do everything as she thought best, and shewas too weary with the changes to do more than she just had to, tokeep living. So she stayed on in the house where they had lived, andshe found some men, she would not take in women, who took her roomsand who were her boarders. 

Things soon with Anna began to be less dreary. She was very popularwith her few boarders. They loved her scoldings and the good thingsshe made for them to eat. They made good jokes and laughed loud andalways did whatever Anna wanted, and soon the good Anna got so thatshe liked it very well. Not that she did not always long for MissMathilda. She hoped and waited and was very certain that sometime, in one year or in another Miss Mathilda would come back, and then ofcourse would want her, and then she could take all good care of heragain. 

Anna kept all Miss Mathilda's things in the best order. The boarderswere well scolded if they ever made a scratch on Miss Mathilda'stable. 

Some of the boarders were hearty good south german fellows and Annaalways made them go to mass. One boarder was a lusty german studentwho was studying in Bridgepoint to be a doctor. He was Anna's specialfavourite and she scolded him as she used to her old doctor so that healways would be good. Then, too, this cheery fellow always sang whenhe was washing, and that was what Miss Mathilda always used to do. Anna's heart grew warm again with this young fellow who seemed tobring back to her everything she needed. 

And so Anna's life in these days was not all unhappy. She worked andscolded, she had her stray dogs and cats and people, who all asked andseemed to need her care, and she had hearty german fellows who lovedher scoldings and ate so much of the good things that she knew so wellthe way to make. 

No, the good Anna's life in these days was not all unhappy. She didnot see her old friends much, she was too busy, but once in a greatwhile she took a Sunday afternoon and went to see good Mrs. Drehten. 

The only trouble was that Anna hardly made a living. She charged solittle for her board and gave her people such good things to eat, thatshe could only just make both ends meet. The good german priest towhom she always told her troubles tried to make her have the boarderspay a little higher, and Miss Mathilda always in her letters urged herto this thing, but the good Anna somehow could not do it. Her boarderswere nice men but she knew they did not have much money, and then shecould not raise on those who had been with her and she could not askthe new ones to pay higher, when those who were already there werepaying just what they had paid before. So Anna let it go just as shehad begun it. She worked and worked all day and thought all night howshe could save, and with all the work she just managed to keep living. She could not make enough to lay any money by. 

Anna got so little money that she had all the work to do herself. Shecould not pay even the little Sally enough to keep her with her. 

Not having little Sally nor having any one else working with her, madeit very hard for Anna ever to go out, for she never thought thatit was right to leave a house all empty. Once in a great while of aSunday, Sally who was now working in a factory would come and stayin the house for the good Anna, who would then go out and spend theafternoon with Mrs. Drehten. 

No, Anna did not see her old friends much any more. She went sometimesto see her half brother and his wife and her nieces, and they alwayscame to her on her birthdays to give presents, and her half brothernever left her out of his festive raisined bread giving progresses. But these relatives of hers had never meant very much to the goodAnna. Anna always did her duty by them all, and she liked her halfbrother very well and the loaves of raisined bread that he suppliedher were most welcome now, and Anna always gave her god daughter andher sister handsome presents, but no one in this family had ever madea way inside to Anna's feelings. 

Mrs. Lehntman she saw very rarely. It is hard to build up new onan old friendship when in that friendship there has been bitterdisillusion. They did their best, both these women to be friends, butthey were never able to again touch one another nearly. There were toomany things between them that they could not speak of, things thathad never been explained nor yet forgiven. The good Anna still did herbest for foolish Julia and still every now and then saw Mrs. Lehntman, but this family had now lost all its real hold on Anna. 

Mrs. Drehten was now the best friend that Anna knew. Here there wasnever any more than the mingling of their sorrows. They talked overall the time the best way for Mrs. Drehten now to do; poor Mrs. Drehten who with her chief trouble, her bad husband, had really now noway that she could do. She just had to work and to be patient and tolove her children and be very quiet. She always had a soothing motherinfluence on the good Anna who with her irritable, strained, worn-outbody would come and sit by Mrs. Drehten and talk all her troublesover. 

Of all the friends that the good Anna had had in these twenty yearsin Bridgepoint, the good father and patient Mrs. Drehten were theonly ones that were now near to Anna and with whom she could talk hertroubles over. 

Anna worked, and thought, and saved, and scolded, and took care of allthe boarders, and of Peter and of Rags, and all the others. There wasnever any end to Anna's effort and she grew always more tired, morepale yellow, and in her face more thin and worn and worried. Sometimesshe went farther in not being well, and then she went to see Dr. Herman who had operated on good Mrs. Drehten. 

The things that Anna really needed were to rest sometimes and eat moreso that she could get stronger, but these were the last things thatAnna could bring herself to do. Anna could never take a rest. She mustwork hard through the summer as well as through the winter, else shecould never make both ends meet. The doctor gave her medicines to makeher stronger but these did not seem to do much good. 

Anna grew always more tired, her headaches came oftener and harder, and she was now almost always feeling very sick. She could not sleepmuch in the night. The dogs with their noises disturbed her andeverything in her body seemed to pain her. 

The doctor and the good father tried often to make her give herselfmore care. Mrs. Drehten told her that she surely would not get wellunless for a little while she would stop working. Anna would thenpromise to take care, to rest in bed a little longer and to eat moreso that she would get stronger, but really how could Anna eat when shealways did the cooking and was so tired of it all, before it was halfready for the table?

Anna's only friendship now was with good Mrs. Drehten who was toogentle and too patient to make a stubborn faithful german Anna ever dothe way she should, in the things that were for her own good. 

Anna grew worse all through this second winter. When the summer camethe doctor said that she simply could not live on so. He said she mustgo to his hospital and there he would operate upon her. She would thenbe well and strong and able to work hard all next winter. 

Anna for some time would not listen. She could not do this so, forshe had her house all furnished and she simply could not let it go. Atlast a woman came and said she would take care of Anna's boarders andthen Anna said that she was prepared to go. 

Anna went to the hospital for her operation. Mrs. Drehten was herselfnot well but she came into the city, so that some friend would bewith the good Anna. Together, then, they went to this place where thedoctor had done so well by Mrs. Drehten. 

In a few days they had Anna ready. Then they did the operation, andthen the good Anna with her strong, strained, worn-out body died. 

Mrs. Drehten sent word of her death to Miss Mathilda. 

"Dear Miss Mathilda, " wrote Mrs. Drehten, "Miss Annie died in thehospital yesterday after a hard operation. She was talking about youand Doctor and Miss Mary Wadsmith all the time. She said she hopedyou would take Peter and the little Rags to keep when you came backto America to live. I will keep them for you here Miss Mathilda. MissAnnie died easy, Miss Mathilda, and sent you her love. "

FINIS

MELANCTHA

EACH ONE AS SHE MAY

Rose Johnson made it very hard to bring her baby to its birth. 

Melanctha Herbert who was Rose Johnson's friend, did everything thatany woman could. She tended Rose, and she was patient, submissive, soothing, and untiring, while the sullen, childish, cowardly, blackRosie grumbled and fussed and howled and made herself to be anabomination and like a simple beast. 

The child though it was healthy after it was born, did not livelong. Rose Johnson was careless and negligent and selfish, and whenMelanctha had to leave for a few days, the baby died. Rose Johnson hadliked the baby well enough and perhaps she just forgot it for awhile, anyway the child was dead and Rose and Sam her husband were very sorrybut then these things came so often in the negro world in Bridgepoint, that they neither of them thought about it very long. 

Rose Johnson and Melanctha Herbert had been friends now for someyears. Rose had lately married Sam Johnson a decent honest kindlyfellow, a deck hand on a coasting steamer. 

Melanctha Herbert had not yet been really married. 

Rose Johnson was a real black, tall, well built, sullen, stupid, childlike, good looking negress. She laughed when she was happy andgrumbled and was sullen with everything that troubled. 

Rose Johnson was a real black negress but she had been brought upquite like their own child by white folks. 

Rose laughed when she was happy but she had not the wide, abandonedlaughter that makes the warm broad glow of negro sunshine. Rose wasnever joyous with the earth-born, boundless joy of negroes. Hers wasjust ordinary, any sort of woman laughter. 

Rose Johnson was careless and was lazy, but she had been brought up bywhite folks and she needed decent comfort. Her white training hadonly made for habits, not for nature. Rose had the simple, promiscuousimmorality of the black people. 

Rose Johnson and Melanctha Herbert like many of the twos with womenwere a curious pair to be such friends. 

Melanctha Herbert was a graceful, pale yellow, intelligent, attractivenegress. She had not been raised like Rose by white folks but then shehad been half made with real white blood. 

She and Rose Johnson were both of the better sort of negroes, there, in Bridgepoint. 

"No, I ain't no common nigger, " said Rose Johnson, "for I was raisedby white folks, and Melanctha she is so bright and learned so muchin school, she ain't no common nigger either, though she ain't got nohusband to be married to like I am to Sam Johnson. "

Why did the subtle, intelligent, attractive, half white girl MelancthaHerbert love and do for and demean herself in service to this coarse, decent, sullen, ordinary, black childish Rose, and why was thisunmoral, promiscuous, shiftless Rose married, and that's not so commoneither, to a good man of the negroes, while Melanctha with her whiteblood and attraction and her desire for a right position had not yetbeen really married. 

Sometimes the thought of how all her world was made, filled thecomplex, desiring Melanctha with despair. She wondered, often, how shecould go on living when she was so blue. 

Melanctha told Rose one day how a woman whom she knew had killedherself because she was so blue. Melanctha said, sometimes, shethought this was the best thing for her herself to do. 

Rose Johnson did not see it the least bit that way. 

"I don't see Melanctha why you should talk like you would killyourself just because you're blue. I'd never kill myself Melancthajust 'cause I was blue. I'd maybe kill somebody else Melanctha'cause I was blue, but I'd never kill myself. If I ever killed myselfMelanctha it'd be by accident, and if I ever killed myself by accidentMelanctha, I'd be awful sorry. "

Rose Johnson and Melanctha Herbert had first met, one night, atchurch. Rose Johnson did not care much for religion. She had notenough emotion to be really roused by a revival. Melanctha Herbert hadnot come yet to know how to use religion. She was still too complexwith desire. However, the two of them in negro fashion went very oftento the negro church, along with all their friends, and they slowlycame to know each other very well. 

Rose Johnson had been raised not as a servant but quite like their ownchild by white folks. Her mother who had died when Rose was stilla baby, had been a trusted servant in the family. Rose was a cute, attractive, good looking little black girl and these people had nochildren of their own and so they kept Rose in their house. 

As Rose grew older she drifted from her white folks back to thecolored people, and she gradually no longer lived in the old house. Then it happened that these people went away to some other town tolive, and somehow Rose stayed behind in Bridgepoint. Her white folksleft a little money to take care of Rose, and this money she got everylittle while. 

Rose now in the easy fashion of the poor lived with one woman in herhouse, and then for no reason went and lived with some other womanin her house. All this time, too, Rose kept company, and was engaged, first to this colored man and then to that, and always she made sureshe was engaged, for Rose had strong the sense of proper conduct. 

"No, I ain't no common nigger just to go around with any man, nor youMelanctha shouldn't neither, " she said one day when she was tellingthe complex and less sure Melanctha what was the right way for her todo. "No Melanctha, I ain't no common nigger to do so, for I was raisedby white folks. You know very well Melanctha that I'se always beenengaged to them. "

And so Rose lived on, always comfortable and rather decent and verylazy and very well content. 

After she had lived some time this way, Rose thought it would be niceand very good in her position to get regularly really married. She hadlately met Sam Johnson somewhere, and she liked him and she knew hewas a good man, and then he had a place where he worked every dayand got good wages. Sam Johnson liked Rose very well and he was quiteready to be married. One day they had a grand real wedding and weremarried. Then with Melanctha Herbert's help to do the sewing and thenicer work, they furnished comfortably a little red brick house. Samthen went back to his work as deck hand on a coasting steamer, andRose stayed home in her house and sat and bragged to all her friendshow nice it was to be married really to a husband. 

Life went on very smoothly with them all the year. Rose was lazybut not dirty and Sam was careful but not fussy, and then there wasMelanctha to come in every day and help to keep things neat. 

When Rose's baby was coming to be born, Rose came to stay in thehouse where Melanctha Herbert lived just then, with a big good naturedcolored woman who did washing. 

Rose went there to stay, so that she might have the doctor from thehospital near by to help her have the baby, and then, too, Melancthacould attend to her while she was sick. 

Here the baby was born, and here it died, and then Rose went back toher house again with Sam. 

Melanctha Herbert had not made her life all simple like Rose Johnson. Melanctha had not found it easy with herself to make her wants andwhat she had, agree. 

Melanctha Herbert was always losing what she had in wanting all thethings she saw. Melanctha was always being left when she was notleaving others. 

Melanctha Herbert always loved too hard and much too often. She wasalways full with mystery and subtle movements and denials and vaguedistrusts and complicated disillusions. Then Melanctha would be suddenand impulsive and unbounded in some faith, and then she would sufferand be strong in her repression. 

Melanctha Herbert was always seeking rest and quiet, and always shecould only find new ways to be in trouble. 

Melanctha wondered often how it was she did not kill herself when shewas so blue. Often she thought this would be really the best way forher to do. 

Melanctha Herbert had been raised to be religious, by her mother. Melanctha had not liked her mother very well. This mother, 'Mis'Herbert, as her neighbors called her, had been a sweet appearing anddignified and pleasant, pale yellow, colored woman. 'Mis' Herbert hadalways been a little wandering and mysterious and uncertain in herways. 

Melanctha was pale yellow and mysterious and a little pleasant likeher mother, but the real power in Melanctha's nature came through herrobust and unpleasant and very unendurable black father. 

Melanctha's father only used to come to where Melanctha and her motherlived, once in a while. 

It was many years now that Melanctha had not heard or seen or known ofanything her father did. 

Melanctha Herbert almost always hated her black father, but she lovedvery well the power in herself that came through him. And so herfeeling was really closer to her black coarse father, than her feelinghad ever been toward her pale yellow, sweet-appearing mother. Thethings she had in her of her mother never made her feel respect. 

Melanctha Herbert had not loved herself in childhood. All of her youthwas bitter to remember. 

Melanctha had not loved her father and her mother and they had foundit very troublesome to have her. 

Melanctha's mother and her father had been regularly married. Melanctha's father was a big black virile negro. He only came oncein a while to where Melanctha and her mother lived, but always thatpleasant, sweet-appearing, pale yellow woman, mysterious and uncertainand wandering in her ways, was close in sympathy and thinking to herbig black virile husband. 

James Herbert was a common, decent enough, colored workman, brutal andrough to his one daughter, but then she was a most disturbing child tomanage. 

The young Melanctha did not love her father and her mother, and shehad a break neck courage, and a tongue that could be very nasty. Then, too, Melanctha went to school and was very quick in all the learning, and she knew very well how to use this knowledge to annoy her parentswho knew nothing. 

Melanctha Herbert had always had a break neck courage. Melancthaalways loved to be with horses; she loved to do wild things, to ridethe horses and to break and tame them. 

Melanctha, when she was a little girl, had had a good chance to livewith horses. Near where Melanctha and her mother lived was the stableof the Bishops, a rich family who always had fine horses. 

John, the Bishops' coachman, liked Melanctha very well and he alwayslet her do anything she wanted with the horses. John was a decent, vigorous mulatto with a prosperous house and wife and children. Melanctha Herbert was older than any of his children. She was now awell grown girl of twelve and just beginning as a woman. 

James Herbert, Melanctha's father, knew this John, the Bishops'coachman very well. 

One day James Herbert came to where his wife and daughter lived, andhe was furious. 

"Where's that Melanctha girl of yours, " he said fiercely, "if she isto the Bishops' stables again, with that man John, I swear I kill her. Why don't you see to that girl better you, you're her mother. "

James Herbert was a powerful, loose built, hard handed, black, angrynegro. Herbert never was a joyous negro. Even when he drank with othermen, and he did that very, often, he was never really joyous. In thedays when he had been most young and free and open, he had neverhad the wide abandoned laughter that gives the broad glow to negrosunshine. 

His daughter, Melanctha Herbert, later always made a hard forcedlaughter. She was only strong and sweet and in her nature when she wasreally deep in trouble, when she was fighting so with all she reallyhad, that she did not use her laughter. This was always true of poorMelanctha who was always so certain that she hated trouble. MelancthaHerbert was always seeking peace and quiet, and she could always onlyfind new ways to get excited. 

James Herbert was often a very angry negro. He was fierce and serious, and he was very certain that he often had good reason to be angry withMelanctha, who knew so well how to be nasty, and to use her learningwith a father who knew nothing. 

James Herbert often drank with John, the Bishops' coachman. John inhis good nature sometimes tried to soften Herbert's feeling towardMelanctha. Not that Melanctha ever complained to John of her home lifeor her father. It was never Melanctha's way, even in the midst ofher worst trouble to complain to any one of what happened to her, butnevertheless somehow every one who knew Melanctha always knew how muchshe suffered. It was only while one really loved Melanctha that oneunderstood how to forgive her, that she never once complained norlooked unhappy, and was always handsome and in spirits, and yet onealways knew how much she suffered. 

The father, James Herbert, never told his troubles either, and he wasso fierce and serious that no one ever thought of asking. 

'Mis' Herbert as her neighbors called her was never heard evento speak of her husband or her daughter. She was always pleasant, sweet-appearing, mysterious and uncertain, and a little wandering inher ways. 

The Herberts were a silent family with their troubles, but somehowevery one who knew them always knew everything that happened. 

The morning of one day when in the evening Herbert and the coachmanJohn were to meet to drink together, Melanctha had to come to thestable joyous and in the very best of humors. Her good friend John onthis morning felt very firmly how good and sweet she was and how verymuch she suffered. 

John was a very decent colored coachman. When he thought aboutMelanctha it was as if she were the eldest of his children. Reallyhe felt very strongly the power in her of a woman. John's wife alwaysliked Melanctha and she always did all she could to make thingspleasant. And Melanctha all her life loved and respected kind and goodand considerate people. Melanctha always loved and wanted peace andgentleness and goodness and all her life for herself poor Melancthacould only find new ways to be in trouble. 

This evening after John and Herbert had drunk awhile together, thegood John began to tell the father what a fine girl he had for adaughter. Perhaps the good John had been drinking a good deal ofliquor, perhaps there was a gleam of something softer than the feelingof a friendly elder in the way John then spoke of Melanctha. There hadbeen a good deal of drinking and John certainly that very morning hadfelt strongly Melanctha's power as a woman. James Herbert was alwaysa fierce, suspicious, serious negro, and drinking never made him feelmore open. He looked very black and evil as he sat and listened whileJohn grew more and more admiring as he talked half to himself, half tothe father, of the virtues and the sweetness of Melanctha. 

Suddenly between them there came a moment filled full with strongblack curses, and then sharp razors flashed in the black hands, thatheld them flung backward in the negro fashion, and then for someminutes there was fierce slashing. 

John was a decent, pleasant, good natured, light brown negro, but heknew how to use a razor to do bloody slashing. 

When the two men were pulled apart by the other negroes who were inthe room drinking, John had not been much wounded but James Herberthad gotten one good strong cut that went from-his right shoulder downacross the front of his whole body. Razor fighting does not wound verydeeply, but it makes a cut that looks most nasty, for it is so verybloody. 

Herbert was held by the other negroes until he was cleaned andplastered, and then he was put to bed to sleep off his drink andfighting. 

The next day he came to where his wife and daughter lived and he wasfurious. 

"Where's that Melanctha, of yours?" he said to his wife, when he sawher. "If she is to the Bishops' stables now with that yellow John, Iswear I kill her. A nice way she is going for a decent daughter. Whydon't you see to that girl better you, ain't you her mother!"

Melanctha Herbert had always been old in all her ways and she knewvery early how to use her power as a woman, and yet Melanctha with allher inborn intense wisdom was really very ignorant of evil. Melancthahad not yet come to understand what they meant, the things she sooften heard around her, and which were just beginning to stir stronglyin her. 

Now when her father began fiercely to assail her, she did not reallyknow what it was that he was so furious to force from her. In everyway that he could think of in his anger, he tried to make her saya thing she did not really know. She held out and never answeredanything he asked her, for Melanctha had a breakneck courage and shejust then badly hated her black father. 

When the excitement was all over, Melanctha began to know her power, the power she had so often felt stirring within her and which she nowknew she could use to make her stronger. 

James Herbert did not win this fight with his daughter. After awhilehe forgot it as he soon forgot John and the cut of his sharp razor. Melanctha almost forgot to hate her father, in her strong interest inthe power she now knew she had within her. 

Melanctha did not care much now, any longer, to see John or his wifeor even the fine horses. This life was too quiet and accustomed and nolonger stirred her to any interest or excitement. 

Melanctha now really was beginning as a woman. She was ready, and shebegan to search in the streets and in dark corners to discover men andto learn their natures and their various ways of working. 

In these next years Melanctha learned many ways that lead to wisdom. She learned the ways, and dimly in the distance she saw wisdom. Theseyears of learning led very straight to trouble for Melanctha, thoughin these years Melanctha never did or meant anything that was reallywrong. 

Girls who are brought up with care and watching can always findmoments to escape into the world, where they may learn the ways thatlead to wisdom. For a girl raised like Melanctha Herbert, such escapewas always very simple. Often she was alone, sometimes she was with afellow seeker, and she strayed and stood, sometimes by railroad yards, sometimes on the docks or around new buildings where many men wereworking. Then when the darkness covered everything all over, she wouldbegin to learn to know this man or that. She would advance, they wouldrespond, and then she would withdraw a little, dimly, and always shedid not know what it was that really held her. Sometimes she wouldalmost go over, and then the strength in her of not really knowing, would stop the average man in his endeavor. It was a strangeexperience of ignorance and power and desire. Melanctha did not knowwhat it was that she so badly wanted. She was afraid, and yet she didnot understand that here she really was a coward. 

Boys had never meant much to Melanctha. They had always been tooyoung to content her. Melanctha had a strong respect for any kind ofsuccessful power. It was this that always kept Melanctha nearer, inher feeling toward her virile and unendurable black father, than sheever was in her feeling for her pale yellow, sweet-appearing mother. The things she had in her of her mother, never made her feel respect. 

In these young days, it was only men that for Melanctha held anythingthere was of knowledge and power. It was not from men however thatMelanctha learned to really understand this power. 

From the time that Melanctha was twelve until she was sixteen shewandered, always seeking but never more than very dimly seeing wisdom. All this time Melanctha went on with her school learning; she went toschool rather longer than do most of the colored children. 

Melanctha's wanderings after wisdom she always had to do in secret andby snatches, for her mother was then still living and 'Mis' Herbertalways did some watching, and Melanctha with all her hard couragedreaded that there should be much telling to her father, who came nowquite often to where Melanctha lived with her mother. 

In these days Melanctha talked and stood and walked with many kinds ofmen, but she did not learn to know any of them very deeply. They allsupposed her to have world knowledge and experience. They, believingthat she knew all, told her nothing, and thinking that she wasdeciding with them, asked for nothing, and so though Melancthawandered widely, she was really very safe with all the wandering. 

It was a very wonderful experience this safety of Melanctha in thesedays of her attempted learning. Melanctha herself did not feel thewonder, she only knew that for her it all had no real value. 

Melanctha all her life was very keen in her sense for real experience. She knew she was not getting what she so badly wanted, but with allher break neck courage Melanctha here was a coward, and so she couldnot learn to really understand. 

Melanctha liked to wander, and to stand by the railroad yard, andwatch the men and the engines and the switches and everything that wasbusy there, working. Railroad yards are a ceaseless fascination. Theysatisfy every kind of nature. For the lazy man whose blood flows veryslowly, it is a steady soothing world of motion which supplies himwith the sense of a strong moving power. He need not work and yet hehas it very deeply; he has it even better than the man who works init or owns it. Then for natures that like to feel emotion without thetrouble of having any suffering, it is very nice to get the swellingin the throat, and the fullness, and the heart beats, and all theflutter of excitement that comes as one watches the people come andgo, and hears the engine pound and give a long drawn whistle. For achild watching through a hole in the fence above the yard, it is awonder world of mystery and movement. The child loves all the noise, and then it loves the silence of the wind that comes before the fullrush of the pounding train, that bursts out from the tunnel where itlost itself and all its noise in darkness, and the child loves all thesmoke, that sometimes comes in rings, and always puffs with fire andblue color. 

For Melanctha the yard was full of the excitement of many men, andperhaps a free and whirling future. 

Melanctha came here very often and watched the men and all the thingsthat were so busy working. The men always had time for, "Hullo sis, do you want to sit on my engine, " and, "Hullo, that's a pretty lookin'yaller girl, do you want to come and see him cookin. "

All the colored porters liked Melanctha. They often told her excitingthings that had happened; how in the West they went through bigtunnels where there was no air to breathe, and then out and windingaround edges of great canyons on thin high spindling trestles, andsometimes cars, and sometimes whole trains fell from the narrowbridges, and always up from the dark places death and all kinds ofqueer devils looked up and laughed in their faces. And then they wouldtell how sometimes when the train went pounding down steep slipperymountains, great rocks would racket and roll down around them, andsometimes would smash in the car and kill men; and as the porters toldthese stories their round, black, shining faces would grow solemn, and their color would go grey beneath the greasy black, and their eyeswould roll white in the fear and wonder of the things they could scarethemselves by telling. 

There was one, big, serious, melancholy, light brown porter who oftentold Melanctha stories, for he liked the way she had of listening withintelligence and sympathetic feeling, when he told how the white menin the far South tried to kill him because he made one of them who wasdrunk and called him a damned nigger, and who refused to pay money forhis chair to a nigger, get off the train between stations. And thenthis porter had to give up going to that part of the Southern country, for all the white men swore that if he ever came there again theywould surely kill him. 

Melanctha liked this serious, melancholy light brown negro verywell, and all her life Melanctha wanted and respected gentlenessand goodness, and this man always gave her good advice and seriouskindness, and Melanctha felt such things very deeply, but she couldnever let them help her or affect her to change the ways that alwaysmade her keep herself in trouble. 

Melanctha spent many of the last hours of the daylight with theporters and with other men who worked hard, but when darkness came itwas always different. Then Melanctha would find herself with the, for her, gentlemanly classes. A clerk, or a young express agent wouldbegin to know her, and they would stand, or perhaps, walk a littlewhile together. 

Melanctha always made herself escape but often it was with an effort. She did not know what it was that she so badly wanted, but with allher courage Melanctha here was a coward, and so she could not learn tounderstand. 

Melanctha and some man would stand in the evening and would talktogether. Sometimes Melanctha would be with another girl and then itwas much easier to stay or to escape, for then they could make way forthemselves together, and by throwing words and laughter to each other, could keep a man from getting too strong in his attention. 

But when Melanctha was alone, and she was so, very often, she wouldsometimes come very near to making a long step on the road that leadsto wisdom. Some man would learn a good deal about her in the talk, never altogether truly, for Melanctha all her life did not know how totell a story wholly. She always, and yet not with intention, managedto leave out big pieces which make a story very different, for when itcame to what had happened and what she had said and what it was thatshe had really done, Melanctha never could remember right. The manwould sometimes come a little nearer, would detain her, would holdher arm or make his jokes a little clearer, and then Melanctha wouldalways make herself escape. The man thinking that she really had worldwisdom would not make his meaning clear, and believing that she wasdeciding with him he never went so fast that he could stop her when atlast she made herself escape. 

And so Melanctha wandered on the edge of wisdom. "Say, Sis, why don'tyou when you come here stay a little longer?" they would all askher, and they would hold her for an answer, and she would laugh, and sometimes she did stay longer, but always just in time she madeherself escape. 

Melanctha Herbert wanted very much to know and yet she feared theknowledge. As she grew older she often stayed a good deal longer, and sometimes it was almost a balanced struggle, but she always madeherself escape. 

Next to the railroad yard it was the shipping docks that Melancthaloved best when she wandered. Often she was alone, sometimes she waswith some better kind of black girl, and she would stand a long timeand watch the men working at unloading, and see the steamers do theircoaling, and she would listen with full feeling to the yowling of thefree swinging negroes, as they ran, with their powerful loose jointedbodies and their childish savage yelling, pushing, carrying, pullinggreat loads from the ships to the warehouses. 

The men would call out, "Say, Sis, look out or we'll come and catchyer, " or "Hi, there, you yaller girl, come here and we'll take yousailin'. " And then, too, Melanctha would learn to know some of theserious foreign sailors who told her all sorts of wonders, and a cookwould sometimes take her and her friends over a ship and show where hemade his messes and where the men slept, and where the shops were, andhow everything was made by themselves, right there, on ship board. 

Melanctha loved to see these dark and smelly places. She always lovedto watch and talk and listen with men who worked hard. But it wasnever from these rougher people that Melanctha tried to learn the waysthat lead to wisdom. In the daylight she always liked to talk withrough men and to listen to their lives and about their work and theirvarious ways of doing, but when the darkness covered everything allover, Melanctha would meet, and stand, and talk with a clerk or ayoung shipping agent who had seen her watching, and so it was that shewould try to learn to understand. 

And then Melanctha was fond of watching men work on new buildings. Sheloved to see them hoisting, digging, sawing and stone cutting. Here, too, in the daylight, she always learned to know the common workmen. "Heh, Sis, look out or that rock will fall on you and smash you allup into little pieces. Do you think you would make a nice jelly?" Andthen they would all laugh and feel that their jokes were very funny. And "Say, you pretty yaller girl, would it scare you bad to stand uphere on top where I be? See if you've got grit and come up here whereI can hold you. All you got to do is to sit still on that there rockthat they're just hoistin', and then when you get here I'll hold youtight, don't you be scared Sis. "

Sometimes Melanctha would do some of these things that had muchdanger, and always with such men, she showed her power and her breakneck courage. Once she slipped and fell from a high place. A workmancaught her and so she was not killed, but her left arm was badlybroken. 

All the men crowded around her. They admired her boldness in doing andin bearing pain when her arm was broken. They all went along withher with great respect to the doctor, and then they took her home intriumph and all of them were bragging about her not squealing. 

James Herbert was home where his wife lived, that day. He was furiouswhen he saw the workmen and Melanctha. He drove the men away withcurses so that they were all very nearly fighting, and he would notlet a doctor come in to attend Melanctha. "Why don't you see to thatgirl better, you, you're her mother. "

James Herbert did not fight things out now any more with his daughter. He feared her tongue, and her school learning, and the way she hadof saying things that were very nasty to a brutal black man whoknew nothing. And Melanctha just then hated him very badly in hersuffering. 

And so this was the way Melanctha lived the four years of herbeginning as a woman. And many things happened to Melanctha, but sheknew very well that none of them had led her on to the right way, thatcertain way that was to lead her to world wisdom. 

Melanctha Herbert was sixteen when she first met Jane Harden. Jane wasa negress, but she was so white that hardly any one could guess it. Jane had had a good deal of education. She had been two years at acolored college. She had had to leave because of her bad conduct. Shetaught Melanctha many things. She taught her how to go the ways thatlead to wisdom. 

Jane Harden was at this time twenty-three years old and she hadhad much experience. She was very much attracted by Melanctha, andMelanctha was very proud that this Jane would let her know her. 

Jane Harden was not afraid to understand. Melanctha who had strong thesense for real experience, knew that here was a woman who had learnedto understand. 

Jane Harden had many bad habits. She drank a great deal, and shewandered widely. She was safe though now, when she wanted to be safe, in this wandering. 

Melanctha Herbert soon always wandered with her. Melanctha tried thedrinking and some of the other habits, but she did not find that shecared very much to do them. But every day she grew stronger in herdesire to really understand. 

It was now no longer, even in the daylight, the rougher men that thesetwo learned to know in their wanderings, and for Melanctha the betterclasses were now a little higher. It was no longer express agentsand clerks that she learned to know, but men in business, commercialtravelers, and even men above these, and Jane and she would talk andwalk and laugh and escape from them all very often. It was still thesame, the knowing of them and the always just escaping, only now forMelanctha somehow it was different, for though it was always the samething that happened it had a different flavor, for now Melanctha waswith a woman who had wisdom, and dimly she began to see what it wasthat she should understand. 

It was not from the men that Melanctha learned her wisdom. Itwas always Jane Harden herself who was making Melanctha begin tounderstand. 

Jane was a roughened woman. She had power and she liked to use it, shehad much white blood and that made her see clear, she liked drinkingand that made her reckless. Her white blood was strong in her andshe had grit and endurance and a vital courage. She was always game, however much she was in trouble. She liked Melanctha Herbert for thethings that she had like her, and then Melanctha was young, andshe had sweetness, and a way of listening with intelligence andsympathetic interest, to the stories that Jane Harden often told outof her experience. 

Jane grew always fonder of Melanctha. Soon they began to wander, more to be together than to see men and learn their various ways ofworking. Then they began not to wander, and Melanctha would spend longhours with Jane in her room, sitting at her feet and listening to herstories, and feeling her strength and the power of her affection, andslowly she began to see clear before her one certain way that would besure to lead to wisdom. 

Before the end came, the end of the two years in which Melanctha spentall her time when she was not at school or in her home, with JaneHarden, before these two years were finished, Melanctha had come tosee very clear, and she had come to be very certain, what it is thatgives the world its wisdom. 

Jane Harden always had a little money and she had a room in the lowerpart of the town. Jane had once taught in a colored school. Shehad had to leave that too on account of her bad conduct. It was herdrinking that always made all the trouble for her, for that can neverbe really covered over. 

Jane's drinking was always growing worse upon her. Melanctha had triedto do the drinking but it had no real attraction for her. 

In the first year, between Jane Harden and Melanctha Herbert, Jane hadbeen much the stronger. Jane loved Melanctha and she found her alwaysintelligent and brave and sweet and docile, and Jane meant to, andbefore the year was over she had taught Melanctha what it is thatgives many people in the world their wisdom. 

Jane had many ways in which to do this teaching. She told Melancthamany things. She loved Melanctha hard and made Melanctha feel itvery deeply. She would be with other people and with men and withMelanctha, and she would make Melanctha understand what everybodywanted, and what one did with power when one had it. 

Melanctha sat at Jane's feet for many hours in these days and feltJane's wisdom. She learned to love Jane and to have this feeling verydeeply. She learned a little in these days to know joy, and she wastaught too how very keenly she could suffer. It was very differentthis suffering from that Melanctha sometimes had from her mother andfrom her very unendurable black father. Then she was fighting andshe could be strong and valiant in her suffering, but here with JaneHarden she was longing and she bent and pleaded with her suffering. 

It was a very tumultuous, very mingled year, this time for Melanctha, but she certainly did begin to really understand. 

In every way she got it from Jane Harden. There was nothing good orbad in doing, feeling, thinking or in talking, that Jane spared her. Sometimes the lesson came almost too strong for Melanctha, butsomehow she always managed to endure it and so slowly, but always withincreasing strength and feeling, Melanctha began to really understand. 

Then slowly, between them, it began to be all different. Slowly nowbetween them, it was Melanctha Herbert, who was stronger. Slowly nowthey began to drift apart from one another. 

Melanctha Herbert never really lost her sense that it was Jane Hardenwho had taught her, but Jane did many things that Melanctha now nolonger needed. And then, too, Melanctha never could remember rightwhen it came to what she had done and what had happened. Melanctha nowsometimes quarreled with Jane, and they no longer went about together, and sometimes Melanctha really forgot how much she owed to JaneHarden's teaching. 

Melanctha began now to feel that she had always had world wisdom. Shereally knew of course, that it was Jane who had taught her, but allthat began to be covered over by the trouble between them, that wasnow always getting stronger. 

Jane Harden was a roughened woman. Once she had been very strong, butnow she was weakened in all her kinds of strength by her drinking. Melanctha had tried the drinking but it had had no real attraction forher. 

Jane's strong and roughened nature and her drinking made it alwaysharder for her to forgive Melanctha, that now Melanctha did not reallyneed her any longer. Now it was Melanctha who was stronger and it wasJane who was dependent on her. 

Melanctha was now come to be about eighteen years old. She was agraceful, pale yellow, good looking, intelligent, attractive negress, a little mysterious sometimes in her ways, and always good andpleasant, and always ready to do things for people. 

Melanctha from now on saw very little of Jane Harden. Jane did notlike that very well and sometimes she abused Melanctha, but herdrinking soon covered everything all over. 

It was not in Melanctha's nature to really lose her sense for JaneHarden. Melanctha all her life was ready to help Jane out in any ofher trouble, and later, when Jane really went to pieces, Melancthaalways did all that she could to help her. 

But Melanctha Herbert was ready now herself to do teaching. Melancthacould do anything now that she wanted. Melanctha knew now whateverybody wanted. 

Melanctha had learned how she might stay a little longer; she hadlearned that she must decide when she wanted really to stay longer, and she had learned how when she wanted to, she could escape. 

And so Melanctha began once more to wander. It was all now for hervery different. It was never rougher men now that she talked to, andshe did not care much now to know white men of the, for her, verybetter classes. It was now something realler that Melanctha wanted, something that would move her very deeply, something that would fillher fully with the wisdom that was planted now within her, and thatshe wanted badly, should really wholly fill her. 

Melanctha these days wandered very widely. She was always alone nowwhen she wandered. Melanctha did not need help now to know, or to staylonger, or when she wanted, to escape. 

Melanctha tried a great many men, in these days before she was reallysuited. It was almost a year that she wandered and then she met witha young mulatto. He was a doctor who had just begun to practice. Hewould most likely do well in the future, but it was not this thatconcerned Melanctha. She found him good and strong and gentle and veryintellectual, and all her life Melanctha liked and wanted good andconsiderate people, and then too he did not at first believe inMelanctha. He held off and did not know what it was that Melancthawanted. Melanctha came to want him very badly. They began to know eachother better. Things began to be very strong between them. Melancthawanted him so badly that now she never wandered. She just gave herselfto this experience. 

Melanctha Herbert was now, all alone, in Bridgepoint. She lived nowwith this colored woman and now with that one, and she sewed, andsometimes she taught a little in a colored school as substitute forsome teacher. Melanctha had now no home nor any regular employment. Life was just commencing for Melanctha. She had youth and had learnedwisdom, and she was graceful and pale yellow and very pleasant, andalways ready to do things for people, and she was mysterious in herways and that only made belief in her more fervent. 

During the year before she met Jefferson Campbell, Melanctha had triedmany kinds of men but they had none of them interested Melanctha verydeeply. She met them, she was much with them, she left them, she wouldthink perhaps this next time it would be more exciting, and alwaysshe found that for her it all had no real meaning. She could now doeverything she wanted, she knew now everything that everybody wanted, and yet it all had no excitement for her. With these men, she knewshe could learn nothing. She wanted some one that could teach her verydeeply and now at last she was sure that she had found him, yes shereally had it, before she had thought to look if in this man she wouldfind it. 

During this year 'Mis' Herbert as her neighbors called her, Melanctha's pale yellow mother was very sick, and in this year shedied. 

Melanctha's father during these last years did not come very often tothe house where his wife lived and Melanctha. Melanctha was notsure that her father was now any longer here in Bridgepoint. Itwas Melanctha who was very good now to her mother. It was alwaysMelanctha's way to be good to any one in trouble. 

Melanctha took good care of her mother. She did everything that anywoman could, she tended and soothed and helped her pale yellow mother, and she worked hard in every way to take care of her, and make herdying easy. But Melanctha did not in these days like her mother anybetter, and her mother never cared much for this daughter who wasalways a hard child to manage, and who had a tongue that always couldbe very nasty. 

Melanctha did everything that any woman could, and at last her motherdied, and Melanctha had her buried. Melanctha's father was not heardfrom, and Melanctha in all her life after, never saw or heard or knewof anything that her father did. 

It was the young doctor, Jefferson Campbell, who helped Melancthatoward the end, to take care of her sick mother. Jefferson Campbellhad often before seen Melanctha Herbert, but he had never liked hervery well, and he had never believed that she was any good. He hadheard something about how she wandered. He knew a little too of JaneHarden, and he was sure that this Melanctha Herbert, who was herfriend and who wandered, would never come to any good. 

Dr. Jefferson Campbell was a serious, earnest, good young joyousdoctor. He liked to take care of everybody and he loved his owncolored people. He always found life very easy did Jeff Campbell, andeverybody liked to have him with them. He was so good and sympathetic, and he was so earnest and so joyous. He sang when he was happy, and helaughed, and his was the free abandoned laughter that gives the warmbroad glow to negro sunshine. 

Jeff Campbell had never yet in his life had real trouble. Jefferson'sfather was a good, kind, serious, religious man. He was a very steady, very intelligent, and very dignified, light brown, grey haired negro. He was a butler and he had worked for the Campbell family many years, and his father and his mother before him had been in the service ofthis family as free people. 

Jefferson Campbell's father and his mother had of course beenregularly married. Jefferson's mother was a sweet, little, pale brown, gentle woman who reverenced and obeyed her good husband, and whoworshipped and admired and loved hard her-good, earnest, cheery, hardworking doctor boy who was her only child. 

Jeff Campbell had been raised religious by his people but religion hadnever interested Jeff very much. Jefferson was very good. He lovedhis people and he never hurt them, and he always did everything theywanted and that he could to please them, but he really loved bestscience and experimenting and to learn things, and he early wantedto be a doctor, and he was always very interested in the life of thecolored people. 

The Campbell family had been very good to him and had helped himon with his ambition. Jefferson studied hard, he went to a coloredcollege, and then he learnt to be a doctor. 

It was now two or three years, that he had started in to practice. Everybody liked Jeff Campbell, he was so strong and kindly andcheerful and understanding, and he laughed so with pure joy, and healways liked to help all his own colored people. 

Dr. Jeff knew all about Jane Harden. He had taken care of her in someof her bad trouble. He knew about Melanctha too, though until hermother was taken sick he had never met her. Then he was called in tohelp Melanctha to take care of her sick mother. Dr. Campbell did notlike Melanctha's ways and he did not think that she would ever come toany good. 

Dr. Campbell had taken care of Jane Harden in some of her bad trouble. Jane sometimes had abused Melanctha to him. What right had thatMelanctha Herbert who owed everything to her, Jane Harden, whatright had a girl like that to go away to other men and leave her, but Melanctha Herbert never had any sense of how to act to anybody. Melanctha had a good mind, Jane never denied her that, but she neverused it to do anything decent with it. But what could you expect whenMelanctha had such a brute of a black nigger father, and Melanctha wasalways abusing her father and yet she was just like him, and reallyshe admired him so much and he never had any sense of what he owed toanybody, and Melanctha was just like him and she was proud of it too, and it made Jane so tired to hear Melanctha talk all the time as ifshe wasn't. Jane Harden hated people who had good minds and didn't usethem, and Melanctha always had that weakness, and wanting to keep inwith people, and never really saying that she wanted to be like herfather, and it was so silly of Melanctha to abuse her father, when shewas so much like him and she really liked it. No, Jane Harden had nouse for Melanctha. Oh yes, Melanctha always came around to be good toher. Melanctha was always sure to do that. She never really went awayand left one. She didn't use her mind enough to do things straight outlike that. Melanctha Herbert had a good mind, Jane never denied thatto her, but she never wanted to see or hear about Melanctha Herbertany more, and she wished Melanctha wouldn't come in any more to seeher. She didn't hate her, but she didn't want to hear about her fatherand all that talk Melanctha always made, and that just meant nothingto her. Jane Harden was very tired of all that now. She didn't haveany use now any more for Melanctha, and if Dr. Campbell saw her hebetter tell her Jane didn't want to see her, and she could take hertalk to somebody else, who was ready to believe her. And then JaneHarden would drop away and forget Melanctha and all her life before, and then she would begin to drink and so she would cover everythingall over. 

Jeff Campbell heard all this very often, but it did not interest himvery deeply. He felt no desire to know more of this Melanctha. Heheard her, once, talking to another girl outside of the house, whenhe was paying a visit to Jane Harden. He did not see much in the talkthat he heard her do. He did not see much in the things Jane Hardensaid when she abused Melanctha to him. He was more interested in Janeherself than in anything he heard about Melanctha. He knew Jane Hardenhad a good mind, and she had had power, and she could really havedone things, and now this drinking covered everything all over. JeffCampbell was always very sorry when he had to see it. Jane Harden wasa roughened woman, and yet Jeff found a great many strong good thingsin her, that still made him like her. 

Jeff Campbell did everything he could for Jane Harden. He did not caremuch to hear about Melanctha. He had no feeling, much, about her. Hedid not find that he took any interest in her. Jane Harden was so mucha stronger woman, and Jane really had had a good mind, and she hadused it to do things with it, before this drinking business had takensuch a hold upon her. 

Dr. Campbell was helping Melanctha Herbert to take care of her sickmother. He saw Melanctha now for long times and very often, andthey sometimes talked a good deal together, but Melanctha never saidanything to him about Jane Harden. She never talked to him aboutanything that was not just general matters, or about medicine, orto tell him funny stories. She asked him many questions and alwayslistened very well to all he told her, and she always rememberedeverything she heard him say about doctoring, and she alwaysremembered everything that she had learned from all the others. 

Jeff Campbell never found that all this talk interested him verydeeply. He did not find that he liked Melanctha when he saw her somuch, any better. He never found that he thought much about Melanctha. He never found that he believed much in her having a good mind, likeJane Harden. He found he liked Jane Harden always better, and that hewished very much that she had never begun that bad drinking. 

Melanctha Herbert's mother was now always getting sicker. Melancthareally did everything that any woman could. Melanctha's mother neverliked her daughter any better. She never said much, did 'Mis' Herbert, but anybody could see that she did not think much of this daughter. 

Dr. Campbell now often had to stay a long time to take care of 'Mis'Herbert. One day 'Mis' Herbert was much sicker and Dr. Campbellthought that this night, she would surely die. He came back late tothe house, as he had said he would, to sit up and watch 'Mis' Herbert, and to help Melanctha, if she should need anybody to be with her. Melanctha Herbert and Jeff Campbell sat up all that night together. 'Mis' Herbert did not die. The next day she was a little better. 

This house where Melanctha had always lived with her mother was alittle red brick, two story house. They had not much furniture to fillit and some of the windows were broken and not mended. Melanctha didnot have much money to use now on the house, but with a colored woman, who was their neighbor and good natured and who had always helpedthem, Melanctha managed to take care of her mother and to keep thehouse fairly clean and neat. 

Melanctha's mother was in bed in a room upstairs, and the steps frombelow led right up into it. There were just two rooms on this upstairsfloor. Melanctha and Dr. Campbell sat down on the steps, that nightthey watched together, so that they could hear and see Melanctha'smother and yet the light would be shaded, and they could sit andread, if they wanted to, and talk low some, and yet not disturb 'Mis'Herbert. 

Dr. Campbell was always very fond of reading. Dr. Campbell had notbrought a book with him that night. He had just forgotten it. He hadmeant to put something in his pocket to read, so that he could amusehimself, while he was sitting there and watching. When he was throughwith taking care of 'Mis' Herbert, he came and sat down on the stepsjust above where Melanctha was sitting. He spoke about how he hadforgotten to bring his book with him. Melanctha said there were someold papers in the house, perhaps Dr. Campbell could find something inthem that would help pass the time for a while for him. All right, Dr. Campbell said, that would be better than just sitting therewith nothing. Dr. Campbell began to read through the old papers thatMelanctha gave him. When anything amused him in them, he read it outto Melanctha. Melanctha was now pretty silent, with him. Dr. Campbellbegan to feel a little, about how she responded to him. Dr. Campbellbegan to see a little that perhaps Melanctha had a good mind. Dr. Campbell was not sure yet that she had a good mind, but he began tothink a little that perhaps she might have one. 

Jefferson Campbell always liked to talk to everybody about the thingshe worked at and about his thinking about what he could do for thecolored people. Melanctha Herbert never thought about these things theway that he did. Melanctha had never said much to Dr. Campbell aboutwhat she thought about them. Melanctha did not feel the same as he didabout being good and regular in life, and not having excitementsall the time, which was the way that Jefferson Campbell wanted thateverybody should be, so that everybody would be wise and yet be happy. Melanctha always had strong the sense for real experience. MelancthaHerbert did not think much of this way of coming to real wisdom. 

Dr. Campbell soon got through with his reading, in the old newspapers, and then somehow he began to talk along about the things he wasalways thinking. Dr. Campbell said he wanted to work so that he couldunderstand what troubled people, and not to just have excitements, andhe believed you ought to love your father and your mother and to beregular in all your life, and not to be always wanting new things andexcitements, and to always know where you were, and what you wanted, and to always tell everything just as you meant it. That's the onlykind of life he knew or believed in, Jeff Campbell repeated. "No Iain't got any use for all the time being in excitements and wanting tohave all kinds of experience all the time. I got plenty of experiencejust living regular and quiet and with my family, and doing my work, and taking care of people, and trying to understand it. I don'tbelieve much in this running around business and I. Don't want to seethe colored people do it. I am a colored man and I ain't sorry, and Iwant to see the colored people like what is good and what I wantthem to have, and that's to live regular and work hard and understandthings, and that's enough to keep any decent man excited. " JeffCampbell spoke now with some anger. Not to Melanctha, he did not thinkof her at all when he was talking. It was the life he wanted that hespoke to, and the way he wanted things to be with the colored people. 

But Melanctha Herbert had listened to him say all this. She knew hemeant it, but it did not mean much to her, and she was sure some dayhe would find out, that it was not all, of real wisdom. Melancthaknew very well what it was to have real wisdom. "But how about JaneHarden?" said Melanctha to Jeff Campbell, "seems to me Dr. Campbellyou find her to have something in her, and you go there very often, and you talk to her much more than you do to the nice girls that stayat home with their people, the kind you say you are really wanting. Itdon't seem to me Dr. Campbell, that what you say and what you do seemto have much to do with each other. And about your being so good Dr. Campbell, " went on Melanctha, "You don't care about going to churchmuch yourself, and yet you always are saying you believe so much inthings like that, for people. It seems to me, Dr. Campbell you wantto have a good time just like all us others, and then you just keepon saying that it's right to be good and you ought not to haveexcitements, and yet you really don't want to do it Dr. Campbell, nomore than me or Jane Harden. No, Dr. Campbell, it certainly does seemto me you don't know very well yourself, what you mean, when you aretalking. "

Jefferson had been talking right along, the way he always did when hegot started, and now Melanctha's answer only made him talk a littleharder. He laughed a little, too, but very low, so as not to disturb'Mis' Herbert who was sleeping very nicely, and he looked brightly atMelanctha to enjoy her, and then he settled himself down to answer. 

"Yes, " he began, "it certainly does sound a little like I didn'tknow very well what I do mean, when you put it like that to me, MissMelanctha, but that's just because you don't understand enough aboutwhat I meant, by what I was just saying to you. I don't say, never, I don't want to know all kinds of people, Miss Melanctha, and I don'tsay there ain't many kinds of people, and I don't say ever, that Idon't find some like Jane Harden very good to know and talk to, butit's the strong things I like in Jane Harden, not all her excitements. I don't admire the bad things she does, Miss Melanctha, but JaneHarden is a strong woman and I always respect that in her. No I knowyou don't believe what I say, Miss Melanctha, but I mean it, and it'sall just because you don't understand it when I say it. And as forreligion, that just ain't my way of being good, Miss Melanctha, butit's a good way for many people to be good and regular in their wayof living, and if they believe it, it helps them to be good, and ifthey're honest in it, I like to see them have it. No, what I don'tlike, Miss Melanctha, is this what I see so much with the coloredpeople, their always wanting new things just to get excited. "

Jefferson Campbell here stopped himself in this talking. MelancthaHerbert did not make any answer. They both sat there very quiet. 

Jeff Campbell then began again on the old papers. He sat there on thesteps just above where Melanctha was sitting, and he went on with hisreading, and his head went moving up and down, and sometimes he wasreading, and sometimes he was thinking about all the things he wantedto be doing, and then he would rub the back of his dark hand overhis mouth, and in between he would be frowning with his thinking, andsometimes he would be rubbing his head hard to help his thinking. AndMelanctha just sat still and watched the lamp burning, and sometimesshe turned it down a little, when the wind caught it and it wouldbegin to get to smoking. 

And so Jeff Campbell and Melanctha Herbert sat there on the steps, very quiet, a long time, and they didn't seem to think much, that theywere together. They sat there so, for about an hour, and then it cameto Jefferson very slowly and as a strong feeling that he was sittingthere on the steps, alone, with Melanctha. He did not know ifMelanctha Herbert was feeling very much about their being there alonetogether. Jefferson began to wonder about it a little. Slowly he feltthat surely they must both have this feeling. It was so important thathe knew that she must have it. They both sat there, very quiet, a longtime. 

At last Jefferson began to talk about how the lamp was smelling. Jefferson began to explain what it is that makes a lamp get tosmelling. Melanctha let him talk. She did not answer, and then hestopped in his talking. Soon Melanctha began to sit up straighter andthen she started in to question. 

"About what you was just saying Dr. Campbell about living regular andall that, I certainly don't understand what you meant by what you wasjust saying. You ain't a bit like good people Dr. Campbell, likethe good people you are always saying are just like you. I know goodpeople Dr. Campbell, and you ain't a bit like men who are good andgot religion. You are just as free and easy as any man can be Dr. Campbell, and you always like to be with Jane Harden, and she is apretty bad one and you don't look down on her and you never tell hershe is a bad one. I know you like her just like a friend Dr. Campbell, and so I certainly don't understand just what it is you mean by allthat you was just saying to me. I know you mean honest Dr. Campbell, and I am always trying to believe you, but I can't say as I see justwhat you mean when you say you want to be good and real pious, becauseI am very certain Dr. Campbell that you ain't that kind of a man atall, and you ain't never ashamed to be with queer folks Dr. Campbell, and you seem to be thinking what you are doing is just like what youare always saying, and Dr. Campbell, I certainly don't just see whatyou mean by what you say. "

Dr. Campbell almost laughed loud enough to wake 'Mis' Herbert. He didenjoy the way Melanctha said these things to him. He began to feelvery strongly about it that perhaps Melanctha really had a good mind. He was very free now in his laughing, but not so as to make Melancthaangry. He was very friendly with her in his laughing, and then hemade his face get serious, and he rubbed his head to help him in histhinking. 

"I know Miss Melanctha" he began, "It ain't very easy for you tounderstand what I was meaning by what I was just saying to you, andperhaps some of the good people I like so wouldn't think very much, any more than you do, Miss Melanctha, about the ways I have to begood. But that's no matter Miss Melanctha. What I mean Miss Melancthaby what I was just saying to you is, that I don't, no, never, believein doing things just to get excited. You see Miss Melanctha I mean theway so many of the colored people do it. Instead of just working hardand caring about their working and living regular with their familiesand saving up all their money, so they will have some to bring uptheir children better, instead of living regular and doing like thatand getting all their new ways from just decent living, the coloredpeople just keep running around and perhaps drinking and doingeverything bad they can ever think of, and not just because they likeall those bad things that they are always doing, but only just becausethey want to get excited. No Miss Melanctha, you see I am a coloredman myself and I ain't sorry, and I want to see the colored peoplebeing good and careful and always honest and living always justas regular as can be, and I am sure Miss Melanctha, that that wayeverybody can have a good time, and be happy and keep right and bebusy, and not always have to be doing bad things for new ways to getexcited. Yes Miss Melanctha, I certainly do like everything to begood, and quiet, and I certainly do think that is the best way for allus colored people. No, Miss Melanctha too, I don't mean this exceptonly just the way I say it. I ain't got any other meaning MissMelanctha, and it's that what I mean when I am saying about beingreally good. It ain't Miss Melanctha to be pious and not liking everykind of people, and I don't say ever Miss Melanctha that when otherkind of people come regular into your life you shouldn't want to knowthem always. What I mean Miss Melanctha by what I am always sayingis, you shouldn't try to know everybody just to run around and getexcited. It's that kind of way of doing that I hate so always MissMelanctha, and that is so bad for all us colored people. I don't knowas you understand now any better what I mean by what I was just sayingto you. But you certainly do know now Miss Melanctha, that I alwaysmean it what I say when I am talking. "

"Yes I certainly do understand you when you talk so Dr. Campbell. I certainly do understand now what you mean by what you was alwayssaying to me. I certainly do understand Dr. Campbell that you mean youdon't believe it's right to love anybody. " "Why sure no, yes I do MissMelanctha, I certainly do believe strong in loving, and in being goodto everybody, and trying to understand what they all need, to helpthem. " "Oh I know all about that way of doing Dr. Campbell, but thatcertainly ain't the kind of love I mean when I am talking. I meanreal, strong, hot love Dr. Campbell, that makes you do anything forsomebody that loves you. " "I don't know much about that kind oflove yet Miss Melanctha. You see it's this way with me always MissMelanctha. I am always so busy with my thinking about my work I amdoing and so I don't have time for just fooling, and then too, you seeMiss Melanctha, I really certainly don't ever like to get excited, andthat kind of loving hard does seem always to mean just getting all thetime excited. That certainly is what I always think from what I see ofthem that have it bad Miss Melanctha, and that certainly would neversuit a man like me. You see Miss Melanctha I am a very quiet kind offellow, and I believe in a quiet life for all the colored people. NoMiss Melanctha I certainly never have mixed myself up in that kind oftrouble. "

"Yes I certainly do see that very clear Dr. Campbell, " said Melanctha, "I see that's certainly what it is always made me not know right aboutyou and that's certainly what it is that makes you really mean whatyou was always saying. You certainly are just too scared Dr. Campbellto really feel things way down in you. All you are always wanting Dr. Campbell, is just to talk about being good, and to play with peoplejust to have a good time, and yet always to certainly keep yourselfout of trouble. It don't seem to me Dr. Campbell that I admire thatway to do things very much. It certainly ain't really to me being verygood. It certainly ain't any more to me Dr. Campbell, but that youcertainly are awful scared about really feeling things way down inyou, and that's certainly the only way Dr. Campbell I can see that youcan mean, by what it is that you are always saying to me. "

"I don't know about that Miss Melanctha, I certainly don't think Ican't feel things very deep in me, though I do say I certainly do liketo have things nice and quiet, but I don't see harm in keeping out ofdanger Miss Melanctha, when a man knows he certainly don't want to getkilled in it, and I don't know anything that's more awful dangerousMiss Melanctha than being strong in love with somebody. I don'tmind sickness or real trouble Miss Melanctha, and I don't want to betalking about what I can do in real trouble, but you know somethingabout that Miss Melanctha, but I certainly don't see much in mixing upjust to get excited, in that awful kind of danger. No Miss MelancthaI certainly do only know just two kinds of ways of loving. One kind ofloving seems to me, is like one has a good quiet feeling in a familywhen one does his work, and is always living good and being regular, and then the other way of loving is just like having it like anyanimal that's low in the streets together, and that don't seem to mevery good Miss Melanctha, though I don't say ever that it's not allright when anybody likes it, and that's all the kinds of love I knowMiss Melanctha, and I certainly don't care very much to get mixed upin that kind of a way just to be in trouble. "

Jefferson stopped and Melanctha thought a little. 

"That certainly does explain to me Dr. Campbell what I been thinkingabout you this long time. I certainly did wonder how you could be solive, and knowing everything, and everybody, and talking so big alwaysabout everything, and everybody always liking you so much, and youalways looking as if you was thinking, and yet you really wasnever knowing about anybody and certainly not being really veryunderstanding. It certainly is all Dr. Campbell because you is soafraid you will be losing being good so easy, and it certainly do seemto me Dr. Campbell that it certainly don't amount to very much thatkind of goodness. "

"Perhaps you are right Miss Melanctha, " Jefferson answered. "I don'tsay never, perhaps you ain't right Miss Melanctha. Perhaps I oughtto know more about such ways Miss Melanctha. Perhaps it would help mesome, taking care of the colored people, Miss Melanctha. I don't say, no, never, but perhaps I could learn a whole lot about women the rightway, if I had a real good teacher. "

'Mis' Herbert just then stirred a little in her sleep. Melanctha wentup the steps to the bed to attend her. Dr. Campbell got up too andwent to help her. 'Mis' Herbert woke up and was a little better. Nowit was morning and Dr. Campbell gave his directions to Melanctha, andthen left her. 

Melanctha Herbert all her life long, loved and wanted good, kindand considerate people. Jefferson Campbell was all the things thatMelanctha had ever wanted. Jefferson was a strong, well built, goodlooking, cheery, intelligent and good mulatto. And then at first hehad not cared to know Melanctha, and when he did begin to know herhe had not liked her very well, and he had not thought that she wouldever come to any good. And then Jefferson Campbell was so very gentle. Jefferson never did some things like other men, things that now werebeginning to be ugly, for Melanctha. And then too Jefferson Campbelldid not seem to know very well what it was that Melanctha reallywanted, and all this was making Melanctha feel his power with heralways getting stronger. 

Dr. Campbell came in every day to see 'Mis' Herbert. 'Mis' Herbert, after that night they watched together, did get a little better, but'Mis' Herbert was really very sick, and soon it was pretty sure thatshe would have to die. Melanctha certainly did everything, all thetime, that any woman could. Jefferson never thought much better ofMelanctha while she did it. It was not her being good, he wanted tofind in her. He knew very well Jane Harden was right, when she saidMelanctha was always being good to everybody but that that did notmake Melanctha any better for her. Then too, 'Mis' Herbert neverliked Melanctha any better, even on the last day of her living, and soJefferson really never thought much of Melanctha's always being goodto her mother. 

Jefferson and Melanctha now saw each other, very often. They nowalways liked to be with each other, and they always now had a goodtime when they talked to one another. They, mostly in their talking toeach other, still just talked about outside things and what they werethinking. Except just in little moments, and not those very often, they never said anything about their feeling. Sometimes Melancthawould tease Jefferson a little just to show she had not forgotten, butmostly she listened to his talking, for Jefferson still always likedto talk along about the things he believed in. Melanctha was likingJefferson Campbell better every day, and Jefferson was beginning toknow that Melanctha certainly had a good mind, and he was beginningto feel a little her real sweetness. Not in her being good to 'Mis'Herbert, that never seemed to Jefferson to mean much in her, but therewas a strong kind of sweetness in Melanctha's nature that Jeffersonbegan now to feel when he was with her. 

'Mis' Herbert was now always getting sicker. One night again Dr. Campbell felt very certain that before it was morning she would surelydie. Dr. Campbell said he would come back to help Melanctha watch her, and to do anything he could to make 'Mis' Herbert's dying more easyfor her. Dr. Campbell came back that evening, after he was throughwith his other patients, and then he made 'Mis' Herbert easy, andthen he came and sat down on the steps just above where Melanctha wassitting with the lamp, and looking very tired. Dr. Campbell was prettytired too, and they both sat there very quiet. 

"You look awful tired to-night, Dr. Campbell, " Melanctha said at last, with her voice low and very gentle, "Don't you want to go lie down andsleep a little? You're always being much too good to everybody, Dr. Campbell. I like to have you stay here watching to-night with me, butit don't seem right you ought to stay here when you got so much alwaysto do for everybody. You are certainly very kind to come back, Dr. Campbell, but I can certainly get along to-night without you. I canget help next door sure if I need it. You just go 'long home to bed, Dr. Campbell. You certainly do look as if you need it. "

Jefferson was silent for some time, and always he was looking verygently at Melanctha. 

"I certainly never did think, Miss Melanctha, I would find you to beso sweet and thinking, with me. " "Dr. Campbell" said Melanctha, stillmore gentle, "I certainly never did think that you would ever feel itgood to like me. I certainly never did think you would want to see foryourself if I had sweet ways in me. "

They both sat there very tired, very gentle, very quiet, a long time. At last Melanctha in a low, even tone began to talk to JeffersonCampbell. 

"You are certainly a very good man, Dr. Campbell, I certainly do feelthat more every day I see you. Dr. Campbell, I sure do want to befriends with a good man like you, now I know you. You certainly, Dr. Campbell, never do things like other men, that's always ugly for me. Tell me true, Dr. Campbell, how you feel about being always friendswith me. I certainly do know, Dr. Campbell, you are a good man, and ifyou say you will be friends with me, you certainly never will go backon me, the way so many kinds of them do to every girl they ever getto like them. Tell me for true, Dr. Campbell, will you be friends withme. "

"Why, Miss Melanctha, " said Campbell slowly, "why you see I just can'tsay that right out that way to you. Why sure you know Miss Melanctha, I will be very glad if it comes by and by that we are alwaysfriends together, but you see, Miss Melanctha, I certainly am a veryslow-minded quiet kind of fellow though I do say quick things all thetime to everybody, and when I certainly do want to mean it what I amsaying to you, I can't say things like that right out to everybodytill I know really more for certain all about you, and how I like you, and what I really mean to do better for you. You certainly do see whatI mean, Miss Melanctha. " "I certainly do admire you for talking honestto me, Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha. "Oh, I am always honest, Miss Melanctha. It's easy enough for me always to be honest, MissMelanctha. All I got to do is always just to say right out what I amthinking. I certainly never have got any real reason for not saying itright out like that to anybody. "

They sat together, very silent. "I certainly do wonder, MissMelanctha, " at last began Jeff Campbell, "I certainly do wonder, ifwe know very right, you and me, what each other is really thinking. I certainly do wonder, Miss Melanctha, if we know at all really whateach other means by what we are always saying. " "That certainly domean, by what you say, that you think I am a bad one, Jeff Campbell, "flashed out Melanctha. "Why no, Miss Melanctha, why sure I don't meanany thing like that at all, by what I am saying to you. You know wellas I do, Miss Melanctha, I think better of you every day I see you, and I like to talk with you all the time now, Miss Melanctha, and Icertainly do think we both like it very well when we are together, and it seems to me always more, you are very good and sweet alwaysto everybody. It only is, I am really so slow-minded in my ways, MissMelanctha, for all I talk so quick to everybody, and I don't like tosay to you what I don't know for very sure, and I certainly don't knowfor sure I know just all what you mean by what you are always sayingto me. And you see, Miss Melanctha, that's what makes me say what Iwas just saying to you when you asked me. "

"I certainly do thank you again for being honest to me, Dr. Campbell, "said Melanctha. "I guess I leave you now, Dr. Campbell. I think I goin the other room and rest a little. I leave you here, so perhaps if Iain't here you will maybe sleep and rest yourself a little. Good nightnow, Dr. Campbell, I call you if I need you later to help me, Dr. Campbell, I hope you rest well, Dr. Campbell. "

Jeff Campbell, when Melanctha left him, sat there and he was veryquiet and just wondered. He did not know very well just what Melancthameant by what she was always saying to him. He did not know very wellhow much he really knew about Melanctha Herbert. He wondered if heshould go on being so much all the time with her. He began to thinkabout what he should do now with her. Jefferson Campbell was a man wholiked everybody and many people liked very much to be with him. Women liked him, he was so strong, and good, and understanding, andinnocent, and firm, and gentle. Sometimes they seemed to want verymuch he should be with them. When they got so, they always had madeCampbell very tired. Sometimes he would play a little with them, but he never had had any strong feeling for them. Now with MelancthaHerbert everything seemed different. Jefferson was not sure that heknew here just what he wanted. He was not sure he knew just whatit was that Melanctha wanted. He knew if it was only play, withMelanctha, that he did not want to do it. But he remembered alwayshow she had told him he never knew how to feel things very deeply. He remembered how she told him he was afraid to let himself ever knowreal feeling, and then too, most of all to him, she had told himhe was not very understanding. That always troubled Jefferson verykeenly, he wanted very badly to be really understanding. If Jeffersononly knew better just what Melanctha meant by what she said. Jeffersonalways had thought he knew something about women. Now he found thatreally he knew nothing. He did not know the least bit about Melanctha. He did not know what it was right that he should do about it. Hewondered if it was just a little play that they were doing. If it wasa play he did not want to go on playing, but if it was really that hewas not very understanding, and that with Melanctha Herbert he couldlearn to really understand, then he was very certain he did not wantto be a coward. It was very hard for him to know what he wanted. Hethought and thought, and always he did not seem to know any betterwhat he wanted. At last he gave up this thinking. He felt sure it wasonly play with Melanctha. "No, I certainly won't go on fooling withher any more this way, " he said at last out loud to himself, when hewas through with this thinking. "I certainly will stop fooling, andbegin to go on with my thinking about my work and what's the matterwith people like 'Mis' Herbert, " and Jefferson took out his bookfrom his pocket, and drew near to the lamp, and began with some hardscientific reading. 

Jefferson sat there for about an hour reading, and he had reallyforgotten all about his trouble with Melanctha's meaning. Then 'Mis'Herbert had some trouble with her breathing. She woke up and wasgasping. Dr. Campbell went to her and gave her something that wouldhelp her. Melanctha came out from the other room and did things as hetold her. They together made 'Mis' Herbert more comfortable and easy, and soon she was again in her deep sleep. 

Dr. Campbell went back to the steps where he had been sitting. Melanctha came and stood a little while beside him, and then she satdown and watched him reading. By and by they began with their talking. Jeff Campbell began to feel that perhaps it was all different. Perhapsit was not just play, with Melanctha. Anyway he liked it very wellthat she was with him. He began to tell her about the book he was justreading. 

Melanctha was very intelligent always in her questions. Jefferson knewnow very well that she had a good mind. They were having a very goodtime, talking there together. And then they began again to get quiet. 

"It certainly was very good in you to come back and talk to me MissMelanctha, " Jefferson said at last to her, for now he was almostcertain, it was no game she was playing. Melanctha really was a goodwoman, and she had a good mind, and she had a real, strong sweetness, and she could surely really teach him. "Oh I always like to talk toyou Dr. Campbell" said Melanctha, "And then you was only just honestto me, and I always like it when a man is really honest to me. " Thenthey were again very silent, sitting there together, with the lampbetween them, that was always smoking. Melanctha began to lean alittle more toward Dr. Campbell, where he was sitting, and thenshe took his hand between her two and pressed it hard, but she saidnothing to him. She let it go then and leaned a little nearer to him. Jefferson moved a little but did not do anything in answer. At last, "Well, " said Melanctha sharply to him. "I was just thinking" began Dr. Campbell slowly, "I was just wondering, " he was beginning to get readyto go on with his talking. "Don't you ever stop with your thinkinglong enough ever to have any feeling Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha alittle sadly. "I don't know, " said Jeff Campbell slowly, "I don't knowMiss Melanctha much about that. No, I don't stop thinking much MissMelanctha and if I can't ever feel without stopping thinking, Icertainly am very much afraid Miss Melanctha that I never will domuch with that kind of feeling. Sure you ain't worried Miss Melanctha, about my really not feeling very much all the time. I certainly dothink I feel some, Miss Melanctha, even though I always do it withoutever knowing how to stop with my thinking. " "I am certainly afraid Idon't think much of your kind of feeling Dr. Campbell. " "Why I thinkyou certainly are wrong Miss Melanctha I certainly do think I feel asmuch for you Miss Melanctha, as you ever feel about me, sure I do. Idon't think you know me right when you talk like that to me. Tellme just straight out how much do you care about me, Miss Melanctha. ""Care about you Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha slowly. "I certainly docare for you Jeff Campbell less than you are always thinking and muchmore than you are ever knowing. "

Jeff Campbell paused on this, and he was silent with the power ofMelanctha's meaning. They sat there together very silent, a long time. "Well Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha. "Oh, " said Dr. Campbell and hemoved himself a little, and then they were very silent a long time. "Haven't you got nothing to say to me Jeff Campbell?" said Melanctha. "Why yes, what was it we were just saying about to one another. Yousee Miss Melanctha I am a very quiet, slow minded kind of fellow, andI am never sure I know just exactly what you mean by all that you arealways saying to me. But I do like you very much Miss Melanctha and Iam very sure you got very good things in you all the time. You suredo believe what I am saying to you Miss Melanctha. " "Yes I believe itwhen you say it to me, Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha, and then shewas silent and there was much sadness in it. "I guess I go in andlie down again Dr. Campbell, " said Melanctha. "Don't go leave me MissMelanctha, " said Jeff Campbell quickly. "Why not, what you want of meJeff Campbell?" said Melanctha. "Why, " said Jeff Campbell slowly, "Ijust want to go on talking with you. I certainly do like talking aboutall kinds of things with you. You certainly know that all right, MissMelanctha. " "I guess I go lie down again and leave you here with yourthinking, " said Melanctha gently. "I certainly am very tired to nightDr. Campbell. Good night I hope you rest well Dr. Campbell. " Melancthastooped over him, where he was sitting, to say this good night, andthen, very quick and sudden, she kissed him and then, very quickagain, she went away and left him. 

Dr. Campbell sat there very quiet, with only a little thinking andsometimes a beginning feeling, and he was alone until it began to bemorning, and then he went, and Melanctha helped him, and he made 'Mis'Herbert more easy in her dying. 'Mis' Herbert lingered on till aboutten o'clock the next morning, and then slowly and without muchpain she died away. Jeff Campbell staid till the last moment, withMelanctha, to make her mother's dying easy for her. When it was overhe sent in the colored woman from next door to help Melanctha fixthings, and then he went away to take care of his other patients. Hecame back very soon to Melanctha. He helped her to have a funeral forher mother. Melanctha then went to live with the good natured woman, who had been her neighbor. Melanctha still saw Jeff Campbell veryoften. Things began to be very strong between them. 

Melanctha now never wandered, unless she was with Jeff Campbell. Sometimes she and he wandered a good deal together. Jeff Campbellhad not got over his way of talking to her all the time about all thethings he was always thinking. Melanctha never talked much, now, whenthey were together. Sometimes Jeff Campbell teased her about hernot talking to him. "I certainly did think Melanctha you was a greattalker from the way Jane Harden and everybody said things to me, andfrom the way I heard you talk so much when I first met you. Tell metrue Melanctha, why don't you talk more now to me, perhaps it isI talk so much I don't give you any chance to say things to me, orperhaps it is you hear me talk so much you don't think so much now ofa whole lot of talking. Tell me honest Melanctha, why don't you talkmore to me. " "You know very well Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha "Youcertainly do know very well Jeff, you don't think really much, of mytalking. You think a whole lot more about everything than I do Jeff, and you don't care much what I got to say about it. You know that'strue what I am saying Jeff, if you want to be real honest, the way youalways are when I like you so much. " Jeff laughed and looked fondlyat her. "I don't say ever I know, you ain't right, when you say thingslike that to me, Melanctha. You see you always like to be talking justwhat you think everybody wants to be hearing from you, and when youare like that, Melanctha, honest, I certainly don't care very much tohear you, but sometimes you say something that is what you are reallythinking, and then I like a whole lot to hear you talking. " Melancthasmiled, with her strong sweetness, on him, and she felt her powervery deeply. "I certainly never do talk very much when I like anybodyreally, Jeff. You see, Jeff, it ain't much use to talk about what awoman is really feeling in her. You see all that, Jeff, better, by andby, when you get to really feeling. You won't be so ready then alwayswith your talking. You see, Jeff, if it don't come true what I amsaying. " "I don't ever say you ain't always right, Melanctha, " saidJeff Campbell. "Perhaps what I call my thinking ain't really so veryunderstanding. I don't say, no never now any more, you ain't right, Melanctha, when you really say things to me. Perhaps I see it all tobe very different when I come to really see what you mean by what youare always saying to me. " "You is very sweet and good to me always, Jeff Campbell, " said Melanctha. "'Deed I certainly am not good toyou, Melanctha. Don't I bother you all the time with my talking, butI really do like you a whole lot, Melanctha. " "And I like you, JeffCampbell, and you certainly are mother, and father, and brother, andsister, and child and everything, always to me. I can't say much abouthow good you been to me, Jeff Campbell, I never knew any man who wasgood and didn't do things ugly, before I met you to take care of me, Jeff Campbell. Good-by, Jeff, come see me to-morrow, when you getthrough with your working. " "Sure Melanctha, you know that already, "said Jeff Campbell, and then he went away and left her. 

These months had been an uncertain time for Jeff Campbell. He neverknew how much he really knew about Melanctha. He saw her now for longtimes and very often. He was beginning always more and more to likeher. But he did not seem to himself to know very much about her. Hewas beginning to feel he could almost trust the goodness in her. Butthen, always, really, he was not very sure about her. Melanctha alwayshad ways that made him feel uncertain with her, and yet he was sonear, in his feeling for her. He now never thought about all this inreal words any more. He was always letting it fight itself out inhim. He was now never taking any part in this fighting that was alwaysgoing on inside him. 

Jeff always loved now to be with Melanctha and yet he always hated togo to her. Somehow he was always afraid when he was to go to her, and yet he had made himself very certain that here he would not be acoward. He never felt any of this being afraid, when he was with her. Then they always were very true, and near to one another. But alwayswhen he was going to her, Jeff would like anything that could happenthat would keep him a little longer from her. 

It was a very uncertain time, all these months, for Jeff Campbell. Hedid not know very well what it was that he really wanted. He was verycertain that he did not know very well what it was that Melancthawanted. Jeff Campbell had always all his life loved to be with people, and he had loved all his life always to be thinking, but he was stillonly a great boy, was Jeff Campbell, and he had never before had anyof this funny kind of feeling. Now, this evening, when he was freeto go and see Melanctha, he talked to anybody he could find who woulddetain him, and so it was very late when at last he came to the housewhere Melanctha was waiting to receive him. 

Jeff came in to where Melanctha was waiting for him, and he took offhis hat and heavy coat, and then drew up a chair and sat down by thefire. It was very cold that night, and Jeff sat there, and rubbedhis hands and tried to warm them. He had only said "How do you do" toMelanctha, he had not yet begun to talk to her. Melanctha sat there, by the fire, very quiet. The heat gave a pretty pink glow to her paleyellow and attractive face. Melanctha sat in a low chair, her hands, with their long, fluttering fingers, always ready to show her strongfeeling, were lying quiet in her lap. Melanctha was very tired withher waiting for Jeff Campbell. She sat there very quiet and justwatching. Jeff was a robust, dark, healthy, cheery negro. His handswere firm and kindly and unimpassioned. He touched women always withhis big hands, like a brother. He always had a warm broad glow, likesouthern sunshine. He never had anything mysterious in him. Hewas open, he was pleasant, he was cheery, and always he wanted, as Melanctha once had wanted, always now he too wanted really tounderstand. 

Jeff sat there this evening in his chair and was silent a long time, warming himself with the pleasant fire. He did not look at Melancthawho was watching. He sat there and just looked into the fire. At firsthis dark, open face was smiling, and he was rubbing the back of hisblack-brown hand over his mouth to help him in his smiling. Then hewas thinking, and he frowned and rubbed his head hard, to help him inhis thinking. Then he smiled again, but now his smiling was not verypleasant. His smile was now wavering on the edge of scorning. Hissmile changed more and more, and then he had a look as if he weredeeply down, all disgusted. Now his face was darker, and he was bitterin his smiling, and he began, without looking from the fire, to talkto Melanctha, who was now very tense with her watching. 

"Melanctha Herbert", began Jeff Campbell, "I certainly after all thistime I know you, I certainly do know little, real about you. You see, Melanctha, it's like this way with me"; Jeff was frowning, with histhinking and looking very hard into the fire, "You see it's just thisway, with me now, Melanctha. Sometimes you seem like one kind of agirl to me, and sometimes you are like a girl that is all differentto me, and the two kinds of girls is certainly very different to eachother, and I can't see any way they seem to have much to do, to betogether in you. They certainly don't seem to be made much like as ifthey could have anything really to do with each other. Sometimes youare a girl to me I certainly never would be trusting, and you got alaugh then so hard, it just rattles, and you got ways so bad, I can'tbelieve you mean them hardly, and yet all that I just been saying iscertainly you one way I often see you, and it's what your mother andJane Harden always found you, and it's what makes me hate so, to comenear you. And then certainly sometimes, Melanctha, you certainly isall a different creature, and sometimes then there comes out in youwhat is certainly a thing, like a real beauty. I certainly, Melanctha, never can tell just how it is that it comes so lovely. Seems to mewhen it comes it's got a real sweetness, that is more wonderful than apure flower, and a gentleness, that is more tender than the sunshine, and a kindness, that makes one feel like summer, and then a wayto know, that makes everything all over, and all that, and it doescertainly seem to be real for the little while it's lasting, for thelittle while that I can surely see it, and it gives me to feel like Icertainly had got real religion. And then when I got rich with sucha feeling, comes all that other girl, and then that seems more likelythat that is really you what's honest, and then I certainly do getawful afraid to come to you, and I certainly never do feel I could bevery trusting with you. And then I certainly don't know anything atall about you, and I certainly don't know which is a real MelancthaHerbert, and I certainly don't feel no longer, I ever want to talk toyou. Tell me honest, Melanctha, which is the way that is you really, when you are alone, and real, and all honest. Tell me, Melanctha, forI certainly do want to know it. "

Melanctha did not make him any answer, and Jeff, without lookingat her, after a little while, went on with his talking. "And then, Melanctha, sometimes you certainly do seem sort of cruel, and not tocare about people being hurt or in trouble, something so hard aboutyou it makes me sometimes real nervous, sometimes somehow likeyou always, like your being, with 'Mis' Herbert. You sure did doeverything that any woman could, Melanctha, I certainly never did seeanybody do things any better, and yet, I don't know how to say justwhat I mean, Melanctha, but there was something awful hard about yourfeeling, so different from the way I'm always used to see good peoplefeeling, and so it was the way Jane Harden and 'Mis' Herbert talkedwhen they felt strong to talk about you, and yet, Melanctha, somehowI feel so really near to you, and you certainly have got an awfulwonderful, strong kind of sweetness. I certainly would like to knowfor sure, Melanctha, whether I got really anything to be afraid for. Icertainly did think once, Melanctha, I knew something about all kindsof women. I certainly know now really, how I don't know anything sureat all about you, Melanctha, though I been with you so long, and somany times for whole hours with you, and I like so awful much tobe with you, and I can always say anything I am thinking to you. Icertainly do awful wish, Melanctha, I really was more understanding. Icertainly do that same, Melanctha. "

Jeff stopped now and looked harder than before into the fire. His facechanged from his thinking back into that look that was so like as ifhe was all through and through him, disgusted with what he had beenthinking. He sat there a long time, very quiet, and then slowly, somehow, it came strongly to him that Melanctha Herbert, therebeside him, was trembling and feeling it all to be very bitter. "Why, Melanctha, " cried Jeff Campbell, and he got up and put his arm aroundher like a brother. "I stood it just so long as I could bear it, Jeff, " sobbed Melanctha, and then she gave herself away, to hermisery, "I was awful ready, Jeff, to let you say anything you likedthat gave you any pleasure. You could say all about me what youwanted, Jeff, and I would try to stand it, so as you would be sure tobe liking it, Jeff, but you was too cruel to me. When you do that kindof seeing how much you can make a woman suffer, you ought to give hera little rest, once sometimes, Jeff. They can't any of us stand it sofor always, Jeff. I certainly did stand it just as long as I could, so you would like it, but I, --oh Jeff, you went on too long to-nightJeff. I couldn't stand it not a minute longer the way you was doingof it, Jeff. When you want to be seeing how the way a woman is reallymade of, Jeff, you shouldn't never be so cruel, never to be thinkinghow much she can stand, the strong way you always do it, Jeff. " "Why, Melanctha, " cried Jeff Campbell, in his horror, and then he was verytender to her, and like a good, strong, gentle brother in his soothingof her, "Why Melanctha dear, I certainly don't now see what it is youmean by what you was just saying to me. Why Melanctha, you poor littlegirl, you certainly never did believe I ever knew I was giving youreal suffering. Why, Melanctha, how could you ever like me if youthought I ever could be so like a red Indian?" "I didn't just know, Jeff, " and Melanctha nestled to him, "I certainly never did know justwhat it was you wanted to be doing with me, but I certainly wantedyou should do anything you liked, you wanted, to make me moreunderstanding for you. I tried awful hard to stand it, Jeff, so as youcould do anything you wanted with me. " "Good Lord and Jesus Christ, Melanctha!" cried Jeff Campbell. "I certainly never can know anythingabout you real, Melanctha, you poor little girl, " and Jeff drew hercloser to him, "But I certainly do admire and trust you a whole lotnow, Melanctha. I certainly do, for I certainly never did think I washurting you at all, Melanctha, by the things I always been saying toyou. Melanctha, you poor little, sweet, trembling baby now, be good, Melanctha. I certainly can't ever tell you how awful sorry I am tohurt you so, Melanctha. I do anything I can to show you how Inever did mean to hurt you, Melanctha. " "I know, I know, " murmuredMelanctha, clinging to him. "I know you are a good man, Jeff. I alwaysknow that, no matter how much you can hurt me. " "I sure don't see howyou can think so, Melanctha, if you certainly did think I was tryingso hard just to hurt you. " "Hush, you are only a great big boy, JeffCampbell, and you don't know nothing yet about real hurting, " saidMelanctha, smiling up through her crying, at him. "You see, Jeff, I never knew anybody I could know real well and yet keep on alwaysrespecting, till I came to know you real well, Jeff. " "I sure don'tunderstand that very well, Melanctha. I ain't a bit better than justlots of others of the colored people. You certainly have been unluckywith the kind you met before me, that's all, Melanctha. I certainlyain't very good, Melanctha. " "Hush, Jeff, you don't know nothingat all about what you are, " said Melanctha. "Perhaps you are right, Melanctha. I don't say ever any more, you ain't right, when you saythings to me, Melanctha, " and Jefferson sighed, and then he smiled, and then they were quiet a long time together, and then after somemore kindness, it was late, and then Jeff left her. 

Jeff Campbell, all these months, had never told his good motheranything about Melanctha Herbert. Somehow he always kept his seeingher so much now, to himself. Melanctha too had never had any of herother friends meet him. They always acted together, these two, as iftheir being so much together was a secret, but really there was noone who would have made it any harder for them. Jeff Campbell did notreally know how it had happened that they were so secret. He did notknow if it was what Melanctha wanted. Jeff had never spoken to herat all about it. It just seemed as if it were well understood betweenthem that nobody should know that they were so much together. Itwas as if it were agreed between them, that they should be alone bythemselves always, and so they would work out together what they meantby what they were always saying to each other. 

Jefferson often spoke to Melanctha about his good mother. He neversaid anything about whether Melanctha would want to meet her. Jefferson never quite understood why all this had happened so, insecret. He never really knew what it was that Melanctha really wanted. In all these ways he just, by his nature, did, what he sort of feltMelanctha wanted. And so they continued to be alone and much together, and now it had come to be the spring time, and now they had allout-doors to wander. 

They had many days now when they were very happy. Jeff every day foundthat he really liked Melanctha better. Now surely he was beginning tohave real, deep feeling in him. And still he loved to talk himself outto Melanctha, and he loved to tell her how good it all was to him, andhow he always loved to be with her, and to tell her always all aboutit. One day, now Jeff arranged, that Sunday they would go out and havea happy, long day in the bright fields, and they would be all day justalone together. The day before, Jeff was called in to see Jane Harden. 

Jane Harden was very sick almost all day and Jeff Campbell dideverything he could to make her better. After a while Jane became moreeasy and then she began to talk to Jeff about Melanctha. Jane did notknow how much Jeff was now seeing of Melanctha. Jane these days neversaw Melanctha. Jane began to talk of the time when she first knewMelanctha. Jane began to tell how in these days Melanctha had verylittle understanding. She was young then and she had a good mind. JaneHarden never would say Melanctha never had a good mind, but in thosedays Melanctha certainly had not been very understanding. Jane beganto explain to Jeff Campbell how in every way, she Jane, had taughtMelanctha. Jane then began to explain how eager Melanctha always hadbeen for all that kind of learning. Jane Harden began to tell how theyhad wandered. Jane began to tell how Melanctha once had loved her, Jane Harden. Jane began to tell Jeff of all the bad ways Melanctha hadused with her. Jane began to tell all she knew of the way Melancthahad gone on, after she had left her. Jane began to tell all about thedifferent men, white ones and blacks, Melanctha never was particularabout things like that, Jane Harden said in passing, not thatMelanctha was a bad one, and she had a good mind, Jane Harden neverwould say that she hadn't, but Melanctha always liked to use all theunderstanding ways that Jane had taught her, and so she wanted to knoweverything, always, that they knew how to teach her. 

Jane was beginning to make Jeff Campbell see much clearer. Jane Hardendid not know what it was that she was really doing with all thistalking. Jane did not know what Jeff was feeling. Jane was alwayshonest when she was talking, and now it just happened she had startedtalking about her old times with Melanctha Herbert. Jeff understoodvery well that it was all true what Jane was saying. Jeff Campbell wasbeginning now to see very clearly. He was beginning to feel very sickinside him. He knew now many things Melanctha had not yet taughthim. He felt very sick and his heart was very heavy, and Melancthacertainly did seem very ugly to him. Jeff was at last beginning toknow what it was to have deep feeling. He took care a little longer ofJane Harden, and then he went to his other patients, and then he wenthome to his room, and he sat down and at last he had stopped thinking. He was very sick and his heart was very heavy in him. He was verytired and all the world was very dreary to him, and he knew very wellnow at last, he was really feeling. He knew it now from the way ithurt him. He knew very well that now at last he was beginning toreally have understanding. The next day he had arranged to spend, longand happy, all alone in the spring fields with Melanctha, wandering. He wrote her a note and said he could not go, he had a sick patientand would have to stay home with him. For three days after, he made nosign to Melanctha. He was very sick all these days, and his heartwas very heavy in him, and he knew very well that now at last he hadlearned what it was to have deep feeling. 

At last one day he got a letter from Melanctha. "I certainly don'trightly understand what you are doing now to me Jeff Campbell, " wroteMelanctha Herbert. "I certainly don't rightly understand Jeff Campbellwhy you ain't all these days been near me, but I certainly do supposeit's just another one of the queer kind of ways you have to be good, and repenting of yourself all of a sudden. I certainly don't say toyou Jeff Campbell I admire very much the way you take to be good JeffCampbell. I am sorry Dr. Campbell, but I certainly am afraid Ican't stand it no more from you the way you have been just acting. Icertainly can't stand it any more the way you act when you have beenas if you thought I was always good enough for anybody to have withthem, and then you act as if I was a bad one and you always justdespise me. I certainly am afraid Dr. Campbell I can't stand it anymore like that. I certainly can't stand it any more the way you arealways changing. I certainly am afraid Dr. Campbell you ain't manenough to deserve to have anybody care so much to be always with you. I certainly am awful afraid Dr. Campbell I don't ever any more wantto really see you. Good-by Dr. Campbell I wish you always to be realhappy. "

Jeff Campbell sat in his room, very quiet, a long time, after he gotthrough reading this letter. He sat very still and first he was veryangry. As if he, too, did not know very badly what it was to sufferkeenly. As if he had not been very strong to stay with Melanctha whenhe never knew what it was that she really wanted. He knew he was veryright to be angry, he knew he really had not been a coward. He knewMelanctha had done many things it was very hard for him to forgiveher. He knew very well he had done his best to be kind, and totrust her, and to be loyal to her, and now;--and then Jeff suddenlyremembered how one night Melanctha had been so strong to suffer, andhe felt come back to him the sweetness in her, and then Jeff knew thatreally, he always forgave her, and that really, it all was that he wasso sorry he had hurt her, and he wanted to go straight away and be acomfort to her. Jeff knew very well, that what Jane Harden had toldhim about Melanctha and her bad ways, had been a true story, and yethe wanted very badly to be with Melanctha. Perhaps she could teachhim to really understand it better. Perhaps she could teach him how itcould be all true, and yet how he could be right to believe in her andto trust her. 

Jeff sat down and began his answer to her. "Dear Melanctha, " Jeffwrote to her. "I certainly don't think you got it all just right inthe letter, I just been reading, that you just wrote me. I certainlydon't think you are just fair or very understanding to all I haveto suffer to keep straight on to really always to believe in you andtrust you. I certainly don't think you always are fair to rememberright how hard it is for a man, who thinks like I was always thinking, not to think you do things very bad very often. I certainly don'tthink, Melanctha, I ain't right when I was so angry when I got yourletter to me. I know very well, Melanctha, that with you, I never havebeen a coward. I find it very hard, and I never said it any different, it is hard to me to be understanding, and to know really what it isyou wanted, and what it is you are meaning by what you are alwayssaying to me. I don't say ever, it ain't very hard for you to bestanding that I ain't very quick to be following whichever way thatyou are always leading. You know very well, Melanctha, it hurts mevery bad and way inside me when I have to hurt you, but I always gotto be real honest with you. There ain't no other way for me to be, with you, and I know very well it hurts me too, a whole lot, whenI can't follow so quick as you would have me. I don't like to be acoward to you, Melanctha, and I don't like to say what I ain't meaningto you. And if you don't want me to do things honest, Melanctha, whyI can't ever talk to you, and you are right when you say, you neveragain want to see me, but if you got any real sense of what I alwaysbeen feeling with you, and if you got any right sense, Melanctha, ofhow hard I been trying to think and to feel right for you, I will bevery glad to come and see you, and to begin again with you. I don'tsay anything now, Melanctha, about how bad I been this week, sinceI saw you, Melanctha. It don't ever do any good to talk such thingsover. All I know is I do my best, Melanctha, to you, and I don't say, no, never, I can do any different than just to be honest and come asfast as I think it's right for me to be going in the ways you teachme to be really understanding. So don't talk any more foolishness, Melanctha, about my always changing. I don't change, never, and I gotto do what I think is right and honest to me, and I never told youany different, and you always knew it very well that I always would dojust so. If you like me to come and see you to-morrow, and go out withyou, I will be very glad to, Melanctha. Let me know right away, whatit is you want me to be doing for you, Melanctha. 

 Very truly yours, Jefferson Campbell

"Please come to me, Jeff. " Melanctha wrote back for her answer. Jeffwent very slowly to Melanctha, glad as he was, still to be going toher. Melanctha came, very quick, to meet him, when she saw himfrom where she had been watching for him. They went into the housetogether. They were very glad to be together. They were very good toone another. 

"I certainly did think, Melanctha, this time almost really, you neverdid want me to come to you at all any more to see you, " said JeffCampbell to her, when they had begun again with their talking to eachother. "You certainly did make me think, perhaps really this time, Melanctha, it was all over, my being with you ever, and I was verymad, and very sorry, too, Melanctha. "

"Well you certainly was very bad to me, Jeff Campbell, " saidMelanctha, fondly. 

"I certainly never do say any more you ain't always right, Melanctha, "Jeff answered and he was very ready now with cheerful laughing, "Icertainly never do say that any more, Melanctha, if I know it, butstill, really, Melanctha, honest, I think perhaps I wasn't real bad toyou any more than you just needed from me. "

Jeff held Melanctha in his arms and kissed her. He sighed then and wasvery silent with her. "Well, Melanctha, " he said at last, with somemore laughing, "well, Melanctha, any way you can't say ever it ain't, if we are ever friends good and really, you can't say, no, never, butthat we certainly have worked right hard to get both of us togetherfor it, so we shall sure deserve it then, if we can ever really getit. " "We certainly have worked real hard, Jeff, I can't say that ain'tall right the way you say it, " said Melanctha. "I certainly nevercan deny it, Jeff, when I feel so worn with all the trouble you beenmaking for me, you bad boy, Jeff, " and then Melanctha smiled and thenshe sighed, and then she was very silent with him. 

At last Jeff was to go away. They stood there on the steps for a longtime trying to say good-by to each other. At last Jeff made himselfreally say it. At last he made himself, that he went down the stepsand went away. 

On the next Sunday they arranged, they were to have the long happy dayof wandering that they had lost last time by Jane Harden's talking. Not that Melanctha Herbert had heard yet of Jane Harden's talking. 

Jeff saw Melanctha every day now. Jeff was a little uncertain all thistime inside him, for he had never yet told to Melanctha what it wasthat had so nearly made him really want to leave her. Jeff knew thatfor him, it was not right he should not tell her. He knew they couldonly have real peace between them when he had been honest, and hadreally told her. On this long Sunday Jeff was certain that he wouldreally tell her. 

They were very happy all that day in their wandering. They had takenthings along to eat together. They sat in the bright fields and theywere happy, they wandered in the woods and they were happy. Jeffalways loved in this way to wander. Jeff always loved to watcheverything as it was growing, and he loved all the colors in the treesand on the ground, and the little, new, bright colored bugs he foundin the moist ground and in the grass he loved to lie on and in whichhe was always so busy searching. Jeff loved everything that moved andthat was still, and that had color, and beauty, and real being. 

Jeff loved very much this day while they were wandering. He almostforgot that he had any trouble with him still inside him. Jeff lovedto be there with Melanctha Herbert. She was always so sympathetic tohim for the way she listened to everything he found and told her, theway she felt his joy in all this being, the way she never said shewanted anything different from the way they had it. It was certainly abusy and a happy day, this their first long day of really wandering. 

Later they were tired, and Melanctha sat down on the ground, and Jeffthrew himself his full length beside her. Jeff lay there, very quiet, and then he pressed her hand and kissed it and murmured to her, "Youcertainly are very good to me, Melanctha. " Melanctha felt it very deepand did not answer. Jeff lay there a long time, looking up abovehim. He was counting all the little leaves he saw above him. He wasfollowing all the little clouds with his eyes as they sailed past him. He watched all the birds that flew high beyond him, and all the timeJeff knew he must tell to Melanctha what it was he knew now, thatwhich Jane Harden, just a week ago, had told him. He knew very wellthat for him it was certain that he had to say it. It was hard, butfor Jeff Campbell the only way to lose it was to say it, the only wayto know Melanctha really, was to tell her all the struggle he hadmade to know her, to tell her so she could help him to understand histrouble better, to help him so that never again he could have any wayto doubt her. 

Jeff lay there a long time, very quiet, always looking up above him, and yet feeling very close now to Melanctha. At last he turned alittle toward her, took her hands closer in his to make him feel itstronger, and then very slowly, for the words came very hard for him, slowly he began his talk to her. 

"Melanctha, " began Jeff, very slowly, "Melanctha, it ain't right Ishouldn't tell you why I went away last week and almost never got thechance again to see you. Jane Harden was sick, and I went in to takecare of her. She began to tell everything she ever knew about you. Shedidn't know how well now I know you. I didn't tell her not to goon talking. I listened while she told me everything about you. Icertainly found it very hard with what she told me. I know she wastalking truth in everything she said about you. I knew you had beenfree in your ways, Melanctha, I knew you liked to get excitement theway I always hate to see the colored people take it. I didn'tknow, till I heard Jane Harden say it, you had done things so bad, Melanctha. When Jane Harden told me, I got very sick, Melanctha. Icouldn't bear hardly, to think, perhaps I was just another like themto you, Melanctha. I was wrong not to trust you perhaps, Melanctha, but it did make things very ugly to me. I try to be honest to you, Melanctha, the way you say you really want it from me. "

Melanctha drew her hands from Jeff Campbell. She sat there, and therewas deep scorn in her anger. 

"If you wasn't all through just selfish and nothing else, JeffCampbell, you would take care you wouldn't have to tell me things likethis, Jeff Campbell. "

Jeff was silent a little, and he waited before he gave his answer. Itwas not the power of Melanctha's words that held him, for, for them, he had his answer, it was the power of the mood that filled Melanctha, and for that he had no answer. At last he broke through this awe, withhis slow fighting resolution, and he began to give his answer. 

"I don't say ever, Melanctha, " he began, "it wouldn't have been moreright for me to stop Jane Harden in her talking and to come to you tohave you tell me what you were when I never knew you. I don't say it, no never to you, that that would not have been the right way for meto do, Melanctha. But I certainly am without any kind of doubting, Icertainly do know for sure, I had a good right to know about what youwere and your ways and your trying to use your understanding, everykind of way you could to get your learning. I certainly did have aright to know things like that about you, Melanctha. I don't say itever, Melanctha, and I say it very often, I don't say ever I shouldn'thave stopped Jane Harden in her talking and come to you and asked youyourself to tell me all about it, but I guess I wanted to keep myselffrom how much it would hurt me more, to have you yourself say it tome. Perhaps it was I wanted to keep you from having it hurt you somuch more, having you to have to tell it to me. I don't know, I don'tsay it was to help you from being hurt most, or to help me. Perhaps Iwas a coward to let Jane Harden tell me 'stead of coming straightto you, to have you tell me, but I certainly am sure, Melanctha, Icertainly had a right to know such things about you. I don't say itever, ever, Melanctha, I hadn't the just right to know those thingsabout you. " Melanctha laughed her harsh laugh. "You needn't have beenunder no kind of worry, Jeff Campbell, about whether you should haveasked me. You could have asked, it wouldn't have hurt nothing. Icertainly never would have told you nothing. " "I am not so sure ofthat, Melanctha, " said Jeff Campbell. "I certainly do think you wouldhave told me. I certainly do think I could make you feel it right totell me. I certainly do think all I did wrong was to let Jane Hardentell me. I certainly do know I never did wrong, to learn what she toldme. I certainly know very well, Melanctha, if I had come here to you, you would have told it all to me, Melanctha. "

He was silent, and this struggle lay there, strong, between them. It was a struggle, sure to be going on always between them. It was astruggle that was as sure always to be going on between them, as theirminds and hearts always were to have different ways of working. 

At last Melanctha took his hand, leaned over him and kissed him. "Isure am very fond of you, Jeff Campbell, " Melanctha whispered to him. 

Now for a little time there was not any kind of trouble between JeffCampbell and Melanctha Herbert. They were always together now for longtimes, and very often. They got much joy now, both of them, from beingall the time together. 

It was summer now, and they had warm sunshine to wander. It was summernow, and Jeff Campbell had more time to wander, for colored peoplenever get sick so much in the summer. It was summer now, and there wasa lovely silence everywhere, and all the noises, too, that they heardaround them were lovely ones, and added to the joy, in these warmdays, they loved so much to be together. 

They talked some to each other in these days, did Jeff Campbell andMelanctha Herbert, but always in these days their talking more andmore was like it always is with real lovers. Jeff did not talk somuch now about what he before always had been thinking. Sometimes Jeffwould be, as if he was just waking from himself to be with Melanctha, and then he would find he had been really all the long time with her, and he had really never needed to be doing any thinking. 

It was sometimes pure joy Jeff would be talking to Melanctha, in thesewarm days he loved so much to wander with her. Sometimes Jeff wouldlose all himself in a strong feeling. Very often now, and always withmore joy in his feeling, he would find himself, he did not know how orwhat it was he had been thinking. And Melanctha always loved very wellto make him feel it. She always now laughed a little at him, and wentback a little in him to his before, always thinking, and she teasedhim with his always now being so good with her in his feeling, andthen she would so well and freely, and with her pure, strong ways ofreaching, she would give him all the love she knew now very well, howmuch he always wanted to be sure he really had it. 

And Jeff took it straight now, and he loved it, and he felt, strong, the joy of all this being, and it swelled out full inside him, and hepoured it all out back to her in freedom, in tender kindness, and injoy, and in gentle brother fondling. And Melanctha loved him for italways, her Jeff Campbell now, who never did things ugly, for her, like all the men she always knew before always had been doing toher. And they loved it always, more and more, together, with this newfeeling they had now, in these long summer days so warm; they, alwaystogether now, just these two so dear, more and more to each otheralways, and the summer evenings when they wandered, and the noises inthe full streets, and the music of the organs, and the dancing, andthe warm smell of the people, and of dogs and of the horses, andall the joy of the strong, sweet pungent, dirty, moist, warm negrosouthern summer. 

Every day now, Jeff seemed to be coming nearer, to be really loving. Every day now, Melanctha poured it all out to him, with more freedom. Every day now, they seemed to be having more and more, both together, of this strong, right feeling. More and more every day now they seemedto know more really, what it was each other one was always feeling. More and more now every day Jeff found in himself, he felt moretrusting. More and more every day now, he did not think anything inwords about what he was always doing. Every day now more and moreMelanctha would let out to Jeff her real, strong feeling. 

One day there had been much joy between them, more than they ever yethad had with their new feeling. All the day they had lost themselvesin warm wandering. Now they were lying there and resting, with agreen, bright, light-flecked world around them. 

What was it that now really happened to them? What was it thatMelanctha did, that made everything get all ugly for them? What was itthat Melanctha felt then, that made Jeff remember all the feeling hehad had in him when Jane Harden told him how Melanctha had learnedto be so very understanding? Jeff did not know how it was that it hadhappened to him. It was all green, and warm, and very lovely to him, and now Melanctha somehow had made it all so ugly for him. What was itMelanctha was now doing with him? What was it he used to be thinkingwas the right way for him and all the colored people to be alwaystrying to make it right, the way they should be always living? Why wasMelanctha Herbert now all so ugly for him?

Melanctha Herbert somehow had made him feel deeply just then, whatvery more it was that she wanted from him. Jeff Campbell now feltin him what everybody always had needed to make them reallyunderstanding, to him. Jeff felt a strong disgust inside him; not forMelanctha herself, to him, not for himself really, in him, not forwhat it was that everybody wanted, in them; he only had disgustbecause he never could know really in him, what it was he wanted, tobe really right in understanding, for him, he only had disgust becausehe never could know really what it was really right to him to bealways doing, in the things he had before believed in, the things hebefore had believed in for himself and for all the colored people, theliving regular, and the never wanting to be always having new things, just to keep on, always being in excitements. All the old thinking nowcame up very strong inside him. He sort of turned away then, and threwMelanctha from him. 

Jeff never, even now, knew what it was that moved him. He never, evennow, was ever sure, he really knew what Melanctha was, when she wasreal herself, and honest. He thought he knew, and then there came tohim some moment, just like this one, when she really woke him up tobe strong in him. Then he really knew he could know nothing. He knewthen, he never could know what it was she really wanted with him. Heknew then he never could know really what it was he felt inside him. It was all so mixed up inside him. All he knew was he wanted verybadly Melanctha should be there beside him, and he wanted very badly, too, always to throw her from him. What was it really that Melancthawanted with him? What was it really, he, Jeff Campbell, wanted sheshould give him? "I certainly did think now, " Jeff Campbell groanedinside him, "I certainly did think now I really was knowing all right, what I wanted. I certainly did really think now I was knowing how tobe trusting with Melanctha. I certainly did think it was like that nowwith me sure, after all I've been through all this time with her. Andnow I certainly do know I don't know anything that's very real abouther. Oh the good Lord help and keep me!" and Jeff groaned hard insidehim, and he buried his face deep in the green grass underneath him, and Melanctha Herbert was very silent there beside him. 

Then Jeff turned to look and see her. She was lying very still thereby him, and the bitter water on her face was biting. Jeff was sovery sorry then, all over and inside him, the way he always was whenMelanctha had been deep hurt by him. "I didn't mean to be so badagain to you, Melanctha, dear one, " and he was very tender to her. "I certainly didn't never mean to go to be so bad to you, Melanctha, darling. I certainly don't know, Melanctha, darling, what it is makesme act so to you sometimes, when I certainly ain't meaning anythinglike I want to hurt you. I certainly don't mean to be so bad, Melanctha, only it comes so quick on me before I know what I amacting to you. I certainly am all sorry, hard, to be so bad to you, Melanctha, darling. " "I suppose, Jeff, " said Melanctha, very low andbitter, "I suppose you are always thinking, Jeff, somebody had oughtto be ashamed with us two together, and you certainly do think youdon't see any way to it, Jeff, for me to be feeling that way ever, soyou certainly don't see any way to it, only to do it just so oftenfor me. That certainly is the way always with you, Jeff Campbell, ifI understand you right the way you are always acting to me. Thatcertainly is right the way I am saying it to you now, Jeff Campbell. You certainly didn't anyway trust me now no more, did you, when youjust acted so bad to me. I certainly am right the way I say it Jeffnow to you. I certainly am right when I ask you for it now, to tell mewhat I ask you, about not trusting me more then again, Jeff, just likeyou never really knew me. You certainly never did trust me just then, Jeff, you hear me?" "Yes, Melanctha, " Jeff answered slowly. Melancthapaused. "I guess I certainly never can forgive you this time, JeffCampbell, " she said firmly. Jeff paused too, and thought a little. "Icertainly am afraid you never can no more now again, Melanctha, " hesaid sadly. 

They lay there very quiet now a long time, each one thinking very hardon their own trouble. At last Jeff began again to tell Melancthawhat it was he was always thinking with her. "I certainly do know, Melanctha, you certainly now don't want any more to be hearing mejust talking, but you see, Melanctha, really, it's just like this wayalways with me. You see, Melanctha, its like this way now all the timewith me. You remember, Melanctha, what I was once telling to you, whenI didn't know you very long together, about how I certainly never didknow more than just two kinds of ways of living, one way the way it isgood to be in families and the other kind of way, like animals are allthe time just with each other, and how I didn't ever like that lastkind of way much for any of the colored people. You see Melanctha, it's like this way with me. I got a new feeling now, you been teachingto me, just like I told you once, just like a new religion to me, and I see perhaps what really loving is like, like really havingeverything together, new things, little pieces all different, likeI always before been thinking was bad to be having, all go togetherlike, to make one good big feeling. You see, Melanctha, it's certainlylike that you make me been seeing, like I never know before any waythere was of all kinds of loving to come together to make one wayreally truly lovely. I see that now, sometimes, the way you certainlybeen teaching me, Melanctha, really, and then I love you those times, Melanctha, like a real religion, and then it comes over me all sudden, I don't know anything real about you Melanctha, dear one, and then itcomes over me sudden, perhaps I certainly am wrong now, thinking allthis way so lovely, and not thinking now any more the old way I alwaysbefore was always thinking, about what was the right way for me, tolive regular and all the colored people, and then I think, perhaps, Melanctha you are really just a bad one, and I think, perhaps Icertainly am doing it so because I just am too anxious to be justhaving all the time excitements, like I don't ever like really to bedoing when I know it, and then I always get so bad to you, Melanctha, and I can't help it with myself then, never, for I want to be alwaysright really in the ways, I have to do them. I certainly do very badlywant to be right, Melanctha, the only way I know is right Melancthareally, and I don't know any way, Melanctha, to find out really, whether my old way, the way I always used to be thinking, or the newway, you make so like a real religion to me sometimes, Melanctha, which way certainly is the real right way for me to be alwaysthinking, and then I certainly am awful good and sorry, Melanctha, Ialways give you so much trouble, hurting you with the bad ways I amacting. Can't you help me to any way, to make it all straight for me, Melanctha, so I know right and real what it is I should be acting. Yousee, Melanctha, I don't want always to be a coward with you, if Ionly could know certain what was the right way for me to be acting. I certainly am real sure, Melanctha, that would be the way I would beacting, if I only knew it sure for certain now, Melanctha. Can't youhelp me any way to find out real and true, Melanctha, dear one. Icertainly do badly want to know always, the way I should be acting. "

"No, Jeff, dear, I certainly can't help you much in that kind oftrouble you are always having. All I can do now, Jeff, is to just keepcertainly with my believing you are good always, Jeff, and though youcertainly do hurt me bad, I always got strong faith in you, Jeff, morein you certainly, than you seem to be having in your acting to me, always so bad, Jeff. "

"You certainly are very good to me, Melanctha, dear one, " Jeff said, after a long, tender silence. "You certainly are very good to me, Melanctha, darling, and me so bad to you always, in my acting. Do youlove me good, and right, Melanctha, always?" "Always and always, you be sure of that now you have me. Oh you Jeff, you always be sostupid. " "I certainly never can say now you ain't right, when you saythat to me so, Melanctha, " Jeff answered. "Oh, Jeff dear, I love youalways, you know that now, all right, for certain. If you don'tknow it right now, Jeff, really, I prove it to you now, for good andalways. " And they lay there a long time in their loving, and then Jeffbegan again with his happy free enjoying. 

"I sure am a good boy to be learning all the time the right way youare teaching me, Melanctha, darling, " began Jeff Campbell, laughing, "You can't say no, never, I ain't a good scholar for you to beteaching now, Melanctha, and I am always so ready to come to youevery day, and never playing hooky ever from you. You can't say ever, Melanctha, now can you, I ain't a real good boy to be always studyingto be learning to be real bright, just like my teacher. You can't sayever to me, I ain't a good boy to you now, Melanctha. " "Not near sogood, Jeff Campbell, as such a good, patient kind of teacher, likeme, who never teaches any ways it ain't good her scholars should beknowing, ought to be really having, Jeff, you hear me? I certainlydon't think I am right for you, to be forgiving always, when you areso bad, and I so patient, with all this hard teaching always. " "Butyou do forgive me always, sure, Melanctha, always?" "Always andalways, you be sure Jeff, and I certainly am afraid I never can stopwith my forgiving, you always are going to be so bad to me, and Ialways going to have to be so good with my forgiving. " "Oh! Oh!" criedJeff Campbell, laughing, "I ain't going to be so bad for always, sureI ain't, Melanctha, my own darling. And sure you do forgive me really, and sure you love me true and really, sure, Melanctha?" "Sure, sure, Jeff, boy, sure now and always, sure now you believe me, sure youdo, Jeff, always. " "I sure hope I does, with all my heart, Melanctha, darling. " "I sure do that same, Jeff, dear boy, now you really knowwhat it is to be loving, and I prove it to you now so, Jeff, you nevercan be forgetting. You see now, Jeff, good and certain, what I alwaysbefore been saying to you, Jeff, now. " "Yes, Melanctha, darling, "murmured Jeff, and he was very happy in it, and so the two of them nowin the warm air of the sultry, southern, negro sunshine, lay there fora long time just resting. 

And now for a real long time there was no open trouble any morebetween Jeff Campbell and Melanctha Herbert. Then it came that Jeffknew he could not say out any more, what it was he wanted, he couldnot say out any more, what it was, he wanted to know about, whatMelanctha wanted. 

Melanctha sometimes now, when she was tired with being all the time somuch excited, when Jeff would talk a long time to her about what wasright for them both to be always doing, would be, as if she gave wayin her head, and lost herself in a bad feeling. Sometimes when theyhad been strong in their loving, and Jeff would have rise inside himsome strange feeling, and Melanctha felt it in him as it would soon becoming, she would lose herself then in this bad feeling that made herhead act as if she never knew what it was they were doing. And slowlynow, Jeff soon always came to be feeling that his Melanctha would behurt very much in her head in the ways he never liked to think of, ifshe would ever now again have to listen to his trouble, when he wastelling about what it was he still was wanting to make things forhimself really understanding. 

Now Jeff began to have always a strong feeling that Melanctha could nolonger stand it, with all her bad suffering, to let him fight out withhimself what was right for him to be doing. Now he felt he must not, when she was there with him, keep on, with this kind of fighting thatwas always going on inside him. Jeff Campbell never knew yet, what hethought was the right way, for himself and for all the colored peopleto be living. Jeff was coming always each time closer to be reallyunderstanding, but now Melanctha was so bad in her suffering with him, that he knew she could not any longer have him with her while he wasalways showing that he never really yet was sure what it was, theright way, for them to be really loving. 

Jeff saw now he had to go so fast, so that Melanctha never would haveto wait any to get from him always all that she ever wanted. He nevercould be honest now, he never could be now, any more, trying to bereally understanding, for always every moment now he felt it to bea strong thing in him, how very much it was Melanctha Herbert alwayssuffered. 

Jeff did not know very well these days, what it was, was reallyhappening to him. All he knew every now and then, when they weregetting strong to get excited, the way they used to when he gave hisfeeling out so that he could be always honest, that Melanctha somehownever seemed to hear him, she just looked at him and looked as ifher head hurt with him, and then Jeff had to keep himself from beinghonest, and he had to go so fast, and to do everything Melanctha everwanted from him. 

Jeff did not like it very well these days, in his true feeling. Heknew now very well Melanctha was not strong enough inside her to standany more of his slow way of doing. And yet now he knew he was nothonest in his feeling. Now he always had to show more to Melancthathan he was ever feeling. Now she made him go so fast, and he knew itwas not real with his feeling, and yet he could not make her suffer soany more because he always was so slow with his feeling. 

It was very hard for Jeff Campbell to make all this way of doing, right, inside him. If Jeff Campbell could not be straight out, andreal honest, he never could be very strong inside him. Now Melanctha, with her making him feel, always, how good she was and how very muchshe suffered in him, made him always go so fast then, he could not bestrong then, to feel things out straight then inside him. Always nowwhen he was with her, he was being more, than he could already yet, be feeling for her. Always now, with her, he had something inside himalways holding in him, always now, with her, he was far ahead of hisown feeling. 

Jeff Campbell never knew very well these days what it was that wasgoing on inside him. All he knew was, he was uneasy now always to bewith Melanctha. All he knew was, that he was always uneasy when hewas with Melanctha, not the way he used to be from just not being veryunderstanding, but now, because he never could be honest with her, because he was now always feeling her strong suffering, in her, because he knew now he was having a straight, good feeling with her, but she went so fast, and he was so slow to her; Jeff knew his rightfeeling never got a chance to show itself as strong, to her. 

All this was always getting harder for Jeff Campbell. He was veryproud to hold himself to be strong, was Jeff Campbell. He was verytender not to hurt Melanctha, when he knew she would be sure to feelit badly in her head a long time after, he hated that he could not nowbe honest with her, he wanted to stay away to work it out all alone, without her, he was afraid she would feel it to suffer, if he keptaway now from her. He was uneasy always, with her, he was uneasy whenhe thought about her, he knew now he had a good, straight, strongfeeling of right loving for her, and yet now he never could use it tobe good and honest with her. 

Jeff Campbell did not know, these days, anything he could do tomake it better for her. He did not know anything he could do, to sethimself really right in his acting and his thinking toward her. Shepulled him so fast with her, and he did not dare to hurt her, and hecould not come right, so fast, the way she always needed he should bedoing it now, for her. 

These days were not very joyful ones now any more, to Jeff Campbell, with Melanctha. He did not think it out to himself now, in words, about her. He did not know enough, what was his real trouble, withher. 

Sometimes now and again with them, and with all this trouble for alittle while well forgotten by him, Jeff, and Melanctha with him, would be very happy in a strong, sweet loving. Sometimes then, Jeff would find himself to be soaring very high in his true loving. Sometimes Jeff would find them, in his loving, his soul swelling outfull inside him. Always Jeff felt now in himself, deep feeling. 

Always now Jeff had to go so much faster than was real with hisfeeling. Yet always Jeff knew how he had a right, strong feeling. Always now when Jeff was wondering, it was Melanctha he was doubting, in the loving. Now he would often ask her, was she real now to him, inher loving. He would ask her often, feeling something queer about itall inside him, though yet he was never really strong in his doubting, and always Melanctha would answer to him, "Yes Jeff, sure, you knowit, always, " and always Jeff felt a doubt now, in her loving. 

Always now Jeff felt in himself, deep loving. Always now he did notknow really, if Melanctha was true in her loving. 

All these days Jeff was uncertain in him, and he was uneasy aboutwhich way he should act so as not to be wrong and put them both intobad trouble. Always now he was, as if he must feel deep into Melancthato see if it was real loving he would find she now had in her, andalways he would stop himself, with her, for always he was afraid nowthat he might badly hurt her. 

Always now he liked it better when he was detained when he had to goand see her. Always now he never liked to go to be with her, althoughhe never wanted really, not to be always with her. Always now henever felt really at ease with her, even when they were good friendstogether. Always now he felt, with her, he could not be really honestto her. And Jeff never could be happy with her when he could not feelstrong to tell all his feeling to her. Always now every day he foundit harder to make the time pass, with her, and not let his feelingcome so that he would quarrel with her. 

And so one evening, late, he was to go to her. He waited a littlelong, before he went to her. He was afraid, in himself, to-night, hewould surely hurt her. He never wanted to go when he might quarrelwith her. 

Melanctha sat there looking very angry, when he came in to her. Jefftook off his hat and coat and then sat down by the fire with her. 

"If you come in much later to me just now, Jeff Campbell, I certainlynever would have seen you no more never to speak to you, 'thout yourapologising real humble to me. " "Apologising Melanctha, " and Jefflaughed and was scornful to her, "Apologising, Melanctha, I ain'tproud that kind of way, Melanctha, I don't mind apologising to you, Melanctha, all I mind, Melanctha is to be doing of things wrong, toyou. " "That's easy, to say things that way, Jeff to me. But you neverwas very proud Jeff, to be courageous to me. " "I don't know about thatMelanctha. I got courage to say some things hard, when I mean them, toyou. " "Oh, yes, Jeff, I know all about that, Jeff, to me. But I meanreal courage, to run around and not care nothing about what happens, and always to be game in any kind of trouble. That's what I meanby real courage, to me, Jeff, if you want to know it. " "Oh, yes, Melanctha, I know all that kind of courage. I see plenty of it allthe time with some kinds of colored men and with some girls like youMelanctha, and Jane Harden. I know all about how you are always makinga fuss to be proud because you don't holler so much when you run in towhere you ain't got any business to be, and so you get hurt, the wayyou ought to. And then, you kind of people are very brave then, sure, with all your kinds of suffering, but the way I see it, going roundwith all my patients, that kind of courage makes all kind of trouble, for them who ain't so noble with their courage, and then they got it, always to be bearing it, when the end comes, to be hurt the hardest. It's like running around and being game to spend all your moneyalways, and then a man's wife and children are the ones do all thestarving and they don't ever get a name for being brave, and theydon't ever want to be doing all that suffering, and they got to standit and say nothing. That's the way I see it a good deal now with allthat kind of braveness in some of the colored people. They always makea lot of noise to show they are so brave not to holler, when they gotso much suffering they always bring all on themselves, just bydoing things they got no business to be doing. I don't say, never, Melanctha, they ain't got good courage not to holler, but I never didsee much in looking for that kind of trouble just to show you ain'tgoing to holler. No its all right being brave every day, just livingregular and not having new ways all the time just to get excitements, the way I hate to see it in all the colored people. No I don't seemuch, Melanctha, in being brave just to get it good, where you'vegot no business. I ain't ashamed Melanctha, right here to tell you, Iain't ashamed ever to say I ain't got no longing to be brave, justto go around and look for trouble. " "Yes that's just like you always, Jeff, you never understand things right, the way you are alwaysfeeling in you. You ain't got no way to understand right, how itdepends what way somebody goes to look for new things, the way itmakes it right for them to get excited. "

"No Melanctha, I certainly never do say I understand much anybody'sgot a right to think they won't have real bad trouble, if they go andlook hard where they are certain sure to find it. No Melanctha, itcertainly does sound very pretty all this talking about danger andbeing game and never hollering, and all that way of talking, but whentwo men are just fighting, the strong man mostly gets on top withdoing good hard pounding, and the man that's getting all thatpounding, he mostly never likes it so far as I have been able yet tosee it, and I don't see much difference what kind of noble way theyare made of when they ain't got any kind of business to get togetherthere to be fighting. That certainly is the only way I ever see ithappen right, Melanctha, whenever I happen to be anywhere I can belooking. "

"That's because you never can see anything that ain't just so simple, Jeff, with everybody, the way you always think it. It do make allthe difference the kind of way anybody is made to do things game JeffCampbell. "

"Maybe Melanctha, I certainly never say no you ain't right, Melanctha. I just been telling it to you all straight, Melanctha, the way Ialways see it. Perhaps if you run around where you ain't got anybusiness, and you stand up very straight and say, I am so brave, nothing can ever ever hurt me, maybe nothing will ever hurt you thenMelanctha. I never have seen it do so. I never can say truly anydifferently to you Melanctha, but I always am ready to be learningfrom you, Melanctha. And perhaps when somebody cuts into you realhard, with a brick he is throwing, perhaps you never will do anyhollering then, Melanctha. I certainly don't ever say no, Melanctha, to you, I only say that ain't the way yet I ever see it happen when Ihad a chance to be there looking. "

They sat there together, quiet by the fire, and they did not seem tofeel very loving. 

"I certainly do wonder, " Melanctha said dreamily, at last breakinginto their long unloving silence. "I certainly do wonder why always ithappens to me I care for anybody who ain't no ways good enough for meever to be thinking to respect him. "

Jeff looked at Melanctha. Jeff got up then and walked a little up anddown the room, and then he came back, and his face was set and darkand he was very quiet to her. 

"Oh dear, Jeff, sure, why you look so solemn now to me. Sure Jeff Inever am meaning anything real by what I just been saying. What was Ijust been saying Jeff to you. I only certainly was just thinking howeverything always was just happening to me. "

Jeff Campbell sat very still and dark, and made no answer. 

"Seems to me, Jeff you might be good to me a little to-night when myhead hurts so, and I am so tired with all the hard work I have beendoing, thinking, and I always got so many things to be a trouble tome, living like I do with nobody ever who can help me. Seems to meyou might be good to me Jeff to-night, and not get angry, every littlething I am ever saying to you. "

"I certainly would not get angry ever with you, Melanctha, justbecause you say things to me. But now I certainly been thinking youreally mean what you have been just then saying to me. " "But you sayall the time to me Jeff, you ain't no ways good enough in your lovingto me, you certainly say to me all the time you ain't no ways goodor understanding to me. " "That certainly is what I say to you always, just the way I feel it to you Melanctha always, and I got it right inme to say it, and I have got a right in me to be very strong and feelit, and to be always sure to believe it, but it ain't right for youMelanctha to feel it. When you feel it so Melanctha, it does certainlymake everything all wrong with our loving. It makes it so I certainlynever can bear to have it. "

They sat there then a long time by the fire, very silent, and notloving, and never looking to each other for it. Melanctha was movingand twitching herself and very nervous with it. Jeff was heavy andsullen and dark and very serious in it. 

"Oh why can't you forget I said it to you Jeff now, and I certainly amso tired, and my head and all now with it. "

Jeff stirred, "All right Melanctha, don't you go make yourself sicknow in your head, feeling so bad with it, " and Jeff made himself doit, and he was a patient doctor again now with Melanctha when he felther really having her head hurt with it. "It's all right now Melancthadarling, sure it is now I tell you. You just lie down now a little, dear one, and I sit here by the fire and just read awhile and justwatch with you so I will be here ready, if you need me to give yousomething to help you resting. " And then Jeff was a good doctor toher, and very sweet and tender with her, and Melanctha loved him to bethere to help her, and then Melanctha fell asleep a little, and Jeffwaited there beside her until he saw she was really sleeping, and thenhe went back and sat down by the fire. 

And Jeff tried to begin again with his thinking, and he could notmake it come clear to himself, with all his thinking, and he felteverything all thick and heavy and bad, now inside him, everythingthat he could not understand right, with all the hard work he made, with his thinking. And then he moved himself a little, and took a bookto forget his thinking, and then as always, he loved it when he wasreading, and then very soon he was deep in his reading, and so heforgot now for a little while that he never could seem to be veryunderstanding. 

And so Jeff forgot himself for awhile in his reading, and Melancthawas sleeping. And then Melanctha woke up and she was screaming. "Oh, Jeff, I thought you gone away for always from me. Oh, Jeff, never nowgo away no more from me. Oh, Jeff, sure, sure, always be just so goodto me"

There was a weight in Jeff Campbell from now on, always with him, thathe could never lift out from him, to feel easy. He always was tryingnot to have it in him and he always was trying not to let Melancthafeel it, with him, but it was always there inside him. Now JeffCampbell always was serious, and dark, and heavy, and sullen, and hewould often sit a long time with Melanctha without moving. 

"You certainly never have forgiven to me, what I said to you thatnight, Jeff, now have you?" Melanctha asked him after a long silence, late one evening with him. "It ain't ever with me a question likeforgiving, Melanctha, I got in me. It's just only what you are feelingfor me, makes any difference to me. I ain't ever seen anything sincein you, makes me think you didn't mean it right, what you said aboutnot thinking now any more I was good, to make it right for you to bereally caring so very much to love me. "

"I certainly never did see no man like you, Jeff. You always wantingto have it all clear out in words always, what everybody is alwaysfeeling. I certainly don't see a reason, why I should always beexplaining to you what I mean by what I am just saying. And you ain'tgot no feeling ever for me, to ask me what I meant, by what I wassaying when I was so tired, that night. I never know anything right Iwas saying. " "But you don't ever tell me now, Melanctha, so I reallyhear you say it, you don't mean it the same way, the way you said itto me. " "Oh Jeff, you so stupid always to me and always just botheringwith your always asking to me. And I don't never any way remember everanything I been saying to you, and I am always my head, so it hurtsme it half kills me, and my heart jumps so, sometimes I think I dieso when it hurts me, and I am so blue always, I think sometimes I takesomething to just kill me, and I got so much to bother thinking alwaysand doing, and I got so much to worry, and all that, and then you comeand ask me what I mean by what I was just saying to you. I certainlydon't know, Jeff, when you ask me. Seems to me, Jeff, sometimes youmight have some kind of a right feeling to be careful to me. " "Youain't got no right Melanctha Herbert, " flashed out Jeff through hisdark, frowning anger, "you certainly ain't got no right always to beusing your being hurt and being sick, and having pain, like a weapon, so as to make me do things it ain't never right for me to be doing foryou. You certainly ain't got no right to be always holding your painout to show me. " "What do you mean by them words, Jeff Campbell. " "Icertainly do mean them just like I am saying them, Melanctha. Youact always, like I been responsible all myself for all our loving oneanother. And if its anything anyway that ever hurts you, you act likeas if it was me made you just begin it all with me. I ain't no coward, you hear me, Melanctha? I never put my trouble back on anybody, thinking that they made me. I certainly am right ready always, Melanctha, you certainly had ought to know me, to stand all my owntrouble for me, but I tell you straight now, the way I think itMelanctha, I ain't going to be as if I was the reason why you wantedto be loving, and to be suffering so now with me. " "But ain't youcertainly ought to be feeling it so, to be right, Jeff Campbell. Did Iever do anything but just let you do everything you wanted to me. DidI ever try to make you be loving to me. Did I ever do nothing exceptjust sit there ready to endure your loving with me. But I certainlynever, Jeff Campbell, did make any kind of way as if I wanted reallyto be having you for me. "

Jeff stared at Melanctha. "So that's the way you say it when you arethinking right about it all, Melanctha. Well I certainly ain't gota word to say ever to you any more, Melanctha, if that's the way itsstraight out to you now, Melanctha. " And Jeff almost laughed out toher, and he turned to take his hat and coat, and go away now foreverfrom her. 

Melanctha dropped her head on her arms, and she trembled all over andinside her. Jeff stopped a little and looked very sadly at her. Jeffcould not so quickly make it right for himself, to leave her. 

"Oh, I certainly shall go crazy now, I certainly know that, " Melancthamoaned as she sat there, all fallen and miserable and weak together. 

Jeff came and took her in his arms, and held her. Jeff was very goodthen to her, but they neither of them felt inside all right, as theyonce did, to be together. 

From now on, Jeff had real torment in him. 

Was it true what Melanctha had said that night to him? Was it truethat he was the one had made all this trouble for them? Was it true, he was the only one, who always had had wrong ways in him? Waking orsleeping Jeff now always had this torment going on inside him. 

Jeff did not know now any more, what to feel within him. He did notknow how to begin thinking out this trouble that must always now bebad inside him. He just felt a confused struggle and resentment alwaysin him, a knowing, no, Melanctha was not right in what she had saidthat night to him, and then a feeling, perhaps he always had beenwrong in the way he never could be understanding. And then would comestrong to him, a sense of the deep sweetness in Melanctha's loving anda hating the cold slow way he always had to feel things in him. 

Always Jeff knew, sure, Melanctha was wrong in what she had said thatnight to him, but always Melanctha had had deep feeling with him, always he was poor and slow in the only way he knew how to have anyfeeling. Jeff knew Melanctha was wrong, and yet he always had a deepdoubt in him. What could he know, who had such slow feeling in him?What could he ever know, who always had to find his way with justthinking. What could he know, who had to be taught such a long time tolearn about what was really loving? Jeff now always had this tormentin him. 

Melanctha was now always making him feel her way, strong whenever shewas with him. Did she go on to do it just to show him, did she do itso now because she was no longer loving, did she do it so because thatwas her way to make him be really loving. Jeff never did know how itwas that it all happened so to him. 

Melanctha acted now the way she had said it always had been with them. Now it was always Jeff who had to do the asking. Now it was alwaysJeff who had to ask when would be the next time he should come to seeher. Now always she was good and patient to him, and now always shewas kind and loving with him, and always Jeff felt it was, that shewas good to give him anything he ever asked or wanted, but never nowany more for her own sake to make her happy in him. Now she did thesethings, as if it was just to please her Jeff Campbell who needed sheshould now have kindness for him. Always now he was the beggar, withthem. Always now Melanctha gave it, not of her need, but from herbounty to him. Always now Jeff found it getting harder for him. 

Sometimes Jeff wanted to tear things away from before him, alwaysnow he wanted to fight things and be angry with them, and always nowMelanctha was so patient to him. 

Now, deep inside him, there was always a doubt with Jeff, ofMelanctha's loving. It was not a doubt yet to make him reallydoubting, for with that, Jeff never could be really loving, but alwaysnow he knew that something, and that not in him, something was wrongwith their loving. Jeff Campbell could not know any right way to thinkout what was inside Melanctha with her loving, he could not use anyway now to reach inside her to find if she was true in her loving, butnow something had gone wrong between them, and now he never felt surein him, the way once she had made him, that now at last he really hadgot to be understanding. 

Melanctha was too many for him. He was helpless to find out the wayshe really felt now for him. Often Jeff would ask her, did she reallylove him. Always she said, "Yes Jeff, sure, you know that, " and nowinstead of a full sweet strong love with it, Jeff only felt a patient, kind endurance in it. 

Jeff did not know. If he was right in such a feeling, he certainlynever any more did want to have Melanctha Herbert with him. JeffCampbell hated badly to think Melanctha never would give him love, just for his sake, and not because she needed it herself, to be withhim. Such a way of loving would be very hard for Jeff to be enduring. 

"Jeff what makes you act so funny to me. Jeff you certainly now arejealous to me. Sure Jeff, now I don't see ever why you be so foolishto look so to me. " "Don't you ever think I can be jealous of anybodyever Melanctha, you hear me. It's just, you certainly don't everunderstand me. It's just this way with me always now Melanctha. Youlove me, and I don't care anything what you do or what you ever beento anybody. You don't love me, then I don't care any more about whatyou ever do or what you ever be to anybody. But I never want you to bebeing good Melanctha to me, when it ain't your loving makes you needit. I certainly don't ever want to be having any of your kind ofkindness to me. If you don't love me, I can stand it. All I never wantto have is your being good to me from kindness. If you don't loveme, then you and I certainly do quit right here Melanctha, all strongfeeling, to be always living to each other. It certainly neveris anybody I ever am thinking about when I am thinking with youMelanctha, darling. That's the true way I am telling you Melanctha, always. It's only your loving me ever gives me anything to bother meMelanctha, so all you got to do, if you don't really love me, is justcertainly to say so to me. I won't bother you more then than I canhelp to keep from it Melanctha. You certainly need never to be inany worry, never, about me Melanctha. You just tell me straight outMelanctha, real, the way you feel it. I certainly can stand it allright, I tell you true Melanctha. And I never will care to know why ornothing Melanctha. Loving is just living Melanctha to me, and if youdon't really feel it now Melanctha to me, there ain't ever nothingbetween us then Melanctha, is there? That's straight and honest justthe way I always feel it to you now Melanctha. Oh Melanctha, darling, do you love me? Oh Melanctha, please, please, tell me honest, tell me, do you really love me?"

"Oh you so stupid Jeff boy, of course I always love you. Always andalways Jeff and I always just so good to you. Oh you so stupid Jeffand don't know when you got it good with me. Oh dear, Jeff I certainlyam so tired Jeff to-night, don't you go be a bother to me. Yes I loveyou Jeff, how often you want me to tell you. Oh you so stupid Jeff, but yes I love you. Now I won't say it no more now tonight Jeff, youhear me. You just be good Jeff now to me or else I certainly get awfulangry with you. Yes I love you, sure, Jeff, though you don't any waydeserve it from me. Yes, yes I love you. Yes Jeff I say it till Icertainly am very sleepy. Yes I love you now Jeff, and you certainlymust stop asking me to tell you. Oh you great silly boy Jeff Campbell, sure I love you, oh you silly stupid, my own boy Jeff Campbell. YesI love you and I certainly never won't say it one more time to-nightJeff, now you hear me. "

Yes Jeff Campbell heard her, and he tried hard to believe her. He didnot really doubt her but somehow it was wrong now, the way Melancthasaid it. Jeff always now felt baffled with Melanctha. Something, heknew, was not right now in her. Something in her always now was makingstronger the torment that was tearing every minute at the joy he oncealways had had with her. 

Always now Jeff wondered did Melanctha love him. Always now he waswondering, was Melanctha right when she said, it was he had made alltheir beginning. Was Melanctha right when she said, it was he had thereal responsibility for all the trouble they had and still were havingnow between them. If she was right, what a brute he always had been inhis acting. If she was right, how good she had been to endure thepain he had made so bad so often for her. But no, surely she had madeherself to bear it, for her own sake, not for his to make him happy. Surely he was not so twisted in all his long thinking. Surely hecould remember right what it was had happened every day in their longloving. Surely he was not so poor a coward as Melanctha always seemedto be thinking. Surely, surely, and then the torment would get worseevery minute in him. 

One night Jeff Campbell was lying in his bed with his thinking, andnight after night now he could not do any sleeping for his thinking. Tonight suddenly he sat up in his bed, and it all came clear to him, and he pounded his pillow with his fist, and he almost shouted outalone there to him, "I ain't a brute the way Melanctha has beensaying. Its all wrong the way I been worried thinking. We did beginfair, each not for the other but for ourselves, what we were wanting. Melanctha Herbert did it just like I did it, because she liked it badenough to want to stand it. It's all wrong in me to think it any wayexcept the way we really did it. I certainly don't know now whethershe is now real and true in her loving. I ain't got any way ever tofind out if she is real and true now always to me. All I know is Ididn't ever make her to begin to be with me. Melanctha has gotto stand for her own trouble, just like I got to stand for my owntrouble. Each man has got to do it for himself when he is in realtrouble. Melanctha, she certainly don't remember right when she saysI made her begin and then I made her trouble. No by God, I ain'tno coward nor a brute either ever to her. I been the way I feltit honest, and that certainly is all about it now between us, andeverybody always has just got to stand for their own trouble. Icertainly am right this time the way I see it. " And Jeff lay downnow, at last in comfort, and he slept, and he was free from his longdoubting torment. 

"You know Melanctha, " Jeff Campbell began, the next time he was aloneto talk a long time to Melanctha. "You know Melanctha, sometimes Ithink a whole lot about what you like to say so much about being gameand never doing any hollering. Seems to me Melanctha, I certainlydon't understand right what you mean by not hollering. Seems to meit certainly ain't only what comes right away when one is hit, thatcounts to be brave to be bearing, but all that comes later from yourgetting sick from the shock of being hurt once in a fight, andall that, and all the being taken care of for years after, and thesuffering of your family, and all that, you certainly must stand andnot holler, to be certainly really brave the way I understand it. ""What you mean Jeff by your talking. " "I mean, seems to me really notto holler, is to be strong not to show you ever have been hurt. Seemsto me, to get your head hurt from your trouble and to show it, ain'tcertainly no braver than to say, oh, oh, how bad you hurt me, pleasedon't hurt me mister. It just certainly seems to me, like many peoplethink themselves so game just to stand what we all of us always justgot to be standing, and everybody stands it, and we don't certainlynone of us like it, and yet we don't ever most of us think we are somuch being game, just because we got to stand it. "

"I know what you mean now by what you are saying to me now JeffCampbell. You make a fuss now to me, because I certainly just havestopped standing everything you like to be always doing so cruel tome. But that's just the way always with you Jeff Campbell, if you wantto know it. You ain't got no kind of right feeling for all I alwaysbeen forgiving to you. " "I said it once for fun, Melanctha, but now Icertainly do mean it, you think you got a right to go where you gotno business, and you say, I am so brave nothing can hurt me, and thensomething, like always, it happens to hurt you, and you show your hurtalways so everybody can see it, and you say, I am so brave nothing didhurt me except he certainly didn't have any right to, and see howbad I suffer, but you never hear me make a holler, though certainlyanybody got any feeling, to see me suffer, would certainly never touchme except to take good care of me. Sometimes I certainly don't rightlysee Melanctha, how much more game that is than just the ordinary kindof holler. " "No, Jeff Campbell, and made the way you is you certainlyain't likely ever to be much more understanding. " "No, Melanctha, noryou neither. You think always, you are the only one who ever can doany way to really suffer. " "Well, and ain't I certainly always beenthe only person knows how to bear it. No, Jeff Campbell, I certainlybe glad to love anybody really worthy, but I made so, I never seemto be able in this world to find him. " "No, and your kind of way ofthinking, you certainly Melanctha never going to any way be able everto be finding of him. Can't you understand Melanctha, ever, how no mancertainly ever really can hold your love for long times together. You certainly Melanctha, you ain't got down deep loyal feeling, trueinside you, and when you ain't just that moment quick with feeling, then you certainly ain't ever got anything more there to keep you. You see Melanctha, it certainly is this way with you, it is, thatyou ain't ever got any way to remember right what you been doing, oranybody else that has been feeling with you. You certainly Melanctha, never can remember right, when it comes what you have done and whatyou think happens to you. " "It certainly is all easy for you JeffCampbell to be talking. You remember right, because you don't remembernothing till you get home with your thinking everything all over, butI certainly don't think much ever of that kind of way of rememberingright, Jeff Campbell. I certainly do call it remembering right JeffCampbell, to remember right just when it happens to you, so you have aright kind of feeling not to act the way you always been doing to me, and then you go home Jeff Campbell, and you begin with your thinking, and then it certainly is very easy for you to be good and forgivingwith it. No, that ain't to me, the way of remembering Jeff Campbell, not as I can see it not to make people always suffer, waiting for youcertainly to get to do it. Seems to me like Jeff Campbell, I nevercould feel so like a man was low and to be scorning of him, like thatday in the summer, when you threw me off just because you got one ofthose fits of your remembering. No, Jeff Campbell, its real feelingevery moment when its needed, that certainly does seem to me like realremembering. And that way, certainly, you don't never know nothinglike what should be right Jeff Campbell. No Jeff, it's me that alwayscertainly has had to bear it with you. It's always me that certainlyhas had to suffer, while you go home to remember. No you certainlyain't got no sense yet Jeff, what you need to make you really feeling. No, it certainly is me Jeff Campbell, that always has got to beremembering for us both, always. That's what's the true way with usJeff Campbell, if you want to know what it is I am always thinking. ""You is certainly real modest Melanctha, when you do this kind oftalking, you sure is Melanctha, " said Jeff Campbell laughing. "Ithink sometimes Melanctha I am certainly awful conceited, when I thinksometimes I am all out doors, and I think I certainly am so bright, and better than most everybody I ever got anything now to do with, butwhen I hear you talk this way Melanctha, I certainly do think I am areal modest kind of fellow. " "Modest!" said Melanctha, angry, "Modest, that certainly is a queer thing for you Jeff to be calling yourselfeven when you are laughing. " "Well it certainly does depend a wholelot what you are thinking with, " said Jeff Campbell. "I never did useto think I was so much on being real modest Melanctha, but now I knowreally I am, when I hear you talking. I see all the time there aremany people living just as good as I am, though they are a littledifferent to me. Now with you Melanctha if I understand you right whatyou are talking, you don't think that way of no other one that you areever knowing. " "I certainly could be real modest too, Jeff Campbell, "said Melanctha, "If I could meet somebody once I could keep righton respecting when I got so I was really knowing with them. But Icertainly never met anybody like that yet, Jeff Campbell, if you wantto know it. " "No, Melanctha, and with the way you got of thinking, it certainly don't look like as if you ever will Melanctha, with yournever remembering anything only what you just then are feeling in you, and you not understanding what any one else is ever feeling, if theydon't holler just the way you are doing. No Melanctha, I certainlydon't see any ways you are likely ever to meet one, so good as you arealways thinking you be. " "No, Jeff Campbell, it certainly ain'tthat way with me at all the way you say it. It's because I am alwaysknowing what it is I am wanting, when I get it. I certainly don'tnever have to wait till I have it, and then throw away what I got inme, and then come back and say, that's a mistake I just been making, it ain't that never at all like I understood it, I want to have, bad, what I didn't think it was I wanted. It's that way of knowing rightwhat I am wanting, makes me feel nobody can come right with me, when Iam feeling things, Jeff Campbell. I certainly do say Jeff Campbell, Icertainly don't think much of the way you always do it, always neverknowing what it is you are ever really wanting and everybody alwaysgot to suffer. No Jeff, I don't certainly think there is much doubtingwhich is better and the stronger with us two, Jeff Campbell. "

"As you will, Melanctha Herbert, " cried Jeff Campbell, and he rose up, and he thundered out a black oath, and he was fierce to leave her nowforever, and then with the same movement, he took her in his arms andheld her. 

"What a silly goose boy you are, Jeff Campbell, " Melanctha whisperedto him fondly. 

"Oh yes, " said Jeff, very dreary. "I never could keep really mad withanybody, not when I was a little boy and playing. I used most to crysometimes, I couldn't get real mad and keep on a long time withit, the way everybody always did it. It's certainly no use to meMelanctha, I certainly can't ever keep mad with you Melanctha, my dearone. But don't you ever be thinking it's because I think you rightin what you been just saying to me. I don't Melanctha really think itthat way, honest, though I certainly can't get mad the way I ought to. No Melanctha, little girl, really truly, you ain't right the way youthink it. I certainly do know that Melanctha, honest. You certainlydon't do me right Melanctha, the way you say you are thinking. Good-bye Melanctha, though you certainly is my own little girl foralways. " And then they were very good a little to each other, and thenJeff went away for that evening, from her. 

Melanctha had begun now once more to wander. Melanctha did not yetalways wander, but a little now she needed to begin to look forothers. Now Melanctha Herbert began again to be with some of thebetter kind of black girls, and with them she sometimes wandered. Melanctha had not yet come again to need to be alone, when shewandered. 

Jeff Campbell did not know that Melanctha had begun again to wander. All Jeff knew, was that now he could not be so often with her. 

Jeff never knew how it had come to happen to him, but now he neverthought to go to see Melanctha Herbert, until he had before, askedher if she could be going to have time then to have him with her. ThenMelanctha would think a little, and then she would say to him, "Let mesee Jeff, to-morrow, you was just saying to me. I certainly am awfulbusy you know Jeff just now. It certainly does seem to me this weekJeff, I can't anyways fix it. Sure I want to see you soon Jeff. Icertainly Jeff got to do a little more now, I been giving so muchtime, when I had no business, just to be with you when you asked me. Now I guess Jeff, I certainly can't see you no more this week Jeff, the way I got to do things. " "All right Melanctha, " Jeff would answerand he would be very angry. "I want to come only just certainly asyou want me now Melanctha. " "Now Jeff you know I certainly can't beneglecting always to be with everybody just to see you. You come seeme next week Tuesday Jeff, you hear me. I don't think Jeff I certainlybe so busy, Tuesday. " Jeff Campbell would then go away and leave her, and he would be hurt and very angry, for it was hard for a man with agreat pride in himself, like Jeff Campbell, to feel himself no betterthan a beggar. And yet he always came as she said he should, on theday she had fixed for him, and always Jeff Campbell was not sureyet that he really understood what it was Melanctha wanted. AlwaysMelanctha said to him, yes she loved him, sure he knew that. AlwaysMelanctha said to him, she certainly did love him just the same asalways, only sure he knew now she certainly did seem to be right busywith all she certainly now had to be doing. 

Jeff never knew what Melanctha had to do now, that made her alwaysbe so busy, but Jeff Campbell never cared to ask Melanctha such aquestion. Besides Jeff knew Melanctha Herbert would never, in such amatter, give him any kind of a real answer. Jeff did not know whetherit was that Melanctha did not know how to give a simple answer. Andthen how could he, Jeff, know what was important to her. Jeff Campbellalways felt strongly in him, he had no right to interfere withMelanctha in any practical kind of a matter. There they had always, never asked each other any kind of question. There they had feltalways in each other, not any right to take care of one another. AndJeff Campbell now felt less than he had ever, any right to claim toknow what Melanctha thought it right that she should do in any of herways of living. All Jeff felt a right in himself to question, was herloving. 

Jeff learned every day now, more and more, how much it was that hecould really suffer. Sometimes it hurt so in him, when he was alone, it would force some slow tears from him. But every day, now that JeffCampbell, knew more how it could hurt him, he lost his feeling of deepawe that he once always had had for Melanctha's feeling. Suffering wasnot so much after all, thought Jeff Campbell, if even he could feel itso it hurt him. It hurt him bad, just the way he knew he once had hurtMelanctha, and yet he too could have it and not make any kind of aloud holler with it. 

In tender hearted natures, those that mostly never feel strongpassion, suffering often comes to make them harder. When these do notknow in themselves what it is to suffer, suffering is then very awfulto them and they badly want to help everyone who ever has to suffer, and they have a deep reverence for anybody who knows really how toalways surfer. But when it comes to them to really suffer, they soonbegin to lose their fear and tenderness and wonder. Why it isn't sovery much to suffer, when even I can bear to do it. It isn't verypleasant to be having all the time, to stand it, but they are not somuch wiser after all, all the others just because they know too how tobear it. 

Passionate natures who have always made themselves, to suffer, that isall the kind of people who have emotions that come to them as sharp asa sensation, they always get more tender-hearted when they suffer, andit always does them good to suffer. Tender-hearted, unpassionate, andcomfortable natures always get much harder when they suffer, forso they lose the fear and reverence and wonder they once had foreverybody who ever has to suffer, for now they know themselves what itis to suffer and it is not so awful any longer to them when they knowtoo, just as well as all the others, how to have it. 

And so it came in these days to Jeff Campbell. Jeff knew now always, way inside him, what it is to really suffer, and now every day withit, he knew how to understand Melanctha better. Jeff Campbell stillloved Melanctha Herbert and he still had a real trust in her andhe still had a little hope that some day they would once more gettogether, but slowly, every day, this hope in him would keep growingalways weaker. They still were a good deal of time together, but nowthey never any more were really trusting with each other. In the dayswhen they used to be together, Jeff had felt he did not know much whatwas inside Melanctha, but he knew very well, how very deep always washis trust in her; now he knew Melanctha Herbert better, but now henever felt a deep trust in her. Now Jeff never could be really honestwith her. He never doubted yet, that she was steady only to him, butsomehow he could not believe much really in Melanctha's loving. 

Melanctha Herbert was a little angry now when Jeff asked her, "I nevergive nobody before Jeff, ever more than one chance with me, and Icertainly been giving you most a hundred Jeff, you hear me. " "And whyshouldn't you Melanctha, give me a million, if you really love me!"Jeff flashed out very angry. "I certainly don't know as you deservethat anyways from me, Jeff Campbell. " "It ain't deserving, I am evertalking about to you Melanctha. Its loving, and if you are reallyloving to me you won't certainly never any ways call them chances. ""Deed Jeff, you certainly are getting awful wise Jeff now, ain't you, to me. " "No I ain't Melanctha, and I ain't jealous either to you. Ijust am doubting from the way you are always acting to me. " "Oh yesJeff, that's what they all say, the same way, when they certainly gotjealousy all through them. You ain't got no cause to be jealous withme Jeff, and I am awful tired of all this talking now, you hear me. "

Jeff Campbell never asked Melanctha any more if she loved him. Nowthings were always getting worse between them. Now Jeff was alwaysvery silent with Melanctha. Now Jeff never wanted to be honest to her, and now Jeff never had much to say to her. 

Now when they were together, it was Melanctha always did most of thetalking. Now she often had other girls there with her. Melanctha wasalways kind to Jeff Campbell but she never seemed to need to be alonenow with him. She always treated Jeff, like her best friend, and shealways spoke so to him and yet she never seemed now to very often wantto see him. 

Every day it was getting harder for Jeff Campbell. It was as if now, when he had learned to really love Melanctha, she did not need anymore to have him. Jeff began to know this very well inside him. 

Jeff Campbell did not know yet that Melanctha had begun again towander. Jeff was not very quick to suspect Melanctha. All Jeff knewwas, that he did not trust her to be now really loving to him. 

Jeff was no longer now in any doubt inside him. He knew very well nowhe really loved Melanctha. He knew now very well she was not any morea real religion to him. Jeff Campbell knew very well too now insidehim, he did not really want Melanctha, now if he could no longertrust her, though he loved her hard and really knew now what it was tosuffer. 

Every day Melanctha Herbert was less and less near to him. She alwayswas very pleasant in her talk and to be with him, but somehow now itnever was any comfort to him. 

Melanctha Herbert now always had a lot of friends around her. JeffCampbell never wanted to be with them. Now Melanctha began to findit, she said it often to him, always harder to arrange to be alone nowwith him. Sometimes she would be late for him. Then Jeff always wouldtry to be patient in his waiting, for Jeff Campbell knew very well howto remember, and he knew it was only right that he should now endurethis from her. 

Then Melanctha began to manage often not to see him, and once she wentaway when she had promised to be there to meet him. 

Then Jeff Campbell was really filled up with his anger. Now he knewhe could never really want her. Now he knew he never any more couldreally trust her. 

Jeff Campbell never knew why Melanctha had not come to meet him. Jeff had heard a little talking now, about how Melanctha Herbert hadcommenced once more to wander. Jeff Campbell still sometimes saw JaneHarden, who always needed a doctor to be often there to help her. JaneHarden always knew very well what happened to Melanctha. Jeff Campbellnever would talk to Jane Harden anything about Melanctha. Jeff wasalways loyal to Melanctha. Jeff never let Jane Harden say much to himabout Melanctha, though he never let her know that now he loved her. But somehow Jeff did know now about Melanctha, and he knew about somemen that Melanctha met with Rose Johnson very often. 

Jeff Campbell would not let himself really doubt Melanctha, but Jeffbegan to know now very well, he did not want her. Melanctha Herbertdid not love him ever, Jeff knew it now, the way he once had thoughtthat she could feel it. Once she had been greater for him than he hadthought he could ever know how to feel it. Now Jeff had come to wherehe could understand Melanctha Herbert. Jeff was not bitter to herbecause she could not really love him, he was bitter only that he hadlet himself have a real illusion in him. He was a little bitter too, that he had lost now, what he had always felt real in the world, thathad made it for him always full of beauty, and now he had not got thisnew religion really, and he had lost what he before had to know whatwas good and had real beauty. 

Jeff Campbell was so angry now in him, because he had begged Melancthaalways to be honest to him. Jeff could stand it in her not to lovehim, he could not stand it in her not to be honest to him. 

Jeff Campbell went home from where Melanctha had not met him, and hewas sore and full of anger in him. 

Jeff Campbell could not be sure what to do, to make it right insidehim. Surely he must be strong now and cast this loving from him, and yet, was he sure he now had real wisdom in him. Was he sure thatMelanctha Herbert never had had a real deep loving for him. Was hesure Melanctha Herbert never had deserved a reverence from him. Alwaysnow Jeff had this torment in him, but always now he felt more thatMelanctha never had real greatness for him. 

Jeff waited to see if Melanctha would send any word to him. MelancthaHerbert never sent a line to him. 

At last Jeff wrote his letter to Melanctha. "Dear Melanctha, Icertainly do know you ain't been any way sick this last week when younever met me right the way you promised, and never sent me any word tosay why you acted a way you certainly never could think was the rightway you should do it to me. Jane Harden said she saw you that day andyou went out walking with some people you like now to be with. Don'tbe misunderstanding me now any more Melanctha. I love you now becausethat's my slow way to learn what you been teaching, but I know nowyou certainly never had what seems to me real kind of feeling. I don'tlove you Melanctha any more now like a real religion, because now Iknow you are just made like all us others. I know now no man canever really hold you because no man can ever be real to trust in you, because you mean right Melanctha, but you never can remember, andso you certainly never have got any way to be honest. So please youunderstand me right now Melanctha, it never is I don't know how tolove you. I do know now how to love you, Melanctha, really. You suredo know that, Melanctha, in me. You certainly always can trust me. Andso now Melanctha, I can say to you certainly real honest with you, Iam better than you are in my right kind of feeling. And so Melanctha, I don't never any more want to be a trouble to you. You certainly makeme see things Melanctha, I never any other way could be knowing. Youbeen very good and patient to me, when I was certainly below you in myright feeling. I certainly never have been near so good and patientto you every any way Melanctha, I certainly know that Melanctha. ButMelanctha, with me, it certainly is, always to be good together, twopeople certainly must be thinking each one as good as the other, to bereally loving right Melanctha. And it certainly must never be any kindof feeling, of one only taking, and one only just giving, Melanctha, to me. I know you certainly don't really ever understand me nowMelanctha, but that's no matter. I certainly do know what I am feelingnow with you real Melanctha. And so good-bye now for good Melanctha. Isay I can never ever really trust you real Melanctha, that's only justcertainly from your way of not being ever equal in your feeling toanybody real, Melanctha, and your way never to know right how toremember. Many ways I really trust you deep Melanctha, and I certainlydo feel deep all the good sweetness you certainly got real in youMelanctha. Its only just in your loving me Melanctha. You never can beequal to me and that way I certainly never can bear any more to haveit. And so now Melanctha, I always be your friend, if you need me, andnow we never see each other any more to talk to. "

And then Jeff Campbell thought and thought, and he could never makeany way for him now, to see it different, and so at last he sent thisletter to Melanctha. 

And now surely it was all over in Jeff Campbell. Surely now he neverany more could know Melanctha. And yet, perhaps Melanctha really lovedhim. And then she would know how much it hurt him never any more, anyway, to see her, and perhaps she would write a line to tell him. But that was a foolish way for Jeff ever to be thinking. Of courseMelanctha never would write a word to him. It was all over now foralways, everything between them, and Jeff felt it a real relief tohim. 

For many days now Jeff Campbell only felt it as a relief in him. Jeffwas all locked up and quiet now inside him. It was all settling downheavy in him, and these days when it was sinking so deep in him, itwas only the rest and quiet of not fighting that he could really feelinside him. Jeff Campbell could not think now, or feel anything elsein him. He had no beauty nor any goodness to see around him. It was adull, pleasant kind of quiet he now had inside him. Jeff almost beganto love this dull quiet in him, for it was more nearly being free forhim than anything he had known in him since Melanctha Herbert firsthad moved him. He did not find it a real rest yet for him, he hadnot really conquered what had been working so long in him, he had notlearned to see beauty and real goodness yet in what had happened tohim, but it was rest even if he was sodden now all through him. JeffCampbell liked it very well, not to have fighting always going oninside him. 

And so Jeff went on every day, and he was quiet, and he began again towatch himself in his working; and he did not see any beauty now aroundhim, and it was dull and heavy always now inside him, and yet he wascontent to have gone so far in keeping steady to what he knew was theright way for him to come back to, to be regular, and see beauty inevery kind of quiet way of living, the way he had always wanted it forhimself and for all the colored people. He knew he had lost the sensehe once had of joy all through him, but he could work, and perhaps hewould bring some real belief back into him about the beauty that hecould not now any more see around him. 

And so Jeff Campbell went on with his working, and he staid home everyevening, and he began again with his reading, and he did not do muchtalking, and he did not seem to himself to have any kind of feeling. 

And one day Jeff thought perhaps he really was forgetting, one day hethought he could soon come back and be happy in his old way of regularand quiet living. 

Jeff Campbell had never talked to any one of what had been going oninside him. Jeff Campbell liked to talk and he was honest, but itnever came out from him, anything he was ever really feeling, itonly came out from him, what it was that he was always thinking. JeffCampbell always was very proud to hide what he was really feeling. Always he blushed hot to think things he had been feeling. Only toMelanctha Herbert, had it ever come to him, to tell what it was thathe was feeling. 

And so Jeff Campbell went on with this dull and sodden, heavy, quietalways in him, and he never seemed to be able to have any feeling. Only sometimes he shivered hot with shame when he remembered somethings he once had been feeling. And then one day it all woke up, andwas sharp in him. 

Dr. Campbell was just then staying long times with a sick man whomight soon be dying. One day the sick man was resting. Dr. Campbellwent to the window to look out a little, while he was waiting. Itwas very early now in the southern springtime. The trees were justbeginning to get the little zigzag crinkles in them, which the youngbuds always give them. The air was soft and moist and pleasant tothem. The earth was wet and rich and smelling for them. The birds weremaking sharp fresh noises all around them. The wind was very gentleand yet urgent to them. And the buds and the long earthworms, and thenegroes, and all the kinds of children, were coming out every minutefarther into the new spring, watery, southern sunshine. 

Jeff Campbell too began to feel a little his old joy inside him. Thesodden quiet began to break up in him. He leaned far out of the windowto mix it all up with him. His heart went sharp and then it almoststopped inside him. Was it Melanctha Herbert he had just seen passingby him? Was it Melanctha, or was it just some other girl, who made himfeel so bad inside him? Well, it was no matter, Melanctha was therein the world around him, he did certainly always know that in him. Melanctha Herbert was always in the same town with him, and he couldnever any more feel her near him. What a fool he was to throw her fromhim. Did he know she did not really love him. Suppose Melanctha wasnow suffering through him. Suppose she really would be glad to seehim. And did anything else he did, really mean anything now to him?What a fool he was to cast her from him. And yet did Melanctha Herbertwant him, was she honest to him, had Melanctha ever loved him, anddid Melanctha now suffer by him? Oh! Oh! Oh! and the bitter water oncemore rose up in him. 

All that long day, with the warm moist young spring stirring in him, Jeff Campbell worked, and thought, and beat his breast, and wandered, and spoke aloud, and was silent, and was certain, and then in doubtand then keen to surely feel, and then all sodden in him; and hewalked, and he sometimes ran fast to lose himself in his rushing, andhe bit his nails to pain and bleeding, and he tore his hair so that hecould be sure he was really feeling, and he never could know what itwas right, he now should be doing. And then late that night he wroteit all out to Melanctha Herbert, and he made himself quickly send itwithout giving himself any time to change it. 

"It has come to me strong to-day Melanctha, perhaps I am wrong theway I now am thinking. Perhaps you do want me badly to be with you. Perhaps I have hurt you once again the way I used to. I certainlyMelanctha, if I ever think that really, I certainly do want bad notto be wrong now ever any more to you. If you do feel the way to-day itcame to me strong maybe you are feeling, then say so Melanctha to me, and I come again to see you. If not, don't say anything any more everto me. I don't want ever to be bad to you Melanctha, really. I neverwant ever to be a bother to you. I never can stand it to think I amwrong; really, thinking you don't want me to come to you. Tell meMelanctha, tell me honest to me, shall I come now any more to seeyou. " "Yes" came the answer from Melanctha, "I be home Jeff to-nightto see you. "

Jeff Campbell went that evening late to see Melanctha Herbert. As Jeffcame nearer to her, he doubted that he wanted really to be with her, he felt that he did not know what it was he now wanted from her. JeffCampbell knew very well now, way inside him, that they could nevertalk their trouble out between them. What was it Jeff wanted now totell Melanctha Herbert? What was it that Jeff Campbell now could tellher? Surely he never now could learn to trust her. Surely Jeff knewvery well all that Melanctha always had inside her. And yet it wasawful, never any more to see her. 

Jeff Campbell went in to Melanctha, and he kissed her, and he heldher, and then he went away from her and he stood still and looked ather. "Well Jeff!" "Yes Melanctha!" "Jeff what was it made you act soto me?" "You know very well Melanctha, it's always I am thinking youdon't love me, and you are acting to me good out of kindness, and thenMelanctha you certainly never did say anything to me why you nevercame to meet me, as you certainly did promise to me you would that dayI never saw you!" "Jeff don't you really know for certain, I alwayslove you?" "No Melanctha, deed I don't know it in me. Deed and certainsure Melanctha, if I only know that in me, I certainly never wouldgive you any bother. " "Jeff, I certainly do love you more seems tome always, you certainly had ought to feel that in you. " "SureMelanctha?" "Sure Jeff boy, you know that. " "But then Melanctha whydid you act so to me?" "Oh Jeff you certainly been such a bother tome. I just had to go away that day Jeff, and I certainly didn'tmean not to tell you, and then that letter you wrote came to me andsomething happened to me. I don't know right what it was Jeff, I justkind of fainted, and what could I do Jeff, you said you certainlynever any more wanted to come and see me!" "And no matter Melanctha, even if you knew, it was just killing me to act so to you, you neverwould have said nothing to me?" "No of course, how could I Jeff whenyou wrote that way to me. I know how you was feeling Jeff to me, butI certainly couldn't say nothing to you. " "Well Melanctha, I certainlyknow I am right proud too in me, but I certainly never could act so toyou Melanctha, if I ever knew any way at all you ever really loved me. No Melanctha darling, you and me certainly don't feel much the sameway ever. Any way Melanctha, I certainly do love you true Melanctha. ""And I love you too Jeff, even though you don't never certainly seemto believe me. " "No I certainly don't any way believe you Melanctha, even when you say it to me. I don't know Melanctha how, but sure Icertainly do trust you, only I don't believe now ever in your reallybeing loving to me. I certainly do know you trust me always Melanctha, only somehow it ain't ever all right to me. I certainly don't know anyway otherwise Melanctha, how I can say it to you. " "Well I certainlycan't help you no ways any more Jeff Campbell, though you certainlysay it right when you say I trust you Jeff now always. You certainlyis the best man Jeff Campbell, I ever can know, to me. I never beenanyways thinking it can be ever different to me. " "Well you trust methen Melanctha, and I certainly love you Melanctha, and seems liketo me Melanctha, you and me had ought to be a little better than wecertainly ever are doing now to be together. You certainly do thinkthat way, too, Melanctha to me. But may be you do really love me. Tellme, please, real honest now Melanctha darling, tell me so I reallyalways know it in me, do you really truly love me?" "Oh you stupid, stupid boy, Jeff Campbell. Love you, what do you think makes mealways to forgive you. If I certainly didn't always love you Jeff, I certainly never would let you be always being all the time such abother to me the way you certainly Jeff always are to me. Now don'tyou dass ever any more say words like that ever to me. You hear me nowJeff, or I do something real bad sometime, so I really hurt you. NowJeff you just be good to me. You know Jeff how bad I need it, now youshould always be good to me!"

Jeff Campbell could not make an answer to Melanctha. What was it heshould now say to her? What words could help him to make their feelingany better? Jeff Campbell knew that he had learned to love deeply, that, he always knew very well now in him, Melanctha had learned tobe strong to be always trusting, that he knew too now inside him, butMelanctha did not really love him, that he felt always too strong forhim. That fact always was there in him, and it always thrust itselffirm, between them. And so this talk did not make things really betterfor them. 

Jeff Campbell was never any more a torment to Melanctha, he was onlysilent to her. Jeff often saw Melanctha and he was very friendly withher and he never any more was a bother to her. Jeff never any more nowhad much chance to be loving with her. Melanctha never was alone nowwhen he saw her. 

Melanctha Herbert had just been getting thick in her trouble with JeffCampbell, when she went to that church where she first met Rose, wholater was married regularly to Sam Johnson. Rose was a good-looking, better kind of black girl, and had been brought up quite like theirown child by white folks. Rose was living now with colored people. Rose was staying just then with a colored woman, who had known 'Mis'Herbert and her black husband and this girl Melanctha. 

Rose soon got to like Melanctha Herbert and Melanctha now alwayswanted to be with Rose, whenever she could do it. Melanctha Herbertalways was doing everything for Rose that she could think of that Roseever wanted. Rose always liked to be with nice people who would dothings for her. Rose had strong common sense and she was lazy. Roseliked Melanctha Herbert, she had such kind of fine ways in her. Then, too, Rose had it in her to be sorry for the subtle, sweet-natured, docile, intelligent Melanctha Herbert who always was so bluesometimes, and always had had so much trouble. Then, too, Rose couldscold Melanctha, for Melanctha Herbert never could know how to keepherself from trouble, and Rose was always strong to keep straight, with her simple selfish wisdom. 

But why did the subtle, intelligent, attractive, half white girlMelanctha Herbert, with her sweetness and her power and her wisdom, demean herself to do for and to flatter and to be scolded, by thislazy, stupid, ordinary, selfish black girl. This was a queer thing inMelanctha Herbert. 

And so now in these new spring days, it was with Rose that Melancthabegan again to wander. Rose always knew very well in herself what wasthe right way to do when you wandered. Rose knew very well, she wasnot just any common kind of black girl, for she had been raised bywhite folks, and Rose always saw to it that she was engaged to himwhen she had any one man with whom she ever always wandered. Rosealways had strong in her the sense for proper conduct. Rose always wastelling the complex and less sure Melanctha, what was the right wayshe should do when she wandered. 

Rose never knew much about Jeff Campbell with Melanctha Herbert. Rosehad not known about Melanctha Herbert when she had been almost all hertime with Dr. Campbell. 

Jeff Campbell did not like Rose when he saw her with Melanctha. Jeffwould never, when he could help it, meet her. Rose did not think muchabout Dr. Campbell. Melanctha never talked much about him to her. Hewas not important now to be with her. 

Rose did not like Melanctha's old friend Jane Harden when she saw her. Jane despised Rose for an ordinary, stupid, sullen black girl. Janecould not see what Melanctha could find in that black girl, to endureher. It made Jane sick to see her. But then Melanctha had a good mind, but she certainly never did care much to really use it. Jane Hardennow really never cared any more to see Melanctha, though Melancthastill always tried to be good to her. And Rose, she hated that stuckup, mean speaking, nasty, drunk thing, Jane Harden. Rose did not seehow Melanctha could bear to ever see her, but Melanctha always was sogood to everybody, she never would know how to act to people the waythey deserved that she should do it. 

Rose did not know much about Melanctha, and Jeff Campbell and JaneHarden. All Rose knew about Melanctha was her old life with her motherand her father. Rose was always glad to be good to poor Melanctha, whohad had such an awful time with her mother and her father, and now shewas alone and had nobody who could help her. "He was a awful black manto you Melanctha, I like to get my hands on him so he certainly couldfeel it. I just would Melanctha, now you hear me. "

Perhaps it was this simple faith and simple anger and simple moral wayof doing in Rose, that Melanctha now found such a comfort to her. Rosewas selfish and was stupid and was lazy, but she was decent and knewalways what was the right way she should do, and what she wanted, andshe certainly did admire how bright was her friend Melanctha Herbert, and she certainly did feel how very much it was she always sufferedand she scolded her to keep her from more trouble, and she never wasangry when she found some of the different ways Melanctha Herbertsometimes had to do it. 

And so always Rose and Melanctha were more and more together, and JeffCampbell could now hardly ever any more be alone with Melanctha. 

Once Jeff had to go away to another town to see a sick man. "When Icome back Monday Melanctha, I come Monday evening to see you. You behome alone once Melanctha to see me. " "Sure Jeff, I be glad to seeyou!"

When Jeff Campbell came to his house on Monday there was a notethere from Melanctha. Could Jeff come day after to-morrow, Wednesday?Melanctha was so sorry she had to go out that evening. She was awfulsorry and she hoped Jeff would not be angry. 

Jeff was angry and he swore a little, and then he laughed, and then hesighed. "Poor Melanctha, she don't know any way to be real honest, butno matter, I sure do love her and I be good if only she will let me. "

Jeff Campbell went Wednesday night to see Melanctha. Jeff Campbelltook her in his arms and kissed her. "I certainly am awful sorry notto see you Jeff Monday, the way I promised, but I just couldn't Jeff, no way I could fix it. " Jeff looked at her and then he laughed alittle at her. "You want me to believe that really now Melanctha. Allright I believe it if you want me to Melanctha. I certainly be good toyou to-night the way you like it. I believe you certainly did wantto see me Melanctha, and there was no way you could fix it. " "Oh Jeffdear, " said Melanctha, "I sure was wrong to act so to you. It's awfulhard for me ever to say it to you, I have been wrong in my acting toyou, but I certainly was bad this time Jeff to you. It do certainlycome hard to me to say it Jeff, but I certainly was wrong to go awayfrom you the way I did it. Only you always certainly been so bad Jeff, and such a bother to me, and making everything always so hard for me, and I certainly got some way to do it to make it come back sometimesto you. You bad boy Jeff, now you hear me, and this certainly is thefirst time Jeff I ever yet said it to anybody, I ever been wrong, Jeff, you hear me!" "All right Melanctha, I sure do forgive you, cause it's certainly the first time I ever heard you say you ever didanything wrong the way you shouldn't, " and Jeff Campbell laughed andkissed her, and Melanctha laughed and loved him, and they really werehappy now for a little time together. 

And now they were very happy in each other and then they were silentand then they became a little sadder and then they were very quietonce more with each other. 

"Yes I certainly do love you Jeff!" Melanctha said and she was verydreamy. "Sure, Melanctha. " "Yes Jeff sure, but not the way you are nowever thinking. I love you more and more seems to me Jeff always, andI certainly do trust you more and more always to me when I know you. Ido love you Jeff, sure yes, but not the kind of way of loving youare ever thinking it now Jeff with me. I ain't got certainly no hotpassion any more now in me. You certainly have killed all that kind offeeling now Jeff in me. You certainly do know that Jeff, now the way Iam always, when I am loving with you. You certainly do know that Jeff, and that's the way you certainly do like it now in me. You certainlydon't mind now Jeff, to hear me say this to you. "

Jeff Campbell was hurt so that it almost killed him. Yes he certainlydid know now what it was to have real hot love in him, and yetMelanctha certainly was right, he did not deserve she should ever giveit to him. "All right Melanctha I ain't ever kicking. I always willgive you certainly always everything you want that I got in me. I takeanything you want now to give me. I don't say never Melanctha it don'thurt me, but I certainly don't say ever Melanctha it ought ever to beany different to me. " And the bitter tears rose up in Jeff Campbell, and they came and choked his voice to be silent, and he held himselfhard to keep from breaking. 

"Good-night Melanctha, " and Jeff was very humble to her. "GoodnightJeff, I certainly never did mean any way to hurt you. I do love you, sure Jeff every day more and more, all the time I know you. " "Iknow Melanctha, I know, it's never nothing to me. You can't help it, anybody ever the way they are feeling. It's all right now Melanctha, you believe me, good-night now Melanctha, I got now to leave you, good-by Melanctha, sure don't look so worried to me, sure MelancthaI come again soon to see you. " And then Jeff stumbled down the steps, and he went away fast to leave her. 

And now the pain came hard and harder in Jeff Campbell, and hegroaned, and it hurt him so, he could not bear it. And the tears came, and his heart beat, and he was hot and worn and bitter in him. 

Now Jeff knew very well what it was to love Melanctha. Now JeffCampbell knew he was really understanding. Now Jeff knew what it wasto be good to Melanctha. Now Jeff was good to her always. 

Slowly Jeff felt it a comfort in him to have it hurt so, and to begood to Melanctha always. Now there was no way Melanctha ever had hadto bear things from him, worse than he now had it in him. Now Jeff wasstrong inside him. Now with all the pain there was peace in him. Nowhe knew he was understanding, now he knew he had a hot love in him, and he was good always to Melanctha Herbert who was the one had madehim have it. Now he knew he could be good, and not cry out for helpto her to teach him how to bear it. Every day Jeff felt himself more astrong man, the way he once had thought was his real self, the way heknew it. Now Jeff Campbell had real wisdom in him, and it did not makehim bitter when it hurt him, for Jeff knew now all through him that hewas really strong to bear it. 

And so now Jeff Campbell could see Melanctha often, and he waspatient, and always very friendly to her, and every day Jeff Campbellunderstood Melanctha Herbert better. And always Jeff saw Melancthacould not love him the way he needed she should do it. MelancthaHerbert had no way she ever really could remember. 

And now Jeff knew there was a man Melanctha met very often, andperhaps she wanted to try to have this man to be good, for her. JeffCampbell never saw the man Melanctha Herbert perhaps now wanted. JeffCampbell only knew very well that there was one. Then there was Rosethat Melanctha now always had with her when she wandered. 

Jeff Campbell was very quiet to Melanctha. He said to her, now hethought he did not want to come any more especially to see her. Whenthey met, he always would be glad to see her, but now he never wouldgo anywhere any more to meet her. Sure he knew she always would havea deep love in him for her. Sure she knew that. "Yes Jeff, I alwaystrust you Jeff, I certainly do know that all right. " Jeff Campbellsaid, all right he never could say anything to reproach her. She knewalways that he really had learned all through him how to love her. "Yes, Jeff, I certainly do know that. " She knew now she could alwaystrust him. Jeff always would be loyal to her though now she never wasany more to him like a religion, but he never could forget the realsweetness in her. That Jeff must remember always, though now he nevercan trust her to be really loving to any man for always, she never didhave any way she ever could remember. If she ever needed anybody to begood to her, Jeff Campbell always would do anything he could to helpher. He never can forget the things she taught him so he could bereally understanding, but he never any more wants to see her. He belike a brother to her always, when she needs it, and he always will bea good friend to her. Jeff Campbell certainly was sorry never anymore to see her, but it was good that they now knew each other really. "Good-bye Jeff you always been very good always to me. " "Good-byeMelanctha you know you always can trust yourself to me. " "Yes, I know, I know Jeff, really. " "I certainly got to go now Melanctha, from you. I go this time, Melanctha really, " and Jeff Campbell went away andthis time he never looked back to her. This time Jeff Campbell justbroke away and left her. 

Jeff Campbell loved to think now he was strong again to be quiet, andto live regular, and to do everything the way he wanted it to be rightfor himself and all the colored people. Jeff went away for a littlewhile to another town to work there, and he worked hard, and he wasvery sad inside him, and sometimes the tears would rise up in him, andthen he would work hard, and then he would begin once more to seesome beauty in the world around him. Jeff had behaved right and he hadlearned to have a real love in him. That was very good to have insidehim. 

Jeff Campbell never could forget the sweetness in Melanctha Herbert, and he was always very friendly to her, but they never any more cameclose to one another. More and more Jeff Campbell and Melanctha fellaway from all knowing of each other, but Jeff never could forgetMelanctha. Jeff never could forget the real sweetness she had in her, but Jeff never any more had the sense of a real religion for her. Jeffalways had strong in him the meaning of all the new kind of beautyMelanctha Herbert once had shown him, and always more and more ithelped him with his working for himself and for all the coloredpeople. 

Melanctha Herbert, now that she was all through with Jeff Campbell, was free to be with Rose and the new men she met now. 

Rose was always now with Melanctha Herbert. Rose never found any wayto get excited. Rose always was telling Melanctha Herbert the rightway she should do, so that she would not always be in trouble. ButMelanctha Herbert could not help it, always she would find new ways toget excited. 

Melanctha was all ready now to find new ways to be in trouble. Andyet Melanctha Herbert never wanted not to do right. Always MelancthaHerbert wanted peace and quiet, and always she could only find newways to get excited. 

"Melanctha, " Rose would say to her, "Melanctha, I certainly have gotto tell you, you ain't right to act so with that kind of feller. Youbetter just had stick to black men now, Melanctha, you hear me what Itell you, just the way you always see me do it. They're real bad men, now I tell you Melanctha true, and you better had hear to me. I beenraised by real nice kind of white folks, Melanctha, and I certainlyknows awful well, soon as ever I can see 'em acting, what is a whiteman will act decent to you and the kind it ain't never no good to acolored girl to ever go with. Now you know real Melanctha how I alwaysmean right good to you, and you ain't got no way like me Melanctha, what was raised by white folks, to know right what is the way youshould be acting with men. I don't never want to see you have badtrouble come hard to you now Melanctha, and so you just hear to menow Melanctha, what I tell you, for I knows it. I don't say nevercertainly to you Melanctha, you never had ought to have nothing todo ever with no white men, though it ain't never to me Melanctha, thebest kind of a way a colored girl can have to be acting, no I neverdo say to you Melanctha, you hadn't never ought to be with white men, though it ain't never the way I feel it ever real, right for a decentcolored girl to be always doing, but not never Melanctha, now you hearme, no not never no kind of white men like you been with always nowMelanctha when I see you. You just hear to me Melanctha, you certainlyhad ought to hear to me Melanctha, I say it just like I knows it awfulwell, Melanctha, and I knows you don't know no better, Melanctha, howto act so, the ways I seen it with them kind of white fellers, them asnever can know what to do right by a decent girl they have ever got tobe with them. Now you hear to me Melanctha, what I tell you. "

And so it was Melanctha Herbert found new ways to be in trouble. But it was not very bad this trouble, for these white men Rose neverwanted she should be with, never meant very much to Melanctha. It wasonly that she liked it to be with them, and they knew all about finehorses, and it was just good to Melanctha, now a little, to feel realreckless with them. But mostly it was Rose and other better kind ofcolored girls and colored men with whom Melanctha Herbert now alwayswandered. 

It was summer now and the colored people came out into the sunshine, full blown with the flowers. And they shone in the streets and in thefields with their warm joy, and they glistened in their black heat, and they flung themselves free in their wide abandonment of shoutinglaughter. 

It was very pleasant in some ways, the life Melanctha Herbert now ledwith Rose and all the others. It was not always that Rose had to scoldher. 

There was not anybody of all these colored people, excepting onlyRose, who ever meant much to Melanctha Herbert. But they all likedMelanctha, and the men all liked to see her do things, she was so gamealways to do anything anybody ever could do, and then she was good andsweet to do anything anybody ever wanted from her. 

These were pleasant days then, in the hot southern negro sunshine, with many simple jokes and always wide abandonment of laughter. "Justlook at that Melanctha there a running. Don't she just go like a birdwhen she is flying. Hey Melanctha there, I come and catch you, heyMelanctha, I put salt on your tail to catch you, " and then the manwould try to catch her, and he would fall full on the earth and rollin an agony of wide-mouthed shouting laughter. And this was the kindof way Rose always liked to have Melanctha do it, to be engaged tohim, and to have a good warm nigger time with colored men, not to goabout with that kind of white man, never could know how to act right, to any decent kind of girl they could ever get to be with them. 

Rose, always more and more, liked Melanctha Herbert better. Rose oftenhad to scold Melanctha Herbert, but that only made her like Melancthabetter. And then Melanctha always listened to her, and always actedevery way she could to please her. And then Rose was so sorry forMelanctha, when she was so blue sometimes, and wanted somebody shouldcome and kill her. 

And Melanctha Herbert clung to Rose in the hope that Rose couldsave her. Melanctha felt the power of Rose's selfish, decent kind ofnature. It was so solid, simple, certain to her. Melanctha clung toRose, she loved to have her scold her, she always wanted to be withher. She always felt a solid safety in her; Rose always was, in herway, very good to let Melanctha be loving to her. Melanctha never hadany way she could really be a trouble to her. Melanctha never had anyway that she could ever get real power, to come close inside to her. Melanctha was always very humble to her. Melanctha was always ready todo anything Rose wanted from her. Melanctha needed badly to haveRose always willing to let Melanctha cling to her. Rose was a simple, sullen, selfish, black girl, but she had a solid power in her. Rosehad strong the sense of decent conduct, she had strong the sense ofdecent comfort. Rose always knew very well what it was she wanted, andshe knew very well what was the right way to do to get everything shewanted, and she never had any kind of trouble to perplex her. And sothe subtle intelligent attractive half white girl Melanctha Herbertloved and did for, and demeaned herself in service to this coarse, decent, sullen, ordinary, black, childish Rose and now this unmoralpromiscuous shiftless Rose was to be married to a good man of thenegroes, while Melanctha Herbert with her white blood and attractionand her desire for a right position was perhaps never to be reallyregularly married. Sometimes the thought of how all her world wasmade filled the complex, desiring Melanctha with despair. She wonderedoften how she could go on living when she was so blue. SometimesMelanctha thought she would just kill herself, for sometimes shethought this would be really the best thing for her to do. 

Rose was now to be married to a decent good man of the negroes. Hisname was Sam Johnson, and he worked as a deck-hand on a coastingsteamer, and he was very steady, and he got good wages. 

Rose first met Sam Johnson at church, the same place where she had metMelanctha Herbert. Rose liked Sam when she saw him, she knew he was agood man and worked hard and got good wages, and Rose thought itwould be very nice and very good now in her position to get really, regularly married. 

Sam Johnson liked Rose very well and he always was ready to doanything she wanted. Sam was a tall, square shouldered, decent, aserious, straightforward, simple, kindly, colored workman. They goton very well together, Sam and Rose, when they were married. Rosewas lazy, but not dirty, and Sam was careful but not fussy. Sam wasa kindly, simple, earnest, steady workman, and Rose had goodcommon decent sense in her, of how to live regular, and not to haveexcitements, and to be saving so you could be always sure to havemoney, so as to have everything you wanted. 

It was not very long that Rose knew Sam Johnson, before they wereregularly married. Sometimes Sam went into the country with all theother young church people, and then he would be a great deal with Roseand with her Melanctha Herbert. Sam did not care much about MelancthaHerbert. He liked Rose's ways of doing, always better. Melanctha'smystery had no charm for Sam ever. Sam wanted a nice little house tocome to when he was tired from his working, and a little baby all hisown he could be good to. Sam Johnson was ready to marry as soon asever Rose wanted he should do it. And so Sam Johnson and Rose oneday had a grand real wedding and were married. Then they furnishedcompletely, a little red brick house and then Sam went back to hiswork as deck hand on a coasting steamer. 

Rose had often talked to Sam about how good Melanctha was and how muchshe always suffered. Sam Johnson never really cared about MelancthaHerbert, but he always did almost everything Rose ever wanted, andhe was a gentle, kindly creature, and so he was very good to Rose'sfriend Melanctha. Melanctha Herbert knew very well Sam did not likeher, and so she was very quiet, and always let Rose do the talking forher. She only was very good to always help Rose, and to do anythingshe ever wanted from her, and to be very good and listen and be quietwhenever Sam had anything to say to her. Melanctha liked Sam Johnson, and all her life Melanctha loved and wanted good and kind andconsiderate people, and always Melanctha loved and wanted people to begentle to her, and always she wanted to be regular, and to have peaceand quiet in her, and always Melanctha could only find new ways to bein trouble. And Melanctha needed badly to have Rose, to believe her, and to let her cling to her. Rose was the only steady thing Melancthahad to cling to and so Melanctha demeaned herself to be like aservant, to wait on, and always to be scolded, by this ordinary, sullen, black, stupid, childish woman. 

Rose was always telling Sam he must be good to poor Melanctha. "Youknow Sam, " Rose said very often to him, "You certainly had ought to bevery good to poor Melanctha, she always do have so much trouble withher. You know Sam how I told you she had such a bad time always withthat father, and he was awful mean to her always that awful black man, and he never took no kind of care ever to her, and he never helped herwhen her mother died so hard, that poor Melanctha. Melanctha's ma youknow Sam, always was just real religious. One day Melanctha was reallittle, and she heard her ma say to her pa, it was awful sad to her, Melanctha had not been the one the Lord had took from them stead ofthe little brother who was dead in the house there from fever. Thathurt Melanctha awful when she heard her ma say it. She never couldfeel it right, and I don't no ways blame Melanctha, Sam, for notfeeling better to her ma always after, though Melanctha, just likealways she is, always was real good to her ma after, when she was sosick, and died so hard, and nobody never to help Melanctha do it, andshe just all alone to do everything without no help come to her noway, and that ugly awful black man she have for a father never all thetime come near her. But that's always the way Melanctha is just doingSam, the way I been telling to you. She always is being just so goodto everybody and nobody ever there to thank her for it. I never didsee nobody ever Sam, have such bad luck, seems to me always with them, like that poor Melanctha always has it, and she always so good withit, and never no murmur in her, and never no complaining from her, andjust never saying nothing with it. You be real good to her Sam, nowyou hear me, now you and me is married right together. He certainlywas an awful black man to her Sam, that father she had, acting alwaysjust like a brute to her and she so game and never to tell anybody howit hurt her. And she so sweet and good always to do anything anybodyever can be wanting. I don't see Sam how some men can be to act soawful. I told you Sam, how once Melanctha broke her arm bad and shewas so sick and it hurt her awful and he never would let no doctorcome near to her and he do some things so awful to her, she don'tnever want to tell nobody how bad he hurt her. That's just the way Samwith Melanctha always, you never can know how bad it is, it hurtsher. You hear me Sam, you always be real good to her now you and me ismarried right to each other. "

And so Rose and Sam Johnson were regularly married, and Rose sat athome and bragged to all her friends how nice it was to be marriedreally to a husband. 

Rose did not have Melanctha to live with her, now Rose was married. Melanctha was with Rose almost as much as ever but it was a littledifferent now their being together. 

Rose Johnson never asked Melanctha to live with her in the house, nowRose was married. Rose liked to have Melanctha come all the time tohelp her, Rose liked Melanctha to be almost always with her, but Rosewas shrewd in her simple selfish nature, she did not ever think to askMelanctha to live with her. 

Rose was hard headed, she was decent, and she always knew what it wasshe needed. Rose needed Melanctha to be with her, she liked to haveher help her, the quick, good Melanctha to do for the slow, lazy, selfish, black girl, but Rose could have Melanctha to do for her andshe did not need her to live with her. 

Sam never asked Rose why she did not have her. Sam always took whatRose wanted should be done for Melanctha, as the right way he shouldact toward her. 

It could never come to Melanctha to ask Rose to let her. It nevercould come to Melanctha to think that Rose would ask her. It wouldnever ever come to Melanctha to want it, if Rose should ask her, butMelanctha would have done it for the safety she always felt when shewas near her. Melanctha Herbert wanted badly to be safe now, but thisliving with her, that, Rose would never give her. Rose had strongthe sense for decent comfort, Rose had strong the sense for properconduct, Rose had strong the sense to get straight always what shewanted, and she always knew what was the best thing she needed, andalways Rose got what she wanted. 

And so Rose had Melanctha Herbert always there to help her, and shesat and was lazy and she bragged and she complained a little and shetold Melanctha how she ought to do, to get good what she wanted likeshe Rose always did it, and always Melanctha was doing everything Roseever needed. "Don't you bother so, doing that Melanctha, I do it orSam when he comes home to help me. Sure you don't mind lifting itMelanctha? You is very good Melanctha to do it, and when you go outMelanctha, you stop and get some rice to bring me to-morrow when youcome in. Sure you won't forget Melanctha. I never see anybody likeyou Melanctha to always do things so nice for me. " And then Melancthawould do some more for Rose, and then very late Melanctha would gohome to the colored woman where she lived now. 

And so though Melanctha still was so much with Rose Johnson, she hadtimes when she could not stay there. Melanctha now could not reallycling there. Rose had Sam, and Melanctha more and more lost the holdshe had had there. 

Melanctha Herbert began to feel she must begin again to look and seeif she could find what it was she had always wanted. Now Rose Johnsoncould no longer help her. 

And so Melanctha Herbert began once more to wander and with men Rosenever thought it was right she should be with. 

One day Melanctha had been very busy with the different kinds of waysshe wandered. It was a pleasant late afternoon at the end of a longsummer. Melanctha was walking along, and she was free and excited. Melanctha had just parted from a white man and she had a bunch offlowers he had left with her. A young buck, a mulatto, passed by andsnatched them from her. "It certainly is real sweet in you sister, tobe giving me them pretty flowers, " he said to her. 

"I don't see no way it can make them sweeter to have with you, " saidMelanctha. "What one man gives, another man had certainly just as muchgood right to be taking. " "Keep your old flowers then, I certainlydon't never want to have them. " Melanctha Herbert laughed at him andtook them. "No, I didn't nohow think you really did want to have them. Thank you kindly mister, for them. I certainly always do admire to seea man always so kind of real polite to people. " The man laughed, "Youain't nobody's fool I can say for you, but you certainly are a damnedpretty kind of girl, now I look at you. Want men to be polite to you?All right, I can love you, that's real polite now, want to see me tryit. " "I certainly ain't got no time this evening just only left tothank you. I certainly got to be real busy now, but I certainlyalways will admire to see you. " The man tried to catch and stop her, Melanctha Herbert laughed and dodged so that he could not touch her. Melanctha went quickly down a side street near her and so the man forthat time lost her. 

For some days Melanctha did not see any more of her mulatto. One dayMelanctha was with a white man and they saw him. The white man stoppedto speak to him. Afterwards Melanctha left the white man and she thensoon met him. Melanctha stopped to talk to him. Melanctha Herbert soonbegan to like him. 

Jem Richards, the new man Melanctha had begun to know now, was adashing kind of fellow, who had to do with fine horses and withracing. Sometimes Jem Richards would be betting and would be good andlucky, and be making lots of money. Sometimes Jem would be bettingbadly, and then he would not be having any money. 

Jem Richards was a straight man. Jem Richards always knew that by andby he would win again and pay it, and so Jem mostly did win again, andthen he always paid it. 

Jem Richards was a man other men always trusted. Men gave him moneywhen he lost all his, for they all knew Jem Richards would win again, and when he did win they knew, and they were right, that he would payit. 

Melanctha Herbert all her life had always loved to be with horses. Melanctha liked it that Jem knew all about fine horses. He was areckless man was Jem Richards. He knew how to win out, and always allher life, Melanctha Herbert loved successful power. 

Melanctha Herbert always liked Jem Richards better. Things soon beganto be very strong between them. 

Jem was more game even than Melanctha. Jem always had known whatit was to have real wisdom. Jem had always all his life beenunderstanding. 

Jem Richards made Melanctha Herbert come fast with him. He never gaveher any time with waiting. Soon Melanctha always had Jem with her. Melanctha did not want anything better. Now in Jem Richards, Melancthafound everything she had ever needed to content her. 

Melanctha was now less and less with Rose Johnson. Rose did not thinkmuch of the way Melanctha now was going. Jem Richards was all right, only Melanctha never had no sense of the right kind of way she shouldbe doing. Rose often was telling Sam now, she did not like the fastway Melanctha was going. Rose told it to Sam, and to all the girls andmen, when she saw them. But Rose was nothing just then to Melanctha. Melanctha Herbert now only needed Jem Richards to be with her. 

And things were always getting stronger between Jem Richards andMelanctha Herbert. Jem Richards began to talk now as if he wanted toget married to her. Jem was deep in his love now for her. And as forMelanctha, Jem was all the world now to her. And so Jem gave her aring, like white folks, to show he was engaged to her, and would byand by be married to her. And Melanctha was filled full with joy tohave Jem so good to her. 

Melanctha always loved to go with Jem to the races. Jem had been luckylately with his betting, and he had a swell turn-out to drive in, andMelanctha looked very handsome there beside him. 

Melanctha was very proud to have Jem Richards want her. Melancthaloved it the way Jem knew how to do it. Melanctha loved Jem andloved that he should want her. She loved it too, that he wanted to bemarried to her. Jem Richards was a straight decent man, whom othermen always looked up to and trusted. Melanctha needed badly a man tocontent her. 

Melanctha's joy made her foolish. Melanctha told everybody about howJem Richards, that swell man who owned all those fine horses and wasso game, nothing ever scared him, was engaged to be married to her, and that was the ring he gave her. 

Melanctha let out her joy very often to Rose Johnson. Melanctha hadbegun again now to go there. 

Melanctha's love for Jem made her foolish. Melanctha had to have someone always now to talk to and so she went often to Rose Johnson. 

Melanctha put all herself into Jem Richards. She was mad and foolishin the joy she had there. 

Rose never liked the way Melanctha did it. "No Sam I don't say neverMelanctha ain't engaged to Jem Richards the way she always says it, and Jem he is all right for that kind of man he is, though he do thinkhimself so smart and like he owns the earth and everything he can getwith it, and he sure gave Melanctha a ring like he really meant heshould be married right soon with it, only Sam, I don't ever like itthe way Melanctha is going. When she is engaged to him Sam, she ain'tnot right to take on so excited. That ain't no decent kind of a way agirl ever should be acting. There ain't no kind of a man going standthat, not like I knows men Sam, and I sure does know them. I knowsthem white and I knows them colored, for I was raised by white folks, and they don't none of them like a girl to act so. That's all right tobe so when you is just only loving, but it ain't no ways right to beacting so when you is engaged to him, and when he says, all right heget really regularly married to you. You see Sam I am right like I amalways and I knows it. Jem Richards, he ain't going to the last to getreal married, not if I knows it right, the way Melanctha now is actingto him. Rings or anything ain't nothing to them, and they don't neverdo no good for them, when a girl acts foolish like Melanctha alwaysnow is acting. I certainly will be right sorry Sam, if Melanctha hasreal bad trouble come now to her, but I certainly don't no ways likeit Sam the kind of way Melanctha is acting to him. I don't never saynothing to her Sam. I just listens to what she is saying always, andI thinks it out like I am telling to you Sam but I don't never saynothing no more now to Melanctha. Melanctha didn't say nothing to meabout that Jem Richards till she was all like finished with him, andI never did like it Sam, much, the way she was acting, not cominghere never when she first ran with those men and met him. And I didn'tnever say nothing to her, Sam, about it, and it ain't nothing ever tome, only I don't never no more want to say nothing to her, so I justlistens to what she got to tell like she wants it. No Sam, I don'tnever want to say nothing to her. Melanctha just got to go her ownway, not as I want to see her have bad trouble ever come hard to her, only it ain't in me never Sam, after Melanctha did so, ever to saynothing more to her how she should be acting. You just see Sam like Itell you, what way Jem Richards will act to her, you see Sam I just amright like I always am when I knows it. "

Melanctha Herbert never thought she could ever again be in trouble. Melanctha's joy had made her foolish. 

And now Jem Richards had some bad trouble with his betting. Melancthasometimes felt now when she was with him that there was somethingwrong inside him. Melanctha knew he had had trouble with his bettingbut Melanctha never felt that that could make any difference to them. 

Melanctha once had told Jem, sure he knew she always would love to bewith him, if he was in jail or only just a beggar. Now Melancthasaid to him, "Sure you know Jem that it don't never make any kind ofdifference you're having any kind of trouble, you just try me Jem andbe game, don't look so worried to me. Jem sure I know you love me likeI love you always, and its all I ever could be wanting Jem to me, justyour wanting me always to be with you. I get married Jem to yousoon ever as you can want me, if you once say it Jem to me. It ain'tnothing to me ever, anything like having any money Jem, why you lookso worried to me. "

Melanctha Herbert's love had surely made her mad and foolish. Shethrust it always deep into Jem Richards and now that he had troublewith his betting, Jem had no way that he ever wanted to be made tofeel it. Jem Richards never could want to marry any girl while he hadtrouble. That was no way a man like him should do it. Melanctha's lovehad made her mad and foolish, she should be silent now and let him doit. Jem Richards was not a kind of man to want a woman to be strong tohim, when he was in trouble with his betting. That was not the kind ofa time when a man like him needed to have it. 

Melanctha needed so badly to have it, this love which she had alwayswanted, she did not know what she should do to save it. Melanctha sawnow, Jem Richards always had something wrong inside him. Melancthasoon dared not ask him. Jem was busy now, he had to sell things andsee men to raise money. Jem could not meet Melanctha now so often. 

It was lucky for Melanctha Herbert that Rose Johnson was coming now tohave her baby. It had always been understood between them, Rose shouldcome and stay then in the house where Melanctha lived with an oldcolored woman, so that Rose could have the Doctor from the hospitalnear by to help her, and Melanctha there to take care of her the wayMelanctha always used to do it. 

Melanctha was very good now to Rose Johnson. Melanctha did everythingthat any woman could, she tended Rose, and she was patient, submissive, soothing and untiring, while the sullen, childish, cowardly, black Rosie grumbled, and fussed, and howled, and madeherself to be an abomination and like a simple beast. 

All this time Melanctha was always being every now and then with JemRichards. Melanctha was beginning to be stronger with Jem Richards. Melanctha was never so strong and sweet and in her nature as when shewas deep in trouble, when she was fighting so with all she had, shecould not do any foolish thing with her nature. 

Always now Melanctha Herbert came back again to be nearer to RoseJohnson. Always now Melanctha would tell all about her troubles toRose Johnson. Rose had begun now a little again to advise her. 

Melanctha always told Rose now about the talks she had with JemRichards, talks where they neither of them liked very well what theother one was saying. Melanctha did not know what it was Jem Richardswanted. All Melanctha knew was, he did not like it when she wanted tobe good friends and get really married, and then when Melanctha wouldsay, "all right, I never wear your ring no more Jem, we ain't not anymore to meet ever like we ever going to get really regular married, "then Jem did not like it either. What was it Jem Richards reallywanted?

Melanctha stopped wearing Jem's ring on her finger. Poor Melanctha, she wore it on a string she tied around her neck so that she couldalways feel it, but Melanctha was strong now with Jem Richards, and henever saw it. And sometimes Jem seemed to be awful sorry for it, andsometimes he seemed kind of glad of it. Melanctha never could make outreally what it was Jem Richards wanted. 

There was no other woman yet to Jem, that Melanctha knew, and so shealways trusted that Jem would come back to her, deep in his love, theway once he had had it and had made all the world like she once hadnever believed anybody could really make it. But Jem Richards was moregame than Melanctha Herbert. He knew how to fight to win out, better. Melanctha really had already lost it, in not keeping quiet and waitingfor Jem to do it. 

Jem Richards was not yet having better luck in his betting. He neverbefore had had such a long time without some good coming to him inhis betting. Sometimes Jem talked as if he wanted to go off on a tripsomewhere and try some other place for luck with his betting. JemRichards never talked as if he wanted to take Melanctha with him. 

And so Melanctha sometimes was really trusting, and sometimes she wasall sick inside her with her doubting. What was it Jem really wantedto do with her? He did not have any other woman, in that Melancthacould be really trusting, and when she said no to him, no she neverwould come near him, now he did not want to have her, then Jem wouldchange and swear, yes sure he did want her, now and always right herenear him, but he never now any more said he wanted to be married soonto her. But then Jem Richards never would marry a girl, he said thatvery often, when he was in this kind of trouble, and now he did notsee any way he could get out of his trouble. But Melanctha ought towear his ring, sure she knew he never had loved any kind of woman likehe loved her. Melanctha would wear the ring a little while, and thenthey would have some more trouble, and then she would say to him, noshe certainly never would any more wear anything he gave her, and thenshe would wear it on the string so nobody could see it but she couldalways feel it on her. 

Poor Melanctha, surely her love had made her mad and foolish. 

And now Melanctha needed always more and more to be with Rose Johnson, and Rose had commenced again to advise her, but Rose could not helpher. There was no way now that anybody could advise her. The time whenMelanctha could have changed it with Jem Richards was now all pastfor her. Rose knew it, and Melanctha too, she knew it, and it almostkilled her to let herself believe it. 

The only comfort Melanctha ever had now was waiting on Rose tillshe was so tired she could hardly stand it. Always Melanctha dideverything Rose ever wanted. Sam Johnson began now to be very gentleand a little tender to Melanctha. She was so good to Rose and Sam wasso glad to have her there to help Rose and to do things and to be acomfort to her. 

Rose had a hard time to bring her baby to its birth and Melanctha dideverything that any woman could. 

The baby though it was healthy after it was born did not live long. Rose Johnson was careless and negligent and selfish and when Melancthahad to leave for a few days the baby died. Rose Johnson had liked herbaby well enough and perhaps she just forgot it for a while, anywaythe child was dead and Rose and Sam were very sorry, but then thesethings came so often in the negro world in Bridgepoint that theyneither of them thought about it very long. When Rose had becomestrong again she went back to her house with Sam. And Sam Johnson wasalways now very gentle and kind and good to Melanctha who had been sogood to Rose in her bad trouble. 

Melanctha Herbert's troubles with Jem Richards were never getting anybetter. Jem always now had less and less time to be with her. WhenJem was with Melanctha now he was good enough to her. Jem Richards wasworried with his betting. Never since Jem had first begun to make aliving had he ever had so much trouble for such a long time togetherwith his betting. Jem Richards was good enough now to Melanctha but hehad not much strength to give her. Melanctha could never any more nowmake him quarrel with her. Melanctha never now could complain of histreatment of her, for surely, he said it always by his actions to her, surely she must know how a man was when he had trouble on his mindwith trying to make things go a little better. 

Sometimes Jem and Melanctha had long talks when they neither ofthem liked very well what the other one was saying, but mostly nowMelanctha could not make Jem Richards quarrel with her, and more andmore, Melanctha could not find any way to make it right to blame himfor the trouble she now always had inside her. Jem was good to her, and she knew, for he told her, that he had trouble all the time nowwith his betting. Melanctha knew very well that for her it was allwrong inside Jem Richards, but Melanctha had now no way that she couldreally reach him. 

Things between Melanctha and Jem Richards were now never getting anybetter. Melanctha now more and more needed to be with Rose Johnson. Rose still liked to have Melanctha come to her house and do thingsfor her, and Rose liked to grumble to her and to scold her and to tellMelanctha what was the way Melanctha always should be doing soshe could make things come out better and not always be so much introuble. Sam Johnson in these days was always very good and gentle toMelanctha. Sam was now beginning to be very sorry for her. 

Jem Richards never made things any better for Melanctha. Often Jemwould talk so as to make Melanctha almost certain that he never anymore wanted to have her. Then Melanctha would get very blue, and shewould say to Rose, sure she would kill herself, for that certainly nowwas the best way she could do. 

Rose Johnson never saw it the least bit that way. "I don't seeMelanctha why you should talk like you would kill yourself justbecause you're blue. I'd never kill myself Melanctha cause I was blue. I'd maybe kill somebody else but I'd never kill myself. If I everkilled myself, Melanctha it'd be by accident and if I ever killedmyself by accident, Melanctha, I'd be awful sorry. And that certainlyis the way you should feel it Melanctha, now you hear me, not justtalking foolish like you always do. It certainly is only your way justalways being foolish makes you all that trouble to come to you alwaysnow, Melanctha, and I certainly right well knows that. You certainlynever can learn no way Melanctha ever with all I certainly beentelling to you, ever since I know you good, that it ain't never no waylike you do always is the right way you be acting ever and talking, the way I certainly always have seen you do so Melanctha always. Icertainly am right Melanctha about them ways you have to do it, andI knows it; but you certainly never can noways learn to act rightMelanctha, I certainly do know that, I certainly do my best Melancthato help you with it only you certainly never do act right Melanctha, not to nobody ever, I can see it. You never act right by me Melancthano more than by everybody. I never say nothing to you Melanctha whenyou do so, for I certainly never do like it when I just got to say itto you, but you just certainly done with that Jem Richards you alwayssay wanted real bad to be married to you, just like I always said toSam you certainly was going to do it. And I certainly am real kind ofsorry like for you Melanctha, but you certainly had ought to have cometo see me to talk to you, when you first was engaged to him so I couldshow you, and now you got all this trouble come to you Melancthalike I certainly know you always catch it. It certainly ain't neverMelanctha I ain't real sorry to see trouble come so hard to you, butI certainly can see Melanctha it all is always just the way you alwaysbe having it in you not never to do right. And now you always talklike you just kill yourself because you are so blue, that certainlynever is Melanctha, no kind of a way for any decent kind of a girl todo. "

Rose had begun to be strong now to scold Melanctha and she wasimpatient very often with her, but Rose could now never any more be ahelp to her. Melanctha Herbert never could know now what it was rightshe should do. Melanctha always wanted to have Jem Richards with herand now he never seemed to want her, and what could Melanctha do. Surely she was right now when she said she would just kill herself, for that was the only way now she could do. 

Sam Johnson always, more and more, was good and gentle to Melanctha. Poor Melanctha, she was so good and sweet to do anything anybody everwanted, and Melanctha always liked it if she could have peace andquiet, and always she could only find new ways to be in trouble. Samoften said this now to Rose about Melanctha. 

"I certainly don't never want Sam to say bad things about Melanctha, for she certainly always do have most awful kind of trouble come hardto her, but I never can say I like it real right Sam the way Melancthaalways has to do it. Its now just the same with her like it is alwaysshe has got to do it, now the way she is with that Jem Richards. Hecertainly now don't never want to have her but Melanctha she ain't gotno right kind of spirit. No Sam I don't never like the way any moreMelanctha is acting to him, and then Sam, she ain't never real righthonest, the way she always should do it. She certainly just don't kindof never Sam tell right what way she is doing with it. I don't neverlike to say nothing Sam no more to her about the way she always hasto be acting. She always say, yes all right Rose, I do the way you sayit, and then Sam she don't never noways do it. She certainly is rightsweet and good, Sam, is Melanctha, nobody ever can hear me say sheain't always ready to do things for everybody anyway she ever can seeto do it, only Sam some ways she never does act real right ever, andsome ways, Sam, she ain't ever real honest with it. And Sam sometimesI hear awful kind of things she been doing, some girls know about herhow she does it, and sometimes they tell me what kind of ways shehas to do it, and Sam it certainly do seem to me like more and more Icertainly am awful afraid Melanctha never will come to any good. And then Sam, sometimes, you hear it, she always talk like she killherself all the time she is so blue, and Sam that certainly never isno kind of way any decent girl ever had ought to do. You see Sam, howI am right like I always is when I knows it. You just be careful, Sam, now you hear me, you be careful Sam sure, I tell you, Melanctha moreand more I see her I certainly do feel Melanctha no way is reallyhonest. You be careful, Sam now, like I tell you, for I knows it, nowyou hear to me, Sam, what I tell you, for I certainly always is right, Sam, when I knows it. "

At first Sam tried a little to defend Melanctha, and Sam always wasgood and gentle to her, and Sam liked the ways Melanctha had to bequiet to him, and to always listen as if she was learning, when shewas there and heard him talking, and then Sam liked the sweet way shealways did everything so nicely for him; but Sam never liked to fightwith anybody ever, and surely Rose knew best about Melanctha andanyway Sam never did really care much about Melanctha. Her mysterynever had had any interest for him. Sam liked it that she was sweetto him and that she always did everything Rose ever wanted that sheshould be doing. But Melanctha never would be important to him. AllSam ever wanted was to have a little house and to live regular and towork hard and to come home to his dinner, when he was tired with hisworking and by and by he wanted to have some children all his own tobe good to, and so Sam was real sorry for Melanctha, she was so goodand so sweet always to them, and Jem Richards was a bad man to behaveso to her, but that was always the way a girl got it when she likedthat kind of fast fellow. Anyhow Melanctha was Rose's friend, and Samnever cared to have anything to do with the kind of trouble alwayscame to women, when they wanted to have men, who never could know howto behave good and steady to their women. 

And so Sam never said much to Rose about Melanctha. Sam was alwaysvery gentle to her, but now he began less and less to see her. SoonMelanctha never came any more to the house to see Rose and Sam neverasked Rose anything about her. 

Melanctha Herbert was beginning now to come less and less to the houseto be with Rose Johnson. This was because Rose seemed always less andless now to want her, and Rose would not let Melanctha now do thingsfor her. Melanctha was always humble to her and Melanctha alwayswanted in every way she could to do things for her. Rose said no, she guessed she do that herself like she likes to have it better. Melanctha is real good to stay so long to help her, but Rose guessedperhaps Melanctha better go home now, Rose don't need nobody to helpher now, she is feeling real strong, not like just after she had allthat trouble with the baby, and then Sam, when he comes home for hisdinner he likes it when Rose is all alone there just to give him hisdinner. Sam always is so tired now, like he always is in the summer, so many people always on the steamer, and they make so much work soSam is real tired now, and he likes just to eat his dinner and neverhave people in the house to be a trouble to him. 

Each day Rose treated Melanctha more and more as if she never wantedMelanctha any more to come there to the house to see her. Melancthadared not ask Rose why she acted in this way to her. Melanctha badlyneeded to have Rose always there to save her. Melanctha wanted badlyto cling to her and Rose had always been so solid for her. Melancthadid not dare to ask Rose if she now no longer wanted her to come andsee her. 

Melanctha now never any more had Sam to be gentle to her. Rose alwayssent Melanctha away from her before it was time for Sam to come hometo her. One day Melanctha had stayed a little longer, for Rosethat day had been good to let Melanctha begin to do things for her. Melanctha then left her and Melanctha met Sam Johnson who stopped aminute to speak kindly to her. 

The next day Rose Johnson would not let Melanctha come in to her. Rosestood on the steps, and there she told Melanctha what she thought nowof her. 

"I guess Melanctha it certainly ain't no ways right for you to comehere no more just to see me. I certainly don't Melanctha no ways liketo be a trouble to you. I certainly think Melanctha I get along betternow when I don't have nobody like you are, always here to help me, andSam he do so good now with his working, he pay a little girl somethingto come every day to help me. I certainly do think Melanctha I don'tnever want you no more to come here just to see me. " "Why Rose, whatI ever done to you, I certainly don't think you is right Rose to be sobad now to me. " "I certainly don't no ways Melanctha Herbert think yougot any right ever to be complaining the way I been acting to you. Icertainly never do think Melanctha Herbert, you hear me, nobodyever been more patient to you than I always been to like you, onlyMelanctha, I hear more things now so awful bad about you, everybodyalways is telling to me what kind of a way you always have been doingso much, and me always so good to you, and you never no ways, knowinghow to be honest to me. No Melanctha it ain't ever in me, not to wantyou to have good luck come to you, and I like it real well Melancthawhen you some time learn how to act the way it is decent and rightfor a girl to be doing, but I don't no ways ever like it the kind ofthings everybody tell me now about you. No Melanctha, I can't neverany more trust you. I certainly am real sorry to have never any moreto see you, but there ain't no other way, I ever can be acting toyou. That's all I ever got any more to say to you now Melanctha. " "ButRose, deed; I certainly don't know, no more than the dead, nothing Iever done to make you act so to me. Anybody say anything bad aboutme Rose, to you, they just a pack of liars to you, they certainlyis Rose, I tell you true. I certainly never done nothing I ever beenashamed to tell you. Why you act so bad to me Rose. Sam he certainlydon't think ever like you do, and Rose I always do everything I can, you ever want me to do for you. " "It ain't never no use standing theretalking, Melanctha Herbert. I just can tell it to you, and Sam, hedon't know nothing about women ever the way they can be acting. Icertainly am very sorry Melanctha, to have to act so now to you, but Icertainly can't do no other way with you, when you do things always sobad, and everybody is talking so about you. It ain't no use to youto stand there and say it different to me Melanctha. I certainly amalways right Melanctha Herbert, the way I certainly always have beenwhen I knows it, to you. No Melanctha, it just is, you never can haveno kind of a way to act right, the way a decent girl has to do, and Idone my best always to be telling it to you Melanctha Herbert, but itdon't never do no good to tell nobody how to act right; they certainlynever can learn when they ain't got no sense right to know it, and younever have no sense right Melanctha to be honest, and I ain't neverwishing no harm to you ever Melanctha Herbert, only I don't never wantany more to see you come here. I just say to you now, like I alwaysbeen saying to you, you don't know never the right way, any kind ofdecent girl has to be acting, and so Melanctha Herbert, me and Sam, wedon't never any more want you to be setting your foot in my househere Melanctha Herbert, I just tell you. And so you just go along now, Melanctha Herbert, you hear me, and I don't never wish no harm to cometo you. "

Rose Johnson went into her house and closed the door behind her. Melanctha stood like one dazed, she did not know how to bear this blowthat almost killed her. Slowly then Melanctha went away without eventurning to look behind her. 

Melanctha Herbert was all sore and bruised inside her. Melanctha hadneeded Rose always to believe her, Melanctha needed Rose always to lether cling to her, Melanctha wanted badly to have somebody who couldmake her always feel a little safe inside her, and now Rose had senther from her. Melanctha wanted Rose more than she had ever wanted allthe others. Rose always was so simple, solid, decent, for her. And nowRose had cast her from her. Melanctha was lost, and all the world wentwhirling in a mad weary dance around her. 

Melanctha Herbert never had any strength alone ever to feel safeinside her. And now Rose Johnson had cast her from her, and Melancthacould never any more be near her. Melanctha Herbert knew now, wayinside her, that she was lost, and nothing any more could ever helpher. 

Melanctha went that night to meet Jem Richards who had promised to beat the old place to meet her. Jem Richards was absent in his manner toher. By and by he began to talk to her, about the trip he was goingto take soon, to see if he could get some luck back in his betting. Melanctha trembled, was Jem too now going to leave her. Jem Richardstalked some more then to her, about the bad luck he always had now, and how he needed to go away to see if he could make it come out anybetter. 

Then Jem stopped, and then he looked straight at Melanctha. 

"Tell me Melanctha right and true, you don't care really nothing moreabout me now Melanctha, " he said to her. 

"Why you ask me that, Jem Richards, " said Melanctha. 

"Why I ask you that Melanctha, God Almighty, because I just don't givea damn now for you any more Melanctha. That the reason I was asking. "

Melanctha never could have for this an answer. Jem Richards waited andthen he went away and left her. 

Melanctha Herbert never again saw Jem Richards. Melanctha never againsaw Rose Johnson, and it was hard to Melanctha never any more to seeher. Rose Johnson had worked in to be the deepest of all Melanctha'semotions. 

"No, I don't never see Melanctha Herbert no more now, " Rose would sayto anybody who asked her about Melanctha. "No, Melanctha she nevercomes here no more now, after we had all that trouble with her actingso bad with them kind of men she liked so much to be with. She don'tnever come to no good Melanctha Herbert don't, and me and Sam don'twant no more to see her. She didn't do right ever the way I told her. Melanctha just wouldn't, and I always said it to her, if she don't bemore kind of careful, the way she always had to be acting, I neverdid want no more she should come here in my house no more to see me. Iain't no ways ever against any girl having any kind of a way, to havea good time like she wants it, but not that kind of a way Melancthaalways had to do it. I expect some day Melanctha kill herself, whenshe act so bad like she do always, and then she got so awful blue. Melanctha always says that's the only way she ever can think it a easyway for her to do. No, I always am real sorry for Melanctha, she neverwas no just common kind of nigger, but she don't never know not withall the time I always was telling it to her, no she never no way couldlearn, what was the right way she should do. I certainly don't neverwant no kind of harm to come bad to Melanctha, but I certainly dothink she will most kill herself some time, the way she always say itwould be easy way for her to do. I never see nobody ever could be soawful blue. "

But Melanctha Herbert never really killed herself because she was soblue, though often she thought this would be really the best way forher to do. Melanctha never killed herself, she only got a bad feverand went into the hospital where they took good care of her and curedher. 

When Melanctha was well again, she took a place and began to workand to live regular. Then Melanctha got very sick again; she began tocough and sweat and be so weak she could not stand to do her work. 

Melanctha went back to the hospital, and there the Doctor told her shehad the consumption, and before long she would surely die. They senther where she would be taken care of, a home for poor consumptives, and there Melanctha stayed until she died. 

FINIS

THE GENTLE LENA

Lena was patient, gentle, sweet and german. She had been a servant forfour years and had liked it very well. 

Lena had been brought from Germany to Bridgepoint by a cousin and hadbeen in the same place there for four years. 

This place Lena had found very good. There was a pleasant, unexactingmistress and her children, and they all liked Lena very well. 

There was a cook there who scolded Lena a great deal but Lena's germanpatience held no suffering and the good incessant woman really onlyscolded so for Lena's good. 

Lena's german voice when she knocked and called the family in themorning was as awakening, as soothing, and as appealing, as a delicatesoft breeze in midday, summer. She stood in the hallway every morninga long time in her unexpectant and unsuffering german patience callingto the young ones to get up. She would call and wait a long time andthen call again, always even, gentle, patient, while the young onesfell back often into that precious, tense, last bit of sleeping thatgives a strength of joyous vigor in the young, over them that havecome to the readiness of middle age, in their awakening. 

Lena had good hard work all morning, and on the pleasant, sunnyafternoons she was sent out into the park to sit and watch the littletwo year old girl baby of the family. 

The other girls, all them that make the pleasant, lazy crowd, thatwatch the children in the sunny afternoons out in the park, all likedthe simple, gentle, german Lena very well. They all, too, liked verywell to tease her, for it was so easy to make her mixed and troubled, and all helpless, for she could never learn to know just what theother quicker girls meant by the queer things they said. 

The two or three of these girls, the ones that Lena always sat with, always worked together to confuse her. Still it was pleasant, all thislife for Lena. 

The little girl fell down sometimes and cried, and then Lena had tosoothe her. When the little girl would drop her hat, Lena had to pickit up and hold it. When the little girl was bad and threw away herplaythings, Lena told her she could not have them and took them fromher to hold until the little girl should need them. 

It was all a peaceful life for Lena, almost as peaceful as a pleasantleisure. The other girls, of course, did tease her, but then that onlymade a gentle stir within her. 

Lena was a brown and pleasant creature, brown as blonde racesoften have them brown, brown, not with the yellow or the red or thechocolate brown of sun burned countries, but brown with the clearcolor laid flat on the light toned skin beneath, the plain, sparebrown that makes it right to have been made with hazel eyes, and nottoo abundant straight, brown hair, hair that only later deepens itselfinto brown from the straw yellow of a german childhood. 

Lena had the flat chest, straight back and forward falling shouldersof the patient and enduring working woman, though her body was nowstill in its milder girlhood and work had not yet made these lines tooclear. 

The rarer feeling that there was with Lena, showed in all the evenquiet of her body movements, but in all it was the strongest in thepatient, old-world ignorance, and earth made pureness of her brown, flat, soft featured face. Lena had eyebrows that were a wondrousthickness. They were black, and spread, and very cool, with their darkcolor and their beauty, and beneath them were her hazel eyes, simpleand human, with the earth patience of the working, gentle, germanwoman. 

Yes it was all a peaceful life for Lena. The other girls, of course, did tease her, but then that only made a gentle stir within her. 

"What you got on your finger Lena, " Mary, one of the girls she alwayssat with, one day asked her. Mary was good natured, quick, intelligentand Irish. 

Lena had just picked up the fancy paper made accordion that the littlegirl had dropped beside her, and was making it squeak sadly as shepulled it with her brown, strong, awkward finger. 

"Why, what is it, Mary, paint?" said Lena, putting her finger to hermouth to taste the dirt spot. 

"That's awful poison Lena, don't you know?" said Mary, "that greenpaint that you just tasted. "

Lena had sucked a good deal of the green paint from her finger. Shestopped and looked hard at the finger. She did not know just how muchMary meant by what she said. 

"Ain't it poison, Nellie, that green paint, that Lena sucked justnow, " said Mary. "Sure it is Lena, its real poison, I ain't foolin'this time anyhow. "

Lena was a little troubled. She looked hard at her finger where thepaint was, and she wondered if she had really sucked it. 

It was still a little wet on the edges and she rubbed it off a longtime on the inside of her dress, and in between she wondered andlooked at the finger and thought, was it really poison that she hadjust tasted. 

"Ain't it too bad, Nellie, Lena should have sucked that, " Mary said. 

Nellie smiled and did not answer. Nellie was dark and thin, and lookedItalian. She had a big mass of black hair that she wore high up on herhead, and that made her face look very fine. 

Nellie always smiled and did not say much, and then she would look atLena to perplex her. 

And so they all three sat with their little charges in the pleasantsunshine a long time. And Lena would often look at her finger andwonder if it was really poison that she had just tasted and then shewould rub her finger on her dress a little harder. 

Mary laughed at her and teased her and Nellie smiled a little andlooked queerly at her. 

Then it came time, for it was growing cooler, for them to dragtogether the little ones, who had begun to wander, and to take eachone back to its own mother. And Lena never knew for certain whether itwas really poison, that green stuff that she had tasted. 

During these four years of service, Lena always spent her Sundays outat the house of her aunt, who had brought her four years before toBridgepoint. 

This aunt, who had brought Lena, four years before, to Bridgepoint, was a hard, ambitious, well meaning, german woman. Her husband was agrocer in the town, and they were very well to do. Mrs. Haydon, Lena'saunt, had two daughters who were just beginning as young ladies, and she had a little boy who was not honest and who was very hard tomanage. 

Mrs. Haydon was a short, stout, hard built, german woman. She alwayshit the ground very firmly and compactly as she walked. Mrs. Haydonwas all a compact and well hardened mass, even to her face, reddishand darkened from its early blonde, with its hearty, shiny cheeks, anddoubled chin well covered over with the up roll from her short, squareneck. 

The two daughters, who were fourteen and fifteen, looked likeunkneaded, unformed mounds of flesh beside her. 

The elder girl, Mathilda, was blonde, and slow, and simple, and quitefat. The younger, Bertha, who was almost as tall as her sister, wasdark, and quicker, and she was heavy, too, but not really fat. 

These two girls the mother had brought up very firmly. They were welltaught for their position. They were always both well dressed, in thesame kinds of hats and dresses, as is becoming in two german sisters. The mother liked to have them dressed in red. Their best clothes werered dresses, made of good heavy cloth, and strongly trimmed with braidof a glistening black. They had stiff, red felt hats, trimmed withblack velvet ribbon, and a bird. The mother dressed matronly, in abonnet and in black, always sat between her two big daughters, firm, directing, and repressed. 

The only weak spot in this good german woman's conduct was the way shespoiled her boy, who was not honest and who was very hard to manage. 

The father of this family was a decent, quiet, heavy, anduninterfering german man. He tried to cure the boy of his bad ways, and make him honest, but the mother could not make herself let thefather manage, and so the boy was brought up very badly. 

Mrs. Haydon's girls were now only just beginning as young ladies, andso to get her niece, Lena, married, was just then the most importantthing that Mrs. Haydon had to do. 

Mrs. Haydon had four years before gone to Germany to see her parents, and had taken the girls with her. This visit had been for Mrs. Haydonmost successful, though her children had not liked it very well. 

Mrs. Haydon was a good and generous woman, and she patronized herparents grandly, and all the cousins who came from all about to seeher. Mrs. Haydon's people were of the middling class of farmers. Theywere not peasants, and they lived in a town of some pretension, butit all seemed very poor and smelly to Mrs. Haydon's american borndaughters. 

Mrs. Haydon liked it all. It was familiar, and then here she was sowealthy and important. She listened and decided, and advised all ofher relations how to do things better. She arranged their present andtheir future for them, and showed them how in the past they had beenwrong in all their methods. 

Mrs. Haydon's only trouble was with her two daughters, whom she couldnot make behave well to her parents. The two girls were very nasty toall their numerous relations. Their mother could hardly make them kisstheir grandparents, and every day the girls would get a scolding. Butthen Mrs. Haydon was so very busy that she did not have time to reallymanage her stubborn daughters. 

These hard working, earth-rough german cousins were to these americanborn children, ugly and dirty, and as far below them as were italianor negro workmen, and they could not see how their mother could everbear to touch them, and then all the women dressed so funny, and wereworked all rough and different. 

The two girls stuck up their noses at them all, and always talked inEnglish to each other about how they hated all these people and howthey wished their mother would not do so. The girls could talk someGerman, but they never chose to use it. 

It was her eldest brother's family that most interested Mrs. Haydon. Here there were eight children, and out of the eight, five of themwere girls. 

Mrs. Haydon thought it would be a fine thing to take one of thesegirls back with her to Bridgepoint and get her well started. Everybodyliked that she should do so and they were all willing that it shouldbe Lena. 

Lena was the second girl in her large family. She was at this timejust seventeen years old. Lena was not an important daughter in thefamily. She was always sort of dreamy and not there. She worked hardand went very regularly at it, but even good work never seemed tobring her near. 

Lena's age just suited Mrs. Haydon's purpose. Lena could first goout to service, and learn how to do things, and then, when she was alittle older, Mrs. Haydon could get her a good husband. And then Lenawas so still and docile, she would never want to do things her ownway. And then, too, Mrs. Haydon, with all her hardness had wisdom, andshe could feel the rarer strain there was in Lena. 

Lena was willing to go with Mrs. Haydon. Lena did not like her germanlife very well. It was not the hard work but the roughness thatdisturbed her. The people were not gentle, and the men when they wereglad were very boisterous, and would lay hold of her and roughly teaseher. They were good people enough around her, but it was all harsh anddreary for her. 

Lena did not really know that she did not like it. She did not knowthat she was always dreamy and not there. She did not think whether itwould be different for her away off there in Bridgepoint. Mrs. Haydontook her and got her different kinds of dresses, and then took herwith them to the steamer. Lena did not really know what it was thathad happened to her. 

Mrs. Haydon, and her daughters, and Lena traveled second class on thesteamer. Mrs. Haydon's daughters hated that their mother should takeLena. They hated to have a cousin, who was to them, little better thana nigger, and then everybody on the steamer there would see her. Mrs. Haydon's daughters said things like this to their mother, but shenever stopped to hear them, and the girls did not dare to make theirmeaning very clear. And so they could only go on hating Lena hard, together. They could not stop her from going back with them toBridgepoint. 

Lena was very sick on the voyage. She thought, surely before it wasover that she would die. She was so sick she could not even wish thatshe had not started. She could not eat, she could not moan, she wasjust blank and scared, and sure that every minute she would die. Shecould not hold herself in, nor help herself in her trouble. She juststaid where she had been put, pale, and scared, and weak, and sick, and sure that she was going to die. 

Mathilda and Bertha Haydon had no trouble from having Lena for acousin on the voyage, until the last day that they were on the ship, and by that time they had made their friends and could explain. 

Mrs. Haydon went down every day to Lena, gave her things to make herbetter, held her head when it was needful, and generally was good anddid her duty by her. 

Poor Lena had no power to be strong in such trouble. She did not knowhow to yield to her sickness nor endure. She lost all her little senseof being in her suffering. She was so scared, and then at her best, Lena, who was patient, sweet and quiet, had not self-control, nor anyactive courage. 

Poor Lena was so scared and weak, and every minute she was sure thatshe would die. 

After Lena was on land again a little while, she forgot all her badsuffering. Mrs. Haydon got her the good place, with the pleasantunexacting mistress, and her children, and Lena began to learn someEnglish and soon was very happy and content. 

All her Sundays out Lena spent at Mrs. Haydon's house. Lena would haveliked much better to spend her Sundays with the girls she always satwith, and who often asked her, and who teased her and made agentle stir within her, but it never came to Lena's unexpectant andunsuffering german nature to do something different from what wasexpected of her, just because she would like it that way better. Mrs. Haydon had said that Lena was to come to her house every other Sunday, and so Lena always went there. 

Mrs. Haydon was the only one of her family who took any interest inLena. Mr. Haydon did not think much of her. She was his wife's cousinand he was good to her, but she was for him stupid, and a littlesimple, and very dull, and sure some day to need help and to be introuble. All young poor relations, who were brought from Germany toBridgepoint were sure, before long, to need help and to be in trouble. 

The little Haydon boy was always very nasty to her. He was a hardchild for any one to manage, and his mother spoiled him very badly. Mrs. Haydon's daughters as they grew older did not learn to like Lenaany better. Lena never knew that she did not like them either. Shedid not know that she was only happy with the other quicker girls, shealways sat with in the park, and who laughed at her and always teasedher. 

Mathilda Haydon, the simple, fat, blonde, older daughter felt verybadly that she had to say that this was her cousin Lena, this Lena whowas little better for her than a nigger. Mathilda was an overgrown, slow, flabby, blonde, stupid, fat girl, just beginning as a woman;thick in her speech and dull and simple in her mind, and very jealousof all her family and of other girls, and proud that she could havegood dresses and new hats and learn music, and hating very badly tohave a cousin who was a common servant. And then Mathilda rememberedvery strongly that dirty nasty place that Lena came from and thatMathilda had so turned up her nose at, and where she had been madeso angry because her mother scolded her and liked all those roughcow-smelly people. 

Then, too, Mathilda would get very mad when her mother had Lena attheir parties, and when she talked about how good Lena was, to certaingerman mothers in whose sons, perhaps, Mrs. Haydon might find Lena agood husband. All this would make the dull, blonde, fat Mathilda veryangry: Sometimes she would get so angry that she would, in her thick, slow way, and with jealous anger blazing in her light blue eyes, tellher mother that she did not see how she could like that nasty Lena;and then her mother would scold Mathilda, and tell her that she knewher cousin Lena was poor and Mathilda must be good to poor people. 

Mathilda Haydon did not like relations to be poor. She told all hergirl friends what she thought of Lena, and so the girls would nevertalk to Lena at Mrs. Haydon's parties. But Lena in her unsufferingand unexpectant patience never really knew that she was slighted. WhenMathilda was with her girls in the street or in the park and would seeLena, she always turned up her nose and barely nodded to her, and thenshe would tell her friends how funny her mother was to take care ofpeople like that Lena, and how, back in Germany, all Lena's peoplelived just like pigs. 

The younger daughter, the dark, large, but not fat, Bertha Haydon, whowas very quick in her mind, and in her ways, and who was the favoritewith her father, did not like Lena, either. She did not like herbecause for her Lena was a fool and so stupid, and she would let thoseIrish and Italian girls laugh at her and tease her, and everybodyalways made fun of Lena, and Lena never got mad, or even had senseenough to know that they were all making an awful fool of her. 

Bertha Haydon hated people to be fools. Her father, too, thought Lenawas a fool, and so neither the father nor the daughter ever paidany attention to Lena, although she came to their house every otherSunday. 

Lena did not know how all the Haydons felt. She came to her aunt'shouse all her Sunday afternoons that she had out, because Mrs. Haydonhad told her she must do so. In the same way Lena always saved all ofher wages. She never thought of any way to spend it. The german cook, the good woman who always scolded Lena, helped her to put it in thebank each month, as soon as she got it. Sometimes before it got intothe bank to be taken care of, somebody would ask Lena for it. Thelittle Haydon boy sometimes asked and would get it, and sometimes someof the girls, the ones Lena always sat with, needed some more money;but the german cook, who always scolded Lena, saw to it that this didnot happen very often. When it did happen she would scold Lena verysharply, and for the next few months she would not let Lena touch herwages, but put it in the bank for her on the same day that Lena gotit. 

So Lena always saved her wages, for she never thought to spend them, and she always went to her aunt's house for her Sundays because shedid not know that she could do anything different. 

Mrs. Haydon felt more and more every year that she had done right tobring Lena back with her, for it was all coming out just as she hadexpected. Lena was good and never wanted her own way, she was learningEnglish, and saving all her wages, and soon Mrs. Haydon would get hera good husband. 

All these four years Mrs. Haydon was busy looking around among all thegerman people that she knew for the right man to be Lena's husband, and now at last she was quite decided. 

The man Mrs. Haydon wanted for Lena was a young german-americantailor, who worked with his father. He was good and all the familywere very saving, and Mrs. Haydon was sure that this would be justright for Lena, and then too, this young tailor always did whateverhis father and his mother wanted. 

This old german tailor and his wife, the father and the mother ofHerman Kreder, who was to marry Lena Mainz, were very thrifty, carefulpeople. Herman was the only child they had left with them, and healways did everything they wanted. Herman was now twenty-eight yearsold, but he had never stopped being scolded and directed by his fatherand his mother. And now they wanted to see him married. 

Herman Kreder did not care much to get married. He was a gentle souland a little fearful. He had a sullen temper, too. He was obedient tohis father and his mother. He always did his work well. He often wentout on Saturday nights and on Sundays, with other men. He liked itwith them but he never became really joyous. He liked to be with menand he hated to have women with them. He was obedient to his mother, but he did not care much to get married. 

Mrs. Haydon and the elder Kreders had often talked the marriage over. They all three liked it very well. Lena would do anything that Mrs. Haydon wanted, and Herman was always obedient in everything to hisfather and his mother. Both Lena and Herman were saving and goodworkers and neither of them ever wanted their own way. 

The elder Kreders, everybody knew, had saved up all their money, andthey were hard, good german people, and Mrs. Haydon was sure that withthese people Lena would never be in any trouble. Mr. Haydon would notsay anything about it. He knew old Kreder had a lot of money and ownedsome good houses, and he did not care what his wife did with thatsimple, stupid Lena, so long as she would be sure never to need helpor to be in trouble. 

Lena did not care much to get married. She liked her life very wellwhere she was working. She did not think much about Herman Kreder. Shethought he was a good man and she always found him very quiet. Neitherof them ever spoke much to the other. Lena did not care much just thenabout getting married. 

Mrs. Haydon spoke to Lena about it very often. Lena never answeredanything at all. Mrs. Haydon thought, perhaps Lena did not like HermanKreder. Mrs. Haydon could not believe that any girl not even Lena, really had no feeling about getting married. 

Mrs. Haydon spoke to Lena very often about Herman. Mrs. Haydonsometimes got very angry with Lena. She was afraid that Lena, foronce, was going to be stubborn, now when it was all fixed right forher to be married. 

"Why you stand there so stupid, why don't you answer, Lena, " said Mrs. Haydon one Sunday, at the end of a long talking that she was givingLena about Herman Kreder, and about Lena's getting married to him. 

"Yes ma'am, " said Lena, and then Mrs. Haydon was furious with thisstupid Lena. "Why don't you answer with some sense, Lena, when I askyou if you don't like Herman Kreder. You stand there so stupid anddon't answer just like you ain't heard a word what I been saying toyou. I never see anybody like you, Lena. If you going to burst out atall, why don't you burst out sudden instead of standing there so sillyand don't answer. And here I am so good to you, and find you a goodhusband so you can have a place to live in all your own. Answer me, Lena, don't you like Herman Kreder? He is a fine young fellow, almosttoo good for you, Lena, when you stand there so stupid and don't makeno answer. There ain't many poor girls that get the chance you got nowto get married. "

"Why, I do anything you say, Aunt Mathilda. Yes, I like him. He don'tsay much to me, but I guess he is a good man, and I do anything yousay for me to do. "

"Well then Lena, why you stand there so silly all the time and notanswer when I asked you. "

"I didn't hear you say you wanted I should say anything to you. Ididn't know you wanted me to say nothing. I do whatever you tell meit's right for me to do. I marry Herman Kreder, if you want me. "

And so for Lena Mainz the match was made. 

Old Mrs. Kreder did not discuss the matter with her Herman. She neverthought that she needed to talk such things over with him. She justtold him about getting married to Lena Mainz who was a good worker andvery saving and never wanted her own way, and Herman made his usuallittle grunt in answer to her. 

Mrs. Kreder and Mrs. Haydon fixed the day and made all thearrangements for the wedding and invited everybody who ought to bethere to see them married. 

In three months Lena Mainz and Herman Kreder were to be married. 

Mrs. Haydon attended to Lena's getting all the things that she needed. Lena had to help a good deal with the sewing. Lena did not sew verywell. Mrs. Haydon scolded because Lena did not do it better, but thenshe was very good to Lena, and she hired a girl to come and help her. Lena still stayed on with her pleasant mistress, but she spent all herevenings and her Sundays with her aunt and all the sewing. 

Mrs. Haydon got Lena some nice dresses. Lena liked that very well. Lena liked having new hats even better, and Mrs. Haydon had some madefor her by a real milliner who made them very pretty. 

Lena was nervous these days, but she did not think much about gettingmarried. She did not know really what it was, that, which was alwayscoming nearer. 

Lena liked the place where she was with the pleasant mistress and thegood cook, who always scolded, and she liked the girls she always satwith. She did not ask if she would like being married any better. Shealways did whatever her aunt said and expected, but she was alwaysnervous when she saw the Kreders with their Herman. She was excitedand she liked her new hats, and everybody teased her and every day hermarrying was coming nearer, and yet she did not really know what itwas, this that was about to happen to her. 

Herman Kreder knew more what it meant to be married and he did notlike it very well. He did not like to see girls and he did not wantto have to have one always near him. Herman always did everything thathis father and his mother wanted and now they wanted that he should bemarried. 

Herman had a sullen temper; he was gentle and he never said much. Heliked to go out with other men, but he never wanted that there shouldbe any women with them. The men all teased him about getting married. Herman did not mind the teasing but he did not like very well thegetting married and having a girl always with him. 

Three days before the wedding day, Herman went away to the country tobe gone over Sunday. He and Lena were to be married Tuesday afternoon. When the day came Herman had not been seen or heard from. 

The old Kreder couple had not worried much about it. Herman always dideverything they wanted and he would surely come back in time to getmarried. But when Monday night came, and there was no Herman, theywent to Mrs. Haydon to tell her what had happened. 

Mrs. Haydon got very much excited. It was hard enough to work so asto get everything all ready, and then to have that silly Herman go offthat way, so no one could tell what was going to happen. Here was Lenaand everything all ready, and now they would have to make the weddinglater so that they would know that Herman would be sure to be there. 

Mrs. Haydon was very much excited, and then she could not say much tothe old Kreder couple. She did not want to make them angry, for shewanted very badly now that Lena should be married to their Herman. 

At last it was decided that the wedding should be put off a weeklonger. Old Mr. Kreder would go to New York to find Herman, for it wasvery likely that Herman had gone there to his married sister. 

Mrs. Haydon sent word around, about waiting until a week from thatTuesday, to everybody that had been invited, and then Tuesday morningshe sent for Lena to come down to see her. 

Mrs. Haydon was very angry with poor Lena when she saw her. Shescolded her hard because she was so foolish, and now Herman had goneoff and nobody could tell where he had gone to, and all because Lenaalways was so dumb and silly. And Mrs. Haydon was just like a motherto her, and Lena always stood there so stupid and did not answer whatanybody asked her, and Herman was so silly too, and now his fatherhad to go and find him. Mrs. Haydon did not think that any old peopleshould be good to their children. Their children always were sothankless, and never paid any attention, and older people were alwaysdoing things for their good. Did Lena think it gave Mrs. Haydon anypleasure, to work so hard to make Lena happy, and get her a goodhusband, and then Lena was so thankless and never did anything thatanybody wanted. It was a lesson to poor Mrs. Haydon not to do thingsany more for anybody. Let everybody take care of themselves and nevercome to her with any troubles; she knew better now than to meddle tomake other people happy. It just made trouble for her and her husbanddid not like it. He always said she was too good, and nobody everthanked her for it, and there Lena was always standing stupid and notanswering anything anybody wanted. Lena could always talk enough tothose silly girls she liked so much, and always sat with, but whonever did anything for her except to take away her money, and here washer aunt who tried so hard and was so good to her and treated her justlike one of her own children and Lena stood there, and never made anyanswer and never tried to please her aunt, or to do anything that heraunt wanted. "No, it ain't no use your standin' there and cryin', now, Lena. Its too late now to care about that Herman. You should havecared some before, and then you wouldn't have to stand and cry now, and be a disappointment to me, and then I get scolded by my husbandfor taking care of everybody, and nobody ever thankful. I am glad yougot the sense to feel sorry now, Lena, anyway, and I try to do whatI can to help you out in your trouble, only you don't deserve to haveanybody take any trouble for you. But perhaps you know better nexttime. You go home now and take care you don't spoil your clothes andthat new hat, you had no business to be wearin' that this morning, butyou ain't got no sense at all, Lena. I never in my life see anybody beso stupid. "

Mrs. Haydon stopped and poor Lena stood there in her hat, all trimmedwith pretty flowers, and the tears coming out of her eyes, and Lenadid not know what it was that she had done, only she was not going tobe married and it was a disgrace for a girl to be left by a man on thevery day she was to be married. 

Lena went home all alone, and cried in the street car. 

Poor Lena cried very hard all alone in the street car. She almostspoiled her new hat with her hitting it against the window in hercrying. Then she remembered that she must not do so. 

The conductor was a kind man and he was very sorry when he saw hercrying. "Don't feel so bad, you get another feller, you are such anice girl, " he said to make her cheerful. "But Aunt Mathilda said now, I never get married, " poor Lena sobbed out for her answer. "Why youreally got trouble like that, " said the conductor, "I just said thatnow to josh you. I didn't ever think you really was left by a feller. He must be a stupid feller. But don't you worry, he wasn't much goodif he could go away and leave you, lookin' to be such a nice girl. Youjust tell all your trouble to me, and I help you. " The car was emptyand the conductor sat down beside her to put his arm around her, andto be a comfort to her. Lena suddenly remembered where she was, and ifshe did things like that her aunt would scold her. She moved away fromthe man into the corner. He laughed, "Don't be scared, " he said, "Iwasn't going to hurt you. But you just keep up your spirit. You are areal nice girl, and you'll be sure to get a real good husband. Don'tyou let nobody fool you. You're all right and I don't want to scareyou. "

The conductor went back to his platform to help a passenger get onthe car. All the time Lena stayed in the street car, he would comein every little while and reassure her, about her not to feel so badabout a man who hadn't no more sense than to go away and leave her. She'd be sure yet to get a good man, she needn't be so worried, hefrequently assured her. 

He chatted with the other passenger who had just come in, a very welldressed old man, and then with another who came in later, a good sortof a working man, and then another who came in, a nice lady, and hetold them all about Lena's having trouble, and it was too bad therewere men who treated a poor girl so badly. And everybody in the carwas sorry for poor Lena and the workman tried to cheer her, and theold man looked sharply at her, and said she looked like a good girl, but she ought to be more careful and not to be so careless, and thingslike that would not happen to her, and the nice lady went and satbeside her and Lena liked it, though she shrank away from being nearher. 

So Lena was feeling a little better when she got off the car, and theconductor helped her, and he called out to her, "You be sure you keepup a good heart now. He wasn't no good that feller and you were luckyfor to lose him. You'll get a real man yet, one that will be betterfor you. Don't you be worried, you're a real nice girl as I ever seein such trouble, " and the conductor shook his head and went back intohis car to talk it over with the other passengers he had there. 

The german cook, who always scolded Lena, was very angry when sheheard the story. She never did think Mrs. Haydon would do so much forLena, though she was always talking so grand about what she coulddo for everybody. The good german cook always had been a littledistrustful of her. People who always thought they were so much neverdid really do things right for anybody. Not that Mrs. Haydon wasn'ta good woman. Mrs. Haydon was a real, good, german woman, and shedid really mean to do well by her niece Lena. The cook knew thatvery well, and she had always said so, and she always had liked andrespected Mrs. Haydon, who always acted very proper to her, and Lenawas so backward, when there was a man to talk to, Mrs. Haydon did havehard work when she tried to marry Lena. Mrs. Haydon was a good woman, only she did talk sometimes too grand. Perhaps this trouble wouldmake her see it wasn't always so easy to do, to make everybody doeverything just like she wanted. The cook was very sorry now for Mrs. Haydon. All this must be such a disappointment, and such a worry toher, and she really had always been very good to Lena. But Lena hadbetter go and put on her other clothes and stop all that crying. Thatwouldn't do nothing now to help her, and if Lena would be a good girl, and just be real patient, her aunt would make it all come out rightyet for her. "I just tell Mrs. Aldrich, Lena, you stay here yet alittle longer. You know she is always so good to you, Lena, and I knowshe let you, and I tell her all about that stupid Herman Kreder. I gotno patience, Lena, with anybody who can be so stupid. You just stopnow with your crying, Lena, and take off them good clothes and putthem away so you don't spoil them when you need them, and you can helpme with the dishes and everything will come off better for you. Yousee if I ain't right by what I tell you. You just stop crying now Lenaquick, or else I scold you. "

Lena still choked a little and was very miserable inside her but shedid everything just as the cook told her. 

The girls Lena always sat with were very sorry to see her look so sadwith her trouble. Mary the Irish girl sometimes got very angry withher. Mary was always very hot when she talked to Lena's aunt Mathilda, who thought she was so grand, and had such stupid, stuck up daughters. Mary wouldn't be a fat fool like that ugly tempered Mathilda Haydon, not for anything anybody could ever give her. How Lena could keep ongoing there so much when they all always acted as if she was just dirtto them, Mary never could see. But Lena never had any sense of how sheshould make people stand round for her, and that was always all thetrouble with her. And poor Lena, she was so stupid to be sorry forlosing that gawky fool who didn't ever know what he wanted and justsaid "ja" to his mamma and his papa, like a baby, and was scared tolook at a girl straight, and then sneaked away the last day like asif somebody was going to do something to him. Disgrace, Lena talkingabout disgrace! It was a disgrace for a girl to be seen with the likesof him, let alone to be married to him. But that poor Lena, she neverdid know how to show herself off for what she was really. Disgrace tohave him go away and leave her. Mary would just like to get a chanceto show him. If Lena wasn't worth fifteen like Herman Kreder, Marywould just eat her own head all up. It was a good riddance Lena had ofthat Herman Kreder and his stingy, dirty parents, and if Lena didn'tstop crying about it, --Mary would just naturally despise her. 

Poor Lena, she knew very well how Mary meant it all, this she wasalways saying to her. But Lena was very miserable inside her. She feltthe disgrace it was for a decent german girl that a man should go awayand leave her. Lena knew very well that her aunt was right when shesaid the way Herman had acted to her was a disgrace to everyone thatknew her. Mary and Nellie and the other girls she always sat with werealways very good to Lena but that did not make her trouble any better. It was a disgrace the way Lena had been left, to any decent family, and that could never be made any different to her. 

And so the slow days wore on, and Lena never saw her Aunt Mathilda. Atlast on Sunday she got word by a boy to go and see her aunt Mathilda. Lena's heart beat quick for she was very nervous now with all thisthat had happened to her. She went just as quickly as she could to seeher Aunt Mathilda. 

Mrs. Haydon quick, as soon as she saw Lena, began to scold her forkeeping her aunt waiting so long for her, and for not coming in allthe week to see her, to see if her aunt should need her, and so heraunt had to send a boy to tell her. But it was easy, even for Lena, to see that her aunt was not really angry with her. It wasn't Lena'sfault, went on Mrs. Haydon, that everything was going to happen allright for her. Mrs. Haydon was very tired taking all this troublefor her, and when Lena couldn't even take trouble to come and seeher aunt, to see if she needed anything to tell her. But Mrs. Haydonreally never minded things like that when she could do things foranybody. She was tired now, all the trouble she had been taking tomake things right for Lena, but perhaps now Lena heard it she wouldlearn a little to be thankful to her. "You get all ready to be marriedTuesday, Lena, you hear me, " said Mrs. Haydon to her. "You come hereTuesday morning and I have everything all ready for you. You wear yournew dress I got you, and your hat with all them flowers on it, andyou be very careful coming you don't get your things all dirty, you socareless all the time, Lena, and not thinking, and you act sometimesyou never got no head at all on you. You go home now, and you tellyour Mrs. Aldrich that you leave her Tuesday. Don't you go forgettingnow, Lena, anything I ever told you what you should do to be careful. You be a good girl, now Lena. You get married Tuesday to HermanKreder. " And that was all Lena ever knew of what had happened all thisweek to Herman Kreder. Lena forgot there was anything to know aboutit. She was really to be married Tuesday, and her Aunt Mathilda saidshe was a good girl, and now there was no disgrace left upon her. 

Lena now fell back into the way she always had of being always dreamyand not there, the way she always had been, except for the few daysshe was so excited, because she had been left by a man the very dayshe was to have been married. Lena was a little nervous all these lastdays, but she did not think much about what it meant for her to bemarried. 

Herman Kreder was not so content about it. He was quiet and was sullenand he knew he could not help it. He knew now he just had to lethimself get married. It was not that Herman did not like Lena Mainz. She was as good as any other girl could be for him. She was a littlebetter perhaps than other girls he saw, she was so very quiet, butHerman did not like to always have to have a girl around him. Hermanhad always done everything that his mother and his father wanted. Hisfather had found him in New York, where Herman had gone to be with hismarried sister. 

Herman's father when he had found him coaxed Herman a long time andwent on whole days with his complaining to him, always troubled butgentle and quite patient with him, and always he was worrying toHerman about what was the right way his boy Herman should always do, always whatever it was his mother ever wanted from him, and alwaysHerman never made him any answer. 

Old Mr. Kreder kept on saying to him, he did not see how Herman couldthink now, it could be any different. When you make a bargain you justgot to stick right to it, that was the only way old Mr. Kreder couldever see it, and saying you would get married to a girl and she goteverything all ready, that was a bargain just like one you make inbusiness and Herman he had made it, and now Herman he would just haveto do it, old Mr. Kreder didn't see there was any other way a good boylike his Herman had, to do it. And then too that Lena Mainz was sucha nice girl and Herman hadn't ought to really give his father so muchtrouble and make him pay out all that money, to come all the way toNew York just to find him, and they both lose all that time from theirworking, when all Herman had to do was just to stand up, for an hour, and then he would be all right married, and it would be all over forhim, and then everything at home would never be any different to him. 

And his father went on; there was his poor mother saying always howher Herman always did everything before she ever wanted, and now justbecause he got notions in him, and wanted to show people how he couldbe stubborn, he was making all this trouble for her, and making thempay all that money just to run around and find him. "You got no ideaHerman, how bad mama is feeling about the way you been acting Herman, "said old Mr. Kreder to him. "She says she never can understand howyou can be so thankless Herman. It hurts her very much you been sostubborn, and she find you such a nice girl for you, like Lena Mainzwho is always just so quiet and always saves up all her wages, and shenever wanting her own way at all like some girls are always all thetime to have it, and you mama trying so hard, just so you could becomfortable Herman to be married, and then you act so stubborn Herman. You like all young people Herman, you think only about yourself, andwhat you are just wanting, and your mama she is thinking only what isgood for you to have, for you in the future. Do you think your mamawants to have a girl around to be a bother, for herself, Herman. Itsjust for you Herman she is always thinking, and she talks always abouthow happy she will be, when she sees her Herman married to a nicegirl, and then when she fixed it all up so good for you, so it neverwould be any bother to you, just the way she wanted you should likeit, and you say yes all right, I do it, and then you go away like thisand act stubborn, and make all this trouble everybody to take for you, and we spend money, and I got to travel all round to find you. Youcome home now with me Herman and get married, and I tell your mama shebetter not say anything to you about how much it cost me to come allthe way to look for you--Hey Herman, " said his father coaxing, "Hey, you come home now and get married. All you got to do Herman is just tostand up for an hour Herman, and then you don't never to have any morebother to it--Hey Herman!--you come home with me to-morrow and getmarried. Hey Herman. "

Herman's married sister liked her brother Herman, and she had alwaystried to help him, when there was anything she knew he wanted. Sheliked it that he was so good and always did everything that theirfather and their mother wanted, but still she wished it could be thathe could have more his own way, if there was anything he ever wanted. 

But now she thought Herman with his girl was very funny. She wantedthat Herman should be married. She thought it would do him lots ofgood to get married. She laughed at Herman when she heard the story. Until his father came to find him, she did not know why it was Hermanhad come just then to New York to see her. When she heard the storyshe laughed a good deal at her brother Herman and teased him a gooddeal about his running away, because he didn't want to have a girl tobe all the time around him. 

Herman's married sister liked her brother Herman, and she did not wanthim not to like to be with women. He was good, her brother Herman, andit would surely do him good to get married. It would make him stand upfor himself stronger. Herman's sister always laughed at him and alwaysshe would try to reassure him. "Such a nice man as my brother Hermanacting like as if he was afraid of women. Why the girls all like a manlike you Herman, if you didn't always run away when you saw them. Itdo you good really Herman to get married, and then you got somebodyyou can boss around when you want to. It do you good Herman to getmarried, you see if you don't like it, when you really done it. Yougo along home now with papa, Herman and get married to that Lena. Youdon't know how nice you like it Herman when you try once how you cando it. You just don't be afraid of nothing, Herman. You good enoughfor any girl to marry, Herman. Any girl be glad to have a man like youto be always with them Herman. You just go along home with papa andtry it what I say, Herman. Oh you so funny Herman, when you sit there, and then run away and leave your girl behind you. I know she is cryinglike anything Herman for to lose you. Don't be bad to her Herman. You go along home with papa now and get married Herman. I'd be awfulashamed Herman, to really have a brother didn't have spirit enoughto get married, when a girl is just dying for to have him. You alwayslike me to be with you Herman. I don't see why you say you don'twant a girl to be all the time around you. You always been good to meHerman, and I know you always be good to that Lena, and you soon feeljust like as if she had always been there with you. Don't act like asif you wasn't a nice strong man, Herman. Really I laugh at you Herman, but you know I like awful well to see you real happy. You go home andget married to that Lena, Herman. She is a real pretty girl and realnice and good and quiet and she make my brother Herman very happy. Youjust stop your fussing now with Herman, papa. He go with you to-morrowpapa, and you see he like it so much to be married, he make everybodylaugh just to see him be so happy. Really truly, that's the wayit will be with you Herman. You just listen to me what I tell youHerman. " And so his sister laughed at him and reassured him, and hisfather kept on telling what the mother always said about her Herman, and he coaxed him and Herman never said anything in answer, and hissister packed his things up and was very cheerful with him, and shekissed him, and then she laughed and then she kissed him, and hisfather went and bought the tickets for the train, and at last late onSunday he brought Herman back to Bridgepoint with him. 

It was always very hard to keep Mrs. Kreder from saying what shethought, to her Herman, but her daughter had written her a letter, soas to warn her not to say anything about what he had been doing, tohim, and her husband came in with Herman and said, "Here we are comehome mama, Herman and me, and we are very tired it was so crowdedcoming, " and then he whispered to her. "You be good to Herman, mama, he didn't mean to make us so much trouble, " and so old Mrs. Kreder, held in what she felt was so strong in her to say to her Herman. Shejust said very stiffly to him, "I'm glad to see you come home to-day, Herman. " Then she went to arrange it all with Mrs. Haydon. 

Herman was now again just like he always had been, sullen and verygood, and very quiet, and always ready to do whatever his mother andhis father wanted. Tuesday morning came, Herman got his new clotheson and went with his father and his mother to stand up for an hour andget married. Lena was there in her new dress, and her hat with allthe pretty flowers, and she was very nervous for now she knew she wasreally very soon to be married. Mrs. Haydon had everything all ready. Everybody was there just as they should be and very soon Herman Krederand Lena Mainz were married. 

When everything was really over, they went back to the Kreder housetogether. They were all now to live together, Lena and Herman andthe old father and the old mother, in the house where Mr. Kreder hadworked so many years as a tailor, with his son Herman always there tohelp him. 

Irish Mary had often said to Lena she never did see how Lena couldever want to have anything to do with Herman Kreder and his dirtystingy parents. The old Kreders were to an Irish nature, a stingy, dirty couple. They had not the free-hearted, thoughtless, fighting, mud bespattered, ragged, peat-smoked cabin dirt that irish Mary knewand could forgive and love. Theirs was the german dirt of saving, ofbeing dowdy and loose and foul in your clothes so as to save them andyourself in washing, having your hair greasy to save it in the soapand drying, having your clothes dirty, not in freedom, but because soit was cheaper, keeping the house close and smelly because so it costless to get it heated, living so poorly not only so as to save moneybut so they should never even know themselves that they had it, working all the time not only because from their nature they just hadto and because it made them money but also that they never could beput in any way to make them spend their money. 

This was the place Lena now had for her home and to her it was verydifferent than it could be for an irish Mary. She too was german andwas thrifty, though she was always so dreamy and not there. Lena wasalways careful with things and she always saved her money, for thatwas the only way she knew how to do it. She never had taken care ofher own money and she never had thought how to use it. 

Lena Mainz had been, before she was Mrs. Herman Kreder, always cleanand decent in her clothes and in her person, but it was not becauseshe ever thought about it or really needed so to have it, it was theway her people did in the german country where she came from, and herAunt Mathilda and the good german cook who always scolded, had kepther on and made her, with their scoldings, always more careful to keepclean and to wash real often. But there was no deep need in all thisfor Lena and so, though Lena did not like the old Kreders, though shereally did not know that, she did not think about their being stingydirty people. 

Herman Kreder was cleaner than the old people, just because it was hisnature to keep cleaner, but he was used to his mother and his father, and he never thought that they should keep things cleaner. And Hermantoo always saved all his money, except for that little beer he drankwhen he went out with other men of an evening the way he always likedto do it, and he never thought of any other way to spend it. Hisfather had always kept all the money for them and he always was doingbusiness with it. And then too Herman really had no money, for healways had worked for his father, and his father had never thought topay him. 

And so they began all four to live in the Kreder house together, andLena began soon with it to look careless and a little dirty, and to bemore lifeless with it, and nobody ever noticed much what Lena wanted, and she never really knew herself what she needed. 

The only real trouble that came to Lena with their living all fourthere together, was the way old Mrs. Kreder scolded. Lena had alwaysbeen used to being scolded, but this scolding of old Mrs. Kreder wasvery different from the way she ever before had had to endure it. 

Herman, now he was married to her, really liked Lena very well. He didnot care very much about her but she never was a bother to him beingthere around him, only when his mother worried and was nasty to thembecause Lena was so careless, and did not know how to save thingsright for them with their eating, and all the other ways with money, that the old woman had to save it. 

Herman Kreder had always done everything his mother and his fatherwanted but he did not really love his parents very deeply. With Hermanit was always only that he hated to have any struggle. It was allalways all right with him when he could just go along and do the samething over every day with his working, and not to hear things, and notto have people make him listen to their anger. And now his marriage, and he just knew it would, was making trouble for him. It made himhear more what his mother was always saying, with her scolding. He hadto really hear it now because Lena was there, and she was so scaredand dull always when she heard it. Herman knew very well with hismother, it was all right if one ate very little and worked hard allday and did not hear her when she scolded, the way Herman always haddone before they were so foolish about his getting married and havinga girl there to be all the time around him, and now he had to help herso the girl could learn too, not to hear it when his mother scolded, and not to look so scared, and not to eat much, and always to be sureto save it. 

Herman really did not know very well what he could do to help Lenato understand it. He could never answer his mother back to help Lena, that never would make things any better for her, and he never couldfeel in himself any way to comfort Lena, to make her strong not tohear his mother, in all the awful ways she always scolded. It justworried Herman to have it like that all the time around him. Hermandid not know much about how a man could make a struggle with a mother, to do much to keep her quiet, and indeed Herman never knew much how tomake a struggle against anyone who really wanted to have anything verybadly. Herman all his life never wanted anything so badly, that hewould really make a struggle against any one to get it. Herman all hislife only wanted to live regular and quiet, and not talk much and todo the same way every day like every other with his working. And nowhis mother had made him get married to this Lena and now with hismother making all that scolding, he had all this trouble and thisworry always on him. 

Mrs. Haydon did not see Lena now very often. She had not lost herinterest in her niece Lena, but Lena could not come much to her houseto see her, it would not be right, now Lena was a married woman. And then too Mrs. Haydon had her hands full just then with her twodaughters, for she was getting them ready to find them good husbands, and then too her own husband now worried her very often about heralways spoiling that boy of hers, so he would be sure to turn out nogood and be a disgrace to a german family, and all because his motheralways spoiled him. All these things were very worrying now to Mrs. Haydon, but still she wanted to be good to Lena, though she could notsee her very often. She only saw her when Mrs. Haydon went to callon Mrs. Kreder or when Mrs. Kreder came to see Mrs. Haydon, and thatnever could be very often. Then too these days Mrs. Haydon could notscold Lena, Mrs. Kreder was always there with her, and it would not beright to scold Lena, when Mrs. Kreder was there, who had now the realright to do it. And so her aunt always said nice things now to Lena, and though Mrs. Haydon sometimes was a little worried when she sawLena looking sad and not careful, she did not have time just then toreally worry much about it. 

Lena now never any more saw the girls she always used to sit with. Shehad no way now to see them and it was not in Lena's nature to searchout ways to see them, nor did she now ever think much of the days whenshe had been used to see them. They never any of them had come to theKreder house to see her. Not even Irish Mary had ever thought to cometo see her. Lena had been soon forgotten by them. They had soon passedaway from Lena and now Lena never thought any more that she had everknown them. 

The only one of her old friends who tried to know what Lena liked andwhat she needed, and who always made Lena come to see her, was thegood german cook who had always scolded. She now scolded Lena hard forletting herself go so, and going out when she was looking so untidy. "I know you going to have a baby Lena, but that's no way for you to belooking. I am ashamed most to see you come and sit here in my kitchen, looking so sloppy and like you never used to Lena. I never see anybodylike you Lena. Herman is very good to you, you always say so, and hedon't treat you bad even though you don't deserve to have anybody goodto you, you so careless all the time, Lena, letting yourself go likeyou never had anybody tell you what was the right way you should knowhow to be looking. No, Lena, I don't see no reason you should letyourself go so and look so untidy Lena, so I am ashamed to see you sitthere looking so ugly, Lena. No Lena that ain't no way ever I see awoman make things come out better, letting herself go so every way andcrying all the time like as if you had real trouble. I never wanted tosee you marry Herman Kreder, Lena, I knew what you got to stand withthat old woman always, and that old man, he is so stingy too and hedon't say things out but he ain't any better in his heart than hiswife with her bad ways, I know that Lena, I know they don't hardlygive you enough to eat, Lena, I am real sorry for you Lena, you knowthat Lena, but that ain't any way to be going round so untidy Lena, even if you have got all that trouble. You never see me do like thatLena, though sometimes I got a headache so I can't see to stand tobe working hardly, and nothing comes right with all my cooking, but Ialways see Lena, I look decent. That's the only way a german girl canmake things come out right Lena. You hear me what I am saying to youLena. Now you eat something nice Lena, I got it all ready for you, andyou wash up and be careful Lena and the baby will come all right toyou, and then I make your Aunt Mathilda see that you live in a housesoon all alone with Herman and your baby, and then everything gobetter for you. You hear me what I say to you Lena. Now don't let meever see you come looking like this any more Lena, and you just stopwith that always crying. You ain't got no reason to be sitting therenow with all that crying, I never see anybody have trouble it did themany good to do the way you are doing, Lena. You hear me Lena. You gohome now and you be good the way I tell you Lena, and I see what I cando. I make your Aunt Mathilda make old Mrs. Kreder let you be till youget your baby all right. Now don't you be scared and so silly Lena. Idon't like to see you act so Lena when really you got a nice man andso many things really any girl should be grateful to be having. Nowyou go home Lena to-day and you do the way I say, to you, and I seewhat I can do to help you. "

"Yes Mrs. Aldrich" said the good german woman to her mistress later, "Yes Mrs. Aldrich that's the way it is with them girls when they wantso to get married. They don't know when they got it good Mrs. Aldrich. They never know what it is they're really wanting when they got it, Mrs. Aldrich. There's that poor Lena, she just been here crying andlooking so careless so I scold her, but that was no good that marryingfor that poor Lena, Mrs. Aldrich. She do look so pale and sad now Mrs. Aldrich, it just break my heart to see her. She was a good girl wasLena, Mrs. Aldrich, and I never had no trouble with her like I gotwith so many young girls nowadays, Mrs. Aldrich, and I never see anygirl any better to work right than our Lena, and now she got to standit all the time with that old woman Mrs. Kreder. My! Mrs. Aldrich, sheis a bad old woman to her. I never see Mrs. Aldrich how old people canbe so bad to young girls and not have no kind of patience with them. If Lena could only live with her Herman, he ain't so bad the way menare, Mrs. Aldrich, but he is just the way always his mother wants him, he ain't got no spirit in him, and so I don't really see no help forthat poor Lena. I know her aunt, Mrs. Haydon, meant it all right forher Mrs. Aldrich, but poor Lena, it would be better for her if herHerman had stayed there in New York that time he went away to leaveher. I don't like it the way Lena is looking now, Mrs. Aldrich. Shelooks like as if she don't have no life left in her hardly, Mrs. Aldrich, she just drags around and looks so dirty and after all thepains I always took to teach her and to keep her nice in her ways andlooking. It don't do no good to them, for them girls to get marriedMrs. Aldrich, they are much better when they only know it, to stay ina good place when they got it, and keep on regular with their working. I don't like it the way Lena looks now Mrs. Aldrich. I wish I knewsome way to help that poor Lena, Mrs. Aldrich, but she she is a badold woman, that old Mrs. Kreder, Herman's mother. I speak to Mrs. Haydon real soon, Mrs. Aldrich, I see what we can do now to help thatpoor Lena. "

These were really bad days for poor Lena. Herman always was realgood to her and now he even sometimes tried to stop his mother fromscolding Lena. "She ain't well now mama, you let her be now you hearme. You tell me what it is you want she should be doing, I tell her. Isee she does it right just the way you want it mama. You let be, I saynow mama, with that always scolding Lena. You let be, I say now, youwait till she is feeling better. " Herman was getting really strongto struggle, for he could see that Lena with that baby working hardinside her, really could not stand it any longer with his mother andthe awful ways she always scolded. 

It was a new feeling Herman now had inside him that made him feel hewas strong to make a struggle. It was new for Herman Kreder really tobe wanting something, but Herman wanted strongly now to be a father, and he wanted badly that his baby should be a boy and healthy, Hermannever had cared really very much about his father and his mother, though always, all his life, he had done everything just as theywanted, and he had never really cared much about his wife, Lena, though he always had been very good to her, and had always tried tokeep his mother off her, with the awful way she always scolded, but tobe really a father of a little baby, that feeling took hold of Hermanvery deeply. He was almost ready, so as to save his baby from alltrouble, to really make a strong struggle with his mother and with hisfather, too, if he would not help him to control his mother. 

Sometimes Herman even went to Mrs. Haydon to talk all this troubleover. They decided then together, it was better to wait there all fourtogether for the baby, and Herman could make Mrs. Kreder stop a littlewith her scolding, and then when Lena was a little stronger, Hermanshould have his own house for her, next door to his father, so hecould always be there to help him in his working, but so they couldeat and sleep in a house where the old woman could not control themand they could not hear her awful scolding. 

And so things went on, the same way, a little longer. Poor Lena wasnot feeling any joy to have a baby. She was scared the way she hadbeen when she was so sick on the water. She was scared now every timewhen anything would hurt her. She was scared and still and lifeless, and sure that every minute she would die. Lena had no power to bestrong in this kind of trouble, she could only sit still and bescared, and dull, and lifeless, and sure that every minute she woulddie. 

Before very long, Lena had her baby. He was a good, healthy littleboy, the baby. Herman cared very much to have the baby. When Lena wasa little stronger he took a house next door to the old couple, so heand his own family could eat and sleep and do the way they wanted. This did not seem to make much change now for Lena. She was just thesame as when she was waiting with her baby. She just dragged aroundand was careless with her clothes and all lifeless, and she actedalways and lived on just as if she had no feeling. She always dideverything regular with the work, the way she always had had to do it, but she never got back any spirit in her. Herman was always good andkind, and always helped her with her working. He did everything heknew to help her. He always did all the active new things in the houseand for the baby. Lena did what she had to do the way she always hadbeen taught it. She always just kept going now with her working, andshe was always careless, and dirty, and a little dazed, and lifeless. Lena never got any better in herself of this way of being that she hadhad ever since she had been married. 

Mrs. Haydon never saw any more of her niece, Lena. Mrs. Haydon had nowso much trouble with her own house, and her daughters getting married, and her boy, who was growing up, and who always was getting so muchworse to manage. She knew she had done right by Lena. Herman Krederwas a good man, she would be glad to get one so good, sometimes, for her own daughters, and now they had a home to live in together, separate from the old people, who had made their trouble for them. Mrs. Haydon felt she had done very well by her niece, Lena, and shenever thought now she needed any more to go and see her. Lena would dovery well now without her aunt to trouble herself any more about her. 

The good german cook who had always scolded, still tried to do herduty like a mother to poor Lena. It was very hard now to do right byLena. Lena never seemed to hear now what anyone was saying to her. Herman was always doing everything he could to help her. Hermanalways, when he was home, took good care of the baby. Herman lovedto take care of his baby. Lena never thought to take him out or to doanything she didn't have to. 

The good cook sometimes made Lena come to see her. Lena would comewith her baby and sit there in the kitchen, and watch the good womancooking, and listen to her sometimes a little, the way she used to, while the good german woman scolded her for going around looking socareless when now she had no trouble, and sitting there so dull, andalways being just so thankless. Sometimes Lena would wake up a littleand get back into her face her old, gentle, patient, and unsufferingsweetness, but mostly Lena did not seem to hear much when the goodgerman woman scolded. Lena always liked it when Mrs. Aldrich her goodmistress spoke to her kindly, and then Lena would seem to go backand feel herself to be like she was when she had been in service. But mostly Lena just lived along and was careless in her clothes, anddull, and lifeless. 

By and by Lena had two more little babies. Lena was not so much scarednow when she had the babies. She did not seem to notice very muchwhen they hurt her, and she never seemed to feel very much now aboutanything that happened to her. 

They were very nice babies, all these three that Lena had, and Hermantook good care of them always. Herman never really cared much abouthis wife, Lena. The only things Herman ever really cared for were hisbabies. Herman always was very good to his children. He always had agentle, tender way when he held them. He learned to be very handy withthem. He spent all the time he was not working, with them. By and byhe began to work all day in his own home so that he could have hischildren always in the same room with him. 

Lena always was more and more lifeless and Herman now mostly neverthought about her. He more and more took all the care of their threechildren. He saw to their eating right and their washing, and hedressed them every morning, and he taught them the right way to dothings, and he put them to their sleeping, and he was now always everyminute with them. Then there was to come to them, a fourth baby. Lenawent to the hospital near by to have the baby. Lena seemed to be goingto have much trouble with it. When the baby was come out at last, itwas like its mother lifeless. While it was coming, Lena had grown verypale and sicker. When it was all over Lena had died, too, and nobodyknew just how it had happened to her. 

The good german cook who had always scolded Lena, and had always tothe last day tried to help her, was the only one who ever missedher. She remembered how nice Lena had looked all the time she wasin service with her, and how her voice had been so gentle andsweet-sounding, and how she always was a good girl, and how she neverhad to have any trouble with her, the way she always had with all theother girls who had been taken into the house to help her. The goodcook sometimes spoke so of Lena when she had time to have a talk withMrs. Aldrich, and this was all the remembering there now ever was ofLena. 

Herman Kreder now always lived very happy, very gentle, very quiet, very well content alone with his three children. He never had a womanany more to be all the time around him. He always did all his ownwork in his house, when he was through every day with the work he wasalways doing for his father. Herman always was alone, and he alwaysworked alone, until his little ones were big enough to help him. Herman Kreder was very well content now and he always lived veryregular and peaceful, and with every day just like the next one, always alone now with his three good, gentle children. 

FINIS