The widow mourns,
and the little children weep comfortless in their mountain
home, and the wind rushes through the forest, and the
river foams furiously down the mountain, falling in
billows of lace over the rocks, and the sun shines over
all, cold and pitiless.
"Why, Pearlie Watson, what are you crying for?" Mrs.
Francis whispered severely. Pearl's sobs had disturbed
her. Danny lay asleep on Pearl's knees, and her tears
fell fast on his tangled curls.
"I ain't cryin', I ain't cryin' a bit. You leave me
alone," Pearl blubbered rudely, shaking off Mrs Francis's
shapely hand.
Mrs. Francis was shocked. What in the world was making
Pearl cry?
The next morning Mrs. Francis took out her little red
book to enter the result of her experiment, and sat
looking long and earnestly at its pages. Then she drew
a writing pad toward her and wrote an illuminative article
on "Late Hours a Frequent and Fruitful Cause of Irritability
in Children."
CHAPTER VII
"ONE OF MANITOBA'S PROSPEROUS FARMERS"
Mr. Samuel Motherwell was a wealthy farmer who lived a
few miles from Millford. Photographs of Mr. Motherwell's
premises may be seen in the agricultural journals,
machinery catalogues, advertisements for woven wire,
etc.--"the home of one of Manitoba's prosperous farmers."
The farm buildings were in good repair; a large red barn
with white trimmings surmounted by a creaking windmill;
a long, low machine shed filled with binders, seeders,
disc-harrows--everything that is needed for the seed-time
and harvest and all that lies between; a large stone
house, square and gray, lonely and bare, without a tree
or a shrub around it.
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