But after awhile she got gloomy again; She would hide in the corn-field to cry. We hadn't no meetin' to speak of, you see, No woman to talk to was nigh. An' she wanted to show little Joe to the folks; She was hungry, I s'pose, for the sight Of faces she'd seen all the days of her life. That was natteral, stranger, an' right. But just when she thought to go over the Plains The devils of Sioux was about; So poor Hetty waited a harvest or two, Through the summer of locusts and drought. That left us poor people. The next coming spring Such a wearisome fever came round; An', stranger--hold on till I tell you--there now, It laid little Joe in the ground. I know'd then I'd got to send Hetty off East, If I cared about keepin' her here: She pined to a shadder, an' moped by his grave, Though her eyes brighter grew, and more clear. If you'd seen her poor face, when I told her I'd go And take her home visitin'! Well, I'll never forget how she put out her hands Into mine, an', fur joy, cried a spell. She didn't feel strong though, that week or the next, An' the cough an' the fever increased; While softly she whispered--she couldn't speak loud-- "You'll take me by'm-by to the East?" * * * * * She never got East; any further than that, You see stranger, by the tree--that mound-- But I'm goin' to take her and Joe, when I go, To her father's old buryin'-ground. This, stranger, 's the reason I'm willin' to sell; You can buy at a bargain, you see; It's mighty good land fur a settler to own, But it looks like a graveyard to me. [Illustration] [Illustration] PRINCE WILLFUL'S THREE LESSONS. [Illustration] Many years ago there was a young prince named Willful, who was, as his name indicates, a very willful boy. He was lazy and careless, and would not go to school or learn his lessons if he could help it. His father, whose name was Felix, was a great and good king. He had reigned many years, had filled his treasury with gold, and made many wise laws for the welfare of his people. He was very anxious that his son should grow up an educated and refined man; and he tried by kind words and wholesome advice to show him the necessity of work and the folly of idleness. But Willful paid no heed to his father's words, and daily grew more indolent. At last the king could bear it no longer; and he said that if the prince would not learn from books, he should be taught in a way not so pleasant. Accordingly he called Willful to him one day and told him that he was going to send him away from home, and that he could not return until by watching the birds, the beasts and the insects he had learned the _three lessons_ most necessary for a prince to know.