"Yes, I'll be bound you would," she answered, giving, as a recognition of his reply, a sort of savage nod. "Wall, we kaint be settin' 'round here allus, Jeff. Let's be gittin' on home, fur it'll be night 'fo' we git thar, nohow." Winter came. Snowbirds fluttered on the smoking ground where the hogs were fed. The dry and cupped leaf of the hornbeam tree floated down the shivering rivulet, carrying as a cargo the lifeless body of a cricket. As the weather grew colder, Alf's daughter seemed to grow weaker. She spoke not of the pain she must have suffered, but all day, when the wind howled, she sat in a corner near the fire, with her wasted hands clasped and with musing gaze fixed upon the glowing coals. In the night, when the sharp sleet rattled against the window--when some homeless and abused dog howled dismally on the hill-side--old Alf would take her in his arms and walk the floor with her, whispering the while soft words of love's encouragement. The winter would soon be gone; the dry and stiffened twig would soon again be "velveted" with buds. He told her to think of the garden that he was going to clear for her in the edge of the woods. "Doan talk erbout gittin' weaker ever' day, little angel," he would say. "W'y bless me, chile, you's gittin' heavier all time. Huh, airter while it will take er man ez strong ez Mr. Potter ter lif' you roun'." But when he would put her down and turn away from her, tears would start from his eyes. One night, after a physician had gravely shaken his head and gone away, Alf called Potter and John. "Come in yere er minit, genermen," he said. They followed him. A large stove had been placed in Alf's room. Two holes in the stove glared like two red eyes. "Can we do anything for her?" Potter asked. "I'se erfeered not; but I kaint think, sah, dat she's so much wus ter day. Yeres de genermen, Jule. You wanted me to call 'em." She smiled in reply. Alf knelt beside the bed. "You doan feel so much wus, does you, honey?" "No, sah; I feels much better." "Thank de Lawd fur dat. Set down, genermen. Oh, I tole you dat doctor didn' know whut he talkin' 'bout. Is you sufferin' much pain, little gal?" "No, sah; none er tall. Whut time is it?" "Bout 12 o'clock." "I thought it wuz day. Ain't dat de sun shinin' dar ergin de wall?" "No; dat's de light frum dem holes in de stove." "I thought de fire wuz out," she replied. "It's so col' in yere." "Oh, no; we got er monst'us good fire. I put in some hickory chunks jes' now." "I wush I could see de sun." "You ken termor' mornin', honey. It's been cloudy, you know, fur two or three days, but it's cl'ar now, fur when I looked out jes' now, er thousan' stars wuz er winkin' at each uder, thinkin' dat da got er good joke on de weather." "De moon ain't shinin', is it?" she asked.