scraped up enough money to bring me back about half the distance. I wrote home, the first letter I had written, I am ashamed to say, in four years. I told mother that I was coming home and to write me to St. Louis care of the General Delivery."

The man paused again. He was watching the girl. He seemed to regain strength.

"I suppose you wonder why I tell you all this. You will soon see. At St. Louis a letter was waiting for me. It was from my cousin, not from my mother. I learned that father had died three years ago and that my mother was very sick. She had been overjoyed at the news that I was coming. But my cousin advised me to hasten my return, as he considered my mother's condition extremely serious.

"I got as far as this by freight train, my money having given out at St. Louis. The headway was slow and yet I could not stop to earn the money to travel any other way. I have had very little food, how little I had I never stopped to consider. My one desire has been to get home."