Poor gal! Mebbe she cried half the night." "Merry!" he called, gently, at the door.

"Merry, m' gal! Pap needs his breakfast." There was no reply, and the old man's face stiffened into a wild surprise.

He knocked heavily again and got no reply, and, with a white face and shaking hand, he flung the door open and gazed at the empty bed.

His hand dropped to his side; his head turned slowly from the bed to the open window; he rushed forward and looked out on the ground, where he saw the tracks of a man.
He fell heavily into the chair by the bed, while a deep groan broke from his stiff and twitching lips.
"She's left me! She's left me!" For a long half-hour the iron-muscled old man sat there motionless, hearing not the songs of the hens or the birds far out in the brilliant sunshine.

He had lost sight of his farm, his day's work, and felt no hunger for food.