Then I roused me and got up, as wife and mother will.

It was little they could have eaten in any case; it was less than little they had to eat.

But there was water, and I gave them that.

How they craved it! and how they blessed it! But the end came yesterday; my strength broke down.

Yesterday was the last time I ever saw my husband and this youngest child alive.
I have lain here all these hours--these ages, ye may say--listening, listening for any sound up there that--" She gave a sharp quick glance at her eldest daughter, then cried out, "Oh, my darling!" and feebly gathered the stiffening form to her sheltering arms.