Sallie was only a little child sleeping quietly in her own
little room. See, the door was ajar and a ray of light from the lamp in
Sallie's room was streaming across the kitchen floor. He must go in and
extinguish the light before it awakened the sleeping child. Why had
Martha left the lamp burning? Surely she must know it would disturb the
child. Well, as soon as he was rested he would go and put it out.
How tired, how tired he did feel! He'd worked pretty hard to-day, and
the sun had been hot, so hot. Well, never mind, the hay was all cut now,
a few more days like this and his barn would be filled with the finest
hay in the country. A few more years like this one and he would be the
richest farmer hereabouts. For himself, he did not care, and Martha had
simple tastes like his own. But there was Sallie. She was only a wee tot
now but she would be a woman some day. They must give Sallie all the
advantages they had missed; they must lay by money against the time when
Sallie would be a grown up woman and want things like other girls of her
age.
What ailed him, anyway, that a day's work in the hay field should make
him feel like this, so tired, so very tired?
He felt a little better now; he would rest a few moments more, then be
off home to supper and to Martha and Sallie. But who was that calling to
him? Why, Martha, to be sure, standing there by the five-barred gate.
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