"These here are my young ones," she went on. "The big gal is Betsy. The
other one is Mathilda. This little shaver is Johnny."
Dennis came forward to be introduced, but he had eyes only for Betsy.
She gave him a coy look out of her china-blue eyes. Tilda smiled shyly
at Sally. Both of the Johnston girls wore pretty linsey-woolsey dresses
under their shawls and neat moccasins on their feet. Sally, looking down
at her own soiled dress and bare toes, wished that she could run away
and hide. Abe said "Howdy" somewhere down inside his stomach.
Sarah, Tom's new wife, looked around the littered yard, then at the
cabin. It did not even have a window! It did not have a door that would
open and shut--only a ragged bearskin flapping in the wind. She had
known Tom since he was a boy and had always liked him. Her first
husband, Mr. Johnston, had died some time before, and when Tom had
returned to Kentucky and asked her to marry him, she had said yes. He
had told her that his children needed a mother's care, and he was right.
Poor young ones! she thought. Aloud she said, "Well, let's not all
stand out here and freeze.
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