and let him start, for the walk was long now that he had only one leg to go on.
A great fire soon leaped joyously up the chimney. The ashes roasted the potatoes, the skillet fryed the breakfast meat, the three-legged spider baked the bread, then Mary woke up the children and put them to work, from Keepsie, the oldest one at home, to the yearling baby who strove to put on his one lone garment without help.
Two of them ran to the spring for water, two went to the wood-pile for wood, one went with Mary to the cow pen to mind the calf and hold the cow's tail while she milked and keep it from switching her face when it strove to brush the stinging flies away.
Her sinewy hands squeezed two swift streams of milk into her pail and the foam rose high. Inside the cabin, pots and pans and dishes clattered, water splashed, children laughed. Thank God, they were able to help themselves. She had trained Unex and Seraphine, her two oldest, and they had trained the others. Even the baby could dress himself.
She missed Unex and Seraphine more than ever now that Keepsie had only one leg. But Keepsie faced his trouble without complaining although he was only a shoulder-high boy.
