"'Oh, my child,' says I, 'what's happened
to you? Don't be afraid to tell me!'

"She sat down on the draw-side, out of
sight of the house. 'He's run away from me,'
she said. 'I don't know if he ever meant to
marry me.'

"'You mean he's thrown up his job and
quit the country?' says I.

"'He didn't have any job. He'd been
fired; blacklisted for knocking down fares. I
didn't know. I thought he hadn't been
treated right. He was sick when I got there.
He'd just come out of the hospital. He lived
with me till my money gave out, and after-
wards I found he hadn't really been hunting
work at all. Then he just didn't come back.
One nice fellow at the station told me, when
I kept going to look for him, to give it up.
He said he was afraid Larry'd gone bad and
wouldn't come back any more. I guess he's
gone to Old Mexico. The conductors get rich
down there, collecting half-fares off the na-
tives and robbing the company. He was al-
ways talking about fellows who had got ahead
that way.'

"I asked her, of course, why she didn't
insist on a civil marriage at once -- that would

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v?