sit on them grassy banks along the draws
and sun herself for hours. Sometimes I slipped
up to visit with her, when she hadn't gone
too far.

"'It does seem like I ought to make lace,
or knit like Lena used to,' she said one day,
'but if I start to work, I look around and for-
get to go on. It seems such a little while ago
when Jim Burden and I was playing all over
this country. Up here I can pick out the very
places where my father used to stand. Some-
times I feel like I'm not going to live very
long, so I'm just enjoying every day of this
fall.'

"After the winter begun she wore a man's
long overcoat and boots, and a man's felt hat
with a wide brim. I used to watch her com-
ing and going, and I could see that her steps
were getting heavier. One day in December,
the snow began to fall. Late in the afternoon
I saw Antonia driving her cattle homeward
across the hill. The snow was flying round
her and she bent to face it, looking more
lonesome-like to me than usual. 'Deary me,'
I says to myself, 'the girl's stayed out too
late. It'll be dark before she gets them cat-
tle put into the corral.' I seemed to sense

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v?