were staring at them. Jurgis led her away. "How do
you mean?" he asked, in perplexity.

"I was afraid -- I was just afraid!" sobbed Ona. "I
knew you wouldn't know where I was, and I didn't know
what you might do. I tried to get home, but I was so
tired. Oh, Jurgis, Jurgis!"

He was so glad to get her back that he could not think
clearly about anything else. It did not seem strange to
him that she should be so very much upset; all her fright
and incoherent protestations did not matter since he had
her back. He let her cry away her fears; and then, be~
cause it was nearly eight o'clock, and they would lose
another hour if they delayed, he left her at the packing-
house door, with her ghastly white face and her haunted
eyes of terror.

There was another brief interval. Christmas was al~
most come; and because the snow still held, and the
searching cold, morning after morning Jurgis half carried
his wife to her post, staggering with her through the dark~
ness; until at last, one night, came the end.

It lacked but three days of the holidays. About mid~
night Marija and Elzbieta came home, exclaiming in alarm
when they found that Ona had not come. The two had
agreed to meet her; and, after waiting, had gone to the
room where she worked, only to find that the ham-wrap~
ping girls had quit work an hour before, and left. There
was no snow that night, nor was it especially cold; and
still Ona had not come! Something more serious must
be wrong this time.

They aroused Jurgis, and he sat up and listened crossly
to the story. She must have gone home again with Jad~
vyga, he said; Jadvyga lived only two blocks from the
yards, and perhaps she had been tired. Nothing could
have happened to her -- and even if there had, there was
nothing could be done about it until morning. Jurgis
turned over in his bed, and was snoring again before the
two had closed the door.

In the morning, however, he was up and out nearly an

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p170 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p171w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p172

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