[pg 295]
"This country!" exclaimed Molly Wingate's mother. "It scares me! If Oregon's like this--"
"It isn't, mother. It is rich and green, with rains. There are great trees, many mountains, beautiful rivers where we are going, and there are fields of grain. There are--why, there are homes!"
The sudden pathos of her voice drew her mother's frowning gaze.
"There, there, child!" said she. "Don't you mind. We'll always have a home for you, your paw and me."
The girl shook her head.
"I sometimes think I'd better teach school and live alone."
"And leave your parents?"
"How can I look my father in the face every day, knowing what he feels about me? Just now he accuses me of ruining Sam Woodhull's life--driving him away, out of the train. But what could I do? Marry him, after all? I can't--I can't! I'm glad he's gone, but I don't know why he went."