Tess, startled, lifted up her head.
"The brat! I had forgot him," she muttered. "He air dead, too?"
"Yep. He air here."
Longman drew down the sheet still further, exposing the lifeless baby. The thin little body lay between the father and mother.
For many minutes they surveyed the dead trio in rapt attention.
"Where air Myry's ma?" asked Tessibel presently.
"Back there, in Ezy's bed. She air sick, and so air Mammy Letts."
"Ezy were buried yesterday," ruminated Tess.
"Yep, and Myry be a-goin' to the same place. Ma and me air—alone."
There was something strangely pathetic in the quiet words, in the stolid, ugly face with its hard lines, in the mouth twitching at the corners as he spoke. Tess sprang toward him, and wound her strong young arms about him.