“Pop!” exclaimed the child, suddenly, without moving.

“Mary!” exclaimed the man, dropping upon his knees and kissing the dirty face again and again.  “What are you doin’ here?”

“Playin’ house,” said the child, as impassively as if to have had her father absent two years was so common an experience that his return did not call for any manifestation of surprise or affection.

“Stand up a minute, dear, and let me look at you.  Let’s see,—­you’re twelve years old now, ain’t you?  You don’t seem to have growed a bit.  How’s the rest?”

“Mam’s crosser an’ crosser,” said the child; “Joe’s run away, ’cause the constable was after him for stealin’ meat from—­”

“My boy a thief!  Oh, Lord!”

“Well, we didn’t have nothin’ to eat; he had to do it.”

The father dropped his head and shuddered.  The child continued:  “Billy’s goin’ to school now; Jane’s servant-gal at the hotel; Tom plays hookey all the time, an’ the baby squalls so much that nobody likes her but Billy.”

The man looked sad, then thoughtful; finally he put his arm around his child, and said, as he kissed and caressed her,—­

“You’re to have a better dad after this, darlin’; then maybe the mother’ll feel pleasanter, an’ the baby’ll be happier, an’ Tom’ll be a good boy, an’ we’ll get Joe back somehow.”

“How’s you goin’ to be better?” asked the child.

“Goin’ to give us money to buy candy an’ go to all the circuses?”

“Maybe,” said the father.  “I must go see the mother now.”

The child followed her father to the house; there was not much excitement in the life of the Kimper family, except when there was a quarrel, and Mary seemed to anticipate some now, for she drawled, as she walked along,—­

“Mam’s got it in for you; I heerd her say so many a time sence you war took away.”

“The poor thing’s had reason enough to say it, the Lord knows,” said the man.  “An’,” he continued, after a moment, “I guess I’ve learned to take whatever I’m deservin’ of.”

As Sam entered his house, a shabbily dressed, unkempt, forlorn looking woman sat at a bare pine table, handling some dirty cards.  When she looked up, startled by the heavy tread upon the floor, she exclaimed,—­

“I declare!  I didn’t expect you till—­”

“Wife!” shouted Sam, snatching the woman into his arms and covering her face with kisses.  “Wife,” he murmured, bursting into tears and pressing the unsightly head to his breast,—­“wife, wife, wife, I’m goin’ to make you proud of bein’ my wife, now that I’m a man once more.”

The woman did not return any of the caresses that had been showered upon her; neither did she repel them.  Finally she said,—­

“You do appear to think somethin’ of me, Sam.”

“Think somethin’ of you?  I always did, Nan, though I didn’t show it like I ought.  I’ve had lots of time to think since then, though, an’ I’ve had somethin’ else, too, that I want to tell you about.  Things is goin’ to be different, the Lord willin’, Nan, dear—­wife.”