dragged around and was careless with her clothes and all lifeless, and she acted always and lived on just as if she had no feeling.  She always did everything regular with the work, the way she always had had to do it, but she never got back any spirit in her.  Herman was always good and kind, and always helped her with her working.  He did everything he knew to help her.  He always did all the active new things in the house and for the baby.  Lena did what she had to do the way she always had been taught it.  She always just kept going now with her working, and she was always careless, and dirty, and a little dazed, and lifeless.  Lena never got any better in herself of this way of being that she had had ever since she had been married.

Mrs. Haydon never saw any more of her niece, Lena.  Mrs. Haydon had now so much trouble with her own house, and her daughters getting married, and her boy, who was growing up, and who always was getting so much worse to manage.  She knew she had done right by Lena.  Herman Kreder was a good man, she would be glad to get one so good, sometimes, for her own daughters, and now they had a home to live in together, separate from the old people, who had made their trouble for them.  Mrs. Haydon felt she had done very well by her niece, Lena, and she never thought now she needed any more to go and see her.  Lena would do very well now without her aunt to trouble herself any more about her.

The good german cook who had always scolded, still tried to do her duty like a mother to poor Lena.  It was very hard now to do right by Lena.  Lena never seemed to hear now what anyone was saying to her.  Herman was always doing everything he could to help her.  Herman always, when he was home, took good care of the baby.  Herman loved to take care of his baby.  Lena never thought to take him out or to do anything she didn’t have to.

The good cook sometimes made Lena come to see her.  Lena would come with her baby and sit there in the kitchen, and watch the good woman cooking, and listen to her sometimes a little, the way she used to, while the good german woman scolded her for going around looking so careless when now she had no trouble, and sitting there so dull, and always being just so thankless.  Sometimes Lena would wake up a little and get back into her face her old, gentle, patient, and unsuffering sweetness, but mostly Lena did not seem to hear much when the good german woman scolded.  Lena always liked it when Mrs. Aldrich her good mistress spoke to her kindly, and then Lena would seem to go back and feel herself to be like she was when she had been in service.  But mostly Lena just lived along and was careless in her clothes, and dull, and lifeless.

By and by Lena had two more little babies.  Lena was not so much scared now when she had the babies.  She did not seem to notice very much when they hurt her, and she never seemed to feel very much now about anything that happened to her.