She was crying.

She was frightened.

She looked very pale.

“Jim,” she said, “Jim.”

She was a Christian Scientist.

She liked it about his mustache.

“It’s all right, dear,” she said.

If she let herself go it was better.

She was frightened but she wanted it.

She had to have it but it frightened her.

She lifted his head a little and shook it.

She was quiet now and her eyes were closed.

That is what is happening when she screams.

She tucked it around him neatly and carefully.

She lay in the lower bunk, very big under a quilt.

She had been trying to have her baby for two days.

What she is going through is called being in labor.

She was cold and miserable and everything felt gone.

“But you’ll have to be up with the lark,” she added.

Liz pushed him, she was so uncomfortable and cramped.

The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born.

She was thinking about him hard and then Jim came out.

She did not know what had become of the baby or anything.

She liked it about how white his teeth were when he smiled.

She liked it how much A. J. Smith and Mrs. Smith liked Jim.

She liked it very much that he didn’t look like a blacksmith.

She walked over to the edge of the dock and looked down to the water.

Liz sat at the table after she put on the food and ate with the family.

Then she walked across the dock and up the steep sandy road to go to bed.

She walked back to where Jim was lying and shook him once more to make sure.

When she saw the wagon coming down the road she felt weak and sick sort of inside.

It was such a sharp, aching, hurting feeling that she thought she couldn’t stand it.

Liz hadn’t known just what would happen when Jim got back but she was sure it would be something.

The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the noise she made.

She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians followed his father and Uncle George into the shanty.

Liz was terribly frightened, no one had ever touched her, but she thought, “He’s come to me finally.”

She couldn’t sleep well from thinking about him but she discovered it was fun to think about him too.

She couldn’t wait till she saw Jim and it seemed as though everything would be all right when he came.

Jim held her tight hard against the chair and she wanted it now and Jim whispered, “Come on for a walk.”

She was very frightened and didn’t know how he was going to go about things but she snuggled close to him.

She worked out from under him and sat up and straightened her skirt and coat and tried to do something with her hair.

Jim came over back of her chair and stood there and she could feel him breathing and then he put his arms around her.

“Aren’t you going back to work, dear?” asked the doctor’s wife from the room where she was lying with the blinds drawn.

She liked it the way he walked over from the shop and often went to the kitchen door to watch for him to start down the road.

She bit Uncle George on the arm and Uncle George said, “Damn squaw bitch!” and the young Indian who had rowed Uncle George over laughed at him.

She held herself stiff because she was so frightened and did not know anything else to do and then Jim held her tight against the chair and kissed her.

She felt Jim right through the back of the chair and she couldn’t stand it and then something clicked inside of her and the feeling was warmer and softer.

She didn’t want to go to bed yet because she knew Jim would be coming out and she wanted to see him as he went out so she could take the way he looked up to bed with her.

One day she found that she liked it the way the hair was black on his arms and how white they were above the tanned line when he washed up in the washbasin outside the house.

When she looked at them they didn’t seem to be moving at all but if she went in and dried some more dishes and then came out again they would be out of sight beyond the point.