These were really bad days for poor Lena.  Herman always was real good to her and now he even sometimes tried to stop his mother from scolding Lena.  “She ain’t well now mama, you let her be now you hear me.  You tell me what it is you want she should be doing, I tell her.  I see she does it right just the way you want it mama.  You let be, I say now mama, with that always scolding Lena.  You let be, I say now, you wait till she is feeling better.”  Herman was getting really strong to struggle, for he could see that Lena with that baby working hard inside her, really could not stand it any longer with his mother and the awful ways she always scolded.

It was a new feeling Herman now had inside him that made him feel he was strong to make a struggle.  It was new for Herman Kreder really to be wanting something, but Herman wanted strongly now to be a father, and he wanted badly that his baby should be a boy and healthy, Herman never had cared really very much about his father and his mother, though always, all his life, he had done everything just as they wanted, and he had never really cared much about his wife, Lena, though he always had been very good to her, and had always tried to keep his mother off her, with the awful way she always scolded, but to be really a father of a little baby, that feeling took hold of Herman very deeply.  He was almost ready, so as to save his baby from all trouble, to really make a strong struggle with his mother and with his father, too, if he would not help him to control his mother.

Sometimes Herman even went to Mrs. Haydon to talk all this trouble over.  They decided then together, it was better to wait there all four together for the baby, and Herman could make Mrs. Kreder stop a little with her scolding, and then when Lena was a little stronger, Herman should have his own house for her, next door to his father, so he could always be there to help him in his working, but so they could eat and sleep in a house where the old woman could not control them and they could not hear her awful scolding.

And so things went on, the same way, a little longer.  Poor Lena was not feeling any joy to have a baby.  She was scared the way she had been when she was so sick on the water.  She was scared now every time when anything would hurt her.  She was scared and still and lifeless, and sure that every minute she would die.  Lena had no power to be strong in this kind of trouble, she could only sit still and be scared, and dull, and lifeless, and sure that every minute she would die.

Before very long, Lena had her baby.  He was a good, healthy little boy, the baby.  Herman cared very much to have the baby.  When Lena was a little stronger he took a house next door to the old couple, so he and his own family could eat and sleep and do the way they wanted.  This did not seem to make much change now for Lena.  She was just the same as when she was waiting with her baby.  She just