But this blessed state of affairs was not long to continue. Anna, as
she grew stronger, felt the necessity of seeking employment, but to
this the baby proved a formidable obstacle. No one would give a young
woman, hampered with a child, work. She would come back to the baby at
night worn out in mind and body, after a day of fruitless searching.
These long trips of the little mother, with the consequent long absence
and exhaustion on her return, did not improve the little one's health,
and almost before Anna realized it was ailing, the baby sickened and
died. It was her cruelest blow. For the child's sake she had taken up
her interest in life, made plans; and was ready to work her fingers to
the bone, but it was not to be and with the first falling of the clods
on the little coffin, Anna felt the last ray of hope extinguished from
her heart.