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“She is very sick and weak,” said Sue. “The sickness has put these strange ideas into her

            mind. Mr. Behrman, if you won’t come, you do not. But I don’t think you’re very nice.”

            “This is like a woman!” shouted Behrman. “Who said I will

                                                                                     What you Think?ou Think?
            not come? Go. I come with you. For half an hour I have                   What y
            been  trying  to  say  that  I  will  come.  God!  This  is  not  any          Why  was Johnsy
                                                                                          looking  out of the
            place for someone so good as Johnsy to lie sick. Some day I                        window  ?
            shall  paint my masterpiece, and  we shall  all go away from

            here.  God! Yes.”

            Johnsy  was  sleeping  when  they  went  up.  Sue  covered  the  window,  and  took  Behrman

            into the other room. There they looked out the window fearfully at the tree. Then they

            looked  at each  other for  a  moment  without speaking. A  cold  rain  was  falling, with a
            little snow in it too.


            Behrman  sat  down,  and  Sue  began  to  paint.  She  worked  through  most  of  the  night.  In
            the morning, after an hour’s sleep, she went to Johnsy’s bedside. Johnsy with wide-open

            eyes was looking toward the window. “I want to see,” she told Sue.

            Sue took the cover from the window. But after the beating rain and the wild wind that

            had not stopped through the whole night, there still was one leaf to be seen against the

            wall. It was the last on the tree. It was still dark green near the branch. But at the edges

            it was turning yellow with age. There it was hanging from a branch nearly twenty feet

            above the ground.

            “It is the last one,” said Johnsy. “I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard

            the wind. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time.”

            “Dear, dear Johnsy!” said Sue. “Think of me, if you won’t think of yourself. What would

            I do?”

                                                                                     What y
            But Johnsy did not answer. The most lonely thing in the world            What you Think?ou Think?
            is  a soul when it is  preparing to go on  its far journey. The
                                                                                        Who was Behrman ?
            ties that held her to friendship and to earth were breaking,
            one by one.


            The day slowly passed. As it grew dark, they could still
            see the leaf hanging from its branch against the wall. And then, as the night came, the



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