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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10729 ***
+
+JACK'S WARD
+
+OR
+
+THE BOY GUARDIAN
+
+BY
+
+HORATIO ALGER, JR.
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Jack seized the old man, thrust him through the secret
+door and locked it.]
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+Horatio Alger, Jr., an author who lived among and for boys and himself
+remained a boy in heart and association till death, was born at Revere,
+Mass., January 13, 1834. He was the son of a clergyman; was graduated
+at Harvard College in 1852, and at its Divinity School in 1860; and was
+pastor of the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass., in 1862-66.
+
+In the latter year he settled in New York and began drawing public
+attention to the condition and needs of street boys. He mingled with
+them, gained their confidence, showed a personal concern in their
+affairs, and stimulated them to honest and useful living. With his first
+story he won the hearts of all red-blooded boys everywhere, and of the
+seventy or more that followed over a million copies were sold during the
+author's lifetime.
+
+In his later life he was in appearance a short, stout, bald-headed man,
+with cordial manners and whimsical views of things that amused all who
+met him. He died at Natick, Mass., July 18, 1899.
+
+Mr. Alger's stories are as popular now as when first published, because
+they treat of real live boys who were always up and about--just like the
+boys found everywhere to-day. They are pure in tone and inspiring in
+influence, and many reforms in the juvenile life of New York may be
+traced to them. Among the best known are:
+
+_Strong and Steady; Strive and Succeed; Try and Trust; Bound to Rise;
+Risen from the Ranks; Herbert Carter's Legacy; Brave and Bold; Jack's
+Ward; Shifting for Himself; Wait and Hope; Paul the Peddler; Phil the
+Fiddler; Slow and Sure; Julius the Street Boy; Tom the Bootblack;
+Struggling Upward; Facing the World; The Cash Boy; Making His Way; Tony
+the Tramp; Joe's Luck; Do and Dare; Only an Irish Boy; Sink or Swim; A
+Cousin's Conspiracy; Andy Gordon; Bob Burton; Harry Vane; Hector's
+Inheritance; Mark Mason's Triumph; Sam's Chance; The Telegraph Boy; The
+Young Adventurer; The Young Outlaw; The Young Salesman_, and _Luke
+Walton_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK'S WARD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+JACK HARDING GETS A JOB
+
+
+"Look here, boy, can you hold my horse a few minutes?" asked a
+gentleman, as he jumped from his carriage in one of the lower streets
+in New York.
+
+The boy addressed was apparently about twelve, with a bright face and
+laughing eyes, but dressed in clothes of coarse material. This was Jack
+Harding, who is to be our hero.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Jack, with alacrity, hastening to the horse's head;
+"I'll hold him as long as you like."
+
+"All right! I'm going in at No. 39; I won't be long."
+
+"That's what I call good luck," said Jack to himself. "No boy wants a
+job more than I do. Father's out of work, rent's most due, and Aunt
+Rachel's worrying our lives out with predicting that we'll all be in
+the poorhouse inside of three months. It's enough to make a fellow feel
+blue, listenin' to her complainin' and groanin' all the time. Wonder
+whether she was always so. Mother says she was disappointed in love
+when she was young. I guess that's the reason."
+
+"Have you set up a carriage, Jack?" asked a boy acquaintance, coming up
+and recognizing Jack.
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "but it ain't for long. I shall set down again pretty
+soon."
+
+"I thought your grandmother had left you a fortune, and you had set up a
+team."
+
+"No such good news. It belongs to a gentleman that's inside."
+
+"Inside the carriage?"
+
+"No, in No. 39."
+
+"How long's he going to stay?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"If it was half an hour, we might take a ride, and be back in time."
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"That ain't my style," he said. "I'll stay here till he comes out."
+
+"Well, I must be going along. Are you coming to school to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, if I can't get anything to do."
+
+"Are you trying for that?"
+
+"I'd like to get a place. Father's out of work, and anything I can earn
+comes in handy."
+
+"My father's got plenty of money," said Frank Nelson, complacently.
+"There isn't any need of my working."
+
+"Then your father's lucky."
+
+"And so am I."
+
+"I don't know about that. I'd just as lieve work as not."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't. I'd rather be my own master, and have my time to
+myself. But I must be going home."
+
+"You're lazy, Frank."
+
+"Very likely. I've a right to be."
+
+Frank Nelson went off, and Jack was left alone. Half an hour passed, and
+still the gentleman, who had entered No. 39, didn't appear. The horse
+showed signs of impatience, shook his head, and eyed Jack in an
+unfriendly manner.
+
+"He thinks it time to be going," thought Jack. "So do I. I wonder what
+the man's up to. Perhaps he's spending the day."
+
+Fifteen minutes more passed, but then relief came. The owner of the
+carriage came out.
+
+"Did you get tired of waiting for me?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Jack, shrewdly. "I knew the longer the job, the bigger the
+pay."
+
+"I suppose that is a hint," said the gentleman, not offended.
+
+"Perhaps so," said Jack, and he smiled too.
+
+"Tell me, now, what are you going to do with the money I give you--buy
+candy?"
+
+"No," answered Jack, "I shall carry it home to my mother."
+
+"That's well. Does your mother need the money?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Father's out of work, and we've got to live all the same."
+
+"What's your father's business?"
+
+"He's a cooper."
+
+"So he's out of work?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and has been for six weeks. It's on account of the panic, I
+suppose."
+
+"Very likely. He has plenty of company just now."
+
+It may be remarked that our story opens in the year 1867, memorable for
+its panic, and the business depression which followed. Nearly every
+branch of industry suffered, and thousands of men were thrown out of
+work, and utterly unable to find employment of any kind. Among them was
+Timothy Harding, the father of our hero. He was a sober, steady man, and
+industrious; but his wages had never been large, and he had been unable
+to save up a reserve fund, on which to draw in time of need. He had an
+excellent wife, and but one child--our present hero; but there was
+another, and by no means unimportant member of the family. This was
+Rachel Harding, a spinster of melancholy temperament, who belonged to
+that unhappy class who are always prophesying evil, and expecting the
+worst. She had been "disappointed" in early life, and this had something
+to do with her gloomy views, but probably she was somewhat inclined by
+nature to despondency.
+
+The family lived in a humble tenement, which, however, was neatly kept,
+and would have been a cheerful home but for the gloomy presence of Aunt
+Rachel, who, since her brother had been thrown out of employment, was
+gloomier than ever.
+
+But all this while we have left Jack and the stranger standing in the
+street.
+
+"You seem to be a good boy," said the latter, "and, under the
+circumstances, I will pay you more than I intended."
+
+He drew from his vest pocket a dollar bill, and handed it to Jack.
+
+"What! is all this for me?" asked Jack, joyfully.
+
+"Yes, on the condition that you carry it home, and give it to your
+mother."
+
+"That I will, sir; she'll be glad enough to get it."
+
+"Well, good-by, my boy. I hope your father'll find work soon."
+
+"He's a trump!" ejaculated Jack. "Wasn't it lucky I was here just as he
+wanted a boy to hold his horse. I wonder what Aunt Rachel will have to
+say to that? Very likely she'll say the bill is bad."
+
+Jack made the best of his way home. It was already late in the
+afternoon, and he knew he would be expected. It was with a lighter heart
+than usual that he bent his steps homeward, for he knew that the dollar
+would be heartily welcome.
+
+We will precede him, and give a brief description of his home.
+
+There were only five rooms, and these were furnished in the plainest
+manner. In the sitting room were his mother and aunt. Mrs. Harding was a
+motherly-looking woman, with a pleasant face, the prevailing expression
+of which was a serene cheerfulness, though of late it had been harder
+than usual to preserve this, in the straits to which the family had been
+reduced. She was setting the table for tea.
+
+Aunt Rachel sat in a rocking-chair at the window. She was engaged in
+knitting. Her face was long and thin, and, as Jack expressed it, she
+looked as if she hadn't a friend in the world. Her voice harmonized with
+her mournful expression, and was equally doleful.
+
+"I wonder why Jack don't come home?" said Mrs. Harding, looking at the
+clock. "He's generally here at this time."
+
+"Perhaps somethin's happened," suggested her sister-in-law.
+
+"What do you mean, Rachel?"
+
+"I was reading in the _Sun_ this morning about a boy being run over
+out West somewhere."
+
+"You don't think Jack has been run over!"
+
+"Who knows?" said Rachel, gloomily. "You know how careless boys are, and
+Jack's very careless."
+
+"I don't see how you can look for such things, Rachel."
+
+"Accidents are always happening; you know that yourself, Martha. I don't
+say Jack's run over. Perhaps he's been down to the wharves, and tumbled
+over into the water and got drowned."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't say such things, Rachel. They make me feel
+uncomfortable."
+
+"We may as well be prepared for the worst," said Rachel, severely.
+
+"Not this time, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding, brightly, "for that's Jack's
+step outside. He isn't drowned or run over, thank God!"
+
+"I hear him," said Rachel, dismally. "Anybody might know by the noise
+who it is. He always comes stamping along as if he was paid for makin' a
+noise. Anybody ought to have a cast-iron head that lives anywhere within
+his hearing."
+
+Here Jack entered, rather boisterously, it must be admitted, in his
+eagerness slamming the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EVENTS OF AN EVENING
+
+
+"I am glad you've come, Jack," said his mother. "Rachel was just
+predicting that you were run over or drowned."
+
+"I hope you're not very much disappointed to see me safe and well, Aunt
+Rachel," said Jack, merrily. "I don't think I've been drowned."
+
+"There's things worse than drowning," replied Rachel, severely.
+
+"Such as what?"
+
+"A man that's born to be hanged is safe from drowning."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment, Aunt Rachel, if you mean me. But, mother,
+I didn't tell you of my good luck. See this," and he displayed the
+dollar bill.
+
+"How did you get it?" asked his mother.
+
+"Holding horses. Here, take it, mother; I warrant you'll find a use for
+it."
+
+"It comes in good time," said Mrs. Harding. "We're out of flour, and I
+had no money to buy any. Before you take off your boots, Jack, I wish
+you'd run over to the grocery store, and buy half a dozen pounds. You
+may get a pound of sugar, and quarter of a pound of tea also."
+
+"You see the Lord hasn't forgotten us," she remarked, as Jack started on
+his errand.
+
+"What's a dollar?" said Rachel, gloomily. "Will it carry us through the
+winter?"
+
+"It will carry us through to-night, and perhaps Timothy will have work
+to-morrow. Hark, that's his step."
+
+At this moment the outer door opened, and Timothy Harding entered, not
+with the quick, elastic step of one who brings good tidings, but slowly
+and deliberately, with a quiet gravity of demeanor in which his wife
+could read only too well that he had failed in his efforts to procure
+work.
+
+Reading all this in his manner, she had the delicacy to forbear
+intruding upon him questions to which she saw it would only give him
+pain to reply.
+
+Not so Aunt Rachel.
+
+"I needn't ask," she began, "whether you've got work, Timothy. I knew
+beforehand you wouldn't. There ain't no use in tryin'! The times is
+awful dull, and mark my words, they'll be wuss before they're better. We
+mayn't live to see 'em. I don't expect we shall. Folks can't live
+without money; and if we can't get that, we shall have to starve."
+
+"Not so bad as that, Rachel," said the cooper, trying to look cheerful;
+"I don't talk about starving till the time comes. Anyhow," glancing at
+the table, on which was spread a good plain meal, "we needn't talk about
+starving till to-morrow with that before us. Where's Jack?"
+
+"Gone after some flour," replied his wife.
+
+"On credit?" asked the cooper.
+
+"No, he's got money enough to pay for a few pounds," said Mrs. Harding,
+smiling with an air of mystery.
+
+"Where did it come from?" asked Timothy, who was puzzled, as his wife
+anticipated. "I didn't know you had any money in the house."
+
+"No more we had; but he earned it himself, holding horses, this
+afternoon."
+
+"Come, that's good," said the cooper, cheerfully. "We ain't so bad off
+as we might be, you see, Rachel."
+
+"Very likely the bill's bad," she said, with the air of one who rather
+hoped it was.
+
+"Now, Rachel, what's the use of anticipating evil?" said Mrs. Harding.
+"You see you're wrong, for here's Jack with the flour."
+
+The family sat down to supper.
+
+"You haven't told us," said Mrs. Harding, seeing her husband's
+cheerfulness in a measure restored, "what Mr. Blodgett said about the
+chances for employment."
+
+"Not much that was encouraging," answered Timothy. "He isn't at all sure
+when it will be safe to commence work; perhaps not before spring."
+
+"Didn't I tell you so?" commented Rachel, with sepulchral sadness.
+
+Even Mrs. Harding couldn't help looking sober.
+
+"I suppose, Timothy, you haven't formed any plans," she said.
+
+"No, I haven't had time. I must try to get something else to do."
+
+"What, for instance?"
+
+"Anything by which I can earn a little; I don't care if it's only sawing
+wood. We shall have to get along as economically as we can--cut our coat
+according to our cloth."
+
+"Oh, you'll be able to earn something, and we can live very plain," said
+Mrs. Harding, affecting a cheerfulness she didn't feel.
+
+"Pity you hadn't done it sooner," was the comforting suggestion of
+Rachel.
+
+"Mustn't cry over spilt milk," said the cooper, good-humoredly. "Perhaps
+we might have lived a leetle more economically, but I don't think we've
+been extravagant."
+
+"Besides, I can earn something, father," said Jack, hopefully. "You know
+I did this afternoon."
+
+"So you can," said his mother, brightly.
+
+"There ain't horses to hold every day," said Rachel, apparently fearing
+that the family might become too cheerful, when, like herself, it was
+their duty to be profoundly gloomy.
+
+"You're always tryin' to discourage people, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+discontentedly.
+
+Rachel took instant umbrage at these words.
+
+"I'm sure," said she, mournfully, "I don't want to make you unhappy. If
+you can find anything to be cheerful about when you're on the verge of
+starvation, I hope you'll enjoy yourselves, and not mind me. I'm a poor,
+dependent creetur, and I feel I'm a burden."
+
+"Now, Rachel, that's all foolishness," said Timothy. "You don't feel
+anything of the kind."
+
+"Perhaps others can tell how I feel better than I can myself," answered
+his sister, with the air of a martyr. "If it hadn't been for me, I know
+you'd have been able to lay up money, and have something to carry you
+through the winter. It's hard to be a burden on your relations, and
+bring a brother's family to this poverty."
+
+"Don't talk of being a burden, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding. "You've been
+a great help to me in many ways. That pair of stockings, now, you're
+knitting for Jack--that's a help, for I couldn't have got time for them
+myself."
+
+"I don't expect," said Aunt Rachel, in the same sunny manner, "that I
+shall be able to do it long. From the pains I have in my hands
+sometimes, I expect I'm goin' to lose the use of 'em soon, and be as
+useless as old Mrs. Sprague, who for the last ten years of her life had
+to sit with her hands folded on her lap. But I wouldn't stay to be a
+burden--I'd go to the poorhouse first. But perhaps," with the look of a
+martyr, "they wouldn't want me there, because I'd be discouragin' 'em
+too much."
+
+Poor Jack, who had so unwittingly raised this storm, winced under the
+last words, which he knew were directed at him.
+
+"Then why," asked he, half in extenuation, "why don't you try to look
+pleasant and cheerful? Why won't you be jolly, as Tom Piper's aunt is?"
+
+"I dare say I ain't pleasant," said Rachel, "as my own nephew twits me
+with it. There is some folks that can be cheerful when their house is
+a-burnin' down before their eyes, and I've heard of one young man that
+laughed at his aunt's funeral," directing a severe glance at Jack; "but
+I'm not one of that kind. I think, with the Scriptures, that there's a
+time to weep."
+
+"Doesn't it say there's a time to laugh, too?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"When I see anything to laugh about, I'm ready to laugh," said Aunt
+Rachel; "but human nater ain't to be forced. I can't see anything to
+laugh at now, and perhaps you won't by and by."
+
+It was evidently quite useless to persuade Rachel to
+cheerfulness, and the subject dropped.
+
+The tea things were cleared away by Mrs. Harding, who then sat down to
+her sewing. Aunt Rachel continued to knit in grim silence, while Jack
+seated himself on a three-legged stool near his aunt, and began to
+whittle out a boat, after a model lent him by Tom Piper, a young
+gentleman whose aunt has already been referred to.
+
+The cooper took out his spectacles, wiped them carefully with his
+handkerchief, and as carefully adjusted them to his nose. He then took
+down from the mantelpiece one of the few books belonging to his
+library--"Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations"--and began to read, for the
+tenth time, it might be, the record of these daring explorers.
+
+The plain little room presented a picture of graceful tranquillity, but
+it proved to be only the calm which preceded the storm.
+
+The storm in question, I regret to say, was brought about by the
+luckless Jack. As has been said, he was engaged in constructing a boat,
+the particular operation he was now intent upon being the excavation, or
+hollowing out. Now three-legged stools are not the most secure seats in
+the world. This, I think, no one will deny who has any practical
+acquaintance with them. Jack was working quite vigorously, the block
+from which the boat was to be fashioned being held firmly between his
+knees. His knife having got wedged in the wood, he made an unusual
+effort to draw it out, in which he lost his balance, and disturbed the
+equilibrium of his stool, which, with its load, tumbled over backward.
+Now, it very unfortunately happened that Aunt Rachel sat close behind,
+and the treacherous stool came down with considerable force upon her
+foot.
+
+A piercing shriek was heard, and Aunt Rachel, lifting her foot, clung to
+it convulsively, while an expression of pain disturbed her features.
+
+At the sound, the cooper hastily removed his spectacles, and, letting
+"Dr. Kane" fall to the floor, started up in great dismay. Mrs. Harding
+likewise dropped her sewing, and jumped to her feet in alarm.
+
+It did not take long to see how matters stood.
+
+"Hurt ye much, Rachel?" inquired Timothy.
+
+"It's about killed me," groaned the afflicted maiden. "Oh, I shall have
+to have my foot cut off, or be a cripple anyway." Then, turning upon
+Jack fiercely: "You careless, wicked, ungrateful boy, that I've been
+wearin' myself out knittin' for. I'm almost sure you did it a purpose.
+You won't be satisfied till you've got me out of the world, and
+then--then, perhaps"--here Rachel began to whimper--"perhaps you'll get
+Tom Piper's aunt to knit your stockings."
+
+"I didn't mean to, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, penitently, eying his aunt,
+who was rocking to and fro in her chair. "You know I didn't. Besides, I
+hurt myself like thunder," rubbing himself vigorously.
+
+"Served you right," said his aunt, still clasping her foot.
+
+"Shan't I get something for you to put on it, Rachel?" asked Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+But this Rachel steadily refused, and, after a few more postures
+indicating a great amount of anguish, limped out of the room, and
+ascended the stairs to her own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JACK'S NEW PLAN
+
+
+Aunt Rachel was right in one thing, as Jack realized. He could not find
+horses to hold every day, and even if he had succeeded in that, few
+would have paid him so munificently as the stranger of the day before.
+In fact, matters came to a crisis, and something must be sold to raise
+funds for immediate necessities. Now, the only article of luxury--if it
+could be called so--in the possession of the family was a sofa, in very
+good preservation, indeed nearly new, for it had been bought only two
+years before when business was good. A neighbor was willing to pay
+fifteen dollars for this, and Mrs. Harding, with her husband's consent,
+agreed to part with it.
+
+"If ever we are able we will buy another," said Timothy.
+
+"And, at any rate, we can do without it," said his wife.
+
+"Rachel will miss it."
+
+"She said the other day that it was not comfortable, and ought never to
+have been bought; that it was a shameful waste of money."
+
+"In that case she won't be disturbed by our selling it."
+
+"No, I should think not; but it's hard to tell how Rachel will take
+anything."
+
+This remark was amply verified.
+
+The sofa was removed while the spinster was out, and without any hint to
+her of what was going to happen. When she returned, she looked around
+for it with surprise.
+
+"Where's the sofy?" she asked.
+
+"We've sold it to Mrs. Stoddard," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully.
+
+"Sold it!" echoed Rachel, dolefully.
+
+"Yes; we felt that we didn't need it, and we did need money. She offered
+me fifteen dollars for it, and I accepted."
+
+Rachel sat down in a rocking-chair, and began straightway to show signs
+of great depression of spirits.
+
+"Life's full of disappointments!" she groaned. "Our paths is continually
+beset by 'em. There's that sofa. It's so pleasant to have one in the
+house when a body's sick. But, there, it's gone, and if I happen to get
+down, as most likely I shall, for I've got a bad feeling in my stummick
+this very minute, I shall have to go upstairs, and most likely catch my
+death of cold, and that will be the end of me."
+
+"Not so bad as that, I hope," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully. "You know
+when you was sick last, you didn't want to use the sofa; you said it
+didn't lay comfortable. Besides, I hope before you are sick we may be
+able to buy it back again."
+
+Aunt Rachel shook her head despondingly.
+
+"There ain't any use in hoping that," she said. "Timothy's got so much
+behindhand that he won't be able to get up again; I know he won't!"
+
+"But, if he only manages to find steady work soon, he will."
+
+"No, he won't," said Rachel, positively. "I'm sure he won't. There won't
+be any work before spring, and most likely not then."
+
+"You are too desponding, Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Enough to make me so. If you had only taken my advice, we shouldn't
+have come to this."
+
+"I don't know what advice you refer to, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding,
+patiently.
+
+"No, I don't expect you do. My words don't make no impression. You
+didn't pay no attention to what I said, that's the reason."
+
+"But if you'll repeat the advice, Rachel, perhaps we can still profit by
+it," answered Mrs. Harding, with imperturbable good humor.
+
+"I told you you ought to be layin' up something agin' a rainy day. But
+that's always the way. Folks think when times is good it's always
+a-goin' to be so, but I know better."
+
+"I don't see how we could have been much more economical," said Mrs.
+Harding, mildly.
+
+"There's a hundred ways. Poor folks like us ought not to expect to have
+meat so often. It's frightful to think what the butcher's bill must have
+been for the last two months."
+
+Inconsistent Rachel! Only the day before she had made herself very
+uncomfortable because there was no meat for dinner, and said she
+couldn't live without it. Mrs. Harding might have reminded her of this,
+but the good woman was too kind and forbearing to make the retort. She
+really pitied Rachel for her unhappy habit of despondency. So she
+contented herself by saying that they must try to do better in future.
+
+"That's always the way," muttered Rachel; "shut the stable door after
+the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from experience till it's too
+late to be of any use. I don't see what the world was made for, for my
+part. Everything goes topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the
+right way. I sometimes think 'tain't much use livin'!"
+
+"Oh, you'll feel better by and by, Rachel."
+
+"No, I shan't; I feel my health's declinin' every day. I don't know how
+I can stand it when I have to go to the poorhouse."
+
+"We haven't gone there yet, Rachel."
+
+"No, but it's comin' soon. We can't live on nothin'."
+
+"Hark, there's Jack coming," said his mother, hearing a quick step
+outside.
+
+"Yes, he's whistlin' just as if nothin' was the matter. He don't care
+anything for the awful condition of the family."
+
+"You're wrong there, Rachel; Jack is trying every day to get something
+to do. He wants to do his part."
+
+Rachel would have made a reply disparaging to Jack, but she had no
+chance, for our hero broke in at this instant.
+
+"Well, Jack?" said his mother, inquiringly.
+
+"I've got a plan, mother," he said.
+
+"What's a boy's plan worth?" sniffed Aunt Rachel.
+
+"Oh, don't be always hectorin' me, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, impatiently.
+
+"Hectorin'! Is that the way my own nephew talks to me?"
+
+"Well, it's so. You don't give a feller a chance. I'll tell you what I'm
+thinking of, mother. I've been talkin' with Tom Blake; he sells papers,
+and he tells me he makes sometimes a dollar a day. Isn't that good?"
+
+"Yes, that is very good wages for a boy."
+
+"I want to try it, too; but I've got to buy the papers first, you know,
+and I haven't got any money. So, if you'll lend me fifty cents, I'll try
+it this afternoon."
+
+"You think you can sell them, Jack?"
+
+"I know I can. I'm as smart as Tom Blake, any day."
+
+"Pride goes before a fall!" remarked Rachel, by way of a damper.
+"Disappointment is the common lot."
+
+"That's just the way all the time," said Jack, provoked.
+
+"I've lived longer than you," began Aunt Rachel.
+
+"Yes, a mighty lot longer," interrupted Jack. "I don't deny that."
+
+"Now you're sneerin' at me on account of my age, Jack. Martha, how can
+you allow such things?"
+
+"Be respectful, Jack."
+
+"Then tell Aunt Rachel not to aggravate me so. Will you let me have the
+fifty cents, mother?"
+
+"Yes, Jack. I think your plan is worth trying."
+
+She took out half a dollar from her pocketbook and handed it to Jack.
+
+"All right, mother. I'll see what I can do with it."
+
+Jack went out, and Rachel looked more gloomy than ever.
+
+"You'll never see that money again, you may depend on't, Martha," she
+said.
+
+"Why not, Rachel?"
+
+"Because Jack'll spend it for candy, or in some other foolish way."
+
+"You are unjust, Rachel. Jack is not that kind of boy."
+
+"I'd ought to know him. I've had chances enough."
+
+"You never knew him to do anything dishonest."
+
+"I suppose he's a model boy?"
+
+"No, he isn't. He's got faults enough, I admit; but he wouldn't spend
+for his own pleasure money given him for buying papers."
+
+"If he buys the papers, I don't believe he can sell them, so the money's
+wasted anyway," said Rachel, trying another tack.
+
+"We will wait and see," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+She saw that Rachel was in one of her unreasonable moods, and that it
+was of no use to continue the discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MRS. HARDING TAKES A BOARDER
+
+
+Jack started for the newspaper offices and bought a supply of papers.
+
+"I don't see why I can't sell papers as well as other boys," he said to
+himself. "I'm going to try, at any rate."
+
+He thought it prudent, however, not to buy too large stock at first. He
+might sell them all, but then again he might get "stuck" on a part, and
+this might take away all his profits.
+
+Jack, however, was destined to find that in the newspaper business, as
+well as in others, there was no lack of competition. He took his place
+just below the Astor House, and began to cry his papers. This aroused
+the ire of a rival newsboy a few feet away.
+
+"Get away from here!" he exclaimed, scowling at Jack.
+
+"What for?" said Jack.
+
+"This is my stand."
+
+"Keep it, then. This is mine," retorted Jack, composedly.
+
+"I don't allow no other newsboys in this block," said the other.
+
+"Don't you? You ain't the city government, are you?"
+
+"I don't want any of your impudence. Clear out!"
+
+"Clear out yourself!"
+
+"I'll give you a lickin'!"
+
+"Perhaps you will when you're able."
+
+Jack spoke manfully; but the fact was that the other boy probably was
+able, being three years older, and as many inches taller.
+
+Jack kept on crying his papers, and his opponent, incensed at the
+contemptuous disregard of his threats, advanced toward him, and, taking
+Jack unawares, pushed him off the sidewalk with such violence that he
+nearly fell flat. Jack felt that the time for action had arrived. He
+dropped his papers temporarily on the sidewalk, and, lowering his head,
+butted against his young enemy with such force as to double him up, and
+seat him, gasping for breath, on the sidewalk. Tom Rafferty, for this
+was his name, looked up in astonishment at the unexpected form of the
+attack.
+
+"Well done, my lad!" said a hearty voice.
+
+Jack turned toward the speaker, and saw a stout man dressed in a blue
+coat with brass buttons. He was dark and bronzed with exposure to the
+weather, and there was something about him which plainly indicated the
+sailor.
+
+"Well done, my lad!" he repeated. "You know how to pay off your debts."
+
+"I try to," said Jack, modestly. "But where's my papers?"
+
+The papers, which he had dropped, had disappeared. One of the boys who
+had seen the fracas had seized the opportunity to make off with them,
+and poor Jack was in the position of a merchant who had lost his stock
+in trade.
+
+"Who took them papers?" he asked, looking about him.
+
+"I saw a boy run off with them," said a bystander.
+
+"I'm glad of it," said Tom Rafferty, sullenly.
+
+Jack looked as if he was ready to pitch into him again, but the sailor
+interfered.
+
+"Don't mind the papers, my lad. What were they worth?"
+
+"I gave twenty cents for 'em."
+
+"Then here's thirty."
+
+"I don't think I ought to take it," said Jack. "It's my loss."
+
+"Take it, my boy. It won't ruin me. I've got plenty more behind."
+
+"Thank you, sir; I'll go and buy some more papers."
+
+"Not to-night. I want you to take a cruise with me."
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"I suppose you'd like to know who I am?" said the sailor, as they moved
+off together.
+
+"I suppose you're a sailor."
+
+"You can tell that by the cut of my jib. Yes, my lad, I'm captain of the
+_Argo_, now in port. It's a good while since I've been in York. For
+ten years I've been plying between Liverpool and Calcutta. Now I've got
+absence to come over here."
+
+"Are you an American, sir?"
+
+"Yes; I was raised in Connecticut, but then I began going to sea when I
+was only thirteen. I only arrived to-day, and I find the city changed
+since ten years ago, when I used to know it."
+
+"Where are you staying--at what hotel?"
+
+"I haven't gone to any yet; I used to stay with a cousin of mine, but
+he's moved. Do you know any good boarding place, where they'd make me
+feel at home, and let me smoke a pipe after dinner?"
+
+An idea struck Jack. They had an extra room at home, or could make one
+by his sleeping in the sitting room. Why shouldn't they take the
+stranger to board? The money would certainly be acceptable. He
+determined to propose it.
+
+"If we lived in a nicer house," he said, "I'd ask you to board at my
+mother's."
+
+"Would she take me, my lad?"
+
+"I think she would; but we are poor, and live in a small house."
+
+"That makes no odds. I ain't a bit particular, as long as I can feel at
+home. So heave ahead, my lad, and we'll go and see this mother of yours,
+and hear what she has to say about it."
+
+Jack took the way home well pleased, and, opening the front door,
+entered the sitting room, followed by the sailor.
+
+Aunt Rachel looked up nervously, and exclaimed: "A man!"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I'm a man, and no mistake. Are you
+this lad's mother?"
+
+"No, sir!" answered Rachel, emphatically. "I am nobody's mother."
+
+"Oh, an old maid!" said the sailor, whose mode of life had made him
+unceremonious.
+
+"I am a spinster," said Rachel, with dignity.
+
+"That's the same thing," said the visitor, sitting down opposite Aunt
+Rachel, who eyed him suspiciously.
+
+"My aunt, Rachel Harding, Capt. Bowling," introduced Jack. "Aunt Rachel,
+Capt. Bowling is the commander of a vessel now in port."
+
+Aunt Rachel made a stiff courtesy, and Capt. Bowling eyed her curiously.
+
+"Are you fond of knitting, ma'am?" he asked.
+
+"I am not fond of anything," said Rachel, mournfully. "We should not set
+our affections upon earthly things."
+
+"You wouldn't say that if you had a beau, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling,
+facetiously.
+
+"A beau!" repeated Rachel, horror-stricken.
+
+"Yes, ma'am. I suppose you've had a beau some time or other."
+
+"I don't think it proper to talk on such a subject to a stranger," said
+Aunt Rachel, primly.
+
+"Law, ma'am, you needn't be so particular."
+
+Just at this moment, Mrs. Harding entered the room, and was introduced
+to Capt. Bowling by Jack. The captain proceeded to business at once.
+
+"Your son, here, ma'am, told me you might maybe swing a hammock for me
+somewhere in your house. I liked his looks, and here I am."
+
+"Do you think you would be satisfied with our plain fare, and humble
+dwelling, Capt. Bowling?"
+
+"I ain't hard to suit, ma'am; so, if you can take me, I'll stay."
+
+His manner was frank, although rough; and Mrs. Harding cheerfully
+consented to do so. It was agreed that Bowling should pay five dollars a
+week for the three or four weeks he expected to stay.
+
+"I'll be back in an hour," said the new boarder. "I've got a little
+business to attend to before supper."
+
+When he had gone out, Aunt Rachel began to cough ominously. Evidently
+some remonstrance was coming.
+
+"Martha," she said, solemnly, "I'm afraid you've done wrong in taking
+that sailor man."
+
+"Why, Rachel?"
+
+"He's a strange man."
+
+"I don't see anything strange about him," said Jack.
+
+"He spoke to me about having a beau," said Aunt Rachel, in a shocked
+tone.
+
+Jack burst into a fit of hearty laughter. "Perhaps he's going to make
+you an offer, Aunt Rachel," he said. "He wants to see if there's anybody
+in the way."
+
+Rachel did not appear so very indignant.
+
+"It was improper for a stranger to speak to me on that subject," she
+said, mildly.
+
+"You must make allowances for the bluntness of a sailor," said Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+For some reason Rachel did not seem as low-spirited as usual that
+evening. Capt. Bowling entertained them with narratives of his personal
+adventures, and it was later than usual when the lamps were put out, and
+they were all in bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CAPTAIN'S DEPARTURE
+
+
+"Jack," said the captain, at breakfast, the next morning, "how would you
+like to go round with me to see my vessel?"
+
+"I'll go," said Jack, promptly.
+
+"Very likely he'll fall over into the water and be drowned," suggested
+Aunt Rachel, cheerfully.
+
+"I'll take care of that, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling. "Won't you come
+yourself?"
+
+"I go to see a vessel!" repeated Rachel.
+
+"Yes; why not?"
+
+"I am afraid it wouldn't be proper to go with a stranger," said Rachel,
+with a high sense of propriety.
+
+"I'll promise not to run away with you," said the captain, bluntly. "If
+I should attempt it, Jack, here, would interfere."
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said Jack. "It wouldn't be proper for me to interfere
+with Aunt Rachel's plans."
+
+"You seem to speak as if your aunt proposed to run away," said Mr.
+Harding, jocosely.
+
+"You shouldn't speak of such things, nephew; I am shocked," said Rachel.
+
+"Then you won't go, ma'am?" asked the captain.
+
+"If I thought it was consistent with propriety," said Rachel,
+hesitating. "What do you think, Martha?"
+
+"I think there is no objection," said Mrs. Harding, secretly amazed at
+Rachel's entertaining the idea.
+
+The result was that Miss Rachel put on her things, and accompanied the
+captain. She was prevailed on to take the captain's arm at length,
+greatly to Jack's amusement. He was still more amused when a boy picked
+up her handkerchief which she had accidentally dropped, and, restoring
+it to the captain, said, "Here's your wife's handkerchief, gov'nor."
+
+"Ho! ho!" laughed the captain. "He takes you for my wife, ma'am."
+
+"Ho! ho!" echoed Jack, equally amused.
+
+Aunt Rachel turned red with confusion. "I am afraid I ought not to have
+come," she murmured. "I feel ready to drop."
+
+"You'd better not drop just yet," said the captain--they were just
+crossing the street--"wait till it isn't so muddy."
+
+On the whole, Aunt Rachel decided not to drop.
+
+The _Argo_ was a medium-sized vessel, and Jack in particular was
+pleased with his visit. Though not outwardly so demonstrative, Aunt
+Rachel also seemed to enjoy the expedition. The captain, though blunt,
+was attentive, and it was something new to her to have such an escort.
+It was observed that Miss Harding was much less gloomy than usual during
+the remainder of the day. It might be that the captain's cheerfulness
+was contagious. For a stranger, Aunt Rachel certainly conversed with him
+with a freedom remarkable for her.
+
+"I never saw Rachel so cheerful," remarked Mrs. Harding to her husband
+that evening after they had retired. "She hasn't once spoken of life
+being a vale of tears to-day."
+
+"It's the captain," said her husband. "He has such spirits that it seems
+to enliven all of us."
+
+"I wish we could have him for a permanent boarder."
+
+"Yes; the five dollars a week which he pays are a great help, especially
+now that I am out of work."
+
+"What is the prospect of getting work soon?"
+
+"I am hoping for it from day to day, but it may be weeks yet."
+
+"Jack earned fifty cents to-day by selling papers."
+
+"His daily earnings are an important help. With what the captain pays
+us, it is enough to pay all our living expenses. But there's one thing
+that troubles me."
+
+"The rent?"
+
+"Yes, it is due in three weeks, and as yet I haven't a dollar laid by to
+meet it. It makes me feel anxious."
+
+"Don't lose your trust in Providence, Timothy. He may yet carry us over
+this difficulty."
+
+"So I hope, but I can't help feeling in what straits we shall be, if
+some help does not come."
+
+Two weeks later, Capt. Bowling sailed for Liverpool.
+
+"I hope we shall see you again sometime, captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Whenever I come back to New York, I shall come here if you'll keep me,"
+said the bluff sailor.
+
+"Aunt Rachel will miss you, captain," said Jack, slyly.
+
+Capt. Bowling turned to the confused spinster.
+
+"I hope she will," said he, heartily. "Perhaps when I see her again,
+she'll have a husband."
+
+"Oh, Capt. Bowling, how can you say such things?" gasped Rachel, who, as
+the time for the captain's departure approached, had been subsiding into
+her old melancholy. "There's other things to think of in this vale of
+tears."
+
+"Are there? Well, if they're gloomy, I don't want to think of 'em. Jack,
+my lad, I wish you were going to sail with me."
+
+"So do I," said Jack.
+
+"He's my only boy, captain," said Mrs. Harding. "I couldn't part with
+him."
+
+"I don't blame you, ma'am, not a particle; though there's the making of
+a sailor in Jack."
+
+"If he went away, he'd never come back," said Rachel, lugubriously.
+
+"I don't know about that, ma'am. I've been a sailor, man and boy, forty
+years, and here I am, well and hearty to-day."
+
+"The captain is about your age, isn't he, Aunt Rachel?" said Jack,
+maliciously.
+
+"I'm only thirty-nine," said Rachel, sharply.
+
+"Then I must have been under a mistake all my life," said the cooper to
+himself. "Rachel's forty-seven, if she's a day."
+
+This remark he prudently kept to himself, or a fit of hysterics would
+probably have been the result.
+
+"I wouldn't have taken you for a day over thirty-five, ma'am," said the
+captain, gallantly.
+
+Rachel actually smiled, but mildly disclaimed the compliment.
+
+"If it hadn't been for my trials and troubles," she said, "I might have
+looked younger; but they are only to be expected. It's the common lot."
+
+"Is it?" said the captain. "I can't say I've been troubled much that
+way. With a stout heart and a good conscience we ought to be jolly."
+
+"Who of us has a good conscience?" asked Rachel, in a melancholy tone.
+
+"I have, Aunt Rachel," answered Jack.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed, indignantly. "You, that tied a tin kettle to a
+dog's tail yesterday, and chased the poor cat till she almost died of
+fright. I lie awake nights thinking of the bad end you're likely to come
+to unless you change your ways."
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, but the captain came to his help.
+
+"Boys will be boys, ma'am," he said. "I was up to no end of tricks
+myself when I was a boy."
+
+"You weren't so bad as Jack, I know," said Rachel.
+
+"Thank you for standing up for me, ma'am; but I'm afraid I was. I don't
+think Jack's so very bad, for my part."
+
+"I didn't play the tricks Aunt Rachel mentioned," said Jack. "It was
+another boy in our block."
+
+"You're all alike," said Rachel. "I don't know what you boys are all
+coming to."
+
+Presently the captain announced that he must go. Jack accompanied him as
+far as the pier, but the rest of the family remained behind. Aunt Rachel
+became gloomier than ever.
+
+"I don't know what you'll do, now you've lost your boarder," she said.
+
+"He will be a loss to us, it is true," said Mrs. Harding; but we are
+fortunate in having had him with us so long."
+
+"It's only puttin' off our misery a little longer," said Rachel. "We've
+got to go to the poorhouse, after all."
+
+Rachel was in one of her moods, and there was no use in arguing with
+her, as it would only have intensified her gloom.
+
+Meanwhile Jack was bidding good-by to the captain.
+
+"I'm sorry you can't go with me, Jack," said the bluff sailor.
+
+"So am I; but I can't leave mother."
+
+"Right, my lad; I wouldn't take you away from her. But there--take that,
+and don't forget me."
+
+"You are very kind," said Jack, as the captain pressed into his hand a
+five-dollar gold piece. "May I give it to my mother?"
+
+"Certainly, my lad; you can't do better."
+
+Jack stood on the wharf till the vessel was drawn out into the stream by
+a steam tug. Then he went home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LANDLORD'S VISIT
+
+
+It was the night before the New Year. In many a household in the great
+city it was a night of happy anticipation. In the humble home of the
+Hardings it was an evening of anxious thought, for to-morrow the
+quarter's rent was due.
+
+"I haven't got a dollar to meet the rent, Martha," said the cooper, in a
+depressed tone.
+
+"Won't Mr. Colman wait?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. You know what sort of a man he is, Martha. There isn't
+much feeling about him. He cares more for money than anything else."
+
+"Perhaps you are doing him an injustice."
+
+"I am afraid not. Did you never hear how he treated the Underhills?"
+
+"How?"
+
+"Underhill was laid up with rheumatic fever for three months. The
+consequence was that when quarter day came round he was in about the
+same situation with ourselves--a little worse, even, for his wife was
+sick also. But, though Colman was aware of the circumstances, he had no
+pity; he turned them out without ceremony."
+
+"Is it possible?" asked Mrs. Harding, uneasily.
+
+"And there's no reason for his being more lenient with us. I can't but
+feel anxious about to-morrow, Martha."
+
+At this moment, verifying an old adage, which will perhaps occur to the
+reader, who should knock but Mr. Colman himself. Both the cooper and his
+wife had an instinctive foreboding as to his visit.
+
+He came in, rubbing his hands in a social way, as was his custom. No
+one, to look at him, would have suspected the hardness of heart that lay
+veiled under his velvety softness of manner.
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Harding," he said, affably. "I trust you and your
+excellent wife are in good health."
+
+"That blessing, at least, is continued to us," said the cooper, gravely.
+
+"And how comfortable you're looking, too, eh! It makes an old bachelor
+like me feel lonesome when he contrasts his own solitary room with such
+a scene of comfort as this. You've got a comfortable home, and dog
+cheap, too. All my other tenants are grumbling to think you don't have
+to pay any more for such superior accommodations. I've about made up my
+mind that I must ask you twenty-five dollars a quarter hereafter."
+
+All this was said very pleasantly, but the pill was none the less
+bitter.
+
+"It seems to me, Mr. Colman," answered the cooper, soberly, "you have
+chosen rather a singular time for raising the rent."
+
+"Why singular, my good sir?" inquired the landlord, urbanely.
+
+"You know, of course, that this is a time of general business
+depression; my own trade in particular has suffered greatly. For a month
+past I have not been able to find any work."
+
+Colman's face lost something of its graciousness.
+
+"And I fear I shall not be able to pay my quarter's rent to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed!" said the landlord, coldly. "Perhaps you can make it up within
+two or three dollars."
+
+"I can't pay a dollar toward it," said the cooper. "It's the first time,
+in the five years I've lived here, that this thing has happened to me.
+I've always been prompt before."
+
+"You should have economized as you found times growing harder," said
+Colman, harshly. "It is hardly honest to live in a house when you know
+you can't pay the rent."
+
+"You shan't lose it, Mr. Colman," said the cooper, earnestly. "No one
+ever yet lost anything by me, and I don't mean anyone shall, if I can
+help it. Only give me a little time, and I will pay all."
+
+The landlord shook his head.
+
+"You ought to have cut your coat according to your cloth," he responded.
+"Much as it will go against my feelings I am compelled, by a prudent
+regard to my own interests, to warn you that, in case your rent is not
+ready to-morrow, I shall be obliged to trouble you to find another
+tenement; and furthermore, the rent of this will be raised five dollars
+a quarter."
+
+"I can't pay it, Mr. Colman," said Timothy Harding, gravely. "I may as
+well say that now; and it's no use agreeing to pay more rent. I pay all
+I can afford now."
+
+"Very well, you know the alternative. Of course, if you can do better
+elsewhere, you will. That's understood. But it's a disagreeable subject.
+We won't talk of it any more now. I shall be round to-morrow forenoon.
+How's your excellent sister--as cheerful as ever?"
+
+"Quite as much so as usual," answered the cooper, dryly.
+
+"There's one favor I should like to ask," he said, after a pause. "Will
+you allow us to remain here a few days till I can look about a little?"
+
+"I would with the greatest pleasure in the world," was the reply; "but
+there's another family very anxious to take the house, and they wish to
+come in immediately. Therefore I shall be obliged to ask you to move out
+to-morrow. In fact, that is the very thing I came here this evening to
+speak about, as I thought you might not wish to pay the increased rent."
+
+"We are much obliged to you," said the cooper, with a tinge of
+bitterness unusual to him. "If we are to be turned into the street, it
+is pleasant to have a few hours' notice of it."
+
+"Turned out of doors, my good sir! What disagreeable expressions you
+employ! If you reflect for a moment, you will see that it is merely a
+matter of business. I have an article to dispose of. There are two
+bidders, yourself and another person. The latter is willing to pay a
+larger sum. Of course I give him the preference, as you would do under
+similar circumstances. Don't you see how it is?"
+
+"I believe I do," replied the cooper. "Of course it's a regular
+proceeding; but you must excuse me if I think of it in another light,
+when I reflect that to-morrow at this time my family may be without a
+shelter."
+
+"My dear sir, positively you are looking on the dark side of things. It
+is actually sinful for you to distrust Providence as you seem to do.
+You're a little disappointed, that's all. Just take to-night to sleep on
+it, and I've no doubt you'll see things in quite a different light. But
+positively"--here he rose, and began to draw on his gloves--"positively
+I have stayed longer than I intended. Good-night, my friends. I'll look
+in upon you in the morning. And, by the way, as it's so near, permit me
+to wish you a happy New Year."
+
+The door closed upon the landlord, leaving behind two anxious hearts.
+
+"It looks well in him to wish that," said the cooper, gloomily. "A great
+deal he is doing to make it so. I don't know how it seems to others; for
+my part, I never say them words to anyone, unless I really wish 'em
+well, and am willing to do something to make 'em so. I should feel as if
+I was a hypocrite if I acted anyways different."
+
+Martha was not one who was readily inclined to think evil of anyone, but
+in her own gentle heart she could not help feeling a repugnance for the
+man who had just left them. Jack was not so reticent.
+
+"I hate that man," he said, decidedly.
+
+"You should not hate anyone, my son," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"I can't help it, mother. Ain't he goin' to turn us out of the house
+to-morrow?"
+
+"If we cannot pay our rent, he is justified in doing so."
+
+"Then why need he pretend to be so friendly? He don't care anything for
+us."
+
+"It is right to be polite, Jack."
+
+"I s'pose if you're goin' to kick a man, it should be done politely,"
+said Jack, indignantly.
+
+"If possible," said the cooper, laughing.
+
+"Is there any tenement vacant in this neighborhood?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Yes, there is one in the next block belonging to Mr. Harrison."
+
+"It is a better one than this."
+
+"Yes; but Harrison only asks the same rent that we have been paying. He
+is not so exorbitant as Colman."
+
+"Couldn't we get that?"
+
+"I am afraid if he knows that we have failed to pay our rent here, that
+he will object."
+
+"But he knows you are honest, and that nothing but the hard times would
+have brought you to this pass."
+
+"It may be, Martha. At any rate, you have lightened my heart a little. I
+feel as if there was some hope left, after all."
+
+"We ought always to feel so, Timothy. There was one thing that Mr.
+Colman said that didn't sound so well, coming from his lips; but it's
+true for all that."
+
+"What do you refer to?"
+
+"I mean that about not distrusting Providence. Many a time have I been
+comforted by reading the verse: 'Never have I seen the righteous
+forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' As long as we try to do what is
+right, Timothy, God will not suffer us to want."
+
+"You are right, Martha. He is our ever-present help in time of trouble.
+When I think of that, I feel easier."
+
+They retired to rest thoughtfully but not sadly.
+
+The fire upon the hearth flickered and died out at length. The last
+sands of the old year were running out, and the new morning ushered in
+its successor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT
+
+
+"Happy New Year!" was Jack's salutation to Aunt Rachel, as with an
+unhappy expression of countenance she entered the sitting room.
+
+"Happy, indeed!" she repeated, dismally. "There's great chance of its
+being so, I should think. We don't any of us know what the year may
+bring forth. We may all be dead and buried before the next new year."
+
+"If that's the case," said Jack, "let us be jolly as long as life
+lasts."
+
+"I don't know what you mean by such a vulgar word," said Aunt Rachel,
+disdainfully. "I've heard of drunkards and such kind of people being
+jolly; but, thank Providence, I haven't got to that yet."
+
+"If that was the only way to be jolly," said Jack, stoutly, "then I'd be
+a drunkard; I wouldn't carry round such a long face as you do, Aunt
+Rachel, for any money."
+
+"It's enough to make all of us have long faces," said his aunt, sourly,
+"when you are brazen enough to own that you mean to be a miserable
+drunkard."
+
+"I didn't say any such thing," said Jack, indignantly.
+
+"Perhaps I have ears," remarked Aunt Rachel, sententiously, "and perhaps
+I have not. It's a new thing for a nephew to tell his aunt that she
+lies. They didn't use to allow such things when I was young. But the
+world's going to rack and ruin, and I shouldn't wonder if the people was
+right that say it's coming to an end."
+
+Here Mrs. Harding happily interposed, by asking Jack to go round to the
+grocery in the next street, and buy a pint of milk for breakfast.
+
+Jack took his hat and started with alacrity, glad to leave the dismal
+presence of Aunt Rachel.
+
+He had scarcely opened the door when he started back in surprise,
+exclaiming: "By hokey, if there isn't a basket on the steps!"
+
+"A basket!" repeated his mother, in surprise. "Can it be a New Year's
+present? Bring it in, Jack."
+
+It was brought in immediately, and the cover being lifted, there
+appeared a female child, apparently a year old.
+
+All uttered exclamations of surprise, each in itself characteristic.
+
+"What a dear, innocent little thing!" said Mrs. Harding, with true
+maternal instinct.
+
+"Ain't it a pretty un?" exclaimed Jack, admiringly.
+
+"It looks as if it was goin' to have the measles," said Aunt Rachel,
+"or scarlet fever. You'd better not take it in, Martha, or we may all
+catch it."
+
+"You wouldn't leave it out in the cold, would you, Rachel? The poor
+thing might die of exposure."
+
+"Probably it will die," said Rachel, mournfully. "It's very hard to
+raise children. There's something unhealthy in its looks."
+
+"It don't seem to me so. It looks plump and healthy."
+
+"You can't never judge by appearances. You ought to know that, Martha."
+
+"I will take the risk, Rachel."
+
+"I don't see what you are going to do with a baby, when we are all on
+the verge of starvation, and going to be turned into the street this
+very day," remarked Rachel, despondently.
+
+"We won't think of that just now. Common humanity requires us to see
+what we can do for the poor child."
+
+So saying, Mrs. Harding took the infant in her arms. The child opened
+its eyes, and smiled.
+
+"My! here's a letter," said Jack, diving into the bottom of the basket.
+"It's directed to you, father."
+
+The cooper opened the letter, and read as follows:
+
+"For reasons which it is unnecessary to state, the guardians of this
+child find it expedient to intrust it to others to bring up. The good
+account which they have heard of you has led them to select you for that
+charge. No further explanation is necessary, except that it is by no
+means their intention to make this a service of charity. They,
+therefore, inclose a certificate of deposit on the Broadway Bank of five
+hundred dollars, the same having been paid in to your credit. Each year,
+while the child remains in your charge, the same will in like manner be
+placed to your credit at the same bank. It may be as well to state,
+further, that all attempt to fathom whatever of mystery may attach to
+this affair will prove useless."
+
+The letter was read in amazement. The certificate of deposit, which had
+fallen to the floor, was picked up by Jack, and handed to his father.
+
+Amazement was followed by a feeling of gratitude and relief.
+
+"What could be more fortunate?" exclaimed Mrs. Harding. "Surely,
+Timothy, our faith has been rewarded."
+
+"God has listened to our cry!" said the cooper, devoutly, "and in the
+hour of our sorest need He has remembered us."
+
+"Isn't it prime?" said Jack, gleefully; "five hundred dollars! Ain't we
+rich, Aunt Rachel?"
+
+"Like as not," observed Rachel, "the certificate isn't genuine. It
+doesn't look natural it should be. I've heard of counterfeits afore now.
+I shouldn't be surprised at all if Timothy got took up for presenting
+it."
+
+"I'll take the risk," said her brother, who did not seem much alarmed at
+the suggestion.
+
+"Now you'll be able to pay the rent, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding,
+cheerfully.
+
+"Yes, and it's the last quarter's rent I mean to pay Mr. Colman, if I
+can help it."
+
+"Why, where are you going?" asked Jack.
+
+"To the house belonging to Mr. Harrison that I spoke of last night, that
+is, if it isn't already engaged. I think I will see about it at once. If
+Mr. Colman should come in while I am gone, tell him I will be back
+directly; I don't want you to tell him of the change in our
+circumstances."
+
+The cooper found Mr. Harrison at home.
+
+"I called to inquire," asked Mr. Harding, "whether you have let your
+house?"
+
+"Not as yet," was the reply.
+
+"What rent do you ask?"
+
+"Twenty dollars a quarter. I don't think that unreasonable."
+
+"It is satisfactory to me," was the cooper's reply, "and if you have no
+objections to me as a tenant, I will engage it at once."
+
+"Far from having any objections, Mr. Harding," was the courteous reply,
+"I shall be glad to secure so good a tenant. Will you go over and look
+at the house?"
+
+"Not now, sir; I am somewhat in haste. Can we move in to-day?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+His errand satisfactorily accomplished, the cooper returned home.
+
+Meanwhile the landlord had called.
+
+He was a little surprised to find that Mrs. Harding, instead of looking
+depressed, looked cheerful rather than otherwise.
+
+"I was not aware you had a child so young," he remarked, looking at the
+baby.
+
+"It is not mine," said Mrs. Harding, briefly.
+
+"The child of a neighbor, I suppose," thought the landlord.
+
+Meanwhile he scrutinized closely, without appearing to do so, the
+furniture in the room.
+
+At this point Mr. Harding entered the house.
+
+"Good-morning," said Colman, affably. "A fine morning, Mr. Harding."
+
+"Quite so," responded his tenant, shortly.
+
+"I have called, Mr. Harding, to ask if you are ready with your quarter's
+rent."
+
+"I think I told you last evening how I was situated. Of course I am
+sorry."
+
+"So am I," interrupted the landlord, "for I may be obliged to have
+recourse to unpleasant measures."
+
+"You mean that we must leave the house."
+
+"Of course you cannot expect to remain in it, if you are unable to pay
+the rent. I suppose," he added, making an inventory of the furniture
+with his eyes, "you will leave behind a sufficient amount of furniture
+to cover your debt."
+
+"Surely you would not deprive us of our furniture!"
+
+"Is there any injustice in requiring payment of honest debts?"
+
+"There are cases of that description. However, I will not put you to the
+trouble of levying on my furniture. I am ready to pay your dues."
+
+"Have you the money?" asked Colman, in surprise.
+
+"I have, and something over. Can you cash my check for five hundred
+dollars?"
+
+It would be difficult to picture the amazement of the landlord.
+
+"Surely you told me a different story last evening," he said.
+
+"Last evening and this morning are different times. Then I could not pay
+you. Now, luckily, I am able. If you will accompany me to the bank, I
+will draw some money and pay your bill."
+
+"My dear sir, I am not at all in haste for the money," said the
+landlord, with a return of his affability. "Any time within a week will
+do. I hope, by the way, you will continue to occupy this house."
+
+"I don't feel like paying twenty-five dollars a quarter."
+
+"You shall have it for the same rent you have been paying."
+
+"But you said there was another family who had offered you an advanced
+rent. I shouldn't like to interfere with them. Besides, I have already
+hired a house of Mr. Harrison in the next block."
+
+Mr. Colman was silenced. He regretted too late the hasty course which
+had lost him a good tenant. The family referred to had no existence;
+and, it may be remarked, the house remained vacant for several months,
+when he was glad to rent it at the old price.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A LUCKY RESCUE
+
+
+The opportune arrival of the child inaugurated a season of comparative
+prosperity in the home of Timothy Harding. To persons accustomed to live
+in their frugal way, five hundred dollars seemed a fortune. Nor, as
+might have happened in some cases, did this unexpected windfall tempt
+the cooper or his wife to enter upon a more extravagant mode of living.
+
+"Let us save something against a rainy day," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"We can if I get work soon," answered her husband. "This little one will
+add but little to our expenses, and there is no reason why we shouldn't
+save up at least half of it."
+
+"So I think, Timothy. The child's food will not amount to a dollar a
+week."
+
+"There's no tellin' when you will get work, Timothy," said Rachel, in
+her usual cheerful way. "It isn't well to crow before you are out of the
+woods."
+
+"Very true, Rachel. It isn't your failing to look too much at the sunny
+side of the picture."
+
+"I'm ready to look at it when I can see it anywhere," answered his
+sister, in the same enlivening way.
+
+"Don't you see it in the unexpected good fortune which came with this
+child?" asked Timothy.
+
+"I've no doubt you think it very fortunate now," said Rachel, gloomily;
+"but a young child's a great deal of trouble."
+
+"Do you speak from experience, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes," said his aunt, slowly. "If all babies were as cross and
+ill-behaved as you were when you were an infant, five hundred dollars
+wouldn't begin to pay for the trouble of having them around."
+
+Mr. Harding and his wife laughed at the manner in which the tables had
+been turned upon Jack, but the latter had his wits about him
+sufficiently to answer: "I've always heard, Aunt Rachel, that the
+crosser a child is, the pleasanter he will grow up. What a very pleasant
+baby you must have been!"
+
+"Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly; but his father, who looked upon it
+as a good joke, remarked, good-humoredly: "He's got you there, Rachel."
+
+But Rachel took it as a serious matter, and observed that, when she was
+young, children were not allowed to speak so to their elders.
+
+"But I don't know as I can blame 'em much," she continued, wiping her
+eyes with the corner of her apron, "when their own parents encourage 'em
+in it."
+
+Timothy was warned, by experience of Rachel's temper, that silence was
+his most prudent course. Anything that he might say would only be likely
+to make matters worse than before.
+
+Aunt Rachel sank into a fit of deep despondency, and did not say another
+word till dinner time. She sat down to the table with a profound sigh,
+as if there was little in life worth living for. Notwithstanding this,
+it was observed that she had a good appetite. Indeed, Miss Harding
+appeared to thrive on her gloomy views of life and human nature. She
+was, it must be acknowledged, perfectly consistent in all her conduct,
+so far as this peculiarity was concerned. Whenever she took up a
+newspaper, she always looked first to the space appropriated to deaths,
+and next in order to the column of accidents, casualties, etc., and her
+spirits were visibly exhilarated when she encountered a familiar name in
+either list.
+
+The cooper continued to look out for work; but it was with a more
+cheerful spirit. He did not now feel as if the comfort of his family
+depended absolutely on his immediate success. Used economically, the
+money he had by him would last eight months; and during that time it was
+hardly possible that he should not find something to do. It was this
+sense of security, of having something to fall back upon, that enabled
+him to keep up good heart. It is too generally the case that people are
+content to live as if they were sure of constantly retaining their
+health, and never losing their employment. When a reverse does come,
+they are at once plunged into discouragement, and feel the necessity of
+doing something immediately. There is only one way of fending off such
+an embarrassment; and that is, to resolve, whatever may be the amount of
+one's income, to lay aside some part to serve as a reliance in time of
+trouble. A little economy--though it involves self-denial--will be well
+repaid by the feeling of security it engenders.
+
+Mr. Harding was not compelled to remain inactive as long as he feared.
+Not that his line of business revived--that still remained depressed for
+a considerable time--but another path was opened to him.
+
+Returning home late one evening, the cooper saw a man steal out from a
+doorway, and attack a gentleman, whose dress and general appearance
+indicated probable wealth.
+
+Seizing him by the throat, the villain effectually prevented his calling
+for help, and at once commenced rifling his pockets, when the cooper
+arrived on the scene. A sudden blow admonished the robber that he had
+more than one to deal with.
+
+"What are you doing? Let that gentleman be!"
+
+The villain hesitated but a moment, then springing to his feet, he
+hastily made off, under cover of the darkness.
+
+"I hope you have received no injury, sir," said Mr. Harding,
+respectfully, addressing the stranger he had rescued.
+
+"No, my worthy friend; thanks to your timely assistance. The rascal
+nearly succeeded, however."
+
+"I hope you have lost nothing, sir."
+
+"Nothing, fortunately. You can form an idea of the value of your
+interference, when I say that I have fifteen hundred dollars with me,
+all of which would doubtless have been taken."
+
+"I am glad," said Timothy, "that I was able to do you such a service. It
+was by the merest chance that I came this way."
+
+"Will you add to my indebtedness by accompanying me with that trusty
+club of yours? I have some distance yet to go, and the money I have with
+me I don't want to lose."
+
+"Willingly," said the cooper.
+
+"But I am forgetting," continued the gentleman, "that you will yourself
+be obliged to return alone."
+
+"I do not carry enough money to make me fear an attack," said Mr.
+Harding, laughing. "Money brings care, I have always heard, and the want
+of it sometimes freedom from anxiety."
+
+"Yet most people are willing to take their share of that."
+
+"You are right, sir, nor I can't call myself an exception. Still I would
+be satisfied with the certainty of constant employment."
+
+"I hope you have that, at least."
+
+"I have had until three or four months since."
+
+"Then, at present, you are unemployed?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What is your business?"
+
+"I am a cooper."
+
+"I will see what I can do for you. Will you call at my office to-morrow,
+say at twelve o'clock?"
+
+"I shall be glad to do so, sir."
+
+"I believe I have a card with me. Yes, here is one. And this is my
+house. Thank you for your company. Let me see you to-morrow."
+
+They stood before a handsome dwelling house, from whose windows, draped
+by heavy crimson curtains, a soft light proceeded. The cooper could hear
+the ringing of childish voices welcoming home their father, whose life,
+unknown to them, had been in such peril, and he felt grateful to
+Providence for making him the instrument of frustrating the designs of
+the villain who would have robbed the merchant, and perhaps done him
+further injury. Timothy determined to say nothing to his wife about the
+night's adventure, until after his appointed meeting for the next day.
+Then, if any advantage accrued to him from it, he would tell the whole
+story.
+
+When he reached home, Mrs. Harding was sewing beside the fire. Aunt
+Rachel sat with her hands folded in her lap, with an air of martyr-like
+resignation to the woes of life.
+
+"I've brought you home a paper, Rachel," said her brother, cheerfully.
+"You may find something interesting in it."
+
+"I shan't be able to read it this evening," said Rachel, mournfully. "My
+eyes have troubled me lately. I feel that it is more than probable I am
+getting blind; but I trust I shall not live to be a burden to you,
+Timothy. Your prospects are dark enough without that."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself with any fears of that sort, Rachel," said the
+cooper, cheerily. "I think I know what will enable you to use your eyes
+as well as ever."
+
+"What?" asked Rachel, with melancholy curiosity.
+
+"A pair of spectacles."
+
+"Spectacles!" retorted Rachel, indignantly. "It will be a good many
+years before I am old enough to wear spectacles. I didn't expect to be
+insulted by my own brother. But I ought not to be surprised. It's one of
+my trials."
+
+"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Rachel," said the cooper,
+perplexed.
+
+"Good-night!" said Rachel, rising and taking a lamp from the table.
+
+"Come, Rachel, don't go up to bed yet; it's only nine o'clock."
+
+"After what you have said to me, Timothy, my self-respect will not allow
+me to stay."
+
+Rachel swept out of the room with something more than her customary
+melancholy.
+
+"I wish Rachel wasn't quite so contrary," said the cooper to his wife.
+"She turns upon a body so sudden it's hard to know how to take her.
+How's the little girl, Martha?"
+
+"She's been asleep ever since six o'clock."
+
+"I hope you don't find her very much trouble? That all comes on you,
+while we have the benefit of the money."
+
+"I don't think of that, Timothy. She is a sweet child, and I love her
+almost as much as if she were my own. As for Jack, he perfectly idolizes
+her."
+
+"And how does Rachel look upon her?"
+
+"I am afraid she will never be a favorite with Rachel."
+
+"Rachel never took to children much. It isn't her way. Now, Martha,
+while you are sewing, I will read you the news."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WHAT THE ENVELOPE CONTAINED
+
+
+The card which had been handed to the cooper contained the name of
+Thomas Merriam, No. ---- Pearl Street.
+
+Punctually at twelve, he presented himself at the countingroom, and
+received a cordial welcome from the merchant.
+
+"I am glad to see you," he said, affably. "You rendered me an important
+service last evening, even if the loss of money alone was to be
+apprehended. I will come to business at once, as I am particularly
+engaged this morning, and ask you if there is any way in which I can
+serve you?"
+
+"If you could procure me a situation, sir, you would do me a great
+service."
+
+"I think you told me you were a cooper?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Does this yield you a good support?"
+
+"In good times it pays me two dollars a day, and on that I can support
+my family comfortably. Lately it has been depressed, and paid me but a
+dollar and a half."
+
+"When do you anticipate its revival?"
+
+"That is uncertain. I may have to wait some months."
+
+"And, in the meantime, you are willing to undertake some other
+employment?"
+
+"I am not only willing, but shall feel very fortunate to obtain work of
+any kind. I have no objection to any honest employment."
+
+Mr. Merriam reflected a moment.
+
+"Just at present," he said, "I have nothing better to offer you than the
+position of porter. If that will suit you, you can enter upon its duties
+to-morrow."
+
+"I shall be very glad to undertake it, sir. Anything is better than
+idleness."
+
+"As to the compensation, that shall be the same that you have been
+accustomed to earn by your trade--two dollars a day."
+
+"I only received that in the best times," said Timothy, conscientiously.
+
+"Your services as porter will be worth that amount, and I will
+cheerfully pay it. I will expect you to-morrow morning at eight, if you
+can be here at that time."
+
+"I will be here promptly."
+
+"You are married, I suppose?" said the merchant, inquiringly.
+
+"Yes, sir; I am blessed with a good wife."
+
+"I am glad of that. Stay a moment."
+
+Mr. Merriam went to his desk, and presently came back with a sealed
+envelope.
+
+"Give that to your wife," he said.
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+Here the interview terminated, and the cooper went home quite elated by
+his success. His present engagement would enable him to bridge over the
+dull time, until his trade revived, and save him from incurring debts,
+of which he had a just horror.
+
+"You are just in time, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully, as he
+entered. "We've got an apple pudding to-day."
+
+"I see you haven't forgotten what I like, Martha."
+
+"There's no knowing how long you'll be able to afford puddings," said
+Rachel, dolefully. "To my mind it's extravagant to have meat and pudding
+both, when a month hence you may be in the poorhouse."
+
+"Then," said Jack, "I wouldn't eat any if I were you, Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Oh, if you grudge me the little I eat," said his aunt, in serene
+sorrow, "I will go without."
+
+"Tut, Rachel! nobody grudges you anything here," said her brother; "and
+as to the poorhouse, I've got some good news to tell you that will put
+that thought out of your head."
+
+"What is it?" asked Mrs. Harding, looking up brightly.
+
+"I have found employment."
+
+"Not at your trade?"
+
+"No; but at something else which will pay equally well till trade
+revives."
+
+Here he told the chance by which he was enabled to serve Mr. Merriam
+the evening previous, and then he gave an account of his visit to
+the merchant's countingroom, and the engagement which he had made.
+
+"You are indeed fortunate, Timothy," said his wife, her face beaming
+with pleasure. "Two dollars a day, and we've got nearly the whole of the
+money left that came with this dear child. Why, we shall be getting rich
+soon!"
+
+"Well, Rachel, have you no congratulations to offer?" asked the cooper
+of his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating as if it gave her no
+pleasure, but was rather a self-imposed penance.
+
+"I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a porter,"
+said Rachel, lugubriously. "I heard of a porter once who had a great box
+fall upon him and kill him instantly; and I was reading in the
+_Sun_ yesterday of another out West somewhere who committed
+suicide."
+
+The cooper laughed.
+
+"So, Rachel, you conclude that one or the other of these calamities is
+the inevitable lot of all who are engaged in this business?"
+
+"You may laugh now, but it is always well to be prepared for the worst,"
+said Rachel, oracularly.
+
+"But it isn't well to be always looking for it, Rachel."
+
+"It'll come whether you look for it or not," retorted his sister,
+sententiously.
+
+"Then suppose we waste no time thinking about it, since, according to
+your admission, it's sure to come either way."
+
+Rachel did not deign a reply, but continued to eat in serene melancholy.
+
+"Won't you have another piece of pudding, Timothy?" asked his wife.
+
+"I don't care if I do, Martha, it's so good," said the cooper, passing
+his plate. "Seems to me it's the best pudding you ever made."
+
+"You've got a good appetite, that is all," said Mrs. Harding, modestly
+disclaiming the compliment.
+
+"Apple puddings are unhealthy," observed Rachel.
+
+"Then what makes you eat them?" asked Jack.
+
+"A body must eat something. Besides, life is so full of sorrow, it makes
+little difference if it's longer or shorter."
+
+"Won't you have another piece, Rachel?"
+
+Aunt Rachel passed her plate, and received a second portion. Jack winked
+slyly, but fortunately his aunt did not observe it.
+
+When dinner was over, the cooper thought of the sealed envelope which
+had been given him for his wife.
+
+"Martha," he said, "I nearly forgot that I have something for you."
+
+"For me?"
+
+"Yes, from Mr. Merriam."
+
+"But he don't know me," said Mrs. Harding, in surprise.
+
+"At any rate, he first asked me if I was married, and then handed me
+this envelope, which he asked me to give to you. I am not quite sure
+whether I ought to allow strange gentlemen to write letters to my wife."
+
+Mrs. Harding opened the envelope with considerable curiosity, and
+uttered an exclamation of surprise as a bank note fell out, and
+fluttered to the carpet.
+
+"By gracious, mother!" said Jack, springing to get it, "you're in luck.
+It's a hundred-dollar bill."
+
+"So it is, I declare," said his mother, joyfully. "But, Timothy, it
+isn't mine. It belongs to you."
+
+"No, Martha, I have nothing to do with it. It belongs to you. You need
+some clothes, I am sure. Use part of it, and I will put the rest in the
+savings bank for you."
+
+"I never expected to have money to invest," said Mrs. Harding. "I begin
+to feel like a capitalist. When you want to borrow money, Timothy,
+you'll know where to come."
+
+"Merriam's a trump and no mistake," said Jack. "By the way, when you see
+him again, father, just mention that you've got a son. Ain't we in luck,
+Aunt Rachel?"
+
+"Boast not overmuch," said his aunt. "Pride goes before destruction, and
+a haughty spirit before a fall."
+
+"I never knew Aunt Rachel to be jolly but once," said Jack under his
+breath; "and that was at a funeral."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+JACK'S MISCHIEF
+
+
+One of the first results of the new prosperity which had dawned upon the
+Hardings, was Jack's removal from the street to the school. While his
+father was out of employment, his earnings seemed necessary; but now
+they could be dispensed with.
+
+To Jack, the change was not altogether agreeable. Few boys of the
+immature age of eleven are devoted to study, and Jack was not one of
+these few. The freedom which he had enjoyed suited him, and he tried to
+impress it upon his father that there was no immediate need of his
+returning to school.
+
+"Do you want to grow up a dunce, Jack?" said his father.
+
+"I can read and write already," said Jack.
+
+"Are you willing to enter upon life with that scanty supply of
+knowledge?"
+
+"Oh, I guess I can get along as well as the average."
+
+"I don't know about that. Besides, I want you to do better than the
+average. I am ambitious for you, if you are not ambitious for yourself."
+
+"I don't see what good it does a feller to study so hard," muttered
+Jack.
+
+"You won't study hard enough to do you any harm," said Aunt Rachel, who
+might be excused for a little sarcasm at the expense of her mischievous
+nephew.
+
+"It makes my head ache to study," said Jack.
+
+"Perhaps your head is weak, Jack," suggested his father, slyly.
+
+"More than likely," said Rachel, approvingly.
+
+So it was decided that Jack should go to school.
+
+"I'll get even with Aunt Rachel," thought he. "She's always talking
+against me, and hectorin' me. See if I don't."
+
+An opportunity for getting even with his aunt did not immediately occur.
+At length a plan suggested itself to our hero. He shrewdly suspected
+that his aunt's single blessedness, and her occasional denunciations
+of the married state, proceeded from disappointment.
+
+"I'll bet she'd get married if she had a chance," he thought. "I mean
+to try her, anyway."
+
+Accordingly, with considerable effort, aided by a school-fellow, he
+concocted the following letter, which was duly copied and forwarded
+to his aunt's address:
+
+  "DEAR GIRL: Excuse the liberty I have taken in writing to you;
+  but I have seen you often, though you don't know me; and you are
+  the only girl I want to marry. I am not young--I am about your age,
+  thirty-five--and I have a good trade. I have always wanted to be
+  married, but you are the only one I know of to suit me. If you think
+  you can love me, will you meet me in Washington Park, next Tuesday,
+  at four o'clock? Wear a blue ribbon round your neck, if you want to
+  encourage me. I will have a red rose pinned to my coat.
+
+  "Don't say anything to your brother's family about this. They may not
+  like me, and they may try to keep us apart. Now be sure and come.
+  DANIEL."
+
+
+This letter reached Miss Rachel just before Jack went to school one
+morning. She read it through, first in surprise, then with an appearance
+of pleasure.
+
+"Who's your letter from, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack, innocently.
+
+"Children shouldn't ask questions about what don't concern 'em," said
+his aunt.
+
+"I thought maybe it was a love letter," said he.
+
+"Don't make fun of your aunt," said his father, reprovingly.
+
+"Jack's question is only a natural one," said Rachel, to her brother's
+unbounded astonishment. "I suppose I ain't so old but I might be married
+if I wanted to."
+
+"I thought you had put all such thoughts out of your head long ago,
+Rachel."
+
+"If I have, it's because the race of men are so shiftless," said his
+sister. "They ain't worth marrying."
+
+"Is that meant for me?" asked the cooper, good-naturedly.
+
+"You're all alike," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+
+She put the letter carefully into her pocket, without deigning any
+explanation.
+
+"I suppose it's from some of her old acquaintances," thought her
+brother, and he dismissed the subject.
+
+As soon as she could, Rachel took refuge in her room. She carefully
+locked the door, and read the letter again.
+
+"Who can he be?" thought the agitated spinster. "Do I know anybody of
+the name of Daniel? It must be some stranger that has fallen in love
+with me unbeknown. What shall I do?"
+
+She sat in meditation for a short time. Then she read the letter again.
+
+"He will be very unhappy if I frown upon him," she said to herself,
+complacently. "It's a great responsibility to make a fellow being
+unhappy. It's a sacrifice, I know, but it's our duty to deny ourselves.
+I don't know but I ought to go and meet him."
+
+This was Rachel's conclusion.
+
+The time was close at hand. The appointment was for that very afternoon.
+
+"I wouldn't have my brother or Martha know it for the world," murmured
+Rachel to herself, "nor that troublesome Jack. Martha's got some blue
+ribbon, but I don't dare to ask her for it, for fear she'll suspect
+something. No, I must go out and buy some."
+
+"I'm goin' to walk, Martha," she said, as she came downstairs.
+
+"Going to walk in the forenoon! Isn't that something unusual?"
+
+"I've got a little headache. I guess it'll do me good," said Rachel.
+
+"I hope it will," said her sister-in-law, sympathetically.
+
+Rachel went to the nearest dry-goods store, and bought a yard of blue
+ribbon.
+
+"Only a yard?" inquired the clerk, in some surprise.
+
+"That will do," said Rachel, nervously, coloring a little, as though the
+use which she designed for it might be suspected.
+
+She paid for the ribbon, and presently returned.
+
+"Does your head feel any better, Rachel?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"A little," answered Rachel.
+
+"You've been sewing too steady lately, perhaps?" suggested Martha.
+
+"Perhaps I have," assented Rachel.
+
+"You ought to spare yourself. You can't stand work as well as when you
+were younger," said Martha, innocently.
+
+"A body'd think I was a hundred by the way you talk," said Rachel,
+sharply.
+
+"I didn't mean to offend you, Rachel. I thought you might feel as I do.
+I get tired easier than I used to."
+
+"I guess I'll go upstairs," said Rachel, in the same tone. "There isn't
+anybody there to tell me how old I am gettin'."
+
+"It's hard to make Rachel out," thought Mrs. Harding. "She takes offense
+at the most innocent remark. She can't look upon herself as young, I am
+sure."
+
+Upstairs Rachel took out the letter again, and read it through once
+more. "I wonder what sort of a man Daniel is," she said to herself. "I
+wonder if I have ever noticed him. How little we know what others think
+of us! If he's a likely man, maybe it's my duty to marry him. I feel I'm
+a burden to Timothy. His income is small, and it'll make a difference of
+one mouth. It may be a sacrifice, but it's my duty."
+
+In this way Rachel tried to deceive herself as to the real reason which
+led her to regard with favoring eyes the suit of this supposed lover
+whom she had never seen, and about whom she knew absolutely nothing.
+
+Jack came home from school at half-past two o'clock. He looked roguishly
+at his aunt as he entered. She sat knitting in her usual corner.
+
+"Will she go?" thought Jack. "If she doesn't there won't be any fun."
+
+But Jack, whose trick I am far from defending, was not to be
+disappointed.
+
+At three o'clock Rachel rolled up her knitting, and went upstairs.
+Fifteen minutes later she came down dressed for a walk.
+
+"Where are you going, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Out for a walk," she answered, shortly.
+
+"May I go with you?" he asked, mischievously.
+
+"No; I prefer to go alone," she said, curtly.
+
+"Your aunt has taken a fancy to walking," said Mrs. Harding, when her
+sister-in-law had left the house. "She was out this forenoon. I don't
+know what has come over her."
+
+"I do," said Jack to himself.
+
+Five minutes later he put on his hat and bent his steps also to
+Washington Park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MISS HARDING'S MISTAKE
+
+
+Miss Rachel Harding kept on her way to Washington Park. It was less than
+a mile from her brother's house, and though she walked slowly, she got
+there a quarter of an hour before the time.
+
+She sat down on a seat near the center of the park, and began to look
+around her. Poor Rachel! her heart beat quicker than it had done for
+thirty years, as she realized that she was about to meet one who wished
+to make her his wife.
+
+"I hope he won't be late," she murmured to herself, and she felt of the
+blue ribbon to make sure that she had not forgotten it.
+
+Meanwhile Jack reached the park, and from a distance surveyed with
+satisfaction the evident nervousness of his aunt.
+
+"Ain't it rich?" he whispered to himself.
+
+Rachel looked anxiously for the gentleman with the red rose pinned to
+his coat.
+
+She had to wait ten minutes. At last he came, but as he neared her seat,
+Rachel felt like sinking into the earth with mortification when she
+recognized in the wearer a stalwart negro. She hoped that it was a mere
+chance coincidence, but he approached her, and raising his hat
+respectfully, said:
+
+"Are you Miss Harding?"
+
+"What if I am?" she demanded, sharply. "What have you to do with me?"
+
+The man looked surprised.
+
+"Didn't you send word to me to meet you here?"
+
+"No!" answered Rachel, "and I consider it very presumptuous in you to
+write such a letter to me."
+
+"I didn't write you a letter," said the negro, astonished.
+
+"Then what made you come here?" demanded the spinster.
+
+"Because you wrote to me."
+
+"I wrote to you!" exclaimed Rachel, aghast.
+
+"Yes, you wrote to me to come here. You said you'd wear a blue ribbon on
+your neck, and I was to have a rose pinned to my coat."
+
+Rachel was bewildered.
+
+"How could I write to you when I never saw you before, and don't know
+your name. Do you think a lady like me would marry a colored man?"
+
+"Who said anything about that?" asked the other, opening his eyes wide
+in astonishment. "I couldn't marry, nohow, for I've got a wife and four
+children."
+
+Rachel felt ready to collapse. Was it possible that she had made a
+mistake, and that this was not her unknown correspondent, Daniel?
+
+"There is some mistake," she said, nervously. "Where is that letter you
+thought I wrote? Have you got it with you?"
+
+"Here it is, ma'am."
+
+He handed Rachel a letter addressed in a small hand to Daniel Thompson.
+
+She opened it and read:
+
+  "Mr. Thompson: I hear you are out of work. I may be able to give
+  you a job. Meet me at Washington Park, Tuesday afternoon, at four
+  o'clock. I shall wear a blue ribbon round my neck, and you may have
+  a red rose pinned to your coat. Otherwise I might not know you.
+
+  "RACHEL HARDING."
+
+
+"Some villain has done this," said Rachel, wrathfully. "I never wrote
+that letter."
+
+"You didn't!" said Daniel, looking perplexed. "Who went and did it,
+then?"
+
+"I don't know, but I'd like to have him punished for it," said Rachel,
+energetically.
+
+"But you've got a blue ribbon," said Mr. Thompson. "I can't see through
+that. That's just what the letter said."
+
+"I suppose somebody wrote the letter that knew I wear blue. It's all a
+mistake. You'd better go home."
+
+"Then haven't you got a job for me?" asked Daniel, disappointed.
+
+"No, I haven't," said Rachel, sharply.
+
+She hurriedly untied the ribbon from her neck, and put it in her pocket.
+
+"Don't talk to me any more!" she said, frowning. "You're a perfect
+stranger. You have no right to speak to me."
+
+"I guess the old woman ain't right in her head!" thought Daniel. "Must
+be she's crazy!"
+
+Poor Rachel! she felt more disconsolate than ever. There was no Daniel,
+then. She had been basely imposed upon. There was no call for her to
+sacrifice herself on the altar of matrimony. She ought to have been
+glad, but she wasn't.
+
+Half an hour later a drooping, disconsolate figure entered the house of
+Timothy Harding.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Rachel?" asked Martha, who noticed her
+woe-begone expression.
+
+"I ain't long for this world," said Rachel, gloomily. "Death has marked
+me for his own."
+
+"Don't you feel well this afternoon, Rachel?"
+
+"No; I feel as if life was a burden."
+
+"You have tired yourself with walking, Rachel. You have been out twice
+to-day."
+
+"This is a vale of tears," said Rachel, hysterically. "There's nothin'
+but sorrow and misfortune to be expected."
+
+"Have you met with any misfortune? I thought fortune was smiling upon us
+all."
+
+"It'll never smile on me again," said Rachel, despondently.
+
+Just then Jack, who had followed his aunt home, entered.
+
+"Have you got home so quick, Aunt Rachel?" he asked. "How did you enjoy
+your walk?"
+
+"I shall never enjoy anything again," said his aunt, gloomily.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because there's nothing to enjoy."
+
+"I don't feel so, aunt. I feel as merry as a cricket."
+
+"You won't be long. Like as not you'll be took down with fever
+to-morrow, and maybe die."
+
+"I won't trouble myself about it till the time comes," said Jack. "I
+expect to live to dance at your wedding yet, Aunt Rachel."
+
+This reference was too much. It brought to Rachel's mind the Daniel to
+whom she had expected to link her destiny, and she burst into a dismal
+sob, and hurried upstairs to her own chamber.
+
+"Rachel acts queerly to-day," said Mrs. Harding. "I think she can't be
+feeling well. If she don't feel better to-morrow I shall advise her to
+send for the doctor."
+
+"I am afraid it was mean to play such a trick on Aunt Rachel," thought
+Jack, half repentantly. "I didn't think she'd take it so much in
+earnest. I must keep dark about that letter. She'd never forgive me if
+she knew."
+
+For some days there was an added gloom on Miss Rachel's countenance, but
+the wound was not deep; and after a time her disappointment ceased to
+rankle in her too sensitive heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+SEVEN YEARS
+
+
+Seven years slipped by unmarked by any important change. The Hardings
+were still prosperous in an humble way. The cooper had been able to
+obtain work most of the time, and this, with the annual remittance for
+little Ida, had enabled the family not only to live in comfort, but even
+to save up one hundred and fifty dollars a year. They might even have
+saved more, living as frugally as they were accustomed to do, but there
+was one point in which they would none of them consent to be economical.
+The little Ida must have everything she wanted. Timothy brought home
+nearly every day some little delicacy for her, which none of the rest
+thought of sharing. While Mrs. Harding, far enough from vanity, always
+dressed with extreme plainness, Ida's attire was always of good material
+and made up tastefully.
+
+Sometimes the little girl asked: "Mother, why don't you buy yourself
+some of the pretty things you get for me?"
+
+Mrs. Harding would answer, smiling: "Oh, I'm an old woman, Ida. Plain
+things are best for me."
+
+"No, I'm sure you're not old, mother. You don't wear a cap. Aunt Rachel
+is a good deal older than you."
+
+"Hush, Ida. Don't let Aunt Rachel hear that. She wouldn't like it."
+
+"But she is ever so much older than you, mother," persisted the child.
+
+Once Rachel heard a remark of this kind, and perhaps it was that that
+prejudiced her against Ida. At any rate, she was not one of those who
+indulged her. Frequently she rebuked her for matters of no importance;
+but it was so well understood in the cooper's household that this was
+Aunt Rachel's way, that Ida did not allow it to trouble her, as the
+lightest reproach from Mrs. Harding would have done.
+
+Had Ida been an ordinary child, all this petting would have had an
+injurious effect upon her mind. But, fortunately, she had the rare
+simplicity, young as she was, which lifted her above the dangers which
+might have spoiled her otherwise. Instead of being made vain and
+conceited, she only felt grateful for the constant kindness shown her by
+her father and mother, and brother Jack, as she was wont to call them.
+Indeed it had not been thought best to let her know that such were not
+the actual relations in which they stood to her.
+
+There was one point, much more important than dress, in which Ida
+profited by the indulgence of her friends.
+
+"Martha," the cooper was wont to say, "Ida is a sacred charge in our
+hands. If we allow her to grow up ignorant, or only allow her ordinary
+advantages, we shall not fulfill our duty. We have the means, through
+Providence, of giving her some of those advantages which she would enjoy
+if she had remained in that sphere to which her parents doubtless
+belong. Let no unwise parsimony on our part withhold them from her."
+
+"You are right, Timothy," said his wife; "right, as you always are.
+Follow the dictates of your own heart, and fear not that I shall
+disapprove."
+
+"Humph!" said Aunt Rachel; "you ain't actin' right, accordin' to my way
+of thinkin'. Readin', writin' and cypherin' was enough for girls to
+learn in my day. What's the use of stuffin' the girl's head full of
+nonsense that'll never do her no good? I've got along without it, and I
+ain't quite a fool."
+
+But the cooper and his wife had no idea of restricting Ida's education
+to the rather limited standard indicated by Rachel. So, from the first,
+they sent her to a carefully selected private school, where she had the
+advantage of good associates, and where her progress was astonishingly
+rapid.
+
+Ida early displayed a remarkable taste for drawing. As soon as this was
+discovered, her adopted parents took care that she should have abundant
+opportunity for cultivating it. A private master was secured, who gave
+her lessons twice a week, and boasted everywhere of the progress made by
+his charming young pupil.
+
+"What's the good of it?" asked Rachel. "She'd a good deal better be
+learnin' to sew and knit."
+
+"All in good time," said Timothy. "She can attend to both."
+
+"I never wasted my time that way," said Rachel. "I'd be ashamed to."
+
+Nothing could exceed Timothy's gratification, when, on his birthday, Ida
+presented him with a beautifully drawn sketch of his wife's placid and
+benevolent face.
+
+"When did you do it, Ida?" he asked, after earnest expressions of
+admiration.
+
+"I did it in odd minutes," she answered, "when I had nothing else to
+do."
+
+"But how could you do it, without any of us knowing what you were
+about?"
+
+"I had a picture before me, and you thought I was copying it, but,
+whenever I could do it without being noticed, I looked up at mother as
+she sat at her sewing, and so, after a while, I finished the picture."
+
+"And a fine one it is," said the cooper, admiringly.
+
+Mrs. Harding insisted that Ida had flattered her, but this Ida would not
+admit.
+
+"I couldn't make it look as good as you, mother," she said. "I tried,
+but somehow I didn't succeed as I wanted to."
+
+"You wouldn't have that difficulty with Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+roguishly.
+
+Ida could not help smiling, but Rachel did not smile.
+
+"I see," she said, with severe resignation, "that you've taken to
+ridiculing your poor aunt again. But it's only what I expect. I don't
+never expect any consideration in this house. I was born to be a martyr,
+and I expect I shall fulfill my destiny. If my own relations laugh at
+me, of course I can't expect anything better from other folks. But I
+shan't be long in the way. I've had a cough for some time past, and I
+expect I'm in consumption."
+
+"You make too much of a little joke, Rachel," said the cooper,
+soothingly. "I'm sure Jack didn't mean anything."
+
+"What I said was complimentary," said Jack.
+
+Rachel shook her head incredulously.
+
+"Yes, it was. Ask Ida. Why won't you draw Aunt Rachel, Ida? I think
+she'd make a very striking picture."
+
+"So I will," said Ida, hesitatingly, "if she will let me."
+
+"Now, Aunt Rachel, there's a chance for you," said Jack. "Take my
+advice, and improve it. When it's finished it can be hung up in the Art
+Rooms, and who knows but you may secure a husband by it."
+
+"I wouldn't marry," said Rachel, firmly compressing her lips; "not if
+anybody'd go down on their knees to me."
+
+"Now, I'm sure, Aunt Rachel, that's cruel of you," said Jack, demurely.
+
+"There ain't any man I'd trust my happiness to," pursued the spinster.
+
+"She hasn't any to trust," observed Jack, _sotto voce_.
+
+"Men are all deceivers," continued Rachel, "the best of 'em. You can't
+believe what one of 'em says. It would be a great deal better if people
+never married at all."
+
+"Then where would the world be a hundred years hence?" suggested her
+nephew.
+
+"Come to an end, most likely," answered Aunt Rachel; "and I'm not sure
+but that would be the best thing. It's growing more and more wicked
+every day."
+
+It will be seen that no great change has come over Miss Rachel Harding,
+during the years that have intervened. She takes the same disheartening
+view of human nature and the world's prospects as ever. Nevertheless,
+her own hold upon the world seems as strong as ever. Her appetite
+continues remarkably good, and, although she frequently expresses
+herself to the effect that there is little use in living, she would be
+as unwilling to leave the world as anyone. It is not impossible that she
+derives as much enjoyment from her melancholy as other people from their
+cheerfulness. Unfortunately her peculiar mode of enjoying herself is
+calculated to have rather a depressing influence upon the spirits of
+those with whom she comes in contact--always excepting Jack, who has a
+lively sense of the ludicrous, and never enjoys himself better than in
+bantering his aunt.
+
+"I don't expect to live more'n a week," said Rachel, one day. "My sands
+of life are 'most run out."
+
+"Are you sure of that, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes, I've got a presentiment that it's so."
+
+"Then, if you're sure of it," said her nephew, gravely, "it may be as
+well to order the coffin in time. What style would you prefer?"
+
+Rachel retreated to her room in tears, exclaiming that he needn't be in
+such a hurry to get her out of the world; but she came down to supper,
+and ate with her usual appetite.
+
+Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the rest of the household.
+Indeed, he has constituted himself her especial guardian. Rough as he is
+in the playground, he is always gentle with her. When she was just
+learning to walk, and in her helplessness needed the constant care of
+others, he used, from choice, to relieve his mother of much of the task
+of amusing the child. He had never had a little sister, and the care of
+a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. It was perhaps this very
+office of guardian to the child, assumed when she was young, that made
+him feel ever after as if she were placed under his special protection.
+
+Ida was equally attached to Jack. She learned to look to him for
+assistance in any plan she had formed, and he never disappointed her.
+Whenever he could, he would accompany her to school, holding her by the
+hand, and, fond as he was of rough play, nothing would induce him to
+leave her.
+
+"How long have you been a nursemaid?" asked a boy older than himself,
+one day.
+
+Jack's fingers itched to get hold of his derisive questioner, but he had
+a duty to perform, and he contented himself with saying: "Just wait a
+few minutes, and I'll let you know."
+
+"I dare say you will," was the reply. "I rather think I shall have to
+wait till both of us are gray before that time."
+
+"You will not have to wait long before you are black and blue," retorted
+Jack.
+
+"Don't mind what he says, Jack," whispered Ida, fearing that he would
+leave her.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Ida; I won't leave you. I'll attend to his business
+another time. I guess he won't trouble us to-morrow."
+
+Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness, followed, with more
+abuse of the same sort. If he had been wiser, he would have seen a storm
+gathering in the flash of Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his
+forbearance.
+
+The next day, as they were going to school, Ida saw the same boy dodging
+round the corner with his head bound up.
+
+"What's the matter with him, Jack?" she asked.
+
+"I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly. "I guess
+he'll let us alone after this."
+
+Even after Jack left school, and got a position in a store at two
+dollars a week, he gave a large part of his spare time to Ida.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Harding, "Jack is as careful of Ida as if he was her
+guardian."
+
+"A pretty sort of a guardian he is!" said Aunt Rachel. "Take my word for
+it, he's only fit to lead her into mischief."
+
+"You do him injustice, Rachel. Jack is not a model boy, but he takes the
+best care of Ida."
+
+Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and sniffed significantly. It was quite
+evident that she did not have a very favorable opinion of her nephew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+
+
+About eleven o'clock one forenoon Mrs. Harding was in the kitchen,
+busily engaged in preparing the dinner, when a loud knock was heard at
+the front door.
+
+"Who can it be?" said Mrs. Harding. "Aunt Rachel, there's somebody at
+the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it is?"
+
+"People have no business to call at such an hour in the morning,"
+grumbled Rachel, as she laid down her knitting reluctantly, and rose
+from her seat. "Nobody seems to have any consideration for anybody else.
+But that's the way of the world."
+
+Opening the outer door, she saw before her a tall woman, dressed in a
+gown of some dark stuff, with strongly marked, and not altogether
+pleasant, features.
+
+"Are you the lady of the house?" inquired the visitor, abruptly.
+
+"There ain't any ladies in this house," answered Rachel. "You've come to
+the wrong place. We have to work for a living here."
+
+"The woman of the house, then," said the stranger, rather impatiently.
+"It doesn't make any difference about names. Are you the one I want to
+see?"
+
+"No, I ain't," said Rachel, shortly.
+
+"Will you tell your mistress that I want to see her, then?"
+
+"I have no mistress," said Rachel. "What do you take me for?"
+
+"I thought you might be the servant, but that don't matter. I want to
+see Mrs. Harding. Will you call her, or shall I go and announce myself?"
+
+"I don't know as she'll see you. She's busy in the kitchen."
+
+"Her business can't be as important as what I've come about. Tell her
+that, will you?"
+
+Rachel did not fancy the stranger's tone or manner. Certainly she did
+not manifest much politeness. But the spinster's curiosity was excited,
+and this led her the more readily to comply with the request.
+
+"Stay here, and I'll call her," she said.
+
+"There's a woman wants to see you," announced Rachel.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"I don't know. She hasn't got any manners, that's all I know about her."
+
+Mrs. Harding presented herself at the door.
+
+"Won't you come in?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, I will. What I've got to say to you may take some time."
+
+Mrs. Harding, wondering vaguely what business this strange visitor could
+have with her, led the way to the sitting room.
+
+"You have in your family," said the woman, after seating herself, "a
+girl named Ida."
+
+Mrs. Harding looked up suddenly and anxiously. Could it be that the
+secret of Ida's birth was to be revealed at last? Was it possible that
+she was to be taken from her?
+
+"Yes," she answered, simply.
+
+"Who is not your child?"
+
+"But I love her as much. I have always taught her to look upon me as her
+mother."
+
+"I presume so. My visit has reference to her."
+
+"Can you tell me anything of her parentage?" inquired Mrs. Harding,
+eagerly.
+
+"I was her nurse," said the stranger.
+
+Mrs. Harding scrutinized anxiously the hard features of the woman. It
+was, at least, a relief to know that no tie of blood connected her with
+Ida, though, even upon her assurance, she would hardly have believed it.
+
+"Who were her parents?"
+
+"I am not permitted to tell."
+
+Mrs. Harding looked disappointed.
+
+"Surely," she said, with a sudden sinking of the heart, "you have not
+come to take her away?"
+
+"This letter will explain my object in visiting you," said the woman,
+drawing a sealed envelope from a bag which she carried in her hand.
+
+The cooper's wife nervously broke open the letter, and read as follows:
+
+  "MRS. HARDING: Seven years ago last New Year's night a child was
+  left on your doorsteps, with a note containing a request that you
+  would care for it kindly as your own. Money was sent at the same
+  time to defray the expenses of such care. The writer of this note
+  is the mother of the child, Ida. There is no need to explain here
+  why I sent away the child from me. You will easily understand that
+  it was not done willingly, and that only the most imperative
+  necessity would have led me to such a step. The same necessity
+  still prevents me from reclaiming my child, and I am content still
+  to leave Ida in your charge. Yet there is one thing I desire. You
+  will understand a mother's wish to see, face to face, her own
+  child. With this view I have come to this neighborhood. I will not
+  say where I am, for concealment is necessary to me. I send this
+  note by a trustworthy attendant, Mrs. Hardwick, my little Ida's
+  nurse in her infancy, who will conduct Ida to me, and return her
+  again to you. Ida is not to know who she is visiting. No doubt she
+  believes you to be her mother, and it is well that she should so
+  regard you. Tell her only that it is a lady, who takes an interest
+  in her, and that will satisfy her childish curiosity. I make this
+  request as IDA'S MOTHER."
+
+
+Mrs. Harding read this letter with mingled feelings. Pity for the
+writer; a vague curiosity in regard to the mysterious circumstances
+which had compelled her to resort to such a step; a half feeling of
+jealousy, that there should be one who had a claim to her dear, adopted
+daughter, superior to her own; and a strong feeling of relief at the
+assurance that Ida was not to be permanently removed--all these feelings
+affected the cooper's wife.
+
+"So you were Ida's nurse?" she said, gently.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I hope the dear child is well?"
+
+"Perfectly well. How much her mother must have suffered from the
+separation!"
+
+"Indeed you may say so, ma'am. It came near to breaking her heart."
+
+"I don't wonder," said sympathizing Mrs. Harding. "I can judge of that
+by my own feelings. I don't know what I should do, if Ida were to be
+taken from me."
+
+At this point in the conversation, the cooper entered the house. He had
+come home on an errand.
+
+"It is my husband," said Mrs. Harding, turning to her visitor, by way of
+explanation. "Timothy, will you come here a moment?"
+
+The cooper regarded the stranger with some surprise. His wife hastened
+to introduce her as Mrs. Hardwick, Ida's old nurse, and placed in her
+husband's hands the letter which we have already read.
+
+He was not a rapid reader, and it took him some time to get through the
+letter. He laid it down on his knee, and looked thoughtful.
+
+"This is indeed unexpected," he said, at last. "It is a new development
+in Ida's history. May I ask, Mrs. Hardwick, if you have any further
+proof? I want to be careful about a child that I love as my own. Can you
+furnish any other proof that you are what you represent?"
+
+"I judged that the letter would be sufficient. Doesn't it speak of me as
+the nurse?"
+
+"True; but how can we be sure that the writer is Ida's mother?"
+
+"The tone of the letter, sir. Would anybody else write like that?"
+
+"Then you have read the letter?" asked the cooper, quickly.
+
+"It was read to me before I set out."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By Ida's mother. I do not blame you for your caution," said the
+visitor. "You must be deeply interested in the happiness of the dear
+child, of whom you have taken such excellent care. I don't mind telling
+you that I was the one who left her at your door, seven years ago, and
+that I never left the neighborhood until I saw you take her in."
+
+"And it was this that enabled you to find the house to-day?"
+
+"You forget," corrected the nurse, "that you were not then living in
+this house, but in another, some rods off, on the left-hand side of the
+street."
+
+"You are right," said Timothy. "I am inclined to believe in the truth of
+your story. You must pardon my testing you in such a manner, but I was
+not willing to yield up Ida, even for a little time, without feeling
+confident of the hands she was falling into."
+
+"You are right," said Mrs. Hardwick. "I don't blame you in the least. I
+shall report it to Ida's mother as a proof of your attachment to the
+child."
+
+"When do you wish Ida to go with you?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Can you let her go this afternoon?"
+
+"Why," said the cooper's wife, hesitating, "I should like to have a
+chance to wash out some clothes for her. I want her to appear as neat as
+possible when she meets her mother."
+
+The nurse hesitated, but presently replied: "I don't wish to hurry you.
+If you will let me know when she will be ready, I will call for her."
+
+"I think I can get her ready early to-morrow morning."
+
+"That will answer. I will call for her then."
+
+The nurse rose, and gathered her shawl about her.
+
+"Where are you going, Mrs. Hardwick?" asked the cooper's wife.
+
+"To a hotel," was the reply.
+
+"We cannot allow that," said Mrs. Harding, kindly. "It's a pity if we
+cannot accommodate Ida's old nurse for one night, or ten times as long,
+for that matter."
+
+"My wife is quite right," said the cooper, hesitatingly. "We must insist
+on your stopping with us."
+
+The nurse hesitated, and looked irresolute. It was plain she would have
+preferred to be elsewhere, but a remark which Mrs. Harding made, decided
+her to accept the invitation.
+
+It was this: "You know, Mrs. Hardwick, if Ida is to go with you, she
+ought to have a little chance to get acquainted with you before you go."
+
+"I will accept your kind invitation," she said; "but I am afraid I shall
+be in your way."
+
+"Not in the least. It will be a pleasure to us to have you here. If you
+will excuse me now, I will go out and attend to my dinner, which I am
+afraid is getting behindhand."
+
+Left to herself, the nurse behaved in a manner which might be regarded
+as singular. She rose from her seat, and approached the mirror. She took
+a full survey of herself as she stood there, and laughed a short, hard
+laugh. Then she made a formal courtesy to her own reflection, saying:
+"How do you do, Mrs. Hardwick?"
+
+"Did you speak?" asked the cooper, who was passing through the entry on
+his way out.
+
+"No," answered the nurse, rather awkwardly. "I may have said something
+to myself. It's of no consequence."
+
+"Somehow," thought the cooper, "I don't fancy the woman's looks; but I
+dare say I am prejudiced. We're all of us as God made us."
+
+When Mrs. Harding was making preparations for the noonday meal, she
+imparted to Rachel the astonishing information which has already been
+detailed to the reader.
+
+"I don't believe a word of it," said Rachel, resolutely. "The woman's an
+impostor. I knew she was, the very minute I set eyes on her."
+
+This remark was so characteristic of Rachel, that her sister-in-law did
+not attach any special importance to it. Rachel, of course, had no
+grounds for the opinion she so confidently expressed. It was consistent,
+however, with her general estimate of human nature.
+
+"What object could she have in inventing such a story?" asked Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+"What object? Hundreds of 'em," said Rachel, rather indefinitely. "Mark
+my words; if you let her carry off Ida, it'll be the last you'll ever
+see of her."
+
+"Try to look on the bright side, Rachel. Nothing is more natural than
+that her mother should want to see her."
+
+"Why couldn't she come herself?" muttered Rachel.
+
+"The letter explains."
+
+"I don't see that it does."
+
+"It says that same reasons exist for concealment as ever."
+
+"And what are they, I should like to know? I don't like mysteries, for
+my part."
+
+"We won't quarrel with them, at any rate, since they enable us to keep
+Ida with us."
+
+Aunt Rachel shook her head, as if she were far from satisfied.
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Harding, "but I ought to invite Mrs. Hardwick
+in here. I have left her alone in the front room."
+
+"I don't want to see her," said Rachel. Then, changing her mind
+suddenly: "Yes, you may bring her in. I'll soon find out whether she's
+an impostor or not."
+
+The cooper's wife returned with the nurse.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "this is my sister, Miss Rachel Harding."
+
+"I am glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am," said the visitor.
+
+"Rachel, I will leave you to entertain Mrs. Hardwick, while I get ready
+the dinner."
+
+Rachel and the nurse eyed each other with mutual dislike.
+
+"I hope you don't expect me to entertain you," said Rachel. "I never
+expect to entertain anybody ag'in. This is a world of trial and
+tribulation, and I've had my share. So you've come after Ida, I hear?"
+with a sudden change of tone.
+
+"At her mother's request," said the nurse.
+
+"She wants to see her, then?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"I wonder she didn't think of it before," said Rachel, sharply. "She's
+good at waiting. She's waited seven years."
+
+"There are circumstances that cannot be explained," commenced the nurse.
+
+"No, I dare say not," said Rachel, dryly. "So you were her nurse?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered the nurse, who did not appear to enjoy this
+cross-examination.
+
+"Have you lived with Ida's mother ever since?"
+
+"No--yes," stammered the stranger. "Some of the time," she added,
+recovering herself.
+
+"Umph!" grunted Rachel, darting a sharp glance at her.
+
+"Have you a husband living?" inquired the spinster.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Hardwick. "Have you?"
+
+"I!" repeated Rachel, scornfully. "No, neither living nor dead. I'm
+thankful to say I never married. I've had trials enough without that.
+Does Ida's mother live in the city?"
+
+"I can't tell you," said the nurse.
+
+"Humph! I don't like mystery."
+
+"It isn't any mystery," said the visitor. "If you have any objections to
+make, you must make them to Ida's mother."
+
+"So I will, if you'll tell me where she lives."
+
+"I can't do that."
+
+"Where do you live yourself?" inquired Rachel, shifting her point of
+attack.
+
+"In Brooklyn," answered Mrs. Hardwick, with some hesitation.
+
+"What street, and number?"
+
+"Why do you want to know?" inquired the nurse.
+
+"You ain't ashamed to tell, be you?"
+
+"Why should I be?"
+
+"I don't know. You'd orter know better than I."
+
+"It wouldn't do you any good to know," said the nurse. "I don't care
+about receiving visitors."
+
+"I don't want to visit you, I am sure," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+
+"Then you don't need to know where I live."
+
+Rachel left the room, and sought her sister-in-law.
+
+"That woman's an impostor," she said. "She won't tell where she lives. I
+shouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be a thief."
+
+"You haven't any reason for supposing that, Rachel."
+
+"Wait and see," said Rachel. "Of course I don't expect you to pay any
+attention to what I say. I haven't any influence in this house."
+
+"Now, Rachel, you have no cause to say that."
+
+But Rachel was not to be appeased. It pleased her to be considered a
+martyr, and at such times there was little use in arguing with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PREPARING FOR A JOURNEY
+
+
+Later in the day, Ida returned from school. She bounded into the room,
+as usual, but stopped short in some confusion, on seeing a stranger.
+
+"Is this my own dear child, over whose infancy I watched so tenderly?"
+exclaimed the nurse, rising, her harsh features wreathed into a smile.
+
+"It is Ida," said the cooper's wife.
+
+Ida looked from one to the other in silent bewilderment.
+
+"Ida," said Mrs. Harding, in a little embarrassment, "this is Mrs.
+Hardwick, who took care of you when you were an infant."
+
+"But I thought you took care of me, mother," said Ida, in surprise.
+
+"Very true," said Mrs. Harding, evasively; "but I was not able to have
+the care of you all the time. Didn't I ever mention Mrs. Hardwick to
+you?"
+
+"No, mother."
+
+"Although it is so long since I have seen her, I should have known her
+anywhere," said the nurse, applying a handkerchief to her eyes. "So
+pretty as she's grown up, too!"
+
+Mrs. Harding glanced with pride at the beautiful child, who blushed at
+the compliment, a rare one, for her adopted mother, whatever she might
+think, did not approve of openly praising her appearance.
+
+"Ida," said Mrs. Hardwick, "won't you come and kiss your old nurse?"
+
+Ida looked at her hard face, which now wore a smile intended to express
+affection. Without knowing why, she felt an instinctive repugnance to
+this stranger, notwithstanding her words of endearment.
+
+She advanced timidly, with a reluctance which she was not wholly able to
+conceal, and passively submitted to a caress from the nurse.
+
+There was a look in the eyes of the nurse, carefully guarded, yet not
+wholly concealed, which showed that she was quite aware of Ida's feeling
+toward her, and resented it. But whether or not she was playing a part,
+she did not betray this feeling openly, but pressed the unwilling child
+more closely to her bosom.
+
+Ida breathed a sigh of relief when she was released, and moved quietly
+away, wondering what it was that made the woman so disagreeable to her.
+
+"Is my nurse a good woman?" she asked, thoughtfully, when alone with
+Mrs. Harding, who was setting the table for dinner.
+
+"A good woman! What makes you ask that?" queried her adopted mother, in
+surprise.
+
+"I don't know," said Ida.
+
+"I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise," said Mrs.
+Harding. "And, by the way, Ida, she is going to take you on a little
+excursion to-morrow."
+
+"She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida. "Why, where are we going?"
+
+"On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you to a
+pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you, from what she
+has told her."
+
+"What could she say of me?" inquired Ida. "She has not seen me since I
+was a baby."
+
+"Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she appears to
+have thought of you ever since, with a good deal of affection."
+
+"Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those who like
+us?"
+
+"What makes you ask?"
+
+"Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs. Hardwick, at all, for
+all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I ever shall."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs. Harding, "when you find she is exerting
+herself to give you pleasure."
+
+"Am I going with her to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Yes. She wanted you to go to-day, but your clothes were not in order."
+
+"We shall come back at night, shan't we?"
+
+"I presume so."
+
+"I hope we shall," said Ida, decidedly, "and that she won't want me to
+go with her again."
+
+"Perhaps you will feel differently when it is over, and you find you
+have enjoyed yourself better than you anticipated."
+
+Mrs. Harding exerted herself to fit Ida up as neatly as possible, and
+when at length she was got ready, she thought with sudden fear: "Perhaps
+her mother will not be willing to part with her again."
+
+When Ida was ready to start, there came upon all a little shadow of
+depression, as if the child were to be separated from them for a year,
+and not for a day only. Perhaps this was only natural, since even this
+latter term, however brief, was longer than they had been parted from
+her since, in her infancy, she had been left at their door.
+
+The nurse expressly desired that none of the family should accompany
+her, as she declared it highly important that the whereabouts of Ida's
+mother should not be known.
+
+"Of course," she added, "after Ida returns she can tell you what she
+pleases. Then it will be of no consequence, for her mother will be gone.
+She does not live in this neighborhood. She has only come here to see
+her child."
+
+"Shall you bring her back to-night?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"I may keep her till to-morrow," said the nurse. "After seven years'
+absence her mother will think that short enough."
+
+To this, Mrs. Harding agreed, though she felt that she should miss Ida,
+though absent but twenty-four hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE JOURNEY
+
+
+The nurse walked as far as Broadway, holding Ida by the hand.
+
+"Where are we going?" asked the child, timidly. "Are you going to walk
+all the way?"
+
+"No," said the nurse; "not all the way--perhaps a mile. You can walk as
+far as that, can't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+They walked on till they reached the ferry at the foot of Courtland
+Street.
+
+"Did you ever ride in a steamboat?" asked the nurse, in a tone meant to
+be gracious.
+
+"Once or twice," answered Ida. "I went with Brother Jack once, over to
+Hoboken. Are we going there now?"
+
+"No; we are going to the city you see over the water."
+
+"What place is it? Is it Brooklyn?"
+
+"No; it is Jersey City."
+
+"Oh, that will be pleasant," said Ida, forgetting, in her childish love
+of novelty, the repugnance with which the nurse had inspired her.
+
+"Yes, and that is not all; we are going still further," said the nurse.
+
+"Are we going further?" asked Ida, in excitement. "Where are we going?"
+
+"To a town on the line of the railroad."
+
+"And shall we ride in the cars?" asked Ida.
+
+"Yes; didn't you ever ride in the cars?"
+
+"No, never."
+
+"I think you will like it."
+
+"And how long will it take us to go to the place you are going to carry
+me to?"
+
+"I don't know exactly; perhaps three hours."
+
+"Three whole hours in the cars! How much I shall have to tell father and
+Jack when I get back!"
+
+"So you will," replied Mrs. Hardwick, with an unaccountable smile--"when
+you get back."
+
+There was something peculiar in her tone, but Ida did not notice it.
+
+She was allowed to sit next the window in the cars, and took great
+pleasure in surveying the fields and villages through which they were
+rapidly whirled.
+
+"Are we 'most there?" she asked, after riding about two hours.
+
+"It won't be long," said the nurse.
+
+"We must have come ever so many miles," said Ida.
+
+"Yes, it is a good ways."
+
+An hour more passed, and still there was no sign of reaching their
+journey's end. Both Ida and her companion began to feel hungry.
+
+The nurse beckoned to her side a boy, who was selling apples and cakes,
+and inquired the price.
+
+"The apples are two cents apiece, ma'am, and the cakes are one cent
+each."
+
+Ida, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly round, and
+exclaimed, in great astonishment: "Why, Charlie Fitts, is that you?"
+
+"Why, Ida, where did you come from?" asked the boy, with a surprise
+equaling her own.
+
+"I'm making a little journey with this lady," said Ida.
+
+"So you're going to Philadelphia?" said Charlie.
+
+"To Philadelphia!" repeated Ida, surprised. "Not that I know of."
+
+"Why, you're 'most there now."
+
+"Are we, Mrs. Hardwick?" inquired Ida.
+
+"It isn't far from where we're going," she answered, shortly. "Boy, I'll
+take two of your apples and four cakes. And, now, you'd better go along,
+for there's somebody over there that looks as if he wanted to buy
+something."
+
+"Who is that boy?" asked the nurse, abruptly.
+
+"His name is Charlie Fitts."
+
+"Where did you get acquainted with him?"
+
+"He went to school with Jack, so I used to see him sometimes."
+
+"With Jack?"
+
+"Yes, Brother Jack. Don't you know him?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot. So he's a schoolmate of Jack?"
+
+"Yes, and he's a first-rate boy," said Ida, with whom the young apple
+merchant was evidently a favorite. "He's good to his mother. You see,
+his mother is sick most of the time, and can't work much; and he's got a
+little sister--she ain't more than four or five years old--and Charlie
+supports them by selling things. He's only sixteen years old; isn't he a
+smart boy?"
+
+"Yes," said the nurse, indifferently.
+
+"Sometime," continued Ida, "I hope I shall be able to earn something for
+father and mother, so they won't be obliged to work so hard."
+
+"What could you do?" asked the nurse, curiously.
+
+"I don't know as I can do much yet," answered Ida, modestly; "but
+perhaps when I am older I can draw pictures that people will buy."
+
+"Have you got any of your drawings with you?"
+
+"No, I didn't bring any."
+
+"I wish you had. The lady we are going to see would have liked to see
+some of them."
+
+"Are we going to see a lady?"
+
+"Yes; didn't your mother tell you?"
+
+"Yes, I believe she said something about a lady that was interested in
+me."
+
+"That's the one."
+
+"And shall we come back to New York to-night?"
+
+"No; it wouldn't leave us any time to stay."
+
+"West Philadelphia!" announced the conductor.
+
+"We have arrived," said the nurse. "Keep close to me. Perhaps you had
+better take hold of my hand."
+
+As they were making their way slowly through the crowd, the young apple
+merchant came up with his basket on his arm.
+
+"When are you going back, Ida?" he asked.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick says not till to-morrow."
+
+"Come, Ida," said the nurse, sharply. "I can't have you stopping all day
+to talk. We must hurry along."
+
+"Good-by, Charlie," said Ida. "If you see Jack, just tell him you saw
+me."
+
+"Yes, I will," was the reply.
+
+"I wonder who that woman is with Ida?" thought the boy. "I don't like
+her looks much. I wonder if she's any relation of Mr. Harding. She looks
+about as pleasant as Aunt Rachel."
+
+The last-mentioned lady would hardly have felt flattered at the
+comparison.
+
+Ida looked about her with curiosity. There was a novel sensation in
+being in a new place, particularly a city of which she had heard so much
+as Philadelphia. As far back as she could remember, she had never left
+New York, except for a brief excursion to Hoboken; and one Fourth of
+July was made memorable by a trip to Staten Island, under the
+guardianship of Jack.
+
+They entered a horse car just outside the depot, and rode probably a
+mile.
+
+"We get out here," said the nurse. "Take care, or you'll get run over.
+Now turn down here."
+
+They entered a narrow and dirty street, with unsightly houses on each
+side.
+
+"This ain't a very nice-looking street," said Ida.
+
+"Why isn't it?" demanded her companion, roughly.
+
+"Why, it's narrow, and the houses don't look nice."
+
+"What do you think of that house there?" asked Mrs. Hardwick, pointing
+to a dilapidated-looking structure on the right-hand side of the street.
+
+"I shouldn't like to live there," answered Ida.
+
+"You wouldn't, hey? You don't like it so well as the house you live in
+in New York?"
+
+"No, not half so well."
+
+The nurse smiled.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go in, and look at the house?"
+
+"Go in and look at the house?" repeated Ida. "Why should we?"
+
+"You must know there are some poor families living there that I am
+interested in," said Mrs. Hardwick, who appeared amused at something.
+"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it is our duty to help the poor?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but won't it be late before we get to the lady?"
+
+"No, there's plenty of time. You needn't be afraid of that. There's a
+poor man living in this house that I've made a good many clothes for,
+first and last."
+
+"He must be much obliged to you," said Ida.
+
+"We're going up to see him now," said her companion. "Take care of that
+hole in the stairs."
+
+Somewhat to Ida's surprise, her guide, on reaching the first landing,
+opened a door without the ceremony of knocking, and revealed a poor,
+untidy room, in which a coarse, unshaven man was sitting, in his shirt
+sleeves, smoking a pipe.
+
+"Hello!" exclaimed this individual, jumping up. "So you've got along,
+old woman! Is that the gal?"
+
+Ida stared from one to the other in amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+UNEXPECTED QUARTERS
+
+
+The appearance of the man whom Mrs. Hardwick addressed so familiarly was
+more picturesque than pleasing, He had a large, broad face, which, not
+having been shaved for a week, looked like a wilderness of stubble. His
+nose indicated habitual indulgence in alcoholic beverages. His eyes were
+bloodshot, and his skin looked coarse and blotched; his coat was thrown
+aside, displaying a shirt which bore evidence of having been useful in
+its day and generation. The same remark may apply to his nether
+integuments, which were ventilated at each knee, indicating a most
+praiseworthy regard to the laws of health.
+
+Ida thought she had never seen so disgusting a man. She continued to
+gaze at him, half in astonishment, half in terror, till the object of
+her attention exclaimed:
+
+"Well, little gal, what you're lookin' at? Hain't you never seen a
+gentleman before?"
+
+Ida clung the closer to her companion, who, she was surprised to find,
+did not resent the man's familiarity.
+
+"Well, Dick, how've you got along since I've been gone?" asked the
+nurse, to Ida's astonishment.
+
+"Oh, so-so."
+
+"Have you felt lonely any?"
+
+"I've had good company."
+
+"Who's been here?"
+
+Dick pointed significantly to a jug.
+
+"That's the best company I know of," he said, "but it's 'most empty. So
+you've brought along the gal," he continued. "How did you get hold of
+her?"
+
+There was something in these questions which terrified Ida. It seemed to
+indicate a degree of complicity between these two which boded no good to
+her.
+
+"I'll tell you the particulars by and by."
+
+At the same time she began to take off her bonnet.
+
+"You ain't going to stop, are you?" asked Ida, startled.
+
+"Ain't goin' to stop?" repeated the man called Dick. "Why shouldn't she
+stop, I'd like to know? Ain't she at home?"
+
+"At home!" echoed Ida, apprehensively, opening wide her eyes in
+astonishment.
+
+"Yes; ask her."
+
+Ida looked inquiringly at Mrs. Hardwick.
+
+"You might as well take off your things," said the latter, grimly. "We
+ain't going any further to-day."
+
+"And where's the lady you said you were going to see?"
+
+"The one that was interested in you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm the one," she answered, with a broad smile and a glance at
+Dick.
+
+"I don't want to stay here," said Ida, now frightened.
+
+"Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Will you take me back early to-morrow?" entreated Ida.
+
+"No, I don't intend to take you back at all."
+
+Ida seemed at first stupefied with astonishment and terror. Then,
+actuated by a sudden, desperate impulse, she ran to the door, and had
+got it partly open, when the nurse sprang forward, and seizing her by
+the arm, pulled her violently back.
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry?" she demanded.
+
+"Back to father and mother," answered Ida, bursting into tears. "Oh, why
+did you bring me here?"
+
+"I'll tell you why," answered Dick, jocularly. "You see, Ida, we ain't
+got any little girl to love us, and so we got you."
+
+"But I don't love you, and I never shall," said Ida, indignantly.
+
+"Now don't you go to saying that," said Dick. "You'll break my heart,
+you naughty girl, and then Peg will be a widow."
+
+To give due effect to this pathetic speech, Dick drew out a tattered red
+handkerchief, and made a great demonstration of wiping his eyes.
+
+The whole scene was so ludicrous that Ida, despite her fears and
+disgust, could not help laughing hysterically. She recovered herself
+instantly, and said imploringly: "Oh, do let me go, and father will pay
+you."
+
+"You really think he would?" said Dick, in a tantalizing tone.
+
+"Oh, yes; and you'll tell her to take me back, won't you?"
+
+"No, he won't tell me any such thing," said Peg, gruffly; "so you may as
+well give up all thoughts of that first as last. You're going to stay
+here; so take off that bonnet of yours, and say no more about it."
+
+Ida made no motion toward obeying this mandate.
+
+"Then I'll do it for you," said Peg.
+
+She roughly untied the bonnet--Ida struggling vainly in opposition--and
+taking this, with the shawl, carried them to a closet, in which she
+placed them, and then, locking the door, deliberately put the key in her
+pocket.
+
+"There," said she, grimly, "I guess you're safe for the present."
+
+"Ain't you ever going to carry me back?"
+
+"Some years hence I may possibly," answered the woman, coolly. "We want
+you here for the present. Besides, you're not sure that they want you
+back."
+
+"Not want me back again?"
+
+"That's what I said. How do you know but your father and mother sent you
+off on purpose? They've been troubled with you long enough, and now
+they've bound you apprentice to me till you're eighteen."
+
+"It's a lie!" said Ida, firmly. "They didn't send me off, and you're a
+wicked woman to tell me so."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" said the woman. "Is that the way you dare to speak to me?
+Have you anything more to say before I whip you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, goaded to desperation. "I shall complain of you to
+the police, just as soon as I get a chance, and they will put you in
+jail and send me home. That is what I will do."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick was incensed, and somewhat startled at these defiant
+words. It was clear that Ida was not going to be a meek, submissive
+child, whom they might ill-treat without apprehension. She was decidedly
+dangerous, and her insubordination must be nipped in the bud. She seized
+Ida roughly by the arm, and striding with her to the closet already
+spoken of, unlocked it, and, rudely pushing her in, locked the door
+after her.
+
+"Stay there till you know how to behave," she said.
+
+"How did you manage to come it over her family?" inquired Dick.
+
+His wife gave substantially the account with which the reader is already
+familiar.
+
+"Pretty well done, old woman!" exclaimed Dick, approvingly. "I always
+said you was a deep un. I always says, if Peg can't find out how a thing
+is to be done, then it can't be done, nohow."
+
+"How about the counterfeit coin?" she asked.
+
+"We're to be supplied with all we can put off, and we are to have half
+for our trouble."
+
+"That is good. When the girl, Ida, gets a little tamed down, we'll give
+her something to do."
+
+"Is it safe? Won't she betray us?"
+
+"We'll manage that, or at least I will. I'll work on her fears, so she
+won't any more dare to say a word about us than to cut her own head
+off."
+
+"All right, Peg. I can trust you to do what's right."
+
+Ida sank down on the floor of the closet into which she had been thrust.
+Utter darkness was around her, and a darkness as black seemed to hang
+over all her prospects of future happiness. She had been snatched in a
+moment from parents, or those whom she regarded as such, and from a
+comfortable and happy, though humble home, to this dismal place. In
+place of the kindness and indulgence to which she had been accustomed,
+she was now treated with harshness and cruelty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+"It doesn't, somehow, seem natural," said the cooper, as he took his
+seat at the tea table, "to sit down without Ida. It seems as if half the
+family were gone."
+
+"Just what I've said to myself twenty times to-day," remarked his wife.
+"Nobody can tell how much a child is to them till they lose it."
+
+"Not lose it," corrected Jack.
+
+"I didn't mean to say that."
+
+"When you used that word, mother, it made me feel just as if Ida wasn't
+coming back."
+
+"I don't know why it is," said Mrs. Harding, thoughtfully, "but I've had
+that same feeling several times today. I've felt just as if something or
+other would happen to prevent Ida's coming back."
+
+"That is only because she's never been away before," said the cooper,
+cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble, Martha; we shall have
+enough of it without."
+
+"You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel, mournfully. "Man is
+born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. This world is a vale of tears,
+and a home of misery. Folks may try and try to be happy, but that isn't
+what they're sent here for."
+
+"You never tried very hard, Aunt Rachel," said Jack.
+
+"It's my fate to be misjudged," said his aunt, with the air of a martyr.
+
+"I don't agree with you in your ideas about life, Rachel," said her
+brother. "Just as there are more pleasant than stormy days, so I believe
+there is much more of brightness than shadow in this life of ours, if we
+would only see it."
+
+"I can't see it," said Rachel.
+
+"It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the clouds than
+the sun."
+
+"Yes," chimed in Jack, "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel takes up the
+newspaper, she always looks first at the deaths, and next at the fatal
+accidents and steamboat explosions."
+
+"If," retorted Rachel, with severe emphasis, "you should ever be on
+board a steamboat when it exploded, you wouldn't find much to laugh at."
+
+"Yes, I should," said Jack, "I should laugh--"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Rachel, horrified.
+
+"On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't wait till
+I'd finished the sentence."
+
+"I don't think it proper to make light of such serious matters."
+
+"Nor I Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of his mouth.
+"I am willing to confess that this is a serious matter. I should feel as
+they say the cow did, that was thrown three hundred feet up into the
+air."
+
+"How's that?" inquired his mother.
+
+"Rather discouraged," answered Jack.
+
+All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe composure,
+and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with the air of one gulping
+down medicine.
+
+In the morning all felt more cheerful.
+
+"Ida will be home to-night," said Mrs. Harding, brightly. "What an age
+it seems since she went away! Who'd think it was only twenty-four
+hours?"
+
+"We shall know better how to appreciate her when we get her back," said
+her husband.
+
+"What time do you expect her home, mother? What did Mrs. Hardwick say?"
+
+"Why," said Mrs. Harding, hesitating, "she didn't say as to the hour;
+but I guess she'll be along in the course of the afternoon."
+
+"If we only knew where she had gone, we could tell better when to expect
+her."
+
+"But as we don't know," said the cooper, "we must wait patiently till
+she comes."
+
+"I guess," said Mrs. Harding, with the impulse of a notable housewife,
+"I'll make some apple turnovers for supper to-night. There's nothing Ida
+likes so well."
+
+"That's where Ida is right," said Jack, smacking his lips. "Apple
+turnovers are splendid."
+
+"They are very unwholesome," remarked Rachel.
+
+"I shouldn't think so from the way you eat them, Aunt Rachel," retorted
+Jack. "You ate four the last time we had them for supper."
+
+"I didn't think you'd begrudge me the little I eat," said his aunt,
+dolefully. "I didn't think you counted the mouthfuls I took."
+
+"Come, Rachel, don't be so unreasonable," said her brother. "Nobody
+begrudges you what you eat, even if you choose to eat twice as much as
+you do. I dare say Jack ate more of the turnovers than you did."
+
+"I ate six," said Jack, candidly.
+
+Rachel, construing this into an apology, said no more.
+
+"If it wasn't for you, Aunt Rachel, I should be in danger of getting too
+jolly, perhaps, and spilling over. It always makes me sober to look at
+you."
+
+"It's lucky there's something to make you sober and stiddy," said his
+aunt. "You are too frivolous."
+
+Evening came, but it did not bring Ida. An indefinable sense of
+apprehension oppressed the minds of all. Martha feared that Ida's
+mother, finding her so attractive, could not resist the temptation of
+keeping her.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "that she has the best claim to her, but it would
+be a terrible thing for us to part with her."
+
+"Don't let us trouble ourselves about that," said Timothy. "It seems to
+me very natural that her mother should keep her a little longer than she
+intended. Think how long it is since she saw her. Besides, it is not too
+late for her to return to-night."
+
+At length there came a knock at the door.
+
+"I guess that is Ida," said Mrs. Harding, joyfully.
+
+Jack seized a candle, and hastening to the door, threw it open. But
+there was no Ida there. In her place stood Charlie Fitts, the boy who
+had met Ida in the cars.
+
+"How are you, Charlie?" said Jack, trying not to look disappointed.
+"Come in and tell us all the news."
+
+"Well," said Charlie, "I don't know of any. I suppose Ida has got home?"
+
+"No," answered Jack; "we expected her to-night, but she hasn't come
+yet."
+
+"She told me she expected to come back to-day."
+
+"What! have you seen her?" exclaimed all, in chorus.
+
+"Yes; I saw her yesterday noon."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Why, in the cars," answered Charlie.
+
+"What cars?" asked the cooper.
+
+"Why, the Philadelphia cars. Of course you knew it was there she was
+going?"
+
+"Philadelphia!" exclaimed all, in surprise.
+
+"Yes, the cars were almost there when I saw her. Who was that with her?"
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick, her old nurse."
+
+"I didn't like her looks."
+
+"That's where we paddle in the same canoe," said Jack.
+
+"She didn't seem to want me to speak to Ida," continued Charlie, "but
+hurried her off as quick as possible."
+
+"There were reasons for that," said the cooper. "She wanted to keep her
+destination secret."
+
+"I don't know what it was," said the boy, "but I don't like the woman's
+looks."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOW IDA FARED
+
+
+We left Ida confined in a dark closet, with Peg standing guard over her.
+
+After an hour she was released.
+
+"Well," said the nurse, grimly, "how do you feel now?"
+
+"I want to go home," sobbed the child.
+
+"You are at home," said the woman.
+
+"Shall I never see father, and mother, and Jack again?"
+
+"That depends on how you behave yourself."
+
+"Oh, if you will only let me go," pleaded Ida, gathering hope from this
+remark, "I'll do anything you say."
+
+"Do you mean this, or do you only say it for the sake of getting away?"
+
+"I mean just what I say. Dear, good Mrs. Hardwick, tell me what to do,
+and I will obey you cheerfully."
+
+"Very well," said Peg, "only you needn't try to come it over me by
+calling me dear, good Mrs. Hardwick. In the first place, you don't care
+a cent about me; in the second place, I am not good; and finally, my
+name isn't Mrs. Hardwick, except in New York."
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Ida.
+
+"It's just Peg, no more and no less. You may call me Aunt Peg."
+
+"I would rather call you Mrs. Hardwick."
+
+"Then you'll have a good many years to call me so. You'd better do as I
+tell you, if you want any favors. Now what do you say?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg," said Ida, with a strong effort to conceal her
+repugnance.
+
+"That's well. Now you're not to tell anybody that you came from New
+York. That is very important; and you're to pay your board by doing
+whatever I tell you."
+
+"If it isn't wicked."
+
+"Do you suppose I would ask you to do anything wicked?" demanded Peg,
+frowning.
+
+"You said you wasn't good," mildly suggested Ida.
+
+"I'm good enough to take care of you. Well, what do you say to that?
+Answer me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There's another thing. You ain't to try to run away."
+
+Ida hung down her head.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Peg. "So you've been thinking of it, have you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, boldly, after a moment's hesitation. "I did think I
+should if I got a good chance."
+
+"Humph!" said the woman, "I see we must understand one another. Unless
+you promise this, back you go into the dark closet, and I shall keep you
+there."
+
+Ida shuddered at this fearful threat--terrible to a child of but eight
+years.
+
+"Do you promise?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida, faintly.
+
+"For fear you might be tempted to break your promise, I have something
+to show you."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick went to the closet, and took down a large pistol.
+
+"There," she said, "do you see that?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"Do you know what it is for?"
+
+"To shoot people with," answered the child.
+
+"Yes," said the nurse; "I see you understand. Well, now, do you know
+what I would do if you should tell anybody where you came from, or
+attempt to run away? Can you guess, now?"
+
+"Would you shoot me?" asked Ida, terror-stricken.
+
+"Yes, I would," said Peg, with fierce emphasis. "That's just what I'd
+do. And what's more even if you got away, and got back to your family in
+New York, I would follow you, and shoot you dead in the street."
+
+"You wouldn't be so wicked!" exclaimed Ida.
+
+"Wouldn't I, though?" repeated Peg, significantly. "If you don't believe
+I would, just try it. Do you think you would like to try it?" she asked,
+fiercely.
+
+"No," answered Ida, with a shudder.
+
+"Well, that's the most sensible thing you've said yet. Now that you are
+a little more reasonable, I'll tell you what I am going to do with you."
+
+Ida looked eagerly up into her face.
+
+"I am going to keep you with me for a year. I want the services of a
+little girl for that time. If you serve me faithfully, I will then send
+you back to New York."
+
+"Will you?" asked Ida, hopefully.
+
+"Yes, but you must mind and do what I tell you."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ida, joyfully.
+
+This was so much better than she had been led to fear, that the prospect
+of returning home at all, even though she had to wait a year, encouraged
+her.
+
+"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
+
+"You may take the broom and sweep the room."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"And then you may wash the dishes."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"And after that, I will find something else for you to do."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick threw herself into a rocking-chair, and watched with grim
+satisfaction the little handmaiden, as she moved quickly about.
+
+"I took the right course with her," she said to herself. "She won't any
+more dare to run away than to chop her hands off. She thinks I'll shoot
+her."
+
+And the unprincipled woman chuckled to herself.
+
+Ida heard her indistinctly, and asked, timidly:
+
+"Did you speak, Aunt Peg?"
+
+"No, I didn't; just attend to your work and don't mind me. Did your
+mother make you work?"
+
+"No; I went to school."
+
+"Time you learned. I'll make a smart woman of you."
+
+The next morning Ida was asked if she would like to go out into the
+street.
+
+"I am going to let you do a little shopping. There are various things we
+want. Go and get your hat."
+
+"It's in the closet," said Ida.
+
+"Oh, yes, I put it there. That was before I could trust you."
+
+She went to the closet and returned with the child's hat and shawl. As
+soon as the two were ready they emerged into the street.
+
+"This is a little better than being shut up in the closet, isn't it?"
+asked her companion.
+
+"Oh, yes, ever so much."
+
+"You see you'll have a very good time of it, if you do as I bid you. I
+don't want to do you any harm."
+
+So they walked along together until Peg, suddenly pausing, laid her
+hands on Ida's arm, and pointing to a shop near by, said to her: "Do you
+see that shop?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida.
+
+"I want you to go in and ask for a couple of rolls. They come to three
+cents apiece. Here's some money to pay for them. It is a new dollar. You
+will give this to the man that stands behind the counter, and he will
+give you back ninety-four cents. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida, nodding her head. "I think I do."
+
+"And if the man asks if you have anything smaller, you will say no."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"I will stay just outside. I want you to go in alone, so you will learn
+to manage without me."
+
+Ida entered the shop. The baker, a pleasant-looking man, stood behind
+the counter.
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked.
+
+"I should like a couple of rolls."
+
+"For your mother, I suppose?" said the baker.
+
+"No," answered Ida, "for the woman I board with."
+
+"Ha! a dollar bill, and a new one, too," said the baker, as Ida tendered
+it in payment. "I shall have to save that for my little girl."
+
+Ida left the shop with the two rolls and the silver change.
+
+"Did he say anything about the money?" asked Peg.
+
+"He said he should save it for his little girl."
+
+"Good!" said the woman. "You've done well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+BAD MONEY
+
+
+The baker introduced in the foregoing chapter was named Harding.
+Singularly, Abel Harding was a brother of Timothy Harding, the cooper.
+
+In many respects he resembled his brother. He was an excellent man,
+exemplary in all the relations of life, and had a good heart. He was in
+very comfortable circumstances, having accumulated a little property by
+diligent attention to his business. Like his brother, Abel Harding had
+married, and had one child. She had received the name of Ellen.
+
+When the baker closed his shop for the night, he did not forget the new
+dollar, which he had received, or the disposal he told Ida he would make
+of it.
+
+Ellen ran to meet her father as he entered the house.
+
+"What do you think I have brought you, Ellen?" he said, with a smile.
+
+"Do tell me quick," said the child, eagerly.
+
+"What if I should tell you it was a new dollar?"
+
+"Oh, papa, thank you!" and Ellen ran to show it to her mother.
+
+"Yes," said the baker, "I received it from a little girl about the size
+of Ellen, and I suppose it was that that gave me the idea of bringing it
+home to her."
+
+This was all that passed concerning Ida at that time. The thought of her
+would have passed from the baker's mind, if it had not been recalled by
+circumstances.
+
+Ellen, like most girls of her age, when in possession of money, could
+not be easy until she had spent it. Her mother advised her to deposit it
+in some savings bank; but Ellen preferred present gratification.
+
+Accordingly, one afternoon, when walking out with her mother, she
+persuaded her to go into a toy shop, and price a doll which she saw in
+the window. The price was seventy-five cents. Ellen concluded to buy it,
+and her mother tendered the dollar in payment.
+
+The shopman took it in his hand, glanced at it carelessly at first, then
+scrutinized it with increased attention.
+
+"What is the matter?" inquired Mrs. Harding. "It is good, isn't it?"
+
+"That is what I am doubtful of," was the reply.
+
+"It is new."
+
+"And that is against it. If it were old, it would be more likely to be
+genuine."
+
+"But you wouldn't condemn a bill because it is new?"
+
+"Certainly not; but the fact is, there have been lately many cases where
+counterfeit bills have been passed, and I suspect this is one of them.
+However, I can soon ascertain."
+
+"I wish you would," said the baker's wife. "My husband took it at his
+shop, and will be likely to take more unless he is put on his guard."
+
+The shopman sent it to the bank where it was pronounced counterfeit.
+
+Mr. Harding was much surprised at his wife's story.
+
+"Really!" he said. "I had no suspicion of this. Can it be possible that
+such a young and beautiful child could be guilty of such an offense?"
+
+"Perhaps not," answered his wife. "She may be as innocent in the matter
+as Ellen or myself."
+
+"I hope so," said the baker; "it would be a pity that so young a child
+should be given to wickedness. However, I shall find out before long."
+
+"How?"
+
+"She will undoubtedly come again sometime."
+
+The baker watched daily for the coming of Ida. He waited some days in
+vain. It was not Peg's policy to send the child too often to the same
+place, as that would increase the chances of detection.
+
+One day, however, Ida entered the shop as before.
+
+"Good-morning," said the baker; "what will you have to-day?"
+
+"You may give me a sheet of gingerbread, sir."
+
+The baker placed it in her hand.
+
+"How much will it be?"
+
+"Twelve cents."
+
+Ida offered him another new bill.
+
+As if to make change, he stepped from behind the counter and placed
+himself between Ida and the door.
+
+"What is your name, my child?" he asked.
+
+"Ida, sir."
+
+"Ida? But what is your other name?"
+
+Ida hesitated a moment, because Peg had forbidden her to use the name of
+Harding, and had told her, if ever the inquiry were made, she must
+answer Hardwick.
+
+She answered reluctantly: "Ida Hardwick."
+
+The baker observed her hesitation, and this increased his suspicion.
+
+"Hardwick!" he repeated, musingly, endeavoring to draw from the child as
+much information as possible before allowing her to perceive that he
+suspected her. "And where do you live?"
+
+Ida was a child of spirit, and did not understand why she should be
+questioned so closely.
+
+She said, with some impatience: "I am in a hurry, sir, and would like to
+have the change as soon as you can."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said the baker, his manner suddenly changing,
+"but you cannot go just yet."
+
+"Why not?" asked Ida.
+
+"Because you have been trying to deceive me."
+
+"I trying to deceive you!" exclaimed Ida.
+
+"Really," thought Mr. Harding, "she does it well; but no doubt she is
+trained to it. It is perfectly shocking, such artful depravity in a
+child."
+
+"Don't you remember buying something here a week ago?" he asked, in as
+stern a tone as his good nature would allow him to employ.
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, promptly; "I bought two rolls, at three cents
+apiece."
+
+"And what did you offer me in payment?"
+
+"I handed you a dollar bill."
+
+"Like this?" asked the baker, holding up the one she had just offered
+him.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And do you mean to say," demanded the baker, sternly, "that you didn't
+know it was bad when you offered it to me?"
+
+"Bad!" gasped Ida.
+
+"Yes, spurious. Not as good as blank paper."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I didn't know anything about it," said Ida, earnestly;
+"I hope you'll believe me when I say that I thought it was good."
+
+"I don't know what to think," said the baker, perplexed. "Who gave you
+the money?"
+
+"The woman I board with."
+
+"Of course I can't give you the gingerbread. Some men, in my place,
+would deliver you up to the police. But I will let you go, if you will
+make me one promise."
+
+"Oh, I will promise anything, sir," said Ida.
+
+"You have given me a bad dollar. Will you promise to bring me a good one
+to-morrow?"
+
+Ida made the required promise, and was allowed to go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+DOUBTS AND FEARS
+
+
+"Well, what kept you so long?" asked Peg, impatiently, as Ida rejoined
+her at the corner of the street. "I thought you were going to stay all
+the forenoon. And Where's your gingerbread?"
+
+"He wouldn't let me have it," answered Ida.
+
+"And why wouldn't he let you have it?" said Peg.
+
+"Because he said the money wasn't good."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! It's good enough. However, it's no matter. We'll go
+somewhere else."
+
+"But he said the money I gave him last week wasn't good, and I promised
+to bring him another to-morrow, or he wouldn't have let me go."
+
+"Well, where are you going to get your dollar?"
+
+"Why, won't you give it to me?" said the child.
+
+"Catch me at such nonsense!" said Mrs. Hardwick, contemptuously. "I
+ain't quite a fool. But here we are at another shop. Go in and see if
+you can do any better there. Here's the money."
+
+"Why, it's the same bill I gave you."
+
+"What if it is?"
+
+"I don't want to pass bad money."
+
+"Tut! What hurt will it do?"
+
+"It's the same as stealing."
+
+"The man won't lose anything. He'll pass it off again."
+
+"Somebody'll have to lose it by and by," said Ida.
+
+"So you've taken up preaching, have you?" said Peg, sneeringly. "Maybe
+you know better than I what is proper to do. It won't do for you to be
+so mighty particular, and so you'll find out, if you stay with me long."
+
+"Where did you get the dollar?" asked Ida; "and how is it you have so
+many of them?"
+
+"None of your business. You mustn't pry into the affairs of other
+people. Are you going to do as I told you?" she continued, menacingly.
+
+"I can't," answered Ida, pale but resolute.
+
+"You can't!" repeated Peg, furiously. "Didn't you promise to do whatever
+I told you?"
+
+"Except what was wicked," interposed Ida.
+
+"And what business have you to decide what is wicked? Come home with
+me."
+
+Peg seized the child's hand, and walked on in sullen silence,
+occasionally turning to scowl upon Ida, who had been strong enough, in
+her determination to do right, to resist successfully the will of the
+woman whom she had so much reason to dread.
+
+Arrived at home, Peg walked Ida into the room by the shoulder. Dick was
+lounging in a chair.
+
+"Hillo!" said he, lazily, observing his wife's frowning face. "What's
+the gal been doin', hey?"
+
+"What's she been doing?" repeated Peg. "I should like to know what she
+hasn't been doing. She's refused to go in and buy gingerbread of the
+baker."
+
+"Look here, little gal," said Dick, in a moralizing vein, "isn't this
+rayther undootiful conduct on your part? Ain't it a piece of
+ingratitude, when Peg and I go to the trouble of earning the money to
+pay for gingerbread for you to eat, that you ain't even willin' to go in
+and buy it?"
+
+"I would just as lieve go in," said Ida, "if Peg would give me good
+money to pay for it."
+
+"That don't make any difference," said the admirable moralist. "It's
+your dooty to do just as she tells you, and you'll do right. She'll take
+the risk."
+
+"I can't," said the child.
+
+"You hear her!" said Peg.
+
+"Very improper conduct!" said Dick, shaking his head in grave reproval.
+"Little gal, I'm ashamed of you. Put her in the closet, Peg."
+
+"Come along," said Peg, harshly. "I'll show you how I deal with those
+that don't obey me."
+
+So Ida was incarcerated once more in the dark closet. Yet in the midst
+of her desolation, child as she was, she was sustained and comforted by
+the thought that she was suffering for doing right.
+
+When Ida failed to return on the appointed day, the Hardings, though
+disappointed, did not think it strange.
+
+"If I were her mother," said the cooper's wife, "and had been parted
+from her for so long, I should want to keep her as long as I could. Dear
+heart! how pretty she is and how proud her mother must be of her!"
+
+"It's all a delusion," said Rachel, shaking her head, solemnly. "It's
+all a delusion. I don't believe she's got a mother at all. That Mrs.
+Hardwick is an impostor. I know it, and told you so at the time, but you
+wouldn't believe me. I never expect to set eyes on Ida again in this
+world."
+
+The next day passed, and still no tidings of Jack's ward. Her young
+guardian, though not as gloomy as Aunt Rachel, looked unusually serious.
+
+There was a cloud of anxiety even upon the cooper's usually placid face,
+and he was more silent than usual at the evening meal. At night, after
+Jack and his aunt had retired, he said, anxiously: "What do you think is
+the cause of Ida's prolonged absence, Martha?"
+
+"I can't tell," said his wife, seriously. "It seems to me, if her mother
+wanted to keep her longer it would be no more than right that she should
+drop us a line. She must know that we would feel anxious."
+
+"Perhaps she is so taken up with Ida that she can think of no one else."
+
+"It may be so; but if we neither see Ida to-morrow, nor hear from her, I
+shall be seriously troubled."
+
+"Suppose she should never come back," suggested the cooper, very
+soberly.
+
+"Oh, husband, don't hint at such a thing," said his wife.
+
+"We must contemplate it as a possibility," said Timothy, gravely,
+"though not, as I hope, as a probability. Ida's mother has an undoubted
+right to her."
+
+"Then it would be better if she had never been placed in our charge,"
+said Martha, tearfully, "for we should not have had the pain of parting
+with her."
+
+"Not so, Martha," her husband said, seriously. "We ought to be grateful
+for God's blessings, even if He suffers us to retain them but a short
+time. And Ida has been a blessing to us all, I am sure. The memory of
+that can't be taken from us, Martha. There's some lines I came across in
+the paper to-night that express just what I've been sayin'. Let me find
+them."
+
+The cooper put on his spectacles, and hunted slowly down the columns of
+the daily paper till he came to these beautiful lines of Tennyson, which
+he read aloud:
+
+  "'I hold it true, whate'er befall;
+  I feel it when I sorrow most;
+  'Tis better to have loved and lost,
+  Than never to have loved at all.'"
+
+
+"There, wife," he said, as he laid down the paper; "I don't know who
+writ them lines, but I'm sure it's some one that's met with a great
+sorrow and conquered it."
+
+"They are beautiful," said his wife, after a pause; "and I dare say
+you're right, Timothy; but I hope we mayn't have to learn the truth of
+them by experience. After all, it isn't certain but that Ida will come
+back."
+
+"At any rate," said her husband, "there is no doubt that it is our duty
+to take every means that we can to recover Ida. Of course, if her mother
+insists upon keepin' her, we can't say anything; but we ought to be sure
+of that before we yield her up."
+
+"What do you mean, Timothy?" asked Martha.
+
+"I don't know as I ought to mention it," said the cooper. "Very likely
+there isn't anything in it, and it would only make you feel more
+anxious."
+
+"You have already aroused my anxiety. I should feel better if you would
+speak out."
+
+"Then I will," said the cooper. "I have sometimes been tempted," he
+continued, lowering his voice, "to doubt whether Ida's mother really
+sent for her."
+
+"How do you account for the letter, then?"
+
+"I have thought--mind, it is only a guess--that Mrs. Hardwick may have
+got somebody to write it for her."
+
+"It is very singular," murmured Martha.
+
+"What is singular?"
+
+"Why, the very same thought has occurred to me. Somehow, I can't help
+feeling a little distrustful of Mrs. Hardwick, though perhaps unjustly.
+What object can she have in getting possession of the child?"
+
+"That I can't conjecture; but I have come to one determination."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Unless we learn something of Ida within a week from the time she left
+here, I shall go on to Philadelphia, or else send Jack, and endeavor to
+get track of her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+AUNT RACHEL'S MISHAPS
+
+
+The week slipped away, and still no tidings of Ida. The house seemed
+lonely without her. Not until then did they understand how largely she
+had entered into their life and thoughts. But worse even than the sense
+of loss was the uncertainty as to her fate.
+
+"It is time that we took some steps about finding Ida," the cooper said.
+"I would like to go to Philadelphia myself, to make inquiries about her,
+but I am just now engaged upon a job which I cannot very well leave, and
+so I have concluded to send Jack."
+
+"When shall I start?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"To-morrow morning," answered his father.
+
+"What good do you think it will do," interposed Rachel, "to send a mere
+boy like Jack to Philadelphia?"
+
+"A mere boy!" repeated her nephew, indignantly.
+
+"A boy hardly sixteen years old," continued Rachel. "Why, he'll need
+somebody to take care of him. Most likely you'll have to go after him."
+
+"What's the use of provoking a fellow so, Aunt Rachel?" said Jack. "You
+know I'm 'most eighteen. Hardly sixteen! Why, I might as well say you're
+hardly forty, when we all know you're fifty."
+
+"Fifty!" ejaculated the scandalized spinster. "It's a base slander. I'm
+only thirty-seven."
+
+"Maybe I'm mistaken," said Jack, carelessly. "I didn't know exactly how
+old you were; I only judged from your looks."
+
+At this point, Rachel applied a segment of a pocket handkerchief to her
+eyes; but, unfortunately, owing to circumstances, the effect instead of
+being pathetic, as she intended it to be, was simply ludicrous.
+
+It so happened that a short time previous, the inkstand had been
+partially spilled upon the table, through Jack's carelessness and this
+handkerchief had been used to sop it up. It had been placed
+inadvertently upon the window seat, where it had remained until Rachel,
+who was sitting beside the window, called it into requisition. The ink
+upon it was by no means dry. The consequence was, that, when Rachel
+removed it from her eyes, her face was discovered to be covered with ink
+in streaks mingling with the tears that were falling, for Rachel always
+had a plentiful supply of tears at command.
+
+The first intimation the luckless spinster had of her mishap was
+conveyed in a stentorian laugh from Jack.
+
+He looked intently at the dark traces of sorrow on his aunt's face--of
+which she was yet unconscious--and doubling up, went off into a perfect
+paroxysm of laughter.
+
+"Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly, for she had not observed the cause
+of his amusement, "it's improper for you to laugh at your aunt in such a
+rude manner."
+
+"Oh, I can't help it, mother. Just look at her."
+
+Thus invited, Mrs. Harding did look, and the rueful expression of
+Rachel, set off by the inky stains, was so irresistibly comical, that,
+after a hard struggle, she too gave way, and followed Jack's example.
+
+Astonished and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her
+sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and again had
+recourse to the handkerchief.
+
+"This is too much!" she sobbed. "I've stayed here long enough, if even
+my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew, from whom I expect nothing
+better, makes me her laughingstock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer
+remain in your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poorhouse and
+end my miserable existence as a common pauper. If I only receive
+Christian burial when I leave the world, it will be all I hope or expect
+from my relatives, who will be glad enough to get rid of me."
+
+The second application of the handkerchief had so increased the effect,
+that Jack found it impossible to check his laughter, while the cooper,
+whose attention was now drawn to his sister's face, burst out in a
+similar manner.
+
+This more amazed Rachel than Martha's merriment.
+
+"Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!" she exclaimed,
+in an "_Et tu, Brute_" tone.
+
+"We don't mean to ridicule you, Rachel," gasped her sister-in-law, "but
+we can't help laughing."
+
+"At the prospect of my death!" uttered Rachel, in a tragic tone. "Well,
+I'm a poor, forlorn creetur, I know. Even my nearest relations make
+sport of me, and when I speak of dying, they shout their joy to my
+face."
+
+"Yes," gasped Jack, nearly choking, "that's it exactly. It isn't your
+death we're laughing at, but your face."
+
+"My face!" exclaimed the insulted spinster. "One would think I was a
+fright by the way you laugh at it."
+
+"So you are!" said Jack, with a fresh burst of laughter.
+
+"To be called a fright to my face!" shrieked Rachel, "by my own nephew!
+This is too much. Timothy, I leave your house forever."
+
+The excited maiden seized her hood; which was hanging from a nail, and
+was about to leave the house when she was arrested in her progress
+toward the door by the cooper, who stifled his laughter sufficiently to
+say: "Before you go, Rachel, just look in the glass."
+
+Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes rested upon a
+face streaked with inky spots and lines seaming it in every direction.
+
+In her first confusion Rachel jumped to the conclusion that she had been
+suddenly stricken by the plague. Accordingly she began to wring her
+hands in an excess of terror, and exclaimed in tones of piercing
+anguish:
+
+"It is the fatal plague spot! I am marked for the tomb. The sands of my
+life are fast running out."
+
+This convulsed Jack afresh with merriment, so that an observer might,
+not without reason, have imagined him to be in imminent danger of
+suffocation.
+
+"You'll kill me, Aunt Rachel! I know you will," he gasped.
+
+"You may order my coffin, Timothy," said Rachel, in a sepulchral voice;
+"I shan't live twenty-four hours. I've felt it coming on for a week
+past. I forgive you for all your ill-treatment. I should like to have
+some one go for the doctor, though I know I'm past help."
+
+"I think," said the cooper, trying to look sober, "you will find the
+cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the plague spots, as you
+call them."
+
+Rachel turned toward him with a puzzled look. Then, as her eyes rested
+for the first time upon the handkerchief she had used, its appearance at
+once suggested a clew by which she was enabled to account for her own.
+
+Somewhat ashamed of the emotion which she had betrayed, as well as the
+ridiculous figure which she had cut, she left the room abruptly, and did
+not make her appearance again till the next morning.
+
+After this little episode, the conversation turned upon Jack's
+approaching journey.
+
+"I don't know," said his mother, "but Rachel is right. Perhaps Jack
+isn't old enough, and hasn't had sufficient experience to undertake such
+a mission."
+
+"Now, mother," expostulated Jack, "you ain't going to side against me,
+are you?"
+
+"There is no better plan," said his father, quietly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE FLOWER GIRL
+
+Henry Bowen was a young artist of moderate talent, who had abandoned the
+farm on which he had labored as a boy, for the sake of pursuing his
+favorite profession. He was not competent to achieve the highest
+success. But he had good taste and a skillful hand, and his productions
+were pleasing and popular. He had formed a connection with a publisher
+of prints and engravings, who had thrown considerable work in his way.
+
+"Have you any new commission to-day?" inquired the young artist, on the
+day before Ida's discovery that she had been employed to pass off
+spurious coin.
+
+"Yes," said the publisher, "I have thought of something which may prove
+attractive. Just at present, pictures of children seem to be popular. I
+should like to have you supply me with a sketch of a flower girl, with,
+say, a basket of flowers in her hand. Do you comprehend my idea?"
+
+"I believe I do," answered the artist. "Give me sufficient time, and I
+hope to satisfy you."
+
+The young artist went home, and at once set to work upon the task he had
+undertaken. He had conceived that it would be an easy one, but found
+himself mistaken. Whether because his fancy was not sufficiently lively,
+or his mind was not in tune, he was unable to produce the effect he
+desired. The faces which he successively outlined were all stiff, and
+though beautiful in feature, lacked the great charm of being expressive
+and lifelike.
+
+"What is the matter with me?" he exclaimed, impatiently. "Is it
+impossible for me to succeed? It's clear," he decided, "that I am not in
+the vein. I will go out and take a walk, and perhaps while I am in the
+street something may strike me."
+
+He accordingly donned his coat and hat, and emerged into the great
+thoroughfare, where he was soon lost in the throng. It was only natural
+that, as he walked, with his task uppermost in his thoughts, he should
+scrutinize carefully the faces of such young girls as he met.
+
+"Perhaps," it occurred to him, "I may get a hint from some face I see.
+It is strange," he mused, "how few there are, even in the freshness of
+childhood, that can be called models of beauty. That child, for example,
+has beautiful eyes, but a badly cut mouth. Here is one that would be
+pretty, if the face were rounded out; and here is a child--Heaven help
+it!--that was designed to be beautiful, but want and unfavorable
+circumstances have pinched and cramped it."
+
+It was at this point in the artist's soliloquy that, in turning the
+corner of a street, he came upon Peg and Ida.
+
+The artist looked earnestly at the child's face, and his own lighted up
+with sudden pleasure, as one who stumbles upon success just as he had
+begun to despair of it.
+
+"The very face I have been looking for!" he exclaimed to himself. "My
+flower girl is found at last."
+
+He turned round, and followed Ida and her companion. Both stopped at a
+shop window to examine some articles which were on exhibition there.
+
+"It is precisely the face I want," he murmured. "Nothing could be more
+appropriate or charming. With that face the success of the picture is
+assured."
+
+The artist's inference that Peg was Ida's attendant was natural, since
+the child was dressed in a style quite superior to her companion. Peg
+thought that this would enable her, with less risk, to pass spurious
+coin.
+
+The young man followed the strangely assorted pair to the apartments
+which Peg occupied. From the conversation which he overheard he learned
+that he had been mistaken in his supposition as to the relation between
+the two, and that, singular as it seemed, Peg had the guardianship of
+the child. This made his course clearer. He mounted the stairs and
+knocked at the door.
+
+"What do you want?" demanded a sharp voice.
+
+"I should like to see you just a moment," was the reply.
+
+Peg opened the door partially, and regarded the young man suspiciously.
+
+"I don't know you," she said, shortly.
+
+"I presume not," said the young man, courteously. "We have never met,
+I think. I am an artist. I hope you will pardon my present intrusion."
+
+"There is no use in your coming here," said Peg, abruptly, "and you may
+as well go away. I don't want to buy any pictures. I've got plenty of
+better ways to spend my money than to throw it away on such trash."
+
+No one would have thought of doubting Peg's word, for she looked far
+from being a patron of the arts.
+
+"You have a young girl living with you, about seven or eight years old,
+have you not?" inquired the artist.
+
+Peg instantly became suspicious.
+
+"Who told you that?" she demanded, quickly.
+
+"No one told me. I saw her in the street."
+
+Peg at once conceived the idea that her visitor was aware of the fact
+that the child had been lured away from home; possibly he might be
+acquainted with the cooper's family? or might be their emissary.
+
+"Suppose you did see such a child on the street, what has that to do
+with me?"
+
+"But I saw the child entering this house with you."
+
+"What if you did?" demanded Peg, defiantly.
+
+"I was about," said the artist, perceiving that he was misapprehended,
+"I was about to make a proposition which may prove advantageous to both
+of us."
+
+"Eh!" said Peg, catching at the hint. "Tell me what it is and we may
+come to terms."
+
+"I must explain," said Bowen, "that I am an artist. In seeking for a
+face to sketch from, I have been struck by that of your child."
+
+"Of Ida?"
+
+"Yes, if that is her name. I will pay you five dollars if you will allow
+me to copy her face."
+
+"Well," she said, more graciously, "if that's all you want, I don't know
+as I have any objections. I suppose you can copy her face here as well
+as anywhere?"
+
+"I should prefer to have her come to my studio."
+
+"I shan't let her come," said Peg, decidedly.
+
+"Then I will consent to your terms, and come here."
+
+"Do you want to begin now?"
+
+"I should like to do so."
+
+"Come in, then. Here, Ida, I want you."
+
+"Yes, Peg."
+
+"This gentleman wants to copy your face."
+
+Ida looked surprised.
+
+"I am an artist," said the young man, with a reassuring smile. "I will
+endeavor not to try your patience too much, or keep you too long. Do you
+think you can stand still for half an hour without too much fatigue?"
+
+He kept her in pleasant conversation, while, with a free, bold hand he
+sketched the outlines of her face.
+
+"I shall want one more sitting," he said. "I will come to-morrow at this
+time."
+
+"Stop a minute," said Peg. "I should like the money in advance. How do I
+know you will come again?"
+
+"Certainly, if you desire it," said Henry Bowen.
+
+"What strange fortune," he thought, "can have brought them together?
+Surely there can be no relation between this sweet child and that ugly
+old woman!"
+
+The next day he returned and completed his sketch, which was at once
+placed in the hands of the publisher, eliciting his warm approval.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+JACK OBTAINS INFORMATION
+
+
+Jack set out with that lightness of heart and keen sense of enjoyment
+that seem natural to a young man of eighteen on his first journey.
+Partly by boat, partly by cars, he traveled, till in a few hours he was
+discharged, with hundreds of others, at the depot in Philadelphia.
+
+He rejected all invitations to ride, and strode on, carpetbag in hand,
+though, sooth to say, he had very little idea whether he was steering in
+the right direction for his uncle's shop. By dint of diligent and
+persevering inquiry he found it at last, and walking in, announced
+himself to the worthy baker as his nephew Jack.
+
+"What? Are you Jack?" exclaimed Mr. Abel Harding, pausing in his labor.
+"Well, I never should have known you, that's a fact. Bless me, how
+you've grown! Why, you're 'most as big as your father, ain't you?"
+
+"Only half an inch shorter," answered Jack, complacently.
+
+"And you're--let me see--how old are you?"
+
+"Eighteen; that is, almost. I shall be in two months."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see you, Jack, though I hadn't the least idea of your
+raining down so unexpectedly. How's your father and mother and your
+adopted sister?"
+
+"Father and mother are pretty well," answered Jack; "and so is Aunt
+Rachel," he continued, smiling, "though she ain't so cheerful as she
+might be."
+
+"Poor Rachel!" said Abel, smiling also. "Everything goes contrary with
+her. I don't suppose she's wholly to blame for it. Folks differ
+constitutionally. Some are always looking on the bright side of things,
+and others can never see but one side, and that's the dark one."
+
+"You've hit it, uncle," said Jack, laughing. "Aunt Rachel always looks
+as if she was attending a funeral."
+
+"So she is, my boy," said Abel, gravely, "and a sad funeral it is."
+
+"I don't understand you, uncle."
+
+"The funeral of her affections--that's what I mean. Perhaps you mayn't
+know that Rachel was, in early life, engaged to be married to a young
+man whom she ardently loved. She was a different woman then from what
+she is now. But her lover deserted her just before the wedding was to
+have come off, and she's never got over the disappointment. But that
+isn't what I was going to talk about. You haven't told me about your
+adopted sister."
+
+"That's the very thing I've come to Philadelphia about," said Jack,
+soberly. "Ida has been carried off, and I've come in search of her."
+
+"Been carried off? I didn't know such things ever happened in this
+country. What do you mean?"
+
+Jack told the story of Mrs. Hardwick's arrival with a letter from Ida's
+mother, conveying the request that her child might, under the guidance
+of the messenger, be allowed to pay her a visit. To this and the
+subsequent details Abel Harding listened with earnest attention.
+
+"So you have reason to think the child is in Philadelphia?" he said,
+musingly.
+
+"Yes," said Jack; "Ida was seen in the cars, coming here, by a boy who
+knew her in New York."
+
+"Ida?" repeated the baker. "Was that her name?"
+
+"Yes; you knew her name, didn't you?"
+
+"I dare say I have known it, but I have heard so little of your family
+lately that I had forgotten it. It is rather a singular circumstance."
+
+"What is a singular circumstance?"
+
+"I will tell you, Jack. It may not amount to anything, however. A few
+days since a little girl came into my shop to buy a small amount of
+bread. I was at once favorably impressed with her appearance. She was
+neatly dressed, and had a very honest face. Having made the purchase she
+handed me in payment a new dollar bill. 'I'll keep that for my little
+girl,' thought I at once. Accordingly, when I went home at night, I just
+took the dollar out of, the till and gave it to her. Of course, she was
+delighted with it, and, like a child, wanted to spend it at once. So her
+mother agreed to go out with her the next day. Well, they selected some
+knick-knack or other, but when they came to pay for it the dollar proved
+counterfeit."
+
+"Counterfeit?"
+
+"Yes; bad. Issued by a gang of counterfeiters. When they told me of
+this, I said to myself, 'Can it be that this little girl knew what she
+was about when she offered me that?' I couldn't think it possible, but
+decided to wait till she came again."
+
+"Did she come again?"
+
+"Yes; only day before yesterday. As I expected, she offered me in
+payment another dollar just like the other. Before letting her know that
+I had discovered the imposition I asked her one or two questions with
+the idea of finding out as much as possible about her. When I told her
+the bill was a bad one, she seemed very much surprised. It might have
+been all acting, but I didn't think so then. I even felt pity for her,
+and let her go on condition that she would bring me back a good dollar
+in place of the bad one the next day. I suppose I was a fool for doing
+so, but she looked so pretty and innocent that I couldn't make up my
+mind to speak or act harshly to her. But I am afraid that I was
+deceived, and that she was an artful character after all."
+
+"Then she didn't come back with the good money?"
+
+"No; I haven't seen her since."
+
+"What name did she give you?"
+
+"Haven't I told you? It was the name that made me think of telling you.
+She called herself Ida Hardwick."
+
+"Ida Hardwick?" repeated Jack.
+
+"Yes, Ida Hardwick. But that hasn't anything to do with your Ida, has
+it?"
+
+"Hasn't it, though?" said Jack. "Why, Mrs. Hardwick was the woman who
+carried her away."
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick--her mother?"
+
+"No; not her mother. She said she was the woman who took care of Ida
+before she was brought to us."
+
+"Then you think this Ida Hardwick may be your missing sister?"
+
+"That's what I don't know yet," said Jack. "If you would only describe
+her, Uncle Abel, I could tell better."
+
+"Well," said the baker, thoughtfully, "I should say this little girl was
+seven or eight years old."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, nodding; "what color were her eyes?"
+
+"Blue."
+
+"So are Ida's."
+
+"A small mouth, with a very sweet expression, yet with something firm
+and decided about it."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I believe her dress was a light one, with a blue ribbon round the
+waist."
+
+"Did she wear anything around her neck?"
+
+"A brown scarf, if I remember rightly."
+
+"That is the way Ida was dressed when she went away with Mrs. Hardwick.
+I am sure it must be she. But how strange that she should come into your
+shop!"
+
+"Perhaps," suggested his uncle, "this woman, representing herself as
+Ida's nurse, was her mother."
+
+"No; it can't be," said Jack, vehemently. "What, that ugly, disagreeable
+woman, Ida's mother? I won't believe it. I should just as soon expect to
+see strawberries growing on a thorn bush."
+
+"You know I have not seen Mrs. Hardwick."
+
+"No great loss," said Jack. "You wouldn't care much about seeing her
+again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable woman; while Ida is fair and
+sweet-looking. Ida's mother, whoever she is, I am sure, is a lady in
+appearance and manners, and Mrs. Hardwick is neither. Aunt Rachel was
+right for once."
+
+"What did Rachel say?"
+
+"She said the nurse was an impostor, and declared it was only a plot to
+get possession of Ida; but then, that was to be expected of Aunt
+Rachel."
+
+"Still it seems difficult to imagine any satisfactory motive on the part
+of the woman, supposing her not to be Ida's mother."
+
+"Mother or not," returned Jack, "she's got possession of Ida; and, from
+all that you say, she is not the best person to bring her up. I am
+determined to rescue Ida from this she-dragon. Will you help me, uncle?"
+
+"You may count upon me, Jack, for all I can do."
+
+"Then," said Jack, with energy, "we shall succeed. I feel sure of it.
+'Where there's a will there's a way.'"
+
+"I wish you success, Jack; but if the people who have got Ida are
+counterfeiters, they are desperate characters, and you must proceed
+cautiously."
+
+"I ain't afraid of them. I'm on the warpath now, Uncle Abel, and they'd
+better look out for me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+JACK'S DISCOVERY
+
+
+The first thing to be done by Jack was, of course, in some way to obtain
+a clew to the whereabouts of Peg, or Mrs. Hardwick, to use the name by
+which he knew her. No mode of proceeding likely to secure this result
+occurred to him, beyond the very obvious one of keeping in the street as
+much as possible, in the hope that chance might bring him face to face
+with the object of his pursuit.
+
+Following out this plan, Jack became a daily promenader in Chestnut,
+Walnut and other leading thoroughfares. Jack became himself an object of
+attention, on account of what appeared to be his singular behavior. It
+was observed that he had no glances to spare for young ladies, but
+persistently stared at the faces of all middle-aged women--a
+circumstance naturally calculated to attract remark in the case of a
+well-made lad like Jack.
+
+"I am afraid," said the baker, "it will be as hard as looking for a
+needle in a haystack, to find the one you seek among so many faces."
+
+"There's nothing like trying," said Jack, courageously. "I'm not going
+to give up yet a while. I'd know Ida or Mrs. Hardwick anywhere."
+
+"You ought to write home, Jack. They will be getting anxious about you."
+
+"I'm going to write this morning--I put it off, because I hoped to have
+some news to write."
+
+He sat down and wrote the following note:
+
+  "DEAR PARENTS: I arrived in Philadelphia right side up with care,
+  and am stopping at Uncle Abel's. He received me very kindly. I have
+  got track of Ida, though I have not found her yet. I have learned as
+  much as this: that this Mrs. Hardwick--who is a double-distilled
+  she-rascal--probably has Ida in her clutches, and has sent her on two
+  occasions to my uncle's. I am spending most of my time in the streets,
+  keeping a good lookout for her. If I do meet her, see if I don't get
+  Ida away from her. But it may take some time. Don't get discouraged,
+  therefore, but wait patiently. Whenever anything new turns up you will
+  receive a line from your dutiful son,
+
+  "JACK."
+
+
+Jack had been in the city eight days when, as he was sauntering along
+the street, he suddenly perceived in front of him, a shawl which struck
+him as wonderfully like the one worn by Mrs. Hardwick. Not only that,
+but the form of the wearer corresponded to his recollections of the
+nurse. He bounded forward, and rapidly passing the suspected person,
+turned suddenly and confronted the woman of whom he had been in search.
+
+The recognition was mutual. Peg was taken aback by this unexpected
+encounter.
+
+Her first impulse was to make off, but Jack's resolute expression warned
+her that he was not to be trifled with.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"You are right," said she, rapidly recovering her composure, "and you,
+if I am not mistaken, are John Harding, the son of my worthy friends in
+New York."
+
+"Well," ejaculated Jack, internally, "she's a cool un, and no mistake."
+
+"My name is Jack," he said, aloud.
+
+"Did you leave all well at home?" asked Peg.
+
+"You can't guess what I came here for?" said Jack.
+
+"To see your sister Ida, I presume."
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, amazed at the woman's composure.
+
+"I thought some of you would be coming on," continued Peg, who had
+already mapped out her course.
+
+"You did?"
+
+"Yes; it was only natural. What did your father and mother say to the
+letter I wrote them?"
+
+"The letter you wrote them?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Certainly. You got it, didn't you?"
+
+"I don't know what letter you mean."
+
+"A letter, in which I wrote that Ida's mother had been so pleased with
+the appearance and manners of the child, that she could not determine to
+part with her."
+
+"You don't mean to say that any such letter as that has been written?"
+said Jack, incredulously.
+
+"What? Has it not been received?" inquired Peg.
+
+"Nothing like it. When was it written?"
+
+"The second day after our arrival," said Peg.
+
+"If that is the case," said Jack, not knowing what to think, "it must
+have miscarried; we never received it."
+
+"That is a pity. How anxious you all must have felt!"
+
+"It seems as if half the family were gone. But how long does Ida's
+mother mean to keep her?"
+
+"Perhaps six months."
+
+"But," said Jack, his suspicions returning, "I have been told that Ida
+has twice called at a baker's shop in this city, and when asked what her
+name was, answered, Ida Hardwick. You don't mean to say that you pretend
+to be her mother."
+
+"Yes, I do," replied Peg, calmly. "I didn't mean to tell you, but as
+you've found out, I won't deny it."
+
+"It's a lie," said Jack. "She isn't your daughter."
+
+"Young man," said Peg, with wonderful self-command, "you are exciting
+yourself to no purpose. You asked me if I pretended to be her mother.
+I do pretend, but I admit frankly that it is all pretense."
+
+"I don't understand what you mean," said Jack.
+
+"Then I will explain to you, though you have treated me so impolitely
+that I might well refuse. As I informed your father and mother in New
+York, there are circumstances which stand in the way of Ida's real
+mother recognizing her as her own child. Still, as she desires her
+company, in order to avert suspicion and prevent embarrassing questions
+being asked while she remains in Philadelphia, she is to pass as my
+daughter."
+
+This explanation was tolerably plausible, and Jack was unable to gainsay
+it.
+
+"Can I see Ida?" he asked.
+
+To his great joy, Peg replied: "I don't think there can be any
+objection. I am going to the house now. Will you come with me now, or
+appoint some other time."
+
+"Now, by all means," said Jack, eagerly. "Nothing shall stand in the way
+of my seeing Ida."
+
+A grim smile passed over Peg's face.
+
+"Follow me, then," she said. "I have no doubt Ida will be delighted to
+see you."
+
+"I suppose," said Jack, with a pang, "that she is so taken up with her
+new friends that she has nearly forgotten her old friends in New York."
+
+"If she had," answered Peg, "she would not deserve to have friends at
+all. She is quite happy here, but she will be very glad to return to New
+York to those who have been so kind to her."
+
+"Really," thought Jack, "I don't know what to make of this Mrs.
+Hardwick. She talks fair enough, though looks are against her. Perhaps I
+have misjudged her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CAUGHT IN A TRAP
+
+
+Jack and his guide paused in front of a large three-story brick
+building. The woman rang the bell. An untidy servant girl made her
+appearance.
+
+Mrs. Hardwick spoke to the servant in so low a voice that Jack couldn't
+hear what she said.
+
+"Certainly, mum," answered the servant, and led the way upstairs to a
+back room on the third floor.
+
+"Go in and take a seat," she said to Jack. "I will send Ida to you
+immediately."
+
+"All right," said Jack, in a tone of satisfaction.
+
+Peg went out, closing the door after her. She, at the same time, softly
+slipped a bolt which had been placed upon the outside. Then hastening
+downstairs she found the proprietor of the house, a little old man with
+a shrewd, twinkling eye, and a long, aquiline nose.
+
+"I have brought you a boarder," she said.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"A lad, who is likely to interfere in our plans. You may keep him in
+confinement for the present."
+
+"Very good. Is he likely to make a fuss?"
+
+"I should think it very likely. He is high-spirited and impetuous, but
+you know how to manage him."
+
+"Oh, yes," nodded the old man.
+
+"You can think of some pretext for keeping him."
+
+"Suppose I tell him he's in a madhouse?" said the old man, laughing, and
+thereby showing some yellow fangs, which by no means improved his
+appearance.
+
+"Just the thing! It'll frighten him."
+
+There was a little further conversation in a low tone, and then Peg went
+away.
+
+"Fairly trapped, my young bird!" she thought to herself. "I think that
+will put a stop to your troublesome appearance for the present."
+
+Meanwhile Jack, wholly unsuspicious that any trick had been played upon
+him, seated himself in a rocking-chair and waited impatiently for the
+coming of Ida, whom he was resolved to carry back to New York.
+
+Impelled by a natural curiosity, he examined attentively the room in
+which he was seated. There was a plain carpet on the floor, and the
+other furniture was that of an ordinary bed chamber. The most
+conspicuous ornament was a large full-length portrait against the side
+of the wall. It represented an unknown man, not particularly striking in
+his appearance. There was, besides, a small table with two or three
+books upon it.
+
+Jack waited patiently for twenty minutes.
+
+"Perhaps Ida may be out," he reflected. "Still, even if she is, Mrs.
+Hardwick ought to come and let me know. It's dull work staying here
+alone."
+
+Another fifteen minutes passed, and still no Ida appeared.
+
+"This is rather singular," thought Jack. "She can't have told Ida I am
+here, or I am sure she would rush up at once to see her brother Jack."
+
+At length, tired of waiting, Jack walked to the door and attempted to
+open it.
+
+There was a greater resistance than he anticipated.
+
+"Good heavens!" thought Jack, in consternation, as the real state of the
+case flashed upon him, "is it possible that I am locked in?"
+
+He employed all his strength, but the door still resisted. He could no
+longer doubt that it was locked.
+
+He rushed to the windows. They were two in number, and looked out upon a
+yard in the rear of the house. There was no hope of drawing the
+attention of passersby to his situation.
+
+Confounded by this discovery, Jack sank into his chair in no very
+enviable state of mind.
+
+"Well," thought he, "this is a pretty situation for me to be in. I
+wonder what father would say if he knew that I had managed to get locked
+up like this? I am ashamed to think I let that treacherous woman, Mrs.
+Hardwick, lead me so quietly into a snare. Aunt Rachel was about right
+when she said I wasn't fit to come alone. I hope she'll never find out
+about this adventure of mine. If she did, I should never hear the last
+of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+DR. ROBINSON
+
+
+Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at least double
+the number of minutes. Moreover, he was getting hungry.
+
+A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind.
+
+"The wretches can't mean to starve me, can they?" he asked himself.
+Despite his constitutional courage he could not help shuddering at the
+idea.
+
+He was unexpectedly answered by the opening of the door, and the
+appearance of the old man.
+
+"Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a disagreeable
+smile upon his features.
+
+"Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, angrily.
+
+"Why are you confined? Really, one would think you didn't find your
+quarters comfortable."
+
+"I am so far from finding them agreeable, that I insist upon leaving
+them immediately," returned Jack.
+
+"Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door."
+
+"You have locked it."
+
+"Why, so I have," said the old man, with a leer.
+
+"I insist upon your opening it."
+
+"I shall do so when I get ready to go out, myself."
+
+"I shall go with you."
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Who's to prevent me?" said Jack, defiantly.
+
+"Who's to prevent you?"
+
+"Yes; you'd better not attempt it. I should be sorry to hurt you, but I
+mean to go out. If you attempt to stop me, you must take the
+consequences."
+
+"I am afraid you are a violent young man. But I've got a man who is a
+match for two like you."
+
+The old man opened the door.
+
+"Samuel, show yourself," he said.
+
+A brawny negro, six feet in height, and evidently very powerful, came to
+the entrance.
+
+"If this young man attempts to escape, Samuel, what will you do?"
+
+"Tie him hand and foot," answered the negro.
+
+"That'll do, Samuel. Stay where you are."
+
+He closed the door and looked triumphantly at our hero.
+
+Jack threw himself sullenly into a chair.
+
+"Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.
+
+"Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to transact, my
+young friend, and so she has gone. She commended you to our particular
+attention, and you will be just as well treated as if she were here."
+
+This assurance was not calculated to comfort Jack.
+
+"How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,
+desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.
+
+"Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. I don't know how long it will
+be before you are cured."
+
+"Cured?" repeated Jack, puzzled.
+
+The old man tapped his forehead.
+
+"You're a little affected here, you know, but under my treatment I hope
+soon to restore you to your friends."
+
+"What!" ejaculated our hero, terror-stricken, "you don't mean to say you
+think I'm crazy?"
+
+"To be sure you are," said the old man, "but--"
+
+"But I tell you it's a lie," exclaimed Jack, energetically. "Who told
+you so?"
+
+"Your aunt."
+
+"My aunt?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Hardwick. She brought you here to be treated for insanity."
+
+"It's a base lie," said Jack, hotly. "That woman is no more my aunt than
+you are. She's an impostor. She carried off my sister Ida, and this is
+only a plot to get rid of me. She told me she was going to take me to
+see Ida."
+
+The old man shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "she told me all about it--that you had a
+delusion about some supposed sister, whom you accused her of carrying
+off."
+
+"This is outrageous," said Jack, hotly.
+
+"That's what all my patients say."
+
+"And you are a mad-doctor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you know by my looks that I am not crazy."
+
+"Pardon me, my young friend; that doesn't follow. There is a peculiar
+appearance about your eyes which I cannot mistake. There's no mistake
+about it, my good sir. Your mind has gone astray, but if you'll be
+quiet, and won't excite yourself, you'll soon be well."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Well, two or three months."
+
+"Two or three months! You don't mean to say you want to confine me here
+two or three months?"
+
+"I hope I can release you sooner."
+
+"You can't understand your business very well, or you would see at once
+that I am not insane."
+
+"That's what all my patients say. They won't any of them own that their
+minds are affected."
+
+"Will you supply me with some writing materials?"
+
+"Yes; Samuel shall bring them here."
+
+"I suppose you will excuse my suggesting also that it is dinner time?"
+
+"He shall bring you some dinner at the same time."
+
+The old man retired, but in fifteen minutes a plate of meat and
+vegetables was brought to the room.
+
+"I'll bring the pen and ink afterward," said the negro.
+
+In spite of his extraordinary situation and uncertain prospects, Jack
+ate with his usual appetite.
+
+Then he penned a letter to his uncle, briefly detailing the circumstances
+of his present situation.
+
+"I am afraid," the letter concluded, "that while I am shut up here, Mrs.
+Hardwick will carry Ida out of the city, where it will be more difficult
+for us to get on her track. She is evidently a dangerous woman."
+
+Two days passed and no notice was taken of the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+JACK BEGINS TO REALIZE HIS SITUATION
+
+
+"It's very strange," thought Jack, "that Uncle Abel doesn't take any
+notice of my letter."
+
+In fact, our hero felt rather indignant, as well as surprised, and on
+the next visit of Dr. Robinson, he asked: "Hasn't my uncle been here to
+ask about me?"
+
+"Yes," said the old man, unexpectedly.
+
+"Why didn't you bring him up here to see me?"
+
+"He just inquired how you were, and said he thought you were better off
+with us than you would be at home."
+
+Jack looked fixedly in the face of the pretended doctor, and was
+convinced that he had been deceived.
+
+"I don't believe it," he said.
+
+"Oh! do as you like about believing it."
+
+"I don't believe you mailed my letter to my uncle."
+
+"Have it your own way, my young friend. Of course I can't argue with a
+maniac."
+
+"Don't call me a maniac, you old humbug! You ought to be in jail for
+this outrage."
+
+"Ho, ho! How very amusing you are, my young friend!" said the old man.
+"You'd make a first-class tragedian, you really would."
+
+"I might do something tragic, if I had a weapon," said Jack,
+significantly. "Are you going to let me out?"
+
+"Positively, I can't part with you. You are too good company," said
+Dr. Robinson, mockingly. "You'll thank me for my care of you when you
+are quite cured."
+
+"That's all rubbish," said Jack, boldly. "I'm no more crazy than you
+are, and you know it. Will you answer me a question?"
+
+"It depends on what it is," said the old man, cautiously.
+
+"Has Mrs. Hardwick been here to ask about me?"
+
+"Certainly. She takes a great deal of interest in you."
+
+"Was there a little girl with her?"
+
+"I believe so. I really don't remember."
+
+"If she calls again, either with or without Ida, will you ask her to
+come up here? I want to see her."
+
+"Yes, I'll tell her. Now, my young friend, I must really leave you.
+Business before pleasure, you know."
+
+Jack looked about the room for something to read. He found among other
+books a small volume, purporting to contain "The Adventures of Baron
+Trenck."
+
+It may be that the reader has never encountered a copy of this singular
+book. Baron Trenck was several times imprisoned for political offenses,
+and this book contains an account of the manner in which he succeeded,
+after years of labor, in escaping from his dungeon.
+
+Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered, looking about the
+room, if he could not find some similar plan of escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE SECRET STAIRCASE
+
+
+The prospect certainly was not a bright one. The door was fast locked.
+Escape from the windows seemed impracticable. This apparently exhausted
+the avenues of escape that were open to the dissatisfied prisoner. But
+accidentally Jack made an important discovery.
+
+There was a full-length portrait in the room. Jack chanced to rest his
+hand against it, when he must unconsciously have touched some secret
+spring, for a secret door opened, dividing the picture in two parts,
+and, to our hero's unbounded astonishment, he saw before him a small
+spiral staircase leading down into the darkness.
+
+"This is a queer old house!" thought Jack. "I wonder where those stairs
+go to. I've a great mind to explore."
+
+There was not much chance of detection, he reflected, as it would be
+three hours before his next meal would be brought him. He left the door
+open, therefore, and began slowly and cautiously to go down the
+staircase. It seemed a long one, longer than was necessary to connect
+two floors. Boldly Jack kept on till he reached the bottom.
+
+"Where am I?" thought our hero. "I must be down as low as the cellar."
+
+While this thought passed through his mind, voices suddenly struck upon
+his ear. He had accustomed himself now to the darkness, and ascertained
+that there was a crevice through which he could look in the direction
+from which the sounds proceeded. Applying his eye, he could distinguish
+a small cellar apartment, in the middle of which was a printing press,
+and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish three persons. Two
+were in their shirt sleeves, bending over an engraver's bench. Beside
+them, and apparently superintending their work, was the old man whom
+Jack knew as Dr. Robinson.
+
+He applied his ear to the crevice, and heard these words:
+
+"This lot is rather better than the last, Jones. We can't be too
+careful, or the detectives will interfere with our business. Some of the
+last lot were rather coarse."
+
+"I know it, sir," answered the man addressed as Jones.
+
+"There's nothing the matter with this," said the old man. "There isn't
+one person in a hundred that would suspect it was not genuine."
+
+Jack pricked up his ears.
+
+Looking through the crevice, he ascertained that it was a bill that the
+old man had in his hand.
+
+"They're counterfeiters," he said, half audibly.
+
+Low as the tone was, it startled Dr. Robinson.
+
+"Ha!" said he, startled, "what's that?"
+
+"What's what, sir?" said Jones.
+
+"I thought I heard some one speaking."
+
+"I didn't hear nothing, sir."
+
+"Did you hear nothing, Ferguson?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"I suppose I was deceived, then," said the old man.
+
+"How many bills have you there?" he resumed.
+
+"Seventy-nine, sir."
+
+"That's a very good day's work," said the old man, in a tone of
+satisfaction. "It's a paying business."
+
+"It pays you, sir," said Jones, grumbling.
+
+"And it shall pay you, too, my man, never fear!"
+
+Jack had made a great discovery. He understood now the connection
+between Mrs. Hardwick and the old man whom he now knew not to be a
+physician. He was at the head of a gang of counterfeiters, and she
+was engaged in putting the false money into circulation.
+
+He softly ascended the staircase, and re-entered the room he left,
+closing the secret door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+JACK IS DETECTED
+
+
+In the course of the afternoon, Jack made another visit to the foot of
+the staircase. He saw through the crevice the same two men at work, but
+the old man was not with them. Ascertaining this, he ought, in prudence,
+immediately to have retraced his steps, but he remained on watch for
+twenty minutes. When he did return he was startled by finding the old
+man seated, and waiting for him. There was a menacing expression on his
+face.
+
+"Where have you been?" he demanded, abruptly.
+
+"Downstairs," answered Jack.
+
+"Ha! What did you see?"
+
+"I may as well own up," thought Jack. "Through a crack I saw some men at
+work in a basement room," he replied.
+
+"Do you know what they were doing?"
+
+"Counterfeiting, I should think."
+
+"Well, is there anything wrong in that?"
+
+"I suppose you wouldn't want to be found out," he answered.
+
+"I didn't mean to have you make this discovery. Now there's only one
+thing to be done."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"You have become possessed of an important--I may say, a dangerous
+secret. You have us in your power."
+
+"I suppose," said Jack, "you are afraid I will denounce you to the
+police?"
+
+"Well, there is a possibility of that. That class of people has a
+prejudice against us, though we are only doing what everybody likes to
+do--making money."
+
+"Will you let me go if I keep your secret?"
+
+"What assurance have we that you would keep your promise?"
+
+"I would pledge my word."
+
+"Your word!" Foley--for this was the old man's real name--snapped his
+fingers. "I wouldn't give that for it. That is not sufficient."
+
+"What will be?"
+
+"You must become one of us."
+
+"One of you!"
+
+"Yes. You must make yourself liable to the same penalties, so that it
+will be for your own interest to remain silent. Otherwise we can't trust
+you."
+
+"Suppose I decline these terms?"
+
+"Then I shall be under the painful necessity of retaining you as my
+guest," said Foley, smiling disagreeably.
+
+"What made you pretend to be a mad-doctor?"
+
+"To put you off the track," said Foley. "You believed it, didn't you?"
+
+"At first."
+
+"Well, what do you say?" asked Foley.
+
+"I should like to take time to reflect upon your proposal," said Jack.
+"It is of so important a character that I don't like to decide at once."
+
+"How long do you require?"
+
+"Two days. Suppose I join you, shall I get good pay?"
+
+"Excellent," answered Foley. "In fact, you'll be better paid than a boy
+of your age would be anywhere else."
+
+"That's worth thinking about," said Jack, gravely. "My father is poor,
+and I've got my own way to make."
+
+"You couldn't have a better opening. You're a smart lad, and will be
+sure to succeed."
+
+"Well, I'll think of it. If I should make up my mind before the end of
+two days, I will let you know."
+
+"Very well. You can't do better."
+
+"But there's one thing I want to ask about," said Jack, with pretended
+anxiety. "It's pretty risky business, isn't it?"
+
+"I've been in the business ten years, and they haven't got hold of me
+yet," answered Foley. "All you've got to do is to be careful."
+
+"He'll join," said Foley to himself. "He's a smart fellow, and we can
+make him useful. It'll be the best way to dispose of one who might get
+us into trouble."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+JACK'S TRIUMPH
+
+
+The next day Jack had another visit from Foley. "Well," said the old
+man, nodding, "have you thought over my proposal?"
+
+"What should I have to do?" asked Jack.
+
+"Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another. At first we might employ
+you to put off some of the bills."
+
+"That would be easy work, anyway," said Jack.
+
+"Yes, there is nothing hard about that, except to look innocent."
+
+"I can do that," said Jack, laughing.
+
+"You're smart; I can tell by the looks of you."
+
+"Do you really think so?" returned Jack, appearing flattered.
+
+"Yes; you'll make one of our best hands."
+
+"I suppose Mrs. Hardwick is in your employ?"
+
+"Perhaps she is, and perhaps she isn't," said Foley, noncommittally.
+"That is something you don't need to know."
+
+"Oh, I don't care to know," said Jack, carelessly. "I only asked. I was
+afraid you would set me to work down in the cellar."
+
+"You don't know enough about the business. We need skilled workmen. You
+couldn't do us any good there."
+
+"I shouldn't like it, anyway. It must be unpleasant to be down there."
+
+"We pay the workmen you saw good pay."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. When do you want me to begin?"
+
+"I can't tell you just yet. I'll think about it."
+
+"I hope it'll be soon, for I'm tired of staying here. By the way, that's
+a capital idea about the secret staircase. Who'd ever think the portrait
+concealed it?" said Jack.
+
+As he spoke he advanced to the portrait in an easy, natural manner, and
+touched the spring.
+
+Of course it flew open. The old man also drew near.
+
+"That was my idea," he said, in a complacent tone. "Of course we have to
+keep everything as secret as possible, and I flatter myself--"
+
+His remark came to a sudden pause. He had incautiously got between Jack
+and the open door. Now our hero, who was close upon eighteen, and
+strongly built, was considerably more than a match in physical strength
+for Foley. He suddenly seized the old man, thrust him through the
+aperture, then closed the secret door, and sprang for the door of the
+room.
+
+The key was in the lock where Foley, whose confidence made him careless,
+had left it. Turning it, he hurried downstairs, meeting no one on the
+way. To open the front door and dash through it was the work of an
+instant. As he descended the stairs he could hear the muffled shout of
+the old man whom he had made prisoner, but this only caused him to
+accelerate his speed.
+
+Jack now directed his course as well as he could toward his uncle's
+shop. One thing, however, he did not forget, and that was to note
+carefully the position of the shop in which he had been confined.
+
+"I shall want to make another visit there," he reflected.
+
+Meantime, as may well be supposed, Abel Harding had suffered great
+anxiety on account of Jack's protracted absence. Several days had
+elapsed and still he was missing.
+
+"I am afraid something has happened to Jack," he remarked to his wife on
+the afternoon of Jack's escape. "I think Jack was probably rash and
+imprudent, and I fear, poor boy, he may have come to harm."
+
+"He may be confined by the parties who have taken his sister."
+
+"It is possible that it is no worse. At all events, I don't think it
+right to keep it from Timothy any longer. I've put off writing as long
+as I could, hoping Jack would come back, but I don't feel as if it would
+be right to hold it back any longer. I shall write this evening."
+
+"Better wait till morning, Abel. Who knows but we may hear from Jack
+before that time?"
+
+"If we'd been going to hear we'd have heard before this," he said.
+
+Just at that moment the door was flung open.
+
+"Why, it's Jack!" exclaimed the baker, amazed.
+
+"I should say it was," returned Jack. "Aunt, have you got anything to
+eat? I'm 'most famished."
+
+"Where in the name of wonder have you been, Jack?"
+
+"I've been shut up, uncle--boarded and lodged for nothing--by some
+people who liked my company better than I liked theirs. But I've just
+made my escape, and here I am, well, hearty and hungry."
+
+Jack's appetite was soon provided for. He found time between the
+mouthfuls to describe the secret staircase, and his discovery of the
+unlawful occupation of the man who acted as his jailer.
+
+The baker listened with eager interest.
+
+"Jack," said he, "you've done a good stroke of business."
+
+"In getting away?" said Jack.
+
+"No, in ferreting out these counterfeiters. Do you know there is a
+reward of a thousand dollars offered for their apprehension?"
+
+"You don't say so!" exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and fork. "Do
+you think I can get it?"
+
+"You'd better try. The gang has managed matters so shrewdly that the
+authorities have been unable to get any clew to their whereabouts. Can
+you go to the house?"
+
+"Yes; I took particular notice of its location."
+
+"That's lucky. Now, if you take my advice, you'll inform the authorities
+before they have time to get away."
+
+"I'll do it!" said Jack. "Come along, uncle."
+
+Fifteen minutes later, Jack was imparting his information to the chief
+of police. It was received with visible interest and excitement.
+
+"I will detail a squad of men to go with you," said the chief. "Go at
+once. No time is to be lost."
+
+In less than an hour from the time Jack left the haunt of the coiners,
+an authoritative knock was heard at the door.
+
+It was answered by Foley.
+
+The old man turned pale as he set eyes on Jack and the police, and
+comprehended the object of the visit.
+
+"What do you want, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+"Is that the man?" asked the sergeant of Jack.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Secure him."
+
+"I know him," said Foley, with a glance of hatred directed at Jack.
+"He's a thief. He's been in my employ, but he's run away with fifty
+dollars belonging to me."
+
+"I don't care about stealing the kind of money you deal in," said Jack,
+coolly. "It's all a lie this man tells you."
+
+"Why do you arrest me?" said Foley. "It's an outrage. You have no right
+to enter my house like this."
+
+"What is your business?" demanded the police sergeant.
+
+"I'm a physician."
+
+"If you are telling the truth, no harm will be done you. Meanwhile, we
+must search your house. Where is that secret staircase?"
+
+"I'll show you," answered Jack.
+
+He showed the way upstairs.
+
+"How did you get out?" he asked Foley, as he touched the spring, and the
+secret door flew open.
+
+"Curse you!" exclaimed Foley, darting a look of hatred and malignity at
+him. "I wish I had you in my power once more. I treated you too well."
+
+We need not follow the police in their search. The discoveries which
+they made were ample to secure the conviction of the gang who made this
+house the place of their operations. To anticipate a little, we may say
+that Foley was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of years, and his
+subordinates to a term less prolonged. The reader will also be glad to
+know that to our hero was awarded the prize of a thousand dollars which
+had been offered for the apprehension of the gang of counterfeiters.
+
+But there was another notable capture made that day.
+
+Mrs. Hardwick was accustomed to make visits to Foley to secure false
+bills, and to make settlement for what she had succeeded in passing off.
+
+While Jack and the officers were in the house she rang the door bell.
+
+Jack went to the door.
+
+"How is this?" she asked.
+
+"Oh," said Jack, "it's all right. Come in. I've gone into the business,
+too."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick entered. No sooner was she inside than Jack closed the
+door.
+
+"What are you doing?" she demanded, suspiciously. "Let me out."
+
+But Jack was standing with his back to the door. The door to the right
+opened, and a policeman appeared.
+
+"Arrest this woman," said Jack. "She's one of them."
+
+"I suppose I must yield," said Peg, sulkily; "but you shan't be a gainer
+by it," she continued, addressing Jack.
+
+"Where is Ida?" asked our hero, anxiously.
+
+"She is safe," said Peg, sententiously.
+
+"You won't tell me where she is?"
+
+"No; why should I? I suppose I am indebted to you for this arrest. She
+shall be kept out of your way as long as I have power to do so."
+
+"Then I shall find her," said Jack. "She is somewhere in the city, and
+I'll find her sooner or later."
+
+Peg was not one to betray her feelings, but this arrest was a great
+disappointment to her. It interfered with a plan she had of making a
+large sum out of Ida. To understand what this was, we must go back a day
+or two, and introduce a new character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+MR. JOHN SOMERVILLE
+
+
+Jack's appearance on the scene had set Mrs. Hardwick to thinking. This
+was the substance of her reflections: Ida, whom she had kidnaped for
+certain reasons of her own, was likely to prove an incumbrance rather
+than a source of profit. The child, her suspicions awakened in regard to
+the character of the money she had been employed to pass off, was no
+longer available for that purpose.
+
+Under these circumstances Peg bethought herself of the ultimate object
+which she had proposed to herself in kidnaping Ida--that of extorting
+money from a man who has not hitherto figured in our story.
+
+John Somerville occupied a suite of apartments in a handsome lodging
+house in Walnut Street. A man wanting yet several years of forty, he
+looked many years older than that age. Late hours and dissipated habits,
+though kept within respectable limits, left their traces on his face. At
+twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which, combined with
+some professional income--for he was a lawyer, and not without
+ability--was quite sufficient to support him handsomely, and leave a
+considerable surplus every year. But latterly he had contracted a
+passion for gaming, and, shrewd though he might be naturally, he could
+hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily _habitues_ of the
+gaming table, who had marked him for their prey.
+
+The evening before his introduction to the reader he had passed till a
+late hour at a fashionable gaming house, where he had lost heavily.
+
+His reflections on waking were not the most pleasant. For the first time
+within fifteen years he realized the folly and imprudence of the course
+he had pursued. The evening previous he had lost a thousand dollars, for
+which he had given his IOU. Where to raise the money he did not know.
+After making his toilet, he rang the bell and ordered breakfast.
+
+For this he had but scanty appetite. He drank a cup of coffee and ate
+part of a roll. Scarcely had he finished, and directed the removal of
+the dishes, than the servant entered to announce a visitor.
+
+"Is it a gentleman?" he inquired, hastily, fearing that it might be a
+creditor. He occasionally had such visitors.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"A lady?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"A child? But what could a child want of me?"
+
+"No, sir. It isn't a child," said the servant, in reply.
+
+"Then if it's neither a gentleman, lady nor child," said Somerville,
+"will you have the goodness to inform me what sort of a being it is?"
+
+"It's a woman, sir," answered the servant, his gravity unmoved.
+
+"Why didn't you say so when I asked you?"
+
+"Because you asked me if it was a lady, and this isn't--leastways she
+don't look like one."
+
+"You can send her up, whoever she is," said Somerville.
+
+A moment afterward Peg entered his presence.
+
+John Somerville looked at her without much interest, supposing that she
+might be a seamstress, or laundress, or some applicant for charity. So
+many years had passed since he had met with this woman that she had
+passed out of his remembrance.
+
+"Do you wish to see me about anything?" he asked. "You must be quick,
+for I am just going out."
+
+"You don't seem to recognize me, Mr. Somerville."
+
+"I can't say I do," he replied, carelessly. "Perhaps you used to wash
+for me once."
+
+"I am not in the habit of acting as laundress," said the woman, proudly.
+
+"In that case," said Somerville, languidly, "you will have to tell me
+who you are, for it is quite out of my power to remember all the people
+I meet."
+
+"Perhaps the name of Ida will assist your recollection; or have you
+forgotten that name, too?"
+
+"Ida!" repeated John Somerville, throwing off his indifferent manner,
+and surveying the woman's features attentively. "Yes."
+
+"I have known several persons of that name," he said, recovering his
+former indifferent manner. "I haven't the slightest idea to which of
+them you refer. You don't look as if it was your name," he added, with a
+laugh.
+
+"The Ida I mean was and is a child," she said. "But there's no use in
+beating about the bush, Mr. Somerville, when I can come straight to the
+point. It is now about seven years since my husband and myself were
+employed to carry off a child--a female child of a year old--named Ida.
+You were the man who employed us." She said this deliberately, looking
+steadily in his face. "We placed it, according to your directions, on
+the doorstep of a poor family in New York, and they have since cared for
+it as their own. I suppose you have not forgotten that?"
+
+"I remember it," he said, "and now recall your features. How have you
+fared since I employed you? Have you found your business profitable?"
+
+"Far from it," answered Peg. "I am not yet able to retire on a
+competence."
+
+"One of your youthful appearance," said Somerville, banteringly, "ought
+not to think of retiring under ten years."
+
+"I don't care for compliments," she said, "even when they are sincere.
+As for my youthful appearance, I am old enough to have reached the age
+of discretion, and not so old as to have fallen into my second
+childhood."
+
+"Compliments aside, then, will you proceed to whatever business brought
+you here?"
+
+"I want a thousand dollars," said Peg, abruptly.
+
+"A thousand dollars!" repeated Somerville. "Very likely. I should like
+that amount myself. Did you come here to tell me that?"
+
+"I have come here to ask you to give me that amount."
+
+"Have you a husband?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let me suggest that your husband is the proper person to apply to
+in such a case."
+
+"I think I am more likely to get it out of you," said Peg, coolly. "My
+husband couldn't supply me with a thousand cents, even if he were
+willing."
+
+"Much as I am flattered by your application," said Somerville, with a
+polite sneer, "since it would seem to place me next in estimation to
+your husband, I cannot help suggesting that it is not usual to bestow
+such a sum on a stranger, or even a friend, without an equivalent
+rendered."
+
+"I am ready to give you an equivalent."
+
+"Of what nature?"
+
+"I am willing to be silent."
+
+"And how can your silence benefit me?"
+
+"That you will be best able to estimate."
+
+"Explain yourself, and bear in mind that I can bestow little time on
+you."
+
+"I can do that in a few words. You employed me to kidnap a child. I
+believe the law has something to say about that. At any rate, the
+child's mother may have."
+
+"What do you know about the child's mother?" demanded Somerville,
+hastily.
+
+"All about her!" said Peg, emphatically.
+
+"How am I to credit that? It is easy to claim a knowledge you do not
+possess."
+
+"Shall I tell you the whole story, then? In the first place, she married
+your cousin, after rejecting you. You never forgave her for this. When,
+a year after marriage, her husband died, you renewed your proposals.
+They were rejected, and you were forbidden to renew the subject on pain
+of forfeiting her friendship forever. You left her presence, determined
+to be revenged. With this object you sought Dick and myself, and
+employed us to kidnap the child. There is the whole story, briefly
+told."
+
+"Woman, how came this within your knowledge?" he demanded, hoarsely.
+
+"That is of no consequence," said Peg. "It was for my interest to find
+out, and I did so."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I know one thing more--the residence of the child's mother. I hesitated
+this morning whether to come here, or to carry Ida to her mother,
+trusting to her to repay from gratitude what I demand from you because
+it is for your interest to comply with my request."
+
+"You speak of carrying the child to her mother. How can you do that when
+she is in New York?"
+
+"You are mistaken," said Peg, coolly. "She is in Philadelphia."
+
+John Somerville paced the room with hurried steps. Peg felt that she had
+succeeded.
+
+He paused after a while, and stood before her.
+
+"You demand a thousand dollars," he said.
+
+"I do."
+
+"I have not that amount with me. I have recently lost a heavy sum, no
+matter how. But I can probably get it to-day. Call to-morrow at this
+time--no, in the afternoon, and I will see what I can do for you."
+
+"Very well," said the woman, well satisfied.
+
+Left to himself, John Somerville spent some time in reflection.
+Difficulties encompassed him--difficulties from which he found it hard
+to find a way of escape. He knew how difficult it would be to meet this
+woman's demand. Gradually his countenance lightened. He had decided what
+that something should be.
+
+When Peg left John Somerville's apartments, it was with a high degree
+of satisfaction at the result of the interview. All had turned out as
+she wished. She looked upon the thousand dollars as already hers. The
+considerations which she had urged would, she was sure, induce him to
+make every effort to secure her silence.
+
+Then, with a thousand dollars, what might not be done? She would
+withdraw from the business, for one thing. It was too hazardous. Why
+might not Dick and she retire to the country, lease a country inn, and
+live an honest life hereafter? There were times when she grew tired of
+the life she lived at present. It would be pleasant to go to some place
+where they were not known, and enroll themselves among the respectable
+members of the community. She was growing old; she wanted rest and a
+quiet home. Her early years had been passed in the country. She
+remembered still the green fields in which she played as a child, and to
+this woman, old and sin-stained, there came a yearning to have that life
+return.
+
+But her dream was rudely broken by her encounter with the officers of
+the law at the house of her employer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A PROVIDENTIAL MEETING
+
+
+"By gracious, if that isn't Ida!" exclaimed Jack, in profound surprise.
+
+He had been sauntering along Chestnut Street, listlessly troubled by the
+thought that though he had given Mrs. Hardwick into custody, he was
+apparently no nearer the discovery of his young ward than before. What
+steps should he take to find her? He could not decide. In his perplexity
+his eyes rested suddenly upon the print of the "Flower Girl."
+
+"Yes," he said, "that is Ida, fast enough. Perhaps they will know in the
+store where she is to be found."
+
+He at once entered the store.
+
+"Can you tell me anything about the girl in that picture?" he asked,
+abruptly, of the nearest clerk.
+
+"It is a fancy picture," he said. "I think you would need a long time to
+find the original."
+
+"It has taken a long time," said Jack. "But you are mistaken. That is a
+picture of my sister."
+
+"Of your sister!" repeated the salesman, with surprise, half incredulous.
+
+"Yes," persisted Jack. "She is my sister."
+
+"If it is your sister," said the clerk, "you ought to know where she is."
+
+Jack was about to reply, when the attention of both was called by a
+surprised exclamation from a lady who had paused beside them. Her eyes
+also were fixed upon the "Flower Girl."
+
+"Who is this?" she asked, in visible excitement. "Is it taken from
+life?"
+
+"This young man says it is his sister," said the clerk.
+
+"Your sister?" repeated the lady, her eyes fixed inquiringly upon Jack.
+
+In her tone there was a mingling both of surprise and disappointment.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Jack, respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "there is very little personal resemblance. I
+should not have suspected that you were her brother."
+
+"She is not my own sister," explained Jack, "but I love her just the
+same."
+
+"Do you live in Philadelphia? Could I see her?" asked the lady, eagerly.
+
+"I live in New York, madam," said Jack; "but Ida was stolen from us
+about three weeks since, and I have come here in pursuit of her. I have
+not been able to find her yet."
+
+"Did you call her Ida?" demanded the lady, in strange agitation.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"My young friend," said the woman, rapidly, "I have been much interested
+in the story of your sister. I should like to hear more, but not here.
+Would you have any objection to coming home with me, and telling me the
+rest? Then we will together concert measures for recovering her."
+
+"You are very kind, madam," said Jack, bashfully; for the lady was
+elegantly dressed, and it had never been his fortune to converse with a
+lady of her social position. "I shall be glad to go home with you, and
+shall be very much obliged for your advice and assistance."
+
+"Then we will drive home at once."
+
+With natural gallantry, Jack assisted the lady into the carriage, and,
+at her bidding, got in himself.
+
+"Home, Thomas!" she directed the driver; "and drive as fast as possible."
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"How old was your sister when your parents adopted her?" asked
+Mrs. Clifton.
+
+Jack afterward ascertained that this was her name.
+
+"About a year old, madam."
+
+"And how long since was that?" asked the lady, waiting for the answer
+with breathless interest.
+
+"Seven years since. She is now eight."
+
+"It must be," murmured the lady, in low tones. "If it is indeed, as I
+hope, my life will indeed be blessed."
+
+"Did you speak, madam?"
+
+"Tell me under what circumstances your family adopted her."
+
+Jack related briefly how Ida had been left at their door in her infancy.
+
+"And do you recollect the month in which this happened?"
+
+"It was at the close of December, the night before New Year's."
+
+"It is, it must be she!" ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, clasping her hands,
+while tears of joy welled from her eyes.
+
+"I--I don't understand," said Jack, naturally astonished.
+
+"My young friend," said the lady, "our meeting this morning seems
+providential. I have every reason to believe that this child--your
+adopted sister--is my daughter, stolen from me by an unknown enemy at
+the time of which I speak. From that day to this I have never been able
+to obtain the slightest clew that might lead to her discovery. I have
+long taught myself to think of her as dead."
+
+It was Jack's turn to be surprised. He looked at the lady beside him.
+She was barely thirty. The beauty of her girlhood had ripened into the
+maturer beauty of womanhood. There was the same dazzling complexion, the
+same soft flush upon the cheeks. The eyes, too, were wonderfully like
+Ida's. Jack looked, and as he looked he became convinced.
+
+"You must be right," he said. "Ida is very much like you."
+
+"You think so?" said Mrs. Clifton, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"I had a picture--a daguerreotype--taken of Ida just before I lost her;
+I have treasured it carefully. I must show it to you when we get to my
+house."
+
+The carriage stopped before a stately mansion in a wide and quiet
+street. The driver dismounted and opened the door. Jack assisted Mrs.
+Clifton to alight.
+
+Bashfully our hero followed the lady up the steps, and, at her bidding,
+seated himself in an elegant parlor furnished with a splendor which
+excited his admiration and wonder. He had little time to look about him,
+for Mrs. Clifton, without pausing to remove her street attire, hastened
+downstairs with an open daguerreotype in her hand.
+
+"Can you remember Ida when she was first brought to your house?" she
+asked. "Did she look anything like this picture?"
+
+"It is her image," answered Jack, decidedly. "I should know it
+anywhere."
+
+"Then there can be no further doubt," said Mrs. Clifton. "It is my child
+you have cared for so long. Oh! why could I not have known it before?
+How many lonely days and sleepless nights it would have spared me! But
+God be thanked for this late blessing! I shall see my child again."
+
+"I hope so, madam. We must find her."
+
+"What is your name, my young friend?"
+
+"My name is Harding--Jack Harding."
+
+"Jack?" repeated the lady, smiling.
+
+"Yes, madam; that is what they call me. It would not seem natural to be
+called John."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Clifton, with a smile which went to Jack's heart
+at once, and made him think her, if any more beautiful than Ida; "as Ida
+is your adopted sister--"
+
+"I call her my ward. I am her guardian, you know."
+
+"You are a young guardian. But, as I was about to say, that makes us
+connected in some way, doesn't it? I won't call you Mr. Harding, for
+that would sound too formal. I will call you Jack."
+
+"I wish you would," said our hero, his face brightening with pride.
+
+It almost upset him to be called Jack by a beautiful lady, who every day
+of her life was accustomed to live in a splendor which it seemed to Jack
+could not be exceeded even by royal state. Had Mrs. Clifton been Queen
+Victoria herself, he could not have felt a profounder respect and
+veneration for her than he did already.
+
+"Now, Jack," said Mrs. Clifton, in a friendly manner which delighted our
+hero, "we must take measures to discover Ida immediately. I want you to
+tell me about her disappearance from your house, and what steps you have
+taken thus far toward finding her."
+
+Jack began at the beginning and described the appearance of Mrs.
+Hardwick; how she had been permitted to carry Ida away under false
+representations, and the manner in which he had tracked her to
+Philadelphia. He spoke finally of her arrest, and her obstinate refusal
+to impart any information as to where Ida was concealed.
+
+Mrs. Clifton listened attentively and anxiously. There were more
+difficulties in the way than she had supposed.
+
+"Can you think of any plan, Jack?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Jack. "The man who painted the picture of Ida may
+know where she is to be found."
+
+"You are right," said the lady. "I will act upon your hint. I will order
+the carriage again instantly, and we will at once go back to the print
+store."
+
+An hour later Henry Bowen was surprised by the visit of an elegant lady
+to his studio, accompanied by a young man of seventeen.
+
+"I think you are the artist who designed 'The Flower Girl,'" said Mrs.
+Clifton.
+
+"I am, madam."
+
+"It was taken from life?"
+
+"You are right."
+
+"I am anxious to find the little girl whose face you copied. Can you
+give me any directions that will enable me to find her?"
+
+"I will accompany you to the place where she lives, if you desire it,
+madam," said the young artist, politely. "It is a strange neighborhood
+in which to look for so much beauty."
+
+"I shall be deeply indebted to you if you will oblige me so far," said
+Mrs. Clifton. "My carriage is below, and my coachman will obey your
+orders."
+
+Once more they were on the move. In due time the carriage paused. The
+driver opened the door. He was evidently quite scandalized at the idea
+of bringing his mistress to such a place.
+
+"This can't be the place, madam," he said.
+
+"Yes," said the artist. "Do not get out, Mrs. Clifton. I will go in, and
+find out all that is needful."
+
+Two minutes later he returned, looking disappointed.
+
+"We are too late," he said. "An hour since a gentleman called, and took
+away the child."
+
+Mrs. Clifton sank back in her seat in keen disappointment.
+
+"My child! my child!" she murmured. "Shall I ever see thee again?"
+
+Jack, too, felt more disappointed than he was willing to acknowledge. He
+could not conjecture what gentleman could have carried away Ida. The
+affair seemed darker and mere complicated than ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+IDA IS FOUND
+
+
+Ida was sitting alone in the dreary apartment which she was now obliged
+to call home. Peg had gone out, and, not feeling quite certain of her
+prey, had bolted the door on the outside. She had left some work for the
+child--some handkerchiefs to hem for Dick--with strict orders to keep
+steadily at work.
+
+While seated at work, she was aroused from thoughts of home by a knock
+at the door.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Ida.
+
+"A friend," was the reply.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick--Peg--isn't at home," returned Ida.
+
+"Then I will come in and wait till she comes back," answered the voice
+outside.
+
+"I can't open the door," said the child. "It's fastened outside."
+
+"Yes, so I see. Then I will take the liberty to draw the bolt."
+
+Mr. John Somerville opened the door, and for the first time in seven
+years his glance fell upon the child whom for so long a time he had
+defrauded of a mother's care and tenderness.
+
+Ida returned to the window.
+
+"How beautiful she is!" thought Somerville, with surprise. "She inherits
+all her mother's rare beauty."
+
+On the table beside Ida was a drawing. "Whose is this?" he inquired.
+
+"Mine," answered Ida.
+
+"So you have learned to draw?"
+
+"A little," answered the child, modestly.
+
+"Who taught you? Not the woman you live with?"
+
+"No," said Ida.
+
+"You have not always lived with her, I am sure?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"You lived in New York with a family named Harding, did you not?"
+
+"Do you know father and mother?" asked Ida, with sudden hope. "Did they
+send you for me?"
+
+"I will tell you that by and by, my child. But I want to ask you a few
+questions first. Why does this woman, Peg, lock you in whenever she goes
+away?"
+
+"I suppose," said Ida, "she is afraid I'll run away."
+
+"Then she knows you don't want to live with her?"
+
+"Oh, yes, she knows that," said the child, frankly. "I have asked her to
+take me home, but she says she won't for a year."
+
+"And how long have you been with her?"
+
+"About three weeks, but it seems a great deal longer."
+
+"What does she make you do?"
+
+"I can't tell what she made me do first."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because she would be very angry."
+
+"Suppose I should promise to deliver you from her, would you be willing
+to go with me?"
+
+"And you would carry me back to my father and mother?" asked Ida,
+eagerly.
+
+"Certainly, I would restore you to your mother," was the evasive reply.
+
+"Then I will go with you."
+
+Ida ran quickly to get her bonnet and shawl.
+
+"We had better go at once," said Somerville. "Peg might return, you
+know, and then there would be trouble."
+
+"Oh, yes, let us go quickly," said Ida, turning pale at the remembered
+threats of Peg.
+
+Neither knew as yet that Peg could not return if she would; that, at
+this very moment, she was in legal custody on a charge of a serious
+nature. Still less did Ida know that in going she was losing the chance
+of seeing Jack and her real mother, of whose existence, even, she was
+not yet aware; and that this man, whom she looked upon as her friend,
+was in reality her worst enemy.
+
+"I will conduct you to my own rooms, in the first place," said her
+companion. "You must remain in concealment for a day or two, as Peg will
+undoubtedly be on the look-out for you, and we want to avoid all
+trouble."
+
+Ida was delighted with her escape, and with the thoughts of soon seeing
+her friends in New York. She put implicit faith in her guide, and was
+willing to submit to any conditions which he saw fit to impose.
+
+At length they reached his lodgings.
+
+They were furnished more richly than any room Ida had yet seen; and
+formed, indeed, a luxurious contrast to the dark and scantily furnished
+apartment which she had occupied since her arrival in Philadelphia.
+
+"Well, you are glad to get away from Peg?" asked John Somerville, giving
+Ida a comfortable seat.
+
+"Oh, so glad!" said Ida.
+
+"And you wouldn't care about going back?"
+
+The child shuddered.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "Peg will be very angry. She would beat me, if
+she got me back again."
+
+"But she shan't. I will take good care of that."
+
+Ida looked her gratitude. Her heart went out to those who appeared to
+deal kindly with her, and she felt very grateful to her companion for
+delivering her from Peg.
+
+"Now," said Somerville, "perhaps you will be willing to tell me what it
+was Peg required you to do."
+
+"Yes," said Ida; "but she must never know that I told."
+
+"I promise not to tell her."
+
+"It was to pass bad money."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed her companion, quickly. "What sort of bad money?"
+
+"It was bad bills."
+
+"Did she do much in that way?"
+
+"A good deal. She goes out every day to buy things with the money."
+
+"I am glad to learn this," said John Somerville, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why?" asked Ida, curiously; "are you glad she is wicked?"
+
+"I am glad, because she won't dare to come for you, knowing I can have
+her put in prison."
+
+"Then I am glad, too."
+
+"Ida," said her companion, after a pause, "I am obliged to go out for a
+short time. You will find books on the table, and can amuse yourself by
+reading. I won't make you sew, as Peg did," he added, smiling.
+
+"I like to read," she said. "I shall enjoy myself very well."
+
+"If you get tired of reading, you can draw. You will find plenty of
+paper on my desk."
+
+Mr. Somerville went out, and Ida, as he had recommended, read for a
+time. Then, growing tired, she went to the window and looked out. A
+carriage was passing up the street slowly, on account of a press of
+other carriages. Ida saw a face that she knew. Forgetting her bonnet in
+her sudden joy, she ran down the stairs into the street, and up to the
+carriage window.
+
+"Oh! Jack!" she exclaimed; "have you come for me?"
+
+It was Mrs. Clifton's carriage, just returning from Peg's lodgings.
+
+"Why, it's Ida!" exclaimed Jack, almost springing through the window of
+the carriage in his excitement. "Where did you come from, and where have
+you been all this time?"
+
+He opened the door of the carriage and drew Ida in.
+
+"My child, my child! Thank God, you are restored to me!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Clifton.
+
+She drew the astonished child to her bosom. Ida looked up into her face
+in bewilderment. Was it nature that prompted her to return the lady's
+embrace?
+
+"My God! I thank thee!" murmured Mrs. Clifton, "for this, my child, was
+lost, and is found."
+
+"Ida," said Jack, "this lady is your mother."
+
+"My mother!" repeated the astonished child. "Have I got two mothers?"
+
+"This is your real mother. You were brought to our house when you were
+an infant, and we have always taken care of you; but this lady is your
+real mother."
+
+Ida hardly knew whether to feel glad or sorry.
+
+"And you are not my brother, Jack?"
+
+"No, I am your guardian," said Jack, smiling.
+
+"You shall still consider him your brother, Ida," said Mrs. Clifton.
+"Heaven forbid that I should seek to wean your heart from the friends
+who have cared so kindly for you! You may keep all your old friends, and
+love them as dearly as ever. You will only have one friend the more."
+
+"Where are we going?" asked Ida, suddenly.
+
+"We are going home."
+
+"What will the gentleman say?"
+
+"What gentleman?"
+
+"The one that took me away from Peg's. Why, there he is now!"
+
+Mrs. Clifton followed the direction of Ida's finger, as she pointed to a
+gentleman passing.
+
+"Is he the one?" asked Mrs. Clifton, in surprise.
+
+"Yes, mamma," answered Ida, shyly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton pressed Ida to her bosom. It was the first time she had
+ever been called mamma, for when Ida had been taken from her she was too
+young to speak. The sudden thrill which this name excited made her
+realize the full measure of her present happiness.
+
+Arrived at the house, Jack's bashfulness returned. Even Ida's presence
+did not remove it. He hung back, and hesitated about going in.
+
+Mrs. Clifton observed this.
+
+"Jack," she said, "this house is to be your home while you are in
+Philadelphia. Come in, and Thomas shall go for your luggage."
+
+"Perhaps I had better go with him," said Jack. "Uncle Abel will be glad
+to know that Ida is found."
+
+"Very well; only return soon. As you are Ida's guardian," she added,
+smiling, "you will need to watch over her."
+
+"Well!" thought Jack, as he re-entered the elegant carriage, and gave
+the proper direction to the coachman, "won't Uncle Abel be a little
+surprised when he sees me coming home in this style! Mrs. Clifton's a
+trump! Maybe that ain't exactly the word, but Ida's in luck anyhow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND
+
+
+Meanwhile Peg was passing her time wearily enough in prison. It was
+certainly provoking to be deprived of her freedom just when she was
+likely to make it most profitable. After some reflection she determined
+to send for Mrs. Clifton, and reveal to her all she knew, trusting to
+her generosity for a recompense.
+
+To one of the officers of the prison she communicated the intelligence
+that she had an important revelation to make to Mrs. Clifton, absolutely
+refusing to make it unless the lady would visit her in prison.
+
+Scarcely had Mrs. Clifton returned home after recovering her child, than
+the bell rang, and a stranger was introduced.
+
+"Is this Mrs. Clifton?" he inquired.
+
+"It is."
+
+"Then I have a message for you."
+
+The lady looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"Let me introduce myself, madam, as one of the officers connected with
+the city prison. A woman was placed in confinement this morning, who
+says she has a most important communication to make to you, but declines
+to make it except to you in person."
+
+"Can you bring her here, sir?"
+
+"That is impossible. We will give you every facility, however, for
+visiting her in prison."
+
+"It must be Peg," whispered Ida--"the woman that carried me off."
+
+Such a request Mrs. Clifton could not refuse. She at once made ready to
+accompany the officer. She resolved to carry Ida with her, fearful that,
+unless she kept her in her immediate presence, she might disappear again
+as before.
+
+As Jack had not yet returned, a hack was summoned, and they proceeded at
+once to the prison. Ida shuddered as she passed within the gloomy portal
+which shut out hope and the world from so many.
+
+"This way, madam!"
+
+They followed the officer through a gloomy corridor, until they came to
+the cell in which Peg was confined.
+
+Peg looked up in surprise when she saw Ida enter with Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"What brought you two together?" she asked, abruptly.
+
+"A blessed Providence," answered Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"I saw Jack with her," said Ida, "and I ran out into the street. I
+didn't expect to find my mother."
+
+"There is not much for me to tell, then," said Peg. "I had made up my
+mind to restore you to your mother. You see, Ida, I've moved," she
+continued, smiling grimly.
+
+"Oh, Peg," said Ida, her tender heart melted by the woman's misfortunes,
+"how sorry I am to find you here!"
+
+"Are you sorry?" asked Peg, looking at her in curious surprise. "You
+haven't much cause to be. I've been your worst enemy; at any rate, one
+of the worst."
+
+"I can't help it," said the child, her face beaming with a divine
+compassion. "It must be so sad to be shut up here, and not be able to go
+out into the bright sunshine. I do pity you."
+
+Peg's heart was not wholly hardened. Few are. But it was long since it
+had been touched, as now, by this warm-hearted pity on the part of one
+whom she had injured.
+
+"You're a good girl, Ida," she said, "and I'm sorry I've injured you. I
+didn't think I should ever ask forgiveness of anybody; but I do ask your
+forgiveness."
+
+The child rose, and advancing toward her old enemy, took her large hand
+in hers and said: "I forgive you, Peg."
+
+"From your heart?"
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+"Thank you, child. I feel better now. There have been times when I have
+thought I should like to lead a better life."
+
+"It is not too late now, Peg."
+
+Peg shook her head.
+
+"Who will trust me when I come out of here?" she said.
+
+"I will," said Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"You will?" repeated Peg, amazed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"After all I have done to harm you! But I am not quite so bad as you may
+think. It was not my plan to take Ida from you. I was poor, and money
+tempted me."
+
+"Who could have had an interest in doing me this cruel wrong?" asked the
+mother.
+
+"One whom you know well--Mr. John Somerville."
+
+"Surely you are wrong!" exclaimed Mrs. Clifton, in unbounded
+astonishment. "That cannot be. What object could he have?"
+
+"Can you think of none?" queried Peg, looking at her shrewdly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton changed color.
+
+"Perhaps so," she said. "Go on."
+
+Peg told the whole story, so circumstantially that there was no room for
+doubt.
+
+"I did not believe him capable of such great wickedness," ejaculated
+Mrs. Clifton, with a pained and indignant look. "It was a base, unmanly
+revenge to take. How could you lend yourself to it?"
+
+"How could I?" repeated Peg. "Madam, you are rich. You have always had
+whatever wealth could procure. How can such as you understand the
+temptations of the poor? When want and hunger stare us in the face we
+have not the strength that you have in your luxurious homes."
+
+"Pardon me," said Mrs. Clifton, touched by these words, half bitter,
+half pathetic. "Let me, at any rate, thank you for the service you have
+done me now. When you are released from your confinement come to me. If
+you wish to change your mode of life, and live honestly henceforth, I
+will give you the chance."
+
+"After all the injury I have done you, you are yet willing to trust me?"
+
+"Who am I that I should condemn you? Yes, I will trust you, and forgive
+you."
+
+"I never expected to hear such words," said Peg, her heart softened, and
+her arid eyes moistened by unwonted emotion; "least of all from you. I
+should like to ask one thing."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Will you let her come and see me sometimes?" pointing to Ida as she
+spoke. "It will remind me that this is not all a dream--these words
+which you have spoken."
+
+"She shall come," said Mrs. Clifton, "and I will come too, sometimes."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+They left the prison behind them, and returned home.
+
+There was a visitor awaiting them.
+
+"Mr. Somerville is in the drawing room," said the servant. "He said he
+would wait till you came in."
+
+Mrs. Clifton's face flushed.
+
+"I will go down and see him," she said. "Ida, you will remain here."
+
+She descended to the drawing room, and met the man who had injured her.
+He had come with the resolve to stake his all upon one desperate cast.
+His fortunes were desperate. But he had one hope left. Through the
+mother's love for the daughter, whom she had mourned so long, whom as he
+believed he had it in his power to restore to her, he hoped to obtain
+her consent to a marriage which would retrieve his fortunes and gratify
+his ambition.
+
+Mrs. Clifton entered the room, and seated herself quietly. She bowed
+slightly, but did not, as usual, offer her hand. But, full of his own
+plans, Mr. Somerville took no note of this change in her manner.
+
+"How long is it since Ida was lost?" inquired Somerville, abruptly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton heard this question in surprise. Why was it that he had
+alluded to this subject?
+
+"Seven years," she answered.
+
+"And you believe she yet lives?"
+
+"Yes, I am certain of it."
+
+John Somerville did not understand her. He thought it was only because a
+mother is reluctant to give up hope.
+
+"It is a long time," he said.
+
+"It is--a long time to suffer," said Mrs. Clifton, with deep meaning.
+"How could anyone have the heart to work me this great injury? For seven
+years I have led a sad and solitary life--seven years that might have
+been gladdened and cheered by my darling's presence!"
+
+There was something in her tone that puzzled John Somerville, but he was
+far enough from suspecting that she knew the truth, and at last knew him
+too.
+
+"Rosa," he said, after a pause, "I, too, believe that Ida still lives.
+Do you love her well enough to make a sacrifice for the sake of
+recovering her?"
+
+"What sacrifice?" she asked, fixing her eye upon him.
+
+"A sacrifice of your feelings."
+
+"Explain. You speak in enigmas."
+
+"Listen, then. I have already told you that I, too, believe Ida to be
+living. Indeed, I have lately come upon a clew which I think will lead
+me to her. Withdraw the opposition you have twice made to my suit,
+promise me that you will reward my affection by your hand if I succeed,
+and I will devote myself to the search for Ida, resting not day or night
+till I have placed her in your arms. This I am ready to do. If I
+succeed, may I claim my reward?"
+
+"What reason have you for thinking you would be able to find her?" asked
+Mrs. Clifton, with the same inexplicable manner.
+
+"The clew that I spoke of."
+
+"And are you not generous enough to exert yourself without demanding of
+me this sacrifice?"
+
+"No, Rosa," he answered, firmly, "I am not unselfish enough. I have long
+loved you. You may not love me; but I am sure I can make you happy. I am
+forced to show myself selfish, since it is the only way in which I can
+win you."
+
+"But consider a moment. Put it on a different ground. If you restore me
+my child now, will not even that be a poor atonement for the wrong you
+did me seven years since"--she spoke rapidly now--"for the grief, and
+loneliness, and sorrow which your wickedness and cruelty have wrought?"
+
+"I do not understand you," he said, faltering.
+
+"It is sufficient explanation, Mr. Somerville, to say I have seen the
+woman who is now in prison--your paid agent--and that I need no
+assistance to recover Ida. She is in my house."
+
+"Confusion!"
+
+He uttered only this word, and, rising, left the presence of the woman
+whom he had so long deceived and injured.
+
+His grand scheme had failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+JACK'S RETURN
+
+
+It is quite time to return to New York, from which Ida was carried but
+three short weeks before.
+
+"I am beginning to feel anxious about Jack," said Mrs. Harding. "It's
+more than a week since we heard from him. I'm afraid he's got into some
+trouble."
+
+"Probably he's too busy to write," said the cooper, wishing to relieve
+his wife's anxiety, though he, too, was not without anxiety.
+
+"I told you so," said Rachel, in one of her usual fits of depression.
+"I told you Jack wasn't fit to be sent on such an errand. If you'd only
+taken my advice you wouldn't have had so much worry and trouble about
+him now. Most likely he's got into the House of Reformation, or
+somewhere. I knew a young man once who went away from home, and never
+came back again. Nobody ever knew what became of him till his body was
+found in the river half eaten by fishes."
+
+"How can you talk so, Rachel?" said Mrs. Harding, "and about your own
+nephew, too?"
+
+"This is a world of trial and disappointment," said Rachel, "and we
+might as well expect the worst, for it's sure to come."
+
+"At that rate there wouldn't be much joy in life," said Timothy.
+"No, Rachel, you are wrong. God did not send us into the world to be
+melancholy. He wants us to enjoy ourselves. Now, I have no idea that
+Jack has jumped into the river, or become food for the fishes. Even if
+he should happen to tumble in, he can swim."
+
+"I suppose," said Rachel, with mild sarcasm, "you expect him to come
+home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him."
+
+"Well," said the cooper, good-humoredly, "that's a good deal better to
+anticipate than your suggestion, and I don't know but it's as probable."
+
+Rachel shook her head dismally.
+
+"Bless me!" interrupted Mrs. Harding, looking out of the window, in a
+tone of excitement, "there's a carriage just stopped at the door,
+and--yes, it is Jack and Ida, too!"
+
+The strange fulfillment of her own ironical suggestion struck even Aunt
+Rachel. She, too, hastened to the window, and saw a handsome carriage
+drawn, not by four horses, but by two, standing before the door.
+
+Jack had already jumped out, and was now assisting Ida to alight. No
+sooner was Ida on firm ground than she ran into the house, and was at
+once clasped in the arms of her adopted mother.
+
+"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to see you once more!"
+
+"Haven't you a kiss for me, too, Ida?" said the cooper, his face radiant
+with joy. "You don't know how much we've missed you."
+
+"And I am so glad to see you all, and Aunt Rachel too!"
+
+To her astonishment, Aunt Rachel, for the first time in her remembrance,
+kissed her. There was nothing wanting to her welcome home.
+
+But the observant eyes of the spinster detected what had escaped the
+cooper and his wife, in their joy at Ida's return.
+
+"Where did you get this handsome dress, Ida?" she asked.
+
+Then, for the first time, the cooper's family noticed that Ida was more
+elegantly dressed than when she went away. She looked like a young
+princess.
+
+"That Mrs. Hardwick didn't give you this gown, I'll be bound!" said Aunt
+Rachel.
+
+"Oh, I've so much to tell you," said Ida, breathlessly. "I've found my
+mother--my other mother!"
+
+A pang struck to the honest hearts of Timothy Harding and his wife. Ida
+must leave them. After all the happy years which they had watched over
+and cared for her, she must leave them at length.
+
+While they were silent in view of their threatened loss, an elegantly
+dressed lady appeared on the threshold. Smiling, radiant with happiness,
+Mrs. Clifton seemed, to the cooper's family, almost a being from another
+sphere.
+
+"Mother," said Ida, taking the hand of the stranger, and leading her up
+to Mrs. Harding, "this is my other mother, who has always taken such
+good care of me, and loved me so well."
+
+"Mrs. Harding," said Mrs, Clifton, her voice full of feeling, "how can I
+ever thank you for your kindness to my child?"
+
+"My child!"
+
+It was hard for Mrs. Harding to hear another speak of Ida this way.
+
+"I have tried to do my duty by her," she said, simply. "I love her as if
+she were my own."
+
+"Yes," said the cooper, clearing his throat, and speaking a little
+huskily, "we love her so much that we almost forgot that she wasn't
+ours. We have had her since she was a baby, and it won't be easy at
+first to give her up."
+
+"My good friends," said Mrs. Clifton, earnestly, "I acknowledge your
+claim. I shall not think of asking you to make that sacrifice. I shall
+always think of Ida as only a little less yours than mine."
+
+The cooper shook his head.
+
+"But you live in Philadelphia," he said. "We shall lose sight of her."
+
+"Not unless you refuse to come to Philadelphia, too."
+
+"I am a poor man. Perhaps I might not find work there."
+
+"That shall be my care, Mr. Harding. I have another inducement to offer.
+God has bestowed upon me a large share of this world's goods. I am
+thankful for it since it will enable me in some slight way to express my
+sense of your great kindness to Ida. I own a neat brick house, in a
+quiet street, which you will find more comfortable than this. Just
+before I left Philadelphia, my lawyer, by my directions, drew up a deed
+of gift, conveying the house to you. It is Ida's gift, not mine. Ida,
+give this to Mr. Harding."
+
+The child took the parchment and handed it to the cooper, who took it
+mechanically, quite bewildered by his sudden good fortune.
+
+"This for me?" he said.
+
+"It is the first installment of my debt of gratitude; it shall not be
+the last," said Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"How shall I thank you, madam?" said the cooper. "To a poor man, like
+me, this is a most munificent gift."
+
+"You will best thank me by accepting it," said Mrs. Clifton. "Let me
+add, for I know it will enhance the value of the gift in your eyes, that
+it is only five minutes' walk from my house, and Ida will come and see
+you every day."
+
+"Yes, mamma," said Ida. "I couldn't be happy away from father and
+mother, and Jack and Aunt Rachel."
+
+"You must introduce me to Aunt Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton, with a grace
+all her own.
+
+Ida did so.
+
+"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton.
+"I need not say that I shall be glad to see you, as well as Mr. and Mrs.
+Harding, at my house very frequently."
+
+"I'm much obleeged to ye," said Aunt Rachel; "but I don't think I shall
+live long to go anywheres. The feelin's I have sometimes warn me that
+I'm not long for this world."
+
+"You see, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, his eyes dancing with mischief, "we
+come of a short-lived family. Grandmother died at eighty-two, and that
+wouldn't give Aunt Rachel long to live."
+
+"You impudent boy!" exclaimed Aunt Rachel, in great indignation. Then,
+relapsing into melancholy: "I'm a poor, afflicted creetur, and the
+sooner I leave this scene of trial the better."
+
+"I'm afraid, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, "Aunt Rachel won't live to wear
+that silk dress you brought along. I'd take it myself, but I'm afraid it
+wouldn't be of any use to me."
+
+"A silk dress!" exclaimed Rachel, looking up with sudden animation.
+
+It had long been her desire to have a new silk dress, but in her
+brother's circumstances she had not ventured to hint at it.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Clifton, "I ventured to purchase dresses for both of
+the ladies. Jack, if it won't be too much trouble, will you bring them
+in?"
+
+Jack darted out, and returned with two ample patterns of heavy black
+silk, one for his mother, the other for his aunt. Aunt Rachel would not
+have been human if she had not eagerly examined the rich fabric with
+secret satisfaction. She inwardly resolved to live a little longer.
+
+There was a marked improvement in her spirits, and she indulged in no
+prognostications of evil for an unusual period.
+
+Mrs. Clifton and Ida stopped to supper, and before they returned to the
+hotel an early date was fixed upon for the Hardings to remove to
+Philadelphia.
+
+In the evening Jack told the eventful story of his adventures to eager
+listeners, closing with the welcome news that he was to receive the
+reward of a thousand dollars offered for the detection of the
+counterfeiters.
+
+"So you see, father, I am a man of fortune!" he concluded.
+
+"After all, Rachel, it was a good thing we sent Jack to Philadelphia,"
+said the cooper.
+
+Rachel did not notice this remark. She was busily discussing with her
+sister-in-law the best way of making up her new silk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+As soon as arrangements could be made, Mr. Harding and his whole family
+removed to Philadelphia. The house which Mrs. Clifton had given them
+exceeded their anticipations. It was so much better and larger than
+their former dwelling that their furniture would have appeared to great
+disadvantage in it. But Mrs. Clifton had foreseen this, and they found
+the house already furnished for their reception. Even Aunt Rachel was
+temporarily exhilarated in spirits when she was ushered into the neatly
+furnished chamber which was assigned to her use.
+
+Through Mrs. Clifton's influence the cooper was enabled to establish
+himself in business on a larger scale, and employ others, instead of
+working himself for hire. Ida was such a frequent visitor that it was
+hard to tell which she considered her home--her mother's elegant
+residence, or the cooper's comfortable dwelling.
+
+Jack put his thousand dollars into a savings bank, to accumulate till he
+should be ready to go into business for himself, and required it as
+capital. A situation was found for him in a merchant's counting-room, and
+in due time he was admitted into partnership and became a thriving young
+merchant.
+
+Ida grew lovelier as she grew older, and her rare beauty and attractive
+manners caused her to be sought after. It may be that some of my readers
+are expecting that she will marry Jack; but they will probably be
+disappointed. They are too much like brother and sister for such a
+relation to be thought of. Jack reminds her occasionally of the time
+when she was his little ward, and he was her guardian and protector.
+
+One day, as Rachel was walking up Chestnut Street, she was astonished by
+a hearty grasp of the hand from a bronzed and weather-beaten stranger.
+
+"Release me, sir," she said, hysterically. "What do you mean by such
+conduct?"
+
+"Surely you have not forgotten your old friend, Capt. Bowling," said the
+stranger.
+
+Rachel brightened up.
+
+"I didn't remember you at first," she said, "but now I do."
+
+"Now tell me, how are all your family?"
+
+"They are all well, all except me--I don't think I am long for this
+world."
+
+"Oh, yes, you are. You are too young to think of leaving us yet," said
+Capt. Bowling, heartily.
+
+Rachel was gratified by this unusual compliment.
+
+"Are you married?" asked Capt. Bowling, abruptly.
+
+"I shall never marry," she said. "I shouldn't dare to trust my happiness
+to a man."
+
+"Not if I were that man?" said the captain, persuasively.
+
+"Oh, Capt. Bowling!" murmured Rachel, agitated. "How can you say such
+things?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, Miss Harding. I'm going to give up the sea, and
+settle down on land. I shall need a good, sensible wife, and if you'll
+take me, I'll make you Mrs. Bowling at once."
+
+"This is so unexpected, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel; but she did not
+look displeased. "Do you think it would be proper to marry so suddenly?"
+
+"It will be just the thing to do. Now, what do you say--yes or no."
+
+"If you really think it will be right," faltered the agitated spinster.
+
+"Then it's all settled?"
+
+"What will Timothy say?"
+
+"That you've done a sensible thing."
+
+Two hours later, leaning on Capt. Bowling's arm, Mrs. Rachel Bowling
+re-entered her brother's house.
+
+"Why, Rachel, where have you been?" asked Mrs. Harding, and she looked
+hard at Rachel's companion.
+
+"This is my consort, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel, nervously.
+
+"This is Mrs. Bowling, ma'am," said the captain.
+
+"When were you married?" asked the cooper. It was dinner time, and both
+he and Jack were at home.
+
+"Only an hour ago. We'd have invited you, but time was pressing."
+
+"I thought you never meant to be married, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+mischievously.
+
+"I--I don't expect to live long, and it won't make much difference,"
+said Rachel.
+
+"You'll have to consult me about that," said Capt. Bowling. "I don't
+want you to leave me a widower too soon."
+
+"I propose that we drink Mrs. Bowling's health," said Jack. "Can anybody
+tell me why she's like a good ship?"
+
+"Because she's got a good captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"That'll do, mother; but there's another reason--because she's well
+manned."
+
+Capt. Bowling evidently appreciated the joke, judging from his hearty
+laughter. He added that it wouldn't be his fault if she wasn't well
+rigged, too.
+
+The marriage has turned out favorably. The captain looks upon his wife
+as a superior woman, and Rachel herself has few fits of depression
+nowadays. They have taken a small house near Mr. Harding's, and Rachel
+takes no little pride in her snug and comfortable home.
+
+One word more. At the close of her term of imprisonment, Peg came to
+Mrs. Clifton and reminded her of her promise. Dick was dead, and she was
+left alone in the world. Imprisonment had not hardened her, as it often
+does. She had been redeemed by the kindness of those whom she had
+injured. Mrs. Clifton found her a position, in which her energy and
+administrative ability found fitting exercise, and she leads a laborious
+and useful life in a community where her history is not known. As for
+John Somerville, with the last remnants of a once handsome fortune, he
+purchased a ticket to Australia, and set out on a voyage for that
+distant country. But he never reached his destination. The vessel was
+wrecked in a violent storm, and he was not among the four that were
+saved. Henceforth Ida and her mother are far from his evil machinations,
+and we may confidently hope for them a happy and peaceful life.
+
+
+The next volume in this series will be SHIFTING FOR HIMSELF.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10729 ***
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jack's Ward, by Horatio Alger, Jr.</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10729 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Jack's Ward, by Horatio Alger, Jr.</h1>
+
+  <hr class="full">
+
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      JACK'S WARD
+    </h1>
+    <center>
+      OR
+    </center>
+    <h2>
+      THE BOY GUARDIAN
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      <b>BY HORATIO ALGER, JR.</b>
+    </center>
+
+<br>
+    <center>
+      1910
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table border="0" summary="" align="center">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#BIB">BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY</a><br>
+           &nbsp;<br>
+           <a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I&mdash;JACK HARDING GETS A
+          JOB</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II&mdash;THE EVENTS OF AN
+          EVENING</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III&mdash;JACK'S NEW PLAN</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV&mdash;MRS. HARDING TAKES A
+          BOARDER</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V&mdash;THE CAPTAIN'S
+          DEPARTURE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI&mdash;THE LANDLORD'S
+          VISIT</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII&mdash;THE NEW YEAR'S
+          GIFT</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII&mdash;A LUCKY RESCUE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH9">CHAPTER IX&mdash;WHAT THE ENVELOPE
+          CONTAINED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH10">CHAPTER X&mdash;JACK'S MISCHIEF</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH11">CHAPTER XI&mdash;MISS HARDING'S
+          MISTAKE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH12">CHAPTER XII&mdash;SEVEN YEARS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH13">CHAPTER XIII&mdash;A MYSTERIOUS
+          VISITOR</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH14">CHAPTER XIV&mdash;PREPARING FOR A
+          JOURNEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH15">CHAPTER XV&mdash;THE JOURNEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH16">CHAPTER XVI&mdash;UNEXPECTED
+          QUARTERS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH17">CHAPTER XVII&mdash;SUSPENSE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH18">CHAPTER XVIII&mdash;HOW IDA
+          FARED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH19">CHAPTER XIX&mdash;BAD MONEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH20">CHAPTER XX&mdash;DOUBTS AND
+          FEARS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH21">CHAPTER XXI&mdash;AUNT RACHEL'S
+          MISHAPS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH22">CHAPTER XXII&mdash;THE FLOWER
+          GIRL</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH23">CHAPTER XXIII&mdash;JACK OBTAINS
+          INFORMATION</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH24">CHAPTER XXIV&mdash;JACK'S
+          DISCOVERY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH25">CHAPTER XXV&mdash;CAUGHT IN A
+          TRAP</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH26">CHAPTER XXVI&mdash;DR. ROBINSON</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH27">CHAPTER XXVII&mdash;JACK BEGINS TO
+          REALIZE HIS SITUATION</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH28">CHAPTER XXVIII&mdash;THE SECRET
+          STAIRCASE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH29">CHAPTER XXIX&mdash;JACK IS
+          DETECTED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH30">CHAPTER XXX&mdash;JACK'S TRIUMPH</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH31">CHAPTER XXXI&mdash;MR. JOHN
+          SOMERVILLE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH32">CHAPTER XXXII&mdash;A PROVIDENTIAL
+          MEETING</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH33">CHAPTER XXXIII&mdash;IDA IS
+          FOUND</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH34">CHAPTER XXXIV&mdash;NEVER TOO LATE TO
+          MEND</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH35">CHAPTER XXXV&mdash;JACK'S RETURN</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH36">CHAPTER XXXVI&mdash;CONCLUSION</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="BIB"><!-- BIB --></a>
+    <h2>
+      BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Horatio Alger, Jr., an author who lived among and for boys
+      and himself remained a boy in heart and association till
+      death, was born at Revere, Mass., January 13, 1834. He was
+      the son of a clergyman; was graduated at Harvard College in
+      1852, and at its Divinity School in 1860; and was pastor of
+      the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass., in 1862-66.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter year he settled in New York and began drawing
+      public attention to the condition and needs of street boys.
+      He mingled with them, gained their confidence, showed a
+      personal concern in their affairs, and stimulated them to
+      honest and useful living. With his first story he won the
+      hearts of all red-blooded boys everywhere, and of the seventy
+      or more that followed over a million copies were sold during
+      the author's lifetime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his later life he was in appearance a short, stout,
+      bald-headed man, with cordial manners and whimsical views of
+      things that amused all who met him. He died at Natick, Mass.,
+      July 18, 1899.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Alger's stories are as popular now as when first
+      published, because they treat of real live boys who were
+      always up and about&mdash;just like the boys found everywhere
+      to-day. They are pure in tone and inspiring in influence, and
+      many reforms in the juvenile life of New York may be traced
+      to them. Among the best known are:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Strong and Steady; Strive and Succeed; Try and Trust;
+      Bound to Rise; Risen from the Ranks; Herbert Carter's Legacy;
+      Brave and Bold; Jack's Ward; Shifting for Himself; Wait and
+      Hope; Paul the Peddler; Phil the Fiddler; Slow and Sure;
+      Julius the Street Boy; Tom the Bootblack; Struggling Upward;
+      Facing the World; The Cash Boy; Making His Way; Tony the
+      Tramp; Joe's Luck; Do and Dare; Only an Irish Boy; Sink or
+      Swim; A Cousin's Conspiracy; Andy Gordon; Bob Burton; Harry
+      Vane; Hector's Inheritance; Mark Mason's Triumph; Sam's
+      Chance; The Telegraph Boy; The Young Adventurer; The Young
+      Outlaw; The Young Salesman</i>, and <i>Luke Walton</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="RULE4_2"><!-- RULE4 2 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      JACK'S WARD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK HARDING GETS A JOB
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Look here, boy, can you hold my horse a few minutes?" asked
+      a gentleman, as he jumped from his carriage in one of the
+      lower streets in New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy addressed was apparently about twelve, with a bright
+      face and laughing eyes, but dressed in clothes of coarse
+      material. This was Jack Harding, who is to be our hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir," said Jack, with alacrity, hastening to the
+      horse's head; "I'll hold him as long as you like."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right! I'm going in at No. 39; I won't be long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I call good luck," said Jack to himself. "No boy
+      wants a job more than I do. Father's out of work, rent's most
+      due, and Aunt Rachel's worrying our lives out with predicting
+      that we'll all be in the poorhouse inside of three months.
+      It's enough to make a fellow feel blue, listenin' to her
+      complainin' and groanin' all the time. Wonder whether she was
+      always so. Mother says she was disappointed in love when she
+      was young. I guess that's the reason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you set up a carriage, Jack?" asked a boy acquaintance,
+      coming up and recognizing Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack, "but it ain't for long. I shall set down
+      again pretty soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought your grandmother had left you a fortune, and you
+      had set up a team."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No such good news. It belongs to a gentleman that's inside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Inside the carriage?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, in No. 39."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long's he going to stay?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it was half an hour, we might take a ride, and be back in
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That ain't my style," he said. "I'll stay here till he comes
+      out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I must be going along. Are you coming to school
+      to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, if I can't get anything to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you trying for that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'd like to get a place. Father's out of work, and anything
+      I can earn comes in handy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My father's got plenty of money," said Frank Nelson,
+      complacently. "There isn't any need of my working."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then your father's lucky."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so am I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that. I'd just as lieve work as not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I wouldn't. I'd rather be my own master, and have my
+      time to myself. But I must be going home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're lazy, Frank."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely. I've a right to be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank Nelson went off, and Jack was left alone. Half an hour
+      passed, and still the gentleman, who had entered No. 39,
+      didn't appear. The horse showed signs of impatience, shook
+      his head, and eyed Jack in an unfriendly manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He thinks it time to be going," thought Jack. "So do I. I
+      wonder what the man's up to. Perhaps he's spending the day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen minutes more passed, but then relief came. The owner
+      of the carriage came out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you get tired of waiting for me?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said Jack, shrewdly. "I knew the longer the job, the
+      bigger the pay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose that is a hint," said the gentleman, not offended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps so," said Jack, and he smiled too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell me, now, what are you going to do with the money I give
+      you&mdash;buy candy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Jack, "I shall carry it home to my mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's well. Does your mother need the money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir. Father's out of work, and we've got to live all
+      the same."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's your father's business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a cooper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So he's out of work?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir, and has been for six weeks. It's on account of the
+      panic, I suppose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely. He has plenty of company just now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be remarked that our story opens in the year 1867,
+      memorable for its panic, and the business depression which
+      followed. Nearly every branch of industry suffered, and
+      thousands of men were thrown out of work, and utterly unable
+      to find employment of any kind. Among them was Timothy
+      Harding, the father of our hero. He was a sober, steady man,
+      and industrious; but his wages had never been large, and he
+      had been unable to save up a reserve fund, on which to draw
+      in time of need. He had an excellent wife, and but one
+      child&mdash;our present hero; but there was another, and by
+      no means unimportant member of the family. This was Rachel
+      Harding, a spinster of melancholy temperament, who belonged
+      to that unhappy class who are always prophesying evil, and
+      expecting the worst. She had been "disappointed" in early
+      life, and this had something to do with her gloomy views, but
+      probably she was somewhat inclined by nature to despondency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family lived in a humble tenement, which, however, was
+      neatly kept, and would have been a cheerful home but for the
+      gloomy presence of Aunt Rachel, who, since her brother had
+      been thrown out of employment, was gloomier than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all this while we have left Jack and the stranger
+      standing in the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You seem to be a good boy," said the latter, "and, under the
+      circumstances, I will pay you more than I intended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew from his vest pocket a dollar bill, and handed it to
+      Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! is all this for me?" asked Jack, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, on the condition that you carry it home, and give it to
+      your mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I will, sir; she'll be glad enough to get it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, good-by, my boy. I hope your father'll find work
+      soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a trump!" ejaculated Jack. "Wasn't it lucky I was here
+      just as he wanted a boy to hold his horse. I wonder what Aunt
+      Rachel will have to say to that? Very likely she'll say the
+      bill is bad."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack made the best of his way home. It was already late in
+      the afternoon, and he knew he would be expected. It was with
+      a lighter heart than usual that he bent his steps homeward,
+      for he knew that the dollar would be heartily welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will precede him, and give a brief description of his
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were only five rooms, and these were furnished in the
+      plainest manner. In the sitting room were his mother and
+      aunt. Mrs. Harding was a motherly-looking woman, with a
+      pleasant face, the prevailing expression of which was a
+      serene cheerfulness, though of late it had been harder than
+      usual to preserve this, in the straits to which the family
+      had been reduced. She was setting the table for tea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel sat in a rocking-chair at the window. She was
+      engaged in knitting. Her face was long and thin, and, as Jack
+      expressed it, she looked as if she hadn't a friend in the
+      world. Her voice harmonized with her mournful expression, and
+      was equally doleful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder why Jack don't come home?" said Mrs. Harding,
+      looking at the clock. "He's generally here at this time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps somethin's happened," suggested her sister-in-law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was reading in the <i>Sun</i> this morning about a boy
+      being run over out West somewhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't think Jack has been run over!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who knows?" said Rachel, gloomily. "You know how careless
+      boys are, and Jack's very careless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see how you can look for such things, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Accidents are always happening; you know that yourself,
+      Martha. I don't say Jack's run over. Perhaps he's been down
+      to the wharves, and tumbled over into the water and got
+      drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you wouldn't say such things, Rachel. They make me
+      feel uncomfortable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We may as well be prepared for the worst," said Rachel,
+      severely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not this time, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding, brightly, "for
+      that's Jack's step outside. He isn't drowned or run over,
+      thank God!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hear him," said Rachel, dismally. "Anybody might know by
+      the noise who it is. He always comes stamping along as if he
+      was paid for makin' a noise. Anybody ought to have a
+      cast-iron head that lives anywhere within his hearing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Jack entered, rather boisterously, it must be admitted,
+      in his eagerness slamming the door behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE EVENTS OF AN EVENING
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad you've come, Jack," said his mother. "Rachel was
+      just predicting that you were run over or drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you're not very much disappointed to see me safe and
+      well, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, merrily. "I don't think I've
+      been drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's things worse than drowning," replied Rachel,
+      severely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such as what?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A man that's born to be hanged is safe from drowning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you for the compliment, Aunt Rachel, if you mean me.
+      But, mother, I didn't tell you of my good luck. See this,"
+      and he displayed the dollar bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you get it?" asked his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Holding horses. Here, take it, mother; I warrant you'll find
+      a use for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It comes in good time," said Mrs. Harding. "We're out of
+      flour, and I had no money to buy any. Before you take off
+      your boots, Jack, I wish you'd run over to the grocery store,
+      and buy half a dozen pounds. You may get a pound of sugar,
+      and quarter of a pound of tea also."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see the Lord hasn't forgotten us," she remarked, as Jack
+      started on his errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's a dollar?" said Rachel, gloomily. "Will it carry us
+      through the winter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will carry us through to-night, and perhaps Timothy will
+      have work to-morrow. Hark, that's his step."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the outer door opened, and Timothy Harding
+      entered, not with the quick, elastic step of one who brings
+      good tidings, but slowly and deliberately, with a quiet
+      gravity of demeanor in which his wife could read only too
+      well that he had failed in his efforts to procure work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reading all this in his manner, she had the delicacy to
+      forbear intruding upon him questions to which she saw it
+      would only give him pain to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I needn't ask," she began, "whether you've got work,
+      Timothy. I knew beforehand you wouldn't. There ain't no use
+      in tryin'! The times is awful dull, and mark my words,
+      they'll be wuss before they're better. We mayn't live to see
+      'em. I don't expect we shall. Folks can't live without money;
+      and if we can't get that, we shall have to starve."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so bad as that, Rachel," said the cooper, trying to look
+      cheerful; "I don't talk about starving till the time comes.
+      Anyhow," glancing at the table, on which was spread a good
+      plain meal, "we needn't talk about starving till to-morrow
+      with that before us. Where's Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gone after some flour," replied his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On credit?" asked the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he's got money enough to pay for a few pounds," said
+      Mrs. Harding, smiling with an air of mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did it come from?" asked Timothy, who was puzzled, as
+      his wife anticipated. "I didn't know you had any money in the
+      house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No more we had; but he earned it himself, holding horses,
+      this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, that's good," said the cooper, cheerfully. "We ain't
+      so bad off as we might be, you see, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely the bill's bad," she said, with the air of one
+      who rather hoped it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, what's the use of anticipating evil?" said Mrs.
+      Harding. "You see you're wrong, for here's Jack with the
+      flour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family sat down to supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You haven't told us," said Mrs. Harding, seeing her
+      husband's cheerfulness in a measure restored, "what Mr.
+      Blodgett said about the chances for employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not much that was encouraging," answered Timothy. "He isn't
+      at all sure when it will be safe to commence work; perhaps
+      not before spring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Didn't I tell you so?" commented Rachel, with sepulchral
+      sadness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Harding couldn't help looking sober.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose, Timothy, you haven't formed any plans," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I haven't had time. I must try to get something else to
+      do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, for instance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Anything by which I can earn a little; I don't care if it's
+      only sawing wood. We shall have to get along as economically
+      as we can&mdash;cut our coat according to our cloth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, you'll be able to earn something, and we can live very
+      plain," said Mrs. Harding, affecting a cheerfulness she
+      didn't feel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pity you hadn't done it sooner," was the comforting
+      suggestion of Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mustn't cry over spilt milk," said the cooper,
+      good-humoredly. "Perhaps we might have lived a leetle more
+      economically, but I don't think we've been extravagant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Besides, I can earn something, father," said Jack,
+      hopefully. "You know I did this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you can," said his mother, brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't horses to hold every day," said Rachel,
+      apparently fearing that the family might become too cheerful,
+      when, like herself, it was their duty to be profoundly
+      gloomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're always tryin' to discourage people, Aunt Rachel,"
+      said Jack, discontentedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel took instant umbrage at these words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm sure," said she, mournfully, "I don't want to make you
+      unhappy. If you can find anything to be cheerful about when
+      you're on the verge of starvation, I hope you'll enjoy
+      yourselves, and not mind me. I'm a poor, dependent creetur,
+      and I feel I'm a burden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, that's all foolishness," said Timothy. "You
+      don't feel anything of the kind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps others can tell how I feel better than I can
+      myself," answered his sister, with the air of a martyr. "If
+      it hadn't been for me, I know you'd have been able to lay up
+      money, and have something to carry you through the winter.
+      It's hard to be a burden on your relations, and bring a
+      brother's family to this poverty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't talk of being a burden, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding.
+      "You've been a great help to me in many ways. That pair of
+      stockings, now, you're knitting for Jack&mdash;that's a help,
+      for I couldn't have got time for them myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't expect," said Aunt Rachel, in the same sunny manner,
+      "that I shall be able to do it long. From the pains I have in
+      my hands sometimes, I expect I'm goin' to lose the use of 'em
+      soon, and be as useless as old Mrs. Sprague, who for the last
+      ten years of her life had to sit with her hands folded on her
+      lap. But I wouldn't stay to be a burden&mdash;I'd go to the
+      poorhouse first. But perhaps," with the look of a martyr,
+      "they wouldn't want me there, because I'd be discouragin' 'em
+      too much."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Jack, who had so unwittingly raised this storm, winced
+      under the last words, which he knew were directed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then why," asked he, half in extenuation, "why don't you try
+      to look pleasant and cheerful? Why won't you be jolly, as Tom
+      Piper's aunt is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say I ain't pleasant," said Rachel, "as my own nephew
+      twits me with it. There is some folks that can be cheerful
+      when their house is a-burnin' down before their eyes, and
+      I've heard of one young man that laughed at his aunt's
+      funeral," directing a severe glance at Jack; "but I'm not one
+      of that kind. I think, with the Scriptures, that there's a
+      time to weep."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doesn't it say there's a time to laugh, too?" asked Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When I see anything to laugh about, I'm ready to laugh,"
+      said Aunt Rachel; "but human nater ain't to be forced. I
+      can't see anything to laugh at now, and perhaps you won't by
+      and by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evidently quite useless to persuade Rachel to
+      cheerfulness, and the subject dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tea things were cleared away by Mrs. Harding, who then
+      sat down to her sewing. Aunt Rachel continued to knit in grim
+      silence, while Jack seated himself on a three-legged stool
+      near his aunt, and began to whittle out a boat, after a model
+      lent him by Tom Piper, a young gentleman whose aunt has
+      already been referred to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper took out his spectacles, wiped them carefully with
+      his handkerchief, and as carefully adjusted them to his nose.
+      He then took down from the mantelpiece one of the few books
+      belonging to his library&mdash;"Dr. Kane's Arctic
+      Explorations"&mdash;and began to read, for the tenth time, it
+      might be, the record of these daring explorers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plain little room presented a picture of graceful
+      tranquillity, but it proved to be only the calm which
+      preceded the storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm in question, I regret to say, was brought about by
+      the luckless Jack. As has been said, he was engaged in
+      constructing a boat, the particular operation he was now
+      intent upon being the excavation, or hollowing out. Now
+      three-legged stools are not the most secure seats in the
+      world. This, I think, no one will deny who has any practical
+      acquaintance with them. Jack was working quite vigorously,
+      the block from which the boat was to be fashioned being held
+      firmly between his knees. His knife having got wedged in the
+      wood, he made an unusual effort to draw it out, in which he
+      lost his balance, and disturbed the equilibrium of his stool,
+      which, with its load, tumbled over backward. Now, it very
+      unfortunately happened that Aunt Rachel sat close behind, and
+      the treacherous stool came down with considerable force upon
+      her foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A piercing shriek was heard, and Aunt Rachel, lifting her
+      foot, clung to it convulsively, while an expression of pain
+      disturbed her features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound, the cooper hastily removed his spectacles, and,
+      letting "Dr. Kane" fall to the floor, started up in great
+      dismay. Mrs. Harding likewise dropped her sewing, and jumped
+      to her feet in alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not take long to see how matters stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hurt ye much, Rachel?" inquired Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's about killed me," groaned the afflicted maiden. "Oh, I
+      shall have to have my foot cut off, or be a cripple anyway."
+      Then, turning upon Jack fiercely: "You careless, wicked,
+      ungrateful boy, that I've been wearin' myself out knittin'
+      for. I'm almost sure you did it a purpose. You won't be
+      satisfied till you've got me out of the world, and
+      then&mdash;then, perhaps"&mdash;here Rachel began to
+      whimper&mdash;"perhaps you'll get Tom Piper's aunt to knit
+      your stockings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, penitently, eying
+      his aunt, who was rocking to and fro in her chair. "You know
+      I didn't. Besides, I hurt myself like thunder," rubbing
+      himself vigorously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Served you right," said his aunt, still clasping her foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shan't I get something for you to put on it, Rachel?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this Rachel steadily refused, and, after a few more
+      postures indicating a great amount of anguish, limped out of
+      the room, and ascended the stairs to her own apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S NEW PLAN
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel was right in one thing, as Jack realized. He
+      could not find horses to hold every day, and even if he had
+      succeeded in that, few would have paid him so munificently as
+      the stranger of the day before. In fact, matters came to a
+      crisis, and something must be sold to raise funds for
+      immediate necessities. Now, the only article of
+      luxury&mdash;if it could be called so&mdash;in the possession
+      of the family was a sofa, in very good preservation, indeed
+      nearly new, for it had been bought only two years before when
+      business was good. A neighbor was willing to pay fifteen
+      dollars for this, and Mrs. Harding, with her husband's
+      consent, agreed to part with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If ever we are able we will buy another," said Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, at any rate, we can do without it," said his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel will miss it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She said the other day that it was not comfortable, and
+      ought never to have been bought; that it was a shameful waste
+      of money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case she won't be disturbed by our selling it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I should think not; but it's hard to tell how Rachel
+      will take anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark was amply verified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sofa was removed while the spinster was out, and without
+      any hint to her of what was going to happen. When she
+      returned, she looked around for it with surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where's the sofy?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We've sold it to Mrs. Stoddard," said Mrs. Harding,
+      cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sold it!" echoed Rachel, dolefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; we felt that we didn't need it, and we did need money.
+      She offered me fifteen dollars for it, and I accepted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel sat down in a rocking-chair, and began straightway to
+      show signs of great depression of spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Life's full of disappointments!" she groaned. "Our paths is
+      continually beset by 'em. There's that sofa. It's so pleasant
+      to have one in the house when a body's sick. But, there, it's
+      gone, and if I happen to get down, as most likely I shall,
+      for I've got a bad feeling in my stummick this very minute, I
+      shall have to go upstairs, and most likely catch my death of
+      cold, and that will be the end of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so bad as that, I hope," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully.
+      "You know when you was sick last, you didn't want to use the
+      sofa; you said it didn't lay comfortable. Besides, I hope
+      before you are sick we may be able to buy it back again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel shook her head despondingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any use in hoping that," she said. "Timothy's
+      got so much behindhand that he won't be able to get up again;
+      I know he won't!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, if he only manages to find steady work soon, he will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he won't," said Rachel, positively. "I'm sure he won't.
+      There won't be any work before spring, and most likely not
+      then."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are too desponding, Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough to make me so. If you had only taken my advice, we
+      shouldn't have come to this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what advice you refer to, Rachel," said Mrs.
+      Harding, patiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I don't expect you do. My words don't make no
+      impression. You didn't pay no attention to what I said,
+      that's the reason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But if you'll repeat the advice, Rachel, perhaps we can
+      still profit by it," answered Mrs. Harding, with
+      imperturbable good humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you you ought to be layin' up something agin' a rainy
+      day. But that's always the way. Folks think when times is
+      good it's always a-goin' to be so, but I know better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see how we could have been much more economical,"
+      said Mrs. Harding, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's a hundred ways. Poor folks like us ought not to
+      expect to have meat so often. It's frightful to think what
+      the butcher's bill must have been for the last two months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inconsistent Rachel! Only the day before she had made herself
+      very uncomfortable because there was no meat for dinner, and
+      said she couldn't live without it. Mrs. Harding might have
+      reminded her of this, but the good woman was too kind and
+      forbearing to make the retort. She really pitied Rachel for
+      her unhappy habit of despondency. So she contented herself by
+      saying that they must try to do better in future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's always the way," muttered Rachel; "shut the stable
+      door after the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from
+      experience till it's too late to be of any use. I don't see
+      what the world was made for, for my part. Everything goes
+      topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the right way. I
+      sometimes think 'tain't much use livin'!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, you'll feel better by and by, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I shan't; I feel my health's declinin' every day. I
+      don't know how I can stand it when I have to go to the
+      poorhouse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We haven't gone there yet, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, but it's comin' soon. We can't live on nothin'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark, there's Jack coming," said his mother, hearing a quick
+      step outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, he's whistlin' just as if nothin' was the matter. He
+      don't care anything for the awful condition of the family."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're wrong there, Rachel; Jack is trying every day to get
+      something to do. He wants to do his part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel would have made a reply disparaging to Jack, but she
+      had no chance, for our hero broke in at this instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Jack?" said his mother, inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've got a plan, mother," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's a boy's plan worth?" sniffed Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, don't be always hectorin' me, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+      impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hectorin'! Is that the way my own nephew talks to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, it's so. You don't give a feller a chance. I'll tell
+      you what I'm thinking of, mother. I've been talkin' with Tom
+      Blake; he sells papers, and he tells me he makes sometimes a
+      dollar a day. Isn't that good?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, that is very good wages for a boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want to try it, too; but I've got to buy the papers first,
+      you know, and I haven't got any money. So, if you'll lend me
+      fifty cents, I'll try it this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You think you can sell them, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know I can. I'm as smart as Tom Blake, any day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pride goes before a fall!" remarked Rachel, by way of a
+      damper. "Disappointment is the common lot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's just the way all the time," said Jack, provoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've lived longer than you," began Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, a mighty lot longer," interrupted Jack. "I don't deny
+      that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you're sneerin' at me on account of my age, Jack.
+      Martha, how can you allow such things?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be respectful, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then tell Aunt Rachel not to aggravate me so. Will you let
+      me have the fifty cents, mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Jack. I think your plan is worth trying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took out half a dollar from her pocketbook and handed it
+      to Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, mother. I'll see what I can do with it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack went out, and Rachel looked more gloomy than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll never see that money again, you may depend on't,
+      Martha," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because Jack'll spend it for candy, or in some other foolish
+      way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are unjust, Rachel. Jack is not that kind of boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'd ought to know him. I've had chances enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never knew him to do anything dishonest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose he's a model boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he isn't. He's got faults enough, I admit; but he
+      wouldn't spend for his own pleasure money given him for
+      buying papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he buys the papers, I don't believe he can sell them, so
+      the money's wasted anyway," said Rachel, trying another tack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will wait and see," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She saw that Rachel was in one of her unreasonable moods, and
+      that it was of no use to continue the discussion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MRS. HARDING TAKES A BOARDER
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack started for the newspaper offices and bought a supply of
+      papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see why I can't sell papers as well as other boys,"
+      he said to himself. "I'm going to try, at any rate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought it prudent, however, not to buy too large stock at
+      first. He might sell them all, but then again he might get
+      "stuck" on a part, and this might take away all his profits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack, however, was destined to find that in the newspaper
+      business, as well as in others, there was no lack of
+      competition. He took his place just below the Astor House,
+      and began to cry his papers. This aroused the ire of a rival
+      newsboy a few feet away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Get away from here!" he exclaimed, scowling at Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What for?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is my stand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Keep it, then. This is mine," retorted Jack, composedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't allow no other newsboys in this block," said the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you? You ain't the city government, are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want any of your impudence. Clear out!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Clear out yourself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll give you a lickin'!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you will when you're able."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack spoke manfully; but the fact was that the other boy
+      probably was able, being three years older, and as many
+      inches taller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack kept on crying his papers, and his opponent, incensed at
+      the contemptuous disregard of his threats, advanced toward
+      him, and, taking Jack unawares, pushed him off the sidewalk
+      with such violence that he nearly fell flat. Jack felt that
+      the time for action had arrived. He dropped his papers
+      temporarily on the sidewalk, and, lowering his head, butted
+      against his young enemy with such force as to double him up,
+      and seat him, gasping for breath, on the sidewalk. Tom
+      Rafferty, for this was his name, looked up in astonishment at
+      the unexpected form of the attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well done, my lad!" said a hearty voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack turned toward the speaker, and saw a stout man dressed
+      in a blue coat with brass buttons. He was dark and bronzed
+      with exposure to the weather, and there was something about
+      him which plainly indicated the sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well done, my lad!" he repeated. "You know how to pay off
+      your debts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I try to," said Jack, modestly. "But where's my papers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The papers, which he had dropped, had disappeared. One of the
+      boys who had seen the fracas had seized the opportunity to
+      make off with them, and poor Jack was in the position of a
+      merchant who had lost his stock in trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who took them papers?" he asked, looking about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I saw a boy run off with them," said a bystander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm glad of it," said Tom Rafferty, sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked as if he was ready to pitch into him again, but
+      the sailor interfered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't mind the papers, my lad. What were they worth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I gave twenty cents for 'em."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then here's thirty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think I ought to take it," said Jack. "It's my
+      loss."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take it, my boy. It won't ruin me. I've got plenty more
+      behind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, sir; I'll go and buy some more papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not to-night. I want you to take a cruise with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you'd like to know who I am?" said the sailor, as
+      they moved off together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you're a sailor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can tell that by the cut of my jib. Yes, my lad, I'm
+      captain of the <i>Argo</i>, now in port. It's a good while
+      since I've been in York. For ten years I've been plying
+      between Liverpool and Calcutta. Now I've got absence to come
+      over here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you an American, sir?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I was raised in Connecticut, but then I began going to
+      sea when I was only thirteen. I only arrived to-day, and I
+      find the city changed since ten years ago, when I used to
+      know it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you staying&mdash;at what hotel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I haven't gone to any yet; I used to stay with a cousin of
+      mine, but he's moved. Do you know any good boarding place,
+      where they'd make me feel at home, and let me smoke a pipe
+      after dinner?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An idea struck Jack. They had an extra room at home, or could
+      make one by his sleeping in the sitting room. Why shouldn't
+      they take the stranger to board? The money would certainly be
+      acceptable. He determined to propose it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we lived in a nicer house," he said, "I'd ask you to
+      board at my mother's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Would she take me, my lad?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think she would; but we are poor, and live in a small
+      house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That makes no odds. I ain't a bit particular, as long as I
+      can feel at home. So heave ahead, my lad, and we'll go and
+      see this mother of yours, and hear what she has to say about
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack took the way home well pleased, and, opening the front
+      door, entered the sitting room, followed by the sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel looked up nervously, and exclaimed: "A man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I'm a man, and no mistake.
+      Are you this lad's mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir!" answered Rachel, emphatically. "I am nobody's
+      mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, an old maid!" said the sailor, whose mode of life had
+      made him unceremonious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a spinster," said Rachel, with dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the same thing," said the visitor, sitting down
+      opposite Aunt Rachel, who eyed him suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My aunt, Rachel Harding, Capt. Bowling," introduced Jack.
+      "Aunt Rachel, Capt. Bowling is the commander of a vessel now
+      in port."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel made a stiff courtesy, and Capt. Bowling eyed her
+      curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you fond of knitting, ma'am?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not fond of anything," said Rachel, mournfully. "We
+      should not set our affections upon earthly things."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't say that if you had a beau, ma'am," said Capt.
+      Bowling, facetiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A beau!" repeated Rachel, horror-stricken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am. I suppose you've had a beau some time or other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think it proper to talk on such a subject to a
+      stranger," said Aunt Rachel, primly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Law, ma'am, you needn't be so particular."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this moment, Mrs. Harding entered the room, and was
+      introduced to Capt. Bowling by Jack. The captain proceeded to
+      business at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your son, here, ma'am, told me you might maybe swing a
+      hammock for me somewhere in your house. I liked his looks,
+      and here I am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you think you would be satisfied with our plain fare, and
+      humble dwelling, Capt. Bowling?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't hard to suit, ma'am; so, if you can take me, I'll
+      stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His manner was frank, although rough; and Mrs. Harding
+      cheerfully consented to do so. It was agreed that Bowling
+      should pay five dollars a week for the three or four weeks he
+      expected to stay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll be back in an hour," said the new boarder. "I've got a
+      little business to attend to before supper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had gone out, Aunt Rachel began to cough ominously.
+      Evidently some remonstrance was coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," she said, solemnly, "I'm afraid you've done wrong
+      in taking that sailor man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a strange man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see anything strange about him," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He spoke to me about having a beau," said Aunt Rachel, in a
+      shocked tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack burst into a fit of hearty laughter. "Perhaps he's going
+      to make you an offer, Aunt Rachel," he said. "He wants to see
+      if there's anybody in the way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not appear so very indignant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was improper for a stranger to speak to me on that
+      subject," she said, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must make allowances for the bluntness of a sailor,"
+      said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some reason Rachel did not seem as low-spirited as usual
+      that evening. Capt. Bowling entertained them with narratives
+      of his personal adventures, and it was later than usual when
+      the lamps were put out, and they were all in bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE CAPTAIN'S DEPARTURE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," said the captain, at breakfast, the next morning,
+      "how would you like to go round with me to see my vessel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll go," said Jack, promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely he'll fall over into the water and be drowned,"
+      suggested Aunt Rachel, cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll take care of that, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling. "Won't
+      you come yourself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I go to see a vessel!" repeated Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid it wouldn't be proper to go with a stranger,"
+      said Rachel, with a high sense of propriety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll promise not to run away with you," said the captain,
+      bluntly. "If I should attempt it, Jack, here, would
+      interfere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I wouldn't," said Jack. "It wouldn't be proper for me to
+      interfere with Aunt Rachel's plans."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You seem to speak as if your aunt proposed to run away,"
+      said Mr. Harding, jocosely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shouldn't speak of such things, nephew; I am shocked,"
+      said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you won't go, ma'am?" asked the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I thought it was consistent with propriety," said Rachel,
+      hesitating. "What do you think, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think there is no objection," said Mrs. Harding, secretly
+      amazed at Rachel's entertaining the idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result was that Miss Rachel put on her things, and
+      accompanied the captain. She was prevailed on to take the
+      captain's arm at length, greatly to Jack's amusement. He was
+      still more amused when a boy picked up her handkerchief which
+      she had accidentally dropped, and, restoring it to the
+      captain, said, "Here's your wife's handkerchief, gov'nor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho! ho!" laughed the captain. "He takes you for my wife,
+      ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho! ho!" echoed Jack, equally amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel turned red with confusion. "I am afraid I ought
+      not to have come," she murmured. "I feel ready to drop."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'd better not drop just yet," said the captain&mdash;they
+      were just crossing the street&mdash;"wait till it isn't so
+      muddy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the whole, Aunt Rachel decided not to drop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Argo</i> was a medium-sized vessel, and Jack in
+      particular was pleased with his visit. Though not outwardly
+      so demonstrative, Aunt Rachel also seemed to enjoy the
+      expedition. The captain, though blunt, was attentive, and it
+      was something new to her to have such an escort. It was
+      observed that Miss Harding was much less gloomy than usual
+      during the remainder of the day. It might be that the
+      captain's cheerfulness was contagious. For a stranger, Aunt
+      Rachel certainly conversed with him with a freedom remarkable
+      for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never saw Rachel so cheerful," remarked Mrs. Harding to
+      her husband that evening after they had retired. "She hasn't
+      once spoken of life being a vale of tears to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the captain," said her husband. "He has such spirits
+      that it seems to enliven all of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish we could have him for a permanent boarder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; the five dollars a week which he pays are a great help,
+      especially now that I am out of work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the prospect of getting work soon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am hoping for it from day to day, but it may be weeks
+      yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack earned fifty cents to-day by selling papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His daily earnings are an important help. With what the
+      captain pays us, it is enough to pay all our living expenses.
+      But there's one thing that troubles me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The rent?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it is due in three weeks, and as yet I haven't a dollar
+      laid by to meet it. It makes me feel anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't lose your trust in Providence, Timothy. He may yet
+      carry us over this difficulty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I hope, but I can't help feeling in what straits we shall
+      be, if some help does not come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two weeks later, Capt. Bowling sailed for Liverpool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope we shall see you again sometime, captain," said Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whenever I come back to New York, I shall come here if
+      you'll keep me," said the bluff sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aunt Rachel will miss you, captain," said Jack, slyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Capt. Bowling turned to the confused spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope she will," said he, heartily. "Perhaps when I see her
+      again, she'll have a husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Capt. Bowling, how can you say such things?" gasped
+      Rachel, who, as the time for the captain's departure
+      approached, had been subsiding into her old melancholy.
+      "There's other things to think of in this vale of tears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are there? Well, if they're gloomy, I don't want to think of
+      'em. Jack, my lad, I wish you were going to sail with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So do I," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's my only boy, captain," said Mrs. Harding. "I couldn't
+      part with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't blame you, ma'am, not a particle; though there's the
+      making of a sailor in Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he went away, he'd never come back," said Rachel,
+      lugubriously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that, ma'am. I've been a sailor, man and
+      boy, forty years, and here I am, well and hearty to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The captain is about your age, isn't he, Aunt Rachel?" said
+      Jack, maliciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm only thirty-nine," said Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I must have been under a mistake all my life," said the
+      cooper to himself. "Rachel's forty-seven, if she's a day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark he prudently kept to himself, or a fit of
+      hysterics would probably have been the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't have taken you for a day over thirty-five,
+      ma'am," said the captain, gallantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel actually smiled, but mildly disclaimed the compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it hadn't been for my trials and troubles," she said, "I
+      might have looked younger; but they are only to be expected.
+      It's the common lot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it?" said the captain. "I can't say I've been troubled
+      much that way. With a stout heart and a good conscience we
+      ought to be jolly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who of us has a good conscience?" asked Rachel, in a
+      melancholy tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, Aunt Rachel," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You?" she exclaimed, indignantly. "You, that tied a tin
+      kettle to a dog's tail yesterday, and chased the poor cat
+      till she almost died of fright. I lie awake nights thinking
+      of the bad end you're likely to come to unless you change
+      your ways."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack shrugged his shoulders, but the captain came to his
+      help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Boys will be boys, ma'am," he said. "I was up to no end of
+      tricks myself when I was a boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You weren't so bad as Jack, I know," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you for standing up for me, ma'am; but I'm afraid I
+      was. I don't think Jack's so very bad, for my part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't play the tricks Aunt Rachel mentioned," said Jack.
+      "It was another boy in our block."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're all alike," said Rachel. "I don't know what you boys
+      are all coming to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the captain announced that he must go. Jack
+      accompanied him as far as the pier, but the rest of the
+      family remained behind. Aunt Rachel became gloomier than
+      ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what you'll do, now you've lost your boarder,"
+      she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will be a loss to us, it is true," said Mrs. Harding; but
+      we are fortunate in having had him with us so long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's only puttin' off our misery a little longer," said
+      Rachel. "We've got to go to the poorhouse, after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was in one of her moods, and there was no use in
+      arguing with her, as it would only have intensified her
+      gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack was bidding good-by to the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm sorry you can't go with me, Jack," said the bluff
+      sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So am I; but I can't leave mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Right, my lad; I wouldn't take you away from her. But
+      there&mdash;take that, and don't forget me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are very kind," said Jack, as the captain pressed into
+      his hand a five-dollar gold piece. "May I give it to my
+      mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, my lad; you can't do better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack stood on the wharf till the vessel was drawn out into
+      the stream by a steam tug. Then he went home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE LANDLORD'S VISIT
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      It was the night before the New Year. In many a household in
+      the great city it was a night of happy anticipation. In the
+      humble home of the Hardings it was an evening of anxious
+      thought, for to-morrow the quarter's rent was due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I haven't got a dollar to meet the rent, Martha," said the
+      cooper, in a depressed tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't Mr. Colman wait?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm afraid not. You know what sort of a man he is, Martha.
+      There isn't much feeling about him. He cares more for money
+      than anything else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you are doing him an injustice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid not. Did you never hear how he treated the
+      Underhills?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Underhill was laid up with rheumatic fever for three months.
+      The consequence was that when quarter day came round he was
+      in about the same situation with ourselves&mdash;a little
+      worse, even, for his wife was sick also. But, though Colman
+      was aware of the circumstances, he had no pity; he turned
+      them out without ceremony."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it possible?" asked Mrs. Harding, uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And there's no reason for his being more lenient with us. I
+      can't but feel anxious about to-morrow, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, verifying an old adage, which will perhaps
+      occur to the reader, who should knock but Mr. Colman himself.
+      Both the cooper and his wife had an instinctive foreboding as
+      to his visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came in, rubbing his hands in a social way, as was his
+      custom. No one, to look at him, would have suspected the
+      hardness of heart that lay veiled under his velvety softness
+      of manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-evening, Mr. Harding," he said, affably. "I trust you
+      and your excellent wife are in good health."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That blessing, at least, is continued to us," said the
+      cooper, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how comfortable you're looking, too, eh! It makes an old
+      bachelor like me feel lonesome when he contrasts his own
+      solitary room with such a scene of comfort as this. You've
+      got a comfortable home, and dog cheap, too. All my other
+      tenants are grumbling to think you don't have to pay any more
+      for such superior accommodations. I've about made up my mind
+      that I must ask you twenty-five dollars a quarter hereafter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was said very pleasantly, but the pill was none the
+      less bitter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me, Mr. Colman," answered the cooper, soberly,
+      "you have chosen rather a singular time for raising the
+      rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why singular, my good sir?" inquired the landlord, urbanely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know, of course, that this is a time of general business
+      depression; my own trade in particular has suffered greatly.
+      For a month past I have not been able to find any work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colman's face lost something of its graciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I fear I shall not be able to pay my quarter's rent
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed!" said the landlord, coldly. "Perhaps you can make it
+      up within two or three dollars."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't pay a dollar toward it," said the cooper. "It's the
+      first time, in the five years I've lived here, that this
+      thing has happened to me. I've always been prompt before."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You should have economized as you found times growing
+      harder," said Colman, harshly. "It is hardly honest to live
+      in a house when you know you can't pay the rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shan't lose it, Mr. Colman," said the cooper, earnestly.
+      "No one ever yet lost anything by me, and I don't mean anyone
+      shall, if I can help it. Only give me a little time, and I
+      will pay all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to have cut your coat according to your cloth," he
+      responded. "Much as it will go against my feelings I am
+      compelled, by a prudent regard to my own interests, to warn
+      you that, in case your rent is not ready to-morrow, I shall
+      be obliged to trouble you to find another tenement; and
+      furthermore, the rent of this will be raised five dollars a
+      quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't pay it, Mr. Colman," said Timothy Harding, gravely.
+      "I may as well say that now; and it's no use agreeing to pay
+      more rent. I pay all I can afford now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well, you know the alternative. Of course, if you can
+      do better elsewhere, you will. That's understood. But it's a
+      disagreeable subject. We won't talk of it any more now. I
+      shall be round to-morrow forenoon. How's your excellent
+      sister&mdash;as cheerful as ever?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Quite as much so as usual," answered the cooper, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's one favor I should like to ask," he said, after a
+      pause. "Will you allow us to remain here a few days till I
+      can look about a little?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would with the greatest pleasure in the world," was the
+      reply; "but there's another family very anxious to take the
+      house, and they wish to come in immediately. Therefore I
+      shall be obliged to ask you to move out to-morrow. In fact,
+      that is the very thing I came here this evening to speak
+      about, as I thought you might not wish to pay the increased
+      rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are much obliged to you," said the cooper, with a tinge
+      of bitterness unusual to him. "If we are to be turned into
+      the street, it is pleasant to have a few hours' notice of
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Turned out of doors, my good sir! What disagreeable
+      expressions you employ! If you reflect for a moment, you will
+      see that it is merely a matter of business. I have an article
+      to dispose of. There are two bidders, yourself and another
+      person. The latter is willing to pay a larger sum. Of course
+      I give him the preference, as you would do under similar
+      circumstances. Don't you see how it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I do," replied the cooper. "Of course it's a
+      regular proceeding; but you must excuse me if I think of it
+      in another light, when I reflect that to-morrow at this time
+      my family may be without a shelter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear sir, positively you are looking on the dark side of
+      things. It is actually sinful for you to distrust Providence
+      as you seem to do. You're a little disappointed, that's all.
+      Just take to-night to sleep on it, and I've no doubt you'll
+      see things in quite a different light. But
+      positively"&mdash;here he rose, and began to draw on his
+      gloves&mdash;"positively I have stayed longer than I
+      intended. Good-night, my friends. I'll look in upon you in
+      the morning. And, by the way, as it's so near, permit me to
+      wish you a happy New Year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door closed upon the landlord, leaving behind two anxious
+      hearts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It looks well in him to wish that," said the cooper,
+      gloomily. "A great deal he is doing to make it so. I don't
+      know how it seems to others; for my part, I never say them
+      words to anyone, unless I really wish 'em well, and am
+      willing to do something to make 'em so. I should feel as if I
+      was a hypocrite if I acted anyways different."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martha was not one who was readily inclined to think evil of
+      anyone, but in her own gentle heart she could not help
+      feeling a repugnance for the man who had just left them. Jack
+      was not so reticent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hate that man," he said, decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You should not hate anyone, my son," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't help it, mother. Ain't he goin' to turn us out of
+      the house to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we cannot pay our rent, he is justified in doing so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then why need he pretend to be so friendly? He don't care
+      anything for us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is right to be polite, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I s'pose if you're goin' to kick a man, it should be done
+      politely," said Jack, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If possible," said the cooper, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is there any tenement vacant in this neighborhood?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, there is one in the next block belonging to Mr.
+      Harrison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a better one than this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; but Harrison only asks the same rent that we have been
+      paying. He is not so exorbitant as Colman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Couldn't we get that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid if he knows that we have failed to pay our rent
+      here, that he will object."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he knows you are honest, and that nothing but the hard
+      times would have brought you to this pass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be, Martha. At any rate, you have lightened my heart
+      a little. I feel as if there was some hope left, after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We ought always to feel so, Timothy. There was one thing
+      that Mr. Colman said that didn't sound so well, coming from
+      his lips; but it's true for all that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you refer to?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean that about not distrusting Providence. Many a time
+      have I been comforted by reading the verse: 'Never have I
+      seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' As
+      long as we try to do what is right, Timothy, God will not
+      suffer us to want."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, Martha. He is our ever-present help in time
+      of trouble. When I think of that, I feel easier."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They retired to rest thoughtfully but not sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fire upon the hearth flickered and died out at length.
+      The last sands of the old year were running out, and the new
+      morning ushered in its successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Happy New Year!" was Jack's salutation to Aunt Rachel, as
+      with an unhappy expression of countenance she entered the
+      sitting room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Happy, indeed!" she repeated, dismally. "There's great
+      chance of its being so, I should think. We don't any of us
+      know what the year may bring forth. We may all be dead and
+      buried before the next new year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that's the case," said Jack, "let us be jolly as long as
+      life lasts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what you mean by such a vulgar word," said Aunt
+      Rachel, disdainfully. "I've heard of drunkards and such kind
+      of people being jolly; but, thank Providence, I haven't got
+      to that yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that was the only way to be jolly," said Jack, stoutly,
+      "then I'd be a drunkard; I wouldn't carry round such a long
+      face as you do, Aunt Rachel, for any money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's enough to make all of us have long faces," said his
+      aunt, sourly, "when you are brazen enough to own that you
+      mean to be a miserable drunkard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't say any such thing," said Jack, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I have ears," remarked Aunt Rachel, sententiously,
+      "and perhaps I have not. It's a new thing for a nephew to
+      tell his aunt that she lies. They didn't use to allow such
+      things when I was young. But the world's going to rack and
+      ruin, and I shouldn't wonder if the people was right that say
+      it's coming to an end."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Mrs. Harding happily interposed, by asking Jack to go
+      round to the grocery in the next street, and buy a pint of
+      milk for breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack took his hat and started with alacrity, glad to leave
+      the dismal presence of Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had scarcely opened the door when he started back in
+      surprise, exclaiming: "By hokey, if there isn't a basket on
+      the steps!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A basket!" repeated his mother, in surprise. "Can it be a
+      New Year's present? Bring it in, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was brought in immediately, and the cover being lifted,
+      there appeared a female child, apparently a year old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All uttered exclamations of surprise, each in itself
+      characteristic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What a dear, innocent little thing!" said Mrs. Harding, with
+      true maternal instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't it a pretty un?" exclaimed Jack, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It looks as if it was goin' to have the measles," said Aunt
+      Rachel, "or scarlet fever. You'd better not take it in,
+      Martha, or we may all catch it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't leave it out in the cold, would you, Rachel?
+      The poor thing might die of exposure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Probably it will die," said Rachel, mournfully. "It's very
+      hard to raise children. There's something unhealthy in its
+      looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It don't seem to me so. It looks plump and healthy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't never judge by appearances. You ought to know
+      that, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take the risk, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see what you are going to do with a baby, when we
+      are all on the verge of starvation, and going to be turned
+      into the street this very day," remarked Rachel,
+      despondently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We won't think of that just now. Common humanity requires us
+      to see what we can do for the poor child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, Mrs. Harding took the infant in her arms. The
+      child opened its eyes, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My! here's a letter," said Jack, diving into the bottom of
+      the basket. "It's directed to you, father."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper opened the letter, and read as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For reasons which it is unnecessary to state, the guardians
+      of this child find it expedient to intrust it to others to
+      bring up. The good account which they have heard of you has
+      led them to select you for that charge. No further
+      explanation is necessary, except that it is by no means their
+      intention to make this a service of charity. They, therefore,
+      inclose a certificate of deposit on the Broadway Bank of five
+      hundred dollars, the same having been paid in to your credit.
+      Each year, while the child remains in your charge, the same
+      will in like manner be placed to your credit at the same
+      bank. It may be as well to state, further, that all attempt
+      to fathom whatever of mystery may attach to this affair will
+      prove useless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The letter was read in amazement. The certificate of deposit,
+      which had fallen to the floor, was picked up by Jack, and
+      handed to his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amazement was followed by a feeling of gratitude and relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could be more fortunate?" exclaimed Mrs. Harding.
+      "Surely, Timothy, our faith has been rewarded."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God has listened to our cry!" said the cooper, devoutly,
+      "and in the hour of our sorest need He has remembered us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Isn't it prime?" said Jack, gleefully; "five hundred
+      dollars! Ain't we rich, Aunt Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Like as not," observed Rachel, "the certificate isn't
+      genuine. It doesn't look natural it should be. I've heard of
+      counterfeits afore now. I shouldn't be surprised at all if
+      Timothy got took up for presenting it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll take the risk," said her brother, who did not seem much
+      alarmed at the suggestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you'll be able to pay the rent, Timothy," said Mrs.
+      Harding, cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and it's the last quarter's rent I mean to pay Mr.
+      Colman, if I can help it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, where are you going?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the house belonging to Mr. Harrison that I spoke of last
+      night, that is, if it isn't already engaged. I think I will
+      see about it at once. If Mr. Colman should come in while I am
+      gone, tell him I will be back directly; I don't want you to
+      tell him of the change in our circumstances."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper found Mr. Harrison at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I called to inquire," asked Mr. Harding, "whether you have
+      let your house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not as yet," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What rent do you ask?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twenty dollars a quarter. I don't think that unreasonable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is satisfactory to me," was the cooper's reply, "and if
+      you have no objections to me as a tenant, I will engage it at
+      once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far from having any objections, Mr. Harding," was the
+      courteous reply, "I shall be glad to secure so good a tenant.
+      Will you go over and look at the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not now, sir; I am somewhat in haste. Can we move in
+      to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His errand satisfactorily accomplished, the cooper returned
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the landlord had called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a little surprised to find that Mrs. Harding, instead
+      of looking depressed, looked cheerful rather than otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was not aware you had a child so young," he remarked,
+      looking at the baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not mine," said Mrs. Harding, briefly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The child of a neighbor, I suppose," thought the landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile he scrutinized closely, without appearing to do so,
+      the furniture in the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point Mr. Harding entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-morning," said Colman, affably. "A fine morning, Mr.
+      Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Quite so," responded his tenant, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have called, Mr. Harding, to ask if you are ready with
+      your quarter's rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I told you last evening how I was situated. Of
+      course I am sorry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So am I," interrupted the landlord, "for I may be obliged to
+      have recourse to unpleasant measures."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You mean that we must leave the house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course you cannot expect to remain in it, if you are
+      unable to pay the rent. I suppose," he added, making an
+      inventory of the furniture with his eyes, "you will leave
+      behind a sufficient amount of furniture to cover your debt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you would not deprive us of our furniture!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is there any injustice in requiring payment of honest
+      debts?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are cases of that description. However, I will not put
+      you to the trouble of levying on my furniture. I am ready to
+      pay your dues."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you the money?" asked Colman, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, and something over. Can you cash my check for five
+      hundred dollars?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to picture the amazement of the
+      landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you told me a different story last evening," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Last evening and this morning are different times. Then I
+      could not pay you. Now, luckily, I am able. If you will
+      accompany me to the bank, I will draw some money and pay your
+      bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear sir, I am not at all in haste for the money," said
+      the landlord, with a return of his affability. "Any time
+      within a week will do. I hope, by the way, you will continue
+      to occupy this house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't feel like paying twenty-five dollars a quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall have it for the same rent you have been paying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you said there was another family who had offered you an
+      advanced rent. I shouldn't like to interfere with them.
+      Besides, I have already hired a house of Mr. Harrison in the
+      next block."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Colman was silenced. He regretted too late the hasty
+      course which had lost him a good tenant. The family referred
+      to had no existence; and, it may be remarked, the house
+      remained vacant for several months, when he was glad to rent
+      it at the old price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A LUCKY RESCUE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The opportune arrival of the child inaugurated a season of
+      comparative prosperity in the home of Timothy Harding. To
+      persons accustomed to live in their frugal way, five hundred
+      dollars seemed a fortune. Nor, as might have happened in some
+      cases, did this unexpected windfall tempt the cooper or his
+      wife to enter upon a more extravagant mode of living.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us save something against a rainy day," said Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We can if I get work soon," answered her husband. "This
+      little one will add but little to our expenses, and there is
+      no reason why we shouldn't save up at least half of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I think, Timothy. The child's food will not amount to a
+      dollar a week."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's no tellin' when you will get work, Timothy," said
+      Rachel, in her usual cheerful way. "It isn't well to crow
+      before you are out of the woods."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true, Rachel. It isn't your failing to look too much at
+      the sunny side of the picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm ready to look at it when I can see it anywhere,"
+      answered his sister, in the same enlivening way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you see it in the unexpected good fortune which came
+      with this child?" asked Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've no doubt you think it very fortunate now," said Rachel,
+      gloomily; "but a young child's a great deal of trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you speak from experience, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said his aunt, slowly. "If all babies were as cross
+      and ill-behaved as you were when you were an infant, five
+      hundred dollars wouldn't begin to pay for the trouble of
+      having them around."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding and his wife laughed at the manner in which the
+      tables had been turned upon Jack, but the latter had his wits
+      about him sufficiently to answer: "I've always heard, Aunt
+      Rachel, that the crosser a child is, the pleasanter he will
+      grow up. What a very pleasant baby you must have been!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly; but his father, who
+      looked upon it as a good joke, remarked, good-humoredly:
+      "He's got you there, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rachel took it as a serious matter, and observed that,
+      when she was young, children were not allowed to speak so to
+      their elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I don't know as I can blame 'em much," she continued,
+      wiping her eyes with the corner of her apron, "when their own
+      parents encourage 'em in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Timothy was warned, by experience of Rachel's temper, that
+      silence was his most prudent course. Anything that he might
+      say would only be likely to make matters worse than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel sank into a fit of deep despondency, and did not
+      say another word till dinner time. She sat down to the table
+      with a profound sigh, as if there was little in life worth
+      living for. Notwithstanding this, it was observed that she
+      had a good appetite. Indeed, Miss Harding appeared to thrive
+      on her gloomy views of life and human nature. She was, it
+      must be acknowledged, perfectly consistent in all her
+      conduct, so far as this peculiarity was concerned. Whenever
+      she took up a newspaper, she always looked first to the space
+      appropriated to deaths, and next in order to the column of
+      accidents, casualties, etc., and her spirits were visibly
+      exhilarated when she encountered a familiar name in either
+      list.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper continued to look out for work; but it was with a
+      more cheerful spirit. He did not now feel as if the comfort
+      of his family depended absolutely on his immediate success.
+      Used economically, the money he had by him would last eight
+      months; and during that time it was hardly possible that he
+      should not find something to do. It was this sense of
+      security, of having something to fall back upon, that enabled
+      him to keep up good heart. It is too generally the case that
+      people are content to live as if they were sure of constantly
+      retaining their health, and never losing their employment.
+      When a reverse does come, they are at once plunged into
+      discouragement, and feel the necessity of doing something
+      immediately. There is only one way of fending off such an
+      embarrassment; and that is, to resolve, whatever may be the
+      amount of one's income, to lay aside some part to serve as a
+      reliance in time of trouble. A little economy&mdash;though it
+      involves self-denial&mdash;will be well repaid by the feeling
+      of security it engenders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding was not compelled to remain inactive as long as
+      he feared. Not that his line of business revived&mdash;that
+      still remained depressed for a considerable time&mdash;but
+      another path was opened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning home late one evening, the cooper saw a man steal
+      out from a doorway, and attack a gentleman, whose dress and
+      general appearance indicated probable wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seizing him by the throat, the villain effectually prevented
+      his calling for help, and at once commenced rifling his
+      pockets, when the cooper arrived on the scene. A sudden blow
+      admonished the robber that he had more than one to deal with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are you doing? Let that gentleman be!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The villain hesitated but a moment, then springing to his
+      feet, he hastily made off, under cover of the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have received no injury, sir," said Mr. Harding,
+      respectfully, addressing the stranger he had rescued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my worthy friend; thanks to your timely assistance. The
+      rascal nearly succeeded, however."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have lost nothing, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing, fortunately. You can form an idea of the value of
+      your interference, when I say that I have fifteen hundred
+      dollars with me, all of which would doubtless have been
+      taken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad," said Timothy, "that I was able to do you such a
+      service. It was by the merest chance that I came this way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you add to my indebtedness by accompanying me with that
+      trusty club of yours? I have some distance yet to go, and the
+      money I have with me I don't want to lose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Willingly," said the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I am forgetting," continued the gentleman, "that you
+      will yourself be obliged to return alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not carry enough money to make me fear an attack," said
+      Mr. Harding, laughing. "Money brings care, I have always
+      heard, and the want of it sometimes freedom from anxiety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet most people are willing to take their share of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, sir, nor I can't call myself an exception.
+      Still I would be satisfied with the certainty of constant
+      employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have that, at least."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have had until three or four months since."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, at present, you are unemployed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a cooper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will see what I can do for you. Will you call at my office
+      to-morrow, say at twelve o'clock?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be glad to do so, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I have a card with me. Yes, here is one. And this
+      is my house. Thank you for your company. Let me see you
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood before a handsome dwelling house, from whose
+      windows, draped by heavy crimson curtains, a soft light
+      proceeded. The cooper could hear the ringing of childish
+      voices welcoming home their father, whose life, unknown to
+      them, had been in such peril, and he felt grateful to
+      Providence for making him the instrument of frustrating the
+      designs of the villain who would have robbed the merchant,
+      and perhaps done him further injury. Timothy determined to
+      say nothing to his wife about the night's adventure, until
+      after his appointed meeting for the next day. Then, if any
+      advantage accrued to him from it, he would tell the whole
+      story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he reached home, Mrs. Harding was sewing beside the
+      fire. Aunt Rachel sat with her hands folded in her lap, with
+      an air of martyr-like resignation to the woes of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've brought you home a paper, Rachel," said her brother,
+      cheerfully. "You may find something interesting in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shan't be able to read it this evening," said Rachel,
+      mournfully. "My eyes have troubled me lately. I feel that it
+      is more than probable I am getting blind; but I trust I shall
+      not live to be a burden to you, Timothy. Your prospects are
+      dark enough without that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't trouble yourself with any fears of that sort, Rachel,"
+      said the cooper, cheerily. "I think I know what will enable
+      you to use your eyes as well as ever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What?" asked Rachel, with melancholy curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A pair of spectacles."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Spectacles!" retorted Rachel, indignantly. "It will be a
+      good many years before I am old enough to wear spectacles. I
+      didn't expect to be insulted by my own brother. But I ought
+      not to be surprised. It's one of my trials."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Rachel," said the
+      cooper, perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-night!" said Rachel, rising and taking a lamp from the
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Rachel, don't go up to bed yet; it's only nine
+      o'clock."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After what you have said to me, Timothy, my self-respect
+      will not allow me to stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel swept out of the room with something more than her
+      customary melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish Rachel wasn't quite so contrary," said the cooper to
+      his wife. "She turns upon a body so sudden it's hard to know
+      how to take her. How's the little girl, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She's been asleep ever since six o'clock."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you don't find her very much trouble? That all comes
+      on you, while we have the benefit of the money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think of that, Timothy. She is a sweet child, and I
+      love her almost as much as if she were my own. As for Jack,
+      he perfectly idolizes her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how does Rachel look upon her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid she will never be a favorite with Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel never took to children much. It isn't her way. Now,
+      Martha, while you are sewing, I will read you the news."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      WHAT THE ENVELOPE CONTAINED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The card which had been handed to the cooper contained the
+      name of Thomas Merriam, No. &mdash;&mdash; Pearl Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Punctually at twelve, he presented himself at the
+      countingroom, and received a cordial welcome from the
+      merchant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to see you," he said, affably. "You rendered me an
+      important service last evening, even if the loss of money
+      alone was to be apprehended. I will come to business at once,
+      as I am particularly engaged this morning, and ask you if
+      there is any way in which I can serve you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you could procure me a situation, sir, you would do me a
+      great service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you told me you were a cooper?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does this yield you a good support?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In good times it pays me two dollars a day, and on that I
+      can support my family comfortably. Lately it has been
+      depressed, and paid me but a dollar and a half."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When do you anticipate its revival?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is uncertain. I may have to wait some months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, in the meantime, you are willing to undertake some
+      other employment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not only willing, but shall feel very fortunate to
+      obtain work of any kind. I have no objection to any honest
+      employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Merriam reflected a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just at present," he said, "I have nothing better to offer
+      you than the position of porter. If that will suit you, you
+      can enter upon its duties to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be very glad to undertake it, sir. Anything is
+      better than idleness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As to the compensation, that shall be the same that you have
+      been accustomed to earn by your trade&mdash;two dollars a
+      day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I only received that in the best times," said Timothy,
+      conscientiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your services as porter will be worth that amount, and I
+      will cheerfully pay it. I will expect you to-morrow morning
+      at eight, if you can be here at that time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will be here promptly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are married, I suppose?" said the merchant, inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir; I am blessed with a good wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad of that. Stay a moment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Merriam went to his desk, and presently came back with a
+      sealed envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give that to your wife," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the interview terminated, and the cooper went home quite
+      elated by his success. His present engagement would enable
+      him to bridge over the dull time, until his trade revived,
+      and save him from incurring debts, of which he had a just
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are just in time, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding,
+      cheerfully, as he entered. "We've got an apple pudding
+      to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see you haven't forgotten what I like, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's no knowing how long you'll be able to afford
+      puddings," said Rachel, dolefully. "To my mind it's
+      extravagant to have meat and pudding both, when a month hence
+      you may be in the poorhouse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said Jack, "I wouldn't eat any if I were you, Aunt
+      Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if you grudge me the little I eat," said his aunt, in
+      serene sorrow, "I will go without."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tut, Rachel! nobody grudges you anything here," said her
+      brother; "and as to the poorhouse, I've got some good news to
+      tell you that will put that thought out of your head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it?" asked Mrs. Harding, looking up brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have found employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not at your trade?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; but at something else which will pay equally well till
+      trade revives."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he told the chance by which he was enabled to serve Mr.
+      Merriam the evening previous, and then he gave an account of
+      his visit to the merchant's countingroom, and the engagement
+      which he had made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are indeed fortunate, Timothy," said his wife, her face
+      beaming with pleasure. "Two dollars a day, and we've got
+      nearly the whole of the money left that came with this dear
+      child. Why, we shall be getting rich soon!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Rachel, have you no congratulations to offer?" asked
+      the cooper of his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating
+      as if it gave her no pleasure, but was rather a self-imposed
+      penance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a
+      porter," said Rachel, lugubriously. "I heard of a porter once
+      who had a great box fall upon him and kill him instantly; and
+      I was reading in the <i>Sun</i> yesterday of another out West
+      somewhere who committed suicide."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So, Rachel, you conclude that one or the other of these
+      calamities is the inevitable lot of all who are engaged in
+      this business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may laugh now, but it is always well to be prepared for
+      the worst," said Rachel, oracularly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But it isn't well to be always looking for it, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It'll come whether you look for it or not," retorted his
+      sister, sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then suppose we waste no time thinking about it, since,
+      according to your admission, it's sure to come either way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not deign a reply, but continued to eat in serene
+      melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you have another piece of pudding, Timothy?" asked his
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care if I do, Martha, it's so good," said the
+      cooper, passing his plate. "Seems to me it's the best pudding
+      you ever made."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've got a good appetite, that is all," said Mrs. Harding,
+      modestly disclaiming the compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Apple puddings are unhealthy," observed Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then what makes you eat them?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A body must eat something. Besides, life is so full of
+      sorrow, it makes little difference if it's longer or
+      shorter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you have another piece, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel passed her plate, and received a second portion.
+      Jack winked slyly, but fortunately his aunt did not observe
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When dinner was over, the cooper thought of the sealed
+      envelope which had been given him for his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," he said, "I nearly forgot that I have something for
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, from Mr. Merriam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he don't know me," said Mrs. Harding, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At any rate, he first asked me if I was married, and then
+      handed me this envelope, which he asked me to give to you. I
+      am not quite sure whether I ought to allow strange gentlemen
+      to write letters to my wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding opened the envelope with considerable curiosity,
+      and uttered an exclamation of surprise as a bank note fell
+      out, and fluttered to the carpet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By gracious, mother!" said Jack, springing to get it,
+      "you're in luck. It's a hundred-dollar bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So it is, I declare," said his mother, joyfully. "But,
+      Timothy, it isn't mine. It belongs to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Martha, I have nothing to do with it. It belongs to you.
+      You need some clothes, I am sure. Use part of it, and I will
+      put the rest in the savings bank for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never expected to have money to invest," said Mrs.
+      Harding. "I begin to feel like a capitalist. When you want to
+      borrow money, Timothy, you'll know where to come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Merriam's a trump and no mistake," said Jack. "By the way,
+      when you see him again, father, just mention that you've got
+      a son. Ain't we in luck, Aunt Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Boast not overmuch," said his aunt. "Pride goes before
+      destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never knew Aunt Rachel to be jolly but once," said Jack
+      under his breath; "and that was at a funeral."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S MISCHIEF
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      One of the first results of the new prosperity which had
+      dawned upon the Hardings, was Jack's removal from the street
+      to the school. While his father was out of employment, his
+      earnings seemed necessary; but now they could be dispensed
+      with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Jack, the change was not altogether agreeable. Few boys of
+      the immature age of eleven are devoted to study, and Jack was
+      not one of these few. The freedom which he had enjoyed suited
+      him, and he tried to impress it upon his father that there
+      was no immediate need of his returning to school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you want to grow up a dunce, Jack?" said his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can read and write already," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you willing to enter upon life with that scanty supply
+      of knowledge?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I guess I can get along as well as the average."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that. Besides, I want you to do better
+      than the average. I am ambitious for you, if you are not
+      ambitious for yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see what good it does a feller to study so hard,"
+      muttered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't study hard enough to do you any harm," said Aunt
+      Rachel, who might be excused for a little sarcasm at the
+      expense of her mischievous nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It makes my head ache to study," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps your head is weak, Jack," suggested his father,
+      slyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "More than likely," said Rachel, approvingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was decided that Jack should go to school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll get even with Aunt Rachel," thought he. "She's always
+      talking against me, and hectorin' me. See if I don't."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An opportunity for getting even with his aunt did not
+      immediately occur. At length a plan suggested itself to our
+      hero. He shrewdly suspected that his aunt's single
+      blessedness, and her occasional denunciations of the married
+      state, proceeded from disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll bet she'd get married if she had a chance," he thought.
+      "I mean to try her, anyway."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, with considerable effort, aided by a
+      school-fellow, he concocted the following letter, which was
+      duly copied and forwarded to his aunt's address:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "DEAR GIRL: Excuse the liberty I have taken in writing to you;
+  but I have seen you often, though you don't know me; and you are
+  the only girl I want to marry. I am not young&mdash;I am about your age,
+  thirty-five&mdash;and I have a good trade. I have always wanted to be
+  married, but you are the only one I know of to suit me. If you think
+  you can love me, will you meet me in Washington Park, next Tuesday,
+  at four o'clock? Wear a blue ribbon round your neck, if you want to
+  encourage me. I will have a red rose pinned to my coat.
+
+  "Don't say anything to your brother's family about this. They may not
+  like me, and they may try to keep us apart. Now be sure and come.
+  DANIEL."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This letter reached Miss Rachel just before Jack went to
+      school one morning. She read it through, first in surprise,
+      then with an appearance of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's your letter from, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack,
+      innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Children shouldn't ask questions about what don't concern
+      'em," said his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought maybe it was a love letter," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't make fun of your aunt," said his father, reprovingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack's question is only a natural one," said Rachel, to her
+      brother's unbounded astonishment. "I suppose I ain't so old
+      but I might be married if I wanted to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you had put all such thoughts out of your head
+      long ago, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I have, it's because the race of men are so shiftless,"
+      said his sister. "They ain't worth marrying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that meant for me?" asked the cooper, good-naturedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're all alike," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She put the letter carefully into her pocket, without
+      deigning any explanation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose it's from some of her old acquaintances," thought
+      her brother, and he dismissed the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as she could, Rachel took refuge in her room. She
+      carefully locked the door, and read the letter again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who can he be?" thought the agitated spinster. "Do I know
+      anybody of the name of Daniel? It must be some stranger that
+      has fallen in love with me unbeknown. What shall I do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat in meditation for a short time. Then she read the
+      letter again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will be very unhappy if I frown upon him," she said to
+      herself, complacently. "It's a great responsibility to make a
+      fellow being unhappy. It's a sacrifice, I know, but it's our
+      duty to deny ourselves. I don't know but I ought to go and
+      meet him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Rachel's conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time was close at hand. The appointment was for that very
+      afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't have my brother or Martha know it for the world,"
+      murmured Rachel to herself, "nor that troublesome Jack.
+      Martha's got some blue ribbon, but I don't dare to ask her
+      for it, for fear she'll suspect something. No, I must go out
+      and buy some."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm goin' to walk, Martha," she said, as she came
+      downstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Going to walk in the forenoon! Isn't that something
+      unusual?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've got a little headache. I guess it'll do me good," said
+      Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope it will," said her sister-in-law, sympathetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel went to the nearest dry-goods store, and bought a yard
+      of blue ribbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only a yard?" inquired the clerk, in some surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will do," said Rachel, nervously, coloring a little, as
+      though the use which she designed for it might be suspected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She paid for the ribbon, and presently returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does your head feel any better, Rachel?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A little," answered Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've been sewing too steady lately, perhaps?" suggested
+      Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I have," assented Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to spare yourself. You can't stand work as well as
+      when you were younger," said Martha, innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A body'd think I was a hundred by the way you talk," said
+      Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to offend you, Rachel. I thought you might
+      feel as I do. I get tired easier than I used to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess I'll go upstairs," said Rachel, in the same tone.
+      "There isn't anybody there to tell me how old I am gettin'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's hard to make Rachel out," thought Mrs. Harding. "She
+      takes offense at the most innocent remark. She can't look
+      upon herself as young, I am sure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upstairs Rachel took out the letter again, and read it
+      through once more. "I wonder what sort of a man Daniel is,"
+      she said to herself. "I wonder if I have ever noticed him.
+      How little we know what others think of us! If he's a likely
+      man, maybe it's my duty to marry him. I feel I'm a burden to
+      Timothy. His income is small, and it'll make a difference of
+      one mouth. It may be a sacrifice, but it's my duty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way Rachel tried to deceive herself as to the real
+      reason which led her to regard with favoring eyes the suit of
+      this supposed lover whom she had never seen, and about whom
+      she knew absolutely nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack came home from school at half-past two o'clock. He
+      looked roguishly at his aunt as he entered. She sat knitting
+      in her usual corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will she go?" thought Jack. "If she doesn't there won't be
+      any fun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack, whose trick I am far from defending, was not to be
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At three o'clock Rachel rolled up her knitting, and went
+      upstairs. Fifteen minutes later she came down dressed for a
+      walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out for a walk," she answered, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I go with you?" he asked, mischievously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I prefer to go alone," she said, curtly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your aunt has taken a fancy to walking," said Mrs. Harding,
+      when her sister-in-law had left the house. "She was out this
+      forenoon. I don't know what has come over her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do," said Jack to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes later he put on his hat and bent his steps also
+      to Washington Park.
+    </p><a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MISS HARDING'S MISTAKE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Miss Rachel Harding kept on her way to Washington Park. It
+      was less than a mile from her brother's house, and though she
+      walked slowly, she got there a quarter of an hour before the
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat down on a seat near the center of the park, and began
+      to look around her. Poor Rachel! her heart beat quicker than
+      it had done for thirty years, as she realized that she was
+      about to meet one who wished to make her his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope he won't be late," she murmured to herself, and she
+      felt of the blue ribbon to make sure that she had not
+      forgotten it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack reached the park, and from a distance surveyed
+      with satisfaction the evident nervousness of his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't it rich?" he whispered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel looked anxiously for the gentleman with the red rose
+      pinned to his coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had to wait ten minutes. At last he came, but as he
+      neared her seat, Rachel felt like sinking into the earth with
+      mortification when she recognized in the wearer a stalwart
+      negro. She hoped that it was a mere chance coincidence, but
+      he approached her, and raising his hat respectfully, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you Miss Harding?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if I am?" she demanded, sharply. "What have you to do
+      with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man looked surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Didn't you send word to me to meet you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No!" answered Rachel, "and I consider it very presumptuous
+      in you to write such a letter to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't write you a letter," said the negro, astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then what made you come here?" demanded the spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you wrote to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wrote to you!" exclaimed Rachel, aghast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, you wrote to me to come here. You said you'd wear a
+      blue ribbon on your neck, and I was to have a rose pinned to
+      my coat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was bewildered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How could I write to you when I never saw you before, and
+      don't know your name. Do you think a lady like me would marry
+      a colored man?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who said anything about that?" asked the other, opening his
+      eyes wide in astonishment. "I couldn't marry, nohow, for I've
+      got a wife and four children."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel felt ready to collapse. Was it possible that she had
+      made a mistake, and that this was not her unknown
+      correspondent, Daniel?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is some mistake," she said, nervously. "Where is that
+      letter you thought I wrote? Have you got it with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here it is, ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He handed Rachel a letter addressed in a small hand to Daniel
+      Thompson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened it and read:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "Mr. Thompson: I hear you are out of work. I may be able to give
+  you a job. Meet me at Washington Park, Tuesday afternoon, at four
+  o'clock. I shall wear a blue ribbon round my neck, and you may have
+  a red rose pinned to your coat. Otherwise I might not know you.
+
+  "RACHEL HARDING."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Some villain has done this," said Rachel, wrathfully. "I
+      never wrote that letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You didn't!" said Daniel, looking perplexed. "Who went and
+      did it, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know, but I'd like to have him punished for it,"
+      said Rachel, energetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you've got a blue ribbon," said Mr. Thompson. "I can't
+      see through that. That's just what the letter said."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose somebody wrote the letter that knew I wear blue.
+      It's all a mistake. You'd better go home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then haven't you got a job for me?" asked Daniel,
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I haven't," said Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She hurriedly untied the ribbon from her neck, and put it in
+      her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't talk to me any more!" she said, frowning. "You're a
+      perfect stranger. You have no right to speak to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess the old woman ain't right in her head!" thought
+      Daniel. "Must be she's crazy!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Rachel! she felt more disconsolate than ever. There was
+      no Daniel, then. She had been basely imposed upon. There was
+      no call for her to sacrifice herself on the altar of
+      matrimony. She ought to have been glad, but she wasn't.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour later a drooping, disconsolate figure entered
+      the house of Timothy Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what's the matter, Rachel?" asked Martha, who noticed
+      her woe-begone expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't long for this world," said Rachel, gloomily. "Death
+      has marked me for his own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you feel well this afternoon, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I feel as if life was a burden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have tired yourself with walking, Rachel. You have been
+      out twice to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a vale of tears," said Rachel, hysterically.
+      "There's nothin' but sorrow and misfortune to be expected."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you met with any misfortune? I thought fortune was
+      smiling upon us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It'll never smile on me again," said Rachel, despondently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Jack, who had followed his aunt home, entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you got home so quick, Aunt Rachel?" he asked. "How did
+      you enjoy your walk?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall never enjoy anything again," said his aunt,
+      gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because there's nothing to enjoy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't feel so, aunt. I feel as merry as a cricket."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't be long. Like as not you'll be took down with
+      fever to-morrow, and maybe die."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I won't trouble myself about it till the time comes," said
+      Jack. "I expect to live to dance at your wedding yet, Aunt
+      Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reference was too much. It brought to Rachel's mind the
+      Daniel to whom she had expected to link her destiny, and she
+      burst into a dismal sob, and hurried upstairs to her own
+      chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel acts queerly to-day," said Mrs. Harding. "I think she
+      can't be feeling well. If she don't feel better to-morrow I
+      shall advise her to send for the doctor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid it was mean to play such a trick on Aunt
+      Rachel," thought Jack, half repentantly. "I didn't think
+      she'd take it so much in earnest. I must keep dark about that
+      letter. She'd never forgive me if she knew."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some days there was an added gloom on Miss Rachel's
+      countenance, but the wound was not deep; and after a time her
+      disappointment ceased to rankle in her too sensitive heart.
+    </p><a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      SEVEN YEARS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Seven years slipped by unmarked by any important change. The
+      Hardings were still prosperous in an humble way. The cooper
+      had been able to obtain work most of the time, and this, with
+      the annual remittance for little Ida, had enabled the family
+      not only to live in comfort, but even to save up one hundred
+      and fifty dollars a year. They might even have saved more,
+      living as frugally as they were accustomed to do, but there
+      was one point in which they would none of them consent to be
+      economical. The little Ida must have everything she wanted.
+      Timothy brought home nearly every day some little delicacy
+      for her, which none of the rest thought of sharing. While
+      Mrs. Harding, far enough from vanity, always dressed with
+      extreme plainness, Ida's attire was always of good material
+      and made up tastefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes the little girl asked: "Mother, why don't you buy
+      yourself some of the pretty things you get for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding would answer, smiling: "Oh, I'm an old woman,
+      Ida. Plain things are best for me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I'm sure you're not old, mother. You don't wear a cap.
+      Aunt Rachel is a good deal older than you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, Ida. Don't let Aunt Rachel hear that. She wouldn't
+      like it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But she is ever so much older than you, mother," persisted
+      the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Rachel heard a remark of this kind, and perhaps it was
+      that that prejudiced her against Ida. At any rate, she was
+      not one of those who indulged her. Frequently she rebuked her
+      for matters of no importance; but it was so well understood
+      in the cooper's household that this was Aunt Rachel's way,
+      that Ida did not allow it to trouble her, as the lightest
+      reproach from Mrs. Harding would have done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had Ida been an ordinary child, all this petting would have
+      had an injurious effect upon her mind. But, fortunately, she
+      had the rare simplicity, young as she was, which lifted her
+      above the dangers which might have spoiled her otherwise.
+      Instead of being made vain and conceited, she only felt
+      grateful for the constant kindness shown her by her father
+      and mother, and brother Jack, as she was wont to call them.
+      Indeed it had not been thought best to let her know that such
+      were not the actual relations in which they stood to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one point, much more important than dress, in which
+      Ida profited by the indulgence of her friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," the cooper was wont to say, "Ida is a sacred charge
+      in our hands. If we allow her to grow up ignorant, or only
+      allow her ordinary advantages, we shall not fulfill our duty.
+      We have the means, through Providence, of giving her some of
+      those advantages which she would enjoy if she had remained in
+      that sphere to which her parents doubtless belong. Let no
+      unwise parsimony on our part withhold them from her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, Timothy," said his wife; "right, as you
+      always are. Follow the dictates of your own heart, and fear
+      not that I shall disapprove."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph!" said Aunt Rachel; "you ain't actin' right, accordin'
+      to my way of thinkin'. Readin', writin' and cypherin' was
+      enough for girls to learn in my day. What's the use of
+      stuffin' the girl's head full of nonsense that'll never do
+      her no good? I've got along without it, and I ain't quite a
+      fool."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the cooper and his wife had no idea of restricting Ida's
+      education to the rather limited standard indicated by Rachel.
+      So, from the first, they sent her to a carefully selected
+      private school, where she had the advantage of good
+      associates, and where her progress was astonishingly rapid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida early displayed a remarkable taste for drawing. As soon
+      as this was discovered, her adopted parents took care that
+      she should have abundant opportunity for cultivating it. A
+      private master was secured, who gave her lessons twice a
+      week, and boasted everywhere of the progress made by his
+      charming young pupil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the good of it?" asked Rachel. "She'd a good deal
+      better be learnin' to sew and knit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All in good time," said Timothy. "She can attend to both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never wasted my time that way," said Rachel. "I'd be
+      ashamed to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could exceed Timothy's gratification, when, on his
+      birthday, Ida presented him with a beautifully drawn sketch
+      of his wife's placid and benevolent face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When did you do it, Ida?" he asked, after earnest
+      expressions of admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did it in odd minutes," she answered, "when I had nothing
+      else to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how could you do it, without any of us knowing what you
+      were about?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had a picture before me, and you thought I was copying it,
+      but, whenever I could do it without being noticed, I looked
+      up at mother as she sat at her sewing, and so, after a while,
+      I finished the picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a fine one it is," said the cooper, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding insisted that Ida had flattered her, but this
+      Ida would not admit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I couldn't make it look as good as you, mother," she said.
+      "I tried, but somehow I didn't succeed as I wanted to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't have that difficulty with Aunt Rachel," said
+      Jack, roguishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida could not help smiling, but Rachel did not smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see," she said, with severe resignation, "that you've
+      taken to ridiculing your poor aunt again. But it's only what
+      I expect. I don't never expect any consideration in this
+      house. I was born to be a martyr, and I expect I shall
+      fulfill my destiny. If my own relations laugh at me, of
+      course I can't expect anything better from other folks. But I
+      shan't be long in the way. I've had a cough for some time
+      past, and I expect I'm in consumption."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You make too much of a little joke, Rachel," said the
+      cooper, soothingly. "I'm sure Jack didn't mean anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What I said was complimentary," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shook her head incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it was. Ask Ida. Why won't you draw Aunt Rachel, Ida? I
+      think she'd make a very striking picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I will," said Ida, hesitatingly, "if she will let me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Aunt Rachel, there's a chance for you," said Jack.
+      "Take my advice, and improve it. When it's finished it can be
+      hung up in the Art Rooms, and who knows but you may secure a
+      husband by it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't marry," said Rachel, firmly compressing her lips;
+      "not if anybody'd go down on their knees to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, I'm sure, Aunt Rachel, that's cruel of you," said Jack,
+      demurely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any man I'd trust my happiness to," pursued the
+      spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She hasn't any to trust," observed Jack, <i>sotto voce</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Men are all deceivers," continued Rachel, "the best of 'em.
+      You can't believe what one of 'em says. It would be a great
+      deal better if people never married at all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then where would the world be a hundred years hence?"
+      suggested her nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come to an end, most likely," answered Aunt Rachel; "and I'm
+      not sure but that would be the best thing. It's growing more
+      and more wicked every day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen that no great change has come over Miss
+      Rachel Harding, during the years that have intervened. She
+      takes the same disheartening view of human nature and the
+      world's prospects as ever. Nevertheless, her own hold upon
+      the world seems as strong as ever. Her appetite continues
+      remarkably good, and, although she frequently expresses
+      herself to the effect that there is little use in living, she
+      would be as unwilling to leave the world as anyone. It is not
+      impossible that she derives as much enjoyment from her
+      melancholy as other people from their cheerfulness.
+      Unfortunately her peculiar mode of enjoying herself is
+      calculated to have rather a depressing influence upon the
+      spirits of those with whom she comes in contact&mdash;always
+      excepting Jack, who has a lively sense of the ludicrous, and
+      never enjoys himself better than in bantering his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't expect to live more'n a week," said Rachel, one day.
+      "My sands of life are 'most run out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you sure of that, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I've got a presentiment that it's so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, if you're sure of it," said her nephew, gravely, "it
+      may be as well to order the coffin in time. What style would
+      you prefer?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel retreated to her room in tears, exclaiming that he
+      needn't be in such a hurry to get her out of the world; but
+      she came down to supper, and ate with her usual appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the rest of the
+      household. Indeed, he has constituted himself her especial
+      guardian. Rough as he is in the playground, he is always
+      gentle with her. When she was just learning to walk, and in
+      her helplessness needed the constant care of others, he used,
+      from choice, to relieve his mother of much of the task of
+      amusing the child. He had never had a little sister, and the
+      care of a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. It was
+      perhaps this very office of guardian to the child, assumed
+      when she was young, that made him feel ever after as if she
+      were placed under his special protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was equally attached to Jack. She learned to look to him
+      for assistance in any plan she had formed, and he never
+      disappointed her. Whenever he could, he would accompany her
+      to school, holding her by the hand, and, fond as he was of
+      rough play, nothing would induce him to leave her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long have you been a nursemaid?" asked a boy older than
+      himself, one day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack's fingers itched to get hold of his derisive questioner,
+      but he had a duty to perform, and he contented himself with
+      saying: "Just wait a few minutes, and I'll let you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say you will," was the reply. "I rather think I shall
+      have to wait till both of us are gray before that time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will not have to wait long before you are black and
+      blue," retorted Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't mind what he says, Jack," whispered Ida, fearing that
+      he would leave her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't be afraid, Ida; I won't leave you. I'll attend to his
+      business another time. I guess he won't trouble us
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness,
+      followed, with more abuse of the same sort. If he had been
+      wiser, he would have seen a storm gathering in the flash of
+      Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his forbearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, as they were going to school, Ida saw the same
+      boy dodging round the corner with his head bound up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the matter with him, Jack?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly.
+      "I guess he'll let us alone after this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even after Jack left school, and got a position in a store at
+      two dollars a week, he gave a large part of his spare time to
+      Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," said Mrs. Harding, "Jack is as careful of Ida as if
+      he was her guardian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A pretty sort of a guardian he is!" said Aunt Rachel. "Take
+      my word for it, he's only fit to lead her into mischief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You do him injustice, Rachel. Jack is not a model boy, but
+      he takes the best care of Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and sniffed significantly. It
+      was quite evident that she did not have a very favorable
+      opinion of her nephew.
+    </p><a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      About eleven o'clock one forenoon Mrs. Harding was in the
+      kitchen, busily engaged in preparing the dinner, when a loud
+      knock was heard at the front door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who can it be?" said Mrs. Harding. "Aunt Rachel, there's
+      somebody at the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it
+      is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "People have no business to call at such an hour in the
+      morning," grumbled Rachel, as she laid down her knitting
+      reluctantly, and rose from her seat. "Nobody seems to have
+      any consideration for anybody else. But that's the way of the
+      world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opening the outer door, she saw before her a tall woman,
+      dressed in a gown of some dark stuff, with strongly marked,
+      and not altogether pleasant, features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you the lady of the house?" inquired the visitor,
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any ladies in this house," answered Rachel.
+      "You've come to the wrong place. We have to work for a living
+      here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The woman of the house, then," said the stranger, rather
+      impatiently. "It doesn't make any difference about names. Are
+      you the one I want to see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I ain't," said Rachel, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you tell your mistress that I want to see her, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no mistress," said Rachel. "What do you take me for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you might be the servant, but that don't matter. I
+      want to see Mrs. Harding. Will you call her, or shall I go
+      and announce myself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as she'll see you. She's busy in the kitchen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Her business can't be as important as what I've come about.
+      Tell her that, will you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not fancy the stranger's tone or manner. Certainly
+      she did not manifest much politeness. But the spinster's
+      curiosity was excited, and this led her the more readily to
+      comply with the request.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay here, and I'll call her," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's a woman wants to see you," announced Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know. She hasn't got any manners, that's all I know
+      about her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding presented herself at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you come in?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I will. What I've got to say to you may take some
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding, wondering vaguely what business this strange
+      visitor could have with her, led the way to the sitting room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have in your family," said the woman, after seating
+      herself, "a girl named Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding looked up suddenly and anxiously. Could it be
+      that the secret of Ida's birth was to be revealed at last?
+      Was it possible that she was to be taken from her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," she answered, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is not your child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I love her as much. I have always taught her to look
+      upon me as her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume so. My visit has reference to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you tell me anything of her parentage?" inquired Mrs.
+      Harding, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was her nurse," said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding scrutinized anxiously the hard features of the
+      woman. It was, at least, a relief to know that no tie of
+      blood connected her with Ida, though, even upon her
+      assurance, she would hardly have believed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who were her parents?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not permitted to tell."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding looked disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," she said, with a sudden sinking of the heart, "you
+      have not come to take her away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This letter will explain my object in visiting you," said
+      the woman, drawing a sealed envelope from a bag which she
+      carried in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper's wife nervously broke open the letter, and read
+      as follows:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "MRS. HARDING: Seven years ago last New Year's night a child was
+  left on your doorsteps, with a note containing a request that you
+  would care for it kindly as your own. Money was sent at the same
+  time to defray the expenses of such care. The writer of this note
+  is the mother of the child, Ida. There is no need to explain here
+  why I sent away the child from me. You will easily understand that
+  it was not done willingly, and that only the most imperative
+  necessity would have led me to such a step. The same necessity
+  still prevents me from reclaiming my child, and I am content still
+  to leave Ida in your charge. Yet there is one thing I desire. You
+  will understand a mother's wish to see, face to face, her own
+  child. With this view I have come to this neighborhood. I will not
+  say where I am, for concealment is necessary to me. I send this
+  note by a trustworthy attendant, Mrs. Hardwick, my little Ida's
+  nurse in her infancy, who will conduct Ida to me, and return her
+  again to you. Ida is not to know who she is visiting. No doubt she
+  believes you to be her mother, and it is well that she should so
+  regard you. Tell her only that it is a lady, who takes an interest
+  in her, and that will satisfy her childish curiosity. I make this
+  request as IDA'S MOTHER."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding read this letter with mingled feelings. Pity for
+      the writer; a vague curiosity in regard to the mysterious
+      circumstances which had compelled her to resort to such a
+      step; a half feeling of jealousy, that there should be one
+      who had a claim to her dear, adopted daughter, superior to
+      her own; and a strong feeling of relief at the assurance that
+      Ida was not to be permanently removed&mdash;all these
+      feelings affected the cooper's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you were Ida's nurse?" she said, gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I hope the dear child is
+      well?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perfectly well. How much her mother must have suffered from
+      the separation!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed you may say so, ma'am. It came near to breaking her
+      heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't wonder," said sympathizing Mrs. Harding. "I can
+      judge of that by my own feelings. I don't know what I should
+      do, if Ida were to be taken from me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point in the conversation, the cooper entered the
+      house. He had come home on an errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is my husband," said Mrs. Harding, turning to her
+      visitor, by way of explanation. "Timothy, will you come here
+      a moment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper regarded the stranger with some surprise. His wife
+      hastened to introduce her as Mrs. Hardwick, Ida's old nurse,
+      and placed in her husband's hands the letter which we have
+      already read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not a rapid reader, and it took him some time to get
+      through the letter. He laid it down on his knee, and looked
+      thoughtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is indeed unexpected," he said, at last. "It is a new
+      development in Ida's history. May I ask, Mrs. Hardwick, if
+      you have any further proof? I want to be careful about a
+      child that I love as my own. Can you furnish any other proof
+      that you are what you represent?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I judged that the letter would be sufficient. Doesn't it
+      speak of me as the nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True; but how can we be sure that the writer is Ida's
+      mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The tone of the letter, sir. Would anybody else write like
+      that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you have read the letter?" asked the cooper, quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was read to me before I set out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By whom?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Ida's mother. I do not blame you for your caution," said
+      the visitor. "You must be deeply interested in the happiness
+      of the dear child, of whom you have taken such excellent
+      care. I don't mind telling you that I was the one who left
+      her at your door, seven years ago, and that I never left the
+      neighborhood until I saw you take her in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it was this that enabled you to find the house to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You forget," corrected the nurse, "that you were not then
+      living in this house, but in another, some rods off, on the
+      left-hand side of the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said Timothy. "I am inclined to believe in
+      the truth of your story. You must pardon my testing you in
+      such a manner, but I was not willing to yield up Ida, even
+      for a little time, without feeling confident of the hands she
+      was falling into."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said Mrs. Hardwick. "I don't blame you in
+      the least. I shall report it to Ida's mother as a proof of
+      your attachment to the child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When do you wish Ida to go with you?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you let her go this afternoon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said the cooper's wife, hesitating, "I should like to
+      have a chance to wash out some clothes for her. I want her to
+      appear as neat as possible when she meets her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse hesitated, but presently replied: "I don't wish to
+      hurry you. If you will let me know when she will be ready, I
+      will call for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I can get her ready early to-morrow morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will answer. I will call for her then."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse rose, and gathered her shawl about her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going, Mrs. Hardwick?" asked the cooper's
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To a hotel," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We cannot allow that," said Mrs. Harding, kindly. "It's a
+      pity if we cannot accommodate Ida's old nurse for one night,
+      or ten times as long, for that matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My wife is quite right," said the cooper, hesitatingly. "We
+      must insist on your stopping with us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse hesitated, and looked irresolute. It was plain she
+      would have preferred to be elsewhere, but a remark which Mrs.
+      Harding made, decided her to accept the invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was this: "You know, Mrs. Hardwick, if Ida is to go with
+      you, she ought to have a little chance to get acquainted with
+      you before you go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will accept your kind invitation," she said; "but I am
+      afraid I shall be in your way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not in the least. It will be a pleasure to us to have you
+      here. If you will excuse me now, I will go out and attend to
+      my dinner, which I am afraid is getting behindhand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left to herself, the nurse behaved in a manner which might be
+      regarded as singular. She rose from her seat, and approached
+      the mirror. She took a full survey of herself as she stood
+      there, and laughed a short, hard laugh. Then she made a
+      formal courtesy to her own reflection, saying: "How do you
+      do, Mrs. Hardwick?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak?" asked the cooper, who was passing through
+      the entry on his way out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered the nurse, rather awkwardly. "I may have said
+      something to myself. It's of no consequence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Somehow," thought the cooper, "I don't fancy the woman's
+      looks; but I dare say I am prejudiced. We're all of us as God
+      made us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mrs. Harding was making preparations for the noonday
+      meal, she imparted to Rachel the astonishing information
+      which has already been detailed to the reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe a word of it," said Rachel, resolutely. "The
+      woman's an impostor. I knew she was, the very minute I set
+      eyes on her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark was so characteristic of Rachel, that her
+      sister-in-law did not attach any special importance to it.
+      Rachel, of course, had no grounds for the opinion she so
+      confidently expressed. It was consistent, however, with her
+      general estimate of human nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What object could she have in inventing such a story?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What object? Hundreds of 'em," said Rachel, rather
+      indefinitely. "Mark my words; if you let her carry off Ida,
+      it'll be the last you'll ever see of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Try to look on the bright side, Rachel. Nothing is more
+      natural than that her mother should want to see her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why couldn't she come herself?" muttered Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The letter explains."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see that it does."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It says that same reasons exist for concealment as ever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what are they, I should like to know? I don't like
+      mysteries, for my part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We won't quarrel with them, at any rate, since they enable
+      us to keep Ida with us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel shook her head, as if she were far from
+      satisfied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said Mrs. Harding, "but I ought to invite
+      Mrs. Hardwick in here. I have left her alone in the front
+      room."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to see her," said Rachel. Then, changing her
+      mind suddenly: "Yes, you may bring her in. I'll soon find out
+      whether she's an impostor or not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper's wife returned with the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "this is my sister, Miss Rachel
+      Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am," said the
+      visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel, I will leave you to entertain Mrs. Hardwick, while I
+      get ready the dinner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel and the nurse eyed each other with mutual dislike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you don't expect me to entertain you," said Rachel.
+      "I never expect to entertain anybody ag'in. This is a world
+      of trial and tribulation, and I've had my share. So you've
+      come after Ida, I hear?" with a sudden change of tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At her mother's request," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She wants to see her, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder she didn't think of it before," said Rachel,
+      sharply. "She's good at waiting. She's waited seven years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are circumstances that cannot be explained," commenced
+      the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I dare say not," said Rachel, dryly. "So you were her
+      nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," answered the nurse, who did not appear to enjoy
+      this cross-examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you lived with Ida's mother ever since?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No&mdash;yes," stammered the stranger. "Some of the time,"
+      she added, recovering herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Umph!" grunted Rachel, darting a sharp glance at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you a husband living?" inquired the spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Mrs. Hardwick. "Have you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I!" repeated Rachel, scornfully. "No, neither living nor
+      dead. I'm thankful to say I never married. I've had trials
+      enough without that. Does Ida's mother live in the city?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell you," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph! I don't like mystery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It isn't any mystery," said the visitor. "If you have any
+      objections to make, you must make them to Ida's mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I will, if you'll tell me where she lives."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't do that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where do you live yourself?" inquired Rachel, shifting her
+      point of attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In Brooklyn," answered Mrs. Hardwick, with some hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What street, and number?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do you want to know?" inquired the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ain't ashamed to tell, be you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why should I be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know. You'd orter know better than I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It wouldn't do you any good to know," said the nurse. "I
+      don't care about receiving visitors."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to visit you, I am sure," said Rachel, tossing
+      her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you don't need to know where I live."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel left the room, and sought her sister-in-law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That woman's an impostor," she said. "She won't tell where
+      she lives. I shouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be a
+      thief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You haven't any reason for supposing that, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wait and see," said Rachel. "Of course I don't expect you to
+      pay any attention to what I say. I haven't any influence in
+      this house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, you have no cause to say that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rachel was not to be appeased. It pleased her to be
+      considered a martyr, and at such times there was little use
+      in arguing with her.
+    </p><a name="CH14"><!-- CH14 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      PREPARING FOR A JOURNEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Later in the day, Ida returned from school. She bounded into
+      the room, as usual, but stopped short in some confusion, on
+      seeing a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this my own dear child, over whose infancy I watched so
+      tenderly?" exclaimed the nurse, rising, her harsh features
+      wreathed into a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is Ida," said the cooper's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked from one to the other in silent bewilderment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Mrs. Harding, in a little embarrassment, "this is
+      Mrs. Hardwick, who took care of you when you were an infant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I thought you took care of me, mother," said Ida, in
+      surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true," said Mrs. Harding, evasively; "but I was not
+      able to have the care of you all the time. Didn't I ever
+      mention Mrs. Hardwick to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Although it is so long since I have seen her, I should have
+      known her anywhere," said the nurse, applying a handkerchief
+      to her eyes. "So pretty as she's grown up, too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding glanced with pride at the beautiful child, who
+      blushed at the compliment, a rare one, for her adopted
+      mother, whatever she might think, did not approve of openly
+      praising her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Mrs. Hardwick, "won't you come and kiss your old
+      nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked at her hard face, which now wore a smile intended
+      to express affection. Without knowing why, she felt an
+      instinctive repugnance to this stranger, notwithstanding her
+      words of endearment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She advanced timidly, with a reluctance which she was not
+      wholly able to conceal, and passively submitted to a caress
+      from the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a look in the eyes of the nurse, carefully guarded,
+      yet not wholly concealed, which showed that she was quite
+      aware of Ida's feeling toward her, and resented it. But
+      whether or not she was playing a part, she did not betray
+      this feeling openly, but pressed the unwilling child more
+      closely to her bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida breathed a sigh of relief when she was released, and
+      moved quietly away, wondering what it was that made the woman
+      so disagreeable to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is my nurse a good woman?" she asked, thoughtfully, when
+      alone with Mrs. Harding, who was setting the table for
+      dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A good woman! What makes you ask that?" queried her adopted
+      mother, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise,"
+      said Mrs. Harding. "And, by the way, Ida, she is going to
+      take you on a little excursion to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida. "Why, where are we
+      going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you
+      to a pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you,
+      from what she has told her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could she say of me?" inquired Ida. "She has not seen
+      me since I was a baby."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she
+      appears to have thought of you ever since, with a good deal
+      of affection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those
+      who like us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What makes you ask?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs. Hardwick,
+      at all, for all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I
+      ever shall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs. Harding, "when you find she is
+      exerting herself to give you pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Am I going with her to-morrow morning?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes. She wanted you to go to-day, but your clothes were not
+      in order."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall come back at night, shan't we?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope we shall," said Ida, decidedly, "and that she won't
+      want me to go with her again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you will feel differently when it is over, and you
+      find you have enjoyed yourself better than you anticipated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding exerted herself to fit Ida up as neatly as
+      possible, and when at length she was got ready, she thought
+      with sudden fear: "Perhaps her mother will not be willing to
+      part with her again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Ida was ready to start, there came upon all a little
+      shadow of depression, as if the child were to be separated
+      from them for a year, and not for a day only. Perhaps this
+      was only natural, since even this latter term, however brief,
+      was longer than they had been parted from her since, in her
+      infancy, she had been left at their door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse expressly desired that none of the family should
+      accompany her, as she declared it highly important that the
+      whereabouts of Ida's mother should not be known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course," she added, "after Ida returns she can tell you
+      what she pleases. Then it will be of no consequence, for her
+      mother will be gone. She does not live in this neighborhood.
+      She has only come here to see her child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall you bring her back to-night?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may keep her till to-morrow," said the nurse. "After seven
+      years' absence her mother will think that short enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this, Mrs. Harding agreed, though she felt that she should
+      miss Ida, though absent but twenty-four hours.
+    </p><a name="CH15"><!-- CH15 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE JOURNEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The nurse walked as far as Broadway, holding Ida by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are we going?" asked the child, timidly. "Are you
+      going to walk all the way?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said the nurse; "not all the way&mdash;perhaps a mile.
+      You can walk as far as that, can't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on till they reached the ferry at the foot of
+      Courtland Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you ever ride in a steamboat?" asked the nurse, in a
+      tone meant to be gracious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Once or twice," answered Ida. "I went with Brother Jack
+      once, over to Hoboken. Are we going there now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; we are going to the city you see over the water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What place is it? Is it Brooklyn?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it is Jersey City."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, that will be pleasant," said Ida, forgetting, in her
+      childish love of novelty, the repugnance with which the nurse
+      had inspired her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and that is not all; we are going still further," said
+      the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we going further?" asked Ida, in excitement. "Where are
+      we going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To a town on the line of the railroad."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And shall we ride in the cars?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; didn't you ever ride in the cars?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, never."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you will like it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long will it take us to go to the place you are
+      going to carry me to?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know exactly; perhaps three hours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Three whole hours in the cars! How much I shall have to tell
+      father and Jack when I get back!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you will," replied Mrs. Hardwick, with an unaccountable
+      smile&mdash;"when you get back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something peculiar in her tone, but Ida did not
+      notice it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was allowed to sit next the window in the cars, and took
+      great pleasure in surveying the fields and villages through
+      which they were rapidly whirled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we 'most there?" she asked, after riding about two
+      hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It won't be long," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must have come ever so many miles," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it is a good ways."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour more passed, and still there was no sign of reaching
+      their journey's end. Both Ida and her companion began to feel
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse beckoned to her side a boy, who was selling apples
+      and cakes, and inquired the price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The apples are two cents apiece, ma'am, and the cakes are
+      one cent each."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly
+      round, and exclaimed, in great astonishment: "Why, Charlie
+      Fitts, is that you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Ida, where did you come from?" asked the boy, with a
+      surprise equaling her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm making a little journey with this lady," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you're going to Philadelphia?" said Charlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To Philadelphia!" repeated Ida, surprised. "Not that I know
+      of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, you're 'most there now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we, Mrs. Hardwick?" inquired Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It isn't far from where we're going," she answered, shortly.
+      "Boy, I'll take two of your apples and four cakes. And, now,
+      you'd better go along, for there's somebody over there that
+      looks as if he wanted to buy something."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is that boy?" asked the nurse, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His name is Charlie Fitts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get acquainted with him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He went to school with Jack, so I used to see him
+      sometimes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Brother Jack. Don't you know him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, I forgot. So he's a schoolmate of Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and he's a first-rate boy," said Ida, with whom the
+      young apple merchant was evidently a favorite. "He's good to
+      his mother. You see, his mother is sick most of the time, and
+      can't work much; and he's got a little sister&mdash;she ain't
+      more than four or five years old&mdash;and Charlie supports
+      them by selling things. He's only sixteen years old; isn't he
+      a smart boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the nurse, indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sometime," continued Ida, "I hope I shall be able to earn
+      something for father and mother, so they won't be obliged to
+      work so hard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could you do?" asked the nurse, curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as I can do much yet," answered Ida, modestly;
+      "but perhaps when I am older I can draw pictures that people
+      will buy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you got any of your drawings with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I didn't bring any."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you had. The lady we are going to see would have
+      liked to see some of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we going to see a lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; didn't your mother tell you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I believe she said something about a lady that was
+      interested in me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And shall we come back to New York to-night?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it wouldn't leave us any time to stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "West Philadelphia!" announced the conductor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have arrived," said the nurse. "Keep close to me. Perhaps
+      you had better take hold of my hand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were making their way slowly through the crowd, the
+      young apple merchant came up with his basket on his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When are you going back, Ida?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick says not till to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Ida," said the nurse, sharply. "I can't have you
+      stopping all day to talk. We must hurry along."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-by, Charlie," said Ida. "If you see Jack, just tell him
+      you saw me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I will," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder who that woman is with Ida?" thought the boy. "I
+      don't like her looks much. I wonder if she's any relation of
+      Mr. Harding. She looks about as pleasant as Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last-mentioned lady would hardly have felt flattered at
+      the comparison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked about her with curiosity. There was a novel
+      sensation in being in a new place, particularly a city of
+      which she had heard so much as Philadelphia. As far back as
+      she could remember, she had never left New York, except for a
+      brief excursion to Hoboken; and one Fourth of July was made
+      memorable by a trip to Staten Island, under the guardianship
+      of Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a horse car just outside the depot, and rode
+      probably a mile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We get out here," said the nurse. "Take care, or you'll get
+      run over. Now turn down here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a narrow and dirty street, with unsightly houses
+      on each side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This ain't a very nice-looking street," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why isn't it?" demanded her companion, roughly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's narrow, and the houses don't look nice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you think of that house there?" asked Mrs. Hardwick,
+      pointing to a dilapidated-looking structure on the right-hand
+      side of the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't like to live there," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't, hey? You don't like it so well as the house
+      you live in in New York?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, not half so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wouldn't you like to go in, and look at the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go in and look at the house?" repeated Ida. "Why should we?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must know there are some poor families living there that
+      I am interested in," said Mrs. Hardwick, who appeared amused
+      at something. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that it is
+      our duty to help the poor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, but won't it be late before we get to the lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, there's plenty of time. You needn't be afraid of that.
+      There's a poor man living in this house that I've made a good
+      many clothes for, first and last."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He must be much obliged to you," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We're going up to see him now," said her companion. "Take
+      care of that hole in the stairs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat to Ida's surprise, her guide, on reaching the first
+      landing, opened a door without the ceremony of knocking, and
+      revealed a poor, untidy room, in which a coarse, unshaven man
+      was sitting, in his shirt sleeves, smoking a pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hello!" exclaimed this individual, jumping up. "So you've
+      got along, old woman! Is that the gal?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida stared from one to the other in amazement.
+    </p><a name="CH16"><!-- CH16 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      UNEXPECTED QUARTERS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of the man whom Mrs. Hardwick addressed so
+      familiarly was more picturesque than pleasing, He had a
+      large, broad face, which, not having been shaved for a week,
+      looked like a wilderness of stubble. His nose indicated
+      habitual indulgence in alcoholic beverages. His eyes were
+      bloodshot, and his skin looked coarse and blotched; his coat
+      was thrown aside, displaying a shirt which bore evidence of
+      having been useful in its day and generation. The same remark
+      may apply to his nether integuments, which were ventilated at
+      each knee, indicating a most praiseworthy regard to the laws
+      of health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida thought she had never seen so disgusting a man. She
+      continued to gaze at him, half in astonishment, half in
+      terror, till the object of her attention exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, little gal, what you're lookin' at? Hain't you never
+      seen a gentleman before?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida clung the closer to her companion, who, she was surprised
+      to find, did not resent the man's familiarity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Dick, how've you got along since I've been gone?"
+      asked the nurse, to Ida's astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, so-so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you felt lonely any?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've had good company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's been here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick pointed significantly to a jug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the best company I know of," he said, "but it's 'most
+      empty. So you've brought along the gal," he continued. "How
+      did you get hold of her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in these questions which terrified Ida.
+      It seemed to indicate a degree of complicity between these
+      two which boded no good to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you the particulars by and by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time she began to take off her bonnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ain't going to stop, are you?" asked Ida, startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't goin' to stop?" repeated the man called Dick. "Why
+      shouldn't she stop, I'd like to know? Ain't she at home?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At home!" echoed Ida, apprehensively, opening wide her eyes
+      in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; ask her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked inquiringly at Mrs. Hardwick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You might as well take off your things," said the latter,
+      grimly. "We ain't going any further to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And where's the lady you said you were going to see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The one that was interested in you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'm the one," she answered, with a broad smile and a
+      glance at Dick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to stay here," said Ida, now frightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you take me back early to-morrow?" entreated Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I don't intend to take you back at all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida seemed at first stupefied with astonishment and terror.
+      Then, actuated by a sudden, desperate impulse, she ran to the
+      door, and had got it partly open, when the nurse sprang
+      forward, and seizing her by the arm, pulled her violently
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going in such a hurry?" she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Back to father and mother," answered Ida, bursting into
+      tears. "Oh, why did you bring me here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you why," answered Dick, jocularly. "You see, Ida,
+      we ain't got any little girl to love us, and so we got you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I don't love you, and I never shall," said Ida,
+      indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now don't you go to saying that," said Dick. "You'll break
+      my heart, you naughty girl, and then Peg will be a widow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give due effect to this pathetic speech, Dick drew out a
+      tattered red handkerchief, and made a great demonstration of
+      wiping his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole scene was so ludicrous that Ida, despite her fears
+      and disgust, could not help laughing hysterically. She
+      recovered herself instantly, and said imploringly: "Oh, do
+      let me go, and father will pay you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You really think he would?" said Dick, in a tantalizing
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes; and you'll tell her to take me back, won't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he won't tell me any such thing," said Peg, gruffly; "so
+      you may as well give up all thoughts of that first as last.
+      You're going to stay here; so take off that bonnet of yours,
+      and say no more about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida made no motion toward obeying this mandate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I'll do it for you," said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She roughly untied the bonnet&mdash;Ida struggling vainly in
+      opposition&mdash;and taking this, with the shawl, carried
+      them to a closet, in which she placed them, and then, locking
+      the door, deliberately put the key in her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," said she, grimly, "I guess you're safe for the
+      present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't you ever going to carry me back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Some years hence I may possibly," answered the woman,
+      coolly. "We want you here for the present. Besides, you're
+      not sure that they want you back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not want me back again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I said. How do you know but your father and
+      mother sent you off on purpose? They've been troubled with
+      you long enough, and now they've bound you apprentice to me
+      till you're eighteen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a lie!" said Ida, firmly. "They didn't send me off, and
+      you're a wicked woman to tell me so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoity-toity!" said the woman. "Is that the way you dare to
+      speak to me? Have you anything more to say before I whip
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, goaded to desperation. "I shall complain
+      of you to the police, just as soon as I get a chance, and
+      they will put you in jail and send me home. That is what I
+      will do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick was incensed, and somewhat startled at these
+      defiant words. It was clear that Ida was not going to be a
+      meek, submissive child, whom they might ill-treat without
+      apprehension. She was decidedly dangerous, and her
+      insubordination must be nipped in the bud. She seized Ida
+      roughly by the arm, and striding with her to the closet
+      already spoken of, unlocked it, and, rudely pushing her in,
+      locked the door after her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay there till you know how to behave," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you manage to come it over her family?" inquired
+      Dick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His wife gave substantially the account with which the reader
+      is already familiar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pretty well done, old woman!" exclaimed Dick, approvingly.
+      "I always said you was a deep un. I always says, if Peg can't
+      find out how a thing is to be done, then it can't be done,
+      nohow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How about the counterfeit coin?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We're to be supplied with all we can put off, and we are to
+      have half for our trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is good. When the girl, Ida, gets a little tamed down,
+      we'll give her something to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it safe? Won't she betray us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We'll manage that, or at least I will. I'll work on her
+      fears, so she won't any more dare to say a word about us than
+      to cut her own head off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, Peg. I can trust you to do what's right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida sank down on the floor of the closet into which she had
+      been thrust. Utter darkness was around her, and a darkness as
+      black seemed to hang over all her prospects of future
+      happiness. She had been snatched in a moment from parents, or
+      those whom she regarded as such, and from a comfortable and
+      happy, though humble home, to this dismal place. In place of
+      the kindness and indulgence to which she had been accustomed,
+      she was now treated with harshness and cruelty.
+    </p><a name="CH17"><!-- CH17 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      SUSPENSE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "It doesn't, somehow, seem natural," said the cooper, as he
+      took his seat at the tea table, "to sit down without Ida. It
+      seems as if half the family were gone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just what I've said to myself twenty times to-day," remarked
+      his wife. "Nobody can tell how much a child is to them till
+      they lose it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not lose it," corrected Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to say that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When you used that word, mother, it made me feel just as if
+      Ida wasn't coming back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know why it is," said Mrs. Harding, thoughtfully,
+      "but I've had that same feeling several times today. I've
+      felt just as if something or other would happen to prevent
+      Ida's coming back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is only because she's never been away before," said the
+      cooper, cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble, Martha;
+      we shall have enough of it without."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel,
+      mournfully. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
+      This world is a vale of tears, and a home of misery. Folks
+      may try and try to be happy, but that isn't what they're sent
+      here for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never tried very hard, Aunt Rachel," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's my fate to be misjudged," said his aunt, with the air
+      of a martyr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't agree with you in your ideas about life, Rachel,"
+      said her brother. "Just as there are more pleasant than
+      stormy days, so I believe there is much more of brightness
+      than shadow in this life of ours, if we would only see it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't see it," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the
+      clouds than the sun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," chimed in Jack, "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel
+      takes up the newspaper, she always looks first at the deaths,
+      and next at the fatal accidents and steamboat explosions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If," retorted Rachel, with severe emphasis, "you should ever
+      be on board a steamboat when it exploded, you wouldn't find
+      much to laugh at."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I should," said Jack, "I should laugh&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" exclaimed Rachel, horrified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't
+      wait till I'd finished the sentence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think it proper to make light of such serious
+      matters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor I Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of
+      his mouth. "I am willing to confess that this is a serious
+      matter. I should feel as they say the cow did, that was
+      thrown three hundred feet up into the air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How's that?" inquired his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rather discouraged," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe
+      composure, and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with
+      the air of one gulping down medicine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning all felt more cheerful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida will be home to-night," said Mrs. Harding, brightly.
+      "What an age it seems since she went away! Who'd think it was
+      only twenty-four hours?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall know better how to appreciate her when we get her
+      back," said her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What time do you expect her home, mother? What did Mrs.
+      Hardwick say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said Mrs. Harding, hesitating, "she didn't say as to
+      the hour; but I guess she'll be along in the course of the
+      afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we only knew where she had gone, we could tell better
+      when to expect her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But as we don't know," said the cooper, "we must wait
+      patiently till she comes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess," said Mrs. Harding, with the impulse of a notable
+      housewife, "I'll make some apple turnovers for supper
+      to-night. There's nothing Ida likes so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's where Ida is right," said Jack, smacking his lips.
+      "Apple turnovers are splendid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are very unwholesome," remarked Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't think so from the way you eat them, Aunt
+      Rachel," retorted Jack. "You ate four the last time we had
+      them for supper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't think you'd begrudge me the little I eat," said his
+      aunt, dolefully. "I didn't think you counted the mouthfuls I
+      took."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Rachel, don't be so unreasonable," said her brother.
+      "Nobody begrudges you what you eat, even if you choose to eat
+      twice as much as you do. I dare say Jack ate more of the
+      turnovers than you did."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ate six," said Jack, candidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel, construing this into an apology, said no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it wasn't for you, Aunt Rachel, I should be in danger of
+      getting too jolly, perhaps, and spilling over. It always
+      makes me sober to look at you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's lucky there's something to make you sober and stiddy,"
+      said his aunt. "You are too frivolous."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Evening came, but it did not bring Ida. An indefinable sense
+      of apprehension oppressed the minds of all. Martha feared
+      that Ida's mother, finding her so attractive, could not
+      resist the temptation of keeping her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," she said, "that she has the best claim to her,
+      but it would be a terrible thing for us to part with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't let us trouble ourselves about that," said Timothy.
+      "It seems to me very natural that her mother should keep her
+      a little longer than she intended. Think how long it is since
+      she saw her. Besides, it is not too late for her to return
+      to-night."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length there came a knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess that is Ida," said Mrs. Harding, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack seized a candle, and hastening to the door, threw it
+      open. But there was no Ida there. In her place stood Charlie
+      Fitts, the boy who had met Ida in the cars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How are you, Charlie?" said Jack, trying not to look
+      disappointed. "Come in and tell us all the news."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Charlie, "I don't know of any. I suppose Ida has
+      got home?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Jack; "we expected her to-night, but she
+      hasn't come yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She told me she expected to come back to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! have you seen her?" exclaimed all, in chorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I saw her yesterday noon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, in the cars," answered Charlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What cars?" asked the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, the Philadelphia cars. Of course you knew it was there
+      she was going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Philadelphia!" exclaimed all, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, the cars were almost there when I saw her. Who was that
+      with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick, her old nurse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't like her looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's where we paddle in the same canoe," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She didn't seem to want me to speak to Ida," continued
+      Charlie, "but hurried her off as quick as possible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There were reasons for that," said the cooper. "She wanted
+      to keep her destination secret."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what it was," said the boy, "but I don't like
+      the woman's looks."
+    </p><a name="CH18"><!-- CH18 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      HOW IDA FARED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      We left Ida confined in a dark closet, with Peg standing
+      guard over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hour she was released.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the nurse, grimly, "how do you feel now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want to go home," sobbed the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are at home," said the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I never see father, and mother, and Jack again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That depends on how you behave yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if you will only let me go," pleaded Ida, gathering hope
+      from this remark, "I'll do anything you say."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you mean this, or do you only say it for the sake of
+      getting away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean just what I say. Dear, good Mrs. Hardwick, tell me
+      what to do, and I will obey you cheerfully."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said Peg, "only you needn't try to come it over
+      me by calling me dear, good Mrs. Hardwick. In the first
+      place, you don't care a cent about me; in the second place, I
+      am not good; and finally, my name isn't Mrs. Hardwick, except
+      in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it, then?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's just Peg, no more and no less. You may call me Aunt
+      Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would rather call you Mrs. Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you'll have a good many years to call me so. You'd
+      better do as I tell you, if you want any favors. Now what do
+      you say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg," said Ida, with a strong effort to conceal
+      her repugnance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's well. Now you're not to tell anybody that you came
+      from New York. That is very important; and you're to pay your
+      board by doing whatever I tell you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it isn't wicked."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you suppose I would ask you to do anything wicked?"
+      demanded Peg, frowning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You said you wasn't good," mildly suggested Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm good enough to take care of you. Well, what do you say
+      to that? Answer me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's another thing. You ain't to try to run away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hung down her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" exclaimed Peg. "So you've been thinking of it, have
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, boldly, after a moment's hesitation. "I
+      did think I should if I got a good chance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph!" said the woman, "I see we must understand one
+      another. Unless you promise this, back you go into the dark
+      closet, and I shall keep you there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida shuddered at this fearful threat&mdash;terrible to a
+      child of but eight years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you promise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida, faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For fear you might be tempted to break your promise, I have
+      something to show you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick went to the closet, and took down a large
+      pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," she said, "do you see that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know what it is for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To shoot people with," answered the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the nurse; "I see you understand. Well, now, do
+      you know what I would do if you should tell anybody where you
+      came from, or attempt to run away? Can you guess, now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Would you shoot me?" asked Ida, terror-stricken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I would," said Peg, with fierce emphasis. "That's just
+      what I'd do. And what's more even if you got away, and got
+      back to your family in New York, I would follow you, and
+      shoot you dead in the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't be so wicked!" exclaimed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wouldn't I, though?" repeated Peg, significantly. "If you
+      don't believe I would, just try it. Do you think you would
+      like to try it?" she asked, fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Ida, with a shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, that's the most sensible thing you've said yet. Now
+      that you are a little more reasonable, I'll tell you what I
+      am going to do with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked eagerly up into her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am going to keep you with me for a year. I want the
+      services of a little girl for that time. If you serve me
+      faithfully, I will then send you back to New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you?" asked Ida, hopefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, but you must mind and do what I tell you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes," said Ida, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so much better than she had been led to fear, that
+      the prospect of returning home at all, even though she had to
+      wait a year, encouraged her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want me to do?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may take the broom and sweep the room."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And then you may wash the dishes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And after that, I will find something else for you to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick threw herself into a rocking-chair, and watched
+      with grim satisfaction the little handmaiden, as she moved
+      quickly about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I took the right course with her," she said to herself. "She
+      won't any more dare to run away than to chop her hands off.
+      She thinks I'll shoot her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the unprincipled woman chuckled to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida heard her indistinctly, and asked, timidly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak, Aunt Peg?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I didn't; just attend to your work and don't mind me.
+      Did your mother make you work?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I went to school."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Time you learned. I'll make a smart woman of you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning Ida was asked if she would like to go out
+      into the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am going to let you do a little shopping. There are
+      various things we want. Go and get your hat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's in the closet," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, I put it there. That was before I could trust you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went to the closet and returned with the child's hat and
+      shawl. As soon as the two were ready they emerged into the
+      street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a little better than being shut up in the closet,
+      isn't it?" asked her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, ever so much."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see you'll have a very good time of it, if you do as I
+      bid you. I don't want to do you any harm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they walked along together until Peg, suddenly pausing,
+      laid her hands on Ida's arm, and pointing to a shop near by,
+      said to her: "Do you see that shop?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want you to go in and ask for a couple of rolls. They come
+      to three cents apiece. Here's some money to pay for them. It
+      is a new dollar. You will give this to the man that stands
+      behind the counter, and he will give you back ninety-four
+      cents. Do you understand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida, nodding her head. "I think I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if the man asks if you have anything smaller, you will
+      say no."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will stay just outside. I want you to go in alone, so you
+      will learn to manage without me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida entered the shop. The baker, a pleasant-looking man,
+      stood behind the counter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like a couple of rolls."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For your mother, I suppose?" said the baker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Ida, "for the woman I board with."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! a dollar bill, and a new one, too," said the baker, as
+      Ida tendered it in payment. "I shall have to save that for my
+      little girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida left the shop with the two rolls and the silver change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did he say anything about the money?" asked Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He said he should save it for his little girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good!" said the woman. "You've done well."
+    </p><a name="CH19"><!-- CH19 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      BAD MONEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The baker introduced in the foregoing chapter was named
+      Harding. Singularly, Abel Harding was a brother of Timothy
+      Harding, the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many respects he resembled his brother. He was an
+      excellent man, exemplary in all the relations of life, and
+      had a good heart. He was in very comfortable circumstances,
+      having accumulated a little property by diligent attention to
+      his business. Like his brother, Abel Harding had married, and
+      had one child. She had received the name of Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the baker closed his shop for the night, he did not
+      forget the new dollar, which he had received, or the disposal
+      he told Ida he would make of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen ran to meet her father as he entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you think I have brought you, Ellen?" he said, with
+      a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do tell me quick," said the child, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if I should tell you it was a new dollar?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, papa, thank you!" and Ellen ran to show it to her
+      mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the baker, "I received it from a little girl
+      about the size of Ellen, and I suppose it was that that gave
+      me the idea of bringing it home to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all that passed concerning Ida at that time. The
+      thought of her would have passed from the baker's mind, if it
+      had not been recalled by circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen, like most girls of her age, when in possession of
+      money, could not be easy until she had spent it. Her mother
+      advised her to deposit it in some savings bank; but Ellen
+      preferred present gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, one afternoon, when walking out with her mother,
+      she persuaded her to go into a toy shop, and price a doll
+      which she saw in the window. The price was seventy-five
+      cents. Ellen concluded to buy it, and her mother tendered the
+      dollar in payment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shopman took it in his hand, glanced at it carelessly at
+      first, then scrutinized it with increased attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter?" inquired Mrs. Harding. "It is good,
+      isn't it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is what I am doubtful of," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is new."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is against it. If it were old, it would be more
+      likely to be genuine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you wouldn't condemn a bill because it is new?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly not; but the fact is, there have been lately many
+      cases where counterfeit bills have been passed, and I suspect
+      this is one of them. However, I can soon ascertain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you would," said the baker's wife. "My husband took
+      it at his shop, and will be likely to take more unless he is
+      put on his guard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shopman sent it to the bank where it was pronounced
+      counterfeit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding was much surprised at his wife's story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really!" he said. "I had no suspicion of this. Can it be
+      possible that such a young and beautiful child could be
+      guilty of such an offense?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps not," answered his wife. "She may be as innocent in
+      the matter as Ellen or myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope so," said the baker; "it would be a pity that so
+      young a child should be given to wickedness. However, I shall
+      find out before long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She will undoubtedly come again sometime."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker watched daily for the coming of Ida. He waited some
+      days in vain. It was not Peg's policy to send the child too
+      often to the same place, as that would increase the chances
+      of detection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, however, Ida entered the shop as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-morning," said the baker; "what will you have to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may give me a sheet of gingerbread, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker placed it in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How much will it be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twelve cents."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida offered him another new bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As if to make change, he stepped from behind the counter and
+      placed himself between Ida and the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your name, my child?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida? But what is your other name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hesitated a moment, because Peg had forbidden her to use
+      the name of Harding, and had told her, if ever the inquiry
+      were made, she must answer Hardwick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered reluctantly: "Ida Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker observed her hesitation, and this increased his
+      suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hardwick!" he repeated, musingly, endeavoring to draw from
+      the child as much information as possible before allowing her
+      to perceive that he suspected her. "And where do you live?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was a child of spirit, and did not understand why she
+      should be questioned so closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She said, with some impatience: "I am in a hurry, sir, and
+      would like to have the change as soon as you can."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no doubt of it," said the baker, his manner suddenly
+      changing, "but you cannot go just yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you have been trying to deceive me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I trying to deceive you!" exclaimed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," thought Mr. Harding, "she does it well; but no
+      doubt she is trained to it. It is perfectly shocking, such
+      artful depravity in a child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you remember buying something here a week ago?" he
+      asked, in as stern a tone as his good nature would allow him
+      to employ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, promptly; "I bought two rolls, at three
+      cents apiece."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what did you offer me in payment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I handed you a dollar bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Like this?" asked the baker, holding up the one she had just
+      offered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do you mean to say," demanded the baker, sternly, "that
+      you didn't know it was bad when you offered it to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bad!" gasped Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, spurious. Not as good as blank paper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, sir, I didn't know anything about it," said Ida,
+      earnestly; "I hope you'll believe me when I say that I
+      thought it was good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what to think," said the baker, perplexed. "Who
+      gave you the money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The woman I board with."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course I can't give you the gingerbread. Some men, in my
+      place, would deliver you up to the police. But I will let you
+      go, if you will make me one promise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I will promise anything, sir," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have given me a bad dollar. Will you promise to bring me
+      a good one to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida made the required promise, and was allowed to go.
+    </p><a name="CH20"><!-- CH20 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      DOUBTS AND FEARS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what kept you so long?" asked Peg, impatiently, as Ida
+      rejoined her at the corner of the street. "I thought you were
+      going to stay all the forenoon. And Where's your
+      gingerbread?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He wouldn't let me have it," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why wouldn't he let you have it?" said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because he said the money wasn't good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stuff and nonsense! It's good enough. However, it's no
+      matter. We'll go somewhere else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he said the money I gave him last week wasn't good, and
+      I promised to bring him another to-morrow, or he wouldn't
+      have let me go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, where are you going to get your dollar?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, won't you give it to me?" said the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Catch me at such nonsense!" said Mrs. Hardwick,
+      contemptuously. "I ain't quite a fool. But here we are at
+      another shop. Go in and see if you can do any better there.
+      Here's the money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's the same bill I gave you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to pass bad money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tut! What hurt will it do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the same as stealing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The man won't lose anything. He'll pass it off again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Somebody'll have to lose it by and by," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you've taken up preaching, have you?" said Peg,
+      sneeringly. "Maybe you know better than I what is proper to
+      do. It won't do for you to be so mighty particular, and so
+      you'll find out, if you stay with me long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get the dollar?" asked Ida; "and how is it you
+      have so many of them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "None of your business. You mustn't pry into the affairs of
+      other people. Are you going to do as I told you?" she
+      continued, menacingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't," answered Ida, pale but resolute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't!" repeated Peg, furiously. "Didn't you promise to
+      do whatever I told you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Except what was wicked," interposed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what business have you to decide what is wicked? Come
+      home with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg seized the child's hand, and walked on in sullen silence,
+      occasionally turning to scowl upon Ida, who had been strong
+      enough, in her determination to do right, to resist
+      successfully the will of the woman whom she had so much
+      reason to dread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived at home, Peg walked Ida into the room by the
+      shoulder. Dick was lounging in a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hillo!" said he, lazily, observing his wife's frowning face.
+      "What's the gal been doin', hey?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's she been doing?" repeated Peg. "I should like to know
+      what she hasn't been doing. She's refused to go in and buy
+      gingerbread of the baker."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look here, little gal," said Dick, in a moralizing vein,
+      "isn't this rayther undootiful conduct on your part? Ain't it
+      a piece of ingratitude, when Peg and I go to the trouble of
+      earning the money to pay for gingerbread for you to eat, that
+      you ain't even willin' to go in and buy it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would just as lieve go in," said Ida, "if Peg would give
+      me good money to pay for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That don't make any difference," said the admirable
+      moralist. "It's your dooty to do just as she tells you, and
+      you'll do right. She'll take the risk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't," said the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You hear her!" said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very improper conduct!" said Dick, shaking his head in grave
+      reproval. "Little gal, I'm ashamed of you. Put her in the
+      closet, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come along," said Peg, harshly. "I'll show you how I deal
+      with those that don't obey me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Ida was incarcerated once more in the dark closet. Yet in
+      the midst of her desolation, child as she was, she was
+      sustained and comforted by the thought that she was suffering
+      for doing right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Ida failed to return on the appointed day, the Hardings,
+      though disappointed, did not think it strange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I were her mother," said the cooper's wife, "and had been
+      parted from her for so long, I should want to keep her as
+      long as I could. Dear heart! how pretty she is and how proud
+      her mother must be of her!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's all a delusion," said Rachel, shaking her head,
+      solemnly. "It's all a delusion. I don't believe she's got a
+      mother at all. That Mrs. Hardwick is an impostor. I know it,
+      and told you so at the time, but you wouldn't believe me. I
+      never expect to set eyes on Ida again in this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day passed, and still no tidings of Jack's ward. Her
+      young guardian, though not as gloomy as Aunt Rachel, looked
+      unusually serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a cloud of anxiety even upon the cooper's usually
+      placid face, and he was more silent than usual at the evening
+      meal. At night, after Jack and his aunt had retired, he said,
+      anxiously: "What do you think is the cause of Ida's prolonged
+      absence, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell," said his wife, seriously. "It seems to me, if
+      her mother wanted to keep her longer it would be no more than
+      right that she should drop us a line. She must know that we
+      would feel anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps she is so taken up with Ida that she can think of no
+      one else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be so; but if we neither see Ida to-morrow, nor hear
+      from her, I shall be seriously troubled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose she should never come back," suggested the cooper,
+      very soberly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, husband, don't hint at such a thing," said his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must contemplate it as a possibility," said Timothy,
+      gravely, "though not, as I hope, as a probability. Ida's
+      mother has an undoubted right to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then it would be better if she had never been placed in our
+      charge," said Martha, tearfully, "for we should not have had
+      the pain of parting with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, Martha," her husband said, seriously. "We ought to
+      be grateful for God's blessings, even if He suffers us to
+      retain them but a short time. And Ida has been a blessing to
+      us all, I am sure. The memory of that can't be taken from us,
+      Martha. There's some lines I came across in the paper
+      to-night that express just what I've been sayin'. Let me find
+      them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper put on his spectacles, and hunted slowly down the
+      columns of the daily paper till he came to these beautiful
+      lines of Tennyson, which he read aloud:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "'I hold it true, whate'er befall;
+  I feel it when I sorrow most;
+  'Tis better to have loved and lost,
+  Than never to have loved at all.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "There, wife," he said, as he laid down the paper; "I don't
+      know who writ them lines, but I'm sure it's some one that's
+      met with a great sorrow and conquered it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are beautiful," said his wife, after a pause; "and I
+      dare say you're right, Timothy; but I hope we mayn't have to
+      learn the truth of them by experience. After all, it isn't
+      certain but that Ida will come back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At any rate," said her husband, "there is no doubt that it
+      is our duty to take every means that we can to recover Ida.
+      Of course, if her mother insists upon keepin' her, we can't
+      say anything; but we ought to be sure of that before we yield
+      her up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean, Timothy?" asked Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as I ought to mention it," said the cooper.
+      "Very likely there isn't anything in it, and it would only
+      make you feel more anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have already aroused my anxiety. I should feel better if
+      you would speak out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will," said the cooper. "I have sometimes been
+      tempted," he continued, lowering his voice, "to doubt whether
+      Ida's mother really sent for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How do you account for the letter, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have thought&mdash;mind, it is only a guess&mdash;that
+      Mrs. Hardwick may have got somebody to write it for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is very singular," murmured Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is singular?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, the very same thought has occurred to me. Somehow, I
+      can't help feeling a little distrustful of Mrs. Hardwick,
+      though perhaps unjustly. What object can she have in getting
+      possession of the child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I can't conjecture; but I have come to one
+      determination."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unless we learn something of Ida within a week from the time
+      she left here, I shall go on to Philadelphia, or else send
+      Jack, and endeavor to get track of her."
+    </p><a name="CH21"><!-- CH21 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      AUNT RACHEL'S MISHAPS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The week slipped away, and still no tidings of Ida. The house
+      seemed lonely without her. Not until then did they understand
+      how largely she had entered into their life and thoughts. But
+      worse even than the sense of loss was the uncertainty as to
+      her fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is time that we took some steps about finding Ida," the
+      cooper said. "I would like to go to Philadelphia myself, to
+      make inquiries about her, but I am just now engaged upon a
+      job which I cannot very well leave, and so I have concluded
+      to send Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When shall I start?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To-morrow morning," answered his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What good do you think it will do," interposed Rachel, "to
+      send a mere boy like Jack to Philadelphia?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A mere boy!" repeated her nephew, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A boy hardly sixteen years old," continued Rachel. "Why,
+      he'll need somebody to take care of him. Most likely you'll
+      have to go after him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the use of provoking a fellow so, Aunt Rachel?" said
+      Jack. "You know I'm 'most eighteen. Hardly sixteen! Why, I
+      might as well say you're hardly forty, when we all know
+      you're fifty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fifty!" ejaculated the scandalized spinster. "It's a base
+      slander. I'm only thirty-seven."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Maybe I'm mistaken," said Jack, carelessly. "I didn't know
+      exactly how old you were; I only judged from your looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point, Rachel applied a segment of a pocket
+      handkerchief to her eyes; but, unfortunately, owing to
+      circumstances, the effect instead of being pathetic, as she
+      intended it to be, was simply ludicrous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It so happened that a short time previous, the inkstand had
+      been partially spilled upon the table, through Jack's
+      carelessness and this handkerchief had been used to sop it
+      up. It had been placed inadvertently upon the window seat,
+      where it had remained until Rachel, who was sitting beside
+      the window, called it into requisition. The ink upon it was
+      by no means dry. The consequence was, that, when Rachel
+      removed it from her eyes, her face was discovered to be
+      covered with ink in streaks mingling with the tears that were
+      falling, for Rachel always had a plentiful supply of tears at
+      command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first intimation the luckless spinster had of her mishap
+      was conveyed in a stentorian laugh from Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked intently at the dark traces of sorrow on his aunt's
+      face&mdash;of which she was yet unconscious&mdash;and
+      doubling up, went off into a perfect paroxysm of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly, for she had not
+      observed the cause of his amusement, "it's improper for you
+      to laugh at your aunt in such a rude manner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I can't help it, mother. Just look at her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus invited, Mrs. Harding did look, and the rueful
+      expression of Rachel, set off by the inky stains, was so
+      irresistibly comical, that, after a hard struggle, she too
+      gave way, and followed Jack's example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Astonished and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her
+      sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and
+      again had recourse to the handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is too much!" she sobbed. "I've stayed here long
+      enough, if even my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew,
+      from whom I expect nothing better, makes me her
+      laughingstock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer remain in
+      your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poorhouse
+      and end my miserable existence as a common pauper. If I only
+      receive Christian burial when I leave the world, it will be
+      all I hope or expect from my relatives, who will be glad
+      enough to get rid of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second application of the handkerchief had so increased
+      the effect, that Jack found it impossible to check his
+      laughter, while the cooper, whose attention was now drawn to
+      his sister's face, burst out in a similar manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This more amazed Rachel than Martha's merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!" she
+      exclaimed, in an "<i>Et tu, Brute</i>" tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We don't mean to ridicule you, Rachel," gasped her
+      sister-in-law, "but we can't help laughing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At the prospect of my death!" uttered Rachel, in a tragic
+      tone. "Well, I'm a poor, forlorn creetur, I know. Even my
+      nearest relations make sport of me, and when I speak of
+      dying, they shout their joy to my face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," gasped Jack, nearly choking, "that's it exactly. It
+      isn't your death we're laughing at, but your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My face!" exclaimed the insulted spinster. "One would think
+      I was a fright by the way you laugh at it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you are!" said Jack, with a fresh burst of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be called a fright to my face!" shrieked Rachel, "by my
+      own nephew! This is too much. Timothy, I leave your house
+      forever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excited maiden seized her hood; which was hanging from a
+      nail, and was about to leave the house when she was arrested
+      in her progress toward the door by the cooper, who stifled
+      his laughter sufficiently to say: "Before you go, Rachel,
+      just look in the glass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes
+      rested upon a face streaked with inky spots and lines seaming
+      it in every direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her first confusion Rachel jumped to the conclusion that
+      she had been suddenly stricken by the plague. Accordingly she
+      began to wring her hands in an excess of terror, and
+      exclaimed in tones of piercing anguish:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the fatal plague spot! I am marked for the tomb. The
+      sands of my life are fast running out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This convulsed Jack afresh with merriment, so that an
+      observer might, not without reason, have imagined him to be
+      in imminent danger of suffocation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll kill me, Aunt Rachel! I know you will," he gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may order my coffin, Timothy," said Rachel, in a
+      sepulchral voice; "I shan't live twenty-four hours. I've felt
+      it coming on for a week past. I forgive you for all your
+      ill-treatment. I should like to have some one go for the
+      doctor, though I know I'm past help."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think," said the cooper, trying to look sober, "you will
+      find the cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the
+      plague spots, as you call them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel turned toward him with a puzzled look. Then, as her
+      eyes rested for the first time upon the handkerchief she had
+      used, its appearance at once suggested a clew by which she
+      was enabled to account for her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat ashamed of the emotion which she had betrayed, as
+      well as the ridiculous figure which she had cut, she left the
+      room abruptly, and did not make her appearance again till the
+      next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this little episode, the conversation turned upon
+      Jack's approaching journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said his mother, "but Rachel is right.
+      Perhaps Jack isn't old enough, and hasn't had sufficient
+      experience to undertake such a mission."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, mother," expostulated Jack, "you ain't going to side
+      against me, are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no better plan," said his father, quietly.
+    </p><a name="CH22"><!-- CH22 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE FLOWER GIRL
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Henry Bowen was a young artist of moderate talent, who had
+      abandoned the farm on which he had labored as a boy, for the
+      sake of pursuing his favorite profession. He was not
+      competent to achieve the highest success. But he had good
+      taste and a skillful hand, and his productions were pleasing
+      and popular. He had formed a connection with a publisher of
+      prints and engravings, who had thrown considerable work in
+      his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you any new commission to-day?" inquired the young
+      artist, on the day before Ida's discovery that she had been
+      employed to pass off spurious coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the publisher, "I have thought of something which
+      may prove attractive. Just at present, pictures of children
+      seem to be popular. I should like to have you supply me with
+      a sketch of a flower girl, with, say, a basket of flowers in
+      her hand. Do you comprehend my idea?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I do," answered the artist. "Give me sufficient
+      time, and I hope to satisfy you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young artist went home, and at once set to work upon the
+      task he had undertaken. He had conceived that it would be an
+      easy one, but found himself mistaken. Whether because his
+      fancy was not sufficiently lively, or his mind was not in
+      tune, he was unable to produce the effect he desired. The
+      faces which he successively outlined were all stiff, and
+      though beautiful in feature, lacked the great charm of being
+      expressive and lifelike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter with me?" he exclaimed, impatiently. "Is
+      it impossible for me to succeed? It's clear," he decided,
+      "that I am not in the vein. I will go out and take a walk,
+      and perhaps while I am in the street something may strike
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He accordingly donned his coat and hat, and emerged into the
+      great thoroughfare, where he was soon lost in the throng. It
+      was only natural that, as he walked, with his task uppermost
+      in his thoughts, he should scrutinize carefully the faces of
+      such young girls as he met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps," it occurred to him, "I may get a hint from some
+      face I see. It is strange," he mused, "how few there are,
+      even in the freshness of childhood, that can be called models
+      of beauty. That child, for example, has beautiful eyes, but a
+      badly cut mouth. Here is one that would be pretty, if the
+      face were rounded out; and here is a child&mdash;Heaven help
+      it!&mdash;that was designed to be beautiful, but want and
+      unfavorable circumstances have pinched and cramped it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this point in the artist's soliloquy that, in
+      turning the corner of a street, he came upon Peg and Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist looked earnestly at the child's face, and his own
+      lighted up with sudden pleasure, as one who stumbles upon
+      success just as he had begun to despair of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The very face I have been looking for!" he exclaimed to
+      himself. "My flower girl is found at last."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned round, and followed Ida and her companion. Both
+      stopped at a shop window to examine some articles which were
+      on exhibition there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is precisely the face I want," he murmured. "Nothing
+      could be more appropriate or charming. With that face the
+      success of the picture is assured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist's inference that Peg was Ida's attendant was
+      natural, since the child was dressed in a style quite
+      superior to her companion. Peg thought that this would enable
+      her, with less risk, to pass spurious coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man followed the strangely assorted pair to the
+      apartments which Peg occupied. From the conversation which he
+      overheard he learned that he had been mistaken in his
+      supposition as to the relation between the two, and that,
+      singular as it seemed, Peg had the guardianship of the child.
+      This made his course clearer. He mounted the stairs and
+      knocked at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want?" demanded a sharp voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to see you just a moment," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg opened the door partially, and regarded the young man
+      suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know you," she said, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume not," said the young man, courteously. "We have
+      never met, I think. I am an artist. I hope you will pardon my
+      present intrusion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no use in your coming here," said Peg, abruptly,
+      "and you may as well go away. I don't want to buy any
+      pictures. I've got plenty of better ways to spend my money
+      than to throw it away on such trash."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one would have thought of doubting Peg's word, for she
+      looked far from being a patron of the arts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have a young girl living with you, about seven or eight
+      years old, have you not?" inquired the artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg instantly became suspicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who told you that?" she demanded, quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No one told me. I saw her in the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg at once conceived the idea that her visitor was aware of
+      the fact that the child had been lured away from home;
+      possibly he might be acquainted with the cooper's family? or
+      might be their emissary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose you did see such a child on the street, what has
+      that to do with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I saw the child entering this house with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if you did?" demanded Peg, defiantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was about," said the artist, perceiving that he was
+      misapprehended, "I was about to make a proposition which may
+      prove advantageous to both of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eh!" said Peg, catching at the hint. "Tell me what it is and
+      we may come to terms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must explain," said Bowen, "that I am an artist. In
+      seeking for a face to sketch from, I have been struck by that
+      of your child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of Ida?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, if that is her name. I will pay you five dollars if you
+      will allow me to copy her face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," she said, more graciously, "if that's all you want, I
+      don't know as I have any objections. I suppose you can copy
+      her face here as well as anywhere?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should prefer to have her come to my studio."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shan't let her come," said Peg, decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will consent to your terms, and come here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you want to begin now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to do so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come in, then. Here, Ida, I want you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This gentleman wants to copy your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am an artist," said the young man, with a reassuring
+      smile. "I will endeavor not to try your patience too much, or
+      keep you too long. Do you think you can stand still for half
+      an hour without too much fatigue?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kept her in pleasant conversation, while, with a free,
+      bold hand he sketched the outlines of her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall want one more sitting," he said. "I will come
+      to-morrow at this time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stop a minute," said Peg. "I should like the money in
+      advance. How do I know you will come again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, if you desire it," said Henry Bowen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What strange fortune," he thought, "can have brought them
+      together? Surely there can be no relation between this sweet
+      child and that ugly old woman!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he returned and completed his sketch, which was
+      at once placed in the hands of the publisher, eliciting his
+      warm approval.
+    </p><a name="CH23"><!-- CH23 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK OBTAINS INFORMATION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack set out with that lightness of heart and keen sense of
+      enjoyment that seem natural to a young man of eighteen on his
+      first journey. Partly by boat, partly by cars, he traveled,
+      till in a few hours he was discharged, with hundreds of
+      others, at the depot in Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rejected all invitations to ride, and strode on, carpetbag
+      in hand, though, sooth to say, he had very little idea
+      whether he was steering in the right direction for his
+      uncle's shop. By dint of diligent and persevering inquiry he
+      found it at last, and walking in, announced himself to the
+      worthy baker as his nephew Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What? Are you Jack?" exclaimed Mr. Abel Harding, pausing in
+      his labor. "Well, I never should have known you, that's a
+      fact. Bless me, how you've grown! Why, you're 'most as big as
+      your father, ain't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only half an inch shorter," answered Jack, complacently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you're&mdash;let me see&mdash;how old are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eighteen; that is, almost. I shall be in two months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'm glad to see you, Jack, though I hadn't the least
+      idea of your raining down so unexpectedly. How's your father
+      and mother and your adopted sister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Father and mother are pretty well," answered Jack; "and so
+      is Aunt Rachel," he continued, smiling, "though she ain't so
+      cheerful as she might be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Poor Rachel!" said Abel, smiling also. "Everything goes
+      contrary with her. I don't suppose she's wholly to blame for
+      it. Folks differ constitutionally. Some are always looking on
+      the bright side of things, and others can never see but one
+      side, and that's the dark one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've hit it, uncle," said Jack, laughing. "Aunt Rachel
+      always looks as if she was attending a funeral."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So she is, my boy," said Abel, gravely, "and a sad funeral
+      it is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't understand you, uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The funeral of her affections&mdash;that's what I mean.
+      Perhaps you mayn't know that Rachel was, in early life,
+      engaged to be married to a young man whom she ardently loved.
+      She was a different woman then from what she is now. But her
+      lover deserted her just before the wedding was to have come
+      off, and she's never got over the disappointment. But that
+      isn't what I was going to talk about. You haven't told me
+      about your adopted sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the very thing I've come to Philadelphia about," said
+      Jack, soberly. "Ida has been carried off, and I've come in
+      search of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Been carried off? I didn't know such things ever happened in
+      this country. What do you mean?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack told the story of Mrs. Hardwick's arrival with a letter
+      from Ida's mother, conveying the request that her child
+      might, under the guidance of the messenger, be allowed to pay
+      her a visit. To this and the subsequent details Abel Harding
+      listened with earnest attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you have reason to think the child is in Philadelphia?"
+      he said, musingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack; "Ida was seen in the cars, coming here, by
+      a boy who knew her in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida?" repeated the baker. "Was that her name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you knew her name, didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say I have known it, but I have heard so little of
+      your family lately that I had forgotten it. It is rather a
+      singular circumstance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is a singular circumstance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell you, Jack. It may not amount to anything,
+      however. A few days since a little girl came into my shop to
+      buy a small amount of bread. I was at once favorably
+      impressed with her appearance. She was neatly dressed, and
+      had a very honest face. Having made the purchase she handed
+      me in payment a new dollar bill. 'I'll keep that for my
+      little girl,' thought I at once. Accordingly, when I went
+      home at night, I just took the dollar out of, the till and
+      gave it to her. Of course, she was delighted with it, and,
+      like a child, wanted to spend it at once. So her mother
+      agreed to go out with her the next day. Well, they selected
+      some knick-knack or other, but when they came to pay for it
+      the dollar proved counterfeit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Counterfeit?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; bad. Issued by a gang of counterfeiters. When they told
+      me of this, I said to myself, 'Can it be that this little
+      girl knew what she was about when she offered me that?' I
+      couldn't think it possible, but decided to wait till she came
+      again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she come again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; only day before yesterday. As I expected, she offered
+      me in payment another dollar just like the other. Before
+      letting her know that I had discovered the imposition I asked
+      her one or two questions with the idea of finding out as much
+      as possible about her. When I told her the bill was a bad
+      one, she seemed very much surprised. It might have been all
+      acting, but I didn't think so then. I even felt pity for her,
+      and let her go on condition that she would bring me back a
+      good dollar in place of the bad one the next day. I suppose I
+      was a fool for doing so, but she looked so pretty and
+      innocent that I couldn't make up my mind to speak or act
+      harshly to her. But I am afraid that I was deceived, and that
+      she was an artful character after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then she didn't come back with the good money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I haven't seen her since."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What name did she give you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haven't I told you? It was the name that made me think of
+      telling you. She called herself Ida Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida Hardwick?" repeated Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Ida Hardwick. But that hasn't anything to do with your
+      Ida, has it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hasn't it, though?" said Jack. "Why, Mrs. Hardwick was the
+      woman who carried her away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;her mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; not her mother. She said she was the woman who took care
+      of Ida before she was brought to us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you think this Ida Hardwick may be your missing
+      sister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I don't know yet," said Jack. "If you would only
+      describe her, Uncle Abel, I could tell better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the baker, thoughtfully, "I should say this
+      little girl was seven or eight years old."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack, nodding; "what color were her eyes?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So are Ida's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A small mouth, with a very sweet expression, yet with
+      something firm and decided about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I believe her dress was a light one, with a blue ribbon
+      round the waist."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she wear anything around her neck?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A brown scarf, if I remember rightly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is the way Ida was dressed when she went away with Mrs.
+      Hardwick. I am sure it must be she. But how strange that she
+      should come into your shop!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps," suggested his uncle, "this woman, representing
+      herself as Ida's nurse, was her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it can't be," said Jack, vehemently. "What, that ugly,
+      disagreeable woman, Ida's mother? I won't believe it. I
+      should just as soon expect to see strawberries growing on a
+      thorn bush."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know I have not seen Mrs. Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No great loss," said Jack. "You wouldn't care much about
+      seeing her again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable woman;
+      while Ida is fair and sweet-looking. Ida's mother, whoever
+      she is, I am sure, is a lady in appearance and manners, and
+      Mrs. Hardwick is neither. Aunt Rachel was right for once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What did Rachel say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She said the nurse was an impostor, and declared it was only
+      a plot to get possession of Ida; but then, that was to be
+      expected of Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Still it seems difficult to imagine any satisfactory motive
+      on the part of the woman, supposing her not to be Ida's
+      mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mother or not," returned Jack, "she's got possession of Ida;
+      and, from all that you say, she is not the best person to
+      bring her up. I am determined to rescue Ida from this
+      she-dragon. Will you help me, uncle?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may count upon me, Jack, for all I can do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said Jack, with energy, "we shall succeed. I feel
+      sure of it. 'Where there's a will there's a way.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you success, Jack; but if the people who have got Ida
+      are counterfeiters, they are desperate characters, and you
+      must proceed cautiously."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't afraid of them. I'm on the warpath now, Uncle Abel,
+      and they'd better look out for me."
+    </p><a name="CH24"><!-- CH24 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S DISCOVERY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The first thing to be done by Jack was, of course, in some
+      way to obtain a clew to the whereabouts of Peg, or Mrs.
+      Hardwick, to use the name by which he knew her. No mode of
+      proceeding likely to secure this result occurred to him,
+      beyond the very obvious one of keeping in the street as much
+      as possible, in the hope that chance might bring him face to
+      face with the object of his pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following out this plan, Jack became a daily promenader in
+      Chestnut, Walnut and other leading thoroughfares. Jack became
+      himself an object of attention, on account of what appeared
+      to be his singular behavior. It was observed that he had no
+      glances to spare for young ladies, but persistently stared at
+      the faces of all middle-aged women&mdash;a circumstance
+      naturally calculated to attract remark in the case of a
+      well-made lad like Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid," said the baker, "it will be as hard as looking
+      for a needle in a haystack, to find the one you seek among so
+      many faces."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's nothing like trying," said Jack, courageously. "I'm
+      not going to give up yet a while. I'd know Ida or Mrs.
+      Hardwick anywhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to write home, Jack. They will be getting anxious
+      about you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm going to write this morning&mdash;I put it off, because
+      I hoped to have some news to write."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down and wrote the following note:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "DEAR PARENTS: I arrived in Philadelphia right side up with care,
+  and am stopping at Uncle Abel's. He received me very kindly. I have
+  got track of Ida, though I have not found her yet. I have learned as
+  much as this: that this Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;who is a double-distilled
+  she-rascal&mdash;probably has Ida in her clutches, and has sent her on two
+  occasions to my uncle's. I am spending most of my time in the streets,
+  keeping a good lookout for her. If I do meet her, see if I don't get
+  Ida away from her. But it may take some time. Don't get discouraged,
+  therefore, but wait patiently. Whenever anything new turns up you will
+  receive a line from your dutiful son,
+
+  "JACK."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Jack had been in the city eight days when, as he was
+      sauntering along the street, he suddenly perceived in front
+      of him, a shawl which struck him as wonderfully like the one
+      worn by Mrs. Hardwick. Not only that, but the form of the
+      wearer corresponded to his recollections of the nurse. He
+      bounded forward, and rapidly passing the suspected person,
+      turned suddenly and confronted the woman of whom he had been
+      in search.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recognition was mutual. Peg was taken aback by this
+      unexpected encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her first impulse was to make off, but Jack's resolute
+      expression warned her that he was not to be trifled with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said she, rapidly recovering her composure,
+      "and you, if I am not mistaken, are John Harding, the son of
+      my worthy friends in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," ejaculated Jack, internally, "she's a cool un, and no
+      mistake."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Jack," he said, aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you leave all well at home?" asked Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't guess what I came here for?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To see your sister Ida, I presume."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Jack, amazed at the woman's composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought some of you would be coming on," continued Peg,
+      who had already mapped out her course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You did?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; it was only natural. What did your father and mother
+      say to the letter I wrote them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The letter you wrote them?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly. You got it, didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what letter you mean."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A letter, in which I wrote that Ida's mother had been so
+      pleased with the appearance and manners of the child, that
+      she could not determine to part with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't mean to say that any such letter as that has been
+      written?" said Jack, incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What? Has it not been received?" inquired Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing like it. When was it written?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The second day after our arrival," said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that is the case," said Jack, not knowing what to think,
+      "it must have miscarried; we never received it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a pity. How anxious you all must have felt!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems as if half the family were gone. But how long does
+      Ida's mother mean to keep her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps six months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," said Jack, his suspicions returning, "I have been told
+      that Ida has twice called at a baker's shop in this city, and
+      when asked what her name was, answered, Ida Hardwick. You
+      don't mean to say that you pretend to be her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I do," replied Peg, calmly. "I didn't mean to tell you,
+      but as you've found out, I won't deny it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a lie," said Jack. "She isn't your daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Young man," said Peg, with wonderful self-command, "you are
+      exciting yourself to no purpose. You asked me if I pretended
+      to be her mother. I do pretend, but I admit frankly that it
+      is all pretense."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't understand what you mean," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will explain to you, though you have treated me so
+      impolitely that I might well refuse. As I informed your
+      father and mother in New York, there are circumstances which
+      stand in the way of Ida's real mother recognizing her as her
+      own child. Still, as she desires her company, in order to
+      avert suspicion and prevent embarrassing questions being
+      asked while she remains in Philadelphia, she is to pass as my
+      daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This explanation was tolerably plausible, and Jack was unable
+      to gainsay it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can I see Ida?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To his great joy, Peg replied: "I don't think there can be
+      any objection. I am going to the house now. Will you come
+      with me now, or appoint some other time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by all means," said Jack, eagerly. "Nothing shall stand
+      in the way of my seeing Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A grim smile passed over Peg's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Follow me, then," she said. "I have no doubt Ida will be
+      delighted to see you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Jack, with a pang, "that she is so taken up
+      with her new friends that she has nearly forgotten her old
+      friends in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If she had," answered Peg, "she would not deserve to have
+      friends at all. She is quite happy here, but she will be very
+      glad to return to New York to those who have been so kind to
+      her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," thought Jack, "I don't know what to make of this
+      Mrs. Hardwick. She talks fair enough, though looks are
+      against her. Perhaps I have misjudged her."
+    </p><a name="CH25"><!-- CH25 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      CAUGHT IN A TRAP
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack and his guide paused in front of a large three-story
+      brick building. The woman rang the bell. An untidy servant
+      girl made her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick spoke to the servant in so low a voice that
+      Jack couldn't hear what she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, mum," answered the servant, and led the way
+      upstairs to a back room on the third floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go in and take a seat," she said to Jack. "I will send Ida
+      to you immediately."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right," said Jack, in a tone of satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg went out, closing the door after her. She, at the same
+      time, softly slipped a bolt which had been placed upon the
+      outside. Then hastening downstairs she found the proprietor
+      of the house, a little old man with a shrewd, twinkling eye,
+      and a long, aquiline nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have brought you a boarder," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A lad, who is likely to interfere in our plans. You may keep
+      him in confinement for the present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very good. Is he likely to make a fuss?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should think it very likely. He is high-spirited and
+      impetuous, but you know how to manage him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes," nodded the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can think of some pretext for keeping him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I tell him he's in a madhouse?" said the old man,
+      laughing, and thereby showing some yellow fangs, which by no
+      means improved his appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just the thing! It'll frighten him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a little further conversation in a low tone, and
+      then Peg went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fairly trapped, my young bird!" she thought to herself. "I
+      think that will put a stop to your troublesome appearance for
+      the present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack, wholly unsuspicious that any trick had been
+      played upon him, seated himself in a rocking-chair and waited
+      impatiently for the coming of Ida, whom he was resolved to
+      carry back to New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Impelled by a natural curiosity, he examined attentively the
+      room in which he was seated. There was a plain carpet on the
+      floor, and the other furniture was that of an ordinary bed
+      chamber. The most conspicuous ornament was a large
+      full-length portrait against the side of the wall. It
+      represented an unknown man, not particularly striking in his
+      appearance. There was, besides, a small table with two or
+      three books upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack waited patiently for twenty minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps Ida may be out," he reflected. "Still, even if she
+      is, Mrs. Hardwick ought to come and let me know. It's dull
+      work staying here alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another fifteen minutes passed, and still no Ida appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is rather singular," thought Jack. "She can't have told
+      Ida I am here, or I am sure she would rush up at once to see
+      her brother Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, tired of waiting, Jack walked to the door and
+      attempted to open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a greater resistance than he anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good heavens!" thought Jack, in consternation, as the real
+      state of the case flashed upon him, "is it possible that I am
+      locked in?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He employed all his strength, but the door still resisted. He
+      could no longer doubt that it was locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rushed to the windows. They were two in number, and looked
+      out upon a yard in the rear of the house. There was no hope
+      of drawing the attention of passersby to his situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Confounded by this discovery, Jack sank into his chair in no
+      very enviable state of mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," thought he, "this is a pretty situation for me to be
+      in. I wonder what father would say if he knew that I had
+      managed to get locked up like this? I am ashamed to think I
+      let that treacherous woman, Mrs. Hardwick, lead me so quietly
+      into a snare. Aunt Rachel was about right when she said I
+      wasn't fit to come alone. I hope she'll never find out about
+      this adventure of mine. If she did, I should never hear the
+      last of it."
+    </p><a name="CH26"><!-- CH26 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      DR. ROBINSON
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at
+      least double the number of minutes. Moreover, he was getting
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The wretches can't mean to starve me, can they?" he asked
+      himself. Despite his constitutional courage he could not help
+      shuddering at the idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was unexpectedly answered by the opening of the door, and
+      the appearance of the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a
+      disagreeable smile upon his features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why are you confined? Really, one would think you didn't
+      find your quarters comfortable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am so far from finding them agreeable, that I insist upon
+      leaving them immediately," returned Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have locked it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, so I have," said the old man, with a leer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I insist upon your opening it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall do so when I get ready to go out, myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall go with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's to prevent me?" said Jack, defiantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's to prevent you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you'd better not attempt it. I should be sorry to hurt
+      you, but I mean to go out. If you attempt to stop me, you
+      must take the consequences."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid you are a violent young man. But I've got a man
+      who is a match for two like you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man opened the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Samuel, show yourself," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A brawny negro, six feet in height, and evidently very
+      powerful, came to the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If this young man attempts to escape, Samuel, what will you
+      do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tie him hand and foot," answered the negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That'll do, Samuel. Stay where you are."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He closed the door and looked triumphantly at our hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack threw himself sullenly into a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to
+      transact, my young friend, and so she has gone. She commended
+      you to our particular attention, and you will be just as well
+      treated as if she were here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This assurance was not calculated to comfort Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,
+      desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. I don't know how
+      long it will be before you are cured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Cured?" repeated Jack, puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man tapped his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're a little affected here, you know, but under my
+      treatment I hope soon to restore you to your friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" ejaculated our hero, terror-stricken, "you don't mean
+      to say you think I'm crazy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be sure you are," said the old man, "but&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I tell you it's a lie," exclaimed Jack, energetically.
+      "Who told you so?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your aunt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My aunt?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Mrs. Hardwick. She brought you here to be treated for
+      insanity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a base lie," said Jack, hotly. "That woman is no more
+      my aunt than you are. She's an impostor. She carried off my
+      sister Ida, and this is only a plot to get rid of me. She
+      told me she was going to take me to see Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," he said, "she told me all about
+      it&mdash;that you had a delusion about some supposed sister,
+      whom you accused her of carrying off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is outrageous," said Jack, hotly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what all my patients say."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you are a mad-doctor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you know by my looks that I am not crazy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me, my young friend; that doesn't follow. There is a
+      peculiar appearance about your eyes which I cannot mistake.
+      There's no mistake about it, my good sir. Your mind has gone
+      astray, but if you'll be quiet, and won't excite yourself,
+      you'll soon be well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How soon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, two or three months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Two or three months! You don't mean to say you want to
+      confine me here two or three months?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope I can release you sooner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't understand your business very well, or you would
+      see at once that I am not insane."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what all my patients say. They won't any of them own
+      that their minds are affected."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you supply me with some writing materials?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; Samuel shall bring them here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you will excuse my suggesting also that it is
+      dinner time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He shall bring you some dinner at the same time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man retired, but in fifteen minutes a plate of meat
+      and vegetables was brought to the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll bring the pen and ink afterward," said the negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of his extraordinary situation and uncertain
+      prospects, Jack ate with his usual appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he penned a letter to his uncle, briefly detailing the
+      circumstances of his present situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid," the letter concluded, "that while I am shut up
+      here, Mrs. Hardwick will carry Ida out of the city, where it
+      will be more difficult for us to get on her track. She is
+      evidently a dangerous woman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days passed and no notice was taken of the letter.
+    </p><a name="CH27"><!-- CH27 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK BEGINS TO REALIZE HIS SITUATION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "It's very strange," thought Jack, "that Uncle Abel doesn't
+      take any notice of my letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, our hero felt rather indignant, as well as
+      surprised, and on the next visit of Dr. Robinson, he asked:
+      "Hasn't my uncle been here to ask about me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the old man, unexpectedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why didn't you bring him up here to see me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He just inquired how you were, and said he thought you were
+      better off with us than you would be at home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked fixedly in the face of the pretended doctor, and
+      was convinced that he had been deceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe it," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh! do as you like about believing it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe you mailed my letter to my uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have it your own way, my young friend. Of course I can't
+      argue with a maniac."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't call me a maniac, you old humbug! You ought to be in
+      jail for this outrage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho, ho! How very amusing you are, my young friend!" said the
+      old man. "You'd make a first-class tragedian, you really
+      would."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I might do something tragic, if I had a weapon," said Jack,
+      significantly. "Are you going to let me out?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Positively, I can't part with you. You are too good
+      company," said Dr. Robinson, mockingly. "You'll thank me for
+      my care of you when you are quite cured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's all rubbish," said Jack, boldly. "I'm no more crazy
+      than you are, and you know it. Will you answer me a
+      question?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It depends on what it is," said the old man, cautiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has Mrs. Hardwick been here to ask about me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly. She takes a great deal of interest in you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was there a little girl with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe so. I really don't remember."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If she calls again, either with or without Ida, will you ask
+      her to come up here? I want to see her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I'll tell her. Now, my young friend, I must really
+      leave you. Business before pleasure, you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked about the room for something to read. He found
+      among other books a small volume, purporting to contain "The
+      Adventures of Baron Trenck."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that the reader has never encountered a copy of
+      this singular book. Baron Trenck was several times imprisoned
+      for political offenses, and this book contains an account of
+      the manner in which he succeeded, after years of labor, in
+      escaping from his dungeon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered,
+      looking about the room, if he could not find some similar
+      plan of escape.
+    </p><a name="CH28"><!-- CH28 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE SECRET STAIRCASE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The prospect certainly was not a bright one. The door was
+      fast locked. Escape from the windows seemed impracticable.
+      This apparently exhausted the avenues of escape that were
+      open to the dissatisfied prisoner. But accidentally Jack made
+      an important discovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a full-length portrait in the room. Jack chanced to
+      rest his hand against it, when he must unconsciously have
+      touched some secret spring, for a secret door opened,
+      dividing the picture in two parts, and, to our hero's
+      unbounded astonishment, he saw before him a small spiral
+      staircase leading down into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a queer old house!" thought Jack. "I wonder where
+      those stairs go to. I've a great mind to explore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not much chance of detection, he reflected, as it
+      would be three hours before his next meal would be brought
+      him. He left the door open, therefore, and began slowly and
+      cautiously to go down the staircase. It seemed a long one,
+      longer than was necessary to connect two floors. Boldly Jack
+      kept on till he reached the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where am I?" thought our hero. "I must be down as low as the
+      cellar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this thought passed through his mind, voices suddenly
+      struck upon his ear. He had accustomed himself now to the
+      darkness, and ascertained that there was a crevice through
+      which he could look in the direction from which the sounds
+      proceeded. Applying his eye, he could distinguish a small
+      cellar apartment, in the middle of which was a printing
+      press, and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish
+      three persons. Two were in their shirt sleeves, bending over
+      an engraver's bench. Beside them, and apparently
+      superintending their work, was the old man whom Jack knew as
+      Dr. Robinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He applied his ear to the crevice, and heard these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This lot is rather better than the last, Jones. We can't be
+      too careful, or the detectives will interfere with our
+      business. Some of the last lot were rather coarse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know it, sir," answered the man addressed as Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's nothing the matter with this," said the old man.
+      "There isn't one person in a hundred that would suspect it
+      was not genuine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack pricked up his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking through the crevice, he ascertained that it was a
+      bill that the old man had in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They're counterfeiters," he said, half audibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Low as the tone was, it startled Dr. Robinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said he, startled, "what's that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's what, sir?" said Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought I heard some one speaking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't hear nothing, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you hear nothing, Ferguson?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose I was deceived, then," said the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How many bills have you there?" he resumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seventy-nine, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's a very good day's work," said the old man, in a tone
+      of satisfaction. "It's a paying business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It pays you, sir," said Jones, grumbling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it shall pay you, too, my man, never fear!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had made a great discovery. He understood now the
+      connection between Mrs. Hardwick and the old man whom he now
+      knew not to be a physician. He was at the head of a gang of
+      counterfeiters, and she was engaged in putting the false
+      money into circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He softly ascended the staircase, and re-entered the room he
+      left, closing the secret door behind him.
+    </p><a name="CH29"><!-- CH29 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK IS DETECTED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the afternoon, Jack made another visit to
+      the foot of the staircase. He saw through the crevice the
+      same two men at work, but the old man was not with them.
+      Ascertaining this, he ought, in prudence, immediately to have
+      retraced his steps, but he remained on watch for twenty
+      minutes. When he did return he was startled by finding the
+      old man seated, and waiting for him. There was a menacing
+      expression on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where have you been?" he demanded, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Downstairs," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! What did you see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may as well own up," thought Jack. "Through a crack I saw
+      some men at work in a basement room," he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know what they were doing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Counterfeiting, I should think."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, is there anything wrong in that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you wouldn't want to be found out," he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to have you make this discovery. Now there's
+      only one thing to be done."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have become possessed of an important&mdash;I may say, a
+      dangerous secret. You have us in your power."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Jack, "you are afraid I will denounce you
+      to the police?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, there is a possibility of that. That class of people
+      has a prejudice against us, though we are only doing what
+      everybody likes to do&mdash;making money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you let me go if I keep your secret?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What assurance have we that you would keep your promise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would pledge my word."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your word!" Foley&mdash;for this was the old man's real
+      name&mdash;snapped his fingers. "I wouldn't give that for it.
+      That is not sufficient."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must become one of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes. You must make yourself liable to the same penalties, so
+      that it will be for your own interest to remain silent.
+      Otherwise we can't trust you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I decline these terms?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I shall be under the painful necessity of retaining you
+      as my guest," said Foley, smiling disagreeably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What made you pretend to be a mad-doctor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To put you off the track," said Foley. "You believed it,
+      didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At first."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what do you say?" asked Foley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to take time to reflect upon your proposal,"
+      said Jack. "It is of so important a character that I don't
+      like to decide at once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long do you require?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Two days. Suppose I join you, shall I get good pay?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Excellent," answered Foley. "In fact, you'll be better paid
+      than a boy of your age would be anywhere else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's worth thinking about," said Jack, gravely. "My father
+      is poor, and I've got my own way to make."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You couldn't have a better opening. You're a smart lad, and
+      will be sure to succeed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'll think of it. If I should make up my mind before
+      the end of two days, I will let you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well. You can't do better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But there's one thing I want to ask about," said Jack, with
+      pretended anxiety. "It's pretty risky business, isn't it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've been in the business ten years, and they haven't got
+      hold of me yet," answered Foley. "All you've got to do is to
+      be careful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He'll join," said Foley to himself. "He's a smart fellow,
+      and we can make him useful. It'll be the best way to dispose
+      of one who might get us into trouble."
+    </p><a name="CH30"><!-- CH30 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S TRIUMPH
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The next day Jack had another visit from Foley. "Well," said
+      the old man, nodding, "have you thought over my proposal?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What should I have to do?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another. At first we
+      might employ you to put off some of the bills."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would be easy work, anyway," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, there is nothing hard about that, except to look
+      innocent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can do that," said Jack, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're smart; I can tell by the looks of you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you really think so?" returned Jack, appearing flattered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you'll make one of our best hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose Mrs. Hardwick is in your employ?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps she is, and perhaps she isn't," said Foley,
+      noncommittally. "That is something you don't need to know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I don't care to know," said Jack, carelessly. "I only
+      asked. I was afraid you would set me to work down in the
+      cellar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't know enough about the business. We need skilled
+      workmen. You couldn't do us any good there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't like it, anyway. It must be unpleasant to be
+      down there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We pay the workmen you saw good pay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I suppose so. When do you want me to begin?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell you just yet. I'll think about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope it'll be soon, for I'm tired of staying here. By the
+      way, that's a capital idea about the secret staircase. Who'd
+      ever think the portrait concealed it?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he advanced to the portrait in an easy, natural
+      manner, and touched the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course it flew open. The old man also drew near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was my idea," he said, in a complacent tone. "Of course
+      we have to keep everything as secret as possible, and I
+      flatter myself&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His remark came to a sudden pause. He had incautiously got
+      between Jack and the open door. Now our hero, who was close
+      upon eighteen, and strongly built, was considerably more than
+      a match in physical strength for Foley. He suddenly seized
+      the old man, thrust him through the aperture, then closed the
+      secret door, and sprang for the door of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The key was in the lock where Foley, whose confidence made
+      him careless, had left it. Turning it, he hurried downstairs,
+      meeting no one on the way. To open the front door and dash
+      through it was the work of an instant. As he descended the
+      stairs he could hear the muffled shout of the old man whom he
+      had made prisoner, but this only caused him to accelerate his
+      speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack now directed his course as well as he could toward his
+      uncle's shop. One thing, however, he did not forget, and that
+      was to note carefully the position of the shop in which he
+      had been confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall want to make another visit there," he reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, as may well be supposed, Abel Harding had suffered
+      great anxiety on account of Jack's protracted absence.
+      Several days had elapsed and still he was missing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid something has happened to Jack," he remarked to
+      his wife on the afternoon of Jack's escape. "I think Jack was
+      probably rash and imprudent, and I fear, poor boy, he may
+      have come to harm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He may be confined by the parties who have taken his
+      sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is possible that it is no worse. At all events, I don't
+      think it right to keep it from Timothy any longer. I've put
+      off writing as long as I could, hoping Jack would come back,
+      but I don't feel as if it would be right to hold it back any
+      longer. I shall write this evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Better wait till morning, Abel. Who knows but we may hear
+      from Jack before that time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we'd been going to hear we'd have heard before this," he
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment the door was flung open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's Jack!" exclaimed the baker, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should say it was," returned Jack. "Aunt, have you got
+      anything to eat? I'm 'most famished."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where in the name of wonder have you been, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've been shut up, uncle&mdash;boarded and lodged for
+      nothing&mdash;by some people who liked my company better than
+      I liked theirs. But I've just made my escape, and here I am,
+      well, hearty and hungry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack's appetite was soon provided for. He found time between
+      the mouthfuls to describe the secret staircase, and his
+      discovery of the unlawful occupation of the man who acted as
+      his jailer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker listened with eager interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," said he, "you've done a good stroke of business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In getting away?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, in ferreting out these counterfeiters. Do you know there
+      is a reward of a thousand dollars offered for their
+      apprehension?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't say so!" exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and
+      fork. "Do you think I can get it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'd better try. The gang has managed matters so shrewdly
+      that the authorities have been unable to get any clew to
+      their whereabouts. Can you go to the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I took particular notice of its location."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's lucky. Now, if you take my advice, you'll inform the
+      authorities before they have time to get away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll do it!" said Jack. "Come along, uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen minutes later, Jack was imparting his information to
+      the chief of police. It was received with visible interest
+      and excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will detail a squad of men to go with you," said the
+      chief. "Go at once. No time is to be lost."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than an hour from the time Jack left the haunt of the
+      coiners, an authoritative knock was heard at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was answered by Foley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man turned pale as he set eyes on Jack and the
+      police, and comprehended the object of the visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want, gentlemen?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that the man?" asked the sergeant of Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Secure him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know him," said Foley, with a glance of hatred directed at
+      Jack. "He's a thief. He's been in my employ, but he's run
+      away with fifty dollars belonging to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care about stealing the kind of money you deal in,"
+      said Jack, coolly. "It's all a lie this man tells you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do you arrest me?" said Foley. "It's an outrage. You
+      have no right to enter my house like this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your business?" demanded the police sergeant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm a physician."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are telling the truth, no harm will be done you.
+      Meanwhile, we must search your house. Where is that secret
+      staircase?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll show you," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He showed the way upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you get out?" he asked Foley, as he touched the
+      spring, and the secret door flew open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Curse you!" exclaimed Foley, darting a look of hatred and
+      malignity at him. "I wish I had you in my power once more. I
+      treated you too well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We need not follow the police in their search. The
+      discoveries which they made were ample to secure the
+      conviction of the gang who made this house the place of their
+      operations. To anticipate a little, we may say that Foley was
+      sentenced to imprisonment for a term of years, and his
+      subordinates to a term less prolonged. The reader will also
+      be glad to know that to our hero was awarded the prize of a
+      thousand dollars which had been offered for the apprehension
+      of the gang of counterfeiters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was another notable capture made that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick was accustomed to make visits to Foley to
+      secure false bills, and to make settlement for what she had
+      succeeded in passing off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Jack and the officers were in the house she rang the
+      door bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack went to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How is this?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh," said Jack, "it's all right. Come in. I've gone into the
+      business, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick entered. No sooner was she inside than Jack
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are you doing?" she demanded, suspiciously. "Let me
+      out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack was standing with his back to the door. The door to
+      the right opened, and a policeman appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Arrest this woman," said Jack. "She's one of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose I must yield," said Peg, sulkily; "but you shan't
+      be a gainer by it," she continued, addressing Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where is Ida?" asked our hero, anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is safe," said Peg, sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't tell me where she is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; why should I? I suppose I am indebted to you for this
+      arrest. She shall be kept out of your way as long as I have
+      power to do so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I shall find her," said Jack. "She is somewhere in the
+      city, and I'll find her sooner or later."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg was not one to betray her feelings, but this arrest was a
+      great disappointment to her. It interfered with a plan she
+      had of making a large sum out of Ida. To understand what this
+      was, we must go back a day or two, and introduce a new
+      character.
+    </p><a name="CH31"><!-- CH31 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MR. JOHN SOMERVILLE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack's appearance on the scene had set Mrs. Hardwick to
+      thinking. This was the substance of her reflections: Ida,
+      whom she had kidnaped for certain reasons of her own, was
+      likely to prove an incumbrance rather than a source of
+      profit. The child, her suspicions awakened in regard to the
+      character of the money she had been employed to pass off, was
+      no longer available for that purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances Peg bethought herself of the
+      ultimate object which she had proposed to herself in
+      kidnaping Ida&mdash;that of extorting money from a man who
+      has not hitherto figured in our story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville occupied a suite of apartments in a handsome
+      lodging house in Walnut Street. A man wanting yet several
+      years of forty, he looked many years older than that age.
+      Late hours and dissipated habits, though kept within
+      respectable limits, left their traces on his face. At
+      twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which,
+      combined with some professional income&mdash;for he was a
+      lawyer, and not without ability&mdash;was quite sufficient to
+      support him handsomely, and leave a considerable surplus
+      every year. But latterly he had contracted a passion for
+      gaming, and, shrewd though he might be naturally, he could
+      hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily
+      <i>habitues</i> of the gaming table, who had marked him for
+      their prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening before his introduction to the reader he had
+      passed till a late hour at a fashionable gaming house, where
+      he had lost heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His reflections on waking were not the most pleasant. For the
+      first time within fifteen years he realized the folly and
+      imprudence of the course he had pursued. The evening previous
+      he had lost a thousand dollars, for which he had given his
+      IOU. Where to raise the money he did not know. After making
+      his toilet, he rang the bell and ordered breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this he had but scanty appetite. He drank a cup of coffee
+      and ate part of a roll. Scarcely had he finished, and
+      directed the removal of the dishes, than the servant entered
+      to announce a visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it a gentleman?" he inquired, hastily, fearing that it
+      might be a creditor. He occasionally had such visitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A child? But what could a child want of me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir. It isn't a child," said the servant, in reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then if it's neither a gentleman, lady nor child," said
+      Somerville, "will you have the goodness to inform me what
+      sort of a being it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a woman, sir," answered the servant, his gravity
+      unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why didn't you say so when I asked you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you asked me if it was a lady, and this
+      isn't&mdash;leastways she don't look like one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can send her up, whoever she is," said Somerville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment afterward Peg entered his presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville looked at her without much interest,
+      supposing that she might be a seamstress, or laundress, or
+      some applicant for charity. So many years had passed since he
+      had met with this woman that she had passed out of his
+      remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you wish to see me about anything?" he asked. "You must
+      be quick, for I am just going out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't seem to recognize me, Mr. Somerville."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't say I do," he replied, carelessly. "Perhaps you used
+      to wash for me once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not in the habit of acting as laundress," said the
+      woman, proudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case," said Somerville, languidly, "you will have to
+      tell me who you are, for it is quite out of my power to
+      remember all the people I meet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps the name of Ida will assist your recollection; or
+      have you forgotten that name, too?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida!" repeated John Somerville, throwing off his indifferent
+      manner, and surveying the woman's features attentively.
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have known several persons of that name," he said,
+      recovering his former indifferent manner. "I haven't the
+      slightest idea to which of them you refer. You don't look as
+      if it was your name," he added, with a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Ida I mean was and is a child," she said. "But there's
+      no use in beating about the bush, Mr. Somerville, when I can
+      come straight to the point. It is now about seven years since
+      my husband and myself were employed to carry off a
+      child&mdash;a female child of a year old&mdash;named Ida. You
+      were the man who employed us." She said this deliberately,
+      looking steadily in his face. "We placed it, according to
+      your directions, on the doorstep of a poor family in New
+      York, and they have since cared for it as their own. I
+      suppose you have not forgotten that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I remember it," he said, "and now recall your features. How
+      have you fared since I employed you? Have you found your
+      business profitable?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far from it," answered Peg. "I am not yet able to retire on
+      a competence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of your youthful appearance," said Somerville,
+      banteringly, "ought not to think of retiring under ten
+      years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care for compliments," she said, "even when they are
+      sincere. As for my youthful appearance, I am old enough to
+      have reached the age of discretion, and not so old as to have
+      fallen into my second childhood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Compliments aside, then, will you proceed to whatever
+      business brought you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want a thousand dollars," said Peg, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A thousand dollars!" repeated Somerville. "Very likely. I
+      should like that amount myself. Did you come here to tell me
+      that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have come here to ask you to give me that amount."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you a husband?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then let me suggest that your husband is the proper person
+      to apply to in such a case."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I am more likely to get it out of you," said Peg,
+      coolly. "My husband couldn't supply me with a thousand cents,
+      even if he were willing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much as I am flattered by your application," said
+      Somerville, with a polite sneer, "since it would seem to
+      place me next in estimation to your husband, I cannot help
+      suggesting that it is not usual to bestow such a sum on a
+      stranger, or even a friend, without an equivalent rendered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am ready to give you an equivalent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of what nature?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am willing to be silent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how can your silence benefit me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That you will be best able to estimate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Explain yourself, and bear in mind that I can bestow little
+      time on you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can do that in a few words. You employed me to kidnap a
+      child. I believe the law has something to say about that. At
+      any rate, the child's mother may have."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you know about the child's mother?" demanded
+      Somerville, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All about her!" said Peg, emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How am I to credit that? It is easy to claim a knowledge you
+      do not possess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I tell you the whole story, then? In the first place,
+      she married your cousin, after rejecting you. You never
+      forgave her for this. When, a year after marriage, her
+      husband died, you renewed your proposals. They were rejected,
+      and you were forbidden to renew the subject on pain of
+      forfeiting her friendship forever. You left her presence,
+      determined to be revenged. With this object you sought Dick
+      and myself, and employed us to kidnap the child. There is the
+      whole story, briefly told."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Woman, how came this within your knowledge?" he demanded,
+      hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is of no consequence," said Peg. "It was for my
+      interest to find out, and I did so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know one thing more&mdash;the residence of the child's
+      mother. I hesitated this morning whether to come here, or to
+      carry Ida to her mother, trusting to her to repay from
+      gratitude what I demand from you because it is for your
+      interest to comply with my request."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You speak of carrying the child to her mother. How can you
+      do that when she is in New York?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are mistaken," said Peg, coolly. "She is in
+      Philadelphia."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville paced the room with hurried steps. Peg felt
+      that she had succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused after a while, and stood before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You demand a thousand dollars," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have not that amount with me. I have recently lost a heavy
+      sum, no matter how. But I can probably get it to-day. Call
+      to-morrow at this time&mdash;no, in the afternoon, and I will
+      see what I can do for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said the woman, well satisfied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left to himself, John Somerville spent some time in
+      reflection. Difficulties encompassed him&mdash;difficulties
+      from which he found it hard to find a way of escape. He knew
+      how difficult it would be to meet this woman's demand.
+      Gradually his countenance lightened. He had decided what that
+      something should be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peg left John Somerville's apartments, it was with a
+      high degree of satisfaction at the result of the interview.
+      All had turned out as she wished. She looked upon the
+      thousand dollars as already hers. The considerations which
+      she had urged would, she was sure, induce him to make every
+      effort to secure her silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, with a thousand dollars, what might not be done? She
+      would withdraw from the business, for one thing. It was too
+      hazardous. Why might not Dick and she retire to the country,
+      lease a country inn, and live an honest life hereafter? There
+      were times when she grew tired of the life she lived at
+      present. It would be pleasant to go to some place where they
+      were not known, and enroll themselves among the respectable
+      members of the community. She was growing old; she wanted
+      rest and a quiet home. Her early years had been passed in the
+      country. She remembered still the green fields in which she
+      played as a child, and to this woman, old and sin-stained,
+      there came a yearning to have that life return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But her dream was rudely broken by her encounter with the
+      officers of the law at the house of her employer.
+    </p><a name="CH32"><!-- CH32 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A PROVIDENTIAL MEETING
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "By gracious, if that isn't Ida!" exclaimed Jack, in profound
+      surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been sauntering along Chestnut Street, listlessly
+      troubled by the thought that though he had given Mrs.
+      Hardwick into custody, he was apparently no nearer the
+      discovery of his young ward than before. What steps should he
+      take to find her? He could not decide. In his perplexity his
+      eyes rested suddenly upon the print of the "Flower Girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," he said, "that is Ida, fast enough. Perhaps they will
+      know in the store where she is to be found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at once entered the store.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you tell me anything about the girl in that picture?" he
+      asked, abruptly, of the nearest clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a fancy picture," he said. "I think you would need a
+      long time to find the original."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It has taken a long time," said Jack. "But you are mistaken.
+      That is a picture of my sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of your sister!" repeated the salesman, with surprise, half
+      incredulous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," persisted Jack. "She is my sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it is your sister," said the clerk, "you ought to know
+      where she is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was about to reply, when the attention of both was
+      called by a surprised exclamation from a lady who had paused
+      beside them. Her eyes also were fixed upon the "Flower Girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is this?" she asked, in visible excitement. "Is it taken
+      from life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This young man says it is his sister," said the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your sister?" repeated the lady, her eyes fixed inquiringly
+      upon Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her tone there was a mingling both of surprise and
+      disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam," answered Jack, respectfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me," she said, "there is very little personal
+      resemblance. I should not have suspected that you were her
+      brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is not my own sister," explained Jack, "but I love her
+      just the same."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you live in Philadelphia? Could I see her?" asked the
+      lady, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I live in New York, madam," said Jack; "but Ida was stolen
+      from us about three weeks since, and I have come here in
+      pursuit of her. I have not been able to find her yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you call her Ida?" demanded the lady, in strange
+      agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," said the woman, rapidly, "I have been much
+      interested in the story of your sister. I should like to hear
+      more, but not here. Would you have any objection to coming
+      home with me, and telling me the rest? Then we will together
+      concert measures for recovering her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are very kind, madam," said Jack, bashfully; for the
+      lady was elegantly dressed, and it had never been his fortune
+      to converse with a lady of her social position. "I shall be
+      glad to go home with you, and shall be very much obliged for
+      your advice and assistance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then we will drive home at once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With natural gallantry, Jack assisted the lady into the
+      carriage, and, at her bidding, got in himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Home, Thomas!" she directed the driver; "and drive as fast
+      as possible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How old was your sister when your parents adopted her?"
+      asked Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack afterward ascertained that this was her name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "About a year old, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long since was that?" asked the lady, waiting for
+      the answer with breathless interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seven years since. She is now eight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must be," murmured the lady, in low tones. "If it is
+      indeed, as I hope, my life will indeed be blessed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak, madam?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell me under what circumstances your family adopted her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack related briefly how Ida had been left at their door in
+      her infancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do you recollect the month in which this happened?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was at the close of December, the night before New
+      Year's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is, it must be she!" ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, clasping
+      her hands, while tears of joy welled from her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I don't understand," said Jack, naturally
+      astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," said the lady, "our meeting this morning
+      seems providential. I have every reason to believe that this
+      child&mdash;your adopted sister&mdash;is my daughter, stolen
+      from me by an unknown enemy at the time of which I speak.
+      From that day to this I have never been able to obtain the
+      slightest clew that might lead to her discovery. I have long
+      taught myself to think of her as dead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jack's turn to be surprised. He looked at the lady
+      beside him. She was barely thirty. The beauty of her girlhood
+      had ripened into the maturer beauty of womanhood. There was
+      the same dazzling complexion, the same soft flush upon the
+      cheeks. The eyes, too, were wonderfully like Ida's. Jack
+      looked, and as he looked he became convinced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must be right," he said. "Ida is very much like you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You think so?" said Mrs. Clifton, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had a picture&mdash;a daguerreotype&mdash;taken of Ida
+      just before I lost her; I have treasured it carefully. I must
+      show it to you when we get to my house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carriage stopped before a stately mansion in a wide and
+      quiet street. The driver dismounted and opened the door. Jack
+      assisted Mrs. Clifton to alight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bashfully our hero followed the lady up the steps, and, at
+      her bidding, seated himself in an elegant parlor furnished
+      with a splendor which excited his admiration and wonder. He
+      had little time to look about him, for Mrs. Clifton, without
+      pausing to remove her street attire, hastened downstairs with
+      an open daguerreotype in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you remember Ida when she was first brought to your
+      house?" she asked. "Did she look anything like this picture?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is her image," answered Jack, decidedly. "I should know
+      it anywhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then there can be no further doubt," said Mrs. Clifton. "It
+      is my child you have cared for so long. Oh! why could I not
+      have known it before? How many lonely days and sleepless
+      nights it would have spared me! But God be thanked for this
+      late blessing! I shall see my child again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope so, madam. We must find her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your name, my young friend?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Harding&mdash;Jack Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack?" repeated the lady, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam; that is what they call me. It would not seem
+      natural to be called John."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said Mrs. Clifton, with a smile which went to
+      Jack's heart at once, and made him think her, if any more
+      beautiful than Ida; "as Ida is your adopted sister&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I call her my ward. I am her guardian, you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are a young guardian. But, as I was about to say, that
+      makes us connected in some way, doesn't it? I won't call you
+      Mr. Harding, for that would sound too formal. I will call you
+      Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you would," said our hero, his face brightening with
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It almost upset him to be called Jack by a beautiful lady,
+      who every day of her life was accustomed to live in a
+      splendor which it seemed to Jack could not be exceeded even
+      by royal state. Had Mrs. Clifton been Queen Victoria herself,
+      he could not have felt a profounder respect and veneration
+      for her than he did already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Jack," said Mrs. Clifton, in a friendly manner which
+      delighted our hero, "we must take measures to discover Ida
+      immediately. I want you to tell me about her disappearance
+      from your house, and what steps you have taken thus far
+      toward finding her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack began at the beginning and described the appearance of
+      Mrs. Hardwick; how she had been permitted to carry Ida away
+      under false representations, and the manner in which he had
+      tracked her to Philadelphia. He spoke finally of her arrest,
+      and her obstinate refusal to impart any information as to
+      where Ida was concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton listened attentively and anxiously. There were
+      more difficulties in the way than she had supposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you think of any plan, Jack?" she asked, anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam," answered Jack. "The man who painted the picture
+      of Ida may know where she is to be found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said the lady. "I will act upon your hint. I
+      will order the carriage again instantly, and we will at once
+      go back to the print store."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later Henry Bowen was surprised by the visit of an
+      elegant lady to his studio, accompanied by a young man of
+      seventeen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you are the artist who designed 'The Flower Girl,'"
+      said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was taken from life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am anxious to find the little girl whose face you copied.
+      Can you give me any directions that will enable me to find
+      her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will accompany you to the place where she lives, if you
+      desire it, madam," said the young artist, politely. "It is a
+      strange neighborhood in which to look for so much beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be deeply indebted to you if you will oblige me so
+      far," said Mrs. Clifton. "My carriage is below, and my
+      coachman will obey your orders."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more they were on the move. In due time the carriage
+      paused. The driver opened the door. He was evidently quite
+      scandalized at the idea of bringing his mistress to such a
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This can't be the place, madam," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the artist. "Do not get out, Mrs. Clifton. I will
+      go in, and find out all that is needful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two minutes later he returned, looking disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are too late," he said. "An hour since a gentleman
+      called, and took away the child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton sank back in her seat in keen disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child! my child!" she murmured. "Shall I ever see thee
+      again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack, too, felt more disappointed than he was willing to
+      acknowledge. He could not conjecture what gentleman could
+      have carried away Ida. The affair seemed darker and mere
+      complicated than ever.
+    </p><a name="CH33"><!-- CH33 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      IDA IS FOUND
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Ida was sitting alone in the dreary apartment which she was
+      now obliged to call home. Peg had gone out, and, not feeling
+      quite certain of her prey, had bolted the door on the
+      outside. She had left some work for the child&mdash;some
+      handkerchiefs to hem for Dick&mdash;with strict orders to
+      keep steadily at work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While seated at work, she was aroused from thoughts of home
+      by a knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's there?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A friend," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;Peg&mdash;isn't at home," returned Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will come in and wait till she comes back," answered
+      the voice outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't open the door," said the child. "It's fastened
+      outside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, so I see. Then I will take the liberty to draw the
+      bolt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. John Somerville opened the door, and for the first time
+      in seven years his glance fell upon the child whom for so
+      long a time he had defrauded of a mother's care and
+      tenderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida returned to the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How beautiful she is!" thought Somerville, with surprise.
+      "She inherits all her mother's rare beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the table beside Ida was a drawing. "Whose is this?" he
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mine," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you have learned to draw?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A little," answered the child, modestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who taught you? Not the woman you live with?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have not always lived with her, I am sure?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You lived in New York with a family named Harding, did you
+      not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know father and mother?" asked Ida, with sudden hope.
+      "Did they send you for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell you that by and by, my child. But I want to ask
+      you a few questions first. Why does this woman, Peg, lock you
+      in whenever she goes away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Ida, "she is afraid I'll run away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then she knows you don't want to live with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, she knows that," said the child, frankly. "I have
+      asked her to take me home, but she says she won't for a
+      year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long have you been with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "About three weeks, but it seems a great deal longer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What does she make you do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell what she made me do first."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because she would be very angry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I should promise to deliver you from her, would you
+      be willing to go with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you would carry me back to my father and mother?" asked
+      Ida, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, I would restore you to your mother," was the
+      evasive reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will go with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida ran quickly to get her bonnet and shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We had better go at once," said Somerville. "Peg might
+      return, you know, and then there would be trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, let us go quickly," said Ida, turning pale at the
+      remembered threats of Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither knew as yet that Peg could not return if she would;
+      that, at this very moment, she was in legal custody on a
+      charge of a serious nature. Still less did Ida know that in
+      going she was losing the chance of seeing Jack and her real
+      mother, of whose existence, even, she was not yet aware; and
+      that this man, whom she looked upon as her friend, was in
+      reality her worst enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will conduct you to my own rooms, in the first place,"
+      said her companion. "You must remain in concealment for a day
+      or two, as Peg will undoubtedly be on the look-out for you,
+      and we want to avoid all trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was delighted with her escape, and with the thoughts of
+      soon seeing her friends in New York. She put implicit faith
+      in her guide, and was willing to submit to any conditions
+      which he saw fit to impose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length they reached his lodgings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were furnished more richly than any room Ida had yet
+      seen; and formed, indeed, a luxurious contrast to the dark
+      and scantily furnished apartment which she had occupied since
+      her arrival in Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, you are glad to get away from Peg?" asked John
+      Somerville, giving Ida a comfortable seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, so glad!" said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you wouldn't care about going back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child shuddered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," she said, "Peg will be very angry. She would
+      beat me, if she got me back again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But she shan't. I will take good care of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked her gratitude. Her heart went out to those who
+      appeared to deal kindly with her, and she felt very grateful
+      to her companion for delivering her from Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said Somerville, "perhaps you will be willing to tell
+      me what it was Peg required you to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida; "but she must never know that I told."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I promise not to tell her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was to pass bad money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" exclaimed her companion, quickly. "What sort of bad
+      money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was bad bills."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she do much in that way?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A good deal. She goes out every day to buy things with the
+      money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to learn this," said John Somerville,
+      thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why?" asked Ida, curiously; "are you glad she is wicked?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad, because she won't dare to come for you, knowing I
+      can have her put in prison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I am glad, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said her companion, after a pause, "I am obliged to go
+      out for a short time. You will find books on the table, and
+      can amuse yourself by reading. I won't make you sew, as Peg
+      did," he added, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I like to read," she said. "I shall enjoy myself very well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you get tired of reading, you can draw. You will find
+      plenty of paper on my desk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Somerville went out, and Ida, as he had recommended, read
+      for a time. Then, growing tired, she went to the window and
+      looked out. A carriage was passing up the street slowly, on
+      account of a press of other carriages. Ida saw a face that
+      she knew. Forgetting her bonnet in her sudden joy, she ran
+      down the stairs into the street, and up to the carriage
+      window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh! Jack!" she exclaimed; "have you come for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mrs. Clifton's carriage, just returning from Peg's
+      lodgings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's Ida!" exclaimed Jack, almost springing through the
+      window of the carriage in his excitement. "Where did you come
+      from, and where have you been all this time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened the door of the carriage and drew Ida in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child, my child! Thank God, you are restored to me!"
+      exclaimed Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew the astonished child to her bosom. Ida looked up
+      into her face in bewilderment. Was it nature that prompted
+      her to return the lady's embrace?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My God! I thank thee!" murmured Mrs. Clifton, "for this, my
+      child, was lost, and is found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Jack, "this lady is your mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My mother!" repeated the astonished child. "Have I got two
+      mothers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is your real mother. You were brought to our house when
+      you were an infant, and we have always taken care of you; but
+      this lady is your real mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hardly knew whether to feel glad or sorry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you are not my brother, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I am your guardian," said Jack, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall still consider him your brother, Ida," said Mrs.
+      Clifton. "Heaven forbid that I should seek to wean your heart
+      from the friends who have cared so kindly for you! You may
+      keep all your old friends, and love them as dearly as ever.
+      You will only have one friend the more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are we going?" asked Ida, suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are going home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will the gentleman say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What gentleman?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The one that took me away from Peg's. Why, there he is now!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton followed the direction of Ida's finger, as she
+      pointed to a gentleman passing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he the one?" asked Mrs. Clifton, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, mamma," answered Ida, shyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton pressed Ida to her bosom. It was the first time
+      she had ever been called mamma, for when Ida had been taken
+      from her she was too young to speak. The sudden thrill which
+      this name excited made her realize the full measure of her
+      present happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived at the house, Jack's bashfulness returned. Even Ida's
+      presence did not remove it. He hung back, and hesitated about
+      going in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton observed this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," she said, "this house is to be your home while you
+      are in Philadelphia. Come in, and Thomas shall go for your
+      luggage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I had better go with him," said Jack. "Uncle Abel
+      will be glad to know that Ida is found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well; only return soon. As you are Ida's guardian," she
+      added, smiling, "you will need to watch over her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well!" thought Jack, as he re-entered the elegant carriage,
+      and gave the proper direction to the coachman, "won't Uncle
+      Abel be a little surprised when he sees me coming home in
+      this style! Mrs. Clifton's a trump! Maybe that ain't exactly
+      the word, but Ida's in luck anyhow."
+    </p><a name="CH34"><!-- CH34 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Peg was passing her time wearily enough in prison.
+      It was certainly provoking to be deprived of her freedom just
+      when she was likely to make it most profitable. After some
+      reflection she determined to send for Mrs. Clifton, and
+      reveal to her all she knew, trusting to her generosity for a
+      recompense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To one of the officers of the prison she communicated the
+      intelligence that she had an important revelation to make to
+      Mrs. Clifton, absolutely refusing to make it unless the lady
+      would visit her in prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had Mrs. Clifton returned home after recovering her
+      child, than the bell rang, and a stranger was introduced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this Mrs. Clifton?" he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I have a message for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady looked at him inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me introduce myself, madam, as one of the officers
+      connected with the city prison. A woman was placed in
+      confinement this morning, who says she has a most important
+      communication to make to you, but declines to make it except
+      to you in person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you bring her here, sir?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is impossible. We will give you every facility,
+      however, for visiting her in prison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must be Peg," whispered Ida&mdash;"the woman that carried
+      me off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a request Mrs. Clifton could not refuse. She at once
+      made ready to accompany the officer. She resolved to carry
+      Ida with her, fearful that, unless she kept her in her
+      immediate presence, she might disappear again as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Jack had not yet returned, a hack was summoned, and they
+      proceeded at once to the prison. Ida shuddered as she passed
+      within the gloomy portal which shut out hope and the world
+      from so many.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This way, madam!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They followed the officer through a gloomy corridor, until
+      they came to the cell in which Peg was confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg looked up in surprise when she saw Ida enter with Mrs.
+      Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What brought you two together?" she asked, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A blessed Providence," answered Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I saw Jack with her," said Ida, "and I ran out into the
+      street. I didn't expect to find my mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is not much for me to tell, then," said Peg. "I had
+      made up my mind to restore you to your mother. You see, Ida,
+      I've moved," she continued, smiling grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Peg," said Ida, her tender heart melted by the woman's
+      misfortunes, "how sorry I am to find you here!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you sorry?" asked Peg, looking at her in curious
+      surprise. "You haven't much cause to be. I've been your worst
+      enemy; at any rate, one of the worst."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't help it," said the child, her face beaming with a
+      divine compassion. "It must be so sad to be shut up here, and
+      not be able to go out into the bright sunshine. I do pity
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg's heart was not wholly hardened. Few are. But it was long
+      since it had been touched, as now, by this warm-hearted pity
+      on the part of one whom she had injured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're a good girl, Ida," she said, "and I'm sorry I've
+      injured you. I didn't think I should ever ask forgiveness of
+      anybody; but I do ask your forgiveness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child rose, and advancing toward her old enemy, took her
+      large hand in hers and said: "I forgive you, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From your heart?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With all my heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, child. I feel better now. There have been times
+      when I have thought I should like to lead a better life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not too late now, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who will trust me when I come out of here?" she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will," said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will?" repeated Peg, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all I have done to harm you! But I am not quite so bad
+      as you may think. It was not my plan to take Ida from you. I
+      was poor, and money tempted me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who could have had an interest in doing me this cruel
+      wrong?" asked the mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One whom you know well&mdash;Mr. John Somerville."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you are wrong!" exclaimed Mrs. Clifton, in unbounded
+      astonishment. "That cannot be. What object could he have?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you think of none?" queried Peg, looking at her
+      shrewdly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton changed color.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps so," she said. "Go on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg told the whole story, so circumstantially that there was
+      no room for doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did not believe him capable of such great wickedness,"
+      ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, with a pained and indignant look.
+      "It was a base, unmanly revenge to take. How could you lend
+      yourself to it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How could I?" repeated Peg. "Madam, you are rich. You have
+      always had whatever wealth could procure. How can such as you
+      understand the temptations of the poor? When want and hunger
+      stare us in the face we have not the strength that you have
+      in your luxurious homes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me," said Mrs. Clifton, touched by these words, half
+      bitter, half pathetic. "Let me, at any rate, thank you for
+      the service you have done me now. When you are released from
+      your confinement come to me. If you wish to change your mode
+      of life, and live honestly henceforth, I will give you the
+      chance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all the injury I have done you, you are yet willing to
+      trust me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who am I that I should condemn you? Yes, I will trust you,
+      and forgive you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never expected to hear such words," said Peg, her heart
+      softened, and her arid eyes moistened by unwonted emotion;
+      "least of all from you. I should like to ask one thing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you let her come and see me sometimes?" pointing to Ida
+      as she spoke. "It will remind me that this is not all a
+      dream&mdash;these words which you have spoken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She shall come," said Mrs. Clifton, "and I will come too,
+      sometimes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the prison behind them, and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a visitor awaiting them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Somerville is in the drawing room," said the servant.
+      "He said he would wait till you came in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton's face flushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go down and see him," she said. "Ida, you will remain
+      here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She descended to the drawing room, and met the man who had
+      injured her. He had come with the resolve to stake his all
+      upon one desperate cast. His fortunes were desperate. But he
+      had one hope left. Through the mother's love for the
+      daughter, whom she had mourned so long, whom as he believed
+      he had it in his power to restore to her, he hoped to obtain
+      her consent to a marriage which would retrieve his fortunes
+      and gratify his ambition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton entered the room, and seated herself quietly.
+      She bowed slightly, but did not, as usual, offer her hand.
+      But, full of his own plans, Mr. Somerville took no note of
+      this change in her manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long is it since Ida was lost?" inquired Somerville,
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton heard this question in surprise. Why was it that
+      he had alluded to this subject?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seven years," she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you believe she yet lives?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I am certain of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville did not understand her. He thought it was
+      only because a mother is reluctant to give up hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a long time," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is&mdash;a long time to suffer," said Mrs. Clifton, with
+      deep meaning. "How could anyone have the heart to work me
+      this great injury? For seven years I have led a sad and
+      solitary life&mdash;seven years that might have been
+      gladdened and cheered by my darling's presence!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in her tone that puzzled John Somerville,
+      but he was far enough from suspecting that she knew the
+      truth, and at last knew him too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rosa," he said, after a pause, "I, too, believe that Ida
+      still lives. Do you love her well enough to make a sacrifice
+      for the sake of recovering her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What sacrifice?" she asked, fixing her eye upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A sacrifice of your feelings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Explain. You speak in enigmas."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Listen, then. I have already told you that I, too, believe
+      Ida to be living. Indeed, I have lately come upon a clew
+      which I think will lead me to her. Withdraw the opposition
+      you have twice made to my suit, promise me that you will
+      reward my affection by your hand if I succeed, and I will
+      devote myself to the search for Ida, resting not day or night
+      till I have placed her in your arms. This I am ready to do.
+      If I succeed, may I claim my reward?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What reason have you for thinking you would be able to find
+      her?" asked Mrs. Clifton, with the same inexplicable manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The clew that I spoke of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And are you not generous enough to exert yourself without
+      demanding of me this sacrifice?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Rosa," he answered, firmly, "I am not unselfish enough.
+      I have long loved you. You may not love me; but I am sure I
+      can make you happy. I am forced to show myself selfish, since
+      it is the only way in which I can win you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But consider a moment. Put it on a different ground. If you
+      restore me my child now, will not even that be a poor
+      atonement for the wrong you did me seven years
+      since"&mdash;she spoke rapidly now&mdash;"for the grief, and
+      loneliness, and sorrow which your wickedness and cruelty have
+      wrought?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not understand you," he said, faltering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is sufficient explanation, Mr. Somerville, to say I have
+      seen the woman who is now in prison&mdash;your paid
+      agent&mdash;and that I need no assistance to recover Ida. She
+      is in my house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Confusion!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He uttered only this word, and, rising, left the presence of
+      the woman whom he had so long deceived and injured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His grand scheme had failed.
+    </p><a name="CH35"><!-- CH35 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S RETURN
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      It is quite time to return to New York, from which Ida was
+      carried but three short weeks before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am beginning to feel anxious about Jack," said Mrs.
+      Harding. "It's more than a week since we heard from him. I'm
+      afraid he's got into some trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Probably he's too busy to write," said the cooper, wishing
+      to relieve his wife's anxiety, though he, too, was not
+      without anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you so," said Rachel, in one of her usual fits of
+      depression. "I told you Jack wasn't fit to be sent on such an
+      errand. If you'd only taken my advice you wouldn't have had
+      so much worry and trouble about him now. Most likely he's got
+      into the House of Reformation, or somewhere. I knew a young
+      man once who went away from home, and never came back again.
+      Nobody ever knew what became of him till his body was found
+      in the river half eaten by fishes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How can you talk so, Rachel?" said Mrs. Harding, "and about
+      your own nephew, too?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a world of trial and disappointment," said Rachel,
+      "and we might as well expect the worst, for it's sure to
+      come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At that rate there wouldn't be much joy in life," said
+      Timothy. "No, Rachel, you are wrong. God did not send us into
+      the world to be melancholy. He wants us to enjoy ourselves.
+      Now, I have no idea that Jack has jumped into the river, or
+      become food for the fishes. Even if he should happen to
+      tumble in, he can swim."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Rachel, with mild sarcasm, "you expect him
+      to come home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the cooper, good-humoredly, "that's a good deal
+      better to anticipate than your suggestion, and I don't know
+      but it's as probable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shook her head dismally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bless me!" interrupted Mrs. Harding, looking out of the
+      window, in a tone of excitement, "there's a carriage just
+      stopped at the door, and&mdash;yes, it is Jack and Ida, too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strange fulfillment of her own ironical suggestion struck
+      even Aunt Rachel. She, too, hastened to the window, and saw a
+      handsome carriage drawn, not by four horses, but by two,
+      standing before the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had already jumped out, and was now assisting Ida to
+      alight. No sooner was Ida on firm ground than she ran into
+      the house, and was at once clasped in the arms of her adopted
+      mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to see you once
+      more!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haven't you a kiss for me, too, Ida?" said the cooper, his
+      face radiant with joy. "You don't know how much we've missed
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I am so glad to see you all, and Aunt Rachel too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To her astonishment, Aunt Rachel, for the first time in her
+      remembrance, kissed her. There was nothing wanting to her
+      welcome home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the observant eyes of the spinster detected what had
+      escaped the cooper and his wife, in their joy at Ida's
+      return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get this handsome dress, Ida?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, for the first time, the cooper's family noticed that
+      Ida was more elegantly dressed than when she went away. She
+      looked like a young princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That Mrs. Hardwick didn't give you this gown, I'll be
+      bound!" said Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I've so much to tell you," said Ida, breathlessly. "I've
+      found my mother&mdash;my other mother!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pang struck to the honest hearts of Timothy Harding and his
+      wife. Ida must leave them. After all the happy years which
+      they had watched over and cared for her, she must leave them
+      at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were silent in view of their threatened loss, an
+      elegantly dressed lady appeared on the threshold. Smiling,
+      radiant with happiness, Mrs. Clifton seemed, to the cooper's
+      family, almost a being from another sphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mother," said Ida, taking the hand of the stranger, and
+      leading her up to Mrs. Harding, "this is my other mother, who
+      has always taken such good care of me, and loved me so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Harding," said Mrs, Clifton, her voice full of feeling,
+      "how can I ever thank you for your kindness to my child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was hard for Mrs. Harding to hear another speak of Ida
+      this way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have tried to do my duty by her," she said, simply. "I
+      love her as if she were my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the cooper, clearing his throat, and speaking a
+      little huskily, "we love her so much that we almost forgot
+      that she wasn't ours. We have had her since she was a baby,
+      and it won't be easy at first to give her up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My good friends," said Mrs. Clifton, earnestly, "I
+      acknowledge your claim. I shall not think of asking you to
+      make that sacrifice. I shall always think of Ida as only a
+      little less yours than mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you live in Philadelphia," he said. "We shall lose sight
+      of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not unless you refuse to come to Philadelphia, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a poor man. Perhaps I might not find work there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That shall be my care, Mr. Harding. I have another
+      inducement to offer. God has bestowed upon me a large share
+      of this world's goods. I am thankful for it since it will
+      enable me in some slight way to express my sense of your
+      great kindness to Ida. I own a neat brick house, in a quiet
+      street, which you will find more comfortable than this. Just
+      before I left Philadelphia, my lawyer, by my directions, drew
+      up a deed of gift, conveying the house to you. It is Ida's
+      gift, not mine. Ida, give this to Mr. Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child took the parchment and handed it to the cooper, who
+      took it mechanically, quite bewildered by his sudden good
+      fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This for me?" he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the first installment of my debt of gratitude; it
+      shall not be the last," said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How shall I thank you, madam?" said the cooper. "To a poor
+      man, like me, this is a most munificent gift."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will best thank me by accepting it," said Mrs. Clifton.
+      "Let me add, for I know it will enhance the value of the gift
+      in your eyes, that it is only five minutes' walk from my
+      house, and Ida will come and see you every day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, mamma," said Ida. "I couldn't be happy away from father
+      and mother, and Jack and Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must introduce me to Aunt Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton,
+      with a grace all her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Rachel," said Mrs.
+      Clifton. "I need not say that I shall be glad to see you, as
+      well as Mr. and Mrs. Harding, at my house very frequently."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm much obleeged to ye," said Aunt Rachel; "but I don't
+      think I shall live long to go anywheres. The feelin's I have
+      sometimes warn me that I'm not long for this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, his eyes dancing with
+      mischief, "we come of a short-lived family. Grandmother died
+      at eighty-two, and that wouldn't give Aunt Rachel long to
+      live."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You impudent boy!" exclaimed Aunt Rachel, in great
+      indignation. Then, relapsing into melancholy: "I'm a poor,
+      afflicted creetur, and the sooner I leave this scene of trial
+      the better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm afraid, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, "Aunt Rachel won't
+      live to wear that silk dress you brought along. I'd take it
+      myself, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be of any use to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A silk dress!" exclaimed Rachel, looking up with sudden
+      animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had long been her desire to have a new silk dress, but in
+      her brother's circumstances she had not ventured to hint at
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Mrs. Clifton, "I ventured to purchase dresses for
+      both of the ladies. Jack, if it won't be too much trouble,
+      will you bring them in?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack darted out, and returned with two ample patterns of
+      heavy black silk, one for his mother, the other for his aunt.
+      Aunt Rachel would not have been human if she had not eagerly
+      examined the rich fabric with secret satisfaction. She
+      inwardly resolved to live a little longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marked improvement in her spirits, and she
+      indulged in no prognostications of evil for an unusual
+      period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton and Ida stopped to supper, and before they
+      returned to the hotel an early date was fixed upon for the
+      Hardings to remove to Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening Jack told the eventful story of his adventures
+      to eager listeners, closing with the welcome news that he was
+      to receive the reward of a thousand dollars offered for the
+      detection of the counterfeiters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you see, father, I am a man of fortune!" he concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all, Rachel, it was a good thing we sent Jack to
+      Philadelphia," said the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not notice this remark. She was busily discussing
+      with her sister-in-law the best way of making up her new
+      silk.
+    </p><a name="CH36"><!-- CH36 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      CONCLUSION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      As soon as arrangements could be made, Mr. Harding and his
+      whole family removed to Philadelphia. The house which Mrs.
+      Clifton had given them exceeded their anticipations. It was
+      so much better and larger than their former dwelling that
+      their furniture would have appeared to great disadvantage in
+      it. But Mrs. Clifton had foreseen this, and they found the
+      house already furnished for their reception. Even Aunt Rachel
+      was temporarily exhilarated in spirits when she was ushered
+      into the neatly furnished chamber which was assigned to her
+      use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through Mrs. Clifton's influence the cooper was enabled to
+      establish himself in business on a larger scale, and employ
+      others, instead of working himself for hire. Ida was such a
+      frequent visitor that it was hard to tell which she
+      considered her home&mdash;her mother's elegant residence, or
+      the cooper's comfortable dwelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack put his thousand dollars into a savings bank, to
+      accumulate till he should be ready to go into business for
+      himself, and required it as capital. A situation was found
+      for him in a merchant's counting-room, and in due time he was
+      admitted into partnership and became a thriving young
+      merchant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida grew lovelier as she grew older, and her rare beauty and
+      attractive manners caused her to be sought after. It may be
+      that some of my readers are expecting that she will marry
+      Jack; but they will probably be disappointed. They are too
+      much like brother and sister for such a relation to be
+      thought of. Jack reminds her occasionally of the time when
+      she was his little ward, and he was her guardian and
+      protector.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, as Rachel was walking up Chestnut Street, she was
+      astonished by a hearty grasp of the hand from a bronzed and
+      weather-beaten stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Release me, sir," she said, hysterically. "What do you mean
+      by such conduct?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you have not forgotten your old friend, Capt.
+      Bowling," said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel brightened up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't remember you at first," she said, "but now I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now tell me, how are all your family?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are all well, all except me&mdash;I don't think I am
+      long for this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, you are. You are too young to think of leaving us
+      yet," said Capt. Bowling, heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was gratified by this unusual compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you married?" asked Capt. Bowling, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall never marry," she said. "I shouldn't dare to trust
+      my happiness to a man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not if I were that man?" said the captain, persuasively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Capt. Bowling!" murmured Rachel, agitated. "How can you
+      say such things?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you why, Miss Harding. I'm going to give up the
+      sea, and settle down on land. I shall need a good, sensible
+      wife, and if you'll take me, I'll make you Mrs. Bowling at
+      once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is so unexpected, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel; but she
+      did not look displeased. "Do you think it would be proper to
+      marry so suddenly?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will be just the thing to do. Now, what do you
+      say&mdash;yes or no."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you really think it will be right," faltered the agitated
+      spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then it's all settled?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will Timothy say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That you've done a sensible thing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours later, leaning on Capt. Bowling's arm, Mrs. Rachel
+      Bowling re-entered her brother's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Rachel, where have you been?" asked Mrs. Harding, and
+      she looked hard at Rachel's companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is my consort, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel, nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is Mrs. Bowling, ma'am," said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When were you married?" asked the cooper. It was dinner
+      time, and both he and Jack were at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only an hour ago. We'd have invited you, but time was
+      pressing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you never meant to be married, Aunt Rachel," said
+      Jack, mischievously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I don't expect to live long, and it won't make much
+      difference," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll have to consult me about that," said Capt. Bowling.
+      "I don't want you to leave me a widower too soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I propose that we drink Mrs. Bowling's health," said Jack.
+      "Can anybody tell me why she's like a good ship?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because she's got a good captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That'll do, mother; but there's another reason&mdash;because
+      she's well manned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Capt. Bowling evidently appreciated the joke, judging from
+      his hearty laughter. He added that it wouldn't be his fault
+      if she wasn't well rigged, too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marriage has turned out favorably. The captain looks upon
+      his wife as a superior woman, and Rachel herself has few fits
+      of depression nowadays. They have taken a small house near
+      Mr. Harding's, and Rachel takes no little pride in her snug
+      and comfortable home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One word more. At the close of her term of imprisonment, Peg
+      came to Mrs. Clifton and reminded her of her promise. Dick
+      was dead, and she was left alone in the world. Imprisonment
+      had not hardened her, as it often does. She had been redeemed
+      by the kindness of those whom she had injured. Mrs. Clifton
+      found her a position, in which her energy and administrative
+      ability found fitting exercise, and she leads a laborious and
+      useful life in a community where her history is not known. As
+      for John Somerville, with the last remnants of a once
+      handsome fortune, he purchased a ticket to Australia, and set
+      out on a voyage for that distant country. But he never
+      reached his destination. The vessel was wrecked in a violent
+      storm, and he was not among the four that were saved.
+      Henceforth Ida and her mother are far from his evil
+      machinations, and we may confidently hope for them a happy
+      and peaceful life.
+    </p>
+<br>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10729 ***</div>
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jack's Ward, by Horatio Alger, Jr.</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Jack's Ward, by Horatio Alger, Jr.</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Jack's Ward</p>
+<p>Author: Horatio Alger, Jr.</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 16, 2004  [eBook #10729]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK'S WARD***</p>
+<center><h3>E-text prepared by David Garcia<br>
+            and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3></center>
+
+  <hr class="full">
+
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      JACK'S WARD
+    </h1>
+    <center>
+      OR
+    </center>
+    <h2>
+      THE BOY GUARDIAN
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      <b>BY HORATIO ALGER, JR.</b>
+    </center>
+
+<br>
+    <center>
+      1910
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table border="0" summary="" align="center">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#BIB">BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY</a><br>
+           &nbsp;<br>
+           <a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I&mdash;JACK HARDING GETS A
+          JOB</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II&mdash;THE EVENTS OF AN
+          EVENING</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III&mdash;JACK'S NEW PLAN</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV&mdash;MRS. HARDING TAKES A
+          BOARDER</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V&mdash;THE CAPTAIN'S
+          DEPARTURE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI&mdash;THE LANDLORD'S
+          VISIT</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII&mdash;THE NEW YEAR'S
+          GIFT</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII&mdash;A LUCKY RESCUE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH9">CHAPTER IX&mdash;WHAT THE ENVELOPE
+          CONTAINED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH10">CHAPTER X&mdash;JACK'S MISCHIEF</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH11">CHAPTER XI&mdash;MISS HARDING'S
+          MISTAKE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH12">CHAPTER XII&mdash;SEVEN YEARS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH13">CHAPTER XIII&mdash;A MYSTERIOUS
+          VISITOR</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH14">CHAPTER XIV&mdash;PREPARING FOR A
+          JOURNEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH15">CHAPTER XV&mdash;THE JOURNEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH16">CHAPTER XVI&mdash;UNEXPECTED
+          QUARTERS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH17">CHAPTER XVII&mdash;SUSPENSE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH18">CHAPTER XVIII&mdash;HOW IDA
+          FARED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH19">CHAPTER XIX&mdash;BAD MONEY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH20">CHAPTER XX&mdash;DOUBTS AND
+          FEARS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH21">CHAPTER XXI&mdash;AUNT RACHEL'S
+          MISHAPS</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH22">CHAPTER XXII&mdash;THE FLOWER
+          GIRL</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH23">CHAPTER XXIII&mdash;JACK OBTAINS
+          INFORMATION</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH24">CHAPTER XXIV&mdash;JACK'S
+          DISCOVERY</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH25">CHAPTER XXV&mdash;CAUGHT IN A
+          TRAP</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH26">CHAPTER XXVI&mdash;DR. ROBINSON</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH27">CHAPTER XXVII&mdash;JACK BEGINS TO
+          REALIZE HIS SITUATION</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH28">CHAPTER XXVIII&mdash;THE SECRET
+          STAIRCASE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH29">CHAPTER XXIX&mdash;JACK IS
+          DETECTED</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH30">CHAPTER XXX&mdash;JACK'S TRIUMPH</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH31">CHAPTER XXXI&mdash;MR. JOHN
+          SOMERVILLE</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH32">CHAPTER XXXII&mdash;A PROVIDENTIAL
+          MEETING</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH33">CHAPTER XXXIII&mdash;IDA IS
+          FOUND</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH34">CHAPTER XXXIV&mdash;NEVER TOO LATE TO
+          MEND</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH35">CHAPTER XXXV&mdash;JACK'S RETURN</a><br>
+           <a href="#CH36">CHAPTER XXXVI&mdash;CONCLUSION</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="BIB"><!-- BIB --></a>
+    <h2>
+      BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Horatio Alger, Jr., an author who lived among and for boys
+      and himself remained a boy in heart and association till
+      death, was born at Revere, Mass., January 13, 1834. He was
+      the son of a clergyman; was graduated at Harvard College in
+      1852, and at its Divinity School in 1860; and was pastor of
+      the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass., in 1862-66.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter year he settled in New York and began drawing
+      public attention to the condition and needs of street boys.
+      He mingled with them, gained their confidence, showed a
+      personal concern in their affairs, and stimulated them to
+      honest and useful living. With his first story he won the
+      hearts of all red-blooded boys everywhere, and of the seventy
+      or more that followed over a million copies were sold during
+      the author's lifetime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his later life he was in appearance a short, stout,
+      bald-headed man, with cordial manners and whimsical views of
+      things that amused all who met him. He died at Natick, Mass.,
+      July 18, 1899.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Alger's stories are as popular now as when first
+      published, because they treat of real live boys who were
+      always up and about&mdash;just like the boys found everywhere
+      to-day. They are pure in tone and inspiring in influence, and
+      many reforms in the juvenile life of New York may be traced
+      to them. Among the best known are:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Strong and Steady; Strive and Succeed; Try and Trust;
+      Bound to Rise; Risen from the Ranks; Herbert Carter's Legacy;
+      Brave and Bold; Jack's Ward; Shifting for Himself; Wait and
+      Hope; Paul the Peddler; Phil the Fiddler; Slow and Sure;
+      Julius the Street Boy; Tom the Bootblack; Struggling Upward;
+      Facing the World; The Cash Boy; Making His Way; Tony the
+      Tramp; Joe's Luck; Do and Dare; Only an Irish Boy; Sink or
+      Swim; A Cousin's Conspiracy; Andy Gordon; Bob Burton; Harry
+      Vane; Hector's Inheritance; Mark Mason's Triumph; Sam's
+      Chance; The Telegraph Boy; The Young Adventurer; The Young
+      Outlaw; The Young Salesman</i>, and <i>Luke Walton</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="RULE4_2"><!-- RULE4 2 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      JACK'S WARD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK HARDING GETS A JOB
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Look here, boy, can you hold my horse a few minutes?" asked
+      a gentleman, as he jumped from his carriage in one of the
+      lower streets in New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy addressed was apparently about twelve, with a bright
+      face and laughing eyes, but dressed in clothes of coarse
+      material. This was Jack Harding, who is to be our hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir," said Jack, with alacrity, hastening to the
+      horse's head; "I'll hold him as long as you like."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right! I'm going in at No. 39; I won't be long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I call good luck," said Jack to himself. "No boy
+      wants a job more than I do. Father's out of work, rent's most
+      due, and Aunt Rachel's worrying our lives out with predicting
+      that we'll all be in the poorhouse inside of three months.
+      It's enough to make a fellow feel blue, listenin' to her
+      complainin' and groanin' all the time. Wonder whether she was
+      always so. Mother says she was disappointed in love when she
+      was young. I guess that's the reason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you set up a carriage, Jack?" asked a boy acquaintance,
+      coming up and recognizing Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack, "but it ain't for long. I shall set down
+      again pretty soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought your grandmother had left you a fortune, and you
+      had set up a team."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No such good news. It belongs to a gentleman that's inside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Inside the carriage?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, in No. 39."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long's he going to stay?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it was half an hour, we might take a ride, and be back in
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That ain't my style," he said. "I'll stay here till he comes
+      out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I must be going along. Are you coming to school
+      to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, if I can't get anything to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you trying for that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'd like to get a place. Father's out of work, and anything
+      I can earn comes in handy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My father's got plenty of money," said Frank Nelson,
+      complacently. "There isn't any need of my working."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then your father's lucky."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so am I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that. I'd just as lieve work as not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I wouldn't. I'd rather be my own master, and have my
+      time to myself. But I must be going home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're lazy, Frank."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely. I've a right to be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank Nelson went off, and Jack was left alone. Half an hour
+      passed, and still the gentleman, who had entered No. 39,
+      didn't appear. The horse showed signs of impatience, shook
+      his head, and eyed Jack in an unfriendly manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He thinks it time to be going," thought Jack. "So do I. I
+      wonder what the man's up to. Perhaps he's spending the day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen minutes more passed, but then relief came. The owner
+      of the carriage came out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you get tired of waiting for me?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said Jack, shrewdly. "I knew the longer the job, the
+      bigger the pay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose that is a hint," said the gentleman, not offended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps so," said Jack, and he smiled too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell me, now, what are you going to do with the money I give
+      you&mdash;buy candy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Jack, "I shall carry it home to my mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's well. Does your mother need the money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir. Father's out of work, and we've got to live all
+      the same."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's your father's business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a cooper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So he's out of work?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir, and has been for six weeks. It's on account of the
+      panic, I suppose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely. He has plenty of company just now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be remarked that our story opens in the year 1867,
+      memorable for its panic, and the business depression which
+      followed. Nearly every branch of industry suffered, and
+      thousands of men were thrown out of work, and utterly unable
+      to find employment of any kind. Among them was Timothy
+      Harding, the father of our hero. He was a sober, steady man,
+      and industrious; but his wages had never been large, and he
+      had been unable to save up a reserve fund, on which to draw
+      in time of need. He had an excellent wife, and but one
+      child&mdash;our present hero; but there was another, and by
+      no means unimportant member of the family. This was Rachel
+      Harding, a spinster of melancholy temperament, who belonged
+      to that unhappy class who are always prophesying evil, and
+      expecting the worst. She had been "disappointed" in early
+      life, and this had something to do with her gloomy views, but
+      probably she was somewhat inclined by nature to despondency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family lived in a humble tenement, which, however, was
+      neatly kept, and would have been a cheerful home but for the
+      gloomy presence of Aunt Rachel, who, since her brother had
+      been thrown out of employment, was gloomier than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all this while we have left Jack and the stranger
+      standing in the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You seem to be a good boy," said the latter, "and, under the
+      circumstances, I will pay you more than I intended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew from his vest pocket a dollar bill, and handed it to
+      Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! is all this for me?" asked Jack, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, on the condition that you carry it home, and give it to
+      your mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I will, sir; she'll be glad enough to get it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, good-by, my boy. I hope your father'll find work
+      soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a trump!" ejaculated Jack. "Wasn't it lucky I was here
+      just as he wanted a boy to hold his horse. I wonder what Aunt
+      Rachel will have to say to that? Very likely she'll say the
+      bill is bad."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack made the best of his way home. It was already late in
+      the afternoon, and he knew he would be expected. It was with
+      a lighter heart than usual that he bent his steps homeward,
+      for he knew that the dollar would be heartily welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will precede him, and give a brief description of his
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were only five rooms, and these were furnished in the
+      plainest manner. In the sitting room were his mother and
+      aunt. Mrs. Harding was a motherly-looking woman, with a
+      pleasant face, the prevailing expression of which was a
+      serene cheerfulness, though of late it had been harder than
+      usual to preserve this, in the straits to which the family
+      had been reduced. She was setting the table for tea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel sat in a rocking-chair at the window. She was
+      engaged in knitting. Her face was long and thin, and, as Jack
+      expressed it, she looked as if she hadn't a friend in the
+      world. Her voice harmonized with her mournful expression, and
+      was equally doleful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder why Jack don't come home?" said Mrs. Harding,
+      looking at the clock. "He's generally here at this time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps somethin's happened," suggested her sister-in-law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was reading in the <i>Sun</i> this morning about a boy
+      being run over out West somewhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't think Jack has been run over!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who knows?" said Rachel, gloomily. "You know how careless
+      boys are, and Jack's very careless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see how you can look for such things, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Accidents are always happening; you know that yourself,
+      Martha. I don't say Jack's run over. Perhaps he's been down
+      to the wharves, and tumbled over into the water and got
+      drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you wouldn't say such things, Rachel. They make me
+      feel uncomfortable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We may as well be prepared for the worst," said Rachel,
+      severely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not this time, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding, brightly, "for
+      that's Jack's step outside. He isn't drowned or run over,
+      thank God!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hear him," said Rachel, dismally. "Anybody might know by
+      the noise who it is. He always comes stamping along as if he
+      was paid for makin' a noise. Anybody ought to have a
+      cast-iron head that lives anywhere within his hearing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Jack entered, rather boisterously, it must be admitted,
+      in his eagerness slamming the door behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE EVENTS OF AN EVENING
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad you've come, Jack," said his mother. "Rachel was
+      just predicting that you were run over or drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you're not very much disappointed to see me safe and
+      well, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, merrily. "I don't think I've
+      been drowned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's things worse than drowning," replied Rachel,
+      severely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such as what?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A man that's born to be hanged is safe from drowning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you for the compliment, Aunt Rachel, if you mean me.
+      But, mother, I didn't tell you of my good luck. See this,"
+      and he displayed the dollar bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you get it?" asked his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Holding horses. Here, take it, mother; I warrant you'll find
+      a use for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It comes in good time," said Mrs. Harding. "We're out of
+      flour, and I had no money to buy any. Before you take off
+      your boots, Jack, I wish you'd run over to the grocery store,
+      and buy half a dozen pounds. You may get a pound of sugar,
+      and quarter of a pound of tea also."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see the Lord hasn't forgotten us," she remarked, as Jack
+      started on his errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's a dollar?" said Rachel, gloomily. "Will it carry us
+      through the winter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will carry us through to-night, and perhaps Timothy will
+      have work to-morrow. Hark, that's his step."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the outer door opened, and Timothy Harding
+      entered, not with the quick, elastic step of one who brings
+      good tidings, but slowly and deliberately, with a quiet
+      gravity of demeanor in which his wife could read only too
+      well that he had failed in his efforts to procure work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reading all this in his manner, she had the delicacy to
+      forbear intruding upon him questions to which she saw it
+      would only give him pain to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I needn't ask," she began, "whether you've got work,
+      Timothy. I knew beforehand you wouldn't. There ain't no use
+      in tryin'! The times is awful dull, and mark my words,
+      they'll be wuss before they're better. We mayn't live to see
+      'em. I don't expect we shall. Folks can't live without money;
+      and if we can't get that, we shall have to starve."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so bad as that, Rachel," said the cooper, trying to look
+      cheerful; "I don't talk about starving till the time comes.
+      Anyhow," glancing at the table, on which was spread a good
+      plain meal, "we needn't talk about starving till to-morrow
+      with that before us. Where's Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gone after some flour," replied his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On credit?" asked the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he's got money enough to pay for a few pounds," said
+      Mrs. Harding, smiling with an air of mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did it come from?" asked Timothy, who was puzzled, as
+      his wife anticipated. "I didn't know you had any money in the
+      house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No more we had; but he earned it himself, holding horses,
+      this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, that's good," said the cooper, cheerfully. "We ain't
+      so bad off as we might be, you see, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely the bill's bad," she said, with the air of one
+      who rather hoped it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, what's the use of anticipating evil?" said Mrs.
+      Harding. "You see you're wrong, for here's Jack with the
+      flour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family sat down to supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You haven't told us," said Mrs. Harding, seeing her
+      husband's cheerfulness in a measure restored, "what Mr.
+      Blodgett said about the chances for employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not much that was encouraging," answered Timothy. "He isn't
+      at all sure when it will be safe to commence work; perhaps
+      not before spring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Didn't I tell you so?" commented Rachel, with sepulchral
+      sadness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Mrs. Harding couldn't help looking sober.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose, Timothy, you haven't formed any plans," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I haven't had time. I must try to get something else to
+      do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, for instance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Anything by which I can earn a little; I don't care if it's
+      only sawing wood. We shall have to get along as economically
+      as we can&mdash;cut our coat according to our cloth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, you'll be able to earn something, and we can live very
+      plain," said Mrs. Harding, affecting a cheerfulness she
+      didn't feel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pity you hadn't done it sooner," was the comforting
+      suggestion of Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mustn't cry over spilt milk," said the cooper,
+      good-humoredly. "Perhaps we might have lived a leetle more
+      economically, but I don't think we've been extravagant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Besides, I can earn something, father," said Jack,
+      hopefully. "You know I did this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you can," said his mother, brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't horses to hold every day," said Rachel,
+      apparently fearing that the family might become too cheerful,
+      when, like herself, it was their duty to be profoundly
+      gloomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're always tryin' to discourage people, Aunt Rachel,"
+      said Jack, discontentedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel took instant umbrage at these words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm sure," said she, mournfully, "I don't want to make you
+      unhappy. If you can find anything to be cheerful about when
+      you're on the verge of starvation, I hope you'll enjoy
+      yourselves, and not mind me. I'm a poor, dependent creetur,
+      and I feel I'm a burden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, that's all foolishness," said Timothy. "You
+      don't feel anything of the kind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps others can tell how I feel better than I can
+      myself," answered his sister, with the air of a martyr. "If
+      it hadn't been for me, I know you'd have been able to lay up
+      money, and have something to carry you through the winter.
+      It's hard to be a burden on your relations, and bring a
+      brother's family to this poverty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't talk of being a burden, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding.
+      "You've been a great help to me in many ways. That pair of
+      stockings, now, you're knitting for Jack&mdash;that's a help,
+      for I couldn't have got time for them myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't expect," said Aunt Rachel, in the same sunny manner,
+      "that I shall be able to do it long. From the pains I have in
+      my hands sometimes, I expect I'm goin' to lose the use of 'em
+      soon, and be as useless as old Mrs. Sprague, who for the last
+      ten years of her life had to sit with her hands folded on her
+      lap. But I wouldn't stay to be a burden&mdash;I'd go to the
+      poorhouse first. But perhaps," with the look of a martyr,
+      "they wouldn't want me there, because I'd be discouragin' 'em
+      too much."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Jack, who had so unwittingly raised this storm, winced
+      under the last words, which he knew were directed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then why," asked he, half in extenuation, "why don't you try
+      to look pleasant and cheerful? Why won't you be jolly, as Tom
+      Piper's aunt is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say I ain't pleasant," said Rachel, "as my own nephew
+      twits me with it. There is some folks that can be cheerful
+      when their house is a-burnin' down before their eyes, and
+      I've heard of one young man that laughed at his aunt's
+      funeral," directing a severe glance at Jack; "but I'm not one
+      of that kind. I think, with the Scriptures, that there's a
+      time to weep."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doesn't it say there's a time to laugh, too?" asked Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When I see anything to laugh about, I'm ready to laugh,"
+      said Aunt Rachel; "but human nater ain't to be forced. I
+      can't see anything to laugh at now, and perhaps you won't by
+      and by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evidently quite useless to persuade Rachel to
+      cheerfulness, and the subject dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tea things were cleared away by Mrs. Harding, who then
+      sat down to her sewing. Aunt Rachel continued to knit in grim
+      silence, while Jack seated himself on a three-legged stool
+      near his aunt, and began to whittle out a boat, after a model
+      lent him by Tom Piper, a young gentleman whose aunt has
+      already been referred to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper took out his spectacles, wiped them carefully with
+      his handkerchief, and as carefully adjusted them to his nose.
+      He then took down from the mantelpiece one of the few books
+      belonging to his library&mdash;"Dr. Kane's Arctic
+      Explorations"&mdash;and began to read, for the tenth time, it
+      might be, the record of these daring explorers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plain little room presented a picture of graceful
+      tranquillity, but it proved to be only the calm which
+      preceded the storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm in question, I regret to say, was brought about by
+      the luckless Jack. As has been said, he was engaged in
+      constructing a boat, the particular operation he was now
+      intent upon being the excavation, or hollowing out. Now
+      three-legged stools are not the most secure seats in the
+      world. This, I think, no one will deny who has any practical
+      acquaintance with them. Jack was working quite vigorously,
+      the block from which the boat was to be fashioned being held
+      firmly between his knees. His knife having got wedged in the
+      wood, he made an unusual effort to draw it out, in which he
+      lost his balance, and disturbed the equilibrium of his stool,
+      which, with its load, tumbled over backward. Now, it very
+      unfortunately happened that Aunt Rachel sat close behind, and
+      the treacherous stool came down with considerable force upon
+      her foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A piercing shriek was heard, and Aunt Rachel, lifting her
+      foot, clung to it convulsively, while an expression of pain
+      disturbed her features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound, the cooper hastily removed his spectacles, and,
+      letting "Dr. Kane" fall to the floor, started up in great
+      dismay. Mrs. Harding likewise dropped her sewing, and jumped
+      to her feet in alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not take long to see how matters stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hurt ye much, Rachel?" inquired Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's about killed me," groaned the afflicted maiden. "Oh, I
+      shall have to have my foot cut off, or be a cripple anyway."
+      Then, turning upon Jack fiercely: "You careless, wicked,
+      ungrateful boy, that I've been wearin' myself out knittin'
+      for. I'm almost sure you did it a purpose. You won't be
+      satisfied till you've got me out of the world, and
+      then&mdash;then, perhaps"&mdash;here Rachel began to
+      whimper&mdash;"perhaps you'll get Tom Piper's aunt to knit
+      your stockings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, penitently, eying
+      his aunt, who was rocking to and fro in her chair. "You know
+      I didn't. Besides, I hurt myself like thunder," rubbing
+      himself vigorously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Served you right," said his aunt, still clasping her foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shan't I get something for you to put on it, Rachel?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this Rachel steadily refused, and, after a few more
+      postures indicating a great amount of anguish, limped out of
+      the room, and ascended the stairs to her own apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S NEW PLAN
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel was right in one thing, as Jack realized. He
+      could not find horses to hold every day, and even if he had
+      succeeded in that, few would have paid him so munificently as
+      the stranger of the day before. In fact, matters came to a
+      crisis, and something must be sold to raise funds for
+      immediate necessities. Now, the only article of
+      luxury&mdash;if it could be called so&mdash;in the possession
+      of the family was a sofa, in very good preservation, indeed
+      nearly new, for it had been bought only two years before when
+      business was good. A neighbor was willing to pay fifteen
+      dollars for this, and Mrs. Harding, with her husband's
+      consent, agreed to part with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If ever we are able we will buy another," said Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, at any rate, we can do without it," said his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel will miss it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She said the other day that it was not comfortable, and
+      ought never to have been bought; that it was a shameful waste
+      of money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case she won't be disturbed by our selling it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I should think not; but it's hard to tell how Rachel
+      will take anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark was amply verified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sofa was removed while the spinster was out, and without
+      any hint to her of what was going to happen. When she
+      returned, she looked around for it with surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where's the sofy?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We've sold it to Mrs. Stoddard," said Mrs. Harding,
+      cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sold it!" echoed Rachel, dolefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; we felt that we didn't need it, and we did need money.
+      She offered me fifteen dollars for it, and I accepted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel sat down in a rocking-chair, and began straightway to
+      show signs of great depression of spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Life's full of disappointments!" she groaned. "Our paths is
+      continually beset by 'em. There's that sofa. It's so pleasant
+      to have one in the house when a body's sick. But, there, it's
+      gone, and if I happen to get down, as most likely I shall,
+      for I've got a bad feeling in my stummick this very minute, I
+      shall have to go upstairs, and most likely catch my death of
+      cold, and that will be the end of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so bad as that, I hope," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully.
+      "You know when you was sick last, you didn't want to use the
+      sofa; you said it didn't lay comfortable. Besides, I hope
+      before you are sick we may be able to buy it back again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel shook her head despondingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any use in hoping that," she said. "Timothy's
+      got so much behindhand that he won't be able to get up again;
+      I know he won't!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, if he only manages to find steady work soon, he will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he won't," said Rachel, positively. "I'm sure he won't.
+      There won't be any work before spring, and most likely not
+      then."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are too desponding, Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough to make me so. If you had only taken my advice, we
+      shouldn't have come to this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what advice you refer to, Rachel," said Mrs.
+      Harding, patiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I don't expect you do. My words don't make no
+      impression. You didn't pay no attention to what I said,
+      that's the reason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But if you'll repeat the advice, Rachel, perhaps we can
+      still profit by it," answered Mrs. Harding, with
+      imperturbable good humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you you ought to be layin' up something agin' a rainy
+      day. But that's always the way. Folks think when times is
+      good it's always a-goin' to be so, but I know better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see how we could have been much more economical,"
+      said Mrs. Harding, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's a hundred ways. Poor folks like us ought not to
+      expect to have meat so often. It's frightful to think what
+      the butcher's bill must have been for the last two months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inconsistent Rachel! Only the day before she had made herself
+      very uncomfortable because there was no meat for dinner, and
+      said she couldn't live without it. Mrs. Harding might have
+      reminded her of this, but the good woman was too kind and
+      forbearing to make the retort. She really pitied Rachel for
+      her unhappy habit of despondency. So she contented herself by
+      saying that they must try to do better in future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's always the way," muttered Rachel; "shut the stable
+      door after the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from
+      experience till it's too late to be of any use. I don't see
+      what the world was made for, for my part. Everything goes
+      topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the right way. I
+      sometimes think 'tain't much use livin'!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, you'll feel better by and by, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I shan't; I feel my health's declinin' every day. I
+      don't know how I can stand it when I have to go to the
+      poorhouse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We haven't gone there yet, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, but it's comin' soon. We can't live on nothin'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark, there's Jack coming," said his mother, hearing a quick
+      step outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, he's whistlin' just as if nothin' was the matter. He
+      don't care anything for the awful condition of the family."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're wrong there, Rachel; Jack is trying every day to get
+      something to do. He wants to do his part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel would have made a reply disparaging to Jack, but she
+      had no chance, for our hero broke in at this instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Jack?" said his mother, inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've got a plan, mother," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's a boy's plan worth?" sniffed Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, don't be always hectorin' me, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+      impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hectorin'! Is that the way my own nephew talks to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, it's so. You don't give a feller a chance. I'll tell
+      you what I'm thinking of, mother. I've been talkin' with Tom
+      Blake; he sells papers, and he tells me he makes sometimes a
+      dollar a day. Isn't that good?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, that is very good wages for a boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want to try it, too; but I've got to buy the papers first,
+      you know, and I haven't got any money. So, if you'll lend me
+      fifty cents, I'll try it this afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You think you can sell them, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know I can. I'm as smart as Tom Blake, any day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pride goes before a fall!" remarked Rachel, by way of a
+      damper. "Disappointment is the common lot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's just the way all the time," said Jack, provoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've lived longer than you," began Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, a mighty lot longer," interrupted Jack. "I don't deny
+      that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you're sneerin' at me on account of my age, Jack.
+      Martha, how can you allow such things?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be respectful, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then tell Aunt Rachel not to aggravate me so. Will you let
+      me have the fifty cents, mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Jack. I think your plan is worth trying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took out half a dollar from her pocketbook and handed it
+      to Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, mother. I'll see what I can do with it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack went out, and Rachel looked more gloomy than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll never see that money again, you may depend on't,
+      Martha," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because Jack'll spend it for candy, or in some other foolish
+      way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are unjust, Rachel. Jack is not that kind of boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'd ought to know him. I've had chances enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never knew him to do anything dishonest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose he's a model boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he isn't. He's got faults enough, I admit; but he
+      wouldn't spend for his own pleasure money given him for
+      buying papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he buys the papers, I don't believe he can sell them, so
+      the money's wasted anyway," said Rachel, trying another tack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will wait and see," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She saw that Rachel was in one of her unreasonable moods, and
+      that it was of no use to continue the discussion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MRS. HARDING TAKES A BOARDER
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack started for the newspaper offices and bought a supply of
+      papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see why I can't sell papers as well as other boys,"
+      he said to himself. "I'm going to try, at any rate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought it prudent, however, not to buy too large stock at
+      first. He might sell them all, but then again he might get
+      "stuck" on a part, and this might take away all his profits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack, however, was destined to find that in the newspaper
+      business, as well as in others, there was no lack of
+      competition. He took his place just below the Astor House,
+      and began to cry his papers. This aroused the ire of a rival
+      newsboy a few feet away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Get away from here!" he exclaimed, scowling at Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What for?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is my stand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Keep it, then. This is mine," retorted Jack, composedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't allow no other newsboys in this block," said the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you? You ain't the city government, are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want any of your impudence. Clear out!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Clear out yourself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll give you a lickin'!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you will when you're able."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack spoke manfully; but the fact was that the other boy
+      probably was able, being three years older, and as many
+      inches taller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack kept on crying his papers, and his opponent, incensed at
+      the contemptuous disregard of his threats, advanced toward
+      him, and, taking Jack unawares, pushed him off the sidewalk
+      with such violence that he nearly fell flat. Jack felt that
+      the time for action had arrived. He dropped his papers
+      temporarily on the sidewalk, and, lowering his head, butted
+      against his young enemy with such force as to double him up,
+      and seat him, gasping for breath, on the sidewalk. Tom
+      Rafferty, for this was his name, looked up in astonishment at
+      the unexpected form of the attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well done, my lad!" said a hearty voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack turned toward the speaker, and saw a stout man dressed
+      in a blue coat with brass buttons. He was dark and bronzed
+      with exposure to the weather, and there was something about
+      him which plainly indicated the sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well done, my lad!" he repeated. "You know how to pay off
+      your debts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I try to," said Jack, modestly. "But where's my papers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The papers, which he had dropped, had disappeared. One of the
+      boys who had seen the fracas had seized the opportunity to
+      make off with them, and poor Jack was in the position of a
+      merchant who had lost his stock in trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who took them papers?" he asked, looking about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I saw a boy run off with them," said a bystander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm glad of it," said Tom Rafferty, sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked as if he was ready to pitch into him again, but
+      the sailor interfered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't mind the papers, my lad. What were they worth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I gave twenty cents for 'em."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then here's thirty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think I ought to take it," said Jack. "It's my
+      loss."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take it, my boy. It won't ruin me. I've got plenty more
+      behind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, sir; I'll go and buy some more papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not to-night. I want you to take a cruise with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you'd like to know who I am?" said the sailor, as
+      they moved off together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you're a sailor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can tell that by the cut of my jib. Yes, my lad, I'm
+      captain of the <i>Argo</i>, now in port. It's a good while
+      since I've been in York. For ten years I've been plying
+      between Liverpool and Calcutta. Now I've got absence to come
+      over here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you an American, sir?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I was raised in Connecticut, but then I began going to
+      sea when I was only thirteen. I only arrived to-day, and I
+      find the city changed since ten years ago, when I used to
+      know it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you staying&mdash;at what hotel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I haven't gone to any yet; I used to stay with a cousin of
+      mine, but he's moved. Do you know any good boarding place,
+      where they'd make me feel at home, and let me smoke a pipe
+      after dinner?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An idea struck Jack. They had an extra room at home, or could
+      make one by his sleeping in the sitting room. Why shouldn't
+      they take the stranger to board? The money would certainly be
+      acceptable. He determined to propose it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we lived in a nicer house," he said, "I'd ask you to
+      board at my mother's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Would she take me, my lad?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think she would; but we are poor, and live in a small
+      house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That makes no odds. I ain't a bit particular, as long as I
+      can feel at home. So heave ahead, my lad, and we'll go and
+      see this mother of yours, and hear what she has to say about
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack took the way home well pleased, and, opening the front
+      door, entered the sitting room, followed by the sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel looked up nervously, and exclaimed: "A man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I'm a man, and no mistake.
+      Are you this lad's mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir!" answered Rachel, emphatically. "I am nobody's
+      mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, an old maid!" said the sailor, whose mode of life had
+      made him unceremonious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a spinster," said Rachel, with dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the same thing," said the visitor, sitting down
+      opposite Aunt Rachel, who eyed him suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My aunt, Rachel Harding, Capt. Bowling," introduced Jack.
+      "Aunt Rachel, Capt. Bowling is the commander of a vessel now
+      in port."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel made a stiff courtesy, and Capt. Bowling eyed her
+      curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you fond of knitting, ma'am?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not fond of anything," said Rachel, mournfully. "We
+      should not set our affections upon earthly things."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't say that if you had a beau, ma'am," said Capt.
+      Bowling, facetiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A beau!" repeated Rachel, horror-stricken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am. I suppose you've had a beau some time or other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think it proper to talk on such a subject to a
+      stranger," said Aunt Rachel, primly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Law, ma'am, you needn't be so particular."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this moment, Mrs. Harding entered the room, and was
+      introduced to Capt. Bowling by Jack. The captain proceeded to
+      business at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your son, here, ma'am, told me you might maybe swing a
+      hammock for me somewhere in your house. I liked his looks,
+      and here I am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you think you would be satisfied with our plain fare, and
+      humble dwelling, Capt. Bowling?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't hard to suit, ma'am; so, if you can take me, I'll
+      stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His manner was frank, although rough; and Mrs. Harding
+      cheerfully consented to do so. It was agreed that Bowling
+      should pay five dollars a week for the three or four weeks he
+      expected to stay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll be back in an hour," said the new boarder. "I've got a
+      little business to attend to before supper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had gone out, Aunt Rachel began to cough ominously.
+      Evidently some remonstrance was coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," she said, solemnly, "I'm afraid you've done wrong
+      in taking that sailor man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's a strange man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see anything strange about him," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He spoke to me about having a beau," said Aunt Rachel, in a
+      shocked tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack burst into a fit of hearty laughter. "Perhaps he's going
+      to make you an offer, Aunt Rachel," he said. "He wants to see
+      if there's anybody in the way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not appear so very indignant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was improper for a stranger to speak to me on that
+      subject," she said, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must make allowances for the bluntness of a sailor,"
+      said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some reason Rachel did not seem as low-spirited as usual
+      that evening. Capt. Bowling entertained them with narratives
+      of his personal adventures, and it was later than usual when
+      the lamps were put out, and they were all in bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE CAPTAIN'S DEPARTURE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," said the captain, at breakfast, the next morning,
+      "how would you like to go round with me to see my vessel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll go," said Jack, promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very likely he'll fall over into the water and be drowned,"
+      suggested Aunt Rachel, cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll take care of that, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling. "Won't
+      you come yourself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I go to see a vessel!" repeated Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid it wouldn't be proper to go with a stranger,"
+      said Rachel, with a high sense of propriety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll promise not to run away with you," said the captain,
+      bluntly. "If I should attempt it, Jack, here, would
+      interfere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I wouldn't," said Jack. "It wouldn't be proper for me to
+      interfere with Aunt Rachel's plans."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You seem to speak as if your aunt proposed to run away,"
+      said Mr. Harding, jocosely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shouldn't speak of such things, nephew; I am shocked,"
+      said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you won't go, ma'am?" asked the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I thought it was consistent with propriety," said Rachel,
+      hesitating. "What do you think, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think there is no objection," said Mrs. Harding, secretly
+      amazed at Rachel's entertaining the idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result was that Miss Rachel put on her things, and
+      accompanied the captain. She was prevailed on to take the
+      captain's arm at length, greatly to Jack's amusement. He was
+      still more amused when a boy picked up her handkerchief which
+      she had accidentally dropped, and, restoring it to the
+      captain, said, "Here's your wife's handkerchief, gov'nor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho! ho!" laughed the captain. "He takes you for my wife,
+      ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho! ho!" echoed Jack, equally amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel turned red with confusion. "I am afraid I ought
+      not to have come," she murmured. "I feel ready to drop."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'd better not drop just yet," said the captain&mdash;they
+      were just crossing the street&mdash;"wait till it isn't so
+      muddy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the whole, Aunt Rachel decided not to drop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Argo</i> was a medium-sized vessel, and Jack in
+      particular was pleased with his visit. Though not outwardly
+      so demonstrative, Aunt Rachel also seemed to enjoy the
+      expedition. The captain, though blunt, was attentive, and it
+      was something new to her to have such an escort. It was
+      observed that Miss Harding was much less gloomy than usual
+      during the remainder of the day. It might be that the
+      captain's cheerfulness was contagious. For a stranger, Aunt
+      Rachel certainly conversed with him with a freedom remarkable
+      for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never saw Rachel so cheerful," remarked Mrs. Harding to
+      her husband that evening after they had retired. "She hasn't
+      once spoken of life being a vale of tears to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the captain," said her husband. "He has such spirits
+      that it seems to enliven all of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish we could have him for a permanent boarder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; the five dollars a week which he pays are a great help,
+      especially now that I am out of work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the prospect of getting work soon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am hoping for it from day to day, but it may be weeks
+      yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack earned fifty cents to-day by selling papers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His daily earnings are an important help. With what the
+      captain pays us, it is enough to pay all our living expenses.
+      But there's one thing that troubles me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The rent?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it is due in three weeks, and as yet I haven't a dollar
+      laid by to meet it. It makes me feel anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't lose your trust in Providence, Timothy. He may yet
+      carry us over this difficulty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I hope, but I can't help feeling in what straits we shall
+      be, if some help does not come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two weeks later, Capt. Bowling sailed for Liverpool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope we shall see you again sometime, captain," said Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whenever I come back to New York, I shall come here if
+      you'll keep me," said the bluff sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aunt Rachel will miss you, captain," said Jack, slyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Capt. Bowling turned to the confused spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope she will," said he, heartily. "Perhaps when I see her
+      again, she'll have a husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Capt. Bowling, how can you say such things?" gasped
+      Rachel, who, as the time for the captain's departure
+      approached, had been subsiding into her old melancholy.
+      "There's other things to think of in this vale of tears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are there? Well, if they're gloomy, I don't want to think of
+      'em. Jack, my lad, I wish you were going to sail with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So do I," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's my only boy, captain," said Mrs. Harding. "I couldn't
+      part with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't blame you, ma'am, not a particle; though there's the
+      making of a sailor in Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he went away, he'd never come back," said Rachel,
+      lugubriously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that, ma'am. I've been a sailor, man and
+      boy, forty years, and here I am, well and hearty to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The captain is about your age, isn't he, Aunt Rachel?" said
+      Jack, maliciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm only thirty-nine," said Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I must have been under a mistake all my life," said the
+      cooper to himself. "Rachel's forty-seven, if she's a day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark he prudently kept to himself, or a fit of
+      hysterics would probably have been the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't have taken you for a day over thirty-five,
+      ma'am," said the captain, gallantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel actually smiled, but mildly disclaimed the compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it hadn't been for my trials and troubles," she said, "I
+      might have looked younger; but they are only to be expected.
+      It's the common lot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it?" said the captain. "I can't say I've been troubled
+      much that way. With a stout heart and a good conscience we
+      ought to be jolly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who of us has a good conscience?" asked Rachel, in a
+      melancholy tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, Aunt Rachel," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You?" she exclaimed, indignantly. "You, that tied a tin
+      kettle to a dog's tail yesterday, and chased the poor cat
+      till she almost died of fright. I lie awake nights thinking
+      of the bad end you're likely to come to unless you change
+      your ways."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack shrugged his shoulders, but the captain came to his
+      help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Boys will be boys, ma'am," he said. "I was up to no end of
+      tricks myself when I was a boy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You weren't so bad as Jack, I know," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you for standing up for me, ma'am; but I'm afraid I
+      was. I don't think Jack's so very bad, for my part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't play the tricks Aunt Rachel mentioned," said Jack.
+      "It was another boy in our block."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're all alike," said Rachel. "I don't know what you boys
+      are all coming to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the captain announced that he must go. Jack
+      accompanied him as far as the pier, but the rest of the
+      family remained behind. Aunt Rachel became gloomier than
+      ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what you'll do, now you've lost your boarder,"
+      she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will be a loss to us, it is true," said Mrs. Harding; but
+      we are fortunate in having had him with us so long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's only puttin' off our misery a little longer," said
+      Rachel. "We've got to go to the poorhouse, after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was in one of her moods, and there was no use in
+      arguing with her, as it would only have intensified her
+      gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack was bidding good-by to the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm sorry you can't go with me, Jack," said the bluff
+      sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So am I; but I can't leave mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Right, my lad; I wouldn't take you away from her. But
+      there&mdash;take that, and don't forget me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are very kind," said Jack, as the captain pressed into
+      his hand a five-dollar gold piece. "May I give it to my
+      mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, my lad; you can't do better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack stood on the wharf till the vessel was drawn out into
+      the stream by a steam tug. Then he went home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE LANDLORD'S VISIT
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      It was the night before the New Year. In many a household in
+      the great city it was a night of happy anticipation. In the
+      humble home of the Hardings it was an evening of anxious
+      thought, for to-morrow the quarter's rent was due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I haven't got a dollar to meet the rent, Martha," said the
+      cooper, in a depressed tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't Mr. Colman wait?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm afraid not. You know what sort of a man he is, Martha.
+      There isn't much feeling about him. He cares more for money
+      than anything else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you are doing him an injustice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid not. Did you never hear how he treated the
+      Underhills?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Underhill was laid up with rheumatic fever for three months.
+      The consequence was that when quarter day came round he was
+      in about the same situation with ourselves&mdash;a little
+      worse, even, for his wife was sick also. But, though Colman
+      was aware of the circumstances, he had no pity; he turned
+      them out without ceremony."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it possible?" asked Mrs. Harding, uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And there's no reason for his being more lenient with us. I
+      can't but feel anxious about to-morrow, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, verifying an old adage, which will perhaps
+      occur to the reader, who should knock but Mr. Colman himself.
+      Both the cooper and his wife had an instinctive foreboding as
+      to his visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came in, rubbing his hands in a social way, as was his
+      custom. No one, to look at him, would have suspected the
+      hardness of heart that lay veiled under his velvety softness
+      of manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-evening, Mr. Harding," he said, affably. "I trust you
+      and your excellent wife are in good health."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That blessing, at least, is continued to us," said the
+      cooper, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how comfortable you're looking, too, eh! It makes an old
+      bachelor like me feel lonesome when he contrasts his own
+      solitary room with such a scene of comfort as this. You've
+      got a comfortable home, and dog cheap, too. All my other
+      tenants are grumbling to think you don't have to pay any more
+      for such superior accommodations. I've about made up my mind
+      that I must ask you twenty-five dollars a quarter hereafter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was said very pleasantly, but the pill was none the
+      less bitter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me, Mr. Colman," answered the cooper, soberly,
+      "you have chosen rather a singular time for raising the
+      rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why singular, my good sir?" inquired the landlord, urbanely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know, of course, that this is a time of general business
+      depression; my own trade in particular has suffered greatly.
+      For a month past I have not been able to find any work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colman's face lost something of its graciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I fear I shall not be able to pay my quarter's rent
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed!" said the landlord, coldly. "Perhaps you can make it
+      up within two or three dollars."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't pay a dollar toward it," said the cooper. "It's the
+      first time, in the five years I've lived here, that this
+      thing has happened to me. I've always been prompt before."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You should have economized as you found times growing
+      harder," said Colman, harshly. "It is hardly honest to live
+      in a house when you know you can't pay the rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shan't lose it, Mr. Colman," said the cooper, earnestly.
+      "No one ever yet lost anything by me, and I don't mean anyone
+      shall, if I can help it. Only give me a little time, and I
+      will pay all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to have cut your coat according to your cloth," he
+      responded. "Much as it will go against my feelings I am
+      compelled, by a prudent regard to my own interests, to warn
+      you that, in case your rent is not ready to-morrow, I shall
+      be obliged to trouble you to find another tenement; and
+      furthermore, the rent of this will be raised five dollars a
+      quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't pay it, Mr. Colman," said Timothy Harding, gravely.
+      "I may as well say that now; and it's no use agreeing to pay
+      more rent. I pay all I can afford now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well, you know the alternative. Of course, if you can
+      do better elsewhere, you will. That's understood. But it's a
+      disagreeable subject. We won't talk of it any more now. I
+      shall be round to-morrow forenoon. How's your excellent
+      sister&mdash;as cheerful as ever?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Quite as much so as usual," answered the cooper, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's one favor I should like to ask," he said, after a
+      pause. "Will you allow us to remain here a few days till I
+      can look about a little?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would with the greatest pleasure in the world," was the
+      reply; "but there's another family very anxious to take the
+      house, and they wish to come in immediately. Therefore I
+      shall be obliged to ask you to move out to-morrow. In fact,
+      that is the very thing I came here this evening to speak
+      about, as I thought you might not wish to pay the increased
+      rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are much obliged to you," said the cooper, with a tinge
+      of bitterness unusual to him. "If we are to be turned into
+      the street, it is pleasant to have a few hours' notice of
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Turned out of doors, my good sir! What disagreeable
+      expressions you employ! If you reflect for a moment, you will
+      see that it is merely a matter of business. I have an article
+      to dispose of. There are two bidders, yourself and another
+      person. The latter is willing to pay a larger sum. Of course
+      I give him the preference, as you would do under similar
+      circumstances. Don't you see how it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I do," replied the cooper. "Of course it's a
+      regular proceeding; but you must excuse me if I think of it
+      in another light, when I reflect that to-morrow at this time
+      my family may be without a shelter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear sir, positively you are looking on the dark side of
+      things. It is actually sinful for you to distrust Providence
+      as you seem to do. You're a little disappointed, that's all.
+      Just take to-night to sleep on it, and I've no doubt you'll
+      see things in quite a different light. But
+      positively"&mdash;here he rose, and began to draw on his
+      gloves&mdash;"positively I have stayed longer than I
+      intended. Good-night, my friends. I'll look in upon you in
+      the morning. And, by the way, as it's so near, permit me to
+      wish you a happy New Year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door closed upon the landlord, leaving behind two anxious
+      hearts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It looks well in him to wish that," said the cooper,
+      gloomily. "A great deal he is doing to make it so. I don't
+      know how it seems to others; for my part, I never say them
+      words to anyone, unless I really wish 'em well, and am
+      willing to do something to make 'em so. I should feel as if I
+      was a hypocrite if I acted anyways different."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martha was not one who was readily inclined to think evil of
+      anyone, but in her own gentle heart she could not help
+      feeling a repugnance for the man who had just left them. Jack
+      was not so reticent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hate that man," he said, decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You should not hate anyone, my son," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't help it, mother. Ain't he goin' to turn us out of
+      the house to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we cannot pay our rent, he is justified in doing so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then why need he pretend to be so friendly? He don't care
+      anything for us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is right to be polite, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I s'pose if you're goin' to kick a man, it should be done
+      politely," said Jack, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If possible," said the cooper, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is there any tenement vacant in this neighborhood?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, there is one in the next block belonging to Mr.
+      Harrison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a better one than this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; but Harrison only asks the same rent that we have been
+      paying. He is not so exorbitant as Colman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Couldn't we get that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid if he knows that we have failed to pay our rent
+      here, that he will object."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he knows you are honest, and that nothing but the hard
+      times would have brought you to this pass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be, Martha. At any rate, you have lightened my heart
+      a little. I feel as if there was some hope left, after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We ought always to feel so, Timothy. There was one thing
+      that Mr. Colman said that didn't sound so well, coming from
+      his lips; but it's true for all that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you refer to?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean that about not distrusting Providence. Many a time
+      have I been comforted by reading the verse: 'Never have I
+      seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' As
+      long as we try to do what is right, Timothy, God will not
+      suffer us to want."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, Martha. He is our ever-present help in time
+      of trouble. When I think of that, I feel easier."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They retired to rest thoughtfully but not sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fire upon the hearth flickered and died out at length.
+      The last sands of the old year were running out, and the new
+      morning ushered in its successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Happy New Year!" was Jack's salutation to Aunt Rachel, as
+      with an unhappy expression of countenance she entered the
+      sitting room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Happy, indeed!" she repeated, dismally. "There's great
+      chance of its being so, I should think. We don't any of us
+      know what the year may bring forth. We may all be dead and
+      buried before the next new year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that's the case," said Jack, "let us be jolly as long as
+      life lasts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what you mean by such a vulgar word," said Aunt
+      Rachel, disdainfully. "I've heard of drunkards and such kind
+      of people being jolly; but, thank Providence, I haven't got
+      to that yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that was the only way to be jolly," said Jack, stoutly,
+      "then I'd be a drunkard; I wouldn't carry round such a long
+      face as you do, Aunt Rachel, for any money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's enough to make all of us have long faces," said his
+      aunt, sourly, "when you are brazen enough to own that you
+      mean to be a miserable drunkard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't say any such thing," said Jack, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I have ears," remarked Aunt Rachel, sententiously,
+      "and perhaps I have not. It's a new thing for a nephew to
+      tell his aunt that she lies. They didn't use to allow such
+      things when I was young. But the world's going to rack and
+      ruin, and I shouldn't wonder if the people was right that say
+      it's coming to an end."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Mrs. Harding happily interposed, by asking Jack to go
+      round to the grocery in the next street, and buy a pint of
+      milk for breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack took his hat and started with alacrity, glad to leave
+      the dismal presence of Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had scarcely opened the door when he started back in
+      surprise, exclaiming: "By hokey, if there isn't a basket on
+      the steps!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A basket!" repeated his mother, in surprise. "Can it be a
+      New Year's present? Bring it in, Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was brought in immediately, and the cover being lifted,
+      there appeared a female child, apparently a year old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All uttered exclamations of surprise, each in itself
+      characteristic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What a dear, innocent little thing!" said Mrs. Harding, with
+      true maternal instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't it a pretty un?" exclaimed Jack, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It looks as if it was goin' to have the measles," said Aunt
+      Rachel, "or scarlet fever. You'd better not take it in,
+      Martha, or we may all catch it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't leave it out in the cold, would you, Rachel?
+      The poor thing might die of exposure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Probably it will die," said Rachel, mournfully. "It's very
+      hard to raise children. There's something unhealthy in its
+      looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It don't seem to me so. It looks plump and healthy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't never judge by appearances. You ought to know
+      that, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take the risk, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see what you are going to do with a baby, when we
+      are all on the verge of starvation, and going to be turned
+      into the street this very day," remarked Rachel,
+      despondently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We won't think of that just now. Common humanity requires us
+      to see what we can do for the poor child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, Mrs. Harding took the infant in her arms. The
+      child opened its eyes, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My! here's a letter," said Jack, diving into the bottom of
+      the basket. "It's directed to you, father."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper opened the letter, and read as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For reasons which it is unnecessary to state, the guardians
+      of this child find it expedient to intrust it to others to
+      bring up. The good account which they have heard of you has
+      led them to select you for that charge. No further
+      explanation is necessary, except that it is by no means their
+      intention to make this a service of charity. They, therefore,
+      inclose a certificate of deposit on the Broadway Bank of five
+      hundred dollars, the same having been paid in to your credit.
+      Each year, while the child remains in your charge, the same
+      will in like manner be placed to your credit at the same
+      bank. It may be as well to state, further, that all attempt
+      to fathom whatever of mystery may attach to this affair will
+      prove useless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The letter was read in amazement. The certificate of deposit,
+      which had fallen to the floor, was picked up by Jack, and
+      handed to his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amazement was followed by a feeling of gratitude and relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could be more fortunate?" exclaimed Mrs. Harding.
+      "Surely, Timothy, our faith has been rewarded."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God has listened to our cry!" said the cooper, devoutly,
+      "and in the hour of our sorest need He has remembered us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Isn't it prime?" said Jack, gleefully; "five hundred
+      dollars! Ain't we rich, Aunt Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Like as not," observed Rachel, "the certificate isn't
+      genuine. It doesn't look natural it should be. I've heard of
+      counterfeits afore now. I shouldn't be surprised at all if
+      Timothy got took up for presenting it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll take the risk," said her brother, who did not seem much
+      alarmed at the suggestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you'll be able to pay the rent, Timothy," said Mrs.
+      Harding, cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and it's the last quarter's rent I mean to pay Mr.
+      Colman, if I can help it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, where are you going?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the house belonging to Mr. Harrison that I spoke of last
+      night, that is, if it isn't already engaged. I think I will
+      see about it at once. If Mr. Colman should come in while I am
+      gone, tell him I will be back directly; I don't want you to
+      tell him of the change in our circumstances."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper found Mr. Harrison at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I called to inquire," asked Mr. Harding, "whether you have
+      let your house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not as yet," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What rent do you ask?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twenty dollars a quarter. I don't think that unreasonable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is satisfactory to me," was the cooper's reply, "and if
+      you have no objections to me as a tenant, I will engage it at
+      once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far from having any objections, Mr. Harding," was the
+      courteous reply, "I shall be glad to secure so good a tenant.
+      Will you go over and look at the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not now, sir; I am somewhat in haste. Can we move in
+      to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His errand satisfactorily accomplished, the cooper returned
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the landlord had called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a little surprised to find that Mrs. Harding, instead
+      of looking depressed, looked cheerful rather than otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was not aware you had a child so young," he remarked,
+      looking at the baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not mine," said Mrs. Harding, briefly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The child of a neighbor, I suppose," thought the landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile he scrutinized closely, without appearing to do so,
+      the furniture in the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point Mr. Harding entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-morning," said Colman, affably. "A fine morning, Mr.
+      Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Quite so," responded his tenant, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have called, Mr. Harding, to ask if you are ready with
+      your quarter's rent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I told you last evening how I was situated. Of
+      course I am sorry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So am I," interrupted the landlord, "for I may be obliged to
+      have recourse to unpleasant measures."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You mean that we must leave the house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course you cannot expect to remain in it, if you are
+      unable to pay the rent. I suppose," he added, making an
+      inventory of the furniture with his eyes, "you will leave
+      behind a sufficient amount of furniture to cover your debt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you would not deprive us of our furniture!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is there any injustice in requiring payment of honest
+      debts?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are cases of that description. However, I will not put
+      you to the trouble of levying on my furniture. I am ready to
+      pay your dues."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you the money?" asked Colman, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, and something over. Can you cash my check for five
+      hundred dollars?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to picture the amazement of the
+      landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you told me a different story last evening," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Last evening and this morning are different times. Then I
+      could not pay you. Now, luckily, I am able. If you will
+      accompany me to the bank, I will draw some money and pay your
+      bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear sir, I am not at all in haste for the money," said
+      the landlord, with a return of his affability. "Any time
+      within a week will do. I hope, by the way, you will continue
+      to occupy this house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't feel like paying twenty-five dollars a quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall have it for the same rent you have been paying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you said there was another family who had offered you an
+      advanced rent. I shouldn't like to interfere with them.
+      Besides, I have already hired a house of Mr. Harrison in the
+      next block."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Colman was silenced. He regretted too late the hasty
+      course which had lost him a good tenant. The family referred
+      to had no existence; and, it may be remarked, the house
+      remained vacant for several months, when he was glad to rent
+      it at the old price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A LUCKY RESCUE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The opportune arrival of the child inaugurated a season of
+      comparative prosperity in the home of Timothy Harding. To
+      persons accustomed to live in their frugal way, five hundred
+      dollars seemed a fortune. Nor, as might have happened in some
+      cases, did this unexpected windfall tempt the cooper or his
+      wife to enter upon a more extravagant mode of living.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us save something against a rainy day," said Mrs.
+      Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We can if I get work soon," answered her husband. "This
+      little one will add but little to our expenses, and there is
+      no reason why we shouldn't save up at least half of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I think, Timothy. The child's food will not amount to a
+      dollar a week."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's no tellin' when you will get work, Timothy," said
+      Rachel, in her usual cheerful way. "It isn't well to crow
+      before you are out of the woods."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true, Rachel. It isn't your failing to look too much at
+      the sunny side of the picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm ready to look at it when I can see it anywhere,"
+      answered his sister, in the same enlivening way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you see it in the unexpected good fortune which came
+      with this child?" asked Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've no doubt you think it very fortunate now," said Rachel,
+      gloomily; "but a young child's a great deal of trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you speak from experience, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said his aunt, slowly. "If all babies were as cross
+      and ill-behaved as you were when you were an infant, five
+      hundred dollars wouldn't begin to pay for the trouble of
+      having them around."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding and his wife laughed at the manner in which the
+      tables had been turned upon Jack, but the latter had his wits
+      about him sufficiently to answer: "I've always heard, Aunt
+      Rachel, that the crosser a child is, the pleasanter he will
+      grow up. What a very pleasant baby you must have been!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly; but his father, who
+      looked upon it as a good joke, remarked, good-humoredly:
+      "He's got you there, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rachel took it as a serious matter, and observed that,
+      when she was young, children were not allowed to speak so to
+      their elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I don't know as I can blame 'em much," she continued,
+      wiping her eyes with the corner of her apron, "when their own
+      parents encourage 'em in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Timothy was warned, by experience of Rachel's temper, that
+      silence was his most prudent course. Anything that he might
+      say would only be likely to make matters worse than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel sank into a fit of deep despondency, and did not
+      say another word till dinner time. She sat down to the table
+      with a profound sigh, as if there was little in life worth
+      living for. Notwithstanding this, it was observed that she
+      had a good appetite. Indeed, Miss Harding appeared to thrive
+      on her gloomy views of life and human nature. She was, it
+      must be acknowledged, perfectly consistent in all her
+      conduct, so far as this peculiarity was concerned. Whenever
+      she took up a newspaper, she always looked first to the space
+      appropriated to deaths, and next in order to the column of
+      accidents, casualties, etc., and her spirits were visibly
+      exhilarated when she encountered a familiar name in either
+      list.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper continued to look out for work; but it was with a
+      more cheerful spirit. He did not now feel as if the comfort
+      of his family depended absolutely on his immediate success.
+      Used economically, the money he had by him would last eight
+      months; and during that time it was hardly possible that he
+      should not find something to do. It was this sense of
+      security, of having something to fall back upon, that enabled
+      him to keep up good heart. It is too generally the case that
+      people are content to live as if they were sure of constantly
+      retaining their health, and never losing their employment.
+      When a reverse does come, they are at once plunged into
+      discouragement, and feel the necessity of doing something
+      immediately. There is only one way of fending off such an
+      embarrassment; and that is, to resolve, whatever may be the
+      amount of one's income, to lay aside some part to serve as a
+      reliance in time of trouble. A little economy&mdash;though it
+      involves self-denial&mdash;will be well repaid by the feeling
+      of security it engenders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding was not compelled to remain inactive as long as
+      he feared. Not that his line of business revived&mdash;that
+      still remained depressed for a considerable time&mdash;but
+      another path was opened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning home late one evening, the cooper saw a man steal
+      out from a doorway, and attack a gentleman, whose dress and
+      general appearance indicated probable wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seizing him by the throat, the villain effectually prevented
+      his calling for help, and at once commenced rifling his
+      pockets, when the cooper arrived on the scene. A sudden blow
+      admonished the robber that he had more than one to deal with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are you doing? Let that gentleman be!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The villain hesitated but a moment, then springing to his
+      feet, he hastily made off, under cover of the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have received no injury, sir," said Mr. Harding,
+      respectfully, addressing the stranger he had rescued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my worthy friend; thanks to your timely assistance. The
+      rascal nearly succeeded, however."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have lost nothing, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing, fortunately. You can form an idea of the value of
+      your interference, when I say that I have fifteen hundred
+      dollars with me, all of which would doubtless have been
+      taken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad," said Timothy, "that I was able to do you such a
+      service. It was by the merest chance that I came this way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you add to my indebtedness by accompanying me with that
+      trusty club of yours? I have some distance yet to go, and the
+      money I have with me I don't want to lose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Willingly," said the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I am forgetting," continued the gentleman, "that you
+      will yourself be obliged to return alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not carry enough money to make me fear an attack," said
+      Mr. Harding, laughing. "Money brings care, I have always
+      heard, and the want of it sometimes freedom from anxiety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet most people are willing to take their share of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, sir, nor I can't call myself an exception.
+      Still I would be satisfied with the certainty of constant
+      employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you have that, at least."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have had until three or four months since."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, at present, you are unemployed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a cooper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will see what I can do for you. Will you call at my office
+      to-morrow, say at twelve o'clock?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be glad to do so, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I have a card with me. Yes, here is one. And this
+      is my house. Thank you for your company. Let me see you
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood before a handsome dwelling house, from whose
+      windows, draped by heavy crimson curtains, a soft light
+      proceeded. The cooper could hear the ringing of childish
+      voices welcoming home their father, whose life, unknown to
+      them, had been in such peril, and he felt grateful to
+      Providence for making him the instrument of frustrating the
+      designs of the villain who would have robbed the merchant,
+      and perhaps done him further injury. Timothy determined to
+      say nothing to his wife about the night's adventure, until
+      after his appointed meeting for the next day. Then, if any
+      advantage accrued to him from it, he would tell the whole
+      story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he reached home, Mrs. Harding was sewing beside the
+      fire. Aunt Rachel sat with her hands folded in her lap, with
+      an air of martyr-like resignation to the woes of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've brought you home a paper, Rachel," said her brother,
+      cheerfully. "You may find something interesting in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shan't be able to read it this evening," said Rachel,
+      mournfully. "My eyes have troubled me lately. I feel that it
+      is more than probable I am getting blind; but I trust I shall
+      not live to be a burden to you, Timothy. Your prospects are
+      dark enough without that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't trouble yourself with any fears of that sort, Rachel,"
+      said the cooper, cheerily. "I think I know what will enable
+      you to use your eyes as well as ever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What?" asked Rachel, with melancholy curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A pair of spectacles."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Spectacles!" retorted Rachel, indignantly. "It will be a
+      good many years before I am old enough to wear spectacles. I
+      didn't expect to be insulted by my own brother. But I ought
+      not to be surprised. It's one of my trials."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Rachel," said the
+      cooper, perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-night!" said Rachel, rising and taking a lamp from the
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Rachel, don't go up to bed yet; it's only nine
+      o'clock."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After what you have said to me, Timothy, my self-respect
+      will not allow me to stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel swept out of the room with something more than her
+      customary melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish Rachel wasn't quite so contrary," said the cooper to
+      his wife. "She turns upon a body so sudden it's hard to know
+      how to take her. How's the little girl, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She's been asleep ever since six o'clock."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you don't find her very much trouble? That all comes
+      on you, while we have the benefit of the money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think of that, Timothy. She is a sweet child, and I
+      love her almost as much as if she were my own. As for Jack,
+      he perfectly idolizes her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how does Rachel look upon her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid she will never be a favorite with Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel never took to children much. It isn't her way. Now,
+      Martha, while you are sewing, I will read you the news."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      WHAT THE ENVELOPE CONTAINED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The card which had been handed to the cooper contained the
+      name of Thomas Merriam, No. &mdash;&mdash; Pearl Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Punctually at twelve, he presented himself at the
+      countingroom, and received a cordial welcome from the
+      merchant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to see you," he said, affably. "You rendered me an
+      important service last evening, even if the loss of money
+      alone was to be apprehended. I will come to business at once,
+      as I am particularly engaged this morning, and ask you if
+      there is any way in which I can serve you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you could procure me a situation, sir, you would do me a
+      great service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you told me you were a cooper?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does this yield you a good support?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In good times it pays me two dollars a day, and on that I
+      can support my family comfortably. Lately it has been
+      depressed, and paid me but a dollar and a half."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When do you anticipate its revival?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is uncertain. I may have to wait some months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, in the meantime, you are willing to undertake some
+      other employment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not only willing, but shall feel very fortunate to
+      obtain work of any kind. I have no objection to any honest
+      employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Merriam reflected a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just at present," he said, "I have nothing better to offer
+      you than the position of porter. If that will suit you, you
+      can enter upon its duties to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be very glad to undertake it, sir. Anything is
+      better than idleness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As to the compensation, that shall be the same that you have
+      been accustomed to earn by your trade&mdash;two dollars a
+      day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I only received that in the best times," said Timothy,
+      conscientiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your services as porter will be worth that amount, and I
+      will cheerfully pay it. I will expect you to-morrow morning
+      at eight, if you can be here at that time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will be here promptly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are married, I suppose?" said the merchant, inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir; I am blessed with a good wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad of that. Stay a moment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Merriam went to his desk, and presently came back with a
+      sealed envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give that to your wife," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the interview terminated, and the cooper went home quite
+      elated by his success. His present engagement would enable
+      him to bridge over the dull time, until his trade revived,
+      and save him from incurring debts, of which he had a just
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are just in time, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding,
+      cheerfully, as he entered. "We've got an apple pudding
+      to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see you haven't forgotten what I like, Martha."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's no knowing how long you'll be able to afford
+      puddings," said Rachel, dolefully. "To my mind it's
+      extravagant to have meat and pudding both, when a month hence
+      you may be in the poorhouse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said Jack, "I wouldn't eat any if I were you, Aunt
+      Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if you grudge me the little I eat," said his aunt, in
+      serene sorrow, "I will go without."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tut, Rachel! nobody grudges you anything here," said her
+      brother; "and as to the poorhouse, I've got some good news to
+      tell you that will put that thought out of your head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it?" asked Mrs. Harding, looking up brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have found employment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not at your trade?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; but at something else which will pay equally well till
+      trade revives."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he told the chance by which he was enabled to serve Mr.
+      Merriam the evening previous, and then he gave an account of
+      his visit to the merchant's countingroom, and the engagement
+      which he had made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are indeed fortunate, Timothy," said his wife, her face
+      beaming with pleasure. "Two dollars a day, and we've got
+      nearly the whole of the money left that came with this dear
+      child. Why, we shall be getting rich soon!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Rachel, have you no congratulations to offer?" asked
+      the cooper of his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating
+      as if it gave her no pleasure, but was rather a self-imposed
+      penance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a
+      porter," said Rachel, lugubriously. "I heard of a porter once
+      who had a great box fall upon him and kill him instantly; and
+      I was reading in the <i>Sun</i> yesterday of another out West
+      somewhere who committed suicide."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So, Rachel, you conclude that one or the other of these
+      calamities is the inevitable lot of all who are engaged in
+      this business?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may laugh now, but it is always well to be prepared for
+      the worst," said Rachel, oracularly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But it isn't well to be always looking for it, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It'll come whether you look for it or not," retorted his
+      sister, sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then suppose we waste no time thinking about it, since,
+      according to your admission, it's sure to come either way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not deign a reply, but continued to eat in serene
+      melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you have another piece of pudding, Timothy?" asked his
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care if I do, Martha, it's so good," said the
+      cooper, passing his plate. "Seems to me it's the best pudding
+      you ever made."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've got a good appetite, that is all," said Mrs. Harding,
+      modestly disclaiming the compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Apple puddings are unhealthy," observed Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then what makes you eat them?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A body must eat something. Besides, life is so full of
+      sorrow, it makes little difference if it's longer or
+      shorter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you have another piece, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel passed her plate, and received a second portion.
+      Jack winked slyly, but fortunately his aunt did not observe
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When dinner was over, the cooper thought of the sealed
+      envelope which had been given him for his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," he said, "I nearly forgot that I have something for
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, from Mr. Merriam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he don't know me," said Mrs. Harding, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At any rate, he first asked me if I was married, and then
+      handed me this envelope, which he asked me to give to you. I
+      am not quite sure whether I ought to allow strange gentlemen
+      to write letters to my wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding opened the envelope with considerable curiosity,
+      and uttered an exclamation of surprise as a bank note fell
+      out, and fluttered to the carpet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By gracious, mother!" said Jack, springing to get it,
+      "you're in luck. It's a hundred-dollar bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So it is, I declare," said his mother, joyfully. "But,
+      Timothy, it isn't mine. It belongs to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Martha, I have nothing to do with it. It belongs to you.
+      You need some clothes, I am sure. Use part of it, and I will
+      put the rest in the savings bank for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never expected to have money to invest," said Mrs.
+      Harding. "I begin to feel like a capitalist. When you want to
+      borrow money, Timothy, you'll know where to come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Merriam's a trump and no mistake," said Jack. "By the way,
+      when you see him again, father, just mention that you've got
+      a son. Ain't we in luck, Aunt Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Boast not overmuch," said his aunt. "Pride goes before
+      destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never knew Aunt Rachel to be jolly but once," said Jack
+      under his breath; "and that was at a funeral."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p><a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S MISCHIEF
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      One of the first results of the new prosperity which had
+      dawned upon the Hardings, was Jack's removal from the street
+      to the school. While his father was out of employment, his
+      earnings seemed necessary; but now they could be dispensed
+      with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Jack, the change was not altogether agreeable. Few boys of
+      the immature age of eleven are devoted to study, and Jack was
+      not one of these few. The freedom which he had enjoyed suited
+      him, and he tried to impress it upon his father that there
+      was no immediate need of his returning to school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you want to grow up a dunce, Jack?" said his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can read and write already," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you willing to enter upon life with that scanty supply
+      of knowledge?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I guess I can get along as well as the average."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know about that. Besides, I want you to do better
+      than the average. I am ambitious for you, if you are not
+      ambitious for yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see what good it does a feller to study so hard,"
+      muttered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't study hard enough to do you any harm," said Aunt
+      Rachel, who might be excused for a little sarcasm at the
+      expense of her mischievous nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It makes my head ache to study," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps your head is weak, Jack," suggested his father,
+      slyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "More than likely," said Rachel, approvingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was decided that Jack should go to school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll get even with Aunt Rachel," thought he. "She's always
+      talking against me, and hectorin' me. See if I don't."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An opportunity for getting even with his aunt did not
+      immediately occur. At length a plan suggested itself to our
+      hero. He shrewdly suspected that his aunt's single
+      blessedness, and her occasional denunciations of the married
+      state, proceeded from disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll bet she'd get married if she had a chance," he thought.
+      "I mean to try her, anyway."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, with considerable effort, aided by a
+      school-fellow, he concocted the following letter, which was
+      duly copied and forwarded to his aunt's address:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "DEAR GIRL: Excuse the liberty I have taken in writing to you;
+  but I have seen you often, though you don't know me; and you are
+  the only girl I want to marry. I am not young&mdash;I am about your age,
+  thirty-five&mdash;and I have a good trade. I have always wanted to be
+  married, but you are the only one I know of to suit me. If you think
+  you can love me, will you meet me in Washington Park, next Tuesday,
+  at four o'clock? Wear a blue ribbon round your neck, if you want to
+  encourage me. I will have a red rose pinned to my coat.
+
+  "Don't say anything to your brother's family about this. They may not
+  like me, and they may try to keep us apart. Now be sure and come.
+  DANIEL."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This letter reached Miss Rachel just before Jack went to
+      school one morning. She read it through, first in surprise,
+      then with an appearance of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's your letter from, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack,
+      innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Children shouldn't ask questions about what don't concern
+      'em," said his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought maybe it was a love letter," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't make fun of your aunt," said his father, reprovingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack's question is only a natural one," said Rachel, to her
+      brother's unbounded astonishment. "I suppose I ain't so old
+      but I might be married if I wanted to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you had put all such thoughts out of your head
+      long ago, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I have, it's because the race of men are so shiftless,"
+      said his sister. "They ain't worth marrying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that meant for me?" asked the cooper, good-naturedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're all alike," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She put the letter carefully into her pocket, without
+      deigning any explanation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose it's from some of her old acquaintances," thought
+      her brother, and he dismissed the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as she could, Rachel took refuge in her room. She
+      carefully locked the door, and read the letter again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who can he be?" thought the agitated spinster. "Do I know
+      anybody of the name of Daniel? It must be some stranger that
+      has fallen in love with me unbeknown. What shall I do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat in meditation for a short time. Then she read the
+      letter again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will be very unhappy if I frown upon him," she said to
+      herself, complacently. "It's a great responsibility to make a
+      fellow being unhappy. It's a sacrifice, I know, but it's our
+      duty to deny ourselves. I don't know but I ought to go and
+      meet him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Rachel's conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time was close at hand. The appointment was for that very
+      afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't have my brother or Martha know it for the world,"
+      murmured Rachel to herself, "nor that troublesome Jack.
+      Martha's got some blue ribbon, but I don't dare to ask her
+      for it, for fear she'll suspect something. No, I must go out
+      and buy some."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm goin' to walk, Martha," she said, as she came
+      downstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Going to walk in the forenoon! Isn't that something
+      unusual?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've got a little headache. I guess it'll do me good," said
+      Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope it will," said her sister-in-law, sympathetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel went to the nearest dry-goods store, and bought a yard
+      of blue ribbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only a yard?" inquired the clerk, in some surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will do," said Rachel, nervously, coloring a little, as
+      though the use which she designed for it might be suspected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She paid for the ribbon, and presently returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does your head feel any better, Rachel?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A little," answered Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've been sewing too steady lately, perhaps?" suggested
+      Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I have," assented Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to spare yourself. You can't stand work as well as
+      when you were younger," said Martha, innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A body'd think I was a hundred by the way you talk," said
+      Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to offend you, Rachel. I thought you might
+      feel as I do. I get tired easier than I used to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess I'll go upstairs," said Rachel, in the same tone.
+      "There isn't anybody there to tell me how old I am gettin'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's hard to make Rachel out," thought Mrs. Harding. "She
+      takes offense at the most innocent remark. She can't look
+      upon herself as young, I am sure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upstairs Rachel took out the letter again, and read it
+      through once more. "I wonder what sort of a man Daniel is,"
+      she said to herself. "I wonder if I have ever noticed him.
+      How little we know what others think of us! If he's a likely
+      man, maybe it's my duty to marry him. I feel I'm a burden to
+      Timothy. His income is small, and it'll make a difference of
+      one mouth. It may be a sacrifice, but it's my duty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way Rachel tried to deceive herself as to the real
+      reason which led her to regard with favoring eyes the suit of
+      this supposed lover whom she had never seen, and about whom
+      she knew absolutely nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack came home from school at half-past two o'clock. He
+      looked roguishly at his aunt as he entered. She sat knitting
+      in her usual corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will she go?" thought Jack. "If she doesn't there won't be
+      any fun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack, whose trick I am far from defending, was not to be
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At three o'clock Rachel rolled up her knitting, and went
+      upstairs. Fifteen minutes later she came down dressed for a
+      walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out for a walk," she answered, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I go with you?" he asked, mischievously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I prefer to go alone," she said, curtly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your aunt has taken a fancy to walking," said Mrs. Harding,
+      when her sister-in-law had left the house. "She was out this
+      forenoon. I don't know what has come over her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do," said Jack to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes later he put on his hat and bent his steps also
+      to Washington Park.
+    </p><a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MISS HARDING'S MISTAKE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Miss Rachel Harding kept on her way to Washington Park. It
+      was less than a mile from her brother's house, and though she
+      walked slowly, she got there a quarter of an hour before the
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat down on a seat near the center of the park, and began
+      to look around her. Poor Rachel! her heart beat quicker than
+      it had done for thirty years, as she realized that she was
+      about to meet one who wished to make her his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope he won't be late," she murmured to herself, and she
+      felt of the blue ribbon to make sure that she had not
+      forgotten it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack reached the park, and from a distance surveyed
+      with satisfaction the evident nervousness of his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't it rich?" he whispered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel looked anxiously for the gentleman with the red rose
+      pinned to his coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had to wait ten minutes. At last he came, but as he
+      neared her seat, Rachel felt like sinking into the earth with
+      mortification when she recognized in the wearer a stalwart
+      negro. She hoped that it was a mere chance coincidence, but
+      he approached her, and raising his hat respectfully, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you Miss Harding?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if I am?" she demanded, sharply. "What have you to do
+      with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man looked surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Didn't you send word to me to meet you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No!" answered Rachel, "and I consider it very presumptuous
+      in you to write such a letter to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't write you a letter," said the negro, astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then what made you come here?" demanded the spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you wrote to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wrote to you!" exclaimed Rachel, aghast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, you wrote to me to come here. You said you'd wear a
+      blue ribbon on your neck, and I was to have a rose pinned to
+      my coat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was bewildered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How could I write to you when I never saw you before, and
+      don't know your name. Do you think a lady like me would marry
+      a colored man?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who said anything about that?" asked the other, opening his
+      eyes wide in astonishment. "I couldn't marry, nohow, for I've
+      got a wife and four children."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel felt ready to collapse. Was it possible that she had
+      made a mistake, and that this was not her unknown
+      correspondent, Daniel?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is some mistake," she said, nervously. "Where is that
+      letter you thought I wrote? Have you got it with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here it is, ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He handed Rachel a letter addressed in a small hand to Daniel
+      Thompson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened it and read:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "Mr. Thompson: I hear you are out of work. I may be able to give
+  you a job. Meet me at Washington Park, Tuesday afternoon, at four
+  o'clock. I shall wear a blue ribbon round my neck, and you may have
+  a red rose pinned to your coat. Otherwise I might not know you.
+
+  "RACHEL HARDING."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Some villain has done this," said Rachel, wrathfully. "I
+      never wrote that letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You didn't!" said Daniel, looking perplexed. "Who went and
+      did it, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know, but I'd like to have him punished for it,"
+      said Rachel, energetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you've got a blue ribbon," said Mr. Thompson. "I can't
+      see through that. That's just what the letter said."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose somebody wrote the letter that knew I wear blue.
+      It's all a mistake. You'd better go home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then haven't you got a job for me?" asked Daniel,
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I haven't," said Rachel, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She hurriedly untied the ribbon from her neck, and put it in
+      her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't talk to me any more!" she said, frowning. "You're a
+      perfect stranger. You have no right to speak to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess the old woman ain't right in her head!" thought
+      Daniel. "Must be she's crazy!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Rachel! she felt more disconsolate than ever. There was
+      no Daniel, then. She had been basely imposed upon. There was
+      no call for her to sacrifice herself on the altar of
+      matrimony. She ought to have been glad, but she wasn't.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour later a drooping, disconsolate figure entered
+      the house of Timothy Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what's the matter, Rachel?" asked Martha, who noticed
+      her woe-begone expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't long for this world," said Rachel, gloomily. "Death
+      has marked me for his own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you feel well this afternoon, Rachel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I feel as if life was a burden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have tired yourself with walking, Rachel. You have been
+      out twice to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a vale of tears," said Rachel, hysterically.
+      "There's nothin' but sorrow and misfortune to be expected."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you met with any misfortune? I thought fortune was
+      smiling upon us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It'll never smile on me again," said Rachel, despondently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Jack, who had followed his aunt home, entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you got home so quick, Aunt Rachel?" he asked. "How did
+      you enjoy your walk?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall never enjoy anything again," said his aunt,
+      gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because there's nothing to enjoy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't feel so, aunt. I feel as merry as a cricket."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't be long. Like as not you'll be took down with
+      fever to-morrow, and maybe die."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I won't trouble myself about it till the time comes," said
+      Jack. "I expect to live to dance at your wedding yet, Aunt
+      Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reference was too much. It brought to Rachel's mind the
+      Daniel to whom she had expected to link her destiny, and she
+      burst into a dismal sob, and hurried upstairs to her own
+      chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel acts queerly to-day," said Mrs. Harding. "I think she
+      can't be feeling well. If she don't feel better to-morrow I
+      shall advise her to send for the doctor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid it was mean to play such a trick on Aunt
+      Rachel," thought Jack, half repentantly. "I didn't think
+      she'd take it so much in earnest. I must keep dark about that
+      letter. She'd never forgive me if she knew."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some days there was an added gloom on Miss Rachel's
+      countenance, but the wound was not deep; and after a time her
+      disappointment ceased to rankle in her too sensitive heart.
+    </p><a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      SEVEN YEARS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Seven years slipped by unmarked by any important change. The
+      Hardings were still prosperous in an humble way. The cooper
+      had been able to obtain work most of the time, and this, with
+      the annual remittance for little Ida, had enabled the family
+      not only to live in comfort, but even to save up one hundred
+      and fifty dollars a year. They might even have saved more,
+      living as frugally as they were accustomed to do, but there
+      was one point in which they would none of them consent to be
+      economical. The little Ida must have everything she wanted.
+      Timothy brought home nearly every day some little delicacy
+      for her, which none of the rest thought of sharing. While
+      Mrs. Harding, far enough from vanity, always dressed with
+      extreme plainness, Ida's attire was always of good material
+      and made up tastefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes the little girl asked: "Mother, why don't you buy
+      yourself some of the pretty things you get for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding would answer, smiling: "Oh, I'm an old woman,
+      Ida. Plain things are best for me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I'm sure you're not old, mother. You don't wear a cap.
+      Aunt Rachel is a good deal older than you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, Ida. Don't let Aunt Rachel hear that. She wouldn't
+      like it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But she is ever so much older than you, mother," persisted
+      the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Rachel heard a remark of this kind, and perhaps it was
+      that that prejudiced her against Ida. At any rate, she was
+      not one of those who indulged her. Frequently she rebuked her
+      for matters of no importance; but it was so well understood
+      in the cooper's household that this was Aunt Rachel's way,
+      that Ida did not allow it to trouble her, as the lightest
+      reproach from Mrs. Harding would have done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had Ida been an ordinary child, all this petting would have
+      had an injurious effect upon her mind. But, fortunately, she
+      had the rare simplicity, young as she was, which lifted her
+      above the dangers which might have spoiled her otherwise.
+      Instead of being made vain and conceited, she only felt
+      grateful for the constant kindness shown her by her father
+      and mother, and brother Jack, as she was wont to call them.
+      Indeed it had not been thought best to let her know that such
+      were not the actual relations in which they stood to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one point, much more important than dress, in which
+      Ida profited by the indulgence of her friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Martha," the cooper was wont to say, "Ida is a sacred charge
+      in our hands. If we allow her to grow up ignorant, or only
+      allow her ordinary advantages, we shall not fulfill our duty.
+      We have the means, through Providence, of giving her some of
+      those advantages which she would enjoy if she had remained in
+      that sphere to which her parents doubtless belong. Let no
+      unwise parsimony on our part withhold them from her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, Timothy," said his wife; "right, as you
+      always are. Follow the dictates of your own heart, and fear
+      not that I shall disapprove."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph!" said Aunt Rachel; "you ain't actin' right, accordin'
+      to my way of thinkin'. Readin', writin' and cypherin' was
+      enough for girls to learn in my day. What's the use of
+      stuffin' the girl's head full of nonsense that'll never do
+      her no good? I've got along without it, and I ain't quite a
+      fool."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the cooper and his wife had no idea of restricting Ida's
+      education to the rather limited standard indicated by Rachel.
+      So, from the first, they sent her to a carefully selected
+      private school, where she had the advantage of good
+      associates, and where her progress was astonishingly rapid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida early displayed a remarkable taste for drawing. As soon
+      as this was discovered, her adopted parents took care that
+      she should have abundant opportunity for cultivating it. A
+      private master was secured, who gave her lessons twice a
+      week, and boasted everywhere of the progress made by his
+      charming young pupil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the good of it?" asked Rachel. "She'd a good deal
+      better be learnin' to sew and knit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All in good time," said Timothy. "She can attend to both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never wasted my time that way," said Rachel. "I'd be
+      ashamed to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could exceed Timothy's gratification, when, on his
+      birthday, Ida presented him with a beautifully drawn sketch
+      of his wife's placid and benevolent face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When did you do it, Ida?" he asked, after earnest
+      expressions of admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did it in odd minutes," she answered, "when I had nothing
+      else to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how could you do it, without any of us knowing what you
+      were about?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had a picture before me, and you thought I was copying it,
+      but, whenever I could do it without being noticed, I looked
+      up at mother as she sat at her sewing, and so, after a while,
+      I finished the picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a fine one it is," said the cooper, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding insisted that Ida had flattered her, but this
+      Ida would not admit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I couldn't make it look as good as you, mother," she said.
+      "I tried, but somehow I didn't succeed as I wanted to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't have that difficulty with Aunt Rachel," said
+      Jack, roguishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida could not help smiling, but Rachel did not smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see," she said, with severe resignation, "that you've
+      taken to ridiculing your poor aunt again. But it's only what
+      I expect. I don't never expect any consideration in this
+      house. I was born to be a martyr, and I expect I shall
+      fulfill my destiny. If my own relations laugh at me, of
+      course I can't expect anything better from other folks. But I
+      shan't be long in the way. I've had a cough for some time
+      past, and I expect I'm in consumption."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You make too much of a little joke, Rachel," said the
+      cooper, soothingly. "I'm sure Jack didn't mean anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What I said was complimentary," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shook her head incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it was. Ask Ida. Why won't you draw Aunt Rachel, Ida? I
+      think she'd make a very striking picture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I will," said Ida, hesitatingly, "if she will let me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Aunt Rachel, there's a chance for you," said Jack.
+      "Take my advice, and improve it. When it's finished it can be
+      hung up in the Art Rooms, and who knows but you may secure a
+      husband by it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldn't marry," said Rachel, firmly compressing her lips;
+      "not if anybody'd go down on their knees to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, I'm sure, Aunt Rachel, that's cruel of you," said Jack,
+      demurely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any man I'd trust my happiness to," pursued the
+      spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She hasn't any to trust," observed Jack, <i>sotto voce</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Men are all deceivers," continued Rachel, "the best of 'em.
+      You can't believe what one of 'em says. It would be a great
+      deal better if people never married at all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then where would the world be a hundred years hence?"
+      suggested her nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come to an end, most likely," answered Aunt Rachel; "and I'm
+      not sure but that would be the best thing. It's growing more
+      and more wicked every day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen that no great change has come over Miss
+      Rachel Harding, during the years that have intervened. She
+      takes the same disheartening view of human nature and the
+      world's prospects as ever. Nevertheless, her own hold upon
+      the world seems as strong as ever. Her appetite continues
+      remarkably good, and, although she frequently expresses
+      herself to the effect that there is little use in living, she
+      would be as unwilling to leave the world as anyone. It is not
+      impossible that she derives as much enjoyment from her
+      melancholy as other people from their cheerfulness.
+      Unfortunately her peculiar mode of enjoying herself is
+      calculated to have rather a depressing influence upon the
+      spirits of those with whom she comes in contact&mdash;always
+      excepting Jack, who has a lively sense of the ludicrous, and
+      never enjoys himself better than in bantering his aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't expect to live more'n a week," said Rachel, one day.
+      "My sands of life are 'most run out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you sure of that, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I've got a presentiment that it's so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, if you're sure of it," said her nephew, gravely, "it
+      may be as well to order the coffin in time. What style would
+      you prefer?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel retreated to her room in tears, exclaiming that he
+      needn't be in such a hurry to get her out of the world; but
+      she came down to supper, and ate with her usual appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the rest of the
+      household. Indeed, he has constituted himself her especial
+      guardian. Rough as he is in the playground, he is always
+      gentle with her. When she was just learning to walk, and in
+      her helplessness needed the constant care of others, he used,
+      from choice, to relieve his mother of much of the task of
+      amusing the child. He had never had a little sister, and the
+      care of a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. It was
+      perhaps this very office of guardian to the child, assumed
+      when she was young, that made him feel ever after as if she
+      were placed under his special protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was equally attached to Jack. She learned to look to him
+      for assistance in any plan she had formed, and he never
+      disappointed her. Whenever he could, he would accompany her
+      to school, holding her by the hand, and, fond as he was of
+      rough play, nothing would induce him to leave her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long have you been a nursemaid?" asked a boy older than
+      himself, one day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack's fingers itched to get hold of his derisive questioner,
+      but he had a duty to perform, and he contented himself with
+      saying: "Just wait a few minutes, and I'll let you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say you will," was the reply. "I rather think I shall
+      have to wait till both of us are gray before that time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will not have to wait long before you are black and
+      blue," retorted Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't mind what he says, Jack," whispered Ida, fearing that
+      he would leave her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't be afraid, Ida; I won't leave you. I'll attend to his
+      business another time. I guess he won't trouble us
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness,
+      followed, with more abuse of the same sort. If he had been
+      wiser, he would have seen a storm gathering in the flash of
+      Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his forbearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, as they were going to school, Ida saw the same
+      boy dodging round the corner with his head bound up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the matter with him, Jack?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly.
+      "I guess he'll let us alone after this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even after Jack left school, and got a position in a store at
+      two dollars a week, he gave a large part of his spare time to
+      Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," said Mrs. Harding, "Jack is as careful of Ida as if
+      he was her guardian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A pretty sort of a guardian he is!" said Aunt Rachel. "Take
+      my word for it, he's only fit to lead her into mischief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You do him injustice, Rachel. Jack is not a model boy, but
+      he takes the best care of Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and sniffed significantly. It
+      was quite evident that she did not have a very favorable
+      opinion of her nephew.
+    </p><a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      About eleven o'clock one forenoon Mrs. Harding was in the
+      kitchen, busily engaged in preparing the dinner, when a loud
+      knock was heard at the front door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who can it be?" said Mrs. Harding. "Aunt Rachel, there's
+      somebody at the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it
+      is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "People have no business to call at such an hour in the
+      morning," grumbled Rachel, as she laid down her knitting
+      reluctantly, and rose from her seat. "Nobody seems to have
+      any consideration for anybody else. But that's the way of the
+      world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opening the outer door, she saw before her a tall woman,
+      dressed in a gown of some dark stuff, with strongly marked,
+      and not altogether pleasant, features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you the lady of the house?" inquired the visitor,
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There ain't any ladies in this house," answered Rachel.
+      "You've come to the wrong place. We have to work for a living
+      here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The woman of the house, then," said the stranger, rather
+      impatiently. "It doesn't make any difference about names. Are
+      you the one I want to see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I ain't," said Rachel, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you tell your mistress that I want to see her, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no mistress," said Rachel. "What do you take me for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you might be the servant, but that don't matter. I
+      want to see Mrs. Harding. Will you call her, or shall I go
+      and announce myself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as she'll see you. She's busy in the kitchen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Her business can't be as important as what I've come about.
+      Tell her that, will you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not fancy the stranger's tone or manner. Certainly
+      she did not manifest much politeness. But the spinster's
+      curiosity was excited, and this led her the more readily to
+      comply with the request.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay here, and I'll call her," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's a woman wants to see you," announced Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know. She hasn't got any manners, that's all I know
+      about her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding presented herself at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won't you come in?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I will. What I've got to say to you may take some
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding, wondering vaguely what business this strange
+      visitor could have with her, led the way to the sitting room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have in your family," said the woman, after seating
+      herself, "a girl named Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding looked up suddenly and anxiously. Could it be
+      that the secret of Ida's birth was to be revealed at last?
+      Was it possible that she was to be taken from her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," she answered, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is not your child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I love her as much. I have always taught her to look
+      upon me as her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume so. My visit has reference to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you tell me anything of her parentage?" inquired Mrs.
+      Harding, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was her nurse," said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding scrutinized anxiously the hard features of the
+      woman. It was, at least, a relief to know that no tie of
+      blood connected her with Ida, though, even upon her
+      assurance, she would hardly have believed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who were her parents?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not permitted to tell."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding looked disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," she said, with a sudden sinking of the heart, "you
+      have not come to take her away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This letter will explain my object in visiting you," said
+      the woman, drawing a sealed envelope from a bag which she
+      carried in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper's wife nervously broke open the letter, and read
+      as follows:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "MRS. HARDING: Seven years ago last New Year's night a child was
+  left on your doorsteps, with a note containing a request that you
+  would care for it kindly as your own. Money was sent at the same
+  time to defray the expenses of such care. The writer of this note
+  is the mother of the child, Ida. There is no need to explain here
+  why I sent away the child from me. You will easily understand that
+  it was not done willingly, and that only the most imperative
+  necessity would have led me to such a step. The same necessity
+  still prevents me from reclaiming my child, and I am content still
+  to leave Ida in your charge. Yet there is one thing I desire. You
+  will understand a mother's wish to see, face to face, her own
+  child. With this view I have come to this neighborhood. I will not
+  say where I am, for concealment is necessary to me. I send this
+  note by a trustworthy attendant, Mrs. Hardwick, my little Ida's
+  nurse in her infancy, who will conduct Ida to me, and return her
+  again to you. Ida is not to know who she is visiting. No doubt she
+  believes you to be her mother, and it is well that she should so
+  regard you. Tell her only that it is a lady, who takes an interest
+  in her, and that will satisfy her childish curiosity. I make this
+  request as IDA'S MOTHER."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding read this letter with mingled feelings. Pity for
+      the writer; a vague curiosity in regard to the mysterious
+      circumstances which had compelled her to resort to such a
+      step; a half feeling of jealousy, that there should be one
+      who had a claim to her dear, adopted daughter, superior to
+      her own; and a strong feeling of relief at the assurance that
+      Ida was not to be permanently removed&mdash;all these
+      feelings affected the cooper's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you were Ida's nurse?" she said, gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I hope the dear child is
+      well?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perfectly well. How much her mother must have suffered from
+      the separation!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed you may say so, ma'am. It came near to breaking her
+      heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't wonder," said sympathizing Mrs. Harding. "I can
+      judge of that by my own feelings. I don't know what I should
+      do, if Ida were to be taken from me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point in the conversation, the cooper entered the
+      house. He had come home on an errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is my husband," said Mrs. Harding, turning to her
+      visitor, by way of explanation. "Timothy, will you come here
+      a moment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper regarded the stranger with some surprise. His wife
+      hastened to introduce her as Mrs. Hardwick, Ida's old nurse,
+      and placed in her husband's hands the letter which we have
+      already read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not a rapid reader, and it took him some time to get
+      through the letter. He laid it down on his knee, and looked
+      thoughtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is indeed unexpected," he said, at last. "It is a new
+      development in Ida's history. May I ask, Mrs. Hardwick, if
+      you have any further proof? I want to be careful about a
+      child that I love as my own. Can you furnish any other proof
+      that you are what you represent?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I judged that the letter would be sufficient. Doesn't it
+      speak of me as the nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True; but how can we be sure that the writer is Ida's
+      mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The tone of the letter, sir. Would anybody else write like
+      that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you have read the letter?" asked the cooper, quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was read to me before I set out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By whom?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Ida's mother. I do not blame you for your caution," said
+      the visitor. "You must be deeply interested in the happiness
+      of the dear child, of whom you have taken such excellent
+      care. I don't mind telling you that I was the one who left
+      her at your door, seven years ago, and that I never left the
+      neighborhood until I saw you take her in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it was this that enabled you to find the house to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You forget," corrected the nurse, "that you were not then
+      living in this house, but in another, some rods off, on the
+      left-hand side of the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said Timothy. "I am inclined to believe in
+      the truth of your story. You must pardon my testing you in
+      such a manner, but I was not willing to yield up Ida, even
+      for a little time, without feeling confident of the hands she
+      was falling into."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said Mrs. Hardwick. "I don't blame you in
+      the least. I shall report it to Ida's mother as a proof of
+      your attachment to the child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When do you wish Ida to go with you?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you let her go this afternoon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said the cooper's wife, hesitating, "I should like to
+      have a chance to wash out some clothes for her. I want her to
+      appear as neat as possible when she meets her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse hesitated, but presently replied: "I don't wish to
+      hurry you. If you will let me know when she will be ready, I
+      will call for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I can get her ready early to-morrow morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will answer. I will call for her then."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse rose, and gathered her shawl about her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going, Mrs. Hardwick?" asked the cooper's
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To a hotel," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We cannot allow that," said Mrs. Harding, kindly. "It's a
+      pity if we cannot accommodate Ida's old nurse for one night,
+      or ten times as long, for that matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My wife is quite right," said the cooper, hesitatingly. "We
+      must insist on your stopping with us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse hesitated, and looked irresolute. It was plain she
+      would have preferred to be elsewhere, but a remark which Mrs.
+      Harding made, decided her to accept the invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was this: "You know, Mrs. Hardwick, if Ida is to go with
+      you, she ought to have a little chance to get acquainted with
+      you before you go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will accept your kind invitation," she said; "but I am
+      afraid I shall be in your way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not in the least. It will be a pleasure to us to have you
+      here. If you will excuse me now, I will go out and attend to
+      my dinner, which I am afraid is getting behindhand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left to herself, the nurse behaved in a manner which might be
+      regarded as singular. She rose from her seat, and approached
+      the mirror. She took a full survey of herself as she stood
+      there, and laughed a short, hard laugh. Then she made a
+      formal courtesy to her own reflection, saying: "How do you
+      do, Mrs. Hardwick?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak?" asked the cooper, who was passing through
+      the entry on his way out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered the nurse, rather awkwardly. "I may have said
+      something to myself. It's of no consequence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Somehow," thought the cooper, "I don't fancy the woman's
+      looks; but I dare say I am prejudiced. We're all of us as God
+      made us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mrs. Harding was making preparations for the noonday
+      meal, she imparted to Rachel the astonishing information
+      which has already been detailed to the reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe a word of it," said Rachel, resolutely. "The
+      woman's an impostor. I knew she was, the very minute I set
+      eyes on her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark was so characteristic of Rachel, that her
+      sister-in-law did not attach any special importance to it.
+      Rachel, of course, had no grounds for the opinion she so
+      confidently expressed. It was consistent, however, with her
+      general estimate of human nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What object could she have in inventing such a story?" asked
+      Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What object? Hundreds of 'em," said Rachel, rather
+      indefinitely. "Mark my words; if you let her carry off Ida,
+      it'll be the last you'll ever see of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Try to look on the bright side, Rachel. Nothing is more
+      natural than that her mother should want to see her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why couldn't she come herself?" muttered Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The letter explains."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't see that it does."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It says that same reasons exist for concealment as ever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what are they, I should like to know? I don't like
+      mysteries, for my part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We won't quarrel with them, at any rate, since they enable
+      us to keep Ida with us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Rachel shook her head, as if she were far from
+      satisfied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said Mrs. Harding, "but I ought to invite
+      Mrs. Hardwick in here. I have left her alone in the front
+      room."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to see her," said Rachel. Then, changing her
+      mind suddenly: "Yes, you may bring her in. I'll soon find out
+      whether she's an impostor or not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper's wife returned with the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "this is my sister, Miss Rachel
+      Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am," said the
+      visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rachel, I will leave you to entertain Mrs. Hardwick, while I
+      get ready the dinner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel and the nurse eyed each other with mutual dislike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope you don't expect me to entertain you," said Rachel.
+      "I never expect to entertain anybody ag'in. This is a world
+      of trial and tribulation, and I've had my share. So you've
+      come after Ida, I hear?" with a sudden change of tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At her mother's request," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She wants to see her, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder she didn't think of it before," said Rachel,
+      sharply. "She's good at waiting. She's waited seven years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are circumstances that cannot be explained," commenced
+      the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I dare say not," said Rachel, dryly. "So you were her
+      nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, ma'am," answered the nurse, who did not appear to enjoy
+      this cross-examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you lived with Ida's mother ever since?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No&mdash;yes," stammered the stranger. "Some of the time,"
+      she added, recovering herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Umph!" grunted Rachel, darting a sharp glance at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you a husband living?" inquired the spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Mrs. Hardwick. "Have you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I!" repeated Rachel, scornfully. "No, neither living nor
+      dead. I'm thankful to say I never married. I've had trials
+      enough without that. Does Ida's mother live in the city?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell you," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph! I don't like mystery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It isn't any mystery," said the visitor. "If you have any
+      objections to make, you must make them to Ida's mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So I will, if you'll tell me where she lives."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't do that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where do you live yourself?" inquired Rachel, shifting her
+      point of attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In Brooklyn," answered Mrs. Hardwick, with some hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What street, and number?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do you want to know?" inquired the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ain't ashamed to tell, be you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why should I be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know. You'd orter know better than I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It wouldn't do you any good to know," said the nurse. "I
+      don't care about receiving visitors."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to visit you, I am sure," said Rachel, tossing
+      her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you don't need to know where I live."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel left the room, and sought her sister-in-law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That woman's an impostor," she said. "She won't tell where
+      she lives. I shouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be a
+      thief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You haven't any reason for supposing that, Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wait and see," said Rachel. "Of course I don't expect you to
+      pay any attention to what I say. I haven't any influence in
+      this house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Rachel, you have no cause to say that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rachel was not to be appeased. It pleased her to be
+      considered a martyr, and at such times there was little use
+      in arguing with her.
+    </p><a name="CH14"><!-- CH14 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      PREPARING FOR A JOURNEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Later in the day, Ida returned from school. She bounded into
+      the room, as usual, but stopped short in some confusion, on
+      seeing a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this my own dear child, over whose infancy I watched so
+      tenderly?" exclaimed the nurse, rising, her harsh features
+      wreathed into a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is Ida," said the cooper's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked from one to the other in silent bewilderment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Mrs. Harding, in a little embarrassment, "this is
+      Mrs. Hardwick, who took care of you when you were an infant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I thought you took care of me, mother," said Ida, in
+      surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true," said Mrs. Harding, evasively; "but I was not
+      able to have the care of you all the time. Didn't I ever
+      mention Mrs. Hardwick to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Although it is so long since I have seen her, I should have
+      known her anywhere," said the nurse, applying a handkerchief
+      to her eyes. "So pretty as she's grown up, too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding glanced with pride at the beautiful child, who
+      blushed at the compliment, a rare one, for her adopted
+      mother, whatever she might think, did not approve of openly
+      praising her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Mrs. Hardwick, "won't you come and kiss your old
+      nurse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked at her hard face, which now wore a smile intended
+      to express affection. Without knowing why, she felt an
+      instinctive repugnance to this stranger, notwithstanding her
+      words of endearment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She advanced timidly, with a reluctance which she was not
+      wholly able to conceal, and passively submitted to a caress
+      from the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a look in the eyes of the nurse, carefully guarded,
+      yet not wholly concealed, which showed that she was quite
+      aware of Ida's feeling toward her, and resented it. But
+      whether or not she was playing a part, she did not betray
+      this feeling openly, but pressed the unwilling child more
+      closely to her bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida breathed a sigh of relief when she was released, and
+      moved quietly away, wondering what it was that made the woman
+      so disagreeable to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is my nurse a good woman?" she asked, thoughtfully, when
+      alone with Mrs. Harding, who was setting the table for
+      dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A good woman! What makes you ask that?" queried her adopted
+      mother, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise,"
+      said Mrs. Harding. "And, by the way, Ida, she is going to
+      take you on a little excursion to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida. "Why, where are we
+      going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you
+      to a pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you,
+      from what she has told her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could she say of me?" inquired Ida. "She has not seen
+      me since I was a baby."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she
+      appears to have thought of you ever since, with a good deal
+      of affection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those
+      who like us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What makes you ask?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs. Hardwick,
+      at all, for all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I
+      ever shall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs. Harding, "when you find she is
+      exerting herself to give you pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Am I going with her to-morrow morning?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes. She wanted you to go to-day, but your clothes were not
+      in order."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall come back at night, shan't we?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope we shall," said Ida, decidedly, "and that she won't
+      want me to go with her again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps you will feel differently when it is over, and you
+      find you have enjoyed yourself better than you anticipated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Harding exerted herself to fit Ida up as neatly as
+      possible, and when at length she was got ready, she thought
+      with sudden fear: "Perhaps her mother will not be willing to
+      part with her again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Ida was ready to start, there came upon all a little
+      shadow of depression, as if the child were to be separated
+      from them for a year, and not for a day only. Perhaps this
+      was only natural, since even this latter term, however brief,
+      was longer than they had been parted from her since, in her
+      infancy, she had been left at their door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse expressly desired that none of the family should
+      accompany her, as she declared it highly important that the
+      whereabouts of Ida's mother should not be known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course," she added, "after Ida returns she can tell you
+      what she pleases. Then it will be of no consequence, for her
+      mother will be gone. She does not live in this neighborhood.
+      She has only come here to see her child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall you bring her back to-night?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may keep her till to-morrow," said the nurse. "After seven
+      years' absence her mother will think that short enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this, Mrs. Harding agreed, though she felt that she should
+      miss Ida, though absent but twenty-four hours.
+    </p><a name="CH15"><!-- CH15 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE JOURNEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The nurse walked as far as Broadway, holding Ida by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are we going?" asked the child, timidly. "Are you
+      going to walk all the way?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said the nurse; "not all the way&mdash;perhaps a mile.
+      You can walk as far as that, can't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on till they reached the ferry at the foot of
+      Courtland Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you ever ride in a steamboat?" asked the nurse, in a
+      tone meant to be gracious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Once or twice," answered Ida. "I went with Brother Jack
+      once, over to Hoboken. Are we going there now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; we are going to the city you see over the water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What place is it? Is it Brooklyn?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it is Jersey City."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, that will be pleasant," said Ida, forgetting, in her
+      childish love of novelty, the repugnance with which the nurse
+      had inspired her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and that is not all; we are going still further," said
+      the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we going further?" asked Ida, in excitement. "Where are
+      we going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To a town on the line of the railroad."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And shall we ride in the cars?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; didn't you ever ride in the cars?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, never."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you will like it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long will it take us to go to the place you are
+      going to carry me to?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know exactly; perhaps three hours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Three whole hours in the cars! How much I shall have to tell
+      father and Jack when I get back!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you will," replied Mrs. Hardwick, with an unaccountable
+      smile&mdash;"when you get back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something peculiar in her tone, but Ida did not
+      notice it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was allowed to sit next the window in the cars, and took
+      great pleasure in surveying the fields and villages through
+      which they were rapidly whirled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we 'most there?" she asked, after riding about two
+      hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It won't be long," said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must have come ever so many miles," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, it is a good ways."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour more passed, and still there was no sign of reaching
+      their journey's end. Both Ida and her companion began to feel
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse beckoned to her side a boy, who was selling apples
+      and cakes, and inquired the price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The apples are two cents apiece, ma'am, and the cakes are
+      one cent each."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly
+      round, and exclaimed, in great astonishment: "Why, Charlie
+      Fitts, is that you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Ida, where did you come from?" asked the boy, with a
+      surprise equaling her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm making a little journey with this lady," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you're going to Philadelphia?" said Charlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To Philadelphia!" repeated Ida, surprised. "Not that I know
+      of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, you're 'most there now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we, Mrs. Hardwick?" inquired Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It isn't far from where we're going," she answered, shortly.
+      "Boy, I'll take two of your apples and four cakes. And, now,
+      you'd better go along, for there's somebody over there that
+      looks as if he wanted to buy something."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is that boy?" asked the nurse, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His name is Charlie Fitts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get acquainted with him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He went to school with Jack, so I used to see him
+      sometimes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Brother Jack. Don't you know him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, I forgot. So he's a schoolmate of Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, and he's a first-rate boy," said Ida, with whom the
+      young apple merchant was evidently a favorite. "He's good to
+      his mother. You see, his mother is sick most of the time, and
+      can't work much; and he's got a little sister&mdash;she ain't
+      more than four or five years old&mdash;and Charlie supports
+      them by selling things. He's only sixteen years old; isn't he
+      a smart boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the nurse, indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sometime," continued Ida, "I hope I shall be able to earn
+      something for father and mother, so they won't be obliged to
+      work so hard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What could you do?" asked the nurse, curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as I can do much yet," answered Ida, modestly;
+      "but perhaps when I am older I can draw pictures that people
+      will buy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you got any of your drawings with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I didn't bring any."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you had. The lady we are going to see would have
+      liked to see some of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are we going to see a lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; didn't your mother tell you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I believe she said something about a lady that was
+      interested in me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And shall we come back to New York to-night?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it wouldn't leave us any time to stay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "West Philadelphia!" announced the conductor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have arrived," said the nurse. "Keep close to me. Perhaps
+      you had better take hold of my hand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were making their way slowly through the crowd, the
+      young apple merchant came up with his basket on his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When are you going back, Ida?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick says not till to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Ida," said the nurse, sharply. "I can't have you
+      stopping all day to talk. We must hurry along."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-by, Charlie," said Ida. "If you see Jack, just tell him
+      you saw me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I will," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder who that woman is with Ida?" thought the boy. "I
+      don't like her looks much. I wonder if she's any relation of
+      Mr. Harding. She looks about as pleasant as Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last-mentioned lady would hardly have felt flattered at
+      the comparison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked about her with curiosity. There was a novel
+      sensation in being in a new place, particularly a city of
+      which she had heard so much as Philadelphia. As far back as
+      she could remember, she had never left New York, except for a
+      brief excursion to Hoboken; and one Fourth of July was made
+      memorable by a trip to Staten Island, under the guardianship
+      of Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a horse car just outside the depot, and rode
+      probably a mile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We get out here," said the nurse. "Take care, or you'll get
+      run over. Now turn down here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a narrow and dirty street, with unsightly houses
+      on each side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This ain't a very nice-looking street," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why isn't it?" demanded her companion, roughly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's narrow, and the houses don't look nice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you think of that house there?" asked Mrs. Hardwick,
+      pointing to a dilapidated-looking structure on the right-hand
+      side of the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't like to live there," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't, hey? You don't like it so well as the house
+      you live in in New York?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, not half so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wouldn't you like to go in, and look at the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go in and look at the house?" repeated Ida. "Why should we?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must know there are some poor families living there that
+      I am interested in," said Mrs. Hardwick, who appeared amused
+      at something. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that it is
+      our duty to help the poor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, but won't it be late before we get to the lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, there's plenty of time. You needn't be afraid of that.
+      There's a poor man living in this house that I've made a good
+      many clothes for, first and last."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He must be much obliged to you," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We're going up to see him now," said her companion. "Take
+      care of that hole in the stairs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat to Ida's surprise, her guide, on reaching the first
+      landing, opened a door without the ceremony of knocking, and
+      revealed a poor, untidy room, in which a coarse, unshaven man
+      was sitting, in his shirt sleeves, smoking a pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hello!" exclaimed this individual, jumping up. "So you've
+      got along, old woman! Is that the gal?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida stared from one to the other in amazement.
+    </p><a name="CH16"><!-- CH16 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      UNEXPECTED QUARTERS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of the man whom Mrs. Hardwick addressed so
+      familiarly was more picturesque than pleasing, He had a
+      large, broad face, which, not having been shaved for a week,
+      looked like a wilderness of stubble. His nose indicated
+      habitual indulgence in alcoholic beverages. His eyes were
+      bloodshot, and his skin looked coarse and blotched; his coat
+      was thrown aside, displaying a shirt which bore evidence of
+      having been useful in its day and generation. The same remark
+      may apply to his nether integuments, which were ventilated at
+      each knee, indicating a most praiseworthy regard to the laws
+      of health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida thought she had never seen so disgusting a man. She
+      continued to gaze at him, half in astonishment, half in
+      terror, till the object of her attention exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, little gal, what you're lookin' at? Hain't you never
+      seen a gentleman before?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida clung the closer to her companion, who, she was surprised
+      to find, did not resent the man's familiarity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Dick, how've you got along since I've been gone?"
+      asked the nurse, to Ida's astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, so-so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you felt lonely any?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've had good company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's been here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick pointed significantly to a jug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the best company I know of," he said, "but it's 'most
+      empty. So you've brought along the gal," he continued. "How
+      did you get hold of her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in these questions which terrified Ida.
+      It seemed to indicate a degree of complicity between these
+      two which boded no good to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you the particulars by and by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time she began to take off her bonnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ain't going to stop, are you?" asked Ida, startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't goin' to stop?" repeated the man called Dick. "Why
+      shouldn't she stop, I'd like to know? Ain't she at home?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At home!" echoed Ida, apprehensively, opening wide her eyes
+      in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; ask her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked inquiringly at Mrs. Hardwick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You might as well take off your things," said the latter,
+      grimly. "We ain't going any further to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And where's the lady you said you were going to see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The one that was interested in you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'm the one," she answered, with a broad smile and a
+      glance at Dick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to stay here," said Ida, now frightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you take me back early to-morrow?" entreated Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I don't intend to take you back at all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida seemed at first stupefied with astonishment and terror.
+      Then, actuated by a sudden, desperate impulse, she ran to the
+      door, and had got it partly open, when the nurse sprang
+      forward, and seizing her by the arm, pulled her violently
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are you going in such a hurry?" she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Back to father and mother," answered Ida, bursting into
+      tears. "Oh, why did you bring me here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you why," answered Dick, jocularly. "You see, Ida,
+      we ain't got any little girl to love us, and so we got you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I don't love you, and I never shall," said Ida,
+      indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now don't you go to saying that," said Dick. "You'll break
+      my heart, you naughty girl, and then Peg will be a widow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give due effect to this pathetic speech, Dick drew out a
+      tattered red handkerchief, and made a great demonstration of
+      wiping his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole scene was so ludicrous that Ida, despite her fears
+      and disgust, could not help laughing hysterically. She
+      recovered herself instantly, and said imploringly: "Oh, do
+      let me go, and father will pay you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You really think he would?" said Dick, in a tantalizing
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes; and you'll tell her to take me back, won't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, he won't tell me any such thing," said Peg, gruffly; "so
+      you may as well give up all thoughts of that first as last.
+      You're going to stay here; so take off that bonnet of yours,
+      and say no more about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida made no motion toward obeying this mandate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I'll do it for you," said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She roughly untied the bonnet&mdash;Ida struggling vainly in
+      opposition&mdash;and taking this, with the shawl, carried
+      them to a closet, in which she placed them, and then, locking
+      the door, deliberately put the key in her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," said she, grimly, "I guess you're safe for the
+      present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ain't you ever going to carry me back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Some years hence I may possibly," answered the woman,
+      coolly. "We want you here for the present. Besides, you're
+      not sure that they want you back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not want me back again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I said. How do you know but your father and
+      mother sent you off on purpose? They've been troubled with
+      you long enough, and now they've bound you apprentice to me
+      till you're eighteen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a lie!" said Ida, firmly. "They didn't send me off, and
+      you're a wicked woman to tell me so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoity-toity!" said the woman. "Is that the way you dare to
+      speak to me? Have you anything more to say before I whip
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, goaded to desperation. "I shall complain
+      of you to the police, just as soon as I get a chance, and
+      they will put you in jail and send me home. That is what I
+      will do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick was incensed, and somewhat startled at these
+      defiant words. It was clear that Ida was not going to be a
+      meek, submissive child, whom they might ill-treat without
+      apprehension. She was decidedly dangerous, and her
+      insubordination must be nipped in the bud. She seized Ida
+      roughly by the arm, and striding with her to the closet
+      already spoken of, unlocked it, and, rudely pushing her in,
+      locked the door after her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay there till you know how to behave," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you manage to come it over her family?" inquired
+      Dick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His wife gave substantially the account with which the reader
+      is already familiar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pretty well done, old woman!" exclaimed Dick, approvingly.
+      "I always said you was a deep un. I always says, if Peg can't
+      find out how a thing is to be done, then it can't be done,
+      nohow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How about the counterfeit coin?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We're to be supplied with all we can put off, and we are to
+      have half for our trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is good. When the girl, Ida, gets a little tamed down,
+      we'll give her something to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it safe? Won't she betray us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We'll manage that, or at least I will. I'll work on her
+      fears, so she won't any more dare to say a word about us than
+      to cut her own head off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right, Peg. I can trust you to do what's right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida sank down on the floor of the closet into which she had
+      been thrust. Utter darkness was around her, and a darkness as
+      black seemed to hang over all her prospects of future
+      happiness. She had been snatched in a moment from parents, or
+      those whom she regarded as such, and from a comfortable and
+      happy, though humble home, to this dismal place. In place of
+      the kindness and indulgence to which she had been accustomed,
+      she was now treated with harshness and cruelty.
+    </p><a name="CH17"><!-- CH17 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      SUSPENSE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "It doesn't, somehow, seem natural," said the cooper, as he
+      took his seat at the tea table, "to sit down without Ida. It
+      seems as if half the family were gone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just what I've said to myself twenty times to-day," remarked
+      his wife. "Nobody can tell how much a child is to them till
+      they lose it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not lose it," corrected Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to say that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When you used that word, mother, it made me feel just as if
+      Ida wasn't coming back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know why it is," said Mrs. Harding, thoughtfully,
+      "but I've had that same feeling several times today. I've
+      felt just as if something or other would happen to prevent
+      Ida's coming back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is only because she's never been away before," said the
+      cooper, cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble, Martha;
+      we shall have enough of it without."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel,
+      mournfully. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
+      This world is a vale of tears, and a home of misery. Folks
+      may try and try to be happy, but that isn't what they're sent
+      here for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You never tried very hard, Aunt Rachel," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's my fate to be misjudged," said his aunt, with the air
+      of a martyr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't agree with you in your ideas about life, Rachel,"
+      said her brother. "Just as there are more pleasant than
+      stormy days, so I believe there is much more of brightness
+      than shadow in this life of ours, if we would only see it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't see it," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the
+      clouds than the sun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," chimed in Jack, "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel
+      takes up the newspaper, she always looks first at the deaths,
+      and next at the fatal accidents and steamboat explosions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If," retorted Rachel, with severe emphasis, "you should ever
+      be on board a steamboat when it exploded, you wouldn't find
+      much to laugh at."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I should," said Jack, "I should laugh&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" exclaimed Rachel, horrified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't
+      wait till I'd finished the sentence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't think it proper to make light of such serious
+      matters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor I Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of
+      his mouth. "I am willing to confess that this is a serious
+      matter. I should feel as they say the cow did, that was
+      thrown three hundred feet up into the air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How's that?" inquired his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rather discouraged," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe
+      composure, and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with
+      the air of one gulping down medicine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning all felt more cheerful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida will be home to-night," said Mrs. Harding, brightly.
+      "What an age it seems since she went away! Who'd think it was
+      only twenty-four hours?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall know better how to appreciate her when we get her
+      back," said her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What time do you expect her home, mother? What did Mrs.
+      Hardwick say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said Mrs. Harding, hesitating, "she didn't say as to
+      the hour; but I guess she'll be along in the course of the
+      afternoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we only knew where she had gone, we could tell better
+      when to expect her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But as we don't know," said the cooper, "we must wait
+      patiently till she comes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess," said Mrs. Harding, with the impulse of a notable
+      housewife, "I'll make some apple turnovers for supper
+      to-night. There's nothing Ida likes so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's where Ida is right," said Jack, smacking his lips.
+      "Apple turnovers are splendid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are very unwholesome," remarked Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't think so from the way you eat them, Aunt
+      Rachel," retorted Jack. "You ate four the last time we had
+      them for supper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't think you'd begrudge me the little I eat," said his
+      aunt, dolefully. "I didn't think you counted the mouthfuls I
+      took."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, Rachel, don't be so unreasonable," said her brother.
+      "Nobody begrudges you what you eat, even if you choose to eat
+      twice as much as you do. I dare say Jack ate more of the
+      turnovers than you did."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ate six," said Jack, candidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel, construing this into an apology, said no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it wasn't for you, Aunt Rachel, I should be in danger of
+      getting too jolly, perhaps, and spilling over. It always
+      makes me sober to look at you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's lucky there's something to make you sober and stiddy,"
+      said his aunt. "You are too frivolous."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Evening came, but it did not bring Ida. An indefinable sense
+      of apprehension oppressed the minds of all. Martha feared
+      that Ida's mother, finding her so attractive, could not
+      resist the temptation of keeping her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," she said, "that she has the best claim to her,
+      but it would be a terrible thing for us to part with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't let us trouble ourselves about that," said Timothy.
+      "It seems to me very natural that her mother should keep her
+      a little longer than she intended. Think how long it is since
+      she saw her. Besides, it is not too late for her to return
+      to-night."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length there came a knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I guess that is Ida," said Mrs. Harding, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack seized a candle, and hastening to the door, threw it
+      open. But there was no Ida there. In her place stood Charlie
+      Fitts, the boy who had met Ida in the cars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How are you, Charlie?" said Jack, trying not to look
+      disappointed. "Come in and tell us all the news."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Charlie, "I don't know of any. I suppose Ida has
+      got home?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Jack; "we expected her to-night, but she
+      hasn't come yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She told me she expected to come back to-day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! have you seen her?" exclaimed all, in chorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I saw her yesterday noon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, in the cars," answered Charlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What cars?" asked the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, the Philadelphia cars. Of course you knew it was there
+      she was going?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Philadelphia!" exclaimed all, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, the cars were almost there when I saw her. Who was that
+      with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick, her old nurse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't like her looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's where we paddle in the same canoe," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She didn't seem to want me to speak to Ida," continued
+      Charlie, "but hurried her off as quick as possible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There were reasons for that," said the cooper. "She wanted
+      to keep her destination secret."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what it was," said the boy, "but I don't like
+      the woman's looks."
+    </p><a name="CH18"><!-- CH18 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      HOW IDA FARED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      We left Ida confined in a dark closet, with Peg standing
+      guard over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hour she was released.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the nurse, grimly, "how do you feel now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want to go home," sobbed the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are at home," said the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I never see father, and mother, and Jack again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That depends on how you behave yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if you will only let me go," pleaded Ida, gathering hope
+      from this remark, "I'll do anything you say."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you mean this, or do you only say it for the sake of
+      getting away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean just what I say. Dear, good Mrs. Hardwick, tell me
+      what to do, and I will obey you cheerfully."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said Peg, "only you needn't try to come it over
+      me by calling me dear, good Mrs. Hardwick. In the first
+      place, you don't care a cent about me; in the second place, I
+      am not good; and finally, my name isn't Mrs. Hardwick, except
+      in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it, then?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's just Peg, no more and no less. You may call me Aunt
+      Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would rather call you Mrs. Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you'll have a good many years to call me so. You'd
+      better do as I tell you, if you want any favors. Now what do
+      you say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg," said Ida, with a strong effort to conceal
+      her repugnance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's well. Now you're not to tell anybody that you came
+      from New York. That is very important; and you're to pay your
+      board by doing whatever I tell you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it isn't wicked."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you suppose I would ask you to do anything wicked?"
+      demanded Peg, frowning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You said you wasn't good," mildly suggested Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm good enough to take care of you. Well, what do you say
+      to that? Answer me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's another thing. You ain't to try to run away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hung down her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" exclaimed Peg. "So you've been thinking of it, have
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, boldly, after a moment's hesitation. "I
+      did think I should if I got a good chance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Humph!" said the woman, "I see we must understand one
+      another. Unless you promise this, back you go into the dark
+      closet, and I shall keep you there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida shuddered at this fearful threat&mdash;terrible to a
+      child of but eight years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you promise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida, faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For fear you might be tempted to break your promise, I have
+      something to show you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick went to the closet, and took down a large
+      pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," she said, "do you see that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know what it is for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To shoot people with," answered the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the nurse; "I see you understand. Well, now, do
+      you know what I would do if you should tell anybody where you
+      came from, or attempt to run away? Can you guess, now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Would you shoot me?" asked Ida, terror-stricken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I would," said Peg, with fierce emphasis. "That's just
+      what I'd do. And what's more even if you got away, and got
+      back to your family in New York, I would follow you, and
+      shoot you dead in the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You wouldn't be so wicked!" exclaimed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wouldn't I, though?" repeated Peg, significantly. "If you
+      don't believe I would, just try it. Do you think you would
+      like to try it?" she asked, fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Ida, with a shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, that's the most sensible thing you've said yet. Now
+      that you are a little more reasonable, I'll tell you what I
+      am going to do with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked eagerly up into her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am going to keep you with me for a year. I want the
+      services of a little girl for that time. If you serve me
+      faithfully, I will then send you back to New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you?" asked Ida, hopefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, but you must mind and do what I tell you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes," said Ida, joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so much better than she had been led to fear, that
+      the prospect of returning home at all, even though she had to
+      wait a year, encouraged her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want me to do?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may take the broom and sweep the room."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And then you may wash the dishes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And after that, I will find something else for you to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick threw herself into a rocking-chair, and watched
+      with grim satisfaction the little handmaiden, as she moved
+      quickly about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I took the right course with her," she said to herself. "She
+      won't any more dare to run away than to chop her hands off.
+      She thinks I'll shoot her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the unprincipled woman chuckled to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida heard her indistinctly, and asked, timidly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak, Aunt Peg?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I didn't; just attend to your work and don't mind me.
+      Did your mother make you work?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I went to school."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Time you learned. I'll make a smart woman of you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning Ida was asked if she would like to go out
+      into the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am going to let you do a little shopping. There are
+      various things we want. Go and get your hat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's in the closet," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, I put it there. That was before I could trust you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went to the closet and returned with the child's hat and
+      shawl. As soon as the two were ready they emerged into the
+      street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a little better than being shut up in the closet,
+      isn't it?" asked her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, ever so much."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see you'll have a very good time of it, if you do as I
+      bid you. I don't want to do you any harm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they walked along together until Peg, suddenly pausing,
+      laid her hands on Ida's arm, and pointing to a shop near by,
+      said to her: "Do you see that shop?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want you to go in and ask for a couple of rolls. They come
+      to three cents apiece. Here's some money to pay for them. It
+      is a new dollar. You will give this to the man that stands
+      behind the counter, and he will give you back ninety-four
+      cents. Do you understand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida, nodding her head. "I think I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if the man asks if you have anything smaller, you will
+      say no."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Aunt Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will stay just outside. I want you to go in alone, so you
+      will learn to manage without me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida entered the shop. The baker, a pleasant-looking man,
+      stood behind the counter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like a couple of rolls."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For your mother, I suppose?" said the baker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Ida, "for the woman I board with."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! a dollar bill, and a new one, too," said the baker, as
+      Ida tendered it in payment. "I shall have to save that for my
+      little girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida left the shop with the two rolls and the silver change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did he say anything about the money?" asked Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He said he should save it for his little girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good!" said the woman. "You've done well."
+    </p><a name="CH19"><!-- CH19 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      BAD MONEY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The baker introduced in the foregoing chapter was named
+      Harding. Singularly, Abel Harding was a brother of Timothy
+      Harding, the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many respects he resembled his brother. He was an
+      excellent man, exemplary in all the relations of life, and
+      had a good heart. He was in very comfortable circumstances,
+      having accumulated a little property by diligent attention to
+      his business. Like his brother, Abel Harding had married, and
+      had one child. She had received the name of Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the baker closed his shop for the night, he did not
+      forget the new dollar, which he had received, or the disposal
+      he told Ida he would make of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen ran to meet her father as he entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you think I have brought you, Ellen?" he said, with
+      a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do tell me quick," said the child, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if I should tell you it was a new dollar?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, papa, thank you!" and Ellen ran to show it to her
+      mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the baker, "I received it from a little girl
+      about the size of Ellen, and I suppose it was that that gave
+      me the idea of bringing it home to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all that passed concerning Ida at that time. The
+      thought of her would have passed from the baker's mind, if it
+      had not been recalled by circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen, like most girls of her age, when in possession of
+      money, could not be easy until she had spent it. Her mother
+      advised her to deposit it in some savings bank; but Ellen
+      preferred present gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, one afternoon, when walking out with her mother,
+      she persuaded her to go into a toy shop, and price a doll
+      which she saw in the window. The price was seventy-five
+      cents. Ellen concluded to buy it, and her mother tendered the
+      dollar in payment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shopman took it in his hand, glanced at it carelessly at
+      first, then scrutinized it with increased attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter?" inquired Mrs. Harding. "It is good,
+      isn't it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is what I am doubtful of," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is new."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is against it. If it were old, it would be more
+      likely to be genuine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you wouldn't condemn a bill because it is new?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly not; but the fact is, there have been lately many
+      cases where counterfeit bills have been passed, and I suspect
+      this is one of them. However, I can soon ascertain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you would," said the baker's wife. "My husband took
+      it at his shop, and will be likely to take more unless he is
+      put on his guard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shopman sent it to the bank where it was pronounced
+      counterfeit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Harding was much surprised at his wife's story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really!" he said. "I had no suspicion of this. Can it be
+      possible that such a young and beautiful child could be
+      guilty of such an offense?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps not," answered his wife. "She may be as innocent in
+      the matter as Ellen or myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope so," said the baker; "it would be a pity that so
+      young a child should be given to wickedness. However, I shall
+      find out before long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She will undoubtedly come again sometime."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker watched daily for the coming of Ida. He waited some
+      days in vain. It was not Peg's policy to send the child too
+      often to the same place, as that would increase the chances
+      of detection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, however, Ida entered the shop as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good-morning," said the baker; "what will you have to-day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may give me a sheet of gingerbread, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker placed it in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How much will it be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twelve cents."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida offered him another new bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As if to make change, he stepped from behind the counter and
+      placed himself between Ida and the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your name, my child?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida? But what is your other name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hesitated a moment, because Peg had forbidden her to use
+      the name of Harding, and had told her, if ever the inquiry
+      were made, she must answer Hardwick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered reluctantly: "Ida Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker observed her hesitation, and this increased his
+      suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hardwick!" he repeated, musingly, endeavoring to draw from
+      the child as much information as possible before allowing her
+      to perceive that he suspected her. "And where do you live?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was a child of spirit, and did not understand why she
+      should be questioned so closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She said, with some impatience: "I am in a hurry, sir, and
+      would like to have the change as soon as you can."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no doubt of it," said the baker, his manner suddenly
+      changing, "but you cannot go just yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you have been trying to deceive me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I trying to deceive you!" exclaimed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," thought Mr. Harding, "she does it well; but no
+      doubt she is trained to it. It is perfectly shocking, such
+      artful depravity in a child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't you remember buying something here a week ago?" he
+      asked, in as stern a tone as his good nature would allow him
+      to employ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Ida, promptly; "I bought two rolls, at three
+      cents apiece."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what did you offer me in payment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I handed you a dollar bill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Like this?" asked the baker, holding up the one she had just
+      offered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do you mean to say," demanded the baker, sternly, "that
+      you didn't know it was bad when you offered it to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bad!" gasped Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, spurious. Not as good as blank paper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, sir, I didn't know anything about it," said Ida,
+      earnestly; "I hope you'll believe me when I say that I
+      thought it was good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what to think," said the baker, perplexed. "Who
+      gave you the money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The woman I board with."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of course I can't give you the gingerbread. Some men, in my
+      place, would deliver you up to the police. But I will let you
+      go, if you will make me one promise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I will promise anything, sir," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have given me a bad dollar. Will you promise to bring me
+      a good one to-morrow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida made the required promise, and was allowed to go.
+    </p><a name="CH20"><!-- CH20 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      DOUBTS AND FEARS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what kept you so long?" asked Peg, impatiently, as Ida
+      rejoined her at the corner of the street. "I thought you were
+      going to stay all the forenoon. And Where's your
+      gingerbread?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He wouldn't let me have it," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why wouldn't he let you have it?" said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because he said the money wasn't good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stuff and nonsense! It's good enough. However, it's no
+      matter. We'll go somewhere else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But he said the money I gave him last week wasn't good, and
+      I promised to bring him another to-morrow, or he wouldn't
+      have let me go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, where are you going to get your dollar?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, won't you give it to me?" said the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Catch me at such nonsense!" said Mrs. Hardwick,
+      contemptuously. "I ain't quite a fool. But here we are at
+      another shop. Go in and see if you can do any better there.
+      Here's the money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's the same bill I gave you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't want to pass bad money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tut! What hurt will it do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the same as stealing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The man won't lose anything. He'll pass it off again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Somebody'll have to lose it by and by," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you've taken up preaching, have you?" said Peg,
+      sneeringly. "Maybe you know better than I what is proper to
+      do. It won't do for you to be so mighty particular, and so
+      you'll find out, if you stay with me long."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get the dollar?" asked Ida; "and how is it you
+      have so many of them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "None of your business. You mustn't pry into the affairs of
+      other people. Are you going to do as I told you?" she
+      continued, menacingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't," answered Ida, pale but resolute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't!" repeated Peg, furiously. "Didn't you promise to
+      do whatever I told you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Except what was wicked," interposed Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what business have you to decide what is wicked? Come
+      home with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg seized the child's hand, and walked on in sullen silence,
+      occasionally turning to scowl upon Ida, who had been strong
+      enough, in her determination to do right, to resist
+      successfully the will of the woman whom she had so much
+      reason to dread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived at home, Peg walked Ida into the room by the
+      shoulder. Dick was lounging in a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hillo!" said he, lazily, observing his wife's frowning face.
+      "What's the gal been doin', hey?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's she been doing?" repeated Peg. "I should like to know
+      what she hasn't been doing. She's refused to go in and buy
+      gingerbread of the baker."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look here, little gal," said Dick, in a moralizing vein,
+      "isn't this rayther undootiful conduct on your part? Ain't it
+      a piece of ingratitude, when Peg and I go to the trouble of
+      earning the money to pay for gingerbread for you to eat, that
+      you ain't even willin' to go in and buy it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would just as lieve go in," said Ida, "if Peg would give
+      me good money to pay for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That don't make any difference," said the admirable
+      moralist. "It's your dooty to do just as she tells you, and
+      you'll do right. She'll take the risk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't," said the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You hear her!" said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very improper conduct!" said Dick, shaking his head in grave
+      reproval. "Little gal, I'm ashamed of you. Put her in the
+      closet, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come along," said Peg, harshly. "I'll show you how I deal
+      with those that don't obey me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Ida was incarcerated once more in the dark closet. Yet in
+      the midst of her desolation, child as she was, she was
+      sustained and comforted by the thought that she was suffering
+      for doing right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Ida failed to return on the appointed day, the Hardings,
+      though disappointed, did not think it strange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I were her mother," said the cooper's wife, "and had been
+      parted from her for so long, I should want to keep her as
+      long as I could. Dear heart! how pretty she is and how proud
+      her mother must be of her!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's all a delusion," said Rachel, shaking her head,
+      solemnly. "It's all a delusion. I don't believe she's got a
+      mother at all. That Mrs. Hardwick is an impostor. I know it,
+      and told you so at the time, but you wouldn't believe me. I
+      never expect to set eyes on Ida again in this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day passed, and still no tidings of Jack's ward. Her
+      young guardian, though not as gloomy as Aunt Rachel, looked
+      unusually serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a cloud of anxiety even upon the cooper's usually
+      placid face, and he was more silent than usual at the evening
+      meal. At night, after Jack and his aunt had retired, he said,
+      anxiously: "What do you think is the cause of Ida's prolonged
+      absence, Martha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell," said his wife, seriously. "It seems to me, if
+      her mother wanted to keep her longer it would be no more than
+      right that she should drop us a line. She must know that we
+      would feel anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps she is so taken up with Ida that she can think of no
+      one else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be so; but if we neither see Ida to-morrow, nor hear
+      from her, I shall be seriously troubled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose she should never come back," suggested the cooper,
+      very soberly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, husband, don't hint at such a thing," said his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must contemplate it as a possibility," said Timothy,
+      gravely, "though not, as I hope, as a probability. Ida's
+      mother has an undoubted right to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then it would be better if she had never been placed in our
+      charge," said Martha, tearfully, "for we should not have had
+      the pain of parting with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, Martha," her husband said, seriously. "We ought to
+      be grateful for God's blessings, even if He suffers us to
+      retain them but a short time. And Ida has been a blessing to
+      us all, I am sure. The memory of that can't be taken from us,
+      Martha. There's some lines I came across in the paper
+      to-night that express just what I've been sayin'. Let me find
+      them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper put on his spectacles, and hunted slowly down the
+      columns of the daily paper till he came to these beautiful
+      lines of Tennyson, which he read aloud:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "'I hold it true, whate'er befall;
+  I feel it when I sorrow most;
+  'Tis better to have loved and lost,
+  Than never to have loved at all.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "There, wife," he said, as he laid down the paper; "I don't
+      know who writ them lines, but I'm sure it's some one that's
+      met with a great sorrow and conquered it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are beautiful," said his wife, after a pause; "and I
+      dare say you're right, Timothy; but I hope we mayn't have to
+      learn the truth of them by experience. After all, it isn't
+      certain but that Ida will come back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At any rate," said her husband, "there is no doubt that it
+      is our duty to take every means that we can to recover Ida.
+      Of course, if her mother insists upon keepin' her, we can't
+      say anything; but we ought to be sure of that before we yield
+      her up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean, Timothy?" asked Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know as I ought to mention it," said the cooper.
+      "Very likely there isn't anything in it, and it would only
+      make you feel more anxious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have already aroused my anxiety. I should feel better if
+      you would speak out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will," said the cooper. "I have sometimes been
+      tempted," he continued, lowering his voice, "to doubt whether
+      Ida's mother really sent for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How do you account for the letter, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have thought&mdash;mind, it is only a guess&mdash;that
+      Mrs. Hardwick may have got somebody to write it for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is very singular," murmured Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is singular?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, the very same thought has occurred to me. Somehow, I
+      can't help feeling a little distrustful of Mrs. Hardwick,
+      though perhaps unjustly. What object can she have in getting
+      possession of the child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I can't conjecture; but I have come to one
+      determination."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unless we learn something of Ida within a week from the time
+      she left here, I shall go on to Philadelphia, or else send
+      Jack, and endeavor to get track of her."
+    </p><a name="CH21"><!-- CH21 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      AUNT RACHEL'S MISHAPS
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The week slipped away, and still no tidings of Ida. The house
+      seemed lonely without her. Not until then did they understand
+      how largely she had entered into their life and thoughts. But
+      worse even than the sense of loss was the uncertainty as to
+      her fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is time that we took some steps about finding Ida," the
+      cooper said. "I would like to go to Philadelphia myself, to
+      make inquiries about her, but I am just now engaged upon a
+      job which I cannot very well leave, and so I have concluded
+      to send Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When shall I start?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To-morrow morning," answered his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What good do you think it will do," interposed Rachel, "to
+      send a mere boy like Jack to Philadelphia?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A mere boy!" repeated her nephew, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A boy hardly sixteen years old," continued Rachel. "Why,
+      he'll need somebody to take care of him. Most likely you'll
+      have to go after him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's the use of provoking a fellow so, Aunt Rachel?" said
+      Jack. "You know I'm 'most eighteen. Hardly sixteen! Why, I
+      might as well say you're hardly forty, when we all know
+      you're fifty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fifty!" ejaculated the scandalized spinster. "It's a base
+      slander. I'm only thirty-seven."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Maybe I'm mistaken," said Jack, carelessly. "I didn't know
+      exactly how old you were; I only judged from your looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point, Rachel applied a segment of a pocket
+      handkerchief to her eyes; but, unfortunately, owing to
+      circumstances, the effect instead of being pathetic, as she
+      intended it to be, was simply ludicrous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It so happened that a short time previous, the inkstand had
+      been partially spilled upon the table, through Jack's
+      carelessness and this handkerchief had been used to sop it
+      up. It had been placed inadvertently upon the window seat,
+      where it had remained until Rachel, who was sitting beside
+      the window, called it into requisition. The ink upon it was
+      by no means dry. The consequence was, that, when Rachel
+      removed it from her eyes, her face was discovered to be
+      covered with ink in streaks mingling with the tears that were
+      falling, for Rachel always had a plentiful supply of tears at
+      command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first intimation the luckless spinster had of her mishap
+      was conveyed in a stentorian laugh from Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked intently at the dark traces of sorrow on his aunt's
+      face&mdash;of which she was yet unconscious&mdash;and
+      doubling up, went off into a perfect paroxysm of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly, for she had not
+      observed the cause of his amusement, "it's improper for you
+      to laugh at your aunt in such a rude manner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I can't help it, mother. Just look at her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus invited, Mrs. Harding did look, and the rueful
+      expression of Rachel, set off by the inky stains, was so
+      irresistibly comical, that, after a hard struggle, she too
+      gave way, and followed Jack's example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Astonished and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her
+      sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and
+      again had recourse to the handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is too much!" she sobbed. "I've stayed here long
+      enough, if even my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew,
+      from whom I expect nothing better, makes me her
+      laughingstock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer remain in
+      your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poorhouse
+      and end my miserable existence as a common pauper. If I only
+      receive Christian burial when I leave the world, it will be
+      all I hope or expect from my relatives, who will be glad
+      enough to get rid of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second application of the handkerchief had so increased
+      the effect, that Jack found it impossible to check his
+      laughter, while the cooper, whose attention was now drawn to
+      his sister's face, burst out in a similar manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This more amazed Rachel than Martha's merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!" she
+      exclaimed, in an "<i>Et tu, Brute</i>" tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We don't mean to ridicule you, Rachel," gasped her
+      sister-in-law, "but we can't help laughing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At the prospect of my death!" uttered Rachel, in a tragic
+      tone. "Well, I'm a poor, forlorn creetur, I know. Even my
+      nearest relations make sport of me, and when I speak of
+      dying, they shout their joy to my face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," gasped Jack, nearly choking, "that's it exactly. It
+      isn't your death we're laughing at, but your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My face!" exclaimed the insulted spinster. "One would think
+      I was a fright by the way you laugh at it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you are!" said Jack, with a fresh burst of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be called a fright to my face!" shrieked Rachel, "by my
+      own nephew! This is too much. Timothy, I leave your house
+      forever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excited maiden seized her hood; which was hanging from a
+      nail, and was about to leave the house when she was arrested
+      in her progress toward the door by the cooper, who stifled
+      his laughter sufficiently to say: "Before you go, Rachel,
+      just look in the glass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes
+      rested upon a face streaked with inky spots and lines seaming
+      it in every direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her first confusion Rachel jumped to the conclusion that
+      she had been suddenly stricken by the plague. Accordingly she
+      began to wring her hands in an excess of terror, and
+      exclaimed in tones of piercing anguish:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the fatal plague spot! I am marked for the tomb. The
+      sands of my life are fast running out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This convulsed Jack afresh with merriment, so that an
+      observer might, not without reason, have imagined him to be
+      in imminent danger of suffocation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll kill me, Aunt Rachel! I know you will," he gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may order my coffin, Timothy," said Rachel, in a
+      sepulchral voice; "I shan't live twenty-four hours. I've felt
+      it coming on for a week past. I forgive you for all your
+      ill-treatment. I should like to have some one go for the
+      doctor, though I know I'm past help."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think," said the cooper, trying to look sober, "you will
+      find the cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the
+      plague spots, as you call them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel turned toward him with a puzzled look. Then, as her
+      eyes rested for the first time upon the handkerchief she had
+      used, its appearance at once suggested a clew by which she
+      was enabled to account for her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat ashamed of the emotion which she had betrayed, as
+      well as the ridiculous figure which she had cut, she left the
+      room abruptly, and did not make her appearance again till the
+      next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this little episode, the conversation turned upon
+      Jack's approaching journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know," said his mother, "but Rachel is right.
+      Perhaps Jack isn't old enough, and hasn't had sufficient
+      experience to undertake such a mission."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, mother," expostulated Jack, "you ain't going to side
+      against me, are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no better plan," said his father, quietly.
+    </p><a name="CH22"><!-- CH22 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE FLOWER GIRL
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Henry Bowen was a young artist of moderate talent, who had
+      abandoned the farm on which he had labored as a boy, for the
+      sake of pursuing his favorite profession. He was not
+      competent to achieve the highest success. But he had good
+      taste and a skillful hand, and his productions were pleasing
+      and popular. He had formed a connection with a publisher of
+      prints and engravings, who had thrown considerable work in
+      his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you any new commission to-day?" inquired the young
+      artist, on the day before Ida's discovery that she had been
+      employed to pass off spurious coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the publisher, "I have thought of something which
+      may prove attractive. Just at present, pictures of children
+      seem to be popular. I should like to have you supply me with
+      a sketch of a flower girl, with, say, a basket of flowers in
+      her hand. Do you comprehend my idea?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe I do," answered the artist. "Give me sufficient
+      time, and I hope to satisfy you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young artist went home, and at once set to work upon the
+      task he had undertaken. He had conceived that it would be an
+      easy one, but found himself mistaken. Whether because his
+      fancy was not sufficiently lively, or his mind was not in
+      tune, he was unable to produce the effect he desired. The
+      faces which he successively outlined were all stiff, and
+      though beautiful in feature, lacked the great charm of being
+      expressive and lifelike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter with me?" he exclaimed, impatiently. "Is
+      it impossible for me to succeed? It's clear," he decided,
+      "that I am not in the vein. I will go out and take a walk,
+      and perhaps while I am in the street something may strike
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He accordingly donned his coat and hat, and emerged into the
+      great thoroughfare, where he was soon lost in the throng. It
+      was only natural that, as he walked, with his task uppermost
+      in his thoughts, he should scrutinize carefully the faces of
+      such young girls as he met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps," it occurred to him, "I may get a hint from some
+      face I see. It is strange," he mused, "how few there are,
+      even in the freshness of childhood, that can be called models
+      of beauty. That child, for example, has beautiful eyes, but a
+      badly cut mouth. Here is one that would be pretty, if the
+      face were rounded out; and here is a child&mdash;Heaven help
+      it!&mdash;that was designed to be beautiful, but want and
+      unfavorable circumstances have pinched and cramped it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this point in the artist's soliloquy that, in
+      turning the corner of a street, he came upon Peg and Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist looked earnestly at the child's face, and his own
+      lighted up with sudden pleasure, as one who stumbles upon
+      success just as he had begun to despair of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The very face I have been looking for!" he exclaimed to
+      himself. "My flower girl is found at last."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned round, and followed Ida and her companion. Both
+      stopped at a shop window to examine some articles which were
+      on exhibition there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is precisely the face I want," he murmured. "Nothing
+      could be more appropriate or charming. With that face the
+      success of the picture is assured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist's inference that Peg was Ida's attendant was
+      natural, since the child was dressed in a style quite
+      superior to her companion. Peg thought that this would enable
+      her, with less risk, to pass spurious coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man followed the strangely assorted pair to the
+      apartments which Peg occupied. From the conversation which he
+      overheard he learned that he had been mistaken in his
+      supposition as to the relation between the two, and that,
+      singular as it seemed, Peg had the guardianship of the child.
+      This made his course clearer. He mounted the stairs and
+      knocked at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want?" demanded a sharp voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to see you just a moment," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg opened the door partially, and regarded the young man
+      suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know you," she said, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I presume not," said the young man, courteously. "We have
+      never met, I think. I am an artist. I hope you will pardon my
+      present intrusion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no use in your coming here," said Peg, abruptly,
+      "and you may as well go away. I don't want to buy any
+      pictures. I've got plenty of better ways to spend my money
+      than to throw it away on such trash."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one would have thought of doubting Peg's word, for she
+      looked far from being a patron of the arts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have a young girl living with you, about seven or eight
+      years old, have you not?" inquired the artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg instantly became suspicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who told you that?" she demanded, quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No one told me. I saw her in the street."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg at once conceived the idea that her visitor was aware of
+      the fact that the child had been lured away from home;
+      possibly he might be acquainted with the cooper's family? or
+      might be their emissary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose you did see such a child on the street, what has
+      that to do with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I saw the child entering this house with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What if you did?" demanded Peg, defiantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was about," said the artist, perceiving that he was
+      misapprehended, "I was about to make a proposition which may
+      prove advantageous to both of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eh!" said Peg, catching at the hint. "Tell me what it is and
+      we may come to terms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must explain," said Bowen, "that I am an artist. In
+      seeking for a face to sketch from, I have been struck by that
+      of your child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of Ida?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, if that is her name. I will pay you five dollars if you
+      will allow me to copy her face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," she said, more graciously, "if that's all you want, I
+      don't know as I have any objections. I suppose you can copy
+      her face here as well as anywhere?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should prefer to have her come to my studio."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shan't let her come," said Peg, decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will consent to your terms, and come here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you want to begin now?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to do so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come in, then. Here, Ida, I want you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This gentleman wants to copy your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am an artist," said the young man, with a reassuring
+      smile. "I will endeavor not to try your patience too much, or
+      keep you too long. Do you think you can stand still for half
+      an hour without too much fatigue?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kept her in pleasant conversation, while, with a free,
+      bold hand he sketched the outlines of her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall want one more sitting," he said. "I will come
+      to-morrow at this time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stop a minute," said Peg. "I should like the money in
+      advance. How do I know you will come again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, if you desire it," said Henry Bowen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What strange fortune," he thought, "can have brought them
+      together? Surely there can be no relation between this sweet
+      child and that ugly old woman!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he returned and completed his sketch, which was
+      at once placed in the hands of the publisher, eliciting his
+      warm approval.
+    </p><a name="CH23"><!-- CH23 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK OBTAINS INFORMATION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack set out with that lightness of heart and keen sense of
+      enjoyment that seem natural to a young man of eighteen on his
+      first journey. Partly by boat, partly by cars, he traveled,
+      till in a few hours he was discharged, with hundreds of
+      others, at the depot in Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rejected all invitations to ride, and strode on, carpetbag
+      in hand, though, sooth to say, he had very little idea
+      whether he was steering in the right direction for his
+      uncle's shop. By dint of diligent and persevering inquiry he
+      found it at last, and walking in, announced himself to the
+      worthy baker as his nephew Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What? Are you Jack?" exclaimed Mr. Abel Harding, pausing in
+      his labor. "Well, I never should have known you, that's a
+      fact. Bless me, how you've grown! Why, you're 'most as big as
+      your father, ain't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only half an inch shorter," answered Jack, complacently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you're&mdash;let me see&mdash;how old are you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eighteen; that is, almost. I shall be in two months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'm glad to see you, Jack, though I hadn't the least
+      idea of your raining down so unexpectedly. How's your father
+      and mother and your adopted sister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Father and mother are pretty well," answered Jack; "and so
+      is Aunt Rachel," he continued, smiling, "though she ain't so
+      cheerful as she might be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Poor Rachel!" said Abel, smiling also. "Everything goes
+      contrary with her. I don't suppose she's wholly to blame for
+      it. Folks differ constitutionally. Some are always looking on
+      the bright side of things, and others can never see but one
+      side, and that's the dark one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You've hit it, uncle," said Jack, laughing. "Aunt Rachel
+      always looks as if she was attending a funeral."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So she is, my boy," said Abel, gravely, "and a sad funeral
+      it is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't understand you, uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The funeral of her affections&mdash;that's what I mean.
+      Perhaps you mayn't know that Rachel was, in early life,
+      engaged to be married to a young man whom she ardently loved.
+      She was a different woman then from what she is now. But her
+      lover deserted her just before the wedding was to have come
+      off, and she's never got over the disappointment. But that
+      isn't what I was going to talk about. You haven't told me
+      about your adopted sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's the very thing I've come to Philadelphia about," said
+      Jack, soberly. "Ida has been carried off, and I've come in
+      search of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Been carried off? I didn't know such things ever happened in
+      this country. What do you mean?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack told the story of Mrs. Hardwick's arrival with a letter
+      from Ida's mother, conveying the request that her child
+      might, under the guidance of the messenger, be allowed to pay
+      her a visit. To this and the subsequent details Abel Harding
+      listened with earnest attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you have reason to think the child is in Philadelphia?"
+      he said, musingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack; "Ida was seen in the cars, coming here, by
+      a boy who knew her in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida?" repeated the baker. "Was that her name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you knew her name, didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say I have known it, but I have heard so little of
+      your family lately that I had forgotten it. It is rather a
+      singular circumstance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is a singular circumstance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell you, Jack. It may not amount to anything,
+      however. A few days since a little girl came into my shop to
+      buy a small amount of bread. I was at once favorably
+      impressed with her appearance. She was neatly dressed, and
+      had a very honest face. Having made the purchase she handed
+      me in payment a new dollar bill. 'I'll keep that for my
+      little girl,' thought I at once. Accordingly, when I went
+      home at night, I just took the dollar out of, the till and
+      gave it to her. Of course, she was delighted with it, and,
+      like a child, wanted to spend it at once. So her mother
+      agreed to go out with her the next day. Well, they selected
+      some knick-knack or other, but when they came to pay for it
+      the dollar proved counterfeit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Counterfeit?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; bad. Issued by a gang of counterfeiters. When they told
+      me of this, I said to myself, 'Can it be that this little
+      girl knew what she was about when she offered me that?' I
+      couldn't think it possible, but decided to wait till she came
+      again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she come again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; only day before yesterday. As I expected, she offered
+      me in payment another dollar just like the other. Before
+      letting her know that I had discovered the imposition I asked
+      her one or two questions with the idea of finding out as much
+      as possible about her. When I told her the bill was a bad
+      one, she seemed very much surprised. It might have been all
+      acting, but I didn't think so then. I even felt pity for her,
+      and let her go on condition that she would bring me back a
+      good dollar in place of the bad one the next day. I suppose I
+      was a fool for doing so, but she looked so pretty and
+      innocent that I couldn't make up my mind to speak or act
+      harshly to her. But I am afraid that I was deceived, and that
+      she was an artful character after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then she didn't come back with the good money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; I haven't seen her since."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What name did she give you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haven't I told you? It was the name that made me think of
+      telling you. She called herself Ida Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida Hardwick?" repeated Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Ida Hardwick. But that hasn't anything to do with your
+      Ida, has it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hasn't it, though?" said Jack. "Why, Mrs. Hardwick was the
+      woman who carried her away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;her mother?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; not her mother. She said she was the woman who took care
+      of Ida before she was brought to us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you think this Ida Hardwick may be your missing
+      sister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I don't know yet," said Jack. "If you would only
+      describe her, Uncle Abel, I could tell better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the baker, thoughtfully, "I should say this
+      little girl was seven or eight years old."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Jack, nodding; "what color were her eyes?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So are Ida's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A small mouth, with a very sweet expression, yet with
+      something firm and decided about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I believe her dress was a light one, with a blue ribbon
+      round the waist."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she wear anything around her neck?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A brown scarf, if I remember rightly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is the way Ida was dressed when she went away with Mrs.
+      Hardwick. I am sure it must be she. But how strange that she
+      should come into your shop!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps," suggested his uncle, "this woman, representing
+      herself as Ida's nurse, was her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; it can't be," said Jack, vehemently. "What, that ugly,
+      disagreeable woman, Ida's mother? I won't believe it. I
+      should just as soon expect to see strawberries growing on a
+      thorn bush."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know I have not seen Mrs. Hardwick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No great loss," said Jack. "You wouldn't care much about
+      seeing her again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable woman;
+      while Ida is fair and sweet-looking. Ida's mother, whoever
+      she is, I am sure, is a lady in appearance and manners, and
+      Mrs. Hardwick is neither. Aunt Rachel was right for once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What did Rachel say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She said the nurse was an impostor, and declared it was only
+      a plot to get possession of Ida; but then, that was to be
+      expected of Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Still it seems difficult to imagine any satisfactory motive
+      on the part of the woman, supposing her not to be Ida's
+      mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mother or not," returned Jack, "she's got possession of Ida;
+      and, from all that you say, she is not the best person to
+      bring her up. I am determined to rescue Ida from this
+      she-dragon. Will you help me, uncle?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may count upon me, Jack, for all I can do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said Jack, with energy, "we shall succeed. I feel
+      sure of it. 'Where there's a will there's a way.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you success, Jack; but if the people who have got Ida
+      are counterfeiters, they are desperate characters, and you
+      must proceed cautiously."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ain't afraid of them. I'm on the warpath now, Uncle Abel,
+      and they'd better look out for me."
+    </p><a name="CH24"><!-- CH24 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S DISCOVERY
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The first thing to be done by Jack was, of course, in some
+      way to obtain a clew to the whereabouts of Peg, or Mrs.
+      Hardwick, to use the name by which he knew her. No mode of
+      proceeding likely to secure this result occurred to him,
+      beyond the very obvious one of keeping in the street as much
+      as possible, in the hope that chance might bring him face to
+      face with the object of his pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following out this plan, Jack became a daily promenader in
+      Chestnut, Walnut and other leading thoroughfares. Jack became
+      himself an object of attention, on account of what appeared
+      to be his singular behavior. It was observed that he had no
+      glances to spare for young ladies, but persistently stared at
+      the faces of all middle-aged women&mdash;a circumstance
+      naturally calculated to attract remark in the case of a
+      well-made lad like Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid," said the baker, "it will be as hard as looking
+      for a needle in a haystack, to find the one you seek among so
+      many faces."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's nothing like trying," said Jack, courageously. "I'm
+      not going to give up yet a while. I'd know Ida or Mrs.
+      Hardwick anywhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ought to write home, Jack. They will be getting anxious
+      about you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm going to write this morning&mdash;I put it off, because
+      I hoped to have some news to write."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down and wrote the following note:
+    </p>
+    <pre>
+  "DEAR PARENTS: I arrived in Philadelphia right side up with care,
+  and am stopping at Uncle Abel's. He received me very kindly. I have
+  got track of Ida, though I have not found her yet. I have learned as
+  much as this: that this Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;who is a double-distilled
+  she-rascal&mdash;probably has Ida in her clutches, and has sent her on two
+  occasions to my uncle's. I am spending most of my time in the streets,
+  keeping a good lookout for her. If I do meet her, see if I don't get
+  Ida away from her. But it may take some time. Don't get discouraged,
+  therefore, but wait patiently. Whenever anything new turns up you will
+  receive a line from your dutiful son,
+
+  "JACK."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Jack had been in the city eight days when, as he was
+      sauntering along the street, he suddenly perceived in front
+      of him, a shawl which struck him as wonderfully like the one
+      worn by Mrs. Hardwick. Not only that, but the form of the
+      wearer corresponded to his recollections of the nurse. He
+      bounded forward, and rapidly passing the suspected person,
+      turned suddenly and confronted the woman of whom he had been
+      in search.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recognition was mutual. Peg was taken aback by this
+      unexpected encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her first impulse was to make off, but Jack's resolute
+      expression warned her that he was not to be trifled with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said she, rapidly recovering her composure,
+      "and you, if I am not mistaken, are John Harding, the son of
+      my worthy friends in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," ejaculated Jack, internally, "she's a cool un, and no
+      mistake."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Jack," he said, aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you leave all well at home?" asked Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't guess what I came here for?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To see your sister Ida, I presume."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," answered Jack, amazed at the woman's composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought some of you would be coming on," continued Peg,
+      who had already mapped out her course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You did?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; it was only natural. What did your father and mother
+      say to the letter I wrote them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The letter you wrote them?" exclaimed Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly. You got it, didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't know what letter you mean."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A letter, in which I wrote that Ida's mother had been so
+      pleased with the appearance and manners of the child, that
+      she could not determine to part with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't mean to say that any such letter as that has been
+      written?" said Jack, incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What? Has it not been received?" inquired Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing like it. When was it written?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The second day after our arrival," said Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If that is the case," said Jack, not knowing what to think,
+      "it must have miscarried; we never received it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a pity. How anxious you all must have felt!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems as if half the family were gone. But how long does
+      Ida's mother mean to keep her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps six months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," said Jack, his suspicions returning, "I have been told
+      that Ida has twice called at a baker's shop in this city, and
+      when asked what her name was, answered, Ida Hardwick. You
+      don't mean to say that you pretend to be her mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I do," replied Peg, calmly. "I didn't mean to tell you,
+      but as you've found out, I won't deny it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a lie," said Jack. "She isn't your daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Young man," said Peg, with wonderful self-command, "you are
+      exciting yourself to no purpose. You asked me if I pretended
+      to be her mother. I do pretend, but I admit frankly that it
+      is all pretense."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't understand what you mean," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will explain to you, though you have treated me so
+      impolitely that I might well refuse. As I informed your
+      father and mother in New York, there are circumstances which
+      stand in the way of Ida's real mother recognizing her as her
+      own child. Still, as she desires her company, in order to
+      avert suspicion and prevent embarrassing questions being
+      asked while she remains in Philadelphia, she is to pass as my
+      daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This explanation was tolerably plausible, and Jack was unable
+      to gainsay it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can I see Ida?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To his great joy, Peg replied: "I don't think there can be
+      any objection. I am going to the house now. Will you come
+      with me now, or appoint some other time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by all means," said Jack, eagerly. "Nothing shall stand
+      in the way of my seeing Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A grim smile passed over Peg's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Follow me, then," she said. "I have no doubt Ida will be
+      delighted to see you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Jack, with a pang, "that she is so taken up
+      with her new friends that she has nearly forgotten her old
+      friends in New York."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If she had," answered Peg, "she would not deserve to have
+      friends at all. She is quite happy here, but she will be very
+      glad to return to New York to those who have been so kind to
+      her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really," thought Jack, "I don't know what to make of this
+      Mrs. Hardwick. She talks fair enough, though looks are
+      against her. Perhaps I have misjudged her."
+    </p><a name="CH25"><!-- CH25 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      CAUGHT IN A TRAP
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack and his guide paused in front of a large three-story
+      brick building. The woman rang the bell. An untidy servant
+      girl made her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick spoke to the servant in so low a voice that
+      Jack couldn't hear what she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, mum," answered the servant, and led the way
+      upstairs to a back room on the third floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go in and take a seat," she said to Jack. "I will send Ida
+      to you immediately."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All right," said Jack, in a tone of satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg went out, closing the door after her. She, at the same
+      time, softly slipped a bolt which had been placed upon the
+      outside. Then hastening downstairs she found the proprietor
+      of the house, a little old man with a shrewd, twinkling eye,
+      and a long, aquiline nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have brought you a boarder," she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A lad, who is likely to interfere in our plans. You may keep
+      him in confinement for the present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very good. Is he likely to make a fuss?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should think it very likely. He is high-spirited and
+      impetuous, but you know how to manage him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes," nodded the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can think of some pretext for keeping him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I tell him he's in a madhouse?" said the old man,
+      laughing, and thereby showing some yellow fangs, which by no
+      means improved his appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Just the thing! It'll frighten him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a little further conversation in a low tone, and
+      then Peg went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fairly trapped, my young bird!" she thought to herself. "I
+      think that will put a stop to your troublesome appearance for
+      the present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jack, wholly unsuspicious that any trick had been
+      played upon him, seated himself in a rocking-chair and waited
+      impatiently for the coming of Ida, whom he was resolved to
+      carry back to New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Impelled by a natural curiosity, he examined attentively the
+      room in which he was seated. There was a plain carpet on the
+      floor, and the other furniture was that of an ordinary bed
+      chamber. The most conspicuous ornament was a large
+      full-length portrait against the side of the wall. It
+      represented an unknown man, not particularly striking in his
+      appearance. There was, besides, a small table with two or
+      three books upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack waited patiently for twenty minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps Ida may be out," he reflected. "Still, even if she
+      is, Mrs. Hardwick ought to come and let me know. It's dull
+      work staying here alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another fifteen minutes passed, and still no Ida appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is rather singular," thought Jack. "She can't have told
+      Ida I am here, or I am sure she would rush up at once to see
+      her brother Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, tired of waiting, Jack walked to the door and
+      attempted to open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a greater resistance than he anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good heavens!" thought Jack, in consternation, as the real
+      state of the case flashed upon him, "is it possible that I am
+      locked in?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He employed all his strength, but the door still resisted. He
+      could no longer doubt that it was locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rushed to the windows. They were two in number, and looked
+      out upon a yard in the rear of the house. There was no hope
+      of drawing the attention of passersby to his situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Confounded by this discovery, Jack sank into his chair in no
+      very enviable state of mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," thought he, "this is a pretty situation for me to be
+      in. I wonder what father would say if he knew that I had
+      managed to get locked up like this? I am ashamed to think I
+      let that treacherous woman, Mrs. Hardwick, lead me so quietly
+      into a snare. Aunt Rachel was about right when she said I
+      wasn't fit to come alone. I hope she'll never find out about
+      this adventure of mine. If she did, I should never hear the
+      last of it."
+    </p><a name="CH26"><!-- CH26 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      DR. ROBINSON
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at
+      least double the number of minutes. Moreover, he was getting
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The wretches can't mean to starve me, can they?" he asked
+      himself. Despite his constitutional courage he could not help
+      shuddering at the idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was unexpectedly answered by the opening of the door, and
+      the appearance of the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a
+      disagreeable smile upon his features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why are you confined? Really, one would think you didn't
+      find your quarters comfortable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am so far from finding them agreeable, that I insist upon
+      leaving them immediately," returned Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have locked it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, so I have," said the old man, with a leer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I insist upon your opening it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall do so when I get ready to go out, myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall go with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's to prevent me?" said Jack, defiantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's to prevent you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you'd better not attempt it. I should be sorry to hurt
+      you, but I mean to go out. If you attempt to stop me, you
+      must take the consequences."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid you are a violent young man. But I've got a man
+      who is a match for two like you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man opened the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Samuel, show yourself," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A brawny negro, six feet in height, and evidently very
+      powerful, came to the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If this young man attempts to escape, Samuel, what will you
+      do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tie him hand and foot," answered the negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That'll do, Samuel. Stay where you are."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He closed the door and looked triumphantly at our hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack threw himself sullenly into a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to
+      transact, my young friend, and so she has gone. She commended
+      you to our particular attention, and you will be just as well
+      treated as if she were here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This assurance was not calculated to comfort Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,
+      desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. I don't know how
+      long it will be before you are cured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Cured?" repeated Jack, puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man tapped his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're a little affected here, you know, but under my
+      treatment I hope soon to restore you to your friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" ejaculated our hero, terror-stricken, "you don't mean
+      to say you think I'm crazy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be sure you are," said the old man, "but&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I tell you it's a lie," exclaimed Jack, energetically.
+      "Who told you so?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your aunt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My aunt?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Mrs. Hardwick. She brought you here to be treated for
+      insanity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a base lie," said Jack, hotly. "That woman is no more
+      my aunt than you are. She's an impostor. She carried off my
+      sister Ida, and this is only a plot to get rid of me. She
+      told me she was going to take me to see Ida."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," he said, "she told me all about
+      it&mdash;that you had a delusion about some supposed sister,
+      whom you accused her of carrying off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is outrageous," said Jack, hotly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what all my patients say."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you are a mad-doctor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you know by my looks that I am not crazy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me, my young friend; that doesn't follow. There is a
+      peculiar appearance about your eyes which I cannot mistake.
+      There's no mistake about it, my good sir. Your mind has gone
+      astray, but if you'll be quiet, and won't excite yourself,
+      you'll soon be well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How soon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, two or three months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Two or three months! You don't mean to say you want to
+      confine me here two or three months?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope I can release you sooner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can't understand your business very well, or you would
+      see at once that I am not insane."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what all my patients say. They won't any of them own
+      that their minds are affected."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you supply me with some writing materials?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; Samuel shall bring them here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you will excuse my suggesting also that it is
+      dinner time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He shall bring you some dinner at the same time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man retired, but in fifteen minutes a plate of meat
+      and vegetables was brought to the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll bring the pen and ink afterward," said the negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of his extraordinary situation and uncertain
+      prospects, Jack ate with his usual appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he penned a letter to his uncle, briefly detailing the
+      circumstances of his present situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid," the letter concluded, "that while I am shut up
+      here, Mrs. Hardwick will carry Ida out of the city, where it
+      will be more difficult for us to get on her track. She is
+      evidently a dangerous woman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days passed and no notice was taken of the letter.
+    </p><a name="CH27"><!-- CH27 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK BEGINS TO REALIZE HIS SITUATION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "It's very strange," thought Jack, "that Uncle Abel doesn't
+      take any notice of my letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, our hero felt rather indignant, as well as
+      surprised, and on the next visit of Dr. Robinson, he asked:
+      "Hasn't my uncle been here to ask about me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the old man, unexpectedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why didn't you bring him up here to see me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He just inquired how you were, and said he thought you were
+      better off with us than you would be at home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked fixedly in the face of the pretended doctor, and
+      was convinced that he had been deceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe it," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh! do as you like about believing it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't believe you mailed my letter to my uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have it your own way, my young friend. Of course I can't
+      argue with a maniac."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't call me a maniac, you old humbug! You ought to be in
+      jail for this outrage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho, ho! How very amusing you are, my young friend!" said the
+      old man. "You'd make a first-class tragedian, you really
+      would."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I might do something tragic, if I had a weapon," said Jack,
+      significantly. "Are you going to let me out?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Positively, I can't part with you. You are too good
+      company," said Dr. Robinson, mockingly. "You'll thank me for
+      my care of you when you are quite cured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's all rubbish," said Jack, boldly. "I'm no more crazy
+      than you are, and you know it. Will you answer me a
+      question?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It depends on what it is," said the old man, cautiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has Mrs. Hardwick been here to ask about me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly. She takes a great deal of interest in you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was there a little girl with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe so. I really don't remember."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If she calls again, either with or without Ida, will you ask
+      her to come up here? I want to see her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I'll tell her. Now, my young friend, I must really
+      leave you. Business before pleasure, you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack looked about the room for something to read. He found
+      among other books a small volume, purporting to contain "The
+      Adventures of Baron Trenck."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that the reader has never encountered a copy of
+      this singular book. Baron Trenck was several times imprisoned
+      for political offenses, and this book contains an account of
+      the manner in which he succeeded, after years of labor, in
+      escaping from his dungeon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered,
+      looking about the room, if he could not find some similar
+      plan of escape.
+    </p><a name="CH28"><!-- CH28 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      THE SECRET STAIRCASE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The prospect certainly was not a bright one. The door was
+      fast locked. Escape from the windows seemed impracticable.
+      This apparently exhausted the avenues of escape that were
+      open to the dissatisfied prisoner. But accidentally Jack made
+      an important discovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a full-length portrait in the room. Jack chanced to
+      rest his hand against it, when he must unconsciously have
+      touched some secret spring, for a secret door opened,
+      dividing the picture in two parts, and, to our hero's
+      unbounded astonishment, he saw before him a small spiral
+      staircase leading down into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a queer old house!" thought Jack. "I wonder where
+      those stairs go to. I've a great mind to explore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not much chance of detection, he reflected, as it
+      would be three hours before his next meal would be brought
+      him. He left the door open, therefore, and began slowly and
+      cautiously to go down the staircase. It seemed a long one,
+      longer than was necessary to connect two floors. Boldly Jack
+      kept on till he reached the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where am I?" thought our hero. "I must be down as low as the
+      cellar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this thought passed through his mind, voices suddenly
+      struck upon his ear. He had accustomed himself now to the
+      darkness, and ascertained that there was a crevice through
+      which he could look in the direction from which the sounds
+      proceeded. Applying his eye, he could distinguish a small
+      cellar apartment, in the middle of which was a printing
+      press, and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish
+      three persons. Two were in their shirt sleeves, bending over
+      an engraver's bench. Beside them, and apparently
+      superintending their work, was the old man whom Jack knew as
+      Dr. Robinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He applied his ear to the crevice, and heard these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This lot is rather better than the last, Jones. We can't be
+      too careful, or the detectives will interfere with our
+      business. Some of the last lot were rather coarse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know it, sir," answered the man addressed as Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's nothing the matter with this," said the old man.
+      "There isn't one person in a hundred that would suspect it
+      was not genuine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack pricked up his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking through the crevice, he ascertained that it was a
+      bill that the old man had in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They're counterfeiters," he said, half audibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Low as the tone was, it startled Dr. Robinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said he, startled, "what's that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's what, sir?" said Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought I heard some one speaking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't hear nothing, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you hear nothing, Ferguson?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose I was deceived, then," said the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How many bills have you there?" he resumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seventy-nine, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's a very good day's work," said the old man, in a tone
+      of satisfaction. "It's a paying business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It pays you, sir," said Jones, grumbling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it shall pay you, too, my man, never fear!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had made a great discovery. He understood now the
+      connection between Mrs. Hardwick and the old man whom he now
+      knew not to be a physician. He was at the head of a gang of
+      counterfeiters, and she was engaged in putting the false
+      money into circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He softly ascended the staircase, and re-entered the room he
+      left, closing the secret door behind him.
+    </p><a name="CH29"><!-- CH29 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK IS DETECTED
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the afternoon, Jack made another visit to
+      the foot of the staircase. He saw through the crevice the
+      same two men at work, but the old man was not with them.
+      Ascertaining this, he ought, in prudence, immediately to have
+      retraced his steps, but he remained on watch for twenty
+      minutes. When he did return he was startled by finding the
+      old man seated, and waiting for him. There was a menacing
+      expression on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where have you been?" he demanded, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Downstairs," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! What did you see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may as well own up," thought Jack. "Through a crack I saw
+      some men at work in a basement room," he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know what they were doing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Counterfeiting, I should think."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, is there anything wrong in that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose you wouldn't want to be found out," he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't mean to have you make this discovery. Now there's
+      only one thing to be done."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have become possessed of an important&mdash;I may say, a
+      dangerous secret. You have us in your power."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Jack, "you are afraid I will denounce you
+      to the police?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, there is a possibility of that. That class of people
+      has a prejudice against us, though we are only doing what
+      everybody likes to do&mdash;making money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you let me go if I keep your secret?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What assurance have we that you would keep your promise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would pledge my word."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your word!" Foley&mdash;for this was the old man's real
+      name&mdash;snapped his fingers. "I wouldn't give that for it.
+      That is not sufficient."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will be?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must become one of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes. You must make yourself liable to the same penalties, so
+      that it will be for your own interest to remain silent.
+      Otherwise we can't trust you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I decline these terms?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I shall be under the painful necessity of retaining you
+      as my guest," said Foley, smiling disagreeably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What made you pretend to be a mad-doctor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To put you off the track," said Foley. "You believed it,
+      didn't you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At first."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, what do you say?" asked Foley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should like to take time to reflect upon your proposal,"
+      said Jack. "It is of so important a character that I don't
+      like to decide at once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long do you require?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Two days. Suppose I join you, shall I get good pay?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Excellent," answered Foley. "In fact, you'll be better paid
+      than a boy of your age would be anywhere else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's worth thinking about," said Jack, gravely. "My father
+      is poor, and I've got my own way to make."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You couldn't have a better opening. You're a smart lad, and
+      will be sure to succeed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I'll think of it. If I should make up my mind before
+      the end of two days, I will let you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well. You can't do better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But there's one thing I want to ask about," said Jack, with
+      pretended anxiety. "It's pretty risky business, isn't it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've been in the business ten years, and they haven't got
+      hold of me yet," answered Foley. "All you've got to do is to
+      be careful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He'll join," said Foley to himself. "He's a smart fellow,
+      and we can make him useful. It'll be the best way to dispose
+      of one who might get us into trouble."
+    </p><a name="CH30"><!-- CH30 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S TRIUMPH
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The next day Jack had another visit from Foley. "Well," said
+      the old man, nodding, "have you thought over my proposal?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What should I have to do?" asked Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another. At first we
+      might employ you to put off some of the bills."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would be easy work, anyway," said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, there is nothing hard about that, except to look
+      innocent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can do that," said Jack, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're smart; I can tell by the looks of you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you really think so?" returned Jack, appearing flattered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; you'll make one of our best hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose Mrs. Hardwick is in your employ?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps she is, and perhaps she isn't," said Foley,
+      noncommittally. "That is something you don't need to know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I don't care to know," said Jack, carelessly. "I only
+      asked. I was afraid you would set me to work down in the
+      cellar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't know enough about the business. We need skilled
+      workmen. You couldn't do us any good there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shouldn't like it, anyway. It must be unpleasant to be
+      down there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We pay the workmen you saw good pay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I suppose so. When do you want me to begin?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell you just yet. I'll think about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope it'll be soon, for I'm tired of staying here. By the
+      way, that's a capital idea about the secret staircase. Who'd
+      ever think the portrait concealed it?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he advanced to the portrait in an easy, natural
+      manner, and touched the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course it flew open. The old man also drew near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was my idea," he said, in a complacent tone. "Of course
+      we have to keep everything as secret as possible, and I
+      flatter myself&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His remark came to a sudden pause. He had incautiously got
+      between Jack and the open door. Now our hero, who was close
+      upon eighteen, and strongly built, was considerably more than
+      a match in physical strength for Foley. He suddenly seized
+      the old man, thrust him through the aperture, then closed the
+      secret door, and sprang for the door of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The key was in the lock where Foley, whose confidence made
+      him careless, had left it. Turning it, he hurried downstairs,
+      meeting no one on the way. To open the front door and dash
+      through it was the work of an instant. As he descended the
+      stairs he could hear the muffled shout of the old man whom he
+      had made prisoner, but this only caused him to accelerate his
+      speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack now directed his course as well as he could toward his
+      uncle's shop. One thing, however, he did not forget, and that
+      was to note carefully the position of the shop in which he
+      had been confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall want to make another visit there," he reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, as may well be supposed, Abel Harding had suffered
+      great anxiety on account of Jack's protracted absence.
+      Several days had elapsed and still he was missing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am afraid something has happened to Jack," he remarked to
+      his wife on the afternoon of Jack's escape. "I think Jack was
+      probably rash and imprudent, and I fear, poor boy, he may
+      have come to harm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He may be confined by the parties who have taken his
+      sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is possible that it is no worse. At all events, I don't
+      think it right to keep it from Timothy any longer. I've put
+      off writing as long as I could, hoping Jack would come back,
+      but I don't feel as if it would be right to hold it back any
+      longer. I shall write this evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Better wait till morning, Abel. Who knows but we may hear
+      from Jack before that time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we'd been going to hear we'd have heard before this," he
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment the door was flung open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's Jack!" exclaimed the baker, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should say it was," returned Jack. "Aunt, have you got
+      anything to eat? I'm 'most famished."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where in the name of wonder have you been, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I've been shut up, uncle&mdash;boarded and lodged for
+      nothing&mdash;by some people who liked my company better than
+      I liked theirs. But I've just made my escape, and here I am,
+      well, hearty and hungry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack's appetite was soon provided for. He found time between
+      the mouthfuls to describe the secret staircase, and his
+      discovery of the unlawful occupation of the man who acted as
+      his jailer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baker listened with eager interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," said he, "you've done a good stroke of business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In getting away?" said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, in ferreting out these counterfeiters. Do you know there
+      is a reward of a thousand dollars offered for their
+      apprehension?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't say so!" exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and
+      fork. "Do you think I can get it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'd better try. The gang has managed matters so shrewdly
+      that the authorities have been unable to get any clew to
+      their whereabouts. Can you go to the house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes; I took particular notice of its location."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's lucky. Now, if you take my advice, you'll inform the
+      authorities before they have time to get away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll do it!" said Jack. "Come along, uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen minutes later, Jack was imparting his information to
+      the chief of police. It was received with visible interest
+      and excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will detail a squad of men to go with you," said the
+      chief. "Go at once. No time is to be lost."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than an hour from the time Jack left the haunt of the
+      coiners, an authoritative knock was heard at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was answered by Foley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man turned pale as he set eyes on Jack and the
+      police, and comprehended the object of the visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you want, gentlemen?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that the man?" asked the sergeant of Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Secure him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know him," said Foley, with a glance of hatred directed at
+      Jack. "He's a thief. He's been in my employ, but he's run
+      away with fifty dollars belonging to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care about stealing the kind of money you deal in,"
+      said Jack, coolly. "It's all a lie this man tells you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do you arrest me?" said Foley. "It's an outrage. You
+      have no right to enter my house like this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your business?" demanded the police sergeant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm a physician."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are telling the truth, no harm will be done you.
+      Meanwhile, we must search your house. Where is that secret
+      staircase?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll show you," answered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He showed the way upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How did you get out?" he asked Foley, as he touched the
+      spring, and the secret door flew open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Curse you!" exclaimed Foley, darting a look of hatred and
+      malignity at him. "I wish I had you in my power once more. I
+      treated you too well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We need not follow the police in their search. The
+      discoveries which they made were ample to secure the
+      conviction of the gang who made this house the place of their
+      operations. To anticipate a little, we may say that Foley was
+      sentenced to imprisonment for a term of years, and his
+      subordinates to a term less prolonged. The reader will also
+      be glad to know that to our hero was awarded the prize of a
+      thousand dollars which had been offered for the apprehension
+      of the gang of counterfeiters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was another notable capture made that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick was accustomed to make visits to Foley to
+      secure false bills, and to make settlement for what she had
+      succeeded in passing off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Jack and the officers were in the house she rang the
+      door bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack went to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How is this?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh," said Jack, "it's all right. Come in. I've gone into the
+      business, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hardwick entered. No sooner was she inside than Jack
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are you doing?" she demanded, suspiciously. "Let me
+      out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack was standing with his back to the door. The door to
+      the right opened, and a policeman appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Arrest this woman," said Jack. "She's one of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose I must yield," said Peg, sulkily; "but you shan't
+      be a gainer by it," she continued, addressing Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where is Ida?" asked our hero, anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is safe," said Peg, sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You won't tell me where she is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; why should I? I suppose I am indebted to you for this
+      arrest. She shall be kept out of your way as long as I have
+      power to do so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I shall find her," said Jack. "She is somewhere in the
+      city, and I'll find her sooner or later."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg was not one to betray her feelings, but this arrest was a
+      great disappointment to her. It interfered with a plan she
+      had of making a large sum out of Ida. To understand what this
+      was, we must go back a day or two, and introduce a new
+      character.
+    </p><a name="CH31"><!-- CH31 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      MR. JOHN SOMERVILLE
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Jack's appearance on the scene had set Mrs. Hardwick to
+      thinking. This was the substance of her reflections: Ida,
+      whom she had kidnaped for certain reasons of her own, was
+      likely to prove an incumbrance rather than a source of
+      profit. The child, her suspicions awakened in regard to the
+      character of the money she had been employed to pass off, was
+      no longer available for that purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances Peg bethought herself of the
+      ultimate object which she had proposed to herself in
+      kidnaping Ida&mdash;that of extorting money from a man who
+      has not hitherto figured in our story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville occupied a suite of apartments in a handsome
+      lodging house in Walnut Street. A man wanting yet several
+      years of forty, he looked many years older than that age.
+      Late hours and dissipated habits, though kept within
+      respectable limits, left their traces on his face. At
+      twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which,
+      combined with some professional income&mdash;for he was a
+      lawyer, and not without ability&mdash;was quite sufficient to
+      support him handsomely, and leave a considerable surplus
+      every year. But latterly he had contracted a passion for
+      gaming, and, shrewd though he might be naturally, he could
+      hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily
+      <i>habitues</i> of the gaming table, who had marked him for
+      their prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening before his introduction to the reader he had
+      passed till a late hour at a fashionable gaming house, where
+      he had lost heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His reflections on waking were not the most pleasant. For the
+      first time within fifteen years he realized the folly and
+      imprudence of the course he had pursued. The evening previous
+      he had lost a thousand dollars, for which he had given his
+      IOU. Where to raise the money he did not know. After making
+      his toilet, he rang the bell and ordered breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this he had but scanty appetite. He drank a cup of coffee
+      and ate part of a roll. Scarcely had he finished, and
+      directed the removal of the dishes, than the servant entered
+      to announce a visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it a gentleman?" he inquired, hastily, fearing that it
+      might be a creditor. He occasionally had such visitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A child? But what could a child want of me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir. It isn't a child," said the servant, in reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then if it's neither a gentleman, lady nor child," said
+      Somerville, "will you have the goodness to inform me what
+      sort of a being it is?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a woman, sir," answered the servant, his gravity
+      unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why didn't you say so when I asked you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you asked me if it was a lady, and this
+      isn't&mdash;leastways she don't look like one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can send her up, whoever she is," said Somerville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment afterward Peg entered his presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville looked at her without much interest,
+      supposing that she might be a seamstress, or laundress, or
+      some applicant for charity. So many years had passed since he
+      had met with this woman that she had passed out of his
+      remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you wish to see me about anything?" he asked. "You must
+      be quick, for I am just going out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You don't seem to recognize me, Mr. Somerville."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't say I do," he replied, carelessly. "Perhaps you used
+      to wash for me once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not in the habit of acting as laundress," said the
+      woman, proudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case," said Somerville, languidly, "you will have to
+      tell me who you are, for it is quite out of my power to
+      remember all the people I meet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps the name of Ida will assist your recollection; or
+      have you forgotten that name, too?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida!" repeated John Somerville, throwing off his indifferent
+      manner, and surveying the woman's features attentively.
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have known several persons of that name," he said,
+      recovering his former indifferent manner. "I haven't the
+      slightest idea to which of them you refer. You don't look as
+      if it was your name," he added, with a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Ida I mean was and is a child," she said. "But there's
+      no use in beating about the bush, Mr. Somerville, when I can
+      come straight to the point. It is now about seven years since
+      my husband and myself were employed to carry off a
+      child&mdash;a female child of a year old&mdash;named Ida. You
+      were the man who employed us." She said this deliberately,
+      looking steadily in his face. "We placed it, according to
+      your directions, on the doorstep of a poor family in New
+      York, and they have since cared for it as their own. I
+      suppose you have not forgotten that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I remember it," he said, "and now recall your features. How
+      have you fared since I employed you? Have you found your
+      business profitable?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far from it," answered Peg. "I am not yet able to retire on
+      a competence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of your youthful appearance," said Somerville,
+      banteringly, "ought not to think of retiring under ten
+      years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I don't care for compliments," she said, "even when they are
+      sincere. As for my youthful appearance, I am old enough to
+      have reached the age of discretion, and not so old as to have
+      fallen into my second childhood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Compliments aside, then, will you proceed to whatever
+      business brought you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I want a thousand dollars," said Peg, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A thousand dollars!" repeated Somerville. "Very likely. I
+      should like that amount myself. Did you come here to tell me
+      that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have come here to ask you to give me that amount."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you a husband?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then let me suggest that your husband is the proper person
+      to apply to in such a case."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I am more likely to get it out of you," said Peg,
+      coolly. "My husband couldn't supply me with a thousand cents,
+      even if he were willing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much as I am flattered by your application," said
+      Somerville, with a polite sneer, "since it would seem to
+      place me next in estimation to your husband, I cannot help
+      suggesting that it is not usual to bestow such a sum on a
+      stranger, or even a friend, without an equivalent rendered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am ready to give you an equivalent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of what nature?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am willing to be silent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how can your silence benefit me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That you will be best able to estimate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Explain yourself, and bear in mind that I can bestow little
+      time on you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can do that in a few words. You employed me to kidnap a
+      child. I believe the law has something to say about that. At
+      any rate, the child's mother may have."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you know about the child's mother?" demanded
+      Somerville, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All about her!" said Peg, emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How am I to credit that? It is easy to claim a knowledge you
+      do not possess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I tell you the whole story, then? In the first place,
+      she married your cousin, after rejecting you. You never
+      forgave her for this. When, a year after marriage, her
+      husband died, you renewed your proposals. They were rejected,
+      and you were forbidden to renew the subject on pain of
+      forfeiting her friendship forever. You left her presence,
+      determined to be revenged. With this object you sought Dick
+      and myself, and employed us to kidnap the child. There is the
+      whole story, briefly told."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Woman, how came this within your knowledge?" he demanded,
+      hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is of no consequence," said Peg. "It was for my
+      interest to find out, and I did so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know one thing more&mdash;the residence of the child's
+      mother. I hesitated this morning whether to come here, or to
+      carry Ida to her mother, trusting to her to repay from
+      gratitude what I demand from you because it is for your
+      interest to comply with my request."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You speak of carrying the child to her mother. How can you
+      do that when she is in New York?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are mistaken," said Peg, coolly. "She is in
+      Philadelphia."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville paced the room with hurried steps. Peg felt
+      that she had succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused after a while, and stood before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You demand a thousand dollars," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have not that amount with me. I have recently lost a heavy
+      sum, no matter how. But I can probably get it to-day. Call
+      to-morrow at this time&mdash;no, in the afternoon, and I will
+      see what I can do for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said the woman, well satisfied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left to himself, John Somerville spent some time in
+      reflection. Difficulties encompassed him&mdash;difficulties
+      from which he found it hard to find a way of escape. He knew
+      how difficult it would be to meet this woman's demand.
+      Gradually his countenance lightened. He had decided what that
+      something should be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peg left John Somerville's apartments, it was with a
+      high degree of satisfaction at the result of the interview.
+      All had turned out as she wished. She looked upon the
+      thousand dollars as already hers. The considerations which
+      she had urged would, she was sure, induce him to make every
+      effort to secure her silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, with a thousand dollars, what might not be done? She
+      would withdraw from the business, for one thing. It was too
+      hazardous. Why might not Dick and she retire to the country,
+      lease a country inn, and live an honest life hereafter? There
+      were times when she grew tired of the life she lived at
+      present. It would be pleasant to go to some place where they
+      were not known, and enroll themselves among the respectable
+      members of the community. She was growing old; she wanted
+      rest and a quiet home. Her early years had been passed in the
+      country. She remembered still the green fields in which she
+      played as a child, and to this woman, old and sin-stained,
+      there came a yearning to have that life return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But her dream was rudely broken by her encounter with the
+      officers of the law at the house of her employer.
+    </p><a name="CH32"><!-- CH32 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      A PROVIDENTIAL MEETING
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      "By gracious, if that isn't Ida!" exclaimed Jack, in profound
+      surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been sauntering along Chestnut Street, listlessly
+      troubled by the thought that though he had given Mrs.
+      Hardwick into custody, he was apparently no nearer the
+      discovery of his young ward than before. What steps should he
+      take to find her? He could not decide. In his perplexity his
+      eyes rested suddenly upon the print of the "Flower Girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," he said, "that is Ida, fast enough. Perhaps they will
+      know in the store where she is to be found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at once entered the store.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you tell me anything about the girl in that picture?" he
+      asked, abruptly, of the nearest clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a fancy picture," he said. "I think you would need a
+      long time to find the original."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It has taken a long time," said Jack. "But you are mistaken.
+      That is a picture of my sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of your sister!" repeated the salesman, with surprise, half
+      incredulous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," persisted Jack. "She is my sister."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it is your sister," said the clerk, "you ought to know
+      where she is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was about to reply, when the attention of both was
+      called by a surprised exclamation from a lady who had paused
+      beside them. Her eyes also were fixed upon the "Flower Girl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is this?" she asked, in visible excitement. "Is it taken
+      from life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This young man says it is his sister," said the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your sister?" repeated the lady, her eyes fixed inquiringly
+      upon Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her tone there was a mingling both of surprise and
+      disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam," answered Jack, respectfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me," she said, "there is very little personal
+      resemblance. I should not have suspected that you were her
+      brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is not my own sister," explained Jack, "but I love her
+      just the same."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you live in Philadelphia? Could I see her?" asked the
+      lady, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I live in New York, madam," said Jack; "but Ida was stolen
+      from us about three weeks since, and I have come here in
+      pursuit of her. I have not been able to find her yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you call her Ida?" demanded the lady, in strange
+      agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," said the woman, rapidly, "I have been much
+      interested in the story of your sister. I should like to hear
+      more, but not here. Would you have any objection to coming
+      home with me, and telling me the rest? Then we will together
+      concert measures for recovering her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are very kind, madam," said Jack, bashfully; for the
+      lady was elegantly dressed, and it had never been his fortune
+      to converse with a lady of her social position. "I shall be
+      glad to go home with you, and shall be very much obliged for
+      your advice and assistance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then we will drive home at once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With natural gallantry, Jack assisted the lady into the
+      carriage, and, at her bidding, got in himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Home, Thomas!" she directed the driver; "and drive as fast
+      as possible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How old was your sister when your parents adopted her?"
+      asked Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack afterward ascertained that this was her name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "About a year old, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long since was that?" asked the lady, waiting for
+      the answer with breathless interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seven years since. She is now eight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must be," murmured the lady, in low tones. "If it is
+      indeed, as I hope, my life will indeed be blessed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you speak, madam?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell me under what circumstances your family adopted her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack related briefly how Ida had been left at their door in
+      her infancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do you recollect the month in which this happened?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was at the close of December, the night before New
+      Year's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is, it must be she!" ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, clasping
+      her hands, while tears of joy welled from her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I don't understand," said Jack, naturally
+      astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My young friend," said the lady, "our meeting this morning
+      seems providential. I have every reason to believe that this
+      child&mdash;your adopted sister&mdash;is my daughter, stolen
+      from me by an unknown enemy at the time of which I speak.
+      From that day to this I have never been able to obtain the
+      slightest clew that might lead to her discovery. I have long
+      taught myself to think of her as dead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jack's turn to be surprised. He looked at the lady
+      beside him. She was barely thirty. The beauty of her girlhood
+      had ripened into the maturer beauty of womanhood. There was
+      the same dazzling complexion, the same soft flush upon the
+      cheeks. The eyes, too, were wonderfully like Ida's. Jack
+      looked, and as he looked he became convinced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must be right," he said. "Ida is very much like you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You think so?" said Mrs. Clifton, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had a picture&mdash;a daguerreotype&mdash;taken of Ida
+      just before I lost her; I have treasured it carefully. I must
+      show it to you when we get to my house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carriage stopped before a stately mansion in a wide and
+      quiet street. The driver dismounted and opened the door. Jack
+      assisted Mrs. Clifton to alight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bashfully our hero followed the lady up the steps, and, at
+      her bidding, seated himself in an elegant parlor furnished
+      with a splendor which excited his admiration and wonder. He
+      had little time to look about him, for Mrs. Clifton, without
+      pausing to remove her street attire, hastened downstairs with
+      an open daguerreotype in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you remember Ida when she was first brought to your
+      house?" she asked. "Did she look anything like this picture?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is her image," answered Jack, decidedly. "I should know
+      it anywhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then there can be no further doubt," said Mrs. Clifton. "It
+      is my child you have cared for so long. Oh! why could I not
+      have known it before? How many lonely days and sleepless
+      nights it would have spared me! But God be thanked for this
+      late blessing! I shall see my child again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hope so, madam. We must find her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is your name, my young friend?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Harding&mdash;Jack Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack?" repeated the lady, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam; that is what they call me. It would not seem
+      natural to be called John."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said Mrs. Clifton, with a smile which went to
+      Jack's heart at once, and made him think her, if any more
+      beautiful than Ida; "as Ida is your adopted sister&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I call her my ward. I am her guardian, you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are a young guardian. But, as I was about to say, that
+      makes us connected in some way, doesn't it? I won't call you
+      Mr. Harding, for that would sound too formal. I will call you
+      Jack."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish you would," said our hero, his face brightening with
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It almost upset him to be called Jack by a beautiful lady,
+      who every day of her life was accustomed to live in a
+      splendor which it seemed to Jack could not be exceeded even
+      by royal state. Had Mrs. Clifton been Queen Victoria herself,
+      he could not have felt a profounder respect and veneration
+      for her than he did already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Jack," said Mrs. Clifton, in a friendly manner which
+      delighted our hero, "we must take measures to discover Ida
+      immediately. I want you to tell me about her disappearance
+      from your house, and what steps you have taken thus far
+      toward finding her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack began at the beginning and described the appearance of
+      Mrs. Hardwick; how she had been permitted to carry Ida away
+      under false representations, and the manner in which he had
+      tracked her to Philadelphia. He spoke finally of her arrest,
+      and her obstinate refusal to impart any information as to
+      where Ida was concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton listened attentively and anxiously. There were
+      more difficulties in the way than she had supposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you think of any plan, Jack?" she asked, anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam," answered Jack. "The man who painted the picture
+      of Ida may know where she is to be found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said the lady. "I will act upon your hint. I
+      will order the carriage again instantly, and we will at once
+      go back to the print store."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later Henry Bowen was surprised by the visit of an
+      elegant lady to his studio, accompanied by a young man of
+      seventeen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you are the artist who designed 'The Flower Girl,'"
+      said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am, madam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was taken from life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am anxious to find the little girl whose face you copied.
+      Can you give me any directions that will enable me to find
+      her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will accompany you to the place where she lives, if you
+      desire it, madam," said the young artist, politely. "It is a
+      strange neighborhood in which to look for so much beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall be deeply indebted to you if you will oblige me so
+      far," said Mrs. Clifton. "My carriage is below, and my
+      coachman will obey your orders."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more they were on the move. In due time the carriage
+      paused. The driver opened the door. He was evidently quite
+      scandalized at the idea of bringing his mistress to such a
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This can't be the place, madam," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the artist. "Do not get out, Mrs. Clifton. I will
+      go in, and find out all that is needful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two minutes later he returned, looking disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are too late," he said. "An hour since a gentleman
+      called, and took away the child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton sank back in her seat in keen disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child! my child!" she murmured. "Shall I ever see thee
+      again?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack, too, felt more disappointed than he was willing to
+      acknowledge. He could not conjecture what gentleman could
+      have carried away Ida. The affair seemed darker and mere
+      complicated than ever.
+    </p><a name="CH33"><!-- CH33 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      IDA IS FOUND
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Ida was sitting alone in the dreary apartment which she was
+      now obliged to call home. Peg had gone out, and, not feeling
+      quite certain of her prey, had bolted the door on the
+      outside. She had left some work for the child&mdash;some
+      handkerchiefs to hem for Dick&mdash;with strict orders to
+      keep steadily at work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While seated at work, she was aroused from thoughts of home
+      by a knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who's there?" asked Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A friend," was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Hardwick&mdash;Peg&mdash;isn't at home," returned Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will come in and wait till she comes back," answered
+      the voice outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't open the door," said the child. "It's fastened
+      outside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, so I see. Then I will take the liberty to draw the
+      bolt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. John Somerville opened the door, and for the first time
+      in seven years his glance fell upon the child whom for so
+      long a time he had defrauded of a mother's care and
+      tenderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida returned to the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How beautiful she is!" thought Somerville, with surprise.
+      "She inherits all her mother's rare beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the table beside Ida was a drawing. "Whose is this?" he
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mine," answered Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you have learned to draw?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A little," answered the child, modestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who taught you? Not the woman you live with?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have not always lived with her, I am sure?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You lived in New York with a family named Harding, did you
+      not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know father and mother?" asked Ida, with sudden hope.
+      "Did they send you for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell you that by and by, my child. But I want to ask
+      you a few questions first. Why does this woman, Peg, lock you
+      in whenever she goes away?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Ida, "she is afraid I'll run away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then she knows you don't want to live with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, she knows that," said the child, frankly. "I have
+      asked her to take me home, but she says she won't for a
+      year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how long have you been with her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "About three weeks, but it seems a great deal longer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What does she make you do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't tell what she made me do first."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because she would be very angry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Suppose I should promise to deliver you from her, would you
+      be willing to go with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you would carry me back to my father and mother?" asked
+      Ida, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Certainly, I would restore you to your mother," was the
+      evasive reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will go with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida ran quickly to get her bonnet and shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We had better go at once," said Somerville. "Peg might
+      return, you know, and then there would be trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, let us go quickly," said Ida, turning pale at the
+      remembered threats of Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither knew as yet that Peg could not return if she would;
+      that, at this very moment, she was in legal custody on a
+      charge of a serious nature. Still less did Ida know that in
+      going she was losing the chance of seeing Jack and her real
+      mother, of whose existence, even, she was not yet aware; and
+      that this man, whom she looked upon as her friend, was in
+      reality her worst enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will conduct you to my own rooms, in the first place,"
+      said her companion. "You must remain in concealment for a day
+      or two, as Peg will undoubtedly be on the look-out for you,
+      and we want to avoid all trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida was delighted with her escape, and with the thoughts of
+      soon seeing her friends in New York. She put implicit faith
+      in her guide, and was willing to submit to any conditions
+      which he saw fit to impose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length they reached his lodgings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were furnished more richly than any room Ida had yet
+      seen; and formed, indeed, a luxurious contrast to the dark
+      and scantily furnished apartment which she had occupied since
+      her arrival in Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, you are glad to get away from Peg?" asked John
+      Somerville, giving Ida a comfortable seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, so glad!" said Ida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you wouldn't care about going back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child shuddered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," she said, "Peg will be very angry. She would
+      beat me, if she got me back again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But she shan't. I will take good care of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida looked her gratitude. Her heart went out to those who
+      appeared to deal kindly with her, and she felt very grateful
+      to her companion for delivering her from Peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said Somerville, "perhaps you will be willing to tell
+      me what it was Peg required you to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Ida; "but she must never know that I told."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I promise not to tell her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was to pass bad money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" exclaimed her companion, quickly. "What sort of bad
+      money?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was bad bills."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did she do much in that way?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A good deal. She goes out every day to buy things with the
+      money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to learn this," said John Somerville,
+      thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why?" asked Ida, curiously; "are you glad she is wicked?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad, because she won't dare to come for you, knowing I
+      can have her put in prison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I am glad, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said her companion, after a pause, "I am obliged to go
+      out for a short time. You will find books on the table, and
+      can amuse yourself by reading. I won't make you sew, as Peg
+      did," he added, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I like to read," she said. "I shall enjoy myself very well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you get tired of reading, you can draw. You will find
+      plenty of paper on my desk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Somerville went out, and Ida, as he had recommended, read
+      for a time. Then, growing tired, she went to the window and
+      looked out. A carriage was passing up the street slowly, on
+      account of a press of other carriages. Ida saw a face that
+      she knew. Forgetting her bonnet in her sudden joy, she ran
+      down the stairs into the street, and up to the carriage
+      window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh! Jack!" she exclaimed; "have you come for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mrs. Clifton's carriage, just returning from Peg's
+      lodgings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, it's Ida!" exclaimed Jack, almost springing through the
+      window of the carriage in his excitement. "Where did you come
+      from, and where have you been all this time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened the door of the carriage and drew Ida in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child, my child! Thank God, you are restored to me!"
+      exclaimed Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew the astonished child to her bosom. Ida looked up
+      into her face in bewilderment. Was it nature that prompted
+      her to return the lady's embrace?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My God! I thank thee!" murmured Mrs. Clifton, "for this, my
+      child, was lost, and is found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ida," said Jack, "this lady is your mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My mother!" repeated the astonished child. "Have I got two
+      mothers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is your real mother. You were brought to our house when
+      you were an infant, and we have always taken care of you; but
+      this lady is your real mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida hardly knew whether to feel glad or sorry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you are not my brother, Jack?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I am your guardian," said Jack, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall still consider him your brother, Ida," said Mrs.
+      Clifton. "Heaven forbid that I should seek to wean your heart
+      from the friends who have cared so kindly for you! You may
+      keep all your old friends, and love them as dearly as ever.
+      You will only have one friend the more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where are we going?" asked Ida, suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are going home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will the gentleman say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What gentleman?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The one that took me away from Peg's. Why, there he is now!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton followed the direction of Ida's finger, as she
+      pointed to a gentleman passing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he the one?" asked Mrs. Clifton, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, mamma," answered Ida, shyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton pressed Ida to her bosom. It was the first time
+      she had ever been called mamma, for when Ida had been taken
+      from her she was too young to speak. The sudden thrill which
+      this name excited made her realize the full measure of her
+      present happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived at the house, Jack's bashfulness returned. Even Ida's
+      presence did not remove it. He hung back, and hesitated about
+      going in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton observed this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jack," she said, "this house is to be your home while you
+      are in Philadelphia. Come in, and Thomas shall go for your
+      luggage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps I had better go with him," said Jack. "Uncle Abel
+      will be glad to know that Ida is found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well; only return soon. As you are Ida's guardian," she
+      added, smiling, "you will need to watch over her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well!" thought Jack, as he re-entered the elegant carriage,
+      and gave the proper direction to the coachman, "won't Uncle
+      Abel be a little surprised when he sees me coming home in
+      this style! Mrs. Clifton's a trump! Maybe that ain't exactly
+      the word, but Ida's in luck anyhow."
+    </p><a name="CH34"><!-- CH34 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Peg was passing her time wearily enough in prison.
+      It was certainly provoking to be deprived of her freedom just
+      when she was likely to make it most profitable. After some
+      reflection she determined to send for Mrs. Clifton, and
+      reveal to her all she knew, trusting to her generosity for a
+      recompense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To one of the officers of the prison she communicated the
+      intelligence that she had an important revelation to make to
+      Mrs. Clifton, absolutely refusing to make it unless the lady
+      would visit her in prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had Mrs. Clifton returned home after recovering her
+      child, than the bell rang, and a stranger was introduced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this Mrs. Clifton?" he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I have a message for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady looked at him inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me introduce myself, madam, as one of the officers
+      connected with the city prison. A woman was placed in
+      confinement this morning, who says she has a most important
+      communication to make to you, but declines to make it except
+      to you in person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you bring her here, sir?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is impossible. We will give you every facility,
+      however, for visiting her in prison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must be Peg," whispered Ida&mdash;"the woman that carried
+      me off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a request Mrs. Clifton could not refuse. She at once
+      made ready to accompany the officer. She resolved to carry
+      Ida with her, fearful that, unless she kept her in her
+      immediate presence, she might disappear again as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Jack had not yet returned, a hack was summoned, and they
+      proceeded at once to the prison. Ida shuddered as she passed
+      within the gloomy portal which shut out hope and the world
+      from so many.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This way, madam!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They followed the officer through a gloomy corridor, until
+      they came to the cell in which Peg was confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg looked up in surprise when she saw Ida enter with Mrs.
+      Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What brought you two together?" she asked, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A blessed Providence," answered Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I saw Jack with her," said Ida, "and I ran out into the
+      street. I didn't expect to find my mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is not much for me to tell, then," said Peg. "I had
+      made up my mind to restore you to your mother. You see, Ida,
+      I've moved," she continued, smiling grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Peg," said Ida, her tender heart melted by the woman's
+      misfortunes, "how sorry I am to find you here!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you sorry?" asked Peg, looking at her in curious
+      surprise. "You haven't much cause to be. I've been your worst
+      enemy; at any rate, one of the worst."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can't help it," said the child, her face beaming with a
+      divine compassion. "It must be so sad to be shut up here, and
+      not be able to go out into the bright sunshine. I do pity
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg's heart was not wholly hardened. Few are. But it was long
+      since it had been touched, as now, by this warm-hearted pity
+      on the part of one whom she had injured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You're a good girl, Ida," she said, "and I'm sorry I've
+      injured you. I didn't think I should ever ask forgiveness of
+      anybody; but I do ask your forgiveness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child rose, and advancing toward her old enemy, took her
+      large hand in hers and said: "I forgive you, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From your heart?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With all my heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, child. I feel better now. There have been times
+      when I have thought I should like to lead a better life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not too late now, Peg."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who will trust me when I come out of here?" she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will," said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will?" repeated Peg, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all I have done to harm you! But I am not quite so bad
+      as you may think. It was not my plan to take Ida from you. I
+      was poor, and money tempted me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who could have had an interest in doing me this cruel
+      wrong?" asked the mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One whom you know well&mdash;Mr. John Somerville."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you are wrong!" exclaimed Mrs. Clifton, in unbounded
+      astonishment. "That cannot be. What object could he have?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you think of none?" queried Peg, looking at her
+      shrewdly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton changed color.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps so," she said. "Go on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peg told the whole story, so circumstantially that there was
+      no room for doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did not believe him capable of such great wickedness,"
+      ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, with a pained and indignant look.
+      "It was a base, unmanly revenge to take. How could you lend
+      yourself to it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How could I?" repeated Peg. "Madam, you are rich. You have
+      always had whatever wealth could procure. How can such as you
+      understand the temptations of the poor? When want and hunger
+      stare us in the face we have not the strength that you have
+      in your luxurious homes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me," said Mrs. Clifton, touched by these words, half
+      bitter, half pathetic. "Let me, at any rate, thank you for
+      the service you have done me now. When you are released from
+      your confinement come to me. If you wish to change your mode
+      of life, and live honestly henceforth, I will give you the
+      chance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all the injury I have done you, you are yet willing to
+      trust me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who am I that I should condemn you? Yes, I will trust you,
+      and forgive you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never expected to hear such words," said Peg, her heart
+      softened, and her arid eyes moistened by unwonted emotion;
+      "least of all from you. I should like to ask one thing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you let her come and see me sometimes?" pointing to Ida
+      as she spoke. "It will remind me that this is not all a
+      dream&mdash;these words which you have spoken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She shall come," said Mrs. Clifton, "and I will come too,
+      sometimes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the prison behind them, and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a visitor awaiting them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Somerville is in the drawing room," said the servant.
+      "He said he would wait till you came in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton's face flushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go down and see him," she said. "Ida, you will remain
+      here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She descended to the drawing room, and met the man who had
+      injured her. He had come with the resolve to stake his all
+      upon one desperate cast. His fortunes were desperate. But he
+      had one hope left. Through the mother's love for the
+      daughter, whom she had mourned so long, whom as he believed
+      he had it in his power to restore to her, he hoped to obtain
+      her consent to a marriage which would retrieve his fortunes
+      and gratify his ambition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton entered the room, and seated herself quietly.
+      She bowed slightly, but did not, as usual, offer her hand.
+      But, full of his own plans, Mr. Somerville took no note of
+      this change in her manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How long is it since Ida was lost?" inquired Somerville,
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton heard this question in surprise. Why was it that
+      he had alluded to this subject?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seven years," she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you believe she yet lives?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I am certain of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Somerville did not understand her. He thought it was
+      only because a mother is reluctant to give up hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a long time," he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is&mdash;a long time to suffer," said Mrs. Clifton, with
+      deep meaning. "How could anyone have the heart to work me
+      this great injury? For seven years I have led a sad and
+      solitary life&mdash;seven years that might have been
+      gladdened and cheered by my darling's presence!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in her tone that puzzled John Somerville,
+      but he was far enough from suspecting that she knew the
+      truth, and at last knew him too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rosa," he said, after a pause, "I, too, believe that Ida
+      still lives. Do you love her well enough to make a sacrifice
+      for the sake of recovering her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What sacrifice?" she asked, fixing her eye upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A sacrifice of your feelings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Explain. You speak in enigmas."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Listen, then. I have already told you that I, too, believe
+      Ida to be living. Indeed, I have lately come upon a clew
+      which I think will lead me to her. Withdraw the opposition
+      you have twice made to my suit, promise me that you will
+      reward my affection by your hand if I succeed, and I will
+      devote myself to the search for Ida, resting not day or night
+      till I have placed her in your arms. This I am ready to do.
+      If I succeed, may I claim my reward?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What reason have you for thinking you would be able to find
+      her?" asked Mrs. Clifton, with the same inexplicable manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The clew that I spoke of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And are you not generous enough to exert yourself without
+      demanding of me this sacrifice?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Rosa," he answered, firmly, "I am not unselfish enough.
+      I have long loved you. You may not love me; but I am sure I
+      can make you happy. I am forced to show myself selfish, since
+      it is the only way in which I can win you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But consider a moment. Put it on a different ground. If you
+      restore me my child now, will not even that be a poor
+      atonement for the wrong you did me seven years
+      since"&mdash;she spoke rapidly now&mdash;"for the grief, and
+      loneliness, and sorrow which your wickedness and cruelty have
+      wrought?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not understand you," he said, faltering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is sufficient explanation, Mr. Somerville, to say I have
+      seen the woman who is now in prison&mdash;your paid
+      agent&mdash;and that I need no assistance to recover Ida. She
+      is in my house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Confusion!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He uttered only this word, and, rising, left the presence of
+      the woman whom he had so long deceived and injured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His grand scheme had failed.
+    </p><a name="CH35"><!-- CH35 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXV
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      JACK'S RETURN
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      It is quite time to return to New York, from which Ida was
+      carried but three short weeks before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am beginning to feel anxious about Jack," said Mrs.
+      Harding. "It's more than a week since we heard from him. I'm
+      afraid he's got into some trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Probably he's too busy to write," said the cooper, wishing
+      to relieve his wife's anxiety, though he, too, was not
+      without anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you so," said Rachel, in one of her usual fits of
+      depression. "I told you Jack wasn't fit to be sent on such an
+      errand. If you'd only taken my advice you wouldn't have had
+      so much worry and trouble about him now. Most likely he's got
+      into the House of Reformation, or somewhere. I knew a young
+      man once who went away from home, and never came back again.
+      Nobody ever knew what became of him till his body was found
+      in the river half eaten by fishes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How can you talk so, Rachel?" said Mrs. Harding, "and about
+      your own nephew, too?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a world of trial and disappointment," said Rachel,
+      "and we might as well expect the worst, for it's sure to
+      come."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At that rate there wouldn't be much joy in life," said
+      Timothy. "No, Rachel, you are wrong. God did not send us into
+      the world to be melancholy. He wants us to enjoy ourselves.
+      Now, I have no idea that Jack has jumped into the river, or
+      become food for the fishes. Even if he should happen to
+      tumble in, he can swim."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I suppose," said Rachel, with mild sarcasm, "you expect him
+      to come home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the cooper, good-humoredly, "that's a good deal
+      better to anticipate than your suggestion, and I don't know
+      but it's as probable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel shook her head dismally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bless me!" interrupted Mrs. Harding, looking out of the
+      window, in a tone of excitement, "there's a carriage just
+      stopped at the door, and&mdash;yes, it is Jack and Ida, too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strange fulfillment of her own ironical suggestion struck
+      even Aunt Rachel. She, too, hastened to the window, and saw a
+      handsome carriage drawn, not by four horses, but by two,
+      standing before the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had already jumped out, and was now assisting Ida to
+      alight. No sooner was Ida on firm ground than she ran into
+      the house, and was at once clasped in the arms of her adopted
+      mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to see you once
+      more!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haven't you a kiss for me, too, Ida?" said the cooper, his
+      face radiant with joy. "You don't know how much we've missed
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I am so glad to see you all, and Aunt Rachel too!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To her astonishment, Aunt Rachel, for the first time in her
+      remembrance, kissed her. There was nothing wanting to her
+      welcome home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the observant eyes of the spinster detected what had
+      escaped the cooper and his wife, in their joy at Ida's
+      return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where did you get this handsome dress, Ida?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, for the first time, the cooper's family noticed that
+      Ida was more elegantly dressed than when she went away. She
+      looked like a young princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That Mrs. Hardwick didn't give you this gown, I'll be
+      bound!" said Aunt Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I've so much to tell you," said Ida, breathlessly. "I've
+      found my mother&mdash;my other mother!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pang struck to the honest hearts of Timothy Harding and his
+      wife. Ida must leave them. After all the happy years which
+      they had watched over and cared for her, she must leave them
+      at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were silent in view of their threatened loss, an
+      elegantly dressed lady appeared on the threshold. Smiling,
+      radiant with happiness, Mrs. Clifton seemed, to the cooper's
+      family, almost a being from another sphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mother," said Ida, taking the hand of the stranger, and
+      leading her up to Mrs. Harding, "this is my other mother, who
+      has always taken such good care of me, and loved me so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mrs. Harding," said Mrs, Clifton, her voice full of feeling,
+      "how can I ever thank you for your kindness to my child?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My child!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was hard for Mrs. Harding to hear another speak of Ida
+      this way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have tried to do my duty by her," she said, simply. "I
+      love her as if she were my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said the cooper, clearing his throat, and speaking a
+      little huskily, "we love her so much that we almost forgot
+      that she wasn't ours. We have had her since she was a baby,
+      and it won't be easy at first to give her up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My good friends," said Mrs. Clifton, earnestly, "I
+      acknowledge your claim. I shall not think of asking you to
+      make that sacrifice. I shall always think of Ida as only a
+      little less yours than mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooper shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But you live in Philadelphia," he said. "We shall lose sight
+      of her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not unless you refuse to come to Philadelphia, too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a poor man. Perhaps I might not find work there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That shall be my care, Mr. Harding. I have another
+      inducement to offer. God has bestowed upon me a large share
+      of this world's goods. I am thankful for it since it will
+      enable me in some slight way to express my sense of your
+      great kindness to Ida. I own a neat brick house, in a quiet
+      street, which you will find more comfortable than this. Just
+      before I left Philadelphia, my lawyer, by my directions, drew
+      up a deed of gift, conveying the house to you. It is Ida's
+      gift, not mine. Ida, give this to Mr. Harding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The child took the parchment and handed it to the cooper, who
+      took it mechanically, quite bewildered by his sudden good
+      fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This for me?" he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the first installment of my debt of gratitude; it
+      shall not be the last," said Mrs. Clifton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How shall I thank you, madam?" said the cooper. "To a poor
+      man, like me, this is a most munificent gift."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will best thank me by accepting it," said Mrs. Clifton.
+      "Let me add, for I know it will enhance the value of the gift
+      in your eyes, that it is only five minutes' walk from my
+      house, and Ida will come and see you every day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, mamma," said Ida. "I couldn't be happy away from father
+      and mother, and Jack and Aunt Rachel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must introduce me to Aunt Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton,
+      with a grace all her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Rachel," said Mrs.
+      Clifton. "I need not say that I shall be glad to see you, as
+      well as Mr. and Mrs. Harding, at my house very frequently."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm much obleeged to ye," said Aunt Rachel; "but I don't
+      think I shall live long to go anywheres. The feelin's I have
+      sometimes warn me that I'm not long for this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, his eyes dancing with
+      mischief, "we come of a short-lived family. Grandmother died
+      at eighty-two, and that wouldn't give Aunt Rachel long to
+      live."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You impudent boy!" exclaimed Aunt Rachel, in great
+      indignation. Then, relapsing into melancholy: "I'm a poor,
+      afflicted creetur, and the sooner I leave this scene of trial
+      the better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm afraid, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, "Aunt Rachel won't
+      live to wear that silk dress you brought along. I'd take it
+      myself, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be of any use to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A silk dress!" exclaimed Rachel, looking up with sudden
+      animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had long been her desire to have a new silk dress, but in
+      her brother's circumstances she had not ventured to hint at
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Mrs. Clifton, "I ventured to purchase dresses for
+      both of the ladies. Jack, if it won't be too much trouble,
+      will you bring them in?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack darted out, and returned with two ample patterns of
+      heavy black silk, one for his mother, the other for his aunt.
+      Aunt Rachel would not have been human if she had not eagerly
+      examined the rich fabric with secret satisfaction. She
+      inwardly resolved to live a little longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marked improvement in her spirits, and she
+      indulged in no prognostications of evil for an unusual
+      period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Clifton and Ida stopped to supper, and before they
+      returned to the hotel an early date was fixed upon for the
+      Hardings to remove to Philadelphia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening Jack told the eventful story of his adventures
+      to eager listeners, closing with the welcome news that he was
+      to receive the reward of a thousand dollars offered for the
+      detection of the counterfeiters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So you see, father, I am a man of fortune!" he concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "After all, Rachel, it was a good thing we sent Jack to
+      Philadelphia," said the cooper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel did not notice this remark. She was busily discussing
+      with her sister-in-law the best way of making up her new
+      silk.
+    </p><a name="CH36"><!-- CH36 --></a>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVI
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      CONCLUSION
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      As soon as arrangements could be made, Mr. Harding and his
+      whole family removed to Philadelphia. The house which Mrs.
+      Clifton had given them exceeded their anticipations. It was
+      so much better and larger than their former dwelling that
+      their furniture would have appeared to great disadvantage in
+      it. But Mrs. Clifton had foreseen this, and they found the
+      house already furnished for their reception. Even Aunt Rachel
+      was temporarily exhilarated in spirits when she was ushered
+      into the neatly furnished chamber which was assigned to her
+      use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through Mrs. Clifton's influence the cooper was enabled to
+      establish himself in business on a larger scale, and employ
+      others, instead of working himself for hire. Ida was such a
+      frequent visitor that it was hard to tell which she
+      considered her home&mdash;her mother's elegant residence, or
+      the cooper's comfortable dwelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack put his thousand dollars into a savings bank, to
+      accumulate till he should be ready to go into business for
+      himself, and required it as capital. A situation was found
+      for him in a merchant's counting-room, and in due time he was
+      admitted into partnership and became a thriving young
+      merchant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ida grew lovelier as she grew older, and her rare beauty and
+      attractive manners caused her to be sought after. It may be
+      that some of my readers are expecting that she will marry
+      Jack; but they will probably be disappointed. They are too
+      much like brother and sister for such a relation to be
+      thought of. Jack reminds her occasionally of the time when
+      she was his little ward, and he was her guardian and
+      protector.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, as Rachel was walking up Chestnut Street, she was
+      astonished by a hearty grasp of the hand from a bronzed and
+      weather-beaten stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Release me, sir," she said, hysterically. "What do you mean
+      by such conduct?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely you have not forgotten your old friend, Capt.
+      Bowling," said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel brightened up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I didn't remember you at first," she said, "but now I do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now tell me, how are all your family?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are all well, all except me&mdash;I don't think I am
+      long for this world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, yes, you are. You are too young to think of leaving us
+      yet," said Capt. Bowling, heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rachel was gratified by this unusual compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you married?" asked Capt. Bowling, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall never marry," she said. "I shouldn't dare to trust
+      my happiness to a man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not if I were that man?" said the captain, persuasively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, Capt. Bowling!" murmured Rachel, agitated. "How can you
+      say such things?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell you why, Miss Harding. I'm going to give up the
+      sea, and settle down on land. I shall need a good, sensible
+      wife, and if you'll take me, I'll make you Mrs. Bowling at
+      once."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is so unexpected, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel; but she
+      did not look displeased. "Do you think it would be proper to
+      marry so suddenly?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will be just the thing to do. Now, what do you
+      say&mdash;yes or no."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you really think it will be right," faltered the agitated
+      spinster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then it's all settled?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What will Timothy say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That you've done a sensible thing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours later, leaning on Capt. Bowling's arm, Mrs. Rachel
+      Bowling re-entered her brother's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Rachel, where have you been?" asked Mrs. Harding, and
+      she looked hard at Rachel's companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is my consort, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel, nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is Mrs. Bowling, ma'am," said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When were you married?" asked the cooper. It was dinner
+      time, and both he and Jack were at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only an hour ago. We'd have invited you, but time was
+      pressing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought you never meant to be married, Aunt Rachel," said
+      Jack, mischievously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I don't expect to live long, and it won't make much
+      difference," said Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You'll have to consult me about that," said Capt. Bowling.
+      "I don't want you to leave me a widower too soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I propose that we drink Mrs. Bowling's health," said Jack.
+      "Can anybody tell me why she's like a good ship?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because she's got a good captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That'll do, mother; but there's another reason&mdash;because
+      she's well manned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Capt. Bowling evidently appreciated the joke, judging from
+      his hearty laughter. He added that it wouldn't be his fault
+      if she wasn't well rigged, too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marriage has turned out favorably. The captain looks upon
+      his wife as a superior woman, and Rachel herself has few fits
+      of depression nowadays. They have taken a small house near
+      Mr. Harding's, and Rachel takes no little pride in her snug
+      and comfortable home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One word more. At the close of her term of imprisonment, Peg
+      came to Mrs. Clifton and reminded her of her promise. Dick
+      was dead, and she was left alone in the world. Imprisonment
+      had not hardened her, as it often does. She had been redeemed
+      by the kindness of those whom she had injured. Mrs. Clifton
+      found her a position, in which her energy and administrative
+      ability found fitting exercise, and she leads a laborious and
+      useful life in a community where her history is not known. As
+      for John Somerville, with the last remnants of a once
+      handsome fortune, he purchased a ticket to Australia, and set
+      out on a voyage for that distant country. But he never
+      reached his destination. The vessel was wrecked in a violent
+      storm, and he was not among the four that were saved.
+      Henceforth Ida and her mother are far from his evil
+      machinations, and we may confidently hope for them a happy
+      and peaceful life.
+    </p>
+<br>
+<hr class="full">
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK'S WARD***</p>
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+</pre>
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+</html>
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+++ b/old/10729.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Jack's Ward, by Horatio Alger, Jr.
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Jack's Ward
+
+Author: Horatio Alger, Jr.
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2004  [eBook #10729]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK'S WARD***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Garcia and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+JACK'S WARD
+
+OR
+
+THE BOY GUARDIAN
+
+BY
+
+HORATIO ALGER, JR.
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Jack seized the old man, thrust him through the secret
+door and locked it.]
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+Horatio Alger, Jr., an author who lived among and for boys and himself
+remained a boy in heart and association till death, was born at Revere,
+Mass., January 13, 1834. He was the son of a clergyman; was graduated
+at Harvard College in 1852, and at its Divinity School in 1860; and was
+pastor of the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass., in 1862-66.
+
+In the latter year he settled in New York and began drawing public
+attention to the condition and needs of street boys. He mingled with
+them, gained their confidence, showed a personal concern in their
+affairs, and stimulated them to honest and useful living. With his first
+story he won the hearts of all red-blooded boys everywhere, and of the
+seventy or more that followed over a million copies were sold during the
+author's lifetime.
+
+In his later life he was in appearance a short, stout, bald-headed man,
+with cordial manners and whimsical views of things that amused all who
+met him. He died at Natick, Mass., July 18, 1899.
+
+Mr. Alger's stories are as popular now as when first published, because
+they treat of real live boys who were always up and about--just like the
+boys found everywhere to-day. They are pure in tone and inspiring in
+influence, and many reforms in the juvenile life of New York may be
+traced to them. Among the best known are:
+
+_Strong and Steady; Strive and Succeed; Try and Trust; Bound to Rise;
+Risen from the Ranks; Herbert Carter's Legacy; Brave and Bold; Jack's
+Ward; Shifting for Himself; Wait and Hope; Paul the Peddler; Phil the
+Fiddler; Slow and Sure; Julius the Street Boy; Tom the Bootblack;
+Struggling Upward; Facing the World; The Cash Boy; Making His Way; Tony
+the Tramp; Joe's Luck; Do and Dare; Only an Irish Boy; Sink or Swim; A
+Cousin's Conspiracy; Andy Gordon; Bob Burton; Harry Vane; Hector's
+Inheritance; Mark Mason's Triumph; Sam's Chance; The Telegraph Boy; The
+Young Adventurer; The Young Outlaw; The Young Salesman_, and _Luke
+Walton_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK'S WARD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+JACK HARDING GETS A JOB
+
+
+"Look here, boy, can you hold my horse a few minutes?" asked a
+gentleman, as he jumped from his carriage in one of the lower streets
+in New York.
+
+The boy addressed was apparently about twelve, with a bright face and
+laughing eyes, but dressed in clothes of coarse material. This was Jack
+Harding, who is to be our hero.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Jack, with alacrity, hastening to the horse's head;
+"I'll hold him as long as you like."
+
+"All right! I'm going in at No. 39; I won't be long."
+
+"That's what I call good luck," said Jack to himself. "No boy wants a
+job more than I do. Father's out of work, rent's most due, and Aunt
+Rachel's worrying our lives out with predicting that we'll all be in
+the poorhouse inside of three months. It's enough to make a fellow feel
+blue, listenin' to her complainin' and groanin' all the time. Wonder
+whether she was always so. Mother says she was disappointed in love
+when she was young. I guess that's the reason."
+
+"Have you set up a carriage, Jack?" asked a boy acquaintance, coming up
+and recognizing Jack.
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "but it ain't for long. I shall set down again pretty
+soon."
+
+"I thought your grandmother had left you a fortune, and you had set up a
+team."
+
+"No such good news. It belongs to a gentleman that's inside."
+
+"Inside the carriage?"
+
+"No, in No. 39."
+
+"How long's he going to stay?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"If it was half an hour, we might take a ride, and be back in time."
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"That ain't my style," he said. "I'll stay here till he comes out."
+
+"Well, I must be going along. Are you coming to school to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, if I can't get anything to do."
+
+"Are you trying for that?"
+
+"I'd like to get a place. Father's out of work, and anything I can earn
+comes in handy."
+
+"My father's got plenty of money," said Frank Nelson, complacently.
+"There isn't any need of my working."
+
+"Then your father's lucky."
+
+"And so am I."
+
+"I don't know about that. I'd just as lieve work as not."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't. I'd rather be my own master, and have my time to
+myself. But I must be going home."
+
+"You're lazy, Frank."
+
+"Very likely. I've a right to be."
+
+Frank Nelson went off, and Jack was left alone. Half an hour passed, and
+still the gentleman, who had entered No. 39, didn't appear. The horse
+showed signs of impatience, shook his head, and eyed Jack in an
+unfriendly manner.
+
+"He thinks it time to be going," thought Jack. "So do I. I wonder what
+the man's up to. Perhaps he's spending the day."
+
+Fifteen minutes more passed, but then relief came. The owner of the
+carriage came out.
+
+"Did you get tired of waiting for me?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Jack, shrewdly. "I knew the longer the job, the bigger the
+pay."
+
+"I suppose that is a hint," said the gentleman, not offended.
+
+"Perhaps so," said Jack, and he smiled too.
+
+"Tell me, now, what are you going to do with the money I give you--buy
+candy?"
+
+"No," answered Jack, "I shall carry it home to my mother."
+
+"That's well. Does your mother need the money?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Father's out of work, and we've got to live all the same."
+
+"What's your father's business?"
+
+"He's a cooper."
+
+"So he's out of work?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and has been for six weeks. It's on account of the panic, I
+suppose."
+
+"Very likely. He has plenty of company just now."
+
+It may be remarked that our story opens in the year 1867, memorable for
+its panic, and the business depression which followed. Nearly every
+branch of industry suffered, and thousands of men were thrown out of
+work, and utterly unable to find employment of any kind. Among them was
+Timothy Harding, the father of our hero. He was a sober, steady man, and
+industrious; but his wages had never been large, and he had been unable
+to save up a reserve fund, on which to draw in time of need. He had an
+excellent wife, and but one child--our present hero; but there was
+another, and by no means unimportant member of the family. This was
+Rachel Harding, a spinster of melancholy temperament, who belonged to
+that unhappy class who are always prophesying evil, and expecting the
+worst. She had been "disappointed" in early life, and this had something
+to do with her gloomy views, but probably she was somewhat inclined by
+nature to despondency.
+
+The family lived in a humble tenement, which, however, was neatly kept,
+and would have been a cheerful home but for the gloomy presence of Aunt
+Rachel, who, since her brother had been thrown out of employment, was
+gloomier than ever.
+
+But all this while we have left Jack and the stranger standing in the
+street.
+
+"You seem to be a good boy," said the latter, "and, under the
+circumstances, I will pay you more than I intended."
+
+He drew from his vest pocket a dollar bill, and handed it to Jack.
+
+"What! is all this for me?" asked Jack, joyfully.
+
+"Yes, on the condition that you carry it home, and give it to your
+mother."
+
+"That I will, sir; she'll be glad enough to get it."
+
+"Well, good-by, my boy. I hope your father'll find work soon."
+
+"He's a trump!" ejaculated Jack. "Wasn't it lucky I was here just as he
+wanted a boy to hold his horse. I wonder what Aunt Rachel will have to
+say to that? Very likely she'll say the bill is bad."
+
+Jack made the best of his way home. It was already late in the
+afternoon, and he knew he would be expected. It was with a lighter heart
+than usual that he bent his steps homeward, for he knew that the dollar
+would be heartily welcome.
+
+We will precede him, and give a brief description of his home.
+
+There were only five rooms, and these were furnished in the plainest
+manner. In the sitting room were his mother and aunt. Mrs. Harding was a
+motherly-looking woman, with a pleasant face, the prevailing expression
+of which was a serene cheerfulness, though of late it had been harder
+than usual to preserve this, in the straits to which the family had been
+reduced. She was setting the table for tea.
+
+Aunt Rachel sat in a rocking-chair at the window. She was engaged in
+knitting. Her face was long and thin, and, as Jack expressed it, she
+looked as if she hadn't a friend in the world. Her voice harmonized with
+her mournful expression, and was equally doleful.
+
+"I wonder why Jack don't come home?" said Mrs. Harding, looking at the
+clock. "He's generally here at this time."
+
+"Perhaps somethin's happened," suggested her sister-in-law.
+
+"What do you mean, Rachel?"
+
+"I was reading in the _Sun_ this morning about a boy being run over
+out West somewhere."
+
+"You don't think Jack has been run over!"
+
+"Who knows?" said Rachel, gloomily. "You know how careless boys are, and
+Jack's very careless."
+
+"I don't see how you can look for such things, Rachel."
+
+"Accidents are always happening; you know that yourself, Martha. I don't
+say Jack's run over. Perhaps he's been down to the wharves, and tumbled
+over into the water and got drowned."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't say such things, Rachel. They make me feel
+uncomfortable."
+
+"We may as well be prepared for the worst," said Rachel, severely.
+
+"Not this time, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding, brightly, "for that's Jack's
+step outside. He isn't drowned or run over, thank God!"
+
+"I hear him," said Rachel, dismally. "Anybody might know by the noise
+who it is. He always comes stamping along as if he was paid for makin' a
+noise. Anybody ought to have a cast-iron head that lives anywhere within
+his hearing."
+
+Here Jack entered, rather boisterously, it must be admitted, in his
+eagerness slamming the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EVENTS OF AN EVENING
+
+
+"I am glad you've come, Jack," said his mother. "Rachel was just
+predicting that you were run over or drowned."
+
+"I hope you're not very much disappointed to see me safe and well, Aunt
+Rachel," said Jack, merrily. "I don't think I've been drowned."
+
+"There's things worse than drowning," replied Rachel, severely.
+
+"Such as what?"
+
+"A man that's born to be hanged is safe from drowning."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment, Aunt Rachel, if you mean me. But, mother,
+I didn't tell you of my good luck. See this," and he displayed the
+dollar bill.
+
+"How did you get it?" asked his mother.
+
+"Holding horses. Here, take it, mother; I warrant you'll find a use for
+it."
+
+"It comes in good time," said Mrs. Harding. "We're out of flour, and I
+had no money to buy any. Before you take off your boots, Jack, I wish
+you'd run over to the grocery store, and buy half a dozen pounds. You
+may get a pound of sugar, and quarter of a pound of tea also."
+
+"You see the Lord hasn't forgotten us," she remarked, as Jack started on
+his errand.
+
+"What's a dollar?" said Rachel, gloomily. "Will it carry us through the
+winter?"
+
+"It will carry us through to-night, and perhaps Timothy will have work
+to-morrow. Hark, that's his step."
+
+At this moment the outer door opened, and Timothy Harding entered, not
+with the quick, elastic step of one who brings good tidings, but slowly
+and deliberately, with a quiet gravity of demeanor in which his wife
+could read only too well that he had failed in his efforts to procure
+work.
+
+Reading all this in his manner, she had the delicacy to forbear
+intruding upon him questions to which she saw it would only give him
+pain to reply.
+
+Not so Aunt Rachel.
+
+"I needn't ask," she began, "whether you've got work, Timothy. I knew
+beforehand you wouldn't. There ain't no use in tryin'! The times is
+awful dull, and mark my words, they'll be wuss before they're better. We
+mayn't live to see 'em. I don't expect we shall. Folks can't live
+without money; and if we can't get that, we shall have to starve."
+
+"Not so bad as that, Rachel," said the cooper, trying to look cheerful;
+"I don't talk about starving till the time comes. Anyhow," glancing at
+the table, on which was spread a good plain meal, "we needn't talk about
+starving till to-morrow with that before us. Where's Jack?"
+
+"Gone after some flour," replied his wife.
+
+"On credit?" asked the cooper.
+
+"No, he's got money enough to pay for a few pounds," said Mrs. Harding,
+smiling with an air of mystery.
+
+"Where did it come from?" asked Timothy, who was puzzled, as his wife
+anticipated. "I didn't know you had any money in the house."
+
+"No more we had; but he earned it himself, holding horses, this
+afternoon."
+
+"Come, that's good," said the cooper, cheerfully. "We ain't so bad off
+as we might be, you see, Rachel."
+
+"Very likely the bill's bad," she said, with the air of one who rather
+hoped it was.
+
+"Now, Rachel, what's the use of anticipating evil?" said Mrs. Harding.
+"You see you're wrong, for here's Jack with the flour."
+
+The family sat down to supper.
+
+"You haven't told us," said Mrs. Harding, seeing her husband's
+cheerfulness in a measure restored, "what Mr. Blodgett said about the
+chances for employment."
+
+"Not much that was encouraging," answered Timothy. "He isn't at all sure
+when it will be safe to commence work; perhaps not before spring."
+
+"Didn't I tell you so?" commented Rachel, with sepulchral sadness.
+
+Even Mrs. Harding couldn't help looking sober.
+
+"I suppose, Timothy, you haven't formed any plans," she said.
+
+"No, I haven't had time. I must try to get something else to do."
+
+"What, for instance?"
+
+"Anything by which I can earn a little; I don't care if it's only sawing
+wood. We shall have to get along as economically as we can--cut our coat
+according to our cloth."
+
+"Oh, you'll be able to earn something, and we can live very plain," said
+Mrs. Harding, affecting a cheerfulness she didn't feel.
+
+"Pity you hadn't done it sooner," was the comforting suggestion of
+Rachel.
+
+"Mustn't cry over spilt milk," said the cooper, good-humoredly. "Perhaps
+we might have lived a leetle more economically, but I don't think we've
+been extravagant."
+
+"Besides, I can earn something, father," said Jack, hopefully. "You know
+I did this afternoon."
+
+"So you can," said his mother, brightly.
+
+"There ain't horses to hold every day," said Rachel, apparently fearing
+that the family might become too cheerful, when, like herself, it was
+their duty to be profoundly gloomy.
+
+"You're always tryin' to discourage people, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+discontentedly.
+
+Rachel took instant umbrage at these words.
+
+"I'm sure," said she, mournfully, "I don't want to make you unhappy. If
+you can find anything to be cheerful about when you're on the verge of
+starvation, I hope you'll enjoy yourselves, and not mind me. I'm a poor,
+dependent creetur, and I feel I'm a burden."
+
+"Now, Rachel, that's all foolishness," said Timothy. "You don't feel
+anything of the kind."
+
+"Perhaps others can tell how I feel better than I can myself," answered
+his sister, with the air of a martyr. "If it hadn't been for me, I know
+you'd have been able to lay up money, and have something to carry you
+through the winter. It's hard to be a burden on your relations, and
+bring a brother's family to this poverty."
+
+"Don't talk of being a burden, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding. "You've been
+a great help to me in many ways. That pair of stockings, now, you're
+knitting for Jack--that's a help, for I couldn't have got time for them
+myself."
+
+"I don't expect," said Aunt Rachel, in the same sunny manner, "that I
+shall be able to do it long. From the pains I have in my hands
+sometimes, I expect I'm goin' to lose the use of 'em soon, and be as
+useless as old Mrs. Sprague, who for the last ten years of her life had
+to sit with her hands folded on her lap. But I wouldn't stay to be a
+burden--I'd go to the poorhouse first. But perhaps," with the look of a
+martyr, "they wouldn't want me there, because I'd be discouragin' 'em
+too much."
+
+Poor Jack, who had so unwittingly raised this storm, winced under the
+last words, which he knew were directed at him.
+
+"Then why," asked he, half in extenuation, "why don't you try to look
+pleasant and cheerful? Why won't you be jolly, as Tom Piper's aunt is?"
+
+"I dare say I ain't pleasant," said Rachel, "as my own nephew twits me
+with it. There is some folks that can be cheerful when their house is
+a-burnin' down before their eyes, and I've heard of one young man that
+laughed at his aunt's funeral," directing a severe glance at Jack; "but
+I'm not one of that kind. I think, with the Scriptures, that there's a
+time to weep."
+
+"Doesn't it say there's a time to laugh, too?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"When I see anything to laugh about, I'm ready to laugh," said Aunt
+Rachel; "but human nater ain't to be forced. I can't see anything to
+laugh at now, and perhaps you won't by and by."
+
+It was evidently quite useless to persuade Rachel to
+cheerfulness, and the subject dropped.
+
+The tea things were cleared away by Mrs. Harding, who then sat down to
+her sewing. Aunt Rachel continued to knit in grim silence, while Jack
+seated himself on a three-legged stool near his aunt, and began to
+whittle out a boat, after a model lent him by Tom Piper, a young
+gentleman whose aunt has already been referred to.
+
+The cooper took out his spectacles, wiped them carefully with his
+handkerchief, and as carefully adjusted them to his nose. He then took
+down from the mantelpiece one of the few books belonging to his
+library--"Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations"--and began to read, for the
+tenth time, it might be, the record of these daring explorers.
+
+The plain little room presented a picture of graceful tranquillity, but
+it proved to be only the calm which preceded the storm.
+
+The storm in question, I regret to say, was brought about by the
+luckless Jack. As has been said, he was engaged in constructing a boat,
+the particular operation he was now intent upon being the excavation, or
+hollowing out. Now three-legged stools are not the most secure seats in
+the world. This, I think, no one will deny who has any practical
+acquaintance with them. Jack was working quite vigorously, the block
+from which the boat was to be fashioned being held firmly between his
+knees. His knife having got wedged in the wood, he made an unusual
+effort to draw it out, in which he lost his balance, and disturbed the
+equilibrium of his stool, which, with its load, tumbled over backward.
+Now, it very unfortunately happened that Aunt Rachel sat close behind,
+and the treacherous stool came down with considerable force upon her
+foot.
+
+A piercing shriek was heard, and Aunt Rachel, lifting her foot, clung to
+it convulsively, while an expression of pain disturbed her features.
+
+At the sound, the cooper hastily removed his spectacles, and, letting
+"Dr. Kane" fall to the floor, started up in great dismay. Mrs. Harding
+likewise dropped her sewing, and jumped to her feet in alarm.
+
+It did not take long to see how matters stood.
+
+"Hurt ye much, Rachel?" inquired Timothy.
+
+"It's about killed me," groaned the afflicted maiden. "Oh, I shall have
+to have my foot cut off, or be a cripple anyway." Then, turning upon
+Jack fiercely: "You careless, wicked, ungrateful boy, that I've been
+wearin' myself out knittin' for. I'm almost sure you did it a purpose.
+You won't be satisfied till you've got me out of the world, and
+then--then, perhaps"--here Rachel began to whimper--"perhaps you'll get
+Tom Piper's aunt to knit your stockings."
+
+"I didn't mean to, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, penitently, eying his aunt,
+who was rocking to and fro in her chair. "You know I didn't. Besides, I
+hurt myself like thunder," rubbing himself vigorously.
+
+"Served you right," said his aunt, still clasping her foot.
+
+"Shan't I get something for you to put on it, Rachel?" asked Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+But this Rachel steadily refused, and, after a few more postures
+indicating a great amount of anguish, limped out of the room, and
+ascended the stairs to her own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JACK'S NEW PLAN
+
+
+Aunt Rachel was right in one thing, as Jack realized. He could not find
+horses to hold every day, and even if he had succeeded in that, few
+would have paid him so munificently as the stranger of the day before.
+In fact, matters came to a crisis, and something must be sold to raise
+funds for immediate necessities. Now, the only article of luxury--if it
+could be called so--in the possession of the family was a sofa, in very
+good preservation, indeed nearly new, for it had been bought only two
+years before when business was good. A neighbor was willing to pay
+fifteen dollars for this, and Mrs. Harding, with her husband's consent,
+agreed to part with it.
+
+"If ever we are able we will buy another," said Timothy.
+
+"And, at any rate, we can do without it," said his wife.
+
+"Rachel will miss it."
+
+"She said the other day that it was not comfortable, and ought never to
+have been bought; that it was a shameful waste of money."
+
+"In that case she won't be disturbed by our selling it."
+
+"No, I should think not; but it's hard to tell how Rachel will take
+anything."
+
+This remark was amply verified.
+
+The sofa was removed while the spinster was out, and without any hint to
+her of what was going to happen. When she returned, she looked around
+for it with surprise.
+
+"Where's the sofy?" she asked.
+
+"We've sold it to Mrs. Stoddard," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully.
+
+"Sold it!" echoed Rachel, dolefully.
+
+"Yes; we felt that we didn't need it, and we did need money. She offered
+me fifteen dollars for it, and I accepted."
+
+Rachel sat down in a rocking-chair, and began straightway to show signs
+of great depression of spirits.
+
+"Life's full of disappointments!" she groaned. "Our paths is continually
+beset by 'em. There's that sofa. It's so pleasant to have one in the
+house when a body's sick. But, there, it's gone, and if I happen to get
+down, as most likely I shall, for I've got a bad feeling in my stummick
+this very minute, I shall have to go upstairs, and most likely catch my
+death of cold, and that will be the end of me."
+
+"Not so bad as that, I hope," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully. "You know
+when you was sick last, you didn't want to use the sofa; you said it
+didn't lay comfortable. Besides, I hope before you are sick we may be
+able to buy it back again."
+
+Aunt Rachel shook her head despondingly.
+
+"There ain't any use in hoping that," she said. "Timothy's got so much
+behindhand that he won't be able to get up again; I know he won't!"
+
+"But, if he only manages to find steady work soon, he will."
+
+"No, he won't," said Rachel, positively. "I'm sure he won't. There won't
+be any work before spring, and most likely not then."
+
+"You are too desponding, Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Enough to make me so. If you had only taken my advice, we shouldn't
+have come to this."
+
+"I don't know what advice you refer to, Rachel," said Mrs. Harding,
+patiently.
+
+"No, I don't expect you do. My words don't make no impression. You
+didn't pay no attention to what I said, that's the reason."
+
+"But if you'll repeat the advice, Rachel, perhaps we can still profit by
+it," answered Mrs. Harding, with imperturbable good humor.
+
+"I told you you ought to be layin' up something agin' a rainy day. But
+that's always the way. Folks think when times is good it's always
+a-goin' to be so, but I know better."
+
+"I don't see how we could have been much more economical," said Mrs.
+Harding, mildly.
+
+"There's a hundred ways. Poor folks like us ought not to expect to have
+meat so often. It's frightful to think what the butcher's bill must have
+been for the last two months."
+
+Inconsistent Rachel! Only the day before she had made herself very
+uncomfortable because there was no meat for dinner, and said she
+couldn't live without it. Mrs. Harding might have reminded her of this,
+but the good woman was too kind and forbearing to make the retort. She
+really pitied Rachel for her unhappy habit of despondency. So she
+contented herself by saying that they must try to do better in future.
+
+"That's always the way," muttered Rachel; "shut the stable door after
+the horse is stolen. Folks never learn from experience till it's too
+late to be of any use. I don't see what the world was made for, for my
+part. Everything goes topsy-turvy, and all sorts of ways except the
+right way. I sometimes think 'tain't much use livin'!"
+
+"Oh, you'll feel better by and by, Rachel."
+
+"No, I shan't; I feel my health's declinin' every day. I don't know how
+I can stand it when I have to go to the poorhouse."
+
+"We haven't gone there yet, Rachel."
+
+"No, but it's comin' soon. We can't live on nothin'."
+
+"Hark, there's Jack coming," said his mother, hearing a quick step
+outside.
+
+"Yes, he's whistlin' just as if nothin' was the matter. He don't care
+anything for the awful condition of the family."
+
+"You're wrong there, Rachel; Jack is trying every day to get something
+to do. He wants to do his part."
+
+Rachel would have made a reply disparaging to Jack, but she had no
+chance, for our hero broke in at this instant.
+
+"Well, Jack?" said his mother, inquiringly.
+
+"I've got a plan, mother," he said.
+
+"What's a boy's plan worth?" sniffed Aunt Rachel.
+
+"Oh, don't be always hectorin' me, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, impatiently.
+
+"Hectorin'! Is that the way my own nephew talks to me?"
+
+"Well, it's so. You don't give a feller a chance. I'll tell you what I'm
+thinking of, mother. I've been talkin' with Tom Blake; he sells papers,
+and he tells me he makes sometimes a dollar a day. Isn't that good?"
+
+"Yes, that is very good wages for a boy."
+
+"I want to try it, too; but I've got to buy the papers first, you know,
+and I haven't got any money. So, if you'll lend me fifty cents, I'll try
+it this afternoon."
+
+"You think you can sell them, Jack?"
+
+"I know I can. I'm as smart as Tom Blake, any day."
+
+"Pride goes before a fall!" remarked Rachel, by way of a damper.
+"Disappointment is the common lot."
+
+"That's just the way all the time," said Jack, provoked.
+
+"I've lived longer than you," began Aunt Rachel.
+
+"Yes, a mighty lot longer," interrupted Jack. "I don't deny that."
+
+"Now you're sneerin' at me on account of my age, Jack. Martha, how can
+you allow such things?"
+
+"Be respectful, Jack."
+
+"Then tell Aunt Rachel not to aggravate me so. Will you let me have the
+fifty cents, mother?"
+
+"Yes, Jack. I think your plan is worth trying."
+
+She took out half a dollar from her pocketbook and handed it to Jack.
+
+"All right, mother. I'll see what I can do with it."
+
+Jack went out, and Rachel looked more gloomy than ever.
+
+"You'll never see that money again, you may depend on't, Martha," she
+said.
+
+"Why not, Rachel?"
+
+"Because Jack'll spend it for candy, or in some other foolish way."
+
+"You are unjust, Rachel. Jack is not that kind of boy."
+
+"I'd ought to know him. I've had chances enough."
+
+"You never knew him to do anything dishonest."
+
+"I suppose he's a model boy?"
+
+"No, he isn't. He's got faults enough, I admit; but he wouldn't spend
+for his own pleasure money given him for buying papers."
+
+"If he buys the papers, I don't believe he can sell them, so the money's
+wasted anyway," said Rachel, trying another tack.
+
+"We will wait and see," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+She saw that Rachel was in one of her unreasonable moods, and that it
+was of no use to continue the discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MRS. HARDING TAKES A BOARDER
+
+
+Jack started for the newspaper offices and bought a supply of papers.
+
+"I don't see why I can't sell papers as well as other boys," he said to
+himself. "I'm going to try, at any rate."
+
+He thought it prudent, however, not to buy too large stock at first. He
+might sell them all, but then again he might get "stuck" on a part, and
+this might take away all his profits.
+
+Jack, however, was destined to find that in the newspaper business, as
+well as in others, there was no lack of competition. He took his place
+just below the Astor House, and began to cry his papers. This aroused
+the ire of a rival newsboy a few feet away.
+
+"Get away from here!" he exclaimed, scowling at Jack.
+
+"What for?" said Jack.
+
+"This is my stand."
+
+"Keep it, then. This is mine," retorted Jack, composedly.
+
+"I don't allow no other newsboys in this block," said the other.
+
+"Don't you? You ain't the city government, are you?"
+
+"I don't want any of your impudence. Clear out!"
+
+"Clear out yourself!"
+
+"I'll give you a lickin'!"
+
+"Perhaps you will when you're able."
+
+Jack spoke manfully; but the fact was that the other boy probably was
+able, being three years older, and as many inches taller.
+
+Jack kept on crying his papers, and his opponent, incensed at the
+contemptuous disregard of his threats, advanced toward him, and, taking
+Jack unawares, pushed him off the sidewalk with such violence that he
+nearly fell flat. Jack felt that the time for action had arrived. He
+dropped his papers temporarily on the sidewalk, and, lowering his head,
+butted against his young enemy with such force as to double him up, and
+seat him, gasping for breath, on the sidewalk. Tom Rafferty, for this
+was his name, looked up in astonishment at the unexpected form of the
+attack.
+
+"Well done, my lad!" said a hearty voice.
+
+Jack turned toward the speaker, and saw a stout man dressed in a blue
+coat with brass buttons. He was dark and bronzed with exposure to the
+weather, and there was something about him which plainly indicated the
+sailor.
+
+"Well done, my lad!" he repeated. "You know how to pay off your debts."
+
+"I try to," said Jack, modestly. "But where's my papers?"
+
+The papers, which he had dropped, had disappeared. One of the boys who
+had seen the fracas had seized the opportunity to make off with them,
+and poor Jack was in the position of a merchant who had lost his stock
+in trade.
+
+"Who took them papers?" he asked, looking about him.
+
+"I saw a boy run off with them," said a bystander.
+
+"I'm glad of it," said Tom Rafferty, sullenly.
+
+Jack looked as if he was ready to pitch into him again, but the sailor
+interfered.
+
+"Don't mind the papers, my lad. What were they worth?"
+
+"I gave twenty cents for 'em."
+
+"Then here's thirty."
+
+"I don't think I ought to take it," said Jack. "It's my loss."
+
+"Take it, my boy. It won't ruin me. I've got plenty more behind."
+
+"Thank you, sir; I'll go and buy some more papers."
+
+"Not to-night. I want you to take a cruise with me."
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"I suppose you'd like to know who I am?" said the sailor, as they moved
+off together.
+
+"I suppose you're a sailor."
+
+"You can tell that by the cut of my jib. Yes, my lad, I'm captain of the
+_Argo_, now in port. It's a good while since I've been in York. For
+ten years I've been plying between Liverpool and Calcutta. Now I've got
+absence to come over here."
+
+"Are you an American, sir?"
+
+"Yes; I was raised in Connecticut, but then I began going to sea when I
+was only thirteen. I only arrived to-day, and I find the city changed
+since ten years ago, when I used to know it."
+
+"Where are you staying--at what hotel?"
+
+"I haven't gone to any yet; I used to stay with a cousin of mine, but
+he's moved. Do you know any good boarding place, where they'd make me
+feel at home, and let me smoke a pipe after dinner?"
+
+An idea struck Jack. They had an extra room at home, or could make one
+by his sleeping in the sitting room. Why shouldn't they take the
+stranger to board? The money would certainly be acceptable. He
+determined to propose it.
+
+"If we lived in a nicer house," he said, "I'd ask you to board at my
+mother's."
+
+"Would she take me, my lad?"
+
+"I think she would; but we are poor, and live in a small house."
+
+"That makes no odds. I ain't a bit particular, as long as I can feel at
+home. So heave ahead, my lad, and we'll go and see this mother of yours,
+and hear what she has to say about it."
+
+Jack took the way home well pleased, and, opening the front door,
+entered the sitting room, followed by the sailor.
+
+Aunt Rachel looked up nervously, and exclaimed: "A man!"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I'm a man, and no mistake. Are you
+this lad's mother?"
+
+"No, sir!" answered Rachel, emphatically. "I am nobody's mother."
+
+"Oh, an old maid!" said the sailor, whose mode of life had made him
+unceremonious.
+
+"I am a spinster," said Rachel, with dignity.
+
+"That's the same thing," said the visitor, sitting down opposite Aunt
+Rachel, who eyed him suspiciously.
+
+"My aunt, Rachel Harding, Capt. Bowling," introduced Jack. "Aunt Rachel,
+Capt. Bowling is the commander of a vessel now in port."
+
+Aunt Rachel made a stiff courtesy, and Capt. Bowling eyed her curiously.
+
+"Are you fond of knitting, ma'am?" he asked.
+
+"I am not fond of anything," said Rachel, mournfully. "We should not set
+our affections upon earthly things."
+
+"You wouldn't say that if you had a beau, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling,
+facetiously.
+
+"A beau!" repeated Rachel, horror-stricken.
+
+"Yes, ma'am. I suppose you've had a beau some time or other."
+
+"I don't think it proper to talk on such a subject to a stranger," said
+Aunt Rachel, primly.
+
+"Law, ma'am, you needn't be so particular."
+
+Just at this moment, Mrs. Harding entered the room, and was introduced
+to Capt. Bowling by Jack. The captain proceeded to business at once.
+
+"Your son, here, ma'am, told me you might maybe swing a hammock for me
+somewhere in your house. I liked his looks, and here I am."
+
+"Do you think you would be satisfied with our plain fare, and humble
+dwelling, Capt. Bowling?"
+
+"I ain't hard to suit, ma'am; so, if you can take me, I'll stay."
+
+His manner was frank, although rough; and Mrs. Harding cheerfully
+consented to do so. It was agreed that Bowling should pay five dollars a
+week for the three or four weeks he expected to stay.
+
+"I'll be back in an hour," said the new boarder. "I've got a little
+business to attend to before supper."
+
+When he had gone out, Aunt Rachel began to cough ominously. Evidently
+some remonstrance was coming.
+
+"Martha," she said, solemnly, "I'm afraid you've done wrong in taking
+that sailor man."
+
+"Why, Rachel?"
+
+"He's a strange man."
+
+"I don't see anything strange about him," said Jack.
+
+"He spoke to me about having a beau," said Aunt Rachel, in a shocked
+tone.
+
+Jack burst into a fit of hearty laughter. "Perhaps he's going to make
+you an offer, Aunt Rachel," he said. "He wants to see if there's anybody
+in the way."
+
+Rachel did not appear so very indignant.
+
+"It was improper for a stranger to speak to me on that subject," she
+said, mildly.
+
+"You must make allowances for the bluntness of a sailor," said Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+For some reason Rachel did not seem as low-spirited as usual that
+evening. Capt. Bowling entertained them with narratives of his personal
+adventures, and it was later than usual when the lamps were put out, and
+they were all in bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CAPTAIN'S DEPARTURE
+
+
+"Jack," said the captain, at breakfast, the next morning, "how would you
+like to go round with me to see my vessel?"
+
+"I'll go," said Jack, promptly.
+
+"Very likely he'll fall over into the water and be drowned," suggested
+Aunt Rachel, cheerfully.
+
+"I'll take care of that, ma'am," said Capt. Bowling. "Won't you come
+yourself?"
+
+"I go to see a vessel!" repeated Rachel.
+
+"Yes; why not?"
+
+"I am afraid it wouldn't be proper to go with a stranger," said Rachel,
+with a high sense of propriety.
+
+"I'll promise not to run away with you," said the captain, bluntly. "If
+I should attempt it, Jack, here, would interfere."
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said Jack. "It wouldn't be proper for me to interfere
+with Aunt Rachel's plans."
+
+"You seem to speak as if your aunt proposed to run away," said Mr.
+Harding, jocosely.
+
+"You shouldn't speak of such things, nephew; I am shocked," said Rachel.
+
+"Then you won't go, ma'am?" asked the captain.
+
+"If I thought it was consistent with propriety," said Rachel,
+hesitating. "What do you think, Martha?"
+
+"I think there is no objection," said Mrs. Harding, secretly amazed at
+Rachel's entertaining the idea.
+
+The result was that Miss Rachel put on her things, and accompanied the
+captain. She was prevailed on to take the captain's arm at length,
+greatly to Jack's amusement. He was still more amused when a boy picked
+up her handkerchief which she had accidentally dropped, and, restoring
+it to the captain, said, "Here's your wife's handkerchief, gov'nor."
+
+"Ho! ho!" laughed the captain. "He takes you for my wife, ma'am."
+
+"Ho! ho!" echoed Jack, equally amused.
+
+Aunt Rachel turned red with confusion. "I am afraid I ought not to have
+come," she murmured. "I feel ready to drop."
+
+"You'd better not drop just yet," said the captain--they were just
+crossing the street--"wait till it isn't so muddy."
+
+On the whole, Aunt Rachel decided not to drop.
+
+The _Argo_ was a medium-sized vessel, and Jack in particular was
+pleased with his visit. Though not outwardly so demonstrative, Aunt
+Rachel also seemed to enjoy the expedition. The captain, though blunt,
+was attentive, and it was something new to her to have such an escort.
+It was observed that Miss Harding was much less gloomy than usual during
+the remainder of the day. It might be that the captain's cheerfulness
+was contagious. For a stranger, Aunt Rachel certainly conversed with him
+with a freedom remarkable for her.
+
+"I never saw Rachel so cheerful," remarked Mrs. Harding to her husband
+that evening after they had retired. "She hasn't once spoken of life
+being a vale of tears to-day."
+
+"It's the captain," said her husband. "He has such spirits that it seems
+to enliven all of us."
+
+"I wish we could have him for a permanent boarder."
+
+"Yes; the five dollars a week which he pays are a great help, especially
+now that I am out of work."
+
+"What is the prospect of getting work soon?"
+
+"I am hoping for it from day to day, but it may be weeks yet."
+
+"Jack earned fifty cents to-day by selling papers."
+
+"His daily earnings are an important help. With what the captain pays
+us, it is enough to pay all our living expenses. But there's one thing
+that troubles me."
+
+"The rent?"
+
+"Yes, it is due in three weeks, and as yet I haven't a dollar laid by to
+meet it. It makes me feel anxious."
+
+"Don't lose your trust in Providence, Timothy. He may yet carry us over
+this difficulty."
+
+"So I hope, but I can't help feeling in what straits we shall be, if
+some help does not come."
+
+Two weeks later, Capt. Bowling sailed for Liverpool.
+
+"I hope we shall see you again sometime, captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Whenever I come back to New York, I shall come here if you'll keep me,"
+said the bluff sailor.
+
+"Aunt Rachel will miss you, captain," said Jack, slyly.
+
+Capt. Bowling turned to the confused spinster.
+
+"I hope she will," said he, heartily. "Perhaps when I see her again,
+she'll have a husband."
+
+"Oh, Capt. Bowling, how can you say such things?" gasped Rachel, who, as
+the time for the captain's departure approached, had been subsiding into
+her old melancholy. "There's other things to think of in this vale of
+tears."
+
+"Are there? Well, if they're gloomy, I don't want to think of 'em. Jack,
+my lad, I wish you were going to sail with me."
+
+"So do I," said Jack.
+
+"He's my only boy, captain," said Mrs. Harding. "I couldn't part with
+him."
+
+"I don't blame you, ma'am, not a particle; though there's the making of
+a sailor in Jack."
+
+"If he went away, he'd never come back," said Rachel, lugubriously.
+
+"I don't know about that, ma'am. I've been a sailor, man and boy, forty
+years, and here I am, well and hearty to-day."
+
+"The captain is about your age, isn't he, Aunt Rachel?" said Jack,
+maliciously.
+
+"I'm only thirty-nine," said Rachel, sharply.
+
+"Then I must have been under a mistake all my life," said the cooper to
+himself. "Rachel's forty-seven, if she's a day."
+
+This remark he prudently kept to himself, or a fit of hysterics would
+probably have been the result.
+
+"I wouldn't have taken you for a day over thirty-five, ma'am," said the
+captain, gallantly.
+
+Rachel actually smiled, but mildly disclaimed the compliment.
+
+"If it hadn't been for my trials and troubles," she said, "I might have
+looked younger; but they are only to be expected. It's the common lot."
+
+"Is it?" said the captain. "I can't say I've been troubled much that
+way. With a stout heart and a good conscience we ought to be jolly."
+
+"Who of us has a good conscience?" asked Rachel, in a melancholy tone.
+
+"I have, Aunt Rachel," answered Jack.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed, indignantly. "You, that tied a tin kettle to a
+dog's tail yesterday, and chased the poor cat till she almost died of
+fright. I lie awake nights thinking of the bad end you're likely to come
+to unless you change your ways."
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, but the captain came to his help.
+
+"Boys will be boys, ma'am," he said. "I was up to no end of tricks
+myself when I was a boy."
+
+"You weren't so bad as Jack, I know," said Rachel.
+
+"Thank you for standing up for me, ma'am; but I'm afraid I was. I don't
+think Jack's so very bad, for my part."
+
+"I didn't play the tricks Aunt Rachel mentioned," said Jack. "It was
+another boy in our block."
+
+"You're all alike," said Rachel. "I don't know what you boys are all
+coming to."
+
+Presently the captain announced that he must go. Jack accompanied him as
+far as the pier, but the rest of the family remained behind. Aunt Rachel
+became gloomier than ever.
+
+"I don't know what you'll do, now you've lost your boarder," she said.
+
+"He will be a loss to us, it is true," said Mrs. Harding; but we are
+fortunate in having had him with us so long."
+
+"It's only puttin' off our misery a little longer," said Rachel. "We've
+got to go to the poorhouse, after all."
+
+Rachel was in one of her moods, and there was no use in arguing with
+her, as it would only have intensified her gloom.
+
+Meanwhile Jack was bidding good-by to the captain.
+
+"I'm sorry you can't go with me, Jack," said the bluff sailor.
+
+"So am I; but I can't leave mother."
+
+"Right, my lad; I wouldn't take you away from her. But there--take that,
+and don't forget me."
+
+"You are very kind," said Jack, as the captain pressed into his hand a
+five-dollar gold piece. "May I give it to my mother?"
+
+"Certainly, my lad; you can't do better."
+
+Jack stood on the wharf till the vessel was drawn out into the stream by
+a steam tug. Then he went home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LANDLORD'S VISIT
+
+
+It was the night before the New Year. In many a household in the great
+city it was a night of happy anticipation. In the humble home of the
+Hardings it was an evening of anxious thought, for to-morrow the
+quarter's rent was due.
+
+"I haven't got a dollar to meet the rent, Martha," said the cooper, in a
+depressed tone.
+
+"Won't Mr. Colman wait?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. You know what sort of a man he is, Martha. There isn't
+much feeling about him. He cares more for money than anything else."
+
+"Perhaps you are doing him an injustice."
+
+"I am afraid not. Did you never hear how he treated the Underhills?"
+
+"How?"
+
+"Underhill was laid up with rheumatic fever for three months. The
+consequence was that when quarter day came round he was in about the
+same situation with ourselves--a little worse, even, for his wife was
+sick also. But, though Colman was aware of the circumstances, he had no
+pity; he turned them out without ceremony."
+
+"Is it possible?" asked Mrs. Harding, uneasily.
+
+"And there's no reason for his being more lenient with us. I can't but
+feel anxious about to-morrow, Martha."
+
+At this moment, verifying an old adage, which will perhaps occur to the
+reader, who should knock but Mr. Colman himself. Both the cooper and his
+wife had an instinctive foreboding as to his visit.
+
+He came in, rubbing his hands in a social way, as was his custom. No
+one, to look at him, would have suspected the hardness of heart that lay
+veiled under his velvety softness of manner.
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Harding," he said, affably. "I trust you and your
+excellent wife are in good health."
+
+"That blessing, at least, is continued to us," said the cooper, gravely.
+
+"And how comfortable you're looking, too, eh! It makes an old bachelor
+like me feel lonesome when he contrasts his own solitary room with such
+a scene of comfort as this. You've got a comfortable home, and dog
+cheap, too. All my other tenants are grumbling to think you don't have
+to pay any more for such superior accommodations. I've about made up my
+mind that I must ask you twenty-five dollars a quarter hereafter."
+
+All this was said very pleasantly, but the pill was none the less
+bitter.
+
+"It seems to me, Mr. Colman," answered the cooper, soberly, "you have
+chosen rather a singular time for raising the rent."
+
+"Why singular, my good sir?" inquired the landlord, urbanely.
+
+"You know, of course, that this is a time of general business
+depression; my own trade in particular has suffered greatly. For a month
+past I have not been able to find any work."
+
+Colman's face lost something of its graciousness.
+
+"And I fear I shall not be able to pay my quarter's rent to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed!" said the landlord, coldly. "Perhaps you can make it up within
+two or three dollars."
+
+"I can't pay a dollar toward it," said the cooper. "It's the first time,
+in the five years I've lived here, that this thing has happened to me.
+I've always been prompt before."
+
+"You should have economized as you found times growing harder," said
+Colman, harshly. "It is hardly honest to live in a house when you know
+you can't pay the rent."
+
+"You shan't lose it, Mr. Colman," said the cooper, earnestly. "No one
+ever yet lost anything by me, and I don't mean anyone shall, if I can
+help it. Only give me a little time, and I will pay all."
+
+The landlord shook his head.
+
+"You ought to have cut your coat according to your cloth," he responded.
+"Much as it will go against my feelings I am compelled, by a prudent
+regard to my own interests, to warn you that, in case your rent is not
+ready to-morrow, I shall be obliged to trouble you to find another
+tenement; and furthermore, the rent of this will be raised five dollars
+a quarter."
+
+"I can't pay it, Mr. Colman," said Timothy Harding, gravely. "I may as
+well say that now; and it's no use agreeing to pay more rent. I pay all
+I can afford now."
+
+"Very well, you know the alternative. Of course, if you can do better
+elsewhere, you will. That's understood. But it's a disagreeable subject.
+We won't talk of it any more now. I shall be round to-morrow forenoon.
+How's your excellent sister--as cheerful as ever?"
+
+"Quite as much so as usual," answered the cooper, dryly.
+
+"There's one favor I should like to ask," he said, after a pause. "Will
+you allow us to remain here a few days till I can look about a little?"
+
+"I would with the greatest pleasure in the world," was the reply; "but
+there's another family very anxious to take the house, and they wish to
+come in immediately. Therefore I shall be obliged to ask you to move out
+to-morrow. In fact, that is the very thing I came here this evening to
+speak about, as I thought you might not wish to pay the increased rent."
+
+"We are much obliged to you," said the cooper, with a tinge of
+bitterness unusual to him. "If we are to be turned into the street, it
+is pleasant to have a few hours' notice of it."
+
+"Turned out of doors, my good sir! What disagreeable expressions you
+employ! If you reflect for a moment, you will see that it is merely a
+matter of business. I have an article to dispose of. There are two
+bidders, yourself and another person. The latter is willing to pay a
+larger sum. Of course I give him the preference, as you would do under
+similar circumstances. Don't you see how it is?"
+
+"I believe I do," replied the cooper. "Of course it's a regular
+proceeding; but you must excuse me if I think of it in another light,
+when I reflect that to-morrow at this time my family may be without a
+shelter."
+
+"My dear sir, positively you are looking on the dark side of things. It
+is actually sinful for you to distrust Providence as you seem to do.
+You're a little disappointed, that's all. Just take to-night to sleep on
+it, and I've no doubt you'll see things in quite a different light. But
+positively"--here he rose, and began to draw on his gloves--"positively
+I have stayed longer than I intended. Good-night, my friends. I'll look
+in upon you in the morning. And, by the way, as it's so near, permit me
+to wish you a happy New Year."
+
+The door closed upon the landlord, leaving behind two anxious hearts.
+
+"It looks well in him to wish that," said the cooper, gloomily. "A great
+deal he is doing to make it so. I don't know how it seems to others; for
+my part, I never say them words to anyone, unless I really wish 'em
+well, and am willing to do something to make 'em so. I should feel as if
+I was a hypocrite if I acted anyways different."
+
+Martha was not one who was readily inclined to think evil of anyone, but
+in her own gentle heart she could not help feeling a repugnance for the
+man who had just left them. Jack was not so reticent.
+
+"I hate that man," he said, decidedly.
+
+"You should not hate anyone, my son," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"I can't help it, mother. Ain't he goin' to turn us out of the house
+to-morrow?"
+
+"If we cannot pay our rent, he is justified in doing so."
+
+"Then why need he pretend to be so friendly? He don't care anything for
+us."
+
+"It is right to be polite, Jack."
+
+"I s'pose if you're goin' to kick a man, it should be done politely,"
+said Jack, indignantly.
+
+"If possible," said the cooper, laughing.
+
+"Is there any tenement vacant in this neighborhood?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Yes, there is one in the next block belonging to Mr. Harrison."
+
+"It is a better one than this."
+
+"Yes; but Harrison only asks the same rent that we have been paying. He
+is not so exorbitant as Colman."
+
+"Couldn't we get that?"
+
+"I am afraid if he knows that we have failed to pay our rent here, that
+he will object."
+
+"But he knows you are honest, and that nothing but the hard times would
+have brought you to this pass."
+
+"It may be, Martha. At any rate, you have lightened my heart a little. I
+feel as if there was some hope left, after all."
+
+"We ought always to feel so, Timothy. There was one thing that Mr.
+Colman said that didn't sound so well, coming from his lips; but it's
+true for all that."
+
+"What do you refer to?"
+
+"I mean that about not distrusting Providence. Many a time have I been
+comforted by reading the verse: 'Never have I seen the righteous
+forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' As long as we try to do what is
+right, Timothy, God will not suffer us to want."
+
+"You are right, Martha. He is our ever-present help in time of trouble.
+When I think of that, I feel easier."
+
+They retired to rest thoughtfully but not sadly.
+
+The fire upon the hearth flickered and died out at length. The last
+sands of the old year were running out, and the new morning ushered in
+its successor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT
+
+
+"Happy New Year!" was Jack's salutation to Aunt Rachel, as with an
+unhappy expression of countenance she entered the sitting room.
+
+"Happy, indeed!" she repeated, dismally. "There's great chance of its
+being so, I should think. We don't any of us know what the year may
+bring forth. We may all be dead and buried before the next new year."
+
+"If that's the case," said Jack, "let us be jolly as long as life
+lasts."
+
+"I don't know what you mean by such a vulgar word," said Aunt Rachel,
+disdainfully. "I've heard of drunkards and such kind of people being
+jolly; but, thank Providence, I haven't got to that yet."
+
+"If that was the only way to be jolly," said Jack, stoutly, "then I'd be
+a drunkard; I wouldn't carry round such a long face as you do, Aunt
+Rachel, for any money."
+
+"It's enough to make all of us have long faces," said his aunt, sourly,
+"when you are brazen enough to own that you mean to be a miserable
+drunkard."
+
+"I didn't say any such thing," said Jack, indignantly.
+
+"Perhaps I have ears," remarked Aunt Rachel, sententiously, "and perhaps
+I have not. It's a new thing for a nephew to tell his aunt that she
+lies. They didn't use to allow such things when I was young. But the
+world's going to rack and ruin, and I shouldn't wonder if the people was
+right that say it's coming to an end."
+
+Here Mrs. Harding happily interposed, by asking Jack to go round to the
+grocery in the next street, and buy a pint of milk for breakfast.
+
+Jack took his hat and started with alacrity, glad to leave the dismal
+presence of Aunt Rachel.
+
+He had scarcely opened the door when he started back in surprise,
+exclaiming: "By hokey, if there isn't a basket on the steps!"
+
+"A basket!" repeated his mother, in surprise. "Can it be a New Year's
+present? Bring it in, Jack."
+
+It was brought in immediately, and the cover being lifted, there
+appeared a female child, apparently a year old.
+
+All uttered exclamations of surprise, each in itself characteristic.
+
+"What a dear, innocent little thing!" said Mrs. Harding, with true
+maternal instinct.
+
+"Ain't it a pretty un?" exclaimed Jack, admiringly.
+
+"It looks as if it was goin' to have the measles," said Aunt Rachel,
+"or scarlet fever. You'd better not take it in, Martha, or we may all
+catch it."
+
+"You wouldn't leave it out in the cold, would you, Rachel? The poor
+thing might die of exposure."
+
+"Probably it will die," said Rachel, mournfully. "It's very hard to
+raise children. There's something unhealthy in its looks."
+
+"It don't seem to me so. It looks plump and healthy."
+
+"You can't never judge by appearances. You ought to know that, Martha."
+
+"I will take the risk, Rachel."
+
+"I don't see what you are going to do with a baby, when we are all on
+the verge of starvation, and going to be turned into the street this
+very day," remarked Rachel, despondently.
+
+"We won't think of that just now. Common humanity requires us to see
+what we can do for the poor child."
+
+So saying, Mrs. Harding took the infant in her arms. The child opened
+its eyes, and smiled.
+
+"My! here's a letter," said Jack, diving into the bottom of the basket.
+"It's directed to you, father."
+
+The cooper opened the letter, and read as follows:
+
+"For reasons which it is unnecessary to state, the guardians of this
+child find it expedient to intrust it to others to bring up. The good
+account which they have heard of you has led them to select you for that
+charge. No further explanation is necessary, except that it is by no
+means their intention to make this a service of charity. They,
+therefore, inclose a certificate of deposit on the Broadway Bank of five
+hundred dollars, the same having been paid in to your credit. Each year,
+while the child remains in your charge, the same will in like manner be
+placed to your credit at the same bank. It may be as well to state,
+further, that all attempt to fathom whatever of mystery may attach to
+this affair will prove useless."
+
+The letter was read in amazement. The certificate of deposit, which had
+fallen to the floor, was picked up by Jack, and handed to his father.
+
+Amazement was followed by a feeling of gratitude and relief.
+
+"What could be more fortunate?" exclaimed Mrs. Harding. "Surely,
+Timothy, our faith has been rewarded."
+
+"God has listened to our cry!" said the cooper, devoutly, "and in the
+hour of our sorest need He has remembered us."
+
+"Isn't it prime?" said Jack, gleefully; "five hundred dollars! Ain't we
+rich, Aunt Rachel?"
+
+"Like as not," observed Rachel, "the certificate isn't genuine. It
+doesn't look natural it should be. I've heard of counterfeits afore now.
+I shouldn't be surprised at all if Timothy got took up for presenting
+it."
+
+"I'll take the risk," said her brother, who did not seem much alarmed at
+the suggestion.
+
+"Now you'll be able to pay the rent, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding,
+cheerfully.
+
+"Yes, and it's the last quarter's rent I mean to pay Mr. Colman, if I
+can help it."
+
+"Why, where are you going?" asked Jack.
+
+"To the house belonging to Mr. Harrison that I spoke of last night, that
+is, if it isn't already engaged. I think I will see about it at once. If
+Mr. Colman should come in while I am gone, tell him I will be back
+directly; I don't want you to tell him of the change in our
+circumstances."
+
+The cooper found Mr. Harrison at home.
+
+"I called to inquire," asked Mr. Harding, "whether you have let your
+house?"
+
+"Not as yet," was the reply.
+
+"What rent do you ask?"
+
+"Twenty dollars a quarter. I don't think that unreasonable."
+
+"It is satisfactory to me," was the cooper's reply, "and if you have no
+objections to me as a tenant, I will engage it at once."
+
+"Far from having any objections, Mr. Harding," was the courteous reply,
+"I shall be glad to secure so good a tenant. Will you go over and look
+at the house?"
+
+"Not now, sir; I am somewhat in haste. Can we move in to-day?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+His errand satisfactorily accomplished, the cooper returned home.
+
+Meanwhile the landlord had called.
+
+He was a little surprised to find that Mrs. Harding, instead of looking
+depressed, looked cheerful rather than otherwise.
+
+"I was not aware you had a child so young," he remarked, looking at the
+baby.
+
+"It is not mine," said Mrs. Harding, briefly.
+
+"The child of a neighbor, I suppose," thought the landlord.
+
+Meanwhile he scrutinized closely, without appearing to do so, the
+furniture in the room.
+
+At this point Mr. Harding entered the house.
+
+"Good-morning," said Colman, affably. "A fine morning, Mr. Harding."
+
+"Quite so," responded his tenant, shortly.
+
+"I have called, Mr. Harding, to ask if you are ready with your quarter's
+rent."
+
+"I think I told you last evening how I was situated. Of course I am
+sorry."
+
+"So am I," interrupted the landlord, "for I may be obliged to have
+recourse to unpleasant measures."
+
+"You mean that we must leave the house."
+
+"Of course you cannot expect to remain in it, if you are unable to pay
+the rent. I suppose," he added, making an inventory of the furniture
+with his eyes, "you will leave behind a sufficient amount of furniture
+to cover your debt."
+
+"Surely you would not deprive us of our furniture!"
+
+"Is there any injustice in requiring payment of honest debts?"
+
+"There are cases of that description. However, I will not put you to the
+trouble of levying on my furniture. I am ready to pay your dues."
+
+"Have you the money?" asked Colman, in surprise.
+
+"I have, and something over. Can you cash my check for five hundred
+dollars?"
+
+It would be difficult to picture the amazement of the landlord.
+
+"Surely you told me a different story last evening," he said.
+
+"Last evening and this morning are different times. Then I could not pay
+you. Now, luckily, I am able. If you will accompany me to the bank, I
+will draw some money and pay your bill."
+
+"My dear sir, I am not at all in haste for the money," said the
+landlord, with a return of his affability. "Any time within a week will
+do. I hope, by the way, you will continue to occupy this house."
+
+"I don't feel like paying twenty-five dollars a quarter."
+
+"You shall have it for the same rent you have been paying."
+
+"But you said there was another family who had offered you an advanced
+rent. I shouldn't like to interfere with them. Besides, I have already
+hired a house of Mr. Harrison in the next block."
+
+Mr. Colman was silenced. He regretted too late the hasty course which
+had lost him a good tenant. The family referred to had no existence;
+and, it may be remarked, the house remained vacant for several months,
+when he was glad to rent it at the old price.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A LUCKY RESCUE
+
+
+The opportune arrival of the child inaugurated a season of comparative
+prosperity in the home of Timothy Harding. To persons accustomed to live
+in their frugal way, five hundred dollars seemed a fortune. Nor, as
+might have happened in some cases, did this unexpected windfall tempt
+the cooper or his wife to enter upon a more extravagant mode of living.
+
+"Let us save something against a rainy day," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"We can if I get work soon," answered her husband. "This little one will
+add but little to our expenses, and there is no reason why we shouldn't
+save up at least half of it."
+
+"So I think, Timothy. The child's food will not amount to a dollar a
+week."
+
+"There's no tellin' when you will get work, Timothy," said Rachel, in
+her usual cheerful way. "It isn't well to crow before you are out of the
+woods."
+
+"Very true, Rachel. It isn't your failing to look too much at the sunny
+side of the picture."
+
+"I'm ready to look at it when I can see it anywhere," answered his
+sister, in the same enlivening way.
+
+"Don't you see it in the unexpected good fortune which came with this
+child?" asked Timothy.
+
+"I've no doubt you think it very fortunate now," said Rachel, gloomily;
+"but a young child's a great deal of trouble."
+
+"Do you speak from experience, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes," said his aunt, slowly. "If all babies were as cross and
+ill-behaved as you were when you were an infant, five hundred dollars
+wouldn't begin to pay for the trouble of having them around."
+
+Mr. Harding and his wife laughed at the manner in which the tables had
+been turned upon Jack, but the latter had his wits about him
+sufficiently to answer: "I've always heard, Aunt Rachel, that the
+crosser a child is, the pleasanter he will grow up. What a very pleasant
+baby you must have been!"
+
+"Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly; but his father, who looked upon it
+as a good joke, remarked, good-humoredly: "He's got you there, Rachel."
+
+But Rachel took it as a serious matter, and observed that, when she was
+young, children were not allowed to speak so to their elders.
+
+"But I don't know as I can blame 'em much," she continued, wiping her
+eyes with the corner of her apron, "when their own parents encourage 'em
+in it."
+
+Timothy was warned, by experience of Rachel's temper, that silence was
+his most prudent course. Anything that he might say would only be likely
+to make matters worse than before.
+
+Aunt Rachel sank into a fit of deep despondency, and did not say another
+word till dinner time. She sat down to the table with a profound sigh,
+as if there was little in life worth living for. Notwithstanding this,
+it was observed that she had a good appetite. Indeed, Miss Harding
+appeared to thrive on her gloomy views of life and human nature. She
+was, it must be acknowledged, perfectly consistent in all her conduct,
+so far as this peculiarity was concerned. Whenever she took up a
+newspaper, she always looked first to the space appropriated to deaths,
+and next in order to the column of accidents, casualties, etc., and her
+spirits were visibly exhilarated when she encountered a familiar name in
+either list.
+
+The cooper continued to look out for work; but it was with a more
+cheerful spirit. He did not now feel as if the comfort of his family
+depended absolutely on his immediate success. Used economically, the
+money he had by him would last eight months; and during that time it was
+hardly possible that he should not find something to do. It was this
+sense of security, of having something to fall back upon, that enabled
+him to keep up good heart. It is too generally the case that people are
+content to live as if they were sure of constantly retaining their
+health, and never losing their employment. When a reverse does come,
+they are at once plunged into discouragement, and feel the necessity of
+doing something immediately. There is only one way of fending off such
+an embarrassment; and that is, to resolve, whatever may be the amount of
+one's income, to lay aside some part to serve as a reliance in time of
+trouble. A little economy--though it involves self-denial--will be well
+repaid by the feeling of security it engenders.
+
+Mr. Harding was not compelled to remain inactive as long as he feared.
+Not that his line of business revived--that still remained depressed for
+a considerable time--but another path was opened to him.
+
+Returning home late one evening, the cooper saw a man steal out from a
+doorway, and attack a gentleman, whose dress and general appearance
+indicated probable wealth.
+
+Seizing him by the throat, the villain effectually prevented his calling
+for help, and at once commenced rifling his pockets, when the cooper
+arrived on the scene. A sudden blow admonished the robber that he had
+more than one to deal with.
+
+"What are you doing? Let that gentleman be!"
+
+The villain hesitated but a moment, then springing to his feet, he
+hastily made off, under cover of the darkness.
+
+"I hope you have received no injury, sir," said Mr. Harding,
+respectfully, addressing the stranger he had rescued.
+
+"No, my worthy friend; thanks to your timely assistance. The rascal
+nearly succeeded, however."
+
+"I hope you have lost nothing, sir."
+
+"Nothing, fortunately. You can form an idea of the value of your
+interference, when I say that I have fifteen hundred dollars with me,
+all of which would doubtless have been taken."
+
+"I am glad," said Timothy, "that I was able to do you such a service. It
+was by the merest chance that I came this way."
+
+"Will you add to my indebtedness by accompanying me with that trusty
+club of yours? I have some distance yet to go, and the money I have with
+me I don't want to lose."
+
+"Willingly," said the cooper.
+
+"But I am forgetting," continued the gentleman, "that you will yourself
+be obliged to return alone."
+
+"I do not carry enough money to make me fear an attack," said Mr.
+Harding, laughing. "Money brings care, I have always heard, and the want
+of it sometimes freedom from anxiety."
+
+"Yet most people are willing to take their share of that."
+
+"You are right, sir, nor I can't call myself an exception. Still I would
+be satisfied with the certainty of constant employment."
+
+"I hope you have that, at least."
+
+"I have had until three or four months since."
+
+"Then, at present, you are unemployed?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What is your business?"
+
+"I am a cooper."
+
+"I will see what I can do for you. Will you call at my office to-morrow,
+say at twelve o'clock?"
+
+"I shall be glad to do so, sir."
+
+"I believe I have a card with me. Yes, here is one. And this is my
+house. Thank you for your company. Let me see you to-morrow."
+
+They stood before a handsome dwelling house, from whose windows, draped
+by heavy crimson curtains, a soft light proceeded. The cooper could hear
+the ringing of childish voices welcoming home their father, whose life,
+unknown to them, had been in such peril, and he felt grateful to
+Providence for making him the instrument of frustrating the designs of
+the villain who would have robbed the merchant, and perhaps done him
+further injury. Timothy determined to say nothing to his wife about the
+night's adventure, until after his appointed meeting for the next day.
+Then, if any advantage accrued to him from it, he would tell the whole
+story.
+
+When he reached home, Mrs. Harding was sewing beside the fire. Aunt
+Rachel sat with her hands folded in her lap, with an air of martyr-like
+resignation to the woes of life.
+
+"I've brought you home a paper, Rachel," said her brother, cheerfully.
+"You may find something interesting in it."
+
+"I shan't be able to read it this evening," said Rachel, mournfully. "My
+eyes have troubled me lately. I feel that it is more than probable I am
+getting blind; but I trust I shall not live to be a burden to you,
+Timothy. Your prospects are dark enough without that."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself with any fears of that sort, Rachel," said the
+cooper, cheerily. "I think I know what will enable you to use your eyes
+as well as ever."
+
+"What?" asked Rachel, with melancholy curiosity.
+
+"A pair of spectacles."
+
+"Spectacles!" retorted Rachel, indignantly. "It will be a good many
+years before I am old enough to wear spectacles. I didn't expect to be
+insulted by my own brother. But I ought not to be surprised. It's one of
+my trials."
+
+"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Rachel," said the cooper,
+perplexed.
+
+"Good-night!" said Rachel, rising and taking a lamp from the table.
+
+"Come, Rachel, don't go up to bed yet; it's only nine o'clock."
+
+"After what you have said to me, Timothy, my self-respect will not allow
+me to stay."
+
+Rachel swept out of the room with something more than her customary
+melancholy.
+
+"I wish Rachel wasn't quite so contrary," said the cooper to his wife.
+"She turns upon a body so sudden it's hard to know how to take her.
+How's the little girl, Martha?"
+
+"She's been asleep ever since six o'clock."
+
+"I hope you don't find her very much trouble? That all comes on you,
+while we have the benefit of the money."
+
+"I don't think of that, Timothy. She is a sweet child, and I love her
+almost as much as if she were my own. As for Jack, he perfectly idolizes
+her."
+
+"And how does Rachel look upon her?"
+
+"I am afraid she will never be a favorite with Rachel."
+
+"Rachel never took to children much. It isn't her way. Now, Martha,
+while you are sewing, I will read you the news."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WHAT THE ENVELOPE CONTAINED
+
+
+The card which had been handed to the cooper contained the name of
+Thomas Merriam, No. ---- Pearl Street.
+
+Punctually at twelve, he presented himself at the countingroom, and
+received a cordial welcome from the merchant.
+
+"I am glad to see you," he said, affably. "You rendered me an important
+service last evening, even if the loss of money alone was to be
+apprehended. I will come to business at once, as I am particularly
+engaged this morning, and ask you if there is any way in which I can
+serve you?"
+
+"If you could procure me a situation, sir, you would do me a great
+service."
+
+"I think you told me you were a cooper?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Does this yield you a good support?"
+
+"In good times it pays me two dollars a day, and on that I can support
+my family comfortably. Lately it has been depressed, and paid me but a
+dollar and a half."
+
+"When do you anticipate its revival?"
+
+"That is uncertain. I may have to wait some months."
+
+"And, in the meantime, you are willing to undertake some other
+employment?"
+
+"I am not only willing, but shall feel very fortunate to obtain work of
+any kind. I have no objection to any honest employment."
+
+Mr. Merriam reflected a moment.
+
+"Just at present," he said, "I have nothing better to offer you than the
+position of porter. If that will suit you, you can enter upon its duties
+to-morrow."
+
+"I shall be very glad to undertake it, sir. Anything is better than
+idleness."
+
+"As to the compensation, that shall be the same that you have been
+accustomed to earn by your trade--two dollars a day."
+
+"I only received that in the best times," said Timothy, conscientiously.
+
+"Your services as porter will be worth that amount, and I will
+cheerfully pay it. I will expect you to-morrow morning at eight, if you
+can be here at that time."
+
+"I will be here promptly."
+
+"You are married, I suppose?" said the merchant, inquiringly.
+
+"Yes, sir; I am blessed with a good wife."
+
+"I am glad of that. Stay a moment."
+
+Mr. Merriam went to his desk, and presently came back with a sealed
+envelope.
+
+"Give that to your wife," he said.
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+Here the interview terminated, and the cooper went home quite elated by
+his success. His present engagement would enable him to bridge over the
+dull time, until his trade revived, and save him from incurring debts,
+of which he had a just horror.
+
+"You are just in time, Timothy," said Mrs. Harding, cheerfully, as he
+entered. "We've got an apple pudding to-day."
+
+"I see you haven't forgotten what I like, Martha."
+
+"There's no knowing how long you'll be able to afford puddings," said
+Rachel, dolefully. "To my mind it's extravagant to have meat and pudding
+both, when a month hence you may be in the poorhouse."
+
+"Then," said Jack, "I wouldn't eat any if I were you, Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Oh, if you grudge me the little I eat," said his aunt, in serene
+sorrow, "I will go without."
+
+"Tut, Rachel! nobody grudges you anything here," said her brother; "and
+as to the poorhouse, I've got some good news to tell you that will put
+that thought out of your head."
+
+"What is it?" asked Mrs. Harding, looking up brightly.
+
+"I have found employment."
+
+"Not at your trade?"
+
+"No; but at something else which will pay equally well till trade
+revives."
+
+Here he told the chance by which he was enabled to serve Mr. Merriam
+the evening previous, and then he gave an account of his visit to
+the merchant's countingroom, and the engagement which he had made.
+
+"You are indeed fortunate, Timothy," said his wife, her face beaming
+with pleasure. "Two dollars a day, and we've got nearly the whole of the
+money left that came with this dear child. Why, we shall be getting rich
+soon!"
+
+"Well, Rachel, have you no congratulations to offer?" asked the cooper
+of his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating as if it gave her no
+pleasure, but was rather a self-imposed penance.
+
+"I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a porter,"
+said Rachel, lugubriously. "I heard of a porter once who had a great box
+fall upon him and kill him instantly; and I was reading in the
+_Sun_ yesterday of another out West somewhere who committed
+suicide."
+
+The cooper laughed.
+
+"So, Rachel, you conclude that one or the other of these calamities is
+the inevitable lot of all who are engaged in this business?"
+
+"You may laugh now, but it is always well to be prepared for the worst,"
+said Rachel, oracularly.
+
+"But it isn't well to be always looking for it, Rachel."
+
+"It'll come whether you look for it or not," retorted his sister,
+sententiously.
+
+"Then suppose we waste no time thinking about it, since, according to
+your admission, it's sure to come either way."
+
+Rachel did not deign a reply, but continued to eat in serene melancholy.
+
+"Won't you have another piece of pudding, Timothy?" asked his wife.
+
+"I don't care if I do, Martha, it's so good," said the cooper, passing
+his plate. "Seems to me it's the best pudding you ever made."
+
+"You've got a good appetite, that is all," said Mrs. Harding, modestly
+disclaiming the compliment.
+
+"Apple puddings are unhealthy," observed Rachel.
+
+"Then what makes you eat them?" asked Jack.
+
+"A body must eat something. Besides, life is so full of sorrow, it makes
+little difference if it's longer or shorter."
+
+"Won't you have another piece, Rachel?"
+
+Aunt Rachel passed her plate, and received a second portion. Jack winked
+slyly, but fortunately his aunt did not observe it.
+
+When dinner was over, the cooper thought of the sealed envelope which
+had been given him for his wife.
+
+"Martha," he said, "I nearly forgot that I have something for you."
+
+"For me?"
+
+"Yes, from Mr. Merriam."
+
+"But he don't know me," said Mrs. Harding, in surprise.
+
+"At any rate, he first asked me if I was married, and then handed me
+this envelope, which he asked me to give to you. I am not quite sure
+whether I ought to allow strange gentlemen to write letters to my wife."
+
+Mrs. Harding opened the envelope with considerable curiosity, and
+uttered an exclamation of surprise as a bank note fell out, and
+fluttered to the carpet.
+
+"By gracious, mother!" said Jack, springing to get it, "you're in luck.
+It's a hundred-dollar bill."
+
+"So it is, I declare," said his mother, joyfully. "But, Timothy, it
+isn't mine. It belongs to you."
+
+"No, Martha, I have nothing to do with it. It belongs to you. You need
+some clothes, I am sure. Use part of it, and I will put the rest in the
+savings bank for you."
+
+"I never expected to have money to invest," said Mrs. Harding. "I begin
+to feel like a capitalist. When you want to borrow money, Timothy,
+you'll know where to come."
+
+"Merriam's a trump and no mistake," said Jack. "By the way, when you see
+him again, father, just mention that you've got a son. Ain't we in luck,
+Aunt Rachel?"
+
+"Boast not overmuch," said his aunt. "Pride goes before destruction, and
+a haughty spirit before a fall."
+
+"I never knew Aunt Rachel to be jolly but once," said Jack under his
+breath; "and that was at a funeral."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+JACK'S MISCHIEF
+
+
+One of the first results of the new prosperity which had dawned upon the
+Hardings, was Jack's removal from the street to the school. While his
+father was out of employment, his earnings seemed necessary; but now
+they could be dispensed with.
+
+To Jack, the change was not altogether agreeable. Few boys of the
+immature age of eleven are devoted to study, and Jack was not one of
+these few. The freedom which he had enjoyed suited him, and he tried to
+impress it upon his father that there was no immediate need of his
+returning to school.
+
+"Do you want to grow up a dunce, Jack?" said his father.
+
+"I can read and write already," said Jack.
+
+"Are you willing to enter upon life with that scanty supply of
+knowledge?"
+
+"Oh, I guess I can get along as well as the average."
+
+"I don't know about that. Besides, I want you to do better than the
+average. I am ambitious for you, if you are not ambitious for yourself."
+
+"I don't see what good it does a feller to study so hard," muttered
+Jack.
+
+"You won't study hard enough to do you any harm," said Aunt Rachel, who
+might be excused for a little sarcasm at the expense of her mischievous
+nephew.
+
+"It makes my head ache to study," said Jack.
+
+"Perhaps your head is weak, Jack," suggested his father, slyly.
+
+"More than likely," said Rachel, approvingly.
+
+So it was decided that Jack should go to school.
+
+"I'll get even with Aunt Rachel," thought he. "She's always talking
+against me, and hectorin' me. See if I don't."
+
+An opportunity for getting even with his aunt did not immediately occur.
+At length a plan suggested itself to our hero. He shrewdly suspected
+that his aunt's single blessedness, and her occasional denunciations
+of the married state, proceeded from disappointment.
+
+"I'll bet she'd get married if she had a chance," he thought. "I mean
+to try her, anyway."
+
+Accordingly, with considerable effort, aided by a school-fellow, he
+concocted the following letter, which was duly copied and forwarded
+to his aunt's address:
+
+  "DEAR GIRL: Excuse the liberty I have taken in writing to you;
+  but I have seen you often, though you don't know me; and you are
+  the only girl I want to marry. I am not young--I am about your age,
+  thirty-five--and I have a good trade. I have always wanted to be
+  married, but you are the only one I know of to suit me. If you think
+  you can love me, will you meet me in Washington Park, next Tuesday,
+  at four o'clock? Wear a blue ribbon round your neck, if you want to
+  encourage me. I will have a red rose pinned to my coat.
+
+  "Don't say anything to your brother's family about this. They may not
+  like me, and they may try to keep us apart. Now be sure and come.
+  DANIEL."
+
+
+This letter reached Miss Rachel just before Jack went to school one
+morning. She read it through, first in surprise, then with an appearance
+of pleasure.
+
+"Who's your letter from, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack, innocently.
+
+"Children shouldn't ask questions about what don't concern 'em," said
+his aunt.
+
+"I thought maybe it was a love letter," said he.
+
+"Don't make fun of your aunt," said his father, reprovingly.
+
+"Jack's question is only a natural one," said Rachel, to her brother's
+unbounded astonishment. "I suppose I ain't so old but I might be married
+if I wanted to."
+
+"I thought you had put all such thoughts out of your head long ago,
+Rachel."
+
+"If I have, it's because the race of men are so shiftless," said his
+sister. "They ain't worth marrying."
+
+"Is that meant for me?" asked the cooper, good-naturedly.
+
+"You're all alike," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+
+She put the letter carefully into her pocket, without deigning any
+explanation.
+
+"I suppose it's from some of her old acquaintances," thought her
+brother, and he dismissed the subject.
+
+As soon as she could, Rachel took refuge in her room. She carefully
+locked the door, and read the letter again.
+
+"Who can he be?" thought the agitated spinster. "Do I know anybody of
+the name of Daniel? It must be some stranger that has fallen in love
+with me unbeknown. What shall I do?"
+
+She sat in meditation for a short time. Then she read the letter again.
+
+"He will be very unhappy if I frown upon him," she said to herself,
+complacently. "It's a great responsibility to make a fellow being
+unhappy. It's a sacrifice, I know, but it's our duty to deny ourselves.
+I don't know but I ought to go and meet him."
+
+This was Rachel's conclusion.
+
+The time was close at hand. The appointment was for that very afternoon.
+
+"I wouldn't have my brother or Martha know it for the world," murmured
+Rachel to herself, "nor that troublesome Jack. Martha's got some blue
+ribbon, but I don't dare to ask her for it, for fear she'll suspect
+something. No, I must go out and buy some."
+
+"I'm goin' to walk, Martha," she said, as she came downstairs.
+
+"Going to walk in the forenoon! Isn't that something unusual?"
+
+"I've got a little headache. I guess it'll do me good," said Rachel.
+
+"I hope it will," said her sister-in-law, sympathetically.
+
+Rachel went to the nearest dry-goods store, and bought a yard of blue
+ribbon.
+
+"Only a yard?" inquired the clerk, in some surprise.
+
+"That will do," said Rachel, nervously, coloring a little, as though the
+use which she designed for it might be suspected.
+
+She paid for the ribbon, and presently returned.
+
+"Does your head feel any better, Rachel?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"A little," answered Rachel.
+
+"You've been sewing too steady lately, perhaps?" suggested Martha.
+
+"Perhaps I have," assented Rachel.
+
+"You ought to spare yourself. You can't stand work as well as when you
+were younger," said Martha, innocently.
+
+"A body'd think I was a hundred by the way you talk," said Rachel,
+sharply.
+
+"I didn't mean to offend you, Rachel. I thought you might feel as I do.
+I get tired easier than I used to."
+
+"I guess I'll go upstairs," said Rachel, in the same tone. "There isn't
+anybody there to tell me how old I am gettin'."
+
+"It's hard to make Rachel out," thought Mrs. Harding. "She takes offense
+at the most innocent remark. She can't look upon herself as young, I am
+sure."
+
+Upstairs Rachel took out the letter again, and read it through once
+more. "I wonder what sort of a man Daniel is," she said to herself. "I
+wonder if I have ever noticed him. How little we know what others think
+of us! If he's a likely man, maybe it's my duty to marry him. I feel I'm
+a burden to Timothy. His income is small, and it'll make a difference of
+one mouth. It may be a sacrifice, but it's my duty."
+
+In this way Rachel tried to deceive herself as to the real reason which
+led her to regard with favoring eyes the suit of this supposed lover
+whom she had never seen, and about whom she knew absolutely nothing.
+
+Jack came home from school at half-past two o'clock. He looked roguishly
+at his aunt as he entered. She sat knitting in her usual corner.
+
+"Will she go?" thought Jack. "If she doesn't there won't be any fun."
+
+But Jack, whose trick I am far from defending, was not to be
+disappointed.
+
+At three o'clock Rachel rolled up her knitting, and went upstairs.
+Fifteen minutes later she came down dressed for a walk.
+
+"Where are you going, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Out for a walk," she answered, shortly.
+
+"May I go with you?" he asked, mischievously.
+
+"No; I prefer to go alone," she said, curtly.
+
+"Your aunt has taken a fancy to walking," said Mrs. Harding, when her
+sister-in-law had left the house. "She was out this forenoon. I don't
+know what has come over her."
+
+"I do," said Jack to himself.
+
+Five minutes later he put on his hat and bent his steps also to
+Washington Park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MISS HARDING'S MISTAKE
+
+
+Miss Rachel Harding kept on her way to Washington Park. It was less than
+a mile from her brother's house, and though she walked slowly, she got
+there a quarter of an hour before the time.
+
+She sat down on a seat near the center of the park, and began to look
+around her. Poor Rachel! her heart beat quicker than it had done for
+thirty years, as she realized that she was about to meet one who wished
+to make her his wife.
+
+"I hope he won't be late," she murmured to herself, and she felt of the
+blue ribbon to make sure that she had not forgotten it.
+
+Meanwhile Jack reached the park, and from a distance surveyed with
+satisfaction the evident nervousness of his aunt.
+
+"Ain't it rich?" he whispered to himself.
+
+Rachel looked anxiously for the gentleman with the red rose pinned to
+his coat.
+
+She had to wait ten minutes. At last he came, but as he neared her seat,
+Rachel felt like sinking into the earth with mortification when she
+recognized in the wearer a stalwart negro. She hoped that it was a mere
+chance coincidence, but he approached her, and raising his hat
+respectfully, said:
+
+"Are you Miss Harding?"
+
+"What if I am?" she demanded, sharply. "What have you to do with me?"
+
+The man looked surprised.
+
+"Didn't you send word to me to meet you here?"
+
+"No!" answered Rachel, "and I consider it very presumptuous in you to
+write such a letter to me."
+
+"I didn't write you a letter," said the negro, astonished.
+
+"Then what made you come here?" demanded the spinster.
+
+"Because you wrote to me."
+
+"I wrote to you!" exclaimed Rachel, aghast.
+
+"Yes, you wrote to me to come here. You said you'd wear a blue ribbon on
+your neck, and I was to have a rose pinned to my coat."
+
+Rachel was bewildered.
+
+"How could I write to you when I never saw you before, and don't know
+your name. Do you think a lady like me would marry a colored man?"
+
+"Who said anything about that?" asked the other, opening his eyes wide
+in astonishment. "I couldn't marry, nohow, for I've got a wife and four
+children."
+
+Rachel felt ready to collapse. Was it possible that she had made a
+mistake, and that this was not her unknown correspondent, Daniel?
+
+"There is some mistake," she said, nervously. "Where is that letter you
+thought I wrote? Have you got it with you?"
+
+"Here it is, ma'am."
+
+He handed Rachel a letter addressed in a small hand to Daniel Thompson.
+
+She opened it and read:
+
+  "Mr. Thompson: I hear you are out of work. I may be able to give
+  you a job. Meet me at Washington Park, Tuesday afternoon, at four
+  o'clock. I shall wear a blue ribbon round my neck, and you may have
+  a red rose pinned to your coat. Otherwise I might not know you.
+
+  "RACHEL HARDING."
+
+
+"Some villain has done this," said Rachel, wrathfully. "I never wrote
+that letter."
+
+"You didn't!" said Daniel, looking perplexed. "Who went and did it,
+then?"
+
+"I don't know, but I'd like to have him punished for it," said Rachel,
+energetically.
+
+"But you've got a blue ribbon," said Mr. Thompson. "I can't see through
+that. That's just what the letter said."
+
+"I suppose somebody wrote the letter that knew I wear blue. It's all a
+mistake. You'd better go home."
+
+"Then haven't you got a job for me?" asked Daniel, disappointed.
+
+"No, I haven't," said Rachel, sharply.
+
+She hurriedly untied the ribbon from her neck, and put it in her pocket.
+
+"Don't talk to me any more!" she said, frowning. "You're a perfect
+stranger. You have no right to speak to me."
+
+"I guess the old woman ain't right in her head!" thought Daniel. "Must
+be she's crazy!"
+
+Poor Rachel! she felt more disconsolate than ever. There was no Daniel,
+then. She had been basely imposed upon. There was no call for her to
+sacrifice herself on the altar of matrimony. She ought to have been
+glad, but she wasn't.
+
+Half an hour later a drooping, disconsolate figure entered the house of
+Timothy Harding.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Rachel?" asked Martha, who noticed her
+woe-begone expression.
+
+"I ain't long for this world," said Rachel, gloomily. "Death has marked
+me for his own."
+
+"Don't you feel well this afternoon, Rachel?"
+
+"No; I feel as if life was a burden."
+
+"You have tired yourself with walking, Rachel. You have been out twice
+to-day."
+
+"This is a vale of tears," said Rachel, hysterically. "There's nothin'
+but sorrow and misfortune to be expected."
+
+"Have you met with any misfortune? I thought fortune was smiling upon us
+all."
+
+"It'll never smile on me again," said Rachel, despondently.
+
+Just then Jack, who had followed his aunt home, entered.
+
+"Have you got home so quick, Aunt Rachel?" he asked. "How did you enjoy
+your walk?"
+
+"I shall never enjoy anything again," said his aunt, gloomily.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because there's nothing to enjoy."
+
+"I don't feel so, aunt. I feel as merry as a cricket."
+
+"You won't be long. Like as not you'll be took down with fever
+to-morrow, and maybe die."
+
+"I won't trouble myself about it till the time comes," said Jack. "I
+expect to live to dance at your wedding yet, Aunt Rachel."
+
+This reference was too much. It brought to Rachel's mind the Daniel to
+whom she had expected to link her destiny, and she burst into a dismal
+sob, and hurried upstairs to her own chamber.
+
+"Rachel acts queerly to-day," said Mrs. Harding. "I think she can't be
+feeling well. If she don't feel better to-morrow I shall advise her to
+send for the doctor."
+
+"I am afraid it was mean to play such a trick on Aunt Rachel," thought
+Jack, half repentantly. "I didn't think she'd take it so much in
+earnest. I must keep dark about that letter. She'd never forgive me if
+she knew."
+
+For some days there was an added gloom on Miss Rachel's countenance, but
+the wound was not deep; and after a time her disappointment ceased to
+rankle in her too sensitive heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+SEVEN YEARS
+
+
+Seven years slipped by unmarked by any important change. The Hardings
+were still prosperous in an humble way. The cooper had been able to
+obtain work most of the time, and this, with the annual remittance for
+little Ida, had enabled the family not only to live in comfort, but even
+to save up one hundred and fifty dollars a year. They might even have
+saved more, living as frugally as they were accustomed to do, but there
+was one point in which they would none of them consent to be economical.
+The little Ida must have everything she wanted. Timothy brought home
+nearly every day some little delicacy for her, which none of the rest
+thought of sharing. While Mrs. Harding, far enough from vanity, always
+dressed with extreme plainness, Ida's attire was always of good material
+and made up tastefully.
+
+Sometimes the little girl asked: "Mother, why don't you buy yourself
+some of the pretty things you get for me?"
+
+Mrs. Harding would answer, smiling: "Oh, I'm an old woman, Ida. Plain
+things are best for me."
+
+"No, I'm sure you're not old, mother. You don't wear a cap. Aunt Rachel
+is a good deal older than you."
+
+"Hush, Ida. Don't let Aunt Rachel hear that. She wouldn't like it."
+
+"But she is ever so much older than you, mother," persisted the child.
+
+Once Rachel heard a remark of this kind, and perhaps it was that that
+prejudiced her against Ida. At any rate, she was not one of those who
+indulged her. Frequently she rebuked her for matters of no importance;
+but it was so well understood in the cooper's household that this was
+Aunt Rachel's way, that Ida did not allow it to trouble her, as the
+lightest reproach from Mrs. Harding would have done.
+
+Had Ida been an ordinary child, all this petting would have had an
+injurious effect upon her mind. But, fortunately, she had the rare
+simplicity, young as she was, which lifted her above the dangers which
+might have spoiled her otherwise. Instead of being made vain and
+conceited, she only felt grateful for the constant kindness shown her by
+her father and mother, and brother Jack, as she was wont to call them.
+Indeed it had not been thought best to let her know that such were not
+the actual relations in which they stood to her.
+
+There was one point, much more important than dress, in which Ida
+profited by the indulgence of her friends.
+
+"Martha," the cooper was wont to say, "Ida is a sacred charge in our
+hands. If we allow her to grow up ignorant, or only allow her ordinary
+advantages, we shall not fulfill our duty. We have the means, through
+Providence, of giving her some of those advantages which she would enjoy
+if she had remained in that sphere to which her parents doubtless
+belong. Let no unwise parsimony on our part withhold them from her."
+
+"You are right, Timothy," said his wife; "right, as you always are.
+Follow the dictates of your own heart, and fear not that I shall
+disapprove."
+
+"Humph!" said Aunt Rachel; "you ain't actin' right, accordin' to my way
+of thinkin'. Readin', writin' and cypherin' was enough for girls to
+learn in my day. What's the use of stuffin' the girl's head full of
+nonsense that'll never do her no good? I've got along without it, and I
+ain't quite a fool."
+
+But the cooper and his wife had no idea of restricting Ida's education
+to the rather limited standard indicated by Rachel. So, from the first,
+they sent her to a carefully selected private school, where she had the
+advantage of good associates, and where her progress was astonishingly
+rapid.
+
+Ida early displayed a remarkable taste for drawing. As soon as this was
+discovered, her adopted parents took care that she should have abundant
+opportunity for cultivating it. A private master was secured, who gave
+her lessons twice a week, and boasted everywhere of the progress made by
+his charming young pupil.
+
+"What's the good of it?" asked Rachel. "She'd a good deal better be
+learnin' to sew and knit."
+
+"All in good time," said Timothy. "She can attend to both."
+
+"I never wasted my time that way," said Rachel. "I'd be ashamed to."
+
+Nothing could exceed Timothy's gratification, when, on his birthday, Ida
+presented him with a beautifully drawn sketch of his wife's placid and
+benevolent face.
+
+"When did you do it, Ida?" he asked, after earnest expressions of
+admiration.
+
+"I did it in odd minutes," she answered, "when I had nothing else to
+do."
+
+"But how could you do it, without any of us knowing what you were
+about?"
+
+"I had a picture before me, and you thought I was copying it, but,
+whenever I could do it without being noticed, I looked up at mother as
+she sat at her sewing, and so, after a while, I finished the picture."
+
+"And a fine one it is," said the cooper, admiringly.
+
+Mrs. Harding insisted that Ida had flattered her, but this Ida would not
+admit.
+
+"I couldn't make it look as good as you, mother," she said. "I tried,
+but somehow I didn't succeed as I wanted to."
+
+"You wouldn't have that difficulty with Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+roguishly.
+
+Ida could not help smiling, but Rachel did not smile.
+
+"I see," she said, with severe resignation, "that you've taken to
+ridiculing your poor aunt again. But it's only what I expect. I don't
+never expect any consideration in this house. I was born to be a martyr,
+and I expect I shall fulfill my destiny. If my own relations laugh at
+me, of course I can't expect anything better from other folks. But I
+shan't be long in the way. I've had a cough for some time past, and I
+expect I'm in consumption."
+
+"You make too much of a little joke, Rachel," said the cooper,
+soothingly. "I'm sure Jack didn't mean anything."
+
+"What I said was complimentary," said Jack.
+
+Rachel shook her head incredulously.
+
+"Yes, it was. Ask Ida. Why won't you draw Aunt Rachel, Ida? I think
+she'd make a very striking picture."
+
+"So I will," said Ida, hesitatingly, "if she will let me."
+
+"Now, Aunt Rachel, there's a chance for you," said Jack. "Take my
+advice, and improve it. When it's finished it can be hung up in the Art
+Rooms, and who knows but you may secure a husband by it."
+
+"I wouldn't marry," said Rachel, firmly compressing her lips; "not if
+anybody'd go down on their knees to me."
+
+"Now, I'm sure, Aunt Rachel, that's cruel of you," said Jack, demurely.
+
+"There ain't any man I'd trust my happiness to," pursued the spinster.
+
+"She hasn't any to trust," observed Jack, _sotto voce_.
+
+"Men are all deceivers," continued Rachel, "the best of 'em. You can't
+believe what one of 'em says. It would be a great deal better if people
+never married at all."
+
+"Then where would the world be a hundred years hence?" suggested her
+nephew.
+
+"Come to an end, most likely," answered Aunt Rachel; "and I'm not sure
+but that would be the best thing. It's growing more and more wicked
+every day."
+
+It will be seen that no great change has come over Miss Rachel Harding,
+during the years that have intervened. She takes the same disheartening
+view of human nature and the world's prospects as ever. Nevertheless,
+her own hold upon the world seems as strong as ever. Her appetite
+continues remarkably good, and, although she frequently expresses
+herself to the effect that there is little use in living, she would be
+as unwilling to leave the world as anyone. It is not impossible that she
+derives as much enjoyment from her melancholy as other people from their
+cheerfulness. Unfortunately her peculiar mode of enjoying herself is
+calculated to have rather a depressing influence upon the spirits of
+those with whom she comes in contact--always excepting Jack, who has a
+lively sense of the ludicrous, and never enjoys himself better than in
+bantering his aunt.
+
+"I don't expect to live more'n a week," said Rachel, one day. "My sands
+of life are 'most run out."
+
+"Are you sure of that, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes, I've got a presentiment that it's so."
+
+"Then, if you're sure of it," said her nephew, gravely, "it may be as
+well to order the coffin in time. What style would you prefer?"
+
+Rachel retreated to her room in tears, exclaiming that he needn't be in
+such a hurry to get her out of the world; but she came down to supper,
+and ate with her usual appetite.
+
+Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the rest of the household.
+Indeed, he has constituted himself her especial guardian. Rough as he is
+in the playground, he is always gentle with her. When she was just
+learning to walk, and in her helplessness needed the constant care of
+others, he used, from choice, to relieve his mother of much of the task
+of amusing the child. He had never had a little sister, and the care of
+a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. It was perhaps this very
+office of guardian to the child, assumed when she was young, that made
+him feel ever after as if she were placed under his special protection.
+
+Ida was equally attached to Jack. She learned to look to him for
+assistance in any plan she had formed, and he never disappointed her.
+Whenever he could, he would accompany her to school, holding her by the
+hand, and, fond as he was of rough play, nothing would induce him to
+leave her.
+
+"How long have you been a nursemaid?" asked a boy older than himself,
+one day.
+
+Jack's fingers itched to get hold of his derisive questioner, but he had
+a duty to perform, and he contented himself with saying: "Just wait a
+few minutes, and I'll let you know."
+
+"I dare say you will," was the reply. "I rather think I shall have to
+wait till both of us are gray before that time."
+
+"You will not have to wait long before you are black and blue," retorted
+Jack.
+
+"Don't mind what he says, Jack," whispered Ida, fearing that he would
+leave her.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Ida; I won't leave you. I'll attend to his business
+another time. I guess he won't trouble us to-morrow."
+
+Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness, followed, with more
+abuse of the same sort. If he had been wiser, he would have seen a storm
+gathering in the flash of Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his
+forbearance.
+
+The next day, as they were going to school, Ida saw the same boy dodging
+round the corner with his head bound up.
+
+"What's the matter with him, Jack?" she asked.
+
+"I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly. "I guess
+he'll let us alone after this."
+
+Even after Jack left school, and got a position in a store at two
+dollars a week, he gave a large part of his spare time to Ida.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Harding, "Jack is as careful of Ida as if he was her
+guardian."
+
+"A pretty sort of a guardian he is!" said Aunt Rachel. "Take my word for
+it, he's only fit to lead her into mischief."
+
+"You do him injustice, Rachel. Jack is not a model boy, but he takes the
+best care of Ida."
+
+Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and sniffed significantly. It was quite
+evident that she did not have a very favorable opinion of her nephew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+
+
+About eleven o'clock one forenoon Mrs. Harding was in the kitchen,
+busily engaged in preparing the dinner, when a loud knock was heard at
+the front door.
+
+"Who can it be?" said Mrs. Harding. "Aunt Rachel, there's somebody at
+the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it is?"
+
+"People have no business to call at such an hour in the morning,"
+grumbled Rachel, as she laid down her knitting reluctantly, and rose
+from her seat. "Nobody seems to have any consideration for anybody else.
+But that's the way of the world."
+
+Opening the outer door, she saw before her a tall woman, dressed in a
+gown of some dark stuff, with strongly marked, and not altogether
+pleasant, features.
+
+"Are you the lady of the house?" inquired the visitor, abruptly.
+
+"There ain't any ladies in this house," answered Rachel. "You've come to
+the wrong place. We have to work for a living here."
+
+"The woman of the house, then," said the stranger, rather impatiently.
+"It doesn't make any difference about names. Are you the one I want to
+see?"
+
+"No, I ain't," said Rachel, shortly.
+
+"Will you tell your mistress that I want to see her, then?"
+
+"I have no mistress," said Rachel. "What do you take me for?"
+
+"I thought you might be the servant, but that don't matter. I want to
+see Mrs. Harding. Will you call her, or shall I go and announce myself?"
+
+"I don't know as she'll see you. She's busy in the kitchen."
+
+"Her business can't be as important as what I've come about. Tell her
+that, will you?"
+
+Rachel did not fancy the stranger's tone or manner. Certainly she did
+not manifest much politeness. But the spinster's curiosity was excited,
+and this led her the more readily to comply with the request.
+
+"Stay here, and I'll call her," she said.
+
+"There's a woman wants to see you," announced Rachel.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"I don't know. She hasn't got any manners, that's all I know about her."
+
+Mrs. Harding presented herself at the door.
+
+"Won't you come in?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, I will. What I've got to say to you may take some time."
+
+Mrs. Harding, wondering vaguely what business this strange visitor could
+have with her, led the way to the sitting room.
+
+"You have in your family," said the woman, after seating herself, "a
+girl named Ida."
+
+Mrs. Harding looked up suddenly and anxiously. Could it be that the
+secret of Ida's birth was to be revealed at last? Was it possible that
+she was to be taken from her?
+
+"Yes," she answered, simply.
+
+"Who is not your child?"
+
+"But I love her as much. I have always taught her to look upon me as her
+mother."
+
+"I presume so. My visit has reference to her."
+
+"Can you tell me anything of her parentage?" inquired Mrs. Harding,
+eagerly.
+
+"I was her nurse," said the stranger.
+
+Mrs. Harding scrutinized anxiously the hard features of the woman. It
+was, at least, a relief to know that no tie of blood connected her with
+Ida, though, even upon her assurance, she would hardly have believed it.
+
+"Who were her parents?"
+
+"I am not permitted to tell."
+
+Mrs. Harding looked disappointed.
+
+"Surely," she said, with a sudden sinking of the heart, "you have not
+come to take her away?"
+
+"This letter will explain my object in visiting you," said the woman,
+drawing a sealed envelope from a bag which she carried in her hand.
+
+The cooper's wife nervously broke open the letter, and read as follows:
+
+  "MRS. HARDING: Seven years ago last New Year's night a child was
+  left on your doorsteps, with a note containing a request that you
+  would care for it kindly as your own. Money was sent at the same
+  time to defray the expenses of such care. The writer of this note
+  is the mother of the child, Ida. There is no need to explain here
+  why I sent away the child from me. You will easily understand that
+  it was not done willingly, and that only the most imperative
+  necessity would have led me to such a step. The same necessity
+  still prevents me from reclaiming my child, and I am content still
+  to leave Ida in your charge. Yet there is one thing I desire. You
+  will understand a mother's wish to see, face to face, her own
+  child. With this view I have come to this neighborhood. I will not
+  say where I am, for concealment is necessary to me. I send this
+  note by a trustworthy attendant, Mrs. Hardwick, my little Ida's
+  nurse in her infancy, who will conduct Ida to me, and return her
+  again to you. Ida is not to know who she is visiting. No doubt she
+  believes you to be her mother, and it is well that she should so
+  regard you. Tell her only that it is a lady, who takes an interest
+  in her, and that will satisfy her childish curiosity. I make this
+  request as IDA'S MOTHER."
+
+
+Mrs. Harding read this letter with mingled feelings. Pity for the
+writer; a vague curiosity in regard to the mysterious circumstances
+which had compelled her to resort to such a step; a half feeling of
+jealousy, that there should be one who had a claim to her dear, adopted
+daughter, superior to her own; and a strong feeling of relief at the
+assurance that Ida was not to be permanently removed--all these feelings
+affected the cooper's wife.
+
+"So you were Ida's nurse?" she said, gently.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the stranger. "I hope the dear child is well?"
+
+"Perfectly well. How much her mother must have suffered from the
+separation!"
+
+"Indeed you may say so, ma'am. It came near to breaking her heart."
+
+"I don't wonder," said sympathizing Mrs. Harding. "I can judge of that
+by my own feelings. I don't know what I should do, if Ida were to be
+taken from me."
+
+At this point in the conversation, the cooper entered the house. He had
+come home on an errand.
+
+"It is my husband," said Mrs. Harding, turning to her visitor, by way of
+explanation. "Timothy, will you come here a moment?"
+
+The cooper regarded the stranger with some surprise. His wife hastened
+to introduce her as Mrs. Hardwick, Ida's old nurse, and placed in her
+husband's hands the letter which we have already read.
+
+He was not a rapid reader, and it took him some time to get through the
+letter. He laid it down on his knee, and looked thoughtful.
+
+"This is indeed unexpected," he said, at last. "It is a new development
+in Ida's history. May I ask, Mrs. Hardwick, if you have any further
+proof? I want to be careful about a child that I love as my own. Can you
+furnish any other proof that you are what you represent?"
+
+"I judged that the letter would be sufficient. Doesn't it speak of me as
+the nurse?"
+
+"True; but how can we be sure that the writer is Ida's mother?"
+
+"The tone of the letter, sir. Would anybody else write like that?"
+
+"Then you have read the letter?" asked the cooper, quickly.
+
+"It was read to me before I set out."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By Ida's mother. I do not blame you for your caution," said the
+visitor. "You must be deeply interested in the happiness of the dear
+child, of whom you have taken such excellent care. I don't mind telling
+you that I was the one who left her at your door, seven years ago, and
+that I never left the neighborhood until I saw you take her in."
+
+"And it was this that enabled you to find the house to-day?"
+
+"You forget," corrected the nurse, "that you were not then living in
+this house, but in another, some rods off, on the left-hand side of the
+street."
+
+"You are right," said Timothy. "I am inclined to believe in the truth of
+your story. You must pardon my testing you in such a manner, but I was
+not willing to yield up Ida, even for a little time, without feeling
+confident of the hands she was falling into."
+
+"You are right," said Mrs. Hardwick. "I don't blame you in the least. I
+shall report it to Ida's mother as a proof of your attachment to the
+child."
+
+"When do you wish Ida to go with you?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"Can you let her go this afternoon?"
+
+"Why," said the cooper's wife, hesitating, "I should like to have a
+chance to wash out some clothes for her. I want her to appear as neat as
+possible when she meets her mother."
+
+The nurse hesitated, but presently replied: "I don't wish to hurry you.
+If you will let me know when she will be ready, I will call for her."
+
+"I think I can get her ready early to-morrow morning."
+
+"That will answer. I will call for her then."
+
+The nurse rose, and gathered her shawl about her.
+
+"Where are you going, Mrs. Hardwick?" asked the cooper's wife.
+
+"To a hotel," was the reply.
+
+"We cannot allow that," said Mrs. Harding, kindly. "It's a pity if we
+cannot accommodate Ida's old nurse for one night, or ten times as long,
+for that matter."
+
+"My wife is quite right," said the cooper, hesitatingly. "We must insist
+on your stopping with us."
+
+The nurse hesitated, and looked irresolute. It was plain she would have
+preferred to be elsewhere, but a remark which Mrs. Harding made, decided
+her to accept the invitation.
+
+It was this: "You know, Mrs. Hardwick, if Ida is to go with you, she
+ought to have a little chance to get acquainted with you before you go."
+
+"I will accept your kind invitation," she said; "but I am afraid I shall
+be in your way."
+
+"Not in the least. It will be a pleasure to us to have you here. If you
+will excuse me now, I will go out and attend to my dinner, which I am
+afraid is getting behindhand."
+
+Left to herself, the nurse behaved in a manner which might be regarded
+as singular. She rose from her seat, and approached the mirror. She took
+a full survey of herself as she stood there, and laughed a short, hard
+laugh. Then she made a formal courtesy to her own reflection, saying:
+"How do you do, Mrs. Hardwick?"
+
+"Did you speak?" asked the cooper, who was passing through the entry on
+his way out.
+
+"No," answered the nurse, rather awkwardly. "I may have said something
+to myself. It's of no consequence."
+
+"Somehow," thought the cooper, "I don't fancy the woman's looks; but I
+dare say I am prejudiced. We're all of us as God made us."
+
+When Mrs. Harding was making preparations for the noonday meal, she
+imparted to Rachel the astonishing information which has already been
+detailed to the reader.
+
+"I don't believe a word of it," said Rachel, resolutely. "The woman's an
+impostor. I knew she was, the very minute I set eyes on her."
+
+This remark was so characteristic of Rachel, that her sister-in-law did
+not attach any special importance to it. Rachel, of course, had no
+grounds for the opinion she so confidently expressed. It was consistent,
+however, with her general estimate of human nature.
+
+"What object could she have in inventing such a story?" asked Mrs.
+Harding.
+
+"What object? Hundreds of 'em," said Rachel, rather indefinitely. "Mark
+my words; if you let her carry off Ida, it'll be the last you'll ever
+see of her."
+
+"Try to look on the bright side, Rachel. Nothing is more natural than
+that her mother should want to see her."
+
+"Why couldn't she come herself?" muttered Rachel.
+
+"The letter explains."
+
+"I don't see that it does."
+
+"It says that same reasons exist for concealment as ever."
+
+"And what are they, I should like to know? I don't like mysteries, for
+my part."
+
+"We won't quarrel with them, at any rate, since they enable us to keep
+Ida with us."
+
+Aunt Rachel shook her head, as if she were far from satisfied.
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Harding, "but I ought to invite Mrs. Hardwick
+in here. I have left her alone in the front room."
+
+"I don't want to see her," said Rachel. Then, changing her mind
+suddenly: "Yes, you may bring her in. I'll soon find out whether she's
+an impostor or not."
+
+The cooper's wife returned with the nurse.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "this is my sister, Miss Rachel Harding."
+
+"I am glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am," said the visitor.
+
+"Rachel, I will leave you to entertain Mrs. Hardwick, while I get ready
+the dinner."
+
+Rachel and the nurse eyed each other with mutual dislike.
+
+"I hope you don't expect me to entertain you," said Rachel. "I never
+expect to entertain anybody ag'in. This is a world of trial and
+tribulation, and I've had my share. So you've come after Ida, I hear?"
+with a sudden change of tone.
+
+"At her mother's request," said the nurse.
+
+"She wants to see her, then?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"I wonder she didn't think of it before," said Rachel, sharply. "She's
+good at waiting. She's waited seven years."
+
+"There are circumstances that cannot be explained," commenced the nurse.
+
+"No, I dare say not," said Rachel, dryly. "So you were her nurse?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered the nurse, who did not appear to enjoy this
+cross-examination.
+
+"Have you lived with Ida's mother ever since?"
+
+"No--yes," stammered the stranger. "Some of the time," she added,
+recovering herself.
+
+"Umph!" grunted Rachel, darting a sharp glance at her.
+
+"Have you a husband living?" inquired the spinster.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Hardwick. "Have you?"
+
+"I!" repeated Rachel, scornfully. "No, neither living nor dead. I'm
+thankful to say I never married. I've had trials enough without that.
+Does Ida's mother live in the city?"
+
+"I can't tell you," said the nurse.
+
+"Humph! I don't like mystery."
+
+"It isn't any mystery," said the visitor. "If you have any objections to
+make, you must make them to Ida's mother."
+
+"So I will, if you'll tell me where she lives."
+
+"I can't do that."
+
+"Where do you live yourself?" inquired Rachel, shifting her point of
+attack.
+
+"In Brooklyn," answered Mrs. Hardwick, with some hesitation.
+
+"What street, and number?"
+
+"Why do you want to know?" inquired the nurse.
+
+"You ain't ashamed to tell, be you?"
+
+"Why should I be?"
+
+"I don't know. You'd orter know better than I."
+
+"It wouldn't do you any good to know," said the nurse. "I don't care
+about receiving visitors."
+
+"I don't want to visit you, I am sure," said Rachel, tossing her head.
+
+"Then you don't need to know where I live."
+
+Rachel left the room, and sought her sister-in-law.
+
+"That woman's an impostor," she said. "She won't tell where she lives. I
+shouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be a thief."
+
+"You haven't any reason for supposing that, Rachel."
+
+"Wait and see," said Rachel. "Of course I don't expect you to pay any
+attention to what I say. I haven't any influence in this house."
+
+"Now, Rachel, you have no cause to say that."
+
+But Rachel was not to be appeased. It pleased her to be considered a
+martyr, and at such times there was little use in arguing with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PREPARING FOR A JOURNEY
+
+
+Later in the day, Ida returned from school. She bounded into the room,
+as usual, but stopped short in some confusion, on seeing a stranger.
+
+"Is this my own dear child, over whose infancy I watched so tenderly?"
+exclaimed the nurse, rising, her harsh features wreathed into a smile.
+
+"It is Ida," said the cooper's wife.
+
+Ida looked from one to the other in silent bewilderment.
+
+"Ida," said Mrs. Harding, in a little embarrassment, "this is Mrs.
+Hardwick, who took care of you when you were an infant."
+
+"But I thought you took care of me, mother," said Ida, in surprise.
+
+"Very true," said Mrs. Harding, evasively; "but I was not able to have
+the care of you all the time. Didn't I ever mention Mrs. Hardwick to
+you?"
+
+"No, mother."
+
+"Although it is so long since I have seen her, I should have known her
+anywhere," said the nurse, applying a handkerchief to her eyes. "So
+pretty as she's grown up, too!"
+
+Mrs. Harding glanced with pride at the beautiful child, who blushed at
+the compliment, a rare one, for her adopted mother, whatever she might
+think, did not approve of openly praising her appearance.
+
+"Ida," said Mrs. Hardwick, "won't you come and kiss your old nurse?"
+
+Ida looked at her hard face, which now wore a smile intended to express
+affection. Without knowing why, she felt an instinctive repugnance to
+this stranger, notwithstanding her words of endearment.
+
+She advanced timidly, with a reluctance which she was not wholly able to
+conceal, and passively submitted to a caress from the nurse.
+
+There was a look in the eyes of the nurse, carefully guarded, yet not
+wholly concealed, which showed that she was quite aware of Ida's feeling
+toward her, and resented it. But whether or not she was playing a part,
+she did not betray this feeling openly, but pressed the unwilling child
+more closely to her bosom.
+
+Ida breathed a sigh of relief when she was released, and moved quietly
+away, wondering what it was that made the woman so disagreeable to her.
+
+"Is my nurse a good woman?" she asked, thoughtfully, when alone with
+Mrs. Harding, who was setting the table for dinner.
+
+"A good woman! What makes you ask that?" queried her adopted mother, in
+surprise.
+
+"I don't know," said Ida.
+
+"I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise," said Mrs.
+Harding. "And, by the way, Ida, she is going to take you on a little
+excursion to-morrow."
+
+"She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida. "Why, where are we going?"
+
+"On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you to a
+pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you, from what she
+has told her."
+
+"What could she say of me?" inquired Ida. "She has not seen me since I
+was a baby."
+
+"Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she appears to
+have thought of you ever since, with a good deal of affection."
+
+"Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those who like
+us?"
+
+"What makes you ask?"
+
+"Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs. Hardwick, at all, for
+all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I ever shall."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs. Harding, "when you find she is exerting
+herself to give you pleasure."
+
+"Am I going with her to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Yes. She wanted you to go to-day, but your clothes were not in order."
+
+"We shall come back at night, shan't we?"
+
+"I presume so."
+
+"I hope we shall," said Ida, decidedly, "and that she won't want me to
+go with her again."
+
+"Perhaps you will feel differently when it is over, and you find you
+have enjoyed yourself better than you anticipated."
+
+Mrs. Harding exerted herself to fit Ida up as neatly as possible, and
+when at length she was got ready, she thought with sudden fear: "Perhaps
+her mother will not be willing to part with her again."
+
+When Ida was ready to start, there came upon all a little shadow of
+depression, as if the child were to be separated from them for a year,
+and not for a day only. Perhaps this was only natural, since even this
+latter term, however brief, was longer than they had been parted from
+her since, in her infancy, she had been left at their door.
+
+The nurse expressly desired that none of the family should accompany
+her, as she declared it highly important that the whereabouts of Ida's
+mother should not be known.
+
+"Of course," she added, "after Ida returns she can tell you what she
+pleases. Then it will be of no consequence, for her mother will be gone.
+She does not live in this neighborhood. She has only come here to see
+her child."
+
+"Shall you bring her back to-night?" asked Mrs. Harding.
+
+"I may keep her till to-morrow," said the nurse. "After seven years'
+absence her mother will think that short enough."
+
+To this, Mrs. Harding agreed, though she felt that she should miss Ida,
+though absent but twenty-four hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE JOURNEY
+
+
+The nurse walked as far as Broadway, holding Ida by the hand.
+
+"Where are we going?" asked the child, timidly. "Are you going to walk
+all the way?"
+
+"No," said the nurse; "not all the way--perhaps a mile. You can walk as
+far as that, can't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+They walked on till they reached the ferry at the foot of Courtland
+Street.
+
+"Did you ever ride in a steamboat?" asked the nurse, in a tone meant to
+be gracious.
+
+"Once or twice," answered Ida. "I went with Brother Jack once, over to
+Hoboken. Are we going there now?"
+
+"No; we are going to the city you see over the water."
+
+"What place is it? Is it Brooklyn?"
+
+"No; it is Jersey City."
+
+"Oh, that will be pleasant," said Ida, forgetting, in her childish love
+of novelty, the repugnance with which the nurse had inspired her.
+
+"Yes, and that is not all; we are going still further," said the nurse.
+
+"Are we going further?" asked Ida, in excitement. "Where are we going?"
+
+"To a town on the line of the railroad."
+
+"And shall we ride in the cars?" asked Ida.
+
+"Yes; didn't you ever ride in the cars?"
+
+"No, never."
+
+"I think you will like it."
+
+"And how long will it take us to go to the place you are going to carry
+me to?"
+
+"I don't know exactly; perhaps three hours."
+
+"Three whole hours in the cars! How much I shall have to tell father and
+Jack when I get back!"
+
+"So you will," replied Mrs. Hardwick, with an unaccountable smile--"when
+you get back."
+
+There was something peculiar in her tone, but Ida did not notice it.
+
+She was allowed to sit next the window in the cars, and took great
+pleasure in surveying the fields and villages through which they were
+rapidly whirled.
+
+"Are we 'most there?" she asked, after riding about two hours.
+
+"It won't be long," said the nurse.
+
+"We must have come ever so many miles," said Ida.
+
+"Yes, it is a good ways."
+
+An hour more passed, and still there was no sign of reaching their
+journey's end. Both Ida and her companion began to feel hungry.
+
+The nurse beckoned to her side a boy, who was selling apples and cakes,
+and inquired the price.
+
+"The apples are two cents apiece, ma'am, and the cakes are one cent
+each."
+
+Ida, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly round, and
+exclaimed, in great astonishment: "Why, Charlie Fitts, is that you?"
+
+"Why, Ida, where did you come from?" asked the boy, with a surprise
+equaling her own.
+
+"I'm making a little journey with this lady," said Ida.
+
+"So you're going to Philadelphia?" said Charlie.
+
+"To Philadelphia!" repeated Ida, surprised. "Not that I know of."
+
+"Why, you're 'most there now."
+
+"Are we, Mrs. Hardwick?" inquired Ida.
+
+"It isn't far from where we're going," she answered, shortly. "Boy, I'll
+take two of your apples and four cakes. And, now, you'd better go along,
+for there's somebody over there that looks as if he wanted to buy
+something."
+
+"Who is that boy?" asked the nurse, abruptly.
+
+"His name is Charlie Fitts."
+
+"Where did you get acquainted with him?"
+
+"He went to school with Jack, so I used to see him sometimes."
+
+"With Jack?"
+
+"Yes, Brother Jack. Don't you know him?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot. So he's a schoolmate of Jack?"
+
+"Yes, and he's a first-rate boy," said Ida, with whom the young apple
+merchant was evidently a favorite. "He's good to his mother. You see,
+his mother is sick most of the time, and can't work much; and he's got a
+little sister--she ain't more than four or five years old--and Charlie
+supports them by selling things. He's only sixteen years old; isn't he a
+smart boy?"
+
+"Yes," said the nurse, indifferently.
+
+"Sometime," continued Ida, "I hope I shall be able to earn something for
+father and mother, so they won't be obliged to work so hard."
+
+"What could you do?" asked the nurse, curiously.
+
+"I don't know as I can do much yet," answered Ida, modestly; "but
+perhaps when I am older I can draw pictures that people will buy."
+
+"Have you got any of your drawings with you?"
+
+"No, I didn't bring any."
+
+"I wish you had. The lady we are going to see would have liked to see
+some of them."
+
+"Are we going to see a lady?"
+
+"Yes; didn't your mother tell you?"
+
+"Yes, I believe she said something about a lady that was interested in
+me."
+
+"That's the one."
+
+"And shall we come back to New York to-night?"
+
+"No; it wouldn't leave us any time to stay."
+
+"West Philadelphia!" announced the conductor.
+
+"We have arrived," said the nurse. "Keep close to me. Perhaps you had
+better take hold of my hand."
+
+As they were making their way slowly through the crowd, the young apple
+merchant came up with his basket on his arm.
+
+"When are you going back, Ida?" he asked.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick says not till to-morrow."
+
+"Come, Ida," said the nurse, sharply. "I can't have you stopping all day
+to talk. We must hurry along."
+
+"Good-by, Charlie," said Ida. "If you see Jack, just tell him you saw
+me."
+
+"Yes, I will," was the reply.
+
+"I wonder who that woman is with Ida?" thought the boy. "I don't like
+her looks much. I wonder if she's any relation of Mr. Harding. She looks
+about as pleasant as Aunt Rachel."
+
+The last-mentioned lady would hardly have felt flattered at the
+comparison.
+
+Ida looked about her with curiosity. There was a novel sensation in
+being in a new place, particularly a city of which she had heard so much
+as Philadelphia. As far back as she could remember, she had never left
+New York, except for a brief excursion to Hoboken; and one Fourth of
+July was made memorable by a trip to Staten Island, under the
+guardianship of Jack.
+
+They entered a horse car just outside the depot, and rode probably a
+mile.
+
+"We get out here," said the nurse. "Take care, or you'll get run over.
+Now turn down here."
+
+They entered a narrow and dirty street, with unsightly houses on each
+side.
+
+"This ain't a very nice-looking street," said Ida.
+
+"Why isn't it?" demanded her companion, roughly.
+
+"Why, it's narrow, and the houses don't look nice."
+
+"What do you think of that house there?" asked Mrs. Hardwick, pointing
+to a dilapidated-looking structure on the right-hand side of the street.
+
+"I shouldn't like to live there," answered Ida.
+
+"You wouldn't, hey? You don't like it so well as the house you live in
+in New York?"
+
+"No, not half so well."
+
+The nurse smiled.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go in, and look at the house?"
+
+"Go in and look at the house?" repeated Ida. "Why should we?"
+
+"You must know there are some poor families living there that I am
+interested in," said Mrs. Hardwick, who appeared amused at something.
+"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it is our duty to help the poor?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but won't it be late before we get to the lady?"
+
+"No, there's plenty of time. You needn't be afraid of that. There's a
+poor man living in this house that I've made a good many clothes for,
+first and last."
+
+"He must be much obliged to you," said Ida.
+
+"We're going up to see him now," said her companion. "Take care of that
+hole in the stairs."
+
+Somewhat to Ida's surprise, her guide, on reaching the first landing,
+opened a door without the ceremony of knocking, and revealed a poor,
+untidy room, in which a coarse, unshaven man was sitting, in his shirt
+sleeves, smoking a pipe.
+
+"Hello!" exclaimed this individual, jumping up. "So you've got along,
+old woman! Is that the gal?"
+
+Ida stared from one to the other in amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+UNEXPECTED QUARTERS
+
+
+The appearance of the man whom Mrs. Hardwick addressed so familiarly was
+more picturesque than pleasing, He had a large, broad face, which, not
+having been shaved for a week, looked like a wilderness of stubble. His
+nose indicated habitual indulgence in alcoholic beverages. His eyes were
+bloodshot, and his skin looked coarse and blotched; his coat was thrown
+aside, displaying a shirt which bore evidence of having been useful in
+its day and generation. The same remark may apply to his nether
+integuments, which were ventilated at each knee, indicating a most
+praiseworthy regard to the laws of health.
+
+Ida thought she had never seen so disgusting a man. She continued to
+gaze at him, half in astonishment, half in terror, till the object of
+her attention exclaimed:
+
+"Well, little gal, what you're lookin' at? Hain't you never seen a
+gentleman before?"
+
+Ida clung the closer to her companion, who, she was surprised to find,
+did not resent the man's familiarity.
+
+"Well, Dick, how've you got along since I've been gone?" asked the
+nurse, to Ida's astonishment.
+
+"Oh, so-so."
+
+"Have you felt lonely any?"
+
+"I've had good company."
+
+"Who's been here?"
+
+Dick pointed significantly to a jug.
+
+"That's the best company I know of," he said, "but it's 'most empty. So
+you've brought along the gal," he continued. "How did you get hold of
+her?"
+
+There was something in these questions which terrified Ida. It seemed to
+indicate a degree of complicity between these two which boded no good to
+her.
+
+"I'll tell you the particulars by and by."
+
+At the same time she began to take off her bonnet.
+
+"You ain't going to stop, are you?" asked Ida, startled.
+
+"Ain't goin' to stop?" repeated the man called Dick. "Why shouldn't she
+stop, I'd like to know? Ain't she at home?"
+
+"At home!" echoed Ida, apprehensively, opening wide her eyes in
+astonishment.
+
+"Yes; ask her."
+
+Ida looked inquiringly at Mrs. Hardwick.
+
+"You might as well take off your things," said the latter, grimly. "We
+ain't going any further to-day."
+
+"And where's the lady you said you were going to see?"
+
+"The one that was interested in you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm the one," she answered, with a broad smile and a glance at
+Dick.
+
+"I don't want to stay here," said Ida, now frightened.
+
+"Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Will you take me back early to-morrow?" entreated Ida.
+
+"No, I don't intend to take you back at all."
+
+Ida seemed at first stupefied with astonishment and terror. Then,
+actuated by a sudden, desperate impulse, she ran to the door, and had
+got it partly open, when the nurse sprang forward, and seizing her by
+the arm, pulled her violently back.
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry?" she demanded.
+
+"Back to father and mother," answered Ida, bursting into tears. "Oh, why
+did you bring me here?"
+
+"I'll tell you why," answered Dick, jocularly. "You see, Ida, we ain't
+got any little girl to love us, and so we got you."
+
+"But I don't love you, and I never shall," said Ida, indignantly.
+
+"Now don't you go to saying that," said Dick. "You'll break my heart,
+you naughty girl, and then Peg will be a widow."
+
+To give due effect to this pathetic speech, Dick drew out a tattered red
+handkerchief, and made a great demonstration of wiping his eyes.
+
+The whole scene was so ludicrous that Ida, despite her fears and
+disgust, could not help laughing hysterically. She recovered herself
+instantly, and said imploringly: "Oh, do let me go, and father will pay
+you."
+
+"You really think he would?" said Dick, in a tantalizing tone.
+
+"Oh, yes; and you'll tell her to take me back, won't you?"
+
+"No, he won't tell me any such thing," said Peg, gruffly; "so you may as
+well give up all thoughts of that first as last. You're going to stay
+here; so take off that bonnet of yours, and say no more about it."
+
+Ida made no motion toward obeying this mandate.
+
+"Then I'll do it for you," said Peg.
+
+She roughly untied the bonnet--Ida struggling vainly in opposition--and
+taking this, with the shawl, carried them to a closet, in which she
+placed them, and then, locking the door, deliberately put the key in her
+pocket.
+
+"There," said she, grimly, "I guess you're safe for the present."
+
+"Ain't you ever going to carry me back?"
+
+"Some years hence I may possibly," answered the woman, coolly. "We want
+you here for the present. Besides, you're not sure that they want you
+back."
+
+"Not want me back again?"
+
+"That's what I said. How do you know but your father and mother sent you
+off on purpose? They've been troubled with you long enough, and now
+they've bound you apprentice to me till you're eighteen."
+
+"It's a lie!" said Ida, firmly. "They didn't send me off, and you're a
+wicked woman to tell me so."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" said the woman. "Is that the way you dare to speak to me?
+Have you anything more to say before I whip you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, goaded to desperation. "I shall complain of you to
+the police, just as soon as I get a chance, and they will put you in
+jail and send me home. That is what I will do."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick was incensed, and somewhat startled at these defiant
+words. It was clear that Ida was not going to be a meek, submissive
+child, whom they might ill-treat without apprehension. She was decidedly
+dangerous, and her insubordination must be nipped in the bud. She seized
+Ida roughly by the arm, and striding with her to the closet already
+spoken of, unlocked it, and, rudely pushing her in, locked the door
+after her.
+
+"Stay there till you know how to behave," she said.
+
+"How did you manage to come it over her family?" inquired Dick.
+
+His wife gave substantially the account with which the reader is already
+familiar.
+
+"Pretty well done, old woman!" exclaimed Dick, approvingly. "I always
+said you was a deep un. I always says, if Peg can't find out how a thing
+is to be done, then it can't be done, nohow."
+
+"How about the counterfeit coin?" she asked.
+
+"We're to be supplied with all we can put off, and we are to have half
+for our trouble."
+
+"That is good. When the girl, Ida, gets a little tamed down, we'll give
+her something to do."
+
+"Is it safe? Won't she betray us?"
+
+"We'll manage that, or at least I will. I'll work on her fears, so she
+won't any more dare to say a word about us than to cut her own head
+off."
+
+"All right, Peg. I can trust you to do what's right."
+
+Ida sank down on the floor of the closet into which she had been thrust.
+Utter darkness was around her, and a darkness as black seemed to hang
+over all her prospects of future happiness. She had been snatched in a
+moment from parents, or those whom she regarded as such, and from a
+comfortable and happy, though humble home, to this dismal place. In
+place of the kindness and indulgence to which she had been accustomed,
+she was now treated with harshness and cruelty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+"It doesn't, somehow, seem natural," said the cooper, as he took his
+seat at the tea table, "to sit down without Ida. It seems as if half the
+family were gone."
+
+"Just what I've said to myself twenty times to-day," remarked his wife.
+"Nobody can tell how much a child is to them till they lose it."
+
+"Not lose it," corrected Jack.
+
+"I didn't mean to say that."
+
+"When you used that word, mother, it made me feel just as if Ida wasn't
+coming back."
+
+"I don't know why it is," said Mrs. Harding, thoughtfully, "but I've had
+that same feeling several times today. I've felt just as if something or
+other would happen to prevent Ida's coming back."
+
+"That is only because she's never been away before," said the cooper,
+cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble, Martha; we shall have
+enough of it without."
+
+"You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel, mournfully. "Man is
+born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. This world is a vale of tears,
+and a home of misery. Folks may try and try to be happy, but that isn't
+what they're sent here for."
+
+"You never tried very hard, Aunt Rachel," said Jack.
+
+"It's my fate to be misjudged," said his aunt, with the air of a martyr.
+
+"I don't agree with you in your ideas about life, Rachel," said her
+brother. "Just as there are more pleasant than stormy days, so I believe
+there is much more of brightness than shadow in this life of ours, if we
+would only see it."
+
+"I can't see it," said Rachel.
+
+"It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the clouds than
+the sun."
+
+"Yes," chimed in Jack, "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel takes up the
+newspaper, she always looks first at the deaths, and next at the fatal
+accidents and steamboat explosions."
+
+"If," retorted Rachel, with severe emphasis, "you should ever be on
+board a steamboat when it exploded, you wouldn't find much to laugh at."
+
+"Yes, I should," said Jack, "I should laugh--"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Rachel, horrified.
+
+"On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't wait till
+I'd finished the sentence."
+
+"I don't think it proper to make light of such serious matters."
+
+"Nor I Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of his mouth.
+"I am willing to confess that this is a serious matter. I should feel as
+they say the cow did, that was thrown three hundred feet up into the
+air."
+
+"How's that?" inquired his mother.
+
+"Rather discouraged," answered Jack.
+
+All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe composure,
+and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with the air of one gulping
+down medicine.
+
+In the morning all felt more cheerful.
+
+"Ida will be home to-night," said Mrs. Harding, brightly. "What an age
+it seems since she went away! Who'd think it was only twenty-four
+hours?"
+
+"We shall know better how to appreciate her when we get her back," said
+her husband.
+
+"What time do you expect her home, mother? What did Mrs. Hardwick say?"
+
+"Why," said Mrs. Harding, hesitating, "she didn't say as to the hour;
+but I guess she'll be along in the course of the afternoon."
+
+"If we only knew where she had gone, we could tell better when to expect
+her."
+
+"But as we don't know," said the cooper, "we must wait patiently till
+she comes."
+
+"I guess," said Mrs. Harding, with the impulse of a notable housewife,
+"I'll make some apple turnovers for supper to-night. There's nothing Ida
+likes so well."
+
+"That's where Ida is right," said Jack, smacking his lips. "Apple
+turnovers are splendid."
+
+"They are very unwholesome," remarked Rachel.
+
+"I shouldn't think so from the way you eat them, Aunt Rachel," retorted
+Jack. "You ate four the last time we had them for supper."
+
+"I didn't think you'd begrudge me the little I eat," said his aunt,
+dolefully. "I didn't think you counted the mouthfuls I took."
+
+"Come, Rachel, don't be so unreasonable," said her brother. "Nobody
+begrudges you what you eat, even if you choose to eat twice as much as
+you do. I dare say Jack ate more of the turnovers than you did."
+
+"I ate six," said Jack, candidly.
+
+Rachel, construing this into an apology, said no more.
+
+"If it wasn't for you, Aunt Rachel, I should be in danger of getting too
+jolly, perhaps, and spilling over. It always makes me sober to look at
+you."
+
+"It's lucky there's something to make you sober and stiddy," said his
+aunt. "You are too frivolous."
+
+Evening came, but it did not bring Ida. An indefinable sense of
+apprehension oppressed the minds of all. Martha feared that Ida's
+mother, finding her so attractive, could not resist the temptation of
+keeping her.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "that she has the best claim to her, but it would
+be a terrible thing for us to part with her."
+
+"Don't let us trouble ourselves about that," said Timothy. "It seems to
+me very natural that her mother should keep her a little longer than she
+intended. Think how long it is since she saw her. Besides, it is not too
+late for her to return to-night."
+
+At length there came a knock at the door.
+
+"I guess that is Ida," said Mrs. Harding, joyfully.
+
+Jack seized a candle, and hastening to the door, threw it open. But
+there was no Ida there. In her place stood Charlie Fitts, the boy who
+had met Ida in the cars.
+
+"How are you, Charlie?" said Jack, trying not to look disappointed.
+"Come in and tell us all the news."
+
+"Well," said Charlie, "I don't know of any. I suppose Ida has got home?"
+
+"No," answered Jack; "we expected her to-night, but she hasn't come
+yet."
+
+"She told me she expected to come back to-day."
+
+"What! have you seen her?" exclaimed all, in chorus.
+
+"Yes; I saw her yesterday noon."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Why, in the cars," answered Charlie.
+
+"What cars?" asked the cooper.
+
+"Why, the Philadelphia cars. Of course you knew it was there she was
+going?"
+
+"Philadelphia!" exclaimed all, in surprise.
+
+"Yes, the cars were almost there when I saw her. Who was that with her?"
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick, her old nurse."
+
+"I didn't like her looks."
+
+"That's where we paddle in the same canoe," said Jack.
+
+"She didn't seem to want me to speak to Ida," continued Charlie, "but
+hurried her off as quick as possible."
+
+"There were reasons for that," said the cooper. "She wanted to keep her
+destination secret."
+
+"I don't know what it was," said the boy, "but I don't like the woman's
+looks."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOW IDA FARED
+
+
+We left Ida confined in a dark closet, with Peg standing guard over her.
+
+After an hour she was released.
+
+"Well," said the nurse, grimly, "how do you feel now?"
+
+"I want to go home," sobbed the child.
+
+"You are at home," said the woman.
+
+"Shall I never see father, and mother, and Jack again?"
+
+"That depends on how you behave yourself."
+
+"Oh, if you will only let me go," pleaded Ida, gathering hope from this
+remark, "I'll do anything you say."
+
+"Do you mean this, or do you only say it for the sake of getting away?"
+
+"I mean just what I say. Dear, good Mrs. Hardwick, tell me what to do,
+and I will obey you cheerfully."
+
+"Very well," said Peg, "only you needn't try to come it over me by
+calling me dear, good Mrs. Hardwick. In the first place, you don't care
+a cent about me; in the second place, I am not good; and finally, my
+name isn't Mrs. Hardwick, except in New York."
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Ida.
+
+"It's just Peg, no more and no less. You may call me Aunt Peg."
+
+"I would rather call you Mrs. Hardwick."
+
+"Then you'll have a good many years to call me so. You'd better do as I
+tell you, if you want any favors. Now what do you say?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg," said Ida, with a strong effort to conceal her
+repugnance.
+
+"That's well. Now you're not to tell anybody that you came from New
+York. That is very important; and you're to pay your board by doing
+whatever I tell you."
+
+"If it isn't wicked."
+
+"Do you suppose I would ask you to do anything wicked?" demanded Peg,
+frowning.
+
+"You said you wasn't good," mildly suggested Ida.
+
+"I'm good enough to take care of you. Well, what do you say to that?
+Answer me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There's another thing. You ain't to try to run away."
+
+Ida hung down her head.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Peg. "So you've been thinking of it, have you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, boldly, after a moment's hesitation. "I did think I
+should if I got a good chance."
+
+"Humph!" said the woman, "I see we must understand one another. Unless
+you promise this, back you go into the dark closet, and I shall keep you
+there."
+
+Ida shuddered at this fearful threat--terrible to a child of but eight
+years.
+
+"Do you promise?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida, faintly.
+
+"For fear you might be tempted to break your promise, I have something
+to show you."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick went to the closet, and took down a large pistol.
+
+"There," she said, "do you see that?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"Do you know what it is for?"
+
+"To shoot people with," answered the child.
+
+"Yes," said the nurse; "I see you understand. Well, now, do you know
+what I would do if you should tell anybody where you came from, or
+attempt to run away? Can you guess, now?"
+
+"Would you shoot me?" asked Ida, terror-stricken.
+
+"Yes, I would," said Peg, with fierce emphasis. "That's just what I'd
+do. And what's more even if you got away, and got back to your family in
+New York, I would follow you, and shoot you dead in the street."
+
+"You wouldn't be so wicked!" exclaimed Ida.
+
+"Wouldn't I, though?" repeated Peg, significantly. "If you don't believe
+I would, just try it. Do you think you would like to try it?" she asked,
+fiercely.
+
+"No," answered Ida, with a shudder.
+
+"Well, that's the most sensible thing you've said yet. Now that you are
+a little more reasonable, I'll tell you what I am going to do with you."
+
+Ida looked eagerly up into her face.
+
+"I am going to keep you with me for a year. I want the services of a
+little girl for that time. If you serve me faithfully, I will then send
+you back to New York."
+
+"Will you?" asked Ida, hopefully.
+
+"Yes, but you must mind and do what I tell you."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ida, joyfully.
+
+This was so much better than she had been led to fear, that the prospect
+of returning home at all, even though she had to wait a year, encouraged
+her.
+
+"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
+
+"You may take the broom and sweep the room."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"And then you may wash the dishes."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"And after that, I will find something else for you to do."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick threw herself into a rocking-chair, and watched with grim
+satisfaction the little handmaiden, as she moved quickly about.
+
+"I took the right course with her," she said to herself. "She won't any
+more dare to run away than to chop her hands off. She thinks I'll shoot
+her."
+
+And the unprincipled woman chuckled to herself.
+
+Ida heard her indistinctly, and asked, timidly:
+
+"Did you speak, Aunt Peg?"
+
+"No, I didn't; just attend to your work and don't mind me. Did your
+mother make you work?"
+
+"No; I went to school."
+
+"Time you learned. I'll make a smart woman of you."
+
+The next morning Ida was asked if she would like to go out into the
+street.
+
+"I am going to let you do a little shopping. There are various things we
+want. Go and get your hat."
+
+"It's in the closet," said Ida.
+
+"Oh, yes, I put it there. That was before I could trust you."
+
+She went to the closet and returned with the child's hat and shawl. As
+soon as the two were ready they emerged into the street.
+
+"This is a little better than being shut up in the closet, isn't it?"
+asked her companion.
+
+"Oh, yes, ever so much."
+
+"You see you'll have a very good time of it, if you do as I bid you. I
+don't want to do you any harm."
+
+So they walked along together until Peg, suddenly pausing, laid her
+hands on Ida's arm, and pointing to a shop near by, said to her: "Do you
+see that shop?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida.
+
+"I want you to go in and ask for a couple of rolls. They come to three
+cents apiece. Here's some money to pay for them. It is a new dollar. You
+will give this to the man that stands behind the counter, and he will
+give you back ninety-four cents. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes," said Ida, nodding her head. "I think I do."
+
+"And if the man asks if you have anything smaller, you will say no."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Peg."
+
+"I will stay just outside. I want you to go in alone, so you will learn
+to manage without me."
+
+Ida entered the shop. The baker, a pleasant-looking man, stood behind
+the counter.
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked.
+
+"I should like a couple of rolls."
+
+"For your mother, I suppose?" said the baker.
+
+"No," answered Ida, "for the woman I board with."
+
+"Ha! a dollar bill, and a new one, too," said the baker, as Ida tendered
+it in payment. "I shall have to save that for my little girl."
+
+Ida left the shop with the two rolls and the silver change.
+
+"Did he say anything about the money?" asked Peg.
+
+"He said he should save it for his little girl."
+
+"Good!" said the woman. "You've done well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+BAD MONEY
+
+
+The baker introduced in the foregoing chapter was named Harding.
+Singularly, Abel Harding was a brother of Timothy Harding, the cooper.
+
+In many respects he resembled his brother. He was an excellent man,
+exemplary in all the relations of life, and had a good heart. He was in
+very comfortable circumstances, having accumulated a little property by
+diligent attention to his business. Like his brother, Abel Harding had
+married, and had one child. She had received the name of Ellen.
+
+When the baker closed his shop for the night, he did not forget the new
+dollar, which he had received, or the disposal he told Ida he would make
+of it.
+
+Ellen ran to meet her father as he entered the house.
+
+"What do you think I have brought you, Ellen?" he said, with a smile.
+
+"Do tell me quick," said the child, eagerly.
+
+"What if I should tell you it was a new dollar?"
+
+"Oh, papa, thank you!" and Ellen ran to show it to her mother.
+
+"Yes," said the baker, "I received it from a little girl about the size
+of Ellen, and I suppose it was that that gave me the idea of bringing it
+home to her."
+
+This was all that passed concerning Ida at that time. The thought of her
+would have passed from the baker's mind, if it had not been recalled by
+circumstances.
+
+Ellen, like most girls of her age, when in possession of money, could
+not be easy until she had spent it. Her mother advised her to deposit it
+in some savings bank; but Ellen preferred present gratification.
+
+Accordingly, one afternoon, when walking out with her mother, she
+persuaded her to go into a toy shop, and price a doll which she saw in
+the window. The price was seventy-five cents. Ellen concluded to buy it,
+and her mother tendered the dollar in payment.
+
+The shopman took it in his hand, glanced at it carelessly at first, then
+scrutinized it with increased attention.
+
+"What is the matter?" inquired Mrs. Harding. "It is good, isn't it?"
+
+"That is what I am doubtful of," was the reply.
+
+"It is new."
+
+"And that is against it. If it were old, it would be more likely to be
+genuine."
+
+"But you wouldn't condemn a bill because it is new?"
+
+"Certainly not; but the fact is, there have been lately many cases where
+counterfeit bills have been passed, and I suspect this is one of them.
+However, I can soon ascertain."
+
+"I wish you would," said the baker's wife. "My husband took it at his
+shop, and will be likely to take more unless he is put on his guard."
+
+The shopman sent it to the bank where it was pronounced counterfeit.
+
+Mr. Harding was much surprised at his wife's story.
+
+"Really!" he said. "I had no suspicion of this. Can it be possible that
+such a young and beautiful child could be guilty of such an offense?"
+
+"Perhaps not," answered his wife. "She may be as innocent in the matter
+as Ellen or myself."
+
+"I hope so," said the baker; "it would be a pity that so young a child
+should be given to wickedness. However, I shall find out before long."
+
+"How?"
+
+"She will undoubtedly come again sometime."
+
+The baker watched daily for the coming of Ida. He waited some days in
+vain. It was not Peg's policy to send the child too often to the same
+place, as that would increase the chances of detection.
+
+One day, however, Ida entered the shop as before.
+
+"Good-morning," said the baker; "what will you have to-day?"
+
+"You may give me a sheet of gingerbread, sir."
+
+The baker placed it in her hand.
+
+"How much will it be?"
+
+"Twelve cents."
+
+Ida offered him another new bill.
+
+As if to make change, he stepped from behind the counter and placed
+himself between Ida and the door.
+
+"What is your name, my child?" he asked.
+
+"Ida, sir."
+
+"Ida? But what is your other name?"
+
+Ida hesitated a moment, because Peg had forbidden her to use the name of
+Harding, and had told her, if ever the inquiry were made, she must
+answer Hardwick.
+
+She answered reluctantly: "Ida Hardwick."
+
+The baker observed her hesitation, and this increased his suspicion.
+
+"Hardwick!" he repeated, musingly, endeavoring to draw from the child as
+much information as possible before allowing her to perceive that he
+suspected her. "And where do you live?"
+
+Ida was a child of spirit, and did not understand why she should be
+questioned so closely.
+
+She said, with some impatience: "I am in a hurry, sir, and would like to
+have the change as soon as you can."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said the baker, his manner suddenly changing,
+"but you cannot go just yet."
+
+"Why not?" asked Ida.
+
+"Because you have been trying to deceive me."
+
+"I trying to deceive you!" exclaimed Ida.
+
+"Really," thought Mr. Harding, "she does it well; but no doubt she is
+trained to it. It is perfectly shocking, such artful depravity in a
+child."
+
+"Don't you remember buying something here a week ago?" he asked, in as
+stern a tone as his good nature would allow him to employ.
+
+"Yes," answered Ida, promptly; "I bought two rolls, at three cents
+apiece."
+
+"And what did you offer me in payment?"
+
+"I handed you a dollar bill."
+
+"Like this?" asked the baker, holding up the one she had just offered
+him.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And do you mean to say," demanded the baker, sternly, "that you didn't
+know it was bad when you offered it to me?"
+
+"Bad!" gasped Ida.
+
+"Yes, spurious. Not as good as blank paper."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I didn't know anything about it," said Ida, earnestly;
+"I hope you'll believe me when I say that I thought it was good."
+
+"I don't know what to think," said the baker, perplexed. "Who gave you
+the money?"
+
+"The woman I board with."
+
+"Of course I can't give you the gingerbread. Some men, in my place,
+would deliver you up to the police. But I will let you go, if you will
+make me one promise."
+
+"Oh, I will promise anything, sir," said Ida.
+
+"You have given me a bad dollar. Will you promise to bring me a good one
+to-morrow?"
+
+Ida made the required promise, and was allowed to go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+DOUBTS AND FEARS
+
+
+"Well, what kept you so long?" asked Peg, impatiently, as Ida rejoined
+her at the corner of the street. "I thought you were going to stay all
+the forenoon. And Where's your gingerbread?"
+
+"He wouldn't let me have it," answered Ida.
+
+"And why wouldn't he let you have it?" said Peg.
+
+"Because he said the money wasn't good."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! It's good enough. However, it's no matter. We'll go
+somewhere else."
+
+"But he said the money I gave him last week wasn't good, and I promised
+to bring him another to-morrow, or he wouldn't have let me go."
+
+"Well, where are you going to get your dollar?"
+
+"Why, won't you give it to me?" said the child.
+
+"Catch me at such nonsense!" said Mrs. Hardwick, contemptuously. "I
+ain't quite a fool. But here we are at another shop. Go in and see if
+you can do any better there. Here's the money."
+
+"Why, it's the same bill I gave you."
+
+"What if it is?"
+
+"I don't want to pass bad money."
+
+"Tut! What hurt will it do?"
+
+"It's the same as stealing."
+
+"The man won't lose anything. He'll pass it off again."
+
+"Somebody'll have to lose it by and by," said Ida.
+
+"So you've taken up preaching, have you?" said Peg, sneeringly. "Maybe
+you know better than I what is proper to do. It won't do for you to be
+so mighty particular, and so you'll find out, if you stay with me long."
+
+"Where did you get the dollar?" asked Ida; "and how is it you have so
+many of them?"
+
+"None of your business. You mustn't pry into the affairs of other
+people. Are you going to do as I told you?" she continued, menacingly.
+
+"I can't," answered Ida, pale but resolute.
+
+"You can't!" repeated Peg, furiously. "Didn't you promise to do whatever
+I told you?"
+
+"Except what was wicked," interposed Ida.
+
+"And what business have you to decide what is wicked? Come home with
+me."
+
+Peg seized the child's hand, and walked on in sullen silence,
+occasionally turning to scowl upon Ida, who had been strong enough, in
+her determination to do right, to resist successfully the will of the
+woman whom she had so much reason to dread.
+
+Arrived at home, Peg walked Ida into the room by the shoulder. Dick was
+lounging in a chair.
+
+"Hillo!" said he, lazily, observing his wife's frowning face. "What's
+the gal been doin', hey?"
+
+"What's she been doing?" repeated Peg. "I should like to know what she
+hasn't been doing. She's refused to go in and buy gingerbread of the
+baker."
+
+"Look here, little gal," said Dick, in a moralizing vein, "isn't this
+rayther undootiful conduct on your part? Ain't it a piece of
+ingratitude, when Peg and I go to the trouble of earning the money to
+pay for gingerbread for you to eat, that you ain't even willin' to go in
+and buy it?"
+
+"I would just as lieve go in," said Ida, "if Peg would give me good
+money to pay for it."
+
+"That don't make any difference," said the admirable moralist. "It's
+your dooty to do just as she tells you, and you'll do right. She'll take
+the risk."
+
+"I can't," said the child.
+
+"You hear her!" said Peg.
+
+"Very improper conduct!" said Dick, shaking his head in grave reproval.
+"Little gal, I'm ashamed of you. Put her in the closet, Peg."
+
+"Come along," said Peg, harshly. "I'll show you how I deal with those
+that don't obey me."
+
+So Ida was incarcerated once more in the dark closet. Yet in the midst
+of her desolation, child as she was, she was sustained and comforted by
+the thought that she was suffering for doing right.
+
+When Ida failed to return on the appointed day, the Hardings, though
+disappointed, did not think it strange.
+
+"If I were her mother," said the cooper's wife, "and had been parted
+from her for so long, I should want to keep her as long as I could. Dear
+heart! how pretty she is and how proud her mother must be of her!"
+
+"It's all a delusion," said Rachel, shaking her head, solemnly. "It's
+all a delusion. I don't believe she's got a mother at all. That Mrs.
+Hardwick is an impostor. I know it, and told you so at the time, but you
+wouldn't believe me. I never expect to set eyes on Ida again in this
+world."
+
+The next day passed, and still no tidings of Jack's ward. Her young
+guardian, though not as gloomy as Aunt Rachel, looked unusually serious.
+
+There was a cloud of anxiety even upon the cooper's usually placid face,
+and he was more silent than usual at the evening meal. At night, after
+Jack and his aunt had retired, he said, anxiously: "What do you think is
+the cause of Ida's prolonged absence, Martha?"
+
+"I can't tell," said his wife, seriously. "It seems to me, if her mother
+wanted to keep her longer it would be no more than right that she should
+drop us a line. She must know that we would feel anxious."
+
+"Perhaps she is so taken up with Ida that she can think of no one else."
+
+"It may be so; but if we neither see Ida to-morrow, nor hear from her, I
+shall be seriously troubled."
+
+"Suppose she should never come back," suggested the cooper, very
+soberly.
+
+"Oh, husband, don't hint at such a thing," said his wife.
+
+"We must contemplate it as a possibility," said Timothy, gravely,
+"though not, as I hope, as a probability. Ida's mother has an undoubted
+right to her."
+
+"Then it would be better if she had never been placed in our charge,"
+said Martha, tearfully, "for we should not have had the pain of parting
+with her."
+
+"Not so, Martha," her husband said, seriously. "We ought to be grateful
+for God's blessings, even if He suffers us to retain them but a short
+time. And Ida has been a blessing to us all, I am sure. The memory of
+that can't be taken from us, Martha. There's some lines I came across in
+the paper to-night that express just what I've been sayin'. Let me find
+them."
+
+The cooper put on his spectacles, and hunted slowly down the columns of
+the daily paper till he came to these beautiful lines of Tennyson, which
+he read aloud:
+
+  "'I hold it true, whate'er befall;
+  I feel it when I sorrow most;
+  'Tis better to have loved and lost,
+  Than never to have loved at all.'"
+
+
+"There, wife," he said, as he laid down the paper; "I don't know who
+writ them lines, but I'm sure it's some one that's met with a great
+sorrow and conquered it."
+
+"They are beautiful," said his wife, after a pause; "and I dare say
+you're right, Timothy; but I hope we mayn't have to learn the truth of
+them by experience. After all, it isn't certain but that Ida will come
+back."
+
+"At any rate," said her husband, "there is no doubt that it is our duty
+to take every means that we can to recover Ida. Of course, if her mother
+insists upon keepin' her, we can't say anything; but we ought to be sure
+of that before we yield her up."
+
+"What do you mean, Timothy?" asked Martha.
+
+"I don't know as I ought to mention it," said the cooper. "Very likely
+there isn't anything in it, and it would only make you feel more
+anxious."
+
+"You have already aroused my anxiety. I should feel better if you would
+speak out."
+
+"Then I will," said the cooper. "I have sometimes been tempted," he
+continued, lowering his voice, "to doubt whether Ida's mother really
+sent for her."
+
+"How do you account for the letter, then?"
+
+"I have thought--mind, it is only a guess--that Mrs. Hardwick may have
+got somebody to write it for her."
+
+"It is very singular," murmured Martha.
+
+"What is singular?"
+
+"Why, the very same thought has occurred to me. Somehow, I can't help
+feeling a little distrustful of Mrs. Hardwick, though perhaps unjustly.
+What object can she have in getting possession of the child?"
+
+"That I can't conjecture; but I have come to one determination."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Unless we learn something of Ida within a week from the time she left
+here, I shall go on to Philadelphia, or else send Jack, and endeavor to
+get track of her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+AUNT RACHEL'S MISHAPS
+
+
+The week slipped away, and still no tidings of Ida. The house seemed
+lonely without her. Not until then did they understand how largely she
+had entered into their life and thoughts. But worse even than the sense
+of loss was the uncertainty as to her fate.
+
+"It is time that we took some steps about finding Ida," the cooper said.
+"I would like to go to Philadelphia myself, to make inquiries about her,
+but I am just now engaged upon a job which I cannot very well leave, and
+so I have concluded to send Jack."
+
+"When shall I start?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"To-morrow morning," answered his father.
+
+"What good do you think it will do," interposed Rachel, "to send a mere
+boy like Jack to Philadelphia?"
+
+"A mere boy!" repeated her nephew, indignantly.
+
+"A boy hardly sixteen years old," continued Rachel. "Why, he'll need
+somebody to take care of him. Most likely you'll have to go after him."
+
+"What's the use of provoking a fellow so, Aunt Rachel?" said Jack. "You
+know I'm 'most eighteen. Hardly sixteen! Why, I might as well say you're
+hardly forty, when we all know you're fifty."
+
+"Fifty!" ejaculated the scandalized spinster. "It's a base slander. I'm
+only thirty-seven."
+
+"Maybe I'm mistaken," said Jack, carelessly. "I didn't know exactly how
+old you were; I only judged from your looks."
+
+At this point, Rachel applied a segment of a pocket handkerchief to her
+eyes; but, unfortunately, owing to circumstances, the effect instead of
+being pathetic, as she intended it to be, was simply ludicrous.
+
+It so happened that a short time previous, the inkstand had been
+partially spilled upon the table, through Jack's carelessness and this
+handkerchief had been used to sop it up. It had been placed
+inadvertently upon the window seat, where it had remained until Rachel,
+who was sitting beside the window, called it into requisition. The ink
+upon it was by no means dry. The consequence was, that, when Rachel
+removed it from her eyes, her face was discovered to be covered with ink
+in streaks mingling with the tears that were falling, for Rachel always
+had a plentiful supply of tears at command.
+
+The first intimation the luckless spinster had of her mishap was
+conveyed in a stentorian laugh from Jack.
+
+He looked intently at the dark traces of sorrow on his aunt's face--of
+which she was yet unconscious--and doubling up, went off into a perfect
+paroxysm of laughter.
+
+"Jack!" said his mother, reprovingly, for she had not observed the cause
+of his amusement, "it's improper for you to laugh at your aunt in such a
+rude manner."
+
+"Oh, I can't help it, mother. Just look at her."
+
+Thus invited, Mrs. Harding did look, and the rueful expression of
+Rachel, set off by the inky stains, was so irresistibly comical, that,
+after a hard struggle, she too gave way, and followed Jack's example.
+
+Astonished and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her
+sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and again had
+recourse to the handkerchief.
+
+"This is too much!" she sobbed. "I've stayed here long enough, if even
+my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew, from whom I expect nothing
+better, makes me her laughingstock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer
+remain in your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poorhouse and
+end my miserable existence as a common pauper. If I only receive
+Christian burial when I leave the world, it will be all I hope or expect
+from my relatives, who will be glad enough to get rid of me."
+
+The second application of the handkerchief had so increased the effect,
+that Jack found it impossible to check his laughter, while the cooper,
+whose attention was now drawn to his sister's face, burst out in a
+similar manner.
+
+This more amazed Rachel than Martha's merriment.
+
+"Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!" she exclaimed,
+in an "_Et tu, Brute_" tone.
+
+"We don't mean to ridicule you, Rachel," gasped her sister-in-law, "but
+we can't help laughing."
+
+"At the prospect of my death!" uttered Rachel, in a tragic tone. "Well,
+I'm a poor, forlorn creetur, I know. Even my nearest relations make
+sport of me, and when I speak of dying, they shout their joy to my
+face."
+
+"Yes," gasped Jack, nearly choking, "that's it exactly. It isn't your
+death we're laughing at, but your face."
+
+"My face!" exclaimed the insulted spinster. "One would think I was a
+fright by the way you laugh at it."
+
+"So you are!" said Jack, with a fresh burst of laughter.
+
+"To be called a fright to my face!" shrieked Rachel, "by my own nephew!
+This is too much. Timothy, I leave your house forever."
+
+The excited maiden seized her hood; which was hanging from a nail, and
+was about to leave the house when she was arrested in her progress
+toward the door by the cooper, who stifled his laughter sufficiently to
+say: "Before you go, Rachel, just look in the glass."
+
+Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes rested upon a
+face streaked with inky spots and lines seaming it in every direction.
+
+In her first confusion Rachel jumped to the conclusion that she had been
+suddenly stricken by the plague. Accordingly she began to wring her
+hands in an excess of terror, and exclaimed in tones of piercing
+anguish:
+
+"It is the fatal plague spot! I am marked for the tomb. The sands of my
+life are fast running out."
+
+This convulsed Jack afresh with merriment, so that an observer might,
+not without reason, have imagined him to be in imminent danger of
+suffocation.
+
+"You'll kill me, Aunt Rachel! I know you will," he gasped.
+
+"You may order my coffin, Timothy," said Rachel, in a sepulchral voice;
+"I shan't live twenty-four hours. I've felt it coming on for a week
+past. I forgive you for all your ill-treatment. I should like to have
+some one go for the doctor, though I know I'm past help."
+
+"I think," said the cooper, trying to look sober, "you will find the
+cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the plague spots, as you
+call them."
+
+Rachel turned toward him with a puzzled look. Then, as her eyes rested
+for the first time upon the handkerchief she had used, its appearance at
+once suggested a clew by which she was enabled to account for her own.
+
+Somewhat ashamed of the emotion which she had betrayed, as well as the
+ridiculous figure which she had cut, she left the room abruptly, and did
+not make her appearance again till the next morning.
+
+After this little episode, the conversation turned upon Jack's
+approaching journey.
+
+"I don't know," said his mother, "but Rachel is right. Perhaps Jack
+isn't old enough, and hasn't had sufficient experience to undertake such
+a mission."
+
+"Now, mother," expostulated Jack, "you ain't going to side against me,
+are you?"
+
+"There is no better plan," said his father, quietly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE FLOWER GIRL
+
+Henry Bowen was a young artist of moderate talent, who had abandoned the
+farm on which he had labored as a boy, for the sake of pursuing his
+favorite profession. He was not competent to achieve the highest
+success. But he had good taste and a skillful hand, and his productions
+were pleasing and popular. He had formed a connection with a publisher
+of prints and engravings, who had thrown considerable work in his way.
+
+"Have you any new commission to-day?" inquired the young artist, on the
+day before Ida's discovery that she had been employed to pass off
+spurious coin.
+
+"Yes," said the publisher, "I have thought of something which may prove
+attractive. Just at present, pictures of children seem to be popular. I
+should like to have you supply me with a sketch of a flower girl, with,
+say, a basket of flowers in her hand. Do you comprehend my idea?"
+
+"I believe I do," answered the artist. "Give me sufficient time, and I
+hope to satisfy you."
+
+The young artist went home, and at once set to work upon the task he had
+undertaken. He had conceived that it would be an easy one, but found
+himself mistaken. Whether because his fancy was not sufficiently lively,
+or his mind was not in tune, he was unable to produce the effect he
+desired. The faces which he successively outlined were all stiff, and
+though beautiful in feature, lacked the great charm of being expressive
+and lifelike.
+
+"What is the matter with me?" he exclaimed, impatiently. "Is it
+impossible for me to succeed? It's clear," he decided, "that I am not in
+the vein. I will go out and take a walk, and perhaps while I am in the
+street something may strike me."
+
+He accordingly donned his coat and hat, and emerged into the great
+thoroughfare, where he was soon lost in the throng. It was only natural
+that, as he walked, with his task uppermost in his thoughts, he should
+scrutinize carefully the faces of such young girls as he met.
+
+"Perhaps," it occurred to him, "I may get a hint from some face I see.
+It is strange," he mused, "how few there are, even in the freshness of
+childhood, that can be called models of beauty. That child, for example,
+has beautiful eyes, but a badly cut mouth. Here is one that would be
+pretty, if the face were rounded out; and here is a child--Heaven help
+it!--that was designed to be beautiful, but want and unfavorable
+circumstances have pinched and cramped it."
+
+It was at this point in the artist's soliloquy that, in turning the
+corner of a street, he came upon Peg and Ida.
+
+The artist looked earnestly at the child's face, and his own lighted up
+with sudden pleasure, as one who stumbles upon success just as he had
+begun to despair of it.
+
+"The very face I have been looking for!" he exclaimed to himself. "My
+flower girl is found at last."
+
+He turned round, and followed Ida and her companion. Both stopped at a
+shop window to examine some articles which were on exhibition there.
+
+"It is precisely the face I want," he murmured. "Nothing could be more
+appropriate or charming. With that face the success of the picture is
+assured."
+
+The artist's inference that Peg was Ida's attendant was natural, since
+the child was dressed in a style quite superior to her companion. Peg
+thought that this would enable her, with less risk, to pass spurious
+coin.
+
+The young man followed the strangely assorted pair to the apartments
+which Peg occupied. From the conversation which he overheard he learned
+that he had been mistaken in his supposition as to the relation between
+the two, and that, singular as it seemed, Peg had the guardianship of
+the child. This made his course clearer. He mounted the stairs and
+knocked at the door.
+
+"What do you want?" demanded a sharp voice.
+
+"I should like to see you just a moment," was the reply.
+
+Peg opened the door partially, and regarded the young man suspiciously.
+
+"I don't know you," she said, shortly.
+
+"I presume not," said the young man, courteously. "We have never met,
+I think. I am an artist. I hope you will pardon my present intrusion."
+
+"There is no use in your coming here," said Peg, abruptly, "and you may
+as well go away. I don't want to buy any pictures. I've got plenty of
+better ways to spend my money than to throw it away on such trash."
+
+No one would have thought of doubting Peg's word, for she looked far
+from being a patron of the arts.
+
+"You have a young girl living with you, about seven or eight years old,
+have you not?" inquired the artist.
+
+Peg instantly became suspicious.
+
+"Who told you that?" she demanded, quickly.
+
+"No one told me. I saw her in the street."
+
+Peg at once conceived the idea that her visitor was aware of the fact
+that the child had been lured away from home; possibly he might be
+acquainted with the cooper's family? or might be their emissary.
+
+"Suppose you did see such a child on the street, what has that to do
+with me?"
+
+"But I saw the child entering this house with you."
+
+"What if you did?" demanded Peg, defiantly.
+
+"I was about," said the artist, perceiving that he was misapprehended,
+"I was about to make a proposition which may prove advantageous to both
+of us."
+
+"Eh!" said Peg, catching at the hint. "Tell me what it is and we may
+come to terms."
+
+"I must explain," said Bowen, "that I am an artist. In seeking for a
+face to sketch from, I have been struck by that of your child."
+
+"Of Ida?"
+
+"Yes, if that is her name. I will pay you five dollars if you will allow
+me to copy her face."
+
+"Well," she said, more graciously, "if that's all you want, I don't know
+as I have any objections. I suppose you can copy her face here as well
+as anywhere?"
+
+"I should prefer to have her come to my studio."
+
+"I shan't let her come," said Peg, decidedly.
+
+"Then I will consent to your terms, and come here."
+
+"Do you want to begin now?"
+
+"I should like to do so."
+
+"Come in, then. Here, Ida, I want you."
+
+"Yes, Peg."
+
+"This gentleman wants to copy your face."
+
+Ida looked surprised.
+
+"I am an artist," said the young man, with a reassuring smile. "I will
+endeavor not to try your patience too much, or keep you too long. Do you
+think you can stand still for half an hour without too much fatigue?"
+
+He kept her in pleasant conversation, while, with a free, bold hand he
+sketched the outlines of her face.
+
+"I shall want one more sitting," he said. "I will come to-morrow at this
+time."
+
+"Stop a minute," said Peg. "I should like the money in advance. How do I
+know you will come again?"
+
+"Certainly, if you desire it," said Henry Bowen.
+
+"What strange fortune," he thought, "can have brought them together?
+Surely there can be no relation between this sweet child and that ugly
+old woman!"
+
+The next day he returned and completed his sketch, which was at once
+placed in the hands of the publisher, eliciting his warm approval.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+JACK OBTAINS INFORMATION
+
+
+Jack set out with that lightness of heart and keen sense of enjoyment
+that seem natural to a young man of eighteen on his first journey.
+Partly by boat, partly by cars, he traveled, till in a few hours he was
+discharged, with hundreds of others, at the depot in Philadelphia.
+
+He rejected all invitations to ride, and strode on, carpetbag in hand,
+though, sooth to say, he had very little idea whether he was steering in
+the right direction for his uncle's shop. By dint of diligent and
+persevering inquiry he found it at last, and walking in, announced
+himself to the worthy baker as his nephew Jack.
+
+"What? Are you Jack?" exclaimed Mr. Abel Harding, pausing in his labor.
+"Well, I never should have known you, that's a fact. Bless me, how
+you've grown! Why, you're 'most as big as your father, ain't you?"
+
+"Only half an inch shorter," answered Jack, complacently.
+
+"And you're--let me see--how old are you?"
+
+"Eighteen; that is, almost. I shall be in two months."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see you, Jack, though I hadn't the least idea of your
+raining down so unexpectedly. How's your father and mother and your
+adopted sister?"
+
+"Father and mother are pretty well," answered Jack; "and so is Aunt
+Rachel," he continued, smiling, "though she ain't so cheerful as she
+might be."
+
+"Poor Rachel!" said Abel, smiling also. "Everything goes contrary with
+her. I don't suppose she's wholly to blame for it. Folks differ
+constitutionally. Some are always looking on the bright side of things,
+and others can never see but one side, and that's the dark one."
+
+"You've hit it, uncle," said Jack, laughing. "Aunt Rachel always looks
+as if she was attending a funeral."
+
+"So she is, my boy," said Abel, gravely, "and a sad funeral it is."
+
+"I don't understand you, uncle."
+
+"The funeral of her affections--that's what I mean. Perhaps you mayn't
+know that Rachel was, in early life, engaged to be married to a young
+man whom she ardently loved. She was a different woman then from what
+she is now. But her lover deserted her just before the wedding was to
+have come off, and she's never got over the disappointment. But that
+isn't what I was going to talk about. You haven't told me about your
+adopted sister."
+
+"That's the very thing I've come to Philadelphia about," said Jack,
+soberly. "Ida has been carried off, and I've come in search of her."
+
+"Been carried off? I didn't know such things ever happened in this
+country. What do you mean?"
+
+Jack told the story of Mrs. Hardwick's arrival with a letter from Ida's
+mother, conveying the request that her child might, under the guidance
+of the messenger, be allowed to pay her a visit. To this and the
+subsequent details Abel Harding listened with earnest attention.
+
+"So you have reason to think the child is in Philadelphia?" he said,
+musingly.
+
+"Yes," said Jack; "Ida was seen in the cars, coming here, by a boy who
+knew her in New York."
+
+"Ida?" repeated the baker. "Was that her name?"
+
+"Yes; you knew her name, didn't you?"
+
+"I dare say I have known it, but I have heard so little of your family
+lately that I had forgotten it. It is rather a singular circumstance."
+
+"What is a singular circumstance?"
+
+"I will tell you, Jack. It may not amount to anything, however. A few
+days since a little girl came into my shop to buy a small amount of
+bread. I was at once favorably impressed with her appearance. She was
+neatly dressed, and had a very honest face. Having made the purchase she
+handed me in payment a new dollar bill. 'I'll keep that for my little
+girl,' thought I at once. Accordingly, when I went home at night, I just
+took the dollar out of, the till and gave it to her. Of course, she was
+delighted with it, and, like a child, wanted to spend it at once. So her
+mother agreed to go out with her the next day. Well, they selected some
+knick-knack or other, but when they came to pay for it the dollar proved
+counterfeit."
+
+"Counterfeit?"
+
+"Yes; bad. Issued by a gang of counterfeiters. When they told me of
+this, I said to myself, 'Can it be that this little girl knew what she
+was about when she offered me that?' I couldn't think it possible, but
+decided to wait till she came again."
+
+"Did she come again?"
+
+"Yes; only day before yesterday. As I expected, she offered me in
+payment another dollar just like the other. Before letting her know that
+I had discovered the imposition I asked her one or two questions with
+the idea of finding out as much as possible about her. When I told her
+the bill was a bad one, she seemed very much surprised. It might have
+been all acting, but I didn't think so then. I even felt pity for her,
+and let her go on condition that she would bring me back a good dollar
+in place of the bad one the next day. I suppose I was a fool for doing
+so, but she looked so pretty and innocent that I couldn't make up my
+mind to speak or act harshly to her. But I am afraid that I was
+deceived, and that she was an artful character after all."
+
+"Then she didn't come back with the good money?"
+
+"No; I haven't seen her since."
+
+"What name did she give you?"
+
+"Haven't I told you? It was the name that made me think of telling you.
+She called herself Ida Hardwick."
+
+"Ida Hardwick?" repeated Jack.
+
+"Yes, Ida Hardwick. But that hasn't anything to do with your Ida, has
+it?"
+
+"Hasn't it, though?" said Jack. "Why, Mrs. Hardwick was the woman who
+carried her away."
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick--her mother?"
+
+"No; not her mother. She said she was the woman who took care of Ida
+before she was brought to us."
+
+"Then you think this Ida Hardwick may be your missing sister?"
+
+"That's what I don't know yet," said Jack. "If you would only describe
+her, Uncle Abel, I could tell better."
+
+"Well," said the baker, thoughtfully, "I should say this little girl was
+seven or eight years old."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, nodding; "what color were her eyes?"
+
+"Blue."
+
+"So are Ida's."
+
+"A small mouth, with a very sweet expression, yet with something firm
+and decided about it."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I believe her dress was a light one, with a blue ribbon round the
+waist."
+
+"Did she wear anything around her neck?"
+
+"A brown scarf, if I remember rightly."
+
+"That is the way Ida was dressed when she went away with Mrs. Hardwick.
+I am sure it must be she. But how strange that she should come into your
+shop!"
+
+"Perhaps," suggested his uncle, "this woman, representing herself as
+Ida's nurse, was her mother."
+
+"No; it can't be," said Jack, vehemently. "What, that ugly, disagreeable
+woman, Ida's mother? I won't believe it. I should just as soon expect to
+see strawberries growing on a thorn bush."
+
+"You know I have not seen Mrs. Hardwick."
+
+"No great loss," said Jack. "You wouldn't care much about seeing her
+again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable woman; while Ida is fair and
+sweet-looking. Ida's mother, whoever she is, I am sure, is a lady in
+appearance and manners, and Mrs. Hardwick is neither. Aunt Rachel was
+right for once."
+
+"What did Rachel say?"
+
+"She said the nurse was an impostor, and declared it was only a plot to
+get possession of Ida; but then, that was to be expected of Aunt
+Rachel."
+
+"Still it seems difficult to imagine any satisfactory motive on the part
+of the woman, supposing her not to be Ida's mother."
+
+"Mother or not," returned Jack, "she's got possession of Ida; and, from
+all that you say, she is not the best person to bring her up. I am
+determined to rescue Ida from this she-dragon. Will you help me, uncle?"
+
+"You may count upon me, Jack, for all I can do."
+
+"Then," said Jack, with energy, "we shall succeed. I feel sure of it.
+'Where there's a will there's a way.'"
+
+"I wish you success, Jack; but if the people who have got Ida are
+counterfeiters, they are desperate characters, and you must proceed
+cautiously."
+
+"I ain't afraid of them. I'm on the warpath now, Uncle Abel, and they'd
+better look out for me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+JACK'S DISCOVERY
+
+
+The first thing to be done by Jack was, of course, in some way to obtain
+a clew to the whereabouts of Peg, or Mrs. Hardwick, to use the name by
+which he knew her. No mode of proceeding likely to secure this result
+occurred to him, beyond the very obvious one of keeping in the street as
+much as possible, in the hope that chance might bring him face to face
+with the object of his pursuit.
+
+Following out this plan, Jack became a daily promenader in Chestnut,
+Walnut and other leading thoroughfares. Jack became himself an object of
+attention, on account of what appeared to be his singular behavior. It
+was observed that he had no glances to spare for young ladies, but
+persistently stared at the faces of all middle-aged women--a
+circumstance naturally calculated to attract remark in the case of a
+well-made lad like Jack.
+
+"I am afraid," said the baker, "it will be as hard as looking for a
+needle in a haystack, to find the one you seek among so many faces."
+
+"There's nothing like trying," said Jack, courageously. "I'm not going
+to give up yet a while. I'd know Ida or Mrs. Hardwick anywhere."
+
+"You ought to write home, Jack. They will be getting anxious about you."
+
+"I'm going to write this morning--I put it off, because I hoped to have
+some news to write."
+
+He sat down and wrote the following note:
+
+  "DEAR PARENTS: I arrived in Philadelphia right side up with care,
+  and am stopping at Uncle Abel's. He received me very kindly. I have
+  got track of Ida, though I have not found her yet. I have learned as
+  much as this: that this Mrs. Hardwick--who is a double-distilled
+  she-rascal--probably has Ida in her clutches, and has sent her on two
+  occasions to my uncle's. I am spending most of my time in the streets,
+  keeping a good lookout for her. If I do meet her, see if I don't get
+  Ida away from her. But it may take some time. Don't get discouraged,
+  therefore, but wait patiently. Whenever anything new turns up you will
+  receive a line from your dutiful son,
+
+  "JACK."
+
+
+Jack had been in the city eight days when, as he was sauntering along
+the street, he suddenly perceived in front of him, a shawl which struck
+him as wonderfully like the one worn by Mrs. Hardwick. Not only that,
+but the form of the wearer corresponded to his recollections of the
+nurse. He bounded forward, and rapidly passing the suspected person,
+turned suddenly and confronted the woman of whom he had been in search.
+
+The recognition was mutual. Peg was taken aback by this unexpected
+encounter.
+
+Her first impulse was to make off, but Jack's resolute expression warned
+her that he was not to be trifled with.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"You are right," said she, rapidly recovering her composure, "and you,
+if I am not mistaken, are John Harding, the son of my worthy friends in
+New York."
+
+"Well," ejaculated Jack, internally, "she's a cool un, and no mistake."
+
+"My name is Jack," he said, aloud.
+
+"Did you leave all well at home?" asked Peg.
+
+"You can't guess what I came here for?" said Jack.
+
+"To see your sister Ida, I presume."
+
+"Yes," answered Jack, amazed at the woman's composure.
+
+"I thought some of you would be coming on," continued Peg, who had
+already mapped out her course.
+
+"You did?"
+
+"Yes; it was only natural. What did your father and mother say to the
+letter I wrote them?"
+
+"The letter you wrote them?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Certainly. You got it, didn't you?"
+
+"I don't know what letter you mean."
+
+"A letter, in which I wrote that Ida's mother had been so pleased with
+the appearance and manners of the child, that she could not determine to
+part with her."
+
+"You don't mean to say that any such letter as that has been written?"
+said Jack, incredulously.
+
+"What? Has it not been received?" inquired Peg.
+
+"Nothing like it. When was it written?"
+
+"The second day after our arrival," said Peg.
+
+"If that is the case," said Jack, not knowing what to think, "it must
+have miscarried; we never received it."
+
+"That is a pity. How anxious you all must have felt!"
+
+"It seems as if half the family were gone. But how long does Ida's
+mother mean to keep her?"
+
+"Perhaps six months."
+
+"But," said Jack, his suspicions returning, "I have been told that Ida
+has twice called at a baker's shop in this city, and when asked what her
+name was, answered, Ida Hardwick. You don't mean to say that you pretend
+to be her mother."
+
+"Yes, I do," replied Peg, calmly. "I didn't mean to tell you, but as
+you've found out, I won't deny it."
+
+"It's a lie," said Jack. "She isn't your daughter."
+
+"Young man," said Peg, with wonderful self-command, "you are exciting
+yourself to no purpose. You asked me if I pretended to be her mother.
+I do pretend, but I admit frankly that it is all pretense."
+
+"I don't understand what you mean," said Jack.
+
+"Then I will explain to you, though you have treated me so impolitely
+that I might well refuse. As I informed your father and mother in New
+York, there are circumstances which stand in the way of Ida's real
+mother recognizing her as her own child. Still, as she desires her
+company, in order to avert suspicion and prevent embarrassing questions
+being asked while she remains in Philadelphia, she is to pass as my
+daughter."
+
+This explanation was tolerably plausible, and Jack was unable to gainsay
+it.
+
+"Can I see Ida?" he asked.
+
+To his great joy, Peg replied: "I don't think there can be any
+objection. I am going to the house now. Will you come with me now, or
+appoint some other time."
+
+"Now, by all means," said Jack, eagerly. "Nothing shall stand in the way
+of my seeing Ida."
+
+A grim smile passed over Peg's face.
+
+"Follow me, then," she said. "I have no doubt Ida will be delighted to
+see you."
+
+"I suppose," said Jack, with a pang, "that she is so taken up with her
+new friends that she has nearly forgotten her old friends in New York."
+
+"If she had," answered Peg, "she would not deserve to have friends at
+all. She is quite happy here, but she will be very glad to return to New
+York to those who have been so kind to her."
+
+"Really," thought Jack, "I don't know what to make of this Mrs.
+Hardwick. She talks fair enough, though looks are against her. Perhaps I
+have misjudged her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CAUGHT IN A TRAP
+
+
+Jack and his guide paused in front of a large three-story brick
+building. The woman rang the bell. An untidy servant girl made her
+appearance.
+
+Mrs. Hardwick spoke to the servant in so low a voice that Jack couldn't
+hear what she said.
+
+"Certainly, mum," answered the servant, and led the way upstairs to a
+back room on the third floor.
+
+"Go in and take a seat," she said to Jack. "I will send Ida to you
+immediately."
+
+"All right," said Jack, in a tone of satisfaction.
+
+Peg went out, closing the door after her. She, at the same time, softly
+slipped a bolt which had been placed upon the outside. Then hastening
+downstairs she found the proprietor of the house, a little old man with
+a shrewd, twinkling eye, and a long, aquiline nose.
+
+"I have brought you a boarder," she said.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"A lad, who is likely to interfere in our plans. You may keep him in
+confinement for the present."
+
+"Very good. Is he likely to make a fuss?"
+
+"I should think it very likely. He is high-spirited and impetuous, but
+you know how to manage him."
+
+"Oh, yes," nodded the old man.
+
+"You can think of some pretext for keeping him."
+
+"Suppose I tell him he's in a madhouse?" said the old man, laughing, and
+thereby showing some yellow fangs, which by no means improved his
+appearance.
+
+"Just the thing! It'll frighten him."
+
+There was a little further conversation in a low tone, and then Peg went
+away.
+
+"Fairly trapped, my young bird!" she thought to herself. "I think that
+will put a stop to your troublesome appearance for the present."
+
+Meanwhile Jack, wholly unsuspicious that any trick had been played upon
+him, seated himself in a rocking-chair and waited impatiently for the
+coming of Ida, whom he was resolved to carry back to New York.
+
+Impelled by a natural curiosity, he examined attentively the room in
+which he was seated. There was a plain carpet on the floor, and the
+other furniture was that of an ordinary bed chamber. The most
+conspicuous ornament was a large full-length portrait against the side
+of the wall. It represented an unknown man, not particularly striking in
+his appearance. There was, besides, a small table with two or three
+books upon it.
+
+Jack waited patiently for twenty minutes.
+
+"Perhaps Ida may be out," he reflected. "Still, even if she is, Mrs.
+Hardwick ought to come and let me know. It's dull work staying here
+alone."
+
+Another fifteen minutes passed, and still no Ida appeared.
+
+"This is rather singular," thought Jack. "She can't have told Ida I am
+here, or I am sure she would rush up at once to see her brother Jack."
+
+At length, tired of waiting, Jack walked to the door and attempted to
+open it.
+
+There was a greater resistance than he anticipated.
+
+"Good heavens!" thought Jack, in consternation, as the real state of the
+case flashed upon him, "is it possible that I am locked in?"
+
+He employed all his strength, but the door still resisted. He could no
+longer doubt that it was locked.
+
+He rushed to the windows. They were two in number, and looked out upon a
+yard in the rear of the house. There was no hope of drawing the
+attention of passersby to his situation.
+
+Confounded by this discovery, Jack sank into his chair in no very
+enviable state of mind.
+
+"Well," thought he, "this is a pretty situation for me to be in. I
+wonder what father would say if he knew that I had managed to get locked
+up like this? I am ashamed to think I let that treacherous woman, Mrs.
+Hardwick, lead me so quietly into a snare. Aunt Rachel was about right
+when she said I wasn't fit to come alone. I hope she'll never find out
+about this adventure of mine. If she did, I should never hear the last
+of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+DR. ROBINSON
+
+
+Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at least double
+the number of minutes. Moreover, he was getting hungry.
+
+A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind.
+
+"The wretches can't mean to starve me, can they?" he asked himself.
+Despite his constitutional courage he could not help shuddering at the
+idea.
+
+He was unexpectedly answered by the opening of the door, and the
+appearance of the old man.
+
+"Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a disagreeable
+smile upon his features.
+
+"Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, angrily.
+
+"Why are you confined? Really, one would think you didn't find your
+quarters comfortable."
+
+"I am so far from finding them agreeable, that I insist upon leaving
+them immediately," returned Jack.
+
+"Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door."
+
+"You have locked it."
+
+"Why, so I have," said the old man, with a leer.
+
+"I insist upon your opening it."
+
+"I shall do so when I get ready to go out, myself."
+
+"I shall go with you."
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Who's to prevent me?" said Jack, defiantly.
+
+"Who's to prevent you?"
+
+"Yes; you'd better not attempt it. I should be sorry to hurt you, but I
+mean to go out. If you attempt to stop me, you must take the
+consequences."
+
+"I am afraid you are a violent young man. But I've got a man who is a
+match for two like you."
+
+The old man opened the door.
+
+"Samuel, show yourself," he said.
+
+A brawny negro, six feet in height, and evidently very powerful, came to
+the entrance.
+
+"If this young man attempts to escape, Samuel, what will you do?"
+
+"Tie him hand and foot," answered the negro.
+
+"That'll do, Samuel. Stay where you are."
+
+He closed the door and looked triumphantly at our hero.
+
+Jack threw himself sullenly into a chair.
+
+"Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.
+
+"Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to transact, my
+young friend, and so she has gone. She commended you to our particular
+attention, and you will be just as well treated as if she were here."
+
+This assurance was not calculated to comfort Jack.
+
+"How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,
+desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.
+
+"Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. I don't know how long it will
+be before you are cured."
+
+"Cured?" repeated Jack, puzzled.
+
+The old man tapped his forehead.
+
+"You're a little affected here, you know, but under my treatment I hope
+soon to restore you to your friends."
+
+"What!" ejaculated our hero, terror-stricken, "you don't mean to say you
+think I'm crazy?"
+
+"To be sure you are," said the old man, "but--"
+
+"But I tell you it's a lie," exclaimed Jack, energetically. "Who told
+you so?"
+
+"Your aunt."
+
+"My aunt?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Hardwick. She brought you here to be treated for insanity."
+
+"It's a base lie," said Jack, hotly. "That woman is no more my aunt than
+you are. She's an impostor. She carried off my sister Ida, and this is
+only a plot to get rid of me. She told me she was going to take me to
+see Ida."
+
+The old man shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "she told me all about it--that you had a
+delusion about some supposed sister, whom you accused her of carrying
+off."
+
+"This is outrageous," said Jack, hotly.
+
+"That's what all my patients say."
+
+"And you are a mad-doctor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you know by my looks that I am not crazy."
+
+"Pardon me, my young friend; that doesn't follow. There is a peculiar
+appearance about your eyes which I cannot mistake. There's no mistake
+about it, my good sir. Your mind has gone astray, but if you'll be
+quiet, and won't excite yourself, you'll soon be well."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Well, two or three months."
+
+"Two or three months! You don't mean to say you want to confine me here
+two or three months?"
+
+"I hope I can release you sooner."
+
+"You can't understand your business very well, or you would see at once
+that I am not insane."
+
+"That's what all my patients say. They won't any of them own that their
+minds are affected."
+
+"Will you supply me with some writing materials?"
+
+"Yes; Samuel shall bring them here."
+
+"I suppose you will excuse my suggesting also that it is dinner time?"
+
+"He shall bring you some dinner at the same time."
+
+The old man retired, but in fifteen minutes a plate of meat and
+vegetables was brought to the room.
+
+"I'll bring the pen and ink afterward," said the negro.
+
+In spite of his extraordinary situation and uncertain prospects, Jack
+ate with his usual appetite.
+
+Then he penned a letter to his uncle, briefly detailing the circumstances
+of his present situation.
+
+"I am afraid," the letter concluded, "that while I am shut up here, Mrs.
+Hardwick will carry Ida out of the city, where it will be more difficult
+for us to get on her track. She is evidently a dangerous woman."
+
+Two days passed and no notice was taken of the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+JACK BEGINS TO REALIZE HIS SITUATION
+
+
+"It's very strange," thought Jack, "that Uncle Abel doesn't take any
+notice of my letter."
+
+In fact, our hero felt rather indignant, as well as surprised, and on
+the next visit of Dr. Robinson, he asked: "Hasn't my uncle been here to
+ask about me?"
+
+"Yes," said the old man, unexpectedly.
+
+"Why didn't you bring him up here to see me?"
+
+"He just inquired how you were, and said he thought you were better off
+with us than you would be at home."
+
+Jack looked fixedly in the face of the pretended doctor, and was
+convinced that he had been deceived.
+
+"I don't believe it," he said.
+
+"Oh! do as you like about believing it."
+
+"I don't believe you mailed my letter to my uncle."
+
+"Have it your own way, my young friend. Of course I can't argue with a
+maniac."
+
+"Don't call me a maniac, you old humbug! You ought to be in jail for
+this outrage."
+
+"Ho, ho! How very amusing you are, my young friend!" said the old man.
+"You'd make a first-class tragedian, you really would."
+
+"I might do something tragic, if I had a weapon," said Jack,
+significantly. "Are you going to let me out?"
+
+"Positively, I can't part with you. You are too good company," said
+Dr. Robinson, mockingly. "You'll thank me for my care of you when you
+are quite cured."
+
+"That's all rubbish," said Jack, boldly. "I'm no more crazy than you
+are, and you know it. Will you answer me a question?"
+
+"It depends on what it is," said the old man, cautiously.
+
+"Has Mrs. Hardwick been here to ask about me?"
+
+"Certainly. She takes a great deal of interest in you."
+
+"Was there a little girl with her?"
+
+"I believe so. I really don't remember."
+
+"If she calls again, either with or without Ida, will you ask her to
+come up here? I want to see her."
+
+"Yes, I'll tell her. Now, my young friend, I must really leave you.
+Business before pleasure, you know."
+
+Jack looked about the room for something to read. He found among other
+books a small volume, purporting to contain "The Adventures of Baron
+Trenck."
+
+It may be that the reader has never encountered a copy of this singular
+book. Baron Trenck was several times imprisoned for political offenses,
+and this book contains an account of the manner in which he succeeded,
+after years of labor, in escaping from his dungeon.
+
+Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered, looking about the
+room, if he could not find some similar plan of escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE SECRET STAIRCASE
+
+
+The prospect certainly was not a bright one. The door was fast locked.
+Escape from the windows seemed impracticable. This apparently exhausted
+the avenues of escape that were open to the dissatisfied prisoner. But
+accidentally Jack made an important discovery.
+
+There was a full-length portrait in the room. Jack chanced to rest his
+hand against it, when he must unconsciously have touched some secret
+spring, for a secret door opened, dividing the picture in two parts,
+and, to our hero's unbounded astonishment, he saw before him a small
+spiral staircase leading down into the darkness.
+
+"This is a queer old house!" thought Jack. "I wonder where those stairs
+go to. I've a great mind to explore."
+
+There was not much chance of detection, he reflected, as it would be
+three hours before his next meal would be brought him. He left the door
+open, therefore, and began slowly and cautiously to go down the
+staircase. It seemed a long one, longer than was necessary to connect
+two floors. Boldly Jack kept on till he reached the bottom.
+
+"Where am I?" thought our hero. "I must be down as low as the cellar."
+
+While this thought passed through his mind, voices suddenly struck upon
+his ear. He had accustomed himself now to the darkness, and ascertained
+that there was a crevice through which he could look in the direction
+from which the sounds proceeded. Applying his eye, he could distinguish
+a small cellar apartment, in the middle of which was a printing press,
+and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish three persons. Two
+were in their shirt sleeves, bending over an engraver's bench. Beside
+them, and apparently superintending their work, was the old man whom
+Jack knew as Dr. Robinson.
+
+He applied his ear to the crevice, and heard these words:
+
+"This lot is rather better than the last, Jones. We can't be too
+careful, or the detectives will interfere with our business. Some of the
+last lot were rather coarse."
+
+"I know it, sir," answered the man addressed as Jones.
+
+"There's nothing the matter with this," said the old man. "There isn't
+one person in a hundred that would suspect it was not genuine."
+
+Jack pricked up his ears.
+
+Looking through the crevice, he ascertained that it was a bill that the
+old man had in his hand.
+
+"They're counterfeiters," he said, half audibly.
+
+Low as the tone was, it startled Dr. Robinson.
+
+"Ha!" said he, startled, "what's that?"
+
+"What's what, sir?" said Jones.
+
+"I thought I heard some one speaking."
+
+"I didn't hear nothing, sir."
+
+"Did you hear nothing, Ferguson?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"I suppose I was deceived, then," said the old man.
+
+"How many bills have you there?" he resumed.
+
+"Seventy-nine, sir."
+
+"That's a very good day's work," said the old man, in a tone of
+satisfaction. "It's a paying business."
+
+"It pays you, sir," said Jones, grumbling.
+
+"And it shall pay you, too, my man, never fear!"
+
+Jack had made a great discovery. He understood now the connection
+between Mrs. Hardwick and the old man whom he now knew not to be a
+physician. He was at the head of a gang of counterfeiters, and she
+was engaged in putting the false money into circulation.
+
+He softly ascended the staircase, and re-entered the room he left,
+closing the secret door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+JACK IS DETECTED
+
+
+In the course of the afternoon, Jack made another visit to the foot of
+the staircase. He saw through the crevice the same two men at work, but
+the old man was not with them. Ascertaining this, he ought, in prudence,
+immediately to have retraced his steps, but he remained on watch for
+twenty minutes. When he did return he was startled by finding the old
+man seated, and waiting for him. There was a menacing expression on his
+face.
+
+"Where have you been?" he demanded, abruptly.
+
+"Downstairs," answered Jack.
+
+"Ha! What did you see?"
+
+"I may as well own up," thought Jack. "Through a crack I saw some men at
+work in a basement room," he replied.
+
+"Do you know what they were doing?"
+
+"Counterfeiting, I should think."
+
+"Well, is there anything wrong in that?"
+
+"I suppose you wouldn't want to be found out," he answered.
+
+"I didn't mean to have you make this discovery. Now there's only one
+thing to be done."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"You have become possessed of an important--I may say, a dangerous
+secret. You have us in your power."
+
+"I suppose," said Jack, "you are afraid I will denounce you to the
+police?"
+
+"Well, there is a possibility of that. That class of people has a
+prejudice against us, though we are only doing what everybody likes to
+do--making money."
+
+"Will you let me go if I keep your secret?"
+
+"What assurance have we that you would keep your promise?"
+
+"I would pledge my word."
+
+"Your word!" Foley--for this was the old man's real name--snapped his
+fingers. "I wouldn't give that for it. That is not sufficient."
+
+"What will be?"
+
+"You must become one of us."
+
+"One of you!"
+
+"Yes. You must make yourself liable to the same penalties, so that it
+will be for your own interest to remain silent. Otherwise we can't trust
+you."
+
+"Suppose I decline these terms?"
+
+"Then I shall be under the painful necessity of retaining you as my
+guest," said Foley, smiling disagreeably.
+
+"What made you pretend to be a mad-doctor?"
+
+"To put you off the track," said Foley. "You believed it, didn't you?"
+
+"At first."
+
+"Well, what do you say?" asked Foley.
+
+"I should like to take time to reflect upon your proposal," said Jack.
+"It is of so important a character that I don't like to decide at once."
+
+"How long do you require?"
+
+"Two days. Suppose I join you, shall I get good pay?"
+
+"Excellent," answered Foley. "In fact, you'll be better paid than a boy
+of your age would be anywhere else."
+
+"That's worth thinking about," said Jack, gravely. "My father is poor,
+and I've got my own way to make."
+
+"You couldn't have a better opening. You're a smart lad, and will be
+sure to succeed."
+
+"Well, I'll think of it. If I should make up my mind before the end of
+two days, I will let you know."
+
+"Very well. You can't do better."
+
+"But there's one thing I want to ask about," said Jack, with pretended
+anxiety. "It's pretty risky business, isn't it?"
+
+"I've been in the business ten years, and they haven't got hold of me
+yet," answered Foley. "All you've got to do is to be careful."
+
+"He'll join," said Foley to himself. "He's a smart fellow, and we can
+make him useful. It'll be the best way to dispose of one who might get
+us into trouble."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+JACK'S TRIUMPH
+
+
+The next day Jack had another visit from Foley. "Well," said the old
+man, nodding, "have you thought over my proposal?"
+
+"What should I have to do?" asked Jack.
+
+"Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another. At first we might employ
+you to put off some of the bills."
+
+"That would be easy work, anyway," said Jack.
+
+"Yes, there is nothing hard about that, except to look innocent."
+
+"I can do that," said Jack, laughing.
+
+"You're smart; I can tell by the looks of you."
+
+"Do you really think so?" returned Jack, appearing flattered.
+
+"Yes; you'll make one of our best hands."
+
+"I suppose Mrs. Hardwick is in your employ?"
+
+"Perhaps she is, and perhaps she isn't," said Foley, noncommittally.
+"That is something you don't need to know."
+
+"Oh, I don't care to know," said Jack, carelessly. "I only asked. I was
+afraid you would set me to work down in the cellar."
+
+"You don't know enough about the business. We need skilled workmen. You
+couldn't do us any good there."
+
+"I shouldn't like it, anyway. It must be unpleasant to be down there."
+
+"We pay the workmen you saw good pay."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. When do you want me to begin?"
+
+"I can't tell you just yet. I'll think about it."
+
+"I hope it'll be soon, for I'm tired of staying here. By the way, that's
+a capital idea about the secret staircase. Who'd ever think the portrait
+concealed it?" said Jack.
+
+As he spoke he advanced to the portrait in an easy, natural manner, and
+touched the spring.
+
+Of course it flew open. The old man also drew near.
+
+"That was my idea," he said, in a complacent tone. "Of course we have to
+keep everything as secret as possible, and I flatter myself--"
+
+His remark came to a sudden pause. He had incautiously got between Jack
+and the open door. Now our hero, who was close upon eighteen, and
+strongly built, was considerably more than a match in physical strength
+for Foley. He suddenly seized the old man, thrust him through the
+aperture, then closed the secret door, and sprang for the door of the
+room.
+
+The key was in the lock where Foley, whose confidence made him careless,
+had left it. Turning it, he hurried downstairs, meeting no one on the
+way. To open the front door and dash through it was the work of an
+instant. As he descended the stairs he could hear the muffled shout of
+the old man whom he had made prisoner, but this only caused him to
+accelerate his speed.
+
+Jack now directed his course as well as he could toward his uncle's
+shop. One thing, however, he did not forget, and that was to note
+carefully the position of the shop in which he had been confined.
+
+"I shall want to make another visit there," he reflected.
+
+Meantime, as may well be supposed, Abel Harding had suffered great
+anxiety on account of Jack's protracted absence. Several days had
+elapsed and still he was missing.
+
+"I am afraid something has happened to Jack," he remarked to his wife on
+the afternoon of Jack's escape. "I think Jack was probably rash and
+imprudent, and I fear, poor boy, he may have come to harm."
+
+"He may be confined by the parties who have taken his sister."
+
+"It is possible that it is no worse. At all events, I don't think it
+right to keep it from Timothy any longer. I've put off writing as long
+as I could, hoping Jack would come back, but I don't feel as if it would
+be right to hold it back any longer. I shall write this evening."
+
+"Better wait till morning, Abel. Who knows but we may hear from Jack
+before that time?"
+
+"If we'd been going to hear we'd have heard before this," he said.
+
+Just at that moment the door was flung open.
+
+"Why, it's Jack!" exclaimed the baker, amazed.
+
+"I should say it was," returned Jack. "Aunt, have you got anything to
+eat? I'm 'most famished."
+
+"Where in the name of wonder have you been, Jack?"
+
+"I've been shut up, uncle--boarded and lodged for nothing--by some
+people who liked my company better than I liked theirs. But I've just
+made my escape, and here I am, well, hearty and hungry."
+
+Jack's appetite was soon provided for. He found time between the
+mouthfuls to describe the secret staircase, and his discovery of the
+unlawful occupation of the man who acted as his jailer.
+
+The baker listened with eager interest.
+
+"Jack," said he, "you've done a good stroke of business."
+
+"In getting away?" said Jack.
+
+"No, in ferreting out these counterfeiters. Do you know there is a
+reward of a thousand dollars offered for their apprehension?"
+
+"You don't say so!" exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and fork. "Do
+you think I can get it?"
+
+"You'd better try. The gang has managed matters so shrewdly that the
+authorities have been unable to get any clew to their whereabouts. Can
+you go to the house?"
+
+"Yes; I took particular notice of its location."
+
+"That's lucky. Now, if you take my advice, you'll inform the authorities
+before they have time to get away."
+
+"I'll do it!" said Jack. "Come along, uncle."
+
+Fifteen minutes later, Jack was imparting his information to the chief
+of police. It was received with visible interest and excitement.
+
+"I will detail a squad of men to go with you," said the chief. "Go at
+once. No time is to be lost."
+
+In less than an hour from the time Jack left the haunt of the coiners,
+an authoritative knock was heard at the door.
+
+It was answered by Foley.
+
+The old man turned pale as he set eyes on Jack and the police, and
+comprehended the object of the visit.
+
+"What do you want, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+"Is that the man?" asked the sergeant of Jack.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Secure him."
+
+"I know him," said Foley, with a glance of hatred directed at Jack.
+"He's a thief. He's been in my employ, but he's run away with fifty
+dollars belonging to me."
+
+"I don't care about stealing the kind of money you deal in," said Jack,
+coolly. "It's all a lie this man tells you."
+
+"Why do you arrest me?" said Foley. "It's an outrage. You have no right
+to enter my house like this."
+
+"What is your business?" demanded the police sergeant.
+
+"I'm a physician."
+
+"If you are telling the truth, no harm will be done you. Meanwhile, we
+must search your house. Where is that secret staircase?"
+
+"I'll show you," answered Jack.
+
+He showed the way upstairs.
+
+"How did you get out?" he asked Foley, as he touched the spring, and the
+secret door flew open.
+
+"Curse you!" exclaimed Foley, darting a look of hatred and malignity at
+him. "I wish I had you in my power once more. I treated you too well."
+
+We need not follow the police in their search. The discoveries which
+they made were ample to secure the conviction of the gang who made this
+house the place of their operations. To anticipate a little, we may say
+that Foley was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of years, and his
+subordinates to a term less prolonged. The reader will also be glad to
+know that to our hero was awarded the prize of a thousand dollars which
+had been offered for the apprehension of the gang of counterfeiters.
+
+But there was another notable capture made that day.
+
+Mrs. Hardwick was accustomed to make visits to Foley to secure false
+bills, and to make settlement for what she had succeeded in passing off.
+
+While Jack and the officers were in the house she rang the door bell.
+
+Jack went to the door.
+
+"How is this?" she asked.
+
+"Oh," said Jack, "it's all right. Come in. I've gone into the business,
+too."
+
+Mrs. Hardwick entered. No sooner was she inside than Jack closed the
+door.
+
+"What are you doing?" she demanded, suspiciously. "Let me out."
+
+But Jack was standing with his back to the door. The door to the right
+opened, and a policeman appeared.
+
+"Arrest this woman," said Jack. "She's one of them."
+
+"I suppose I must yield," said Peg, sulkily; "but you shan't be a gainer
+by it," she continued, addressing Jack.
+
+"Where is Ida?" asked our hero, anxiously.
+
+"She is safe," said Peg, sententiously.
+
+"You won't tell me where she is?"
+
+"No; why should I? I suppose I am indebted to you for this arrest. She
+shall be kept out of your way as long as I have power to do so."
+
+"Then I shall find her," said Jack. "She is somewhere in the city, and
+I'll find her sooner or later."
+
+Peg was not one to betray her feelings, but this arrest was a great
+disappointment to her. It interfered with a plan she had of making a
+large sum out of Ida. To understand what this was, we must go back a day
+or two, and introduce a new character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+MR. JOHN SOMERVILLE
+
+
+Jack's appearance on the scene had set Mrs. Hardwick to thinking. This
+was the substance of her reflections: Ida, whom she had kidnaped for
+certain reasons of her own, was likely to prove an incumbrance rather
+than a source of profit. The child, her suspicions awakened in regard to
+the character of the money she had been employed to pass off, was no
+longer available for that purpose.
+
+Under these circumstances Peg bethought herself of the ultimate object
+which she had proposed to herself in kidnaping Ida--that of extorting
+money from a man who has not hitherto figured in our story.
+
+John Somerville occupied a suite of apartments in a handsome lodging
+house in Walnut Street. A man wanting yet several years of forty, he
+looked many years older than that age. Late hours and dissipated habits,
+though kept within respectable limits, left their traces on his face. At
+twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which, combined with
+some professional income--for he was a lawyer, and not without
+ability--was quite sufficient to support him handsomely, and leave a
+considerable surplus every year. But latterly he had contracted a
+passion for gaming, and, shrewd though he might be naturally, he could
+hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily _habitues_ of the
+gaming table, who had marked him for their prey.
+
+The evening before his introduction to the reader he had passed till a
+late hour at a fashionable gaming house, where he had lost heavily.
+
+His reflections on waking were not the most pleasant. For the first time
+within fifteen years he realized the folly and imprudence of the course
+he had pursued. The evening previous he had lost a thousand dollars, for
+which he had given his IOU. Where to raise the money he did not know.
+After making his toilet, he rang the bell and ordered breakfast.
+
+For this he had but scanty appetite. He drank a cup of coffee and ate
+part of a roll. Scarcely had he finished, and directed the removal of
+the dishes, than the servant entered to announce a visitor.
+
+"Is it a gentleman?" he inquired, hastily, fearing that it might be a
+creditor. He occasionally had such visitors.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"A lady?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"A child? But what could a child want of me?"
+
+"No, sir. It isn't a child," said the servant, in reply.
+
+"Then if it's neither a gentleman, lady nor child," said Somerville,
+"will you have the goodness to inform me what sort of a being it is?"
+
+"It's a woman, sir," answered the servant, his gravity unmoved.
+
+"Why didn't you say so when I asked you?"
+
+"Because you asked me if it was a lady, and this isn't--leastways she
+don't look like one."
+
+"You can send her up, whoever she is," said Somerville.
+
+A moment afterward Peg entered his presence.
+
+John Somerville looked at her without much interest, supposing that she
+might be a seamstress, or laundress, or some applicant for charity. So
+many years had passed since he had met with this woman that she had
+passed out of his remembrance.
+
+"Do you wish to see me about anything?" he asked. "You must be quick,
+for I am just going out."
+
+"You don't seem to recognize me, Mr. Somerville."
+
+"I can't say I do," he replied, carelessly. "Perhaps you used to wash
+for me once."
+
+"I am not in the habit of acting as laundress," said the woman, proudly.
+
+"In that case," said Somerville, languidly, "you will have to tell me
+who you are, for it is quite out of my power to remember all the people
+I meet."
+
+"Perhaps the name of Ida will assist your recollection; or have you
+forgotten that name, too?"
+
+"Ida!" repeated John Somerville, throwing off his indifferent manner,
+and surveying the woman's features attentively. "Yes."
+
+"I have known several persons of that name," he said, recovering his
+former indifferent manner. "I haven't the slightest idea to which of
+them you refer. You don't look as if it was your name," he added, with a
+laugh.
+
+"The Ida I mean was and is a child," she said. "But there's no use in
+beating about the bush, Mr. Somerville, when I can come straight to the
+point. It is now about seven years since my husband and myself were
+employed to carry off a child--a female child of a year old--named Ida.
+You were the man who employed us." She said this deliberately, looking
+steadily in his face. "We placed it, according to your directions, on
+the doorstep of a poor family in New York, and they have since cared for
+it as their own. I suppose you have not forgotten that?"
+
+"I remember it," he said, "and now recall your features. How have you
+fared since I employed you? Have you found your business profitable?"
+
+"Far from it," answered Peg. "I am not yet able to retire on a
+competence."
+
+"One of your youthful appearance," said Somerville, banteringly, "ought
+not to think of retiring under ten years."
+
+"I don't care for compliments," she said, "even when they are sincere.
+As for my youthful appearance, I am old enough to have reached the age
+of discretion, and not so old as to have fallen into my second
+childhood."
+
+"Compliments aside, then, will you proceed to whatever business brought
+you here?"
+
+"I want a thousand dollars," said Peg, abruptly.
+
+"A thousand dollars!" repeated Somerville. "Very likely. I should like
+that amount myself. Did you come here to tell me that?"
+
+"I have come here to ask you to give me that amount."
+
+"Have you a husband?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let me suggest that your husband is the proper person to apply to
+in such a case."
+
+"I think I am more likely to get it out of you," said Peg, coolly. "My
+husband couldn't supply me with a thousand cents, even if he were
+willing."
+
+"Much as I am flattered by your application," said Somerville, with a
+polite sneer, "since it would seem to place me next in estimation to
+your husband, I cannot help suggesting that it is not usual to bestow
+such a sum on a stranger, or even a friend, without an equivalent
+rendered."
+
+"I am ready to give you an equivalent."
+
+"Of what nature?"
+
+"I am willing to be silent."
+
+"And how can your silence benefit me?"
+
+"That you will be best able to estimate."
+
+"Explain yourself, and bear in mind that I can bestow little time on
+you."
+
+"I can do that in a few words. You employed me to kidnap a child. I
+believe the law has something to say about that. At any rate, the
+child's mother may have."
+
+"What do you know about the child's mother?" demanded Somerville,
+hastily.
+
+"All about her!" said Peg, emphatically.
+
+"How am I to credit that? It is easy to claim a knowledge you do not
+possess."
+
+"Shall I tell you the whole story, then? In the first place, she married
+your cousin, after rejecting you. You never forgave her for this. When,
+a year after marriage, her husband died, you renewed your proposals.
+They were rejected, and you were forbidden to renew the subject on pain
+of forfeiting her friendship forever. You left her presence, determined
+to be revenged. With this object you sought Dick and myself, and
+employed us to kidnap the child. There is the whole story, briefly
+told."
+
+"Woman, how came this within your knowledge?" he demanded, hoarsely.
+
+"That is of no consequence," said Peg. "It was for my interest to find
+out, and I did so."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I know one thing more--the residence of the child's mother. I hesitated
+this morning whether to come here, or to carry Ida to her mother,
+trusting to her to repay from gratitude what I demand from you because
+it is for your interest to comply with my request."
+
+"You speak of carrying the child to her mother. How can you do that when
+she is in New York?"
+
+"You are mistaken," said Peg, coolly. "She is in Philadelphia."
+
+John Somerville paced the room with hurried steps. Peg felt that she had
+succeeded.
+
+He paused after a while, and stood before her.
+
+"You demand a thousand dollars," he said.
+
+"I do."
+
+"I have not that amount with me. I have recently lost a heavy sum, no
+matter how. But I can probably get it to-day. Call to-morrow at this
+time--no, in the afternoon, and I will see what I can do for you."
+
+"Very well," said the woman, well satisfied.
+
+Left to himself, John Somerville spent some time in reflection.
+Difficulties encompassed him--difficulties from which he found it hard
+to find a way of escape. He knew how difficult it would be to meet this
+woman's demand. Gradually his countenance lightened. He had decided what
+that something should be.
+
+When Peg left John Somerville's apartments, it was with a high degree
+of satisfaction at the result of the interview. All had turned out as
+she wished. She looked upon the thousand dollars as already hers. The
+considerations which she had urged would, she was sure, induce him to
+make every effort to secure her silence.
+
+Then, with a thousand dollars, what might not be done? She would
+withdraw from the business, for one thing. It was too hazardous. Why
+might not Dick and she retire to the country, lease a country inn, and
+live an honest life hereafter? There were times when she grew tired of
+the life she lived at present. It would be pleasant to go to some place
+where they were not known, and enroll themselves among the respectable
+members of the community. She was growing old; she wanted rest and a
+quiet home. Her early years had been passed in the country. She
+remembered still the green fields in which she played as a child, and to
+this woman, old and sin-stained, there came a yearning to have that life
+return.
+
+But her dream was rudely broken by her encounter with the officers of
+the law at the house of her employer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A PROVIDENTIAL MEETING
+
+
+"By gracious, if that isn't Ida!" exclaimed Jack, in profound surprise.
+
+He had been sauntering along Chestnut Street, listlessly troubled by the
+thought that though he had given Mrs. Hardwick into custody, he was
+apparently no nearer the discovery of his young ward than before. What
+steps should he take to find her? He could not decide. In his perplexity
+his eyes rested suddenly upon the print of the "Flower Girl."
+
+"Yes," he said, "that is Ida, fast enough. Perhaps they will know in the
+store where she is to be found."
+
+He at once entered the store.
+
+"Can you tell me anything about the girl in that picture?" he asked,
+abruptly, of the nearest clerk.
+
+"It is a fancy picture," he said. "I think you would need a long time to
+find the original."
+
+"It has taken a long time," said Jack. "But you are mistaken. That is a
+picture of my sister."
+
+"Of your sister!" repeated the salesman, with surprise, half incredulous.
+
+"Yes," persisted Jack. "She is my sister."
+
+"If it is your sister," said the clerk, "you ought to know where she is."
+
+Jack was about to reply, when the attention of both was called by a
+surprised exclamation from a lady who had paused beside them. Her eyes
+also were fixed upon the "Flower Girl."
+
+"Who is this?" she asked, in visible excitement. "Is it taken from
+life?"
+
+"This young man says it is his sister," said the clerk.
+
+"Your sister?" repeated the lady, her eyes fixed inquiringly upon Jack.
+
+In her tone there was a mingling both of surprise and disappointment.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Jack, respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "there is very little personal resemblance. I
+should not have suspected that you were her brother."
+
+"She is not my own sister," explained Jack, "but I love her just the
+same."
+
+"Do you live in Philadelphia? Could I see her?" asked the lady, eagerly.
+
+"I live in New York, madam," said Jack; "but Ida was stolen from us
+about three weeks since, and I have come here in pursuit of her. I have
+not been able to find her yet."
+
+"Did you call her Ida?" demanded the lady, in strange agitation.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"My young friend," said the woman, rapidly, "I have been much interested
+in the story of your sister. I should like to hear more, but not here.
+Would you have any objection to coming home with me, and telling me the
+rest? Then we will together concert measures for recovering her."
+
+"You are very kind, madam," said Jack, bashfully; for the lady was
+elegantly dressed, and it had never been his fortune to converse with a
+lady of her social position. "I shall be glad to go home with you, and
+shall be very much obliged for your advice and assistance."
+
+"Then we will drive home at once."
+
+With natural gallantry, Jack assisted the lady into the carriage, and,
+at her bidding, got in himself.
+
+"Home, Thomas!" she directed the driver; "and drive as fast as possible."
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"How old was your sister when your parents adopted her?" asked
+Mrs. Clifton.
+
+Jack afterward ascertained that this was her name.
+
+"About a year old, madam."
+
+"And how long since was that?" asked the lady, waiting for the answer
+with breathless interest.
+
+"Seven years since. She is now eight."
+
+"It must be," murmured the lady, in low tones. "If it is indeed, as I
+hope, my life will indeed be blessed."
+
+"Did you speak, madam?"
+
+"Tell me under what circumstances your family adopted her."
+
+Jack related briefly how Ida had been left at their door in her infancy.
+
+"And do you recollect the month in which this happened?"
+
+"It was at the close of December, the night before New Year's."
+
+"It is, it must be she!" ejaculated Mrs. Clifton, clasping her hands,
+while tears of joy welled from her eyes.
+
+"I--I don't understand," said Jack, naturally astonished.
+
+"My young friend," said the lady, "our meeting this morning seems
+providential. I have every reason to believe that this child--your
+adopted sister--is my daughter, stolen from me by an unknown enemy at
+the time of which I speak. From that day to this I have never been able
+to obtain the slightest clew that might lead to her discovery. I have
+long taught myself to think of her as dead."
+
+It was Jack's turn to be surprised. He looked at the lady beside him.
+She was barely thirty. The beauty of her girlhood had ripened into the
+maturer beauty of womanhood. There was the same dazzling complexion, the
+same soft flush upon the cheeks. The eyes, too, were wonderfully like
+Ida's. Jack looked, and as he looked he became convinced.
+
+"You must be right," he said. "Ida is very much like you."
+
+"You think so?" said Mrs. Clifton, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"I had a picture--a daguerreotype--taken of Ida just before I lost her;
+I have treasured it carefully. I must show it to you when we get to my
+house."
+
+The carriage stopped before a stately mansion in a wide and quiet
+street. The driver dismounted and opened the door. Jack assisted Mrs.
+Clifton to alight.
+
+Bashfully our hero followed the lady up the steps, and, at her bidding,
+seated himself in an elegant parlor furnished with a splendor which
+excited his admiration and wonder. He had little time to look about him,
+for Mrs. Clifton, without pausing to remove her street attire, hastened
+downstairs with an open daguerreotype in her hand.
+
+"Can you remember Ida when she was first brought to your house?" she
+asked. "Did she look anything like this picture?"
+
+"It is her image," answered Jack, decidedly. "I should know it
+anywhere."
+
+"Then there can be no further doubt," said Mrs. Clifton. "It is my child
+you have cared for so long. Oh! why could I not have known it before?
+How many lonely days and sleepless nights it would have spared me! But
+God be thanked for this late blessing! I shall see my child again."
+
+"I hope so, madam. We must find her."
+
+"What is your name, my young friend?"
+
+"My name is Harding--Jack Harding."
+
+"Jack?" repeated the lady, smiling.
+
+"Yes, madam; that is what they call me. It would not seem natural to be
+called John."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Clifton, with a smile which went to Jack's heart
+at once, and made him think her, if any more beautiful than Ida; "as Ida
+is your adopted sister--"
+
+"I call her my ward. I am her guardian, you know."
+
+"You are a young guardian. But, as I was about to say, that makes us
+connected in some way, doesn't it? I won't call you Mr. Harding, for
+that would sound too formal. I will call you Jack."
+
+"I wish you would," said our hero, his face brightening with pride.
+
+It almost upset him to be called Jack by a beautiful lady, who every day
+of her life was accustomed to live in a splendor which it seemed to Jack
+could not be exceeded even by royal state. Had Mrs. Clifton been Queen
+Victoria herself, he could not have felt a profounder respect and
+veneration for her than he did already.
+
+"Now, Jack," said Mrs. Clifton, in a friendly manner which delighted our
+hero, "we must take measures to discover Ida immediately. I want you to
+tell me about her disappearance from your house, and what steps you have
+taken thus far toward finding her."
+
+Jack began at the beginning and described the appearance of Mrs.
+Hardwick; how she had been permitted to carry Ida away under false
+representations, and the manner in which he had tracked her to
+Philadelphia. He spoke finally of her arrest, and her obstinate refusal
+to impart any information as to where Ida was concealed.
+
+Mrs. Clifton listened attentively and anxiously. There were more
+difficulties in the way than she had supposed.
+
+"Can you think of any plan, Jack?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Jack. "The man who painted the picture of Ida may
+know where she is to be found."
+
+"You are right," said the lady. "I will act upon your hint. I will order
+the carriage again instantly, and we will at once go back to the print
+store."
+
+An hour later Henry Bowen was surprised by the visit of an elegant lady
+to his studio, accompanied by a young man of seventeen.
+
+"I think you are the artist who designed 'The Flower Girl,'" said Mrs.
+Clifton.
+
+"I am, madam."
+
+"It was taken from life?"
+
+"You are right."
+
+"I am anxious to find the little girl whose face you copied. Can you
+give me any directions that will enable me to find her?"
+
+"I will accompany you to the place where she lives, if you desire it,
+madam," said the young artist, politely. "It is a strange neighborhood
+in which to look for so much beauty."
+
+"I shall be deeply indebted to you if you will oblige me so far," said
+Mrs. Clifton. "My carriage is below, and my coachman will obey your
+orders."
+
+Once more they were on the move. In due time the carriage paused. The
+driver opened the door. He was evidently quite scandalized at the idea
+of bringing his mistress to such a place.
+
+"This can't be the place, madam," he said.
+
+"Yes," said the artist. "Do not get out, Mrs. Clifton. I will go in, and
+find out all that is needful."
+
+Two minutes later he returned, looking disappointed.
+
+"We are too late," he said. "An hour since a gentleman called, and took
+away the child."
+
+Mrs. Clifton sank back in her seat in keen disappointment.
+
+"My child! my child!" she murmured. "Shall I ever see thee again?"
+
+Jack, too, felt more disappointed than he was willing to acknowledge. He
+could not conjecture what gentleman could have carried away Ida. The
+affair seemed darker and mere complicated than ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+IDA IS FOUND
+
+
+Ida was sitting alone in the dreary apartment which she was now obliged
+to call home. Peg had gone out, and, not feeling quite certain of her
+prey, had bolted the door on the outside. She had left some work for the
+child--some handkerchiefs to hem for Dick--with strict orders to keep
+steadily at work.
+
+While seated at work, she was aroused from thoughts of home by a knock
+at the door.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Ida.
+
+"A friend," was the reply.
+
+"Mrs. Hardwick--Peg--isn't at home," returned Ida.
+
+"Then I will come in and wait till she comes back," answered the voice
+outside.
+
+"I can't open the door," said the child. "It's fastened outside."
+
+"Yes, so I see. Then I will take the liberty to draw the bolt."
+
+Mr. John Somerville opened the door, and for the first time in seven
+years his glance fell upon the child whom for so long a time he had
+defrauded of a mother's care and tenderness.
+
+Ida returned to the window.
+
+"How beautiful she is!" thought Somerville, with surprise. "She inherits
+all her mother's rare beauty."
+
+On the table beside Ida was a drawing. "Whose is this?" he inquired.
+
+"Mine," answered Ida.
+
+"So you have learned to draw?"
+
+"A little," answered the child, modestly.
+
+"Who taught you? Not the woman you live with?"
+
+"No," said Ida.
+
+"You have not always lived with her, I am sure?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"You lived in New York with a family named Harding, did you not?"
+
+"Do you know father and mother?" asked Ida, with sudden hope. "Did they
+send you for me?"
+
+"I will tell you that by and by, my child. But I want to ask you a few
+questions first. Why does this woman, Peg, lock you in whenever she goes
+away?"
+
+"I suppose," said Ida, "she is afraid I'll run away."
+
+"Then she knows you don't want to live with her?"
+
+"Oh, yes, she knows that," said the child, frankly. "I have asked her to
+take me home, but she says she won't for a year."
+
+"And how long have you been with her?"
+
+"About three weeks, but it seems a great deal longer."
+
+"What does she make you do?"
+
+"I can't tell what she made me do first."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because she would be very angry."
+
+"Suppose I should promise to deliver you from her, would you be willing
+to go with me?"
+
+"And you would carry me back to my father and mother?" asked Ida,
+eagerly.
+
+"Certainly, I would restore you to your mother," was the evasive reply.
+
+"Then I will go with you."
+
+Ida ran quickly to get her bonnet and shawl.
+
+"We had better go at once," said Somerville. "Peg might return, you
+know, and then there would be trouble."
+
+"Oh, yes, let us go quickly," said Ida, turning pale at the remembered
+threats of Peg.
+
+Neither knew as yet that Peg could not return if she would; that, at
+this very moment, she was in legal custody on a charge of a serious
+nature. Still less did Ida know that in going she was losing the chance
+of seeing Jack and her real mother, of whose existence, even, she was
+not yet aware; and that this man, whom she looked upon as her friend,
+was in reality her worst enemy.
+
+"I will conduct you to my own rooms, in the first place," said her
+companion. "You must remain in concealment for a day or two, as Peg will
+undoubtedly be on the look-out for you, and we want to avoid all
+trouble."
+
+Ida was delighted with her escape, and with the thoughts of soon seeing
+her friends in New York. She put implicit faith in her guide, and was
+willing to submit to any conditions which he saw fit to impose.
+
+At length they reached his lodgings.
+
+They were furnished more richly than any room Ida had yet seen; and
+formed, indeed, a luxurious contrast to the dark and scantily furnished
+apartment which she had occupied since her arrival in Philadelphia.
+
+"Well, you are glad to get away from Peg?" asked John Somerville, giving
+Ida a comfortable seat.
+
+"Oh, so glad!" said Ida.
+
+"And you wouldn't care about going back?"
+
+The child shuddered.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "Peg will be very angry. She would beat me, if
+she got me back again."
+
+"But she shan't. I will take good care of that."
+
+Ida looked her gratitude. Her heart went out to those who appeared to
+deal kindly with her, and she felt very grateful to her companion for
+delivering her from Peg.
+
+"Now," said Somerville, "perhaps you will be willing to tell me what it
+was Peg required you to do."
+
+"Yes," said Ida; "but she must never know that I told."
+
+"I promise not to tell her."
+
+"It was to pass bad money."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed her companion, quickly. "What sort of bad money?"
+
+"It was bad bills."
+
+"Did she do much in that way?"
+
+"A good deal. She goes out every day to buy things with the money."
+
+"I am glad to learn this," said John Somerville, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why?" asked Ida, curiously; "are you glad she is wicked?"
+
+"I am glad, because she won't dare to come for you, knowing I can have
+her put in prison."
+
+"Then I am glad, too."
+
+"Ida," said her companion, after a pause, "I am obliged to go out for a
+short time. You will find books on the table, and can amuse yourself by
+reading. I won't make you sew, as Peg did," he added, smiling.
+
+"I like to read," she said. "I shall enjoy myself very well."
+
+"If you get tired of reading, you can draw. You will find plenty of
+paper on my desk."
+
+Mr. Somerville went out, and Ida, as he had recommended, read for a
+time. Then, growing tired, she went to the window and looked out. A
+carriage was passing up the street slowly, on account of a press of
+other carriages. Ida saw a face that she knew. Forgetting her bonnet in
+her sudden joy, she ran down the stairs into the street, and up to the
+carriage window.
+
+"Oh! Jack!" she exclaimed; "have you come for me?"
+
+It was Mrs. Clifton's carriage, just returning from Peg's lodgings.
+
+"Why, it's Ida!" exclaimed Jack, almost springing through the window of
+the carriage in his excitement. "Where did you come from, and where have
+you been all this time?"
+
+He opened the door of the carriage and drew Ida in.
+
+"My child, my child! Thank God, you are restored to me!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Clifton.
+
+She drew the astonished child to her bosom. Ida looked up into her face
+in bewilderment. Was it nature that prompted her to return the lady's
+embrace?
+
+"My God! I thank thee!" murmured Mrs. Clifton, "for this, my child, was
+lost, and is found."
+
+"Ida," said Jack, "this lady is your mother."
+
+"My mother!" repeated the astonished child. "Have I got two mothers?"
+
+"This is your real mother. You were brought to our house when you were
+an infant, and we have always taken care of you; but this lady is your
+real mother."
+
+Ida hardly knew whether to feel glad or sorry.
+
+"And you are not my brother, Jack?"
+
+"No, I am your guardian," said Jack, smiling.
+
+"You shall still consider him your brother, Ida," said Mrs. Clifton.
+"Heaven forbid that I should seek to wean your heart from the friends
+who have cared so kindly for you! You may keep all your old friends, and
+love them as dearly as ever. You will only have one friend the more."
+
+"Where are we going?" asked Ida, suddenly.
+
+"We are going home."
+
+"What will the gentleman say?"
+
+"What gentleman?"
+
+"The one that took me away from Peg's. Why, there he is now!"
+
+Mrs. Clifton followed the direction of Ida's finger, as she pointed to a
+gentleman passing.
+
+"Is he the one?" asked Mrs. Clifton, in surprise.
+
+"Yes, mamma," answered Ida, shyly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton pressed Ida to her bosom. It was the first time she had
+ever been called mamma, for when Ida had been taken from her she was too
+young to speak. The sudden thrill which this name excited made her
+realize the full measure of her present happiness.
+
+Arrived at the house, Jack's bashfulness returned. Even Ida's presence
+did not remove it. He hung back, and hesitated about going in.
+
+Mrs. Clifton observed this.
+
+"Jack," she said, "this house is to be your home while you are in
+Philadelphia. Come in, and Thomas shall go for your luggage."
+
+"Perhaps I had better go with him," said Jack. "Uncle Abel will be glad
+to know that Ida is found."
+
+"Very well; only return soon. As you are Ida's guardian," she added,
+smiling, "you will need to watch over her."
+
+"Well!" thought Jack, as he re-entered the elegant carriage, and gave
+the proper direction to the coachman, "won't Uncle Abel be a little
+surprised when he sees me coming home in this style! Mrs. Clifton's a
+trump! Maybe that ain't exactly the word, but Ida's in luck anyhow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND
+
+
+Meanwhile Peg was passing her time wearily enough in prison. It was
+certainly provoking to be deprived of her freedom just when she was
+likely to make it most profitable. After some reflection she determined
+to send for Mrs. Clifton, and reveal to her all she knew, trusting to
+her generosity for a recompense.
+
+To one of the officers of the prison she communicated the intelligence
+that she had an important revelation to make to Mrs. Clifton, absolutely
+refusing to make it unless the lady would visit her in prison.
+
+Scarcely had Mrs. Clifton returned home after recovering her child, than
+the bell rang, and a stranger was introduced.
+
+"Is this Mrs. Clifton?" he inquired.
+
+"It is."
+
+"Then I have a message for you."
+
+The lady looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"Let me introduce myself, madam, as one of the officers connected with
+the city prison. A woman was placed in confinement this morning, who
+says she has a most important communication to make to you, but declines
+to make it except to you in person."
+
+"Can you bring her here, sir?"
+
+"That is impossible. We will give you every facility, however, for
+visiting her in prison."
+
+"It must be Peg," whispered Ida--"the woman that carried me off."
+
+Such a request Mrs. Clifton could not refuse. She at once made ready to
+accompany the officer. She resolved to carry Ida with her, fearful that,
+unless she kept her in her immediate presence, she might disappear again
+as before.
+
+As Jack had not yet returned, a hack was summoned, and they proceeded at
+once to the prison. Ida shuddered as she passed within the gloomy portal
+which shut out hope and the world from so many.
+
+"This way, madam!"
+
+They followed the officer through a gloomy corridor, until they came to
+the cell in which Peg was confined.
+
+Peg looked up in surprise when she saw Ida enter with Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"What brought you two together?" she asked, abruptly.
+
+"A blessed Providence," answered Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"I saw Jack with her," said Ida, "and I ran out into the street. I
+didn't expect to find my mother."
+
+"There is not much for me to tell, then," said Peg. "I had made up my
+mind to restore you to your mother. You see, Ida, I've moved," she
+continued, smiling grimly.
+
+"Oh, Peg," said Ida, her tender heart melted by the woman's misfortunes,
+"how sorry I am to find you here!"
+
+"Are you sorry?" asked Peg, looking at her in curious surprise. "You
+haven't much cause to be. I've been your worst enemy; at any rate, one
+of the worst."
+
+"I can't help it," said the child, her face beaming with a divine
+compassion. "It must be so sad to be shut up here, and not be able to go
+out into the bright sunshine. I do pity you."
+
+Peg's heart was not wholly hardened. Few are. But it was long since it
+had been touched, as now, by this warm-hearted pity on the part of one
+whom she had injured.
+
+"You're a good girl, Ida," she said, "and I'm sorry I've injured you. I
+didn't think I should ever ask forgiveness of anybody; but I do ask your
+forgiveness."
+
+The child rose, and advancing toward her old enemy, took her large hand
+in hers and said: "I forgive you, Peg."
+
+"From your heart?"
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+"Thank you, child. I feel better now. There have been times when I have
+thought I should like to lead a better life."
+
+"It is not too late now, Peg."
+
+Peg shook her head.
+
+"Who will trust me when I come out of here?" she said.
+
+"I will," said Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"You will?" repeated Peg, amazed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"After all I have done to harm you! But I am not quite so bad as you may
+think. It was not my plan to take Ida from you. I was poor, and money
+tempted me."
+
+"Who could have had an interest in doing me this cruel wrong?" asked the
+mother.
+
+"One whom you know well--Mr. John Somerville."
+
+"Surely you are wrong!" exclaimed Mrs. Clifton, in unbounded
+astonishment. "That cannot be. What object could he have?"
+
+"Can you think of none?" queried Peg, looking at her shrewdly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton changed color.
+
+"Perhaps so," she said. "Go on."
+
+Peg told the whole story, so circumstantially that there was no room for
+doubt.
+
+"I did not believe him capable of such great wickedness," ejaculated
+Mrs. Clifton, with a pained and indignant look. "It was a base, unmanly
+revenge to take. How could you lend yourself to it?"
+
+"How could I?" repeated Peg. "Madam, you are rich. You have always had
+whatever wealth could procure. How can such as you understand the
+temptations of the poor? When want and hunger stare us in the face we
+have not the strength that you have in your luxurious homes."
+
+"Pardon me," said Mrs. Clifton, touched by these words, half bitter,
+half pathetic. "Let me, at any rate, thank you for the service you have
+done me now. When you are released from your confinement come to me. If
+you wish to change your mode of life, and live honestly henceforth, I
+will give you the chance."
+
+"After all the injury I have done you, you are yet willing to trust me?"
+
+"Who am I that I should condemn you? Yes, I will trust you, and forgive
+you."
+
+"I never expected to hear such words," said Peg, her heart softened, and
+her arid eyes moistened by unwonted emotion; "least of all from you. I
+should like to ask one thing."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Will you let her come and see me sometimes?" pointing to Ida as she
+spoke. "It will remind me that this is not all a dream--these words
+which you have spoken."
+
+"She shall come," said Mrs. Clifton, "and I will come too, sometimes."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+They left the prison behind them, and returned home.
+
+There was a visitor awaiting them.
+
+"Mr. Somerville is in the drawing room," said the servant. "He said he
+would wait till you came in."
+
+Mrs. Clifton's face flushed.
+
+"I will go down and see him," she said. "Ida, you will remain here."
+
+She descended to the drawing room, and met the man who had injured her.
+He had come with the resolve to stake his all upon one desperate cast.
+His fortunes were desperate. But he had one hope left. Through the
+mother's love for the daughter, whom she had mourned so long, whom as he
+believed he had it in his power to restore to her, he hoped to obtain
+her consent to a marriage which would retrieve his fortunes and gratify
+his ambition.
+
+Mrs. Clifton entered the room, and seated herself quietly. She bowed
+slightly, but did not, as usual, offer her hand. But, full of his own
+plans, Mr. Somerville took no note of this change in her manner.
+
+"How long is it since Ida was lost?" inquired Somerville, abruptly.
+
+Mrs. Clifton heard this question in surprise. Why was it that he had
+alluded to this subject?
+
+"Seven years," she answered.
+
+"And you believe she yet lives?"
+
+"Yes, I am certain of it."
+
+John Somerville did not understand her. He thought it was only because a
+mother is reluctant to give up hope.
+
+"It is a long time," he said.
+
+"It is--a long time to suffer," said Mrs. Clifton, with deep meaning.
+"How could anyone have the heart to work me this great injury? For seven
+years I have led a sad and solitary life--seven years that might have
+been gladdened and cheered by my darling's presence!"
+
+There was something in her tone that puzzled John Somerville, but he was
+far enough from suspecting that she knew the truth, and at last knew him
+too.
+
+"Rosa," he said, after a pause, "I, too, believe that Ida still lives.
+Do you love her well enough to make a sacrifice for the sake of
+recovering her?"
+
+"What sacrifice?" she asked, fixing her eye upon him.
+
+"A sacrifice of your feelings."
+
+"Explain. You speak in enigmas."
+
+"Listen, then. I have already told you that I, too, believe Ida to be
+living. Indeed, I have lately come upon a clew which I think will lead
+me to her. Withdraw the opposition you have twice made to my suit,
+promise me that you will reward my affection by your hand if I succeed,
+and I will devote myself to the search for Ida, resting not day or night
+till I have placed her in your arms. This I am ready to do. If I
+succeed, may I claim my reward?"
+
+"What reason have you for thinking you would be able to find her?" asked
+Mrs. Clifton, with the same inexplicable manner.
+
+"The clew that I spoke of."
+
+"And are you not generous enough to exert yourself without demanding of
+me this sacrifice?"
+
+"No, Rosa," he answered, firmly, "I am not unselfish enough. I have long
+loved you. You may not love me; but I am sure I can make you happy. I am
+forced to show myself selfish, since it is the only way in which I can
+win you."
+
+"But consider a moment. Put it on a different ground. If you restore me
+my child now, will not even that be a poor atonement for the wrong you
+did me seven years since"--she spoke rapidly now--"for the grief, and
+loneliness, and sorrow which your wickedness and cruelty have wrought?"
+
+"I do not understand you," he said, faltering.
+
+"It is sufficient explanation, Mr. Somerville, to say I have seen the
+woman who is now in prison--your paid agent--and that I need no
+assistance to recover Ida. She is in my house."
+
+"Confusion!"
+
+He uttered only this word, and, rising, left the presence of the woman
+whom he had so long deceived and injured.
+
+His grand scheme had failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+JACK'S RETURN
+
+
+It is quite time to return to New York, from which Ida was carried but
+three short weeks before.
+
+"I am beginning to feel anxious about Jack," said Mrs. Harding. "It's
+more than a week since we heard from him. I'm afraid he's got into some
+trouble."
+
+"Probably he's too busy to write," said the cooper, wishing to relieve
+his wife's anxiety, though he, too, was not without anxiety.
+
+"I told you so," said Rachel, in one of her usual fits of depression.
+"I told you Jack wasn't fit to be sent on such an errand. If you'd only
+taken my advice you wouldn't have had so much worry and trouble about
+him now. Most likely he's got into the House of Reformation, or
+somewhere. I knew a young man once who went away from home, and never
+came back again. Nobody ever knew what became of him till his body was
+found in the river half eaten by fishes."
+
+"How can you talk so, Rachel?" said Mrs. Harding, "and about your own
+nephew, too?"
+
+"This is a world of trial and disappointment," said Rachel, "and we
+might as well expect the worst, for it's sure to come."
+
+"At that rate there wouldn't be much joy in life," said Timothy.
+"No, Rachel, you are wrong. God did not send us into the world to be
+melancholy. He wants us to enjoy ourselves. Now, I have no idea that
+Jack has jumped into the river, or become food for the fishes. Even if
+he should happen to tumble in, he can swim."
+
+"I suppose," said Rachel, with mild sarcasm, "you expect him to come
+home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him."
+
+"Well," said the cooper, good-humoredly, "that's a good deal better to
+anticipate than your suggestion, and I don't know but it's as probable."
+
+Rachel shook her head dismally.
+
+"Bless me!" interrupted Mrs. Harding, looking out of the window, in a
+tone of excitement, "there's a carriage just stopped at the door,
+and--yes, it is Jack and Ida, too!"
+
+The strange fulfillment of her own ironical suggestion struck even Aunt
+Rachel. She, too, hastened to the window, and saw a handsome carriage
+drawn, not by four horses, but by two, standing before the door.
+
+Jack had already jumped out, and was now assisting Ida to alight. No
+sooner was Ida on firm ground than she ran into the house, and was at
+once clasped in the arms of her adopted mother.
+
+"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to see you once more!"
+
+"Haven't you a kiss for me, too, Ida?" said the cooper, his face radiant
+with joy. "You don't know how much we've missed you."
+
+"And I am so glad to see you all, and Aunt Rachel too!"
+
+To her astonishment, Aunt Rachel, for the first time in her remembrance,
+kissed her. There was nothing wanting to her welcome home.
+
+But the observant eyes of the spinster detected what had escaped the
+cooper and his wife, in their joy at Ida's return.
+
+"Where did you get this handsome dress, Ida?" she asked.
+
+Then, for the first time, the cooper's family noticed that Ida was more
+elegantly dressed than when she went away. She looked like a young
+princess.
+
+"That Mrs. Hardwick didn't give you this gown, I'll be bound!" said Aunt
+Rachel.
+
+"Oh, I've so much to tell you," said Ida, breathlessly. "I've found my
+mother--my other mother!"
+
+A pang struck to the honest hearts of Timothy Harding and his wife. Ida
+must leave them. After all the happy years which they had watched over
+and cared for her, she must leave them at length.
+
+While they were silent in view of their threatened loss, an elegantly
+dressed lady appeared on the threshold. Smiling, radiant with happiness,
+Mrs. Clifton seemed, to the cooper's family, almost a being from another
+sphere.
+
+"Mother," said Ida, taking the hand of the stranger, and leading her up
+to Mrs. Harding, "this is my other mother, who has always taken such
+good care of me, and loved me so well."
+
+"Mrs. Harding," said Mrs, Clifton, her voice full of feeling, "how can I
+ever thank you for your kindness to my child?"
+
+"My child!"
+
+It was hard for Mrs. Harding to hear another speak of Ida this way.
+
+"I have tried to do my duty by her," she said, simply. "I love her as if
+she were my own."
+
+"Yes," said the cooper, clearing his throat, and speaking a little
+huskily, "we love her so much that we almost forgot that she wasn't
+ours. We have had her since she was a baby, and it won't be easy at
+first to give her up."
+
+"My good friends," said Mrs. Clifton, earnestly, "I acknowledge your
+claim. I shall not think of asking you to make that sacrifice. I shall
+always think of Ida as only a little less yours than mine."
+
+The cooper shook his head.
+
+"But you live in Philadelphia," he said. "We shall lose sight of her."
+
+"Not unless you refuse to come to Philadelphia, too."
+
+"I am a poor man. Perhaps I might not find work there."
+
+"That shall be my care, Mr. Harding. I have another inducement to offer.
+God has bestowed upon me a large share of this world's goods. I am
+thankful for it since it will enable me in some slight way to express my
+sense of your great kindness to Ida. I own a neat brick house, in a
+quiet street, which you will find more comfortable than this. Just
+before I left Philadelphia, my lawyer, by my directions, drew up a deed
+of gift, conveying the house to you. It is Ida's gift, not mine. Ida,
+give this to Mr. Harding."
+
+The child took the parchment and handed it to the cooper, who took it
+mechanically, quite bewildered by his sudden good fortune.
+
+"This for me?" he said.
+
+"It is the first installment of my debt of gratitude; it shall not be
+the last," said Mrs. Clifton.
+
+"How shall I thank you, madam?" said the cooper. "To a poor man, like
+me, this is a most munificent gift."
+
+"You will best thank me by accepting it," said Mrs. Clifton. "Let me
+add, for I know it will enhance the value of the gift in your eyes, that
+it is only five minutes' walk from my house, and Ida will come and see
+you every day."
+
+"Yes, mamma," said Ida. "I couldn't be happy away from father and
+mother, and Jack and Aunt Rachel."
+
+"You must introduce me to Aunt Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton, with a grace
+all her own.
+
+Ida did so.
+
+"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Rachel," said Mrs. Clifton.
+"I need not say that I shall be glad to see you, as well as Mr. and Mrs.
+Harding, at my house very frequently."
+
+"I'm much obleeged to ye," said Aunt Rachel; "but I don't think I shall
+live long to go anywheres. The feelin's I have sometimes warn me that
+I'm not long for this world."
+
+"You see, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, his eyes dancing with mischief, "we
+come of a short-lived family. Grandmother died at eighty-two, and that
+wouldn't give Aunt Rachel long to live."
+
+"You impudent boy!" exclaimed Aunt Rachel, in great indignation. Then,
+relapsing into melancholy: "I'm a poor, afflicted creetur, and the
+sooner I leave this scene of trial the better."
+
+"I'm afraid, Mrs. Clifton," said Jack, "Aunt Rachel won't live to wear
+that silk dress you brought along. I'd take it myself, but I'm afraid it
+wouldn't be of any use to me."
+
+"A silk dress!" exclaimed Rachel, looking up with sudden animation.
+
+It had long been her desire to have a new silk dress, but in her
+brother's circumstances she had not ventured to hint at it.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Clifton, "I ventured to purchase dresses for both of
+the ladies. Jack, if it won't be too much trouble, will you bring them
+in?"
+
+Jack darted out, and returned with two ample patterns of heavy black
+silk, one for his mother, the other for his aunt. Aunt Rachel would not
+have been human if she had not eagerly examined the rich fabric with
+secret satisfaction. She inwardly resolved to live a little longer.
+
+There was a marked improvement in her spirits, and she indulged in no
+prognostications of evil for an unusual period.
+
+Mrs. Clifton and Ida stopped to supper, and before they returned to the
+hotel an early date was fixed upon for the Hardings to remove to
+Philadelphia.
+
+In the evening Jack told the eventful story of his adventures to eager
+listeners, closing with the welcome news that he was to receive the
+reward of a thousand dollars offered for the detection of the
+counterfeiters.
+
+"So you see, father, I am a man of fortune!" he concluded.
+
+"After all, Rachel, it was a good thing we sent Jack to Philadelphia,"
+said the cooper.
+
+Rachel did not notice this remark. She was busily discussing with her
+sister-in-law the best way of making up her new silk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+As soon as arrangements could be made, Mr. Harding and his whole family
+removed to Philadelphia. The house which Mrs. Clifton had given them
+exceeded their anticipations. It was so much better and larger than
+their former dwelling that their furniture would have appeared to great
+disadvantage in it. But Mrs. Clifton had foreseen this, and they found
+the house already furnished for their reception. Even Aunt Rachel was
+temporarily exhilarated in spirits when she was ushered into the neatly
+furnished chamber which was assigned to her use.
+
+Through Mrs. Clifton's influence the cooper was enabled to establish
+himself in business on a larger scale, and employ others, instead of
+working himself for hire. Ida was such a frequent visitor that it was
+hard to tell which she considered her home--her mother's elegant
+residence, or the cooper's comfortable dwelling.
+
+Jack put his thousand dollars into a savings bank, to accumulate till he
+should be ready to go into business for himself, and required it as
+capital. A situation was found for him in a merchant's counting-room, and
+in due time he was admitted into partnership and became a thriving young
+merchant.
+
+Ida grew lovelier as she grew older, and her rare beauty and attractive
+manners caused her to be sought after. It may be that some of my readers
+are expecting that she will marry Jack; but they will probably be
+disappointed. They are too much like brother and sister for such a
+relation to be thought of. Jack reminds her occasionally of the time
+when she was his little ward, and he was her guardian and protector.
+
+One day, as Rachel was walking up Chestnut Street, she was astonished by
+a hearty grasp of the hand from a bronzed and weather-beaten stranger.
+
+"Release me, sir," she said, hysterically. "What do you mean by such
+conduct?"
+
+"Surely you have not forgotten your old friend, Capt. Bowling," said the
+stranger.
+
+Rachel brightened up.
+
+"I didn't remember you at first," she said, "but now I do."
+
+"Now tell me, how are all your family?"
+
+"They are all well, all except me--I don't think I am long for this
+world."
+
+"Oh, yes, you are. You are too young to think of leaving us yet," said
+Capt. Bowling, heartily.
+
+Rachel was gratified by this unusual compliment.
+
+"Are you married?" asked Capt. Bowling, abruptly.
+
+"I shall never marry," she said. "I shouldn't dare to trust my happiness
+to a man."
+
+"Not if I were that man?" said the captain, persuasively.
+
+"Oh, Capt. Bowling!" murmured Rachel, agitated. "How can you say such
+things?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, Miss Harding. I'm going to give up the sea, and
+settle down on land. I shall need a good, sensible wife, and if you'll
+take me, I'll make you Mrs. Bowling at once."
+
+"This is so unexpected, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel; but she did not
+look displeased. "Do you think it would be proper to marry so suddenly?"
+
+"It will be just the thing to do. Now, what do you say--yes or no."
+
+"If you really think it will be right," faltered the agitated spinster.
+
+"Then it's all settled?"
+
+"What will Timothy say?"
+
+"That you've done a sensible thing."
+
+Two hours later, leaning on Capt. Bowling's arm, Mrs. Rachel Bowling
+re-entered her brother's house.
+
+"Why, Rachel, where have you been?" asked Mrs. Harding, and she looked
+hard at Rachel's companion.
+
+"This is my consort, Capt. Bowling," said Rachel, nervously.
+
+"This is Mrs. Bowling, ma'am," said the captain.
+
+"When were you married?" asked the cooper. It was dinner time, and both
+he and Jack were at home.
+
+"Only an hour ago. We'd have invited you, but time was pressing."
+
+"I thought you never meant to be married, Aunt Rachel," said Jack,
+mischievously.
+
+"I--I don't expect to live long, and it won't make much difference,"
+said Rachel.
+
+"You'll have to consult me about that," said Capt. Bowling. "I don't
+want you to leave me a widower too soon."
+
+"I propose that we drink Mrs. Bowling's health," said Jack. "Can anybody
+tell me why she's like a good ship?"
+
+"Because she's got a good captain," said Mrs. Harding.
+
+"That'll do, mother; but there's another reason--because she's well
+manned."
+
+Capt. Bowling evidently appreciated the joke, judging from his hearty
+laughter. He added that it wouldn't be his fault if she wasn't well
+rigged, too.
+
+The marriage has turned out favorably. The captain looks upon his wife
+as a superior woman, and Rachel herself has few fits of depression
+nowadays. They have taken a small house near Mr. Harding's, and Rachel
+takes no little pride in her snug and comfortable home.
+
+One word more. At the close of her term of imprisonment, Peg came to
+Mrs. Clifton and reminded her of her promise. Dick was dead, and she was
+left alone in the world. Imprisonment had not hardened her, as it often
+does. She had been redeemed by the kindness of those whom she had
+injured. Mrs. Clifton found her a position, in which her energy and
+administrative ability found fitting exercise, and she leads a laborious
+and useful life in a community where her history is not known. As for
+John Somerville, with the last remnants of a once handsome fortune, he
+purchased a ticket to Australia, and set out on a voyage for that
+distant country. But he never reached his destination. The vessel was
+wrecked in a violent storm, and he was not among the four that were
+saved. Henceforth Ida and her mother are far from his evil machinations,
+and we may confidently hope for them a happy and peaceful life.
+
+
+The next volume in this series will be SHIFTING FOR HIMSELF.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK'S WARD***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 10729.txt or 10729.zip *******
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