"Is your wife used to sickness?" he asked. "Could she take care of a
sick man?"

The woman brightened up.

"I took care of my father for a year," she answered. "I'm a middlin'
good nurse."

"She's the best nurse I know of," put in her husband.

"All right! Then I can find you employment. An acquaintance of mine, an
old man--as old, probably, as your father--is sick with grip at the
Tacoma House. He will pay you liberally. Can you come with me at once?"

"Yes, and be glad to."

"Come, then. You will be paid twenty-five dollars a week."

"Why that's a fortune!" said the woman, amazed.

"Come with me at once, and your husband can follow at his leisure."

"Maria, that's what I call a streak of good luck," said her husband,
overjoyed. "Go along with this young man, and I'll get a cheap room
somewhere in town. I'll take the trunk along with me."

He shouldered the small trunk, and his wife went off with Andy.

In a few minutes she was installed in the sick chamber, and soon showed