keeps it in her drawer and gives me the key when I want any, and I
keep an account of it."

"Ah! well, mother, I have a favour to ask of you before I go."

"Well, Ruby?"

"It is that you will take care of my cash for me. I have got a
goodish lot of it, and find it rather heavy to carry in my
pockets--so, hold your apron steady and I'll give it to you."

Saying this he began to empty handful after handful of coppers into
the old woman's apron; then, remarking that "that was all the
browns", he began to place handful after handful of shillings and
sixpences on the top of the pile until the copper was hid by silver.

The old lady, as usual when surprised, became speechless; the captain
smiled and Minnie laughed, but when Ruby put his hand into another
pocket and began to draw forth golden sovereigns, and pour them into
his mother's lap, the captain became supremely amazed, the old woman
laughed, and,--so strangely contradictory and unaccountable is human
nature,--Minnie began to cry.

Poor girl! the tax upon her strength had been heavier than anyone
knew, heavier than she could bear, and the sorrow of knowing, as she
had come to know, that it was all in vain, and that her utmost
efforts had failed to "keep the wolf from the door", had almost
broken her down. Little wonder, then, that the sight of sudden and
ample relief upset her altogether.