would all set such store by a quilt that you had made with your own
little fingers,--every stitch of it!"

Johnny wriggled uncomfortably. It had been purely a business
arrangement with him. He could not understand his mother's sentiment.
There was another disagreeable pause. Mrs. Marshall gazed into the
fire with such a disappointed look in her eyes that Johnny felt the
tears coming into his own. Then his father and Rob and Rhoda, seeing
the humour of the situation, began to laugh.

"Oh, what a joke!" gasped Rhoda finally, holding her sides.

"Who on? I'd like to know," demanded Johnny, savagely, and threw
himself full length on the rug.

"I don't know what to do!" he sobbed, his face buried in his arms, and
his feet waving wildly back and forth above his prostrate body. "I
don't know what to do-oo! The boys are out there waiting for me around
the corner, expecting me to bring the money right away. I told them
_sure_ I'd bring it--that you promised--the very hour! I didn't know
it made any difference to you who finished 'em, just so they was
done."

"It was a misunderstanding, Johnny," said his mother, rising slowly,
"but I'll keep my promise, of course." She went up-stairs, and in a
few minutes came back with a five-dollar gold piece that she had taken
out of a little box of keepsakes. They all knew its history.

"Oh, mother, not that!" cried Rhoda. "Not the gold piece that
grandfather gave you because he was so proud of your leading the