grief should be so overwhelming; but they could understand that they
had been deceived, and even the gentle-spirited Bert was indignant
over it. The impulsive Don could scarcely restrain himself. He walked
angrily up and down the floor, thrashing his boots with his
riding-whip and cracking it in the air so viciously that the ponies
danced about in their stalls.

"Dave," said Bert, at length, "are we to understand that your father
and brother came to us and got that money without any authority from
you?"

"That's just what they did," sobbed David.

"And you never saw a cent of it?"

"Not one cent, or mother either."

"Well, what of it?" exclaimed Don. "Brace up and be a man, Dave. A
ten-dollar bill is not an everlasting fortune."

"I know it isn't much to you, but it is a good deal to me. You don't
know what the loss of it means. It means corn-bread and butter-milk
for breakfast, dinner and supper."

"Well, what of that?" said Don, again. "I have eaten more than one
dinner at the Gayoso House, in Memphis--and it is one of the best
hotels in the country--when corn-bread and butter-milk were down in
the bill of fare as part of the dessert."

"Well, if all the folks who stop at that hotel had to live on it, as