some old garments, for a pattern, she got him an entire new suit,
together with stuff for dressing-gown and slippers.

The day on which Mrs. Taggard expected her husband's return was a very
busy one; but at last the carpets were down, the paper hung, and
everything in the best of order.

He was expected on the five o'clock train, and Mrs. Taggard set the
children, attired in their pretty new dresses, at the window to watch
for papa, while she went below to assist Jane in preparing something
extra for supper. She had just returned when Mr. Taggard was seen
approaching the house.

It looked so different from what it did when he left, that he stared
at it in amazement, and would have hesitated about entering, had it
not been for the name on the newly burnished door-plate. But he was
still more astonished when he entered.

"Am I in my own house, or somebody else's?" he ejaculated, as he
looked around the bright and pleasant room.

"It is the new furniture I have been buying," said his wife, smiling.
"How do you like it?"

"Have you been running me in debt, Mary?"

"Not in the least, John, it was all bought with the money you so
generously left me when you went away."

Mr. Taggard clapped his hand into one of his pockets.