education would be sadly limited. Moreover he was tall and slender
for his age, and upon his face there was a pallor which I dislike to
see in a boy. Long hours of business would be very hard upon him,
even if he could endure the strain at all. The problem which had
been pressing on me for months--almost years--grew urgent.

With clouded brows we sat down to our modest little supper.
Winifred, my wife, was hot and flushed from too near acquaintance
with the stove, and wearied by a long day of toil in a room that
would be the better for a gale of wind. Bobsey, as we called my
little namesake, was absorbed--now that he was relieved from the
fear of punishment--by the wish to "punch" the boy who had tripped
him up. Winnie was watching me furtively, and wondering what had
become of the paper, and what I thought of it. Merton was somewhat
sullen, and a little ashamed of himself. I felt that my problem was
to give these children something to do that would not harm them, for
do SOMETHING they certainly would. They were rapidly attaining that
age when the shelter of a narrow city flat would not answer, when
the influence of a crowded house and of the street might be greater
than any we could bring to bear upon them.

I looked around upon the little group for whom I was responsible. My
will was still law to them. While my little wife had positive ways
of her own, she would agree to any decided course that I resolved
upon. The children were yet under entire control, so that I sat at
the head of the table, commander-in-chief of the little band. We
called the narrow flat we lived in "home." The idea! with the
Daggetts above and the Ricketts on the floor beneath. It was not a
home, and was scarcely a fit camping-ground for such a family squad
as ours. Yet we had stayed on for years in this long, narrow line of