considering it was the first time, but when I came to balance it
I was forty-three cents short and so I wrote at the end, 'Gone, I
know not where, forty-three cents.' I showed it to father, and he
has never got over it; he said it was the most poetical entry he
had ever seen in a cash account."

Just then there was a knock at the door, and Betty opened it to
find Ellen standing there, with her face wreathed in smiles and a
tray in her hands.

"Mr. Arthur thought you might be hungry, Miss," she said to Ruth,
"and so I brought you up a cup of chocolate and a bit of bread and
butter to make you last till dinner time. I thought perhaps Miss
Betty might like some, too," she added with a sly smile.

"Did you ever know the time when I wasn't ready for a cup of your
chocolate, Ellen?" replied Betty enthusiastically. "She makes the
best chocolate you ever tasted, Ruth."

"Oh, now you're flatterin' me, Miss Betty, dear," said Ellen,
backing out of the door in pretended confusion.

"Not a bit of it. You know it's so yourself," called Betty as the
door closed. "Wasn't it nice of Arthur to think of it?" she added,
as they settled down to their cozy lunch.

"Very," answered Ruth, who, at sight of the thin bread and butter
and the steaming chocolate topped with small mountains of whipped
cream, had just found out that she was really hungry and couldn't
wait another moment.