very entertaining and instructive, besides it will be such a pleasant
way to spend the long winter evenings."

"Why mother, I thought we were going south this winter."

"No, child, it will be impossible for us to go this year. You know
that this last medicine which you and I are taking costs father five
dollars per bottle, and we each need a bottle a week, so it has been
impossible for father to save the money necessary for our going."

For a moment the boy's face looked sad and grave, and the pastor
swallowed a lump that had risen in his throat, for it hurt the good
man severely to think that he had not the necessary funds to gratify
their every wish, but had already borrowed more than he could pay back
in several years. Still he was willing to make more sacrifices, had
his wife agreed, but she had said on one occasion when they were
discussing this subject, "No, James, I will not leave you again. I
think the separation does us as much harm as the warm climate does
good, and I feel that we have not many more years to be together, so
I cannot bear the thought of being separated from you for another five
months. I think Walter and I will be better off to be at home with
you. We need not go out in the cold very much, and you and I can arrange
some way to entertain and amuse Walter."

The pastor had answered: "Well, Lillian, it may be the better way, for
I must confess that these long separations were very unpleasant to me,
yet I was more than willing to endure them, if thereby you and Walter
could be benefited, still it seems that the change of climate idea did
not prove as beneficial as we had hoped for, but please don't speak
in that hopeless strain again, for you certainly have heard that old