evening I returned to our boarding-house with only a poor report. Lucy
greeted me cheerfully and said:

"I'm going to earn your board and mine, Mother dear. The landlady needs
help; so as long as we're here, it will not be necessary to touch the
fund. You needn't think you are to bear all the burden. No, indeed. I'm
going to do my part, too."

"God bless you, Lucy! I'm so thankful!" I replied. "How good the dear
Lord is and how wonderfully he provides!"

At the end of nearly a week of toil, I had apparently made little
impression. One night as I sat in our room, too tired to go to the
dining-room, Lucy came in, took off my shoes and stockings, cried over
the swollen, blistered condition of my feet, bathed them, made me
retire, and brought to the bedside a tempting meal.

The next day, after making a few calls and receiving some small sums by
way of encouragement, I felt impressed to return to our room and then
go to a handsome home directly across the street from the
boarding-house. Soon I was ringing the bell. A lady greeted me with a
lovely smile, bade me enter, and encouraged me in making known my
errand. Calling her husband, she asked me to repeat my story. When I
took my departure, after receiving overwhelming kindness and a cordial
invitation to return when convenient, I held in my hand my first gold
piece for the fund. The donors were Mr. and Mrs. Chas. E. Moore, who
have been my warm, interested, personal friends from that time to this.
They did all in their power to aid me, particularly through
introductions to people of means in their home town.