He admired her new clothes extravagantly, paying her joking compliments
until her face beamed; but when she had danced off to find Mom Beck,
he turned to his wife. "Elizabeth," he said, wonderingly, "what do you
suppose the old fellow gave her clothes for? I don't like it. I'm no
beggar if I have lost lots of money. After all that's passed between us
I don't feel like taking anything from his hands, or letting my child do
it, either."

To his great surprise she laid her head down on his pillow beside his
and burst into tears.

"Oh, Jack," she sobbed, "I spent the last dollar this morning. I wasn't
going to tell you, but I don't know what is to become of us. He gave
Lloyd those things because she was just in rags, and I couldn't afford
to get anything new."

He looked perplexed. "Why, I brought home so much," he said, in a
distressed tone. "I knew I was in for a long siege of sickness, but I
was sure there was enough to tide us over that."

She raised her head. "You brought money home!" she replied, in surprise.
"I hoped you had, and looked through all your things, but there was only
a little change in one of your pockets. You must have imagined it when
you were delirious."

"What!" he cried, sitting bolt upright, and then sinking weakly back
among the pillows. "You poor child! You don't mean to tell me you have
been skimping along all these weeks on just that check I sent you before
starting home?"