"Oh no, indeed. I got it on purpose for you." "But it is ten dollars. Surely you did not mean that." "Mrs. Blake said you would know how to lay out fifty very wisely," I said, with, a smile. Her tears, always so convenient, began to flow afresh. Turning to her father she said with a sob, "Father, your prayers are getting answered. The Lord, I believe, will provide." I saw him gather the baby close to his heart, and then with a gesture of self command he seemed with difficulty to restrain his own emotion. "The Lord reward the giver," he murmured in a low voice; but some way it gave me the feeling that I had suddenly received some precious gift. "When that is gone I shall have some more for you," I promised. "Oh, before all this is used up, I must try to get earning myself. But this, with all those vegetables you gave me yesterday, will give me such a start. I will buy a whole barrel of flour, it spends so much better--and get some coals laid in for winter. They are the heaviest expense." "Yes," I said, impulsively, "and flannels for the children. It will be so much better than crape." "Crape!" she ejaculated. "I don't need crape for my husband. I have too much mourning in my heart to put any on outside." I meant some day, when I felt pretty courageous, to repeat her words to Mr. Winthrop. Once outside, I found the glorious expansion of sky and horizon very grateful after the narrow limits of the little cottage. At luncheon Mr. Winthrop asked if I had paid my visit yet to Mill Road. I acknowledged, with a slight crimsoning of cheek, that I had conveyed to Mrs. Larkum a small sum of money. "No doubt she will have a crape weeper as long as the widow Blake's." "I did not think you noticed the trivialities of women's attire so minutely." "I do not as a rule; but in the case of your intimate friends, it is natural I should endeavor to discover their especial charms." "Mrs. Larkum said she was going to lay out the money I gave her chiefly in flour and coals. I suggested flannel would be much better also to buy than crape. She said she had no need to put on mourning; she already wore it in her heart." "She is a very sensible woman," my guardian replied. Then I described, as minutely as I could and with all the pathos I could command, the grim surroundings of this poor family--the grandfather, with his serene, sightless face and strangely deep trust in Providence; the clean, but faded, worn garments they all had on--not one of them, apparently, possessed of a decent suit of clothes; and then their horror of help from the town. Mrs. Flaxman wiped her eyes sympathetically when I repeated the grateful words my gift had evoked, and said with trembling voice: "It just seems as if the Lord sent you there, Medoline."