"Your blandishments have the usual telling effect," groaned Theodore. "I promise,--I suppose I've got to. But you're responsible for all the evil that may come from my yielding to temptation." He collapsed among the pillows, and had just succeeded in covering his tall form with a slumber robe when the rest of the family entered. CHAPTER III WAYS AND MEANS "And a chorus arose from the judicial bench, Our learned decision is this,--to retrench." THE minister's study was furnished with an eye to comfort rather than beauty. And yet there was something better than mere artistic loveliness in the long room, lined with book shelves, and with every evidence of use in the well worn couch, the comfortable easy chairs, and the desk piled with papers. Mrs. Lee's mending basket stood on the table, Beatrice's burnt-wood outfit was on the low shelf, Theodore's ping-pong table occupied one corner, and the windows were full of Miss Billy's plants. The room was the heart of the house. Here the poor and the sick of the minister's people came for help in their trouble. Here the children came for advice and encouragement in their childish griefs and hopes. Here the forlorn were cheered, and the sinful comforted; and here reigned the abiding spirit of the home. Between the two south windows, in the post of honour in the room, hung the sermon board. It was a small slate blackboard, which had been glorified quite beyond its usual educational purposes. Bittersweet branches garlanded its sides, and hung their scarlet berries over its edges, and Miss Billy's best ivy stood on a bracket beneath. The board was an institution in the household. Here one was sure to find a bit of helpful verse, a timely quotation or an inspiring text, for all of the minister's sermons were not delivered from the pulpit. To-day it bore a longer message than usual,--Miss Billy's face grew soft as she read: "To be honest, to be kind; to earn a little, and to spend less; to make upon the whole a family happier by his presence; to renounce where that shall be necessary and not to be embittered; to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation, above all, on the same grim conditions, to keep friends with himself--here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy." "Father is that man if one lives," she thought tenderly. "And mother is brave, too, but they will need help,--both of them." "The meeting will come to order," said Mr. Lee, the lines of his face smoothing themselves out, as they always did when he looked at his assembled family. "Whom can he mean?" asked Theodore innocently, stretching out his long legs in front of Beatrice. "He means you," said Beatrice sharply. "Do get up, Theodore. You are so awkward-looking, there on the floor."