“What shall we have for to-morrow morning’s breakfast?” one asks the other magnificently. “I notice that grape-fruit are selling two for twenty-five cents.” “Scallops would make a nice change,” comes the cheerful reply. “Grape-fruit, scallops, and corn-muffins!” Not that we ever commit ourselves to any such extravagance; but the little flight is exhilarating, and the final compromise on oranges and fish-cakes not too abrupt. It is true,—we are fed from day to day like the sparrows. If we can only wait and have patience, I suppose things will come out right in the end. And I said that I wanted to be good this year. Well, I believe I could be on ten dollars more a week. Friday, January 16. This afternoon a lady called to look at rooms. She had a little girl with her, perhaps a couple of years older than Robin. She said that she had been recommended to us,—by Mrs. Hudson! Ernie let them in, and galloped upstairs to tell mother. You can imagine our excitement. “Hush!” whispered Ernie, as she and I crouched behind the half-closed nursery door, listening with all our ears. “She told me the location was what she wanted. Oh, Elizabeth! Elizabeth!” At that moment the lady swept on her way downstairs. “The terms seem reasonable enough,” we heard her observe, “and the room is sunny and pleasant. I should want a comfortable cot placed in it for Lilian,”—the little girl. “You have children of your own, Mrs. Graham?” Then, stopping in the lower hall,— “Is that an invalid chair?” she asked, abruptly. “Yes,” returned mother. “It belongs to my little son;—he is not at all well this winter.” “And his trouble?” There was no hint of sympathy in the question. “Hip complaint,” replied mother. “Robin has not been strong since he was a baby.” “In that case, I am sorry, but it will be impossible to engage the room,” came the unexpected reply. “Lilian is a very sensitive child,—and, naturally, my first consideration. I make it a rule to shield her from every depressing influence. Let me see,—there are three other places on our list. If we hurry, we can make time to visit them this afternoon. Good-day, Mrs. Graham.” The door closed sharply on our prospective boarders. And this on a Friday,—the bluest day in the week! Mother’s face was quite white and stern as she came upstairs. “If you will get dinner, Elizabeth, I’ll stay with Robin,” she said. And she took Bobsie in her arms, and carried him tenderly to the big rocker in the window, while Ernie and I crept, mouse-like, from the room. “One might have known she was a friend of Mrs. Hudson,” remarked Ernie, vindictively, as we reached the foot of the basement stairs. “Depressing influence, indeed! I’d like to depress her precious Lilian for her!” “Oh, Ernie,” I sighed. “It would have meant fifteen dollars more each week!”