She intended all this, but when the time came she did simply as old Colonel Rockwell had wagered she would. She opened wide her windows and fed the hungry throng that whirred about her, scattering crumbs and floating feathers over the immaculate marble of Mr. McCaleb's front door-step. A knock at the door brought her to her senses. She put a withered little old hand, very like a sparrow's claw, upon the window-sash to shut it hastily, and then, too proud to deceive, turned boldly to meet her fate. Mrs. Pearson, on the lookout at her half-open door saw the official-looking document handed to her. "It's her notice to leave," she said in an awed whisper to herself. In the face of so great a calamity she felt, not triumph, but a shocked sense of loss, of self-reproach. Five minutes after she was in her enemy's room. "You mustn't--you mustn't cry, dear Mrs. Walker," she sobbed, putting her arms about the slender old shoulders. "Am I crying?" the little old lady answered. "I can't help it--I'm so happy!" "Happy!" Mrs. Pearson's dazed old eyes turned bewildered from the envelope with the home's letterhead on it to the bird-like creature in her arms. "And you've got your notice to leave?" "Did you think it was that? So did I for a minute, an' it 'most killed me. But I opened it, an' found a note from the president--that dear, dear president! She wants to know if I'll take care of her summer cottage till the spring comes. An', Marthy Pearson, they's chickens up there--fancy breeds--a whole yard of 'em--an' I'm to have the feedin' of 'em. Ain't it enough to make a body cry for joy? Say, Marthy, would you--would you mind feedin' the sparrers?--only on the very stormiest days--McCaleb would never suspect you, an' spring's near!" BREAKING THROUGH BY W. C. MORROW Reprinted from _Success Magazine_ of September, 1906 by permission "RAY," SAID his mother, whom he shyly and secretly worshipped, without her ever suspecting the least of it beneath his cautious reserve and occasional outbursts of temper, "my son, I hope you will remember, tonight. You are nearly a man."