"Whatever you like, my boy." "I am glad of that, because there is something I very much wish to do. Timothy is just my height, father." "Yes, my boy, he is." Timothy held his breath, divining the idea bred by the thoughtful love of his friend. "Has he told you that he can get a good situation if he has a decent suit of clothes to go in?" "No, Teddy; but I am glad to hear it." "He'll tell you all about it another time--not now, because my breath is going. Would you believe that the only thing in the world he can call his own is a fowl? Such a wonderful layer! That is how it was he was able to bring the new-laid egg to me. I should like Timothy to have my best trousers, my best coat and waistcoat, my best shirt--no, two shirts--and my best boots." "He shall have them, Teddy." "Thank you, father. He isn't to wait for them, you know, because it is _now_ he wants them. It would do me a great deal of good if I could see Timothy in them with my own eyes." Mrs. Meadows rose, and, selecting the clothes mentioned by Teddy, told Timothy to go into her room and put them on. "If the dear Lord in his mercy should spare us this blow," she thought, "my darling boy can have new ones. How thankful, how grateful I shall be if this blessing is granted me!" Timothy was absent from the sick-room for a much longer time than was necessary for him to throw off his ragged garments and get into Teddy's clothes. It was not out of vanity, but of delicacy, he did this, for he did not have the heart to look at himself in his better raiment. His young life had been already full of adventures, and many of them sorrowful ones, but this was the most mournful of them all. Ideas with respect to Teddy's clothes were stirring in his brain as well as in that of the mother sitting by the bedside of her dying son. "If Teddy takes a turn for the better, I can easily get into my rags again." He consoled himself with this idea, and he did up his tattered garments into a tidy bundle ready for the better emergency. He prayed that his dear friend might live. There would be little hope then of his obtaining the situation which was offered to him, but shrewd and clever as he was he was void of that kind of selfishness the gratification of which entails misfortunes upon others. "If I can't get into Mr. Loveday's shop," he thought, "I shall get something else to do, I dare say. I shall manage to rub along somehow." He would dearly love to obtain service with Mr. Loveday, but not at the expense of the life of the best friend he ever had. He remained from the sickroom so long that Mrs. Meadows had to come and beg him to return to it. "Teddy is asking for you," she said. "Oh, my dear, he is sinking fast, I am afraid!" "I hope you don't think it wrong of me to do this," said Timothy, looking down upon Teddy's clothes.